After Mistaking the Crown Prince for a Tool

Only after Xie Yishi died did she learn that she was merely the white moonlight the male lead of a book had secretly loved, destined to die young. She was framed, slandered, and driven to suicide, all so she could become a painful scar in the crown prince's heart and add fuel to the tragic romance between the male and female leads. Xie: What nonsense. I'm no white moonlight, just a bona fide plot device. The only way not to be a plot device is to use other people as tools. And of all the tools, you need to pick the handiest one. As luck would have it, the Prince of the Southwest had come to the capital to report on his duties. He was powerful, lived far from the capital, and seemed perfect. As for his fondness for pretty faces and his concubine-born son, those weren't problems. Once she was safely out of the capital, she could find a way to dump him. * She hadn't expected him to be even more useful than she'd imagined. Never mind his long brows, phoenix eyes, broad shoulders, and lean waist, all of which were exactly to her taste. He was also exceptionally handy. He could handle hot potatoes, investigate the real culprit behind the scenes, and break a deadly impasse. With a powerful patron to shelter her, she could live to a ripe old age. Xie Yishi thought it over carefully and decided that turning a false romance into a real one might not be such a bad idea. But... She confessed her feelings, shy and coy. He said, "Marrying into the Southwest isn't your only option. The crown prince is of marriageable age, too." What a lunatic. She solemnly declared that she wanted nothing to do with the crown prince. He asked, "What else do you dislike about the crown prince?" Completely insane. She lowered her pride and directly said she wanted to marry him. He replied, "The crown prince has returned to the capital. If you're in trouble, he'll help you." What rotten luck! Just when Xie Yishi thought she simply wasn't to the Prince of the Southwest's taste, and that was why he kept turning her down by bringing up the crown prince, a second Prince of the Southwest appeared. At last, all the strange inconsistencies fell into place. Xie Yishi finally realized that the so-called Prince of the Southwest she'd met before was actually the crown prince, the male lead she'd been trying to avoid at all costs. But before she could hitch up a carriage and flee, someone grabbed her. The young crown prince's dark hair fell loose, and his handsome face was taut. "You were clearly only using my status. Why would you agree to be the Princess of the Southwest, but not the Crown Princess?" * Xie Yishi didn't know she'd been given an outdated script. After she died in her previous life, the Transmigration Into a Book Administration Bureau lit up with red alerts. "Male lead of World 1008 in the Vintage Imperial Court District is out of control. Correct the deviation immediately..." -- A sweet romance, set in a completely fictional world. My upcoming fantasy novel, No Cheats Allowed in Cultivation, is also worth checking out! A boundlessly energetic, poker-faced dragon VS a sword cultivator who periodically grows weak~ The cultivation world, once starved of spiritual energy, revived overnight. Geniuses emerged from every corner, turning the long-stagnant rankings of the greatest talents upside down. Something was clearly wrong. After extensive investigation, the powerful figures of the cultivation world discovered that every newly risen prodigy had the same presence behind them, known as the System. What was a System? As the top prodigy in the cultivation world, the first disciple of True Lord Jiyue... Taiping didn't really care. After all, she was already busy enough training hard every day, managing the sect, looking after her junior brothers and sisters, and handling all kinds of invitations on behalf of her reclusive master. That is, until the night the sect opened its doors to new disciples, when she dreamed that something called the Harem System was targeting her master and fellow disciples. From then on... Her sweet, obedient junior brother started ordering her around for someone else's sake. Her clingy junior sister started throwing punches at her for someone else's sake. Even her aloof, reserved master began hurling insults at her for someone else's sake! "Absolutely not!" Taiping jolted awake and immediately signed up for the Demon-Slaying and Righteousness-Upholding Purge Squad. She had to look after her junior brothers and sisters herself, and protect her master herself! Anyone who dared covet them... Would be killed without mercy. * Ming Heng, True Lord Jiyue, was known throughout the cultivation world as the sword cultivator no one dared provoke. But he had a secret no one could ever know: his true form wasn't human. He was a flower. Since he disliked going out in the first place, every period of weakness he'd experienced since coming into existence had passed without incident. That was until Taiping signed up for the System purge operation and was about to start leaving his side frequently. This was bad. A flower couldn't stay away from its soil for too long. And Ming Heng's soil was Taiping. * Taiping had no idea how things had ended up with the entire sect going out together to complete the purge mission. She only knew that some very unpleasant rumors were spreading through the cultivation world. Her fellow cultivators mocked her as a coward for bringing her master on an expedition. Her enemies accused her of double standards and playing dirty, since she was using cheats herself. Taiping decided to change all that. She would refuse to let her master come along. No cheats in cultivation, starting with me! Theme: Flowers planted with care won't bloom, while willows planted by accident provide shade.