After the Villainess Sent a Text to the Wrong Person

[Updated at midnight~ A short story~ I'll try to post more often~ Please check out my upcoming novels: My SSR Brother's R-Rank Sister and The Notorious Lady Knight. Please add them to your reading lists~]

When Yan Baozhu was seventeen, she accidentally discovered that she was the childhood-friend supporting character in a book.

In the original story, she secretly loved the cold, aloof male lead without regret, devoting herself to him with all her heart.

But after they went to college, the male lead would meet the person he truly loved, and the two of them would stride into the future together.

The childhood friend was devastated.

When she saw the male lead walking with the person destined for him, she could no longer suppress her feelings and sent him a confession by text.

[I like you. I've liked you for a long time. You might not even know it, but I don't want to be so cowardly anymore. Can we be together?]

As the childhood friend who had been overlooked for years, all she could get in reply was, "I've always thought of you as a little sister."

Heartbroken, she left for a faraway place.

Yan Baozhu, who had suddenly seen the plot, looked up at the "cold, aloof male lead" childhood friend who had taken it upon himself to wash dishes and make her lunch at her house.

...Which one of them was devoting himself to the other?

And they had a pure friendship! Right?

-

All the boys at Chijiang High, an elite school, knew that Yan Baozhu only ever hung out with her childhood friend, Shen Ji.

Even after graduation, when everyone went their separate ways, those with ulterior motives still had no opportunity to make a move.

But a few months later, they heard that Yan Baozhu had sent the same confession text to three people at once.

Yan Baozhu?!

They say that the day after she sent the texts, three people showed up beneath her dorm, each claiming they'd been moved by her heartfelt confession.

They'd liked Yan Baozhu longer, more deeply, and more cautiously.

After all, that childhood friend might look sweet, but she kept strangers at arm's length and was incredibly hard to approach.

Now their chance had finally come. How could their hearts not race, as if the gates of love's paradise had opened?

But why had so many gates opened at once?

And why was my childhood friend getting in on the action too?!

The cold, aloof male lead, looking all wronged: "I thought we'd always been together?"

Yan Baozhu: "Oh, crap. A plant. Let me explain!"

[In one sentence: I sent a confession to the wrong person and unlocked the romance route.]

[Sweet on the outside, adorably clueless on the inside childhood-friend heroine x childhood-friend hero mistaken for a cold, aloof guy]

1. I love cheesy, shameless Mary Sue stories. The handsome male leads and supporting characters are basically free for the taking.

2. I love watching silly young people fall in love.

3. I love over-the-top elite-school plots.

4. This isn't meant to reflect reality. An elite-school setting will naturally feel a little fanciful, and the geography, culture, and other details in the novel are fictional.

2022.3.25

Upcoming novels

My SSR Brother's R-Rank Sister

(1) [Third-person narration]

This is a world where stardom is all about talent.

The moment they're born, every star may already have their maximum rank set.

Unfortunately, you drew the short straw and were born an R-rank.

Your brother, meanwhile, is an SSR.

He became a top-tier star after appearing in a baby formula commercial as an infant, while you joined an entertainment company as a trainee at eight. Even now, whenever you're in front of a camera, all you can manage is a scissors pose.

(2)

Ten years have passed.

If this were a game, your maximum stats in acting, singing, and dancing would be just 59.9.

Your brother's maximum could reach 100,000.

(3)

You can't hang yourself from just one tree.

You want to change careers, drive an excavator, learn to cook, do whatever.

But the exorbitant contract termination fee stops you.

Your family has fallen on hard times, and your brother has become a 24-hour, fully automated debt-repayment machine, paying off the family's debts. Nobody can help you.

Still, you're optimistic. With your stamina, you should be able to figure out a way to get a part-time job.

(4)

Your brother has a job on an adventure reality show.

He asks if you'll go with him.

What kind of show could someone with your entertainment stats possibly join? Don't get in the way of your part-time job.

Your brother drops to his knees and cries, "There's money in it."

For the sake of sibling love (and the termination fee), you have to give it a shot.

(5)

But you think your brother must be crazy to join this show.

He's got a twisted personality and is great at his job, but he's afraid of the dark, ghosts, heights, every kind of snake and bug, and scary stories.

Then your brother accidentally signs the contract and has no choice but to go.

You grin. For the prize money, even if your brother screams himself hoarse, the two of you are going to make it to the end. ^_^

(6)

In the show's introductory preview, your singing, dancing, and acting are all at the level where viewers would immediately change the channel.

The celebrities on the show look down on you, openly and behind your back, as a talentless pretty face.

Online, people mock your brother for pulling strings to launch your career, saying that you look so delicate your brother will probably have to carry you the whole way.

In the first haunted-house escape challenge, everyone expects you to be left helpless, scared into crying and passing out by the NPCs dressed as ghosts.

Instead, you grab an NPC hiding under a bench with one hand and haul them out.

You're very polite. "Hello. The key's in your intestines, right? Can I dig it out?"

Everyone screams in terror. "What?! D-dig out what?"

(7)

You become a safe haven on the show.

Everyone wants to cling to you like a little bird.

Everyone: "We'll bow down to you. Please protect us."

Before, you could tell how badly you'd been trashed online without even checking the news.

Later, the production team wants to give you a regular spot on a horror survival show.

The haters outside the show have turned into fans, waiting for you to amaze them again.

On the show, people want to teach you singing, dancing, and acting, and bring you into the industry afterward.

Before you can even get mad, your brother blows up.

Your brother, furious: "What kind of nobodies are they? They want to date you? They should take a look at themselves first!"

(8)

It isn't until you receive a love letter folded into a paper airplane that you realize:

This isn't just an adventure show.

It's a dating show too.

1. The younger sister is a silly girl who can uproot a willow tree like Lin Daiyu; her brother is a self-obsessed coward who thinks he's the center of the universe. They're two peas in a pod.

2. This is a fictional setting. In this entertainment industry, if your skills don't meet the mark, you can't get work, no matter what. There's no such thing as using connections.

3. Everyone is an SSR. A brief slump just means your card is different from everyone else's, and you haven't found the right direction yet.

4. As always, cheesy Mary Sue romance.

5. My brain's been sluggish since catching COVID for the second time, so I'm writing a little to get back into shape.

2022.8.4

The Notorious Lady Knight

The lady knight Nana was politely dismissed by Duke Ansel.

This was the third time she had been fired since the Queen knighted her.

The first time was after Nana became embroiled in a scandalous affair with the widowed Earl of Frost, who lived alone.

The second was after Nana toyed with the feelings of the young, naive son of Viscount Edu.

The third was when Nana got involved with Victor, the eldest son of Duke Ansel, who was about to get married.

Who was the knight with the worst reputation in the kingdom? Nana.

Who was the knight everyone most disdained associating with? Nana.

Lady Knight Nana really was a notorious woman.

No matter how outstanding her abilities, in an age that prized reputation, she was doomed to have no future.

But a month later, new news spread throughout the kingdom.

Nana had become the holy son of the Church's personal guard.

Everyone was stunned by Nana's good fortune and her talent for attaching herself to the powerful.

Only Nana, looking at the holy son lying naked beside her, felt that her life might be over at twenty.

Theme: Diligence and conscientiousness are the foundations of a good life.