The Young Lady Has Read It and Won't Change a Thing

Shi Qiuzhi was told she wouldn't live past seventeen.

Her cause of death was her own vicious stupidity. As a distant cousin staying at the Marquis's residence and living off their generosity, she was bent on currying favor with the powerful and stirring up trouble. In the end, the eldest son of the Xie family cut her down with a single blow.

The eldest son, Xie Cong, was pure and elegant, a man as lofty as a mountain. Even after he killed her, people lamented, "What a shame the young master's sword was sullied."

The book slipped from Shi Qiuzhi's hands. ...You've got to be kidding me. What kind of heartless bastard is this Xie Cong!

The cousin who'd originally decided to lie flat and let life pass her by took the lesson to heart. She decided to live up to her reputation as a femme fatale, find herself a better match one day, and take his head.

*

Shi Qiuzhi braved the rain to deliver a paper umbrella to Xie Cong. She walked until her feet blistered just to deliver a love letter, and sat alone in a temple for three days in exchange for one of his old paintings. But the eldest son of the Xie family remained unmoved.

Even those who'd looked down on her couldn't help feeling indignant on behalf of this beautiful woman, pale and worn with sorrow, and cursing Xie Cong for his heart of stone.

Autumn rain pattered outside. Beneath the candlelight, the young master's face was as luminous as jade, yet it made Shi Qiuzhi's heart race with alarm.

The paintings she'd yet to take to the pawnshop lay scattered across the floor. Xie Cong ran his fingers over the name of another man in the postscript of the love letter and let out a low, inscrutable laugh. "You'd rather catch a chill than let me get wet. Cousin, you really do love me deeply."

"Cousin, where's the umbrella?"

Shi Qiuzhi: "..." I gave it away ages ago.

*

On the day she bid farewell to the Marquis's residence, snow fell thick and fast. Shi Qiuzhi walked past Xie Cong with a marriage invitation in hand, graceful and gentle, just as she had been when they first met.

But just as she was about to pass him, someone grabbed the hem of her skirt.

Though the black robe Xie Cong wore had been stained a pale white, he stood as straight as a pine, showing none of the shame of having knelt all night.

As if he hadn't noticed her startled expression, the handsome young man gazed at her with dark, shining eyes and asked gently, "Cousin, have you had enough fun now?"

Shi Qiuzhi's heart sank. She suddenly had a bad feeling.

*

At the start of spring, rain and dew swept in through the curtains, and frost seemed to form on white jade.

"Xie Cong, if I'd known you were this deranged, I'd never have come here to provoke you, even if it killed me!"

The young cousin could barely manage a sentence through her sobs, but the moisture at the corners of her eyes was kissed away completely.

"There are no what-ifs."

1. The cousin is naturally awful, a vicious and stupid beauty.

2. And she's not going to change. The only one who grows is the male lead (if becoming corrupted counts as growth).

3. The male supporting character transmigrates into a book, and the female supporting character becomes emperor.

December 22, 2022

Theme: When the sky falls, someone else can hold it up. When disaster strikes, I go to sleep.