The Tragic Heroine Takes on a Substitute Role

[The ongoing novel in the same genre, Days and Nights Trapped in a Demon-and-Ghost Madhouse, can be found in the author’s column] Bound to an abuse-novel System, Sang Chuyu learns she is the heroine of a melodramatic tragedy. According to the System, she must spend her whole life pining for the senior brother of the neighboring cultivation sect. After enduring countless hardships, she’ll end up crippled and become cultivation partners with the male lead, who will have risen to become a revered immortal. System: Complete 108 tasks that torment your body and heart, and you can get your happy ending with the male lead! Sang Chuyu: ...So I’m the only one who has to suffer through all the hardships? * Just as she was doing everything she could to dodge the tasks, her senior sister showed up at her door with a letter, looking thoroughly annoyed. Senior Sister: “What’s with following that frosty cultivator around all day? This letter’s from his junior brother. He’s inviting you to admire the snow. I’ve seen him hanging around at the foot of the mountain for over ten days. Isn’t he better than his senior brother?” Faced with Sang Chuyu’s constant slacking, the System finally gave in: adding a substitute-love plot really could make the story even more heartbreaking. Sang Chuyu’s eyes lit up. She took the letter with a pained look. “I remember his junior brother. Boo-hoo, he looks like him. There’s a bit of a resemblance in his eyes and brows.” System: ...You’re adapting to this awfully fast, aren’t you? * The next day, the System urged Sang Chuyu to deliver a safety talisman to the male lead, but her second senior brother knocked on her door, looking troubled. Second Senior Brother: “Junior Sister, I’m heading into the secret realm to transform into a flood dragon. Whether I live or die is in heaven’s hands. I know you admire that cultivator, but if I come back, could you spare a little of your attention for me too?” Sang Chuyu handed him the talisman, tears in her eyes. “You’re like him! Your fate has a bit of a resemblance to his, so you’ll definitely come back safely.” System: Isn’t using his fate as a substitute a bit of a stretch? * On the third day, Sang Chuyu ran into the male lead while out and about. Before she could complete a task, her senior sister, just back from traveling, grabbed her. Senior Sister: “Why are you wandering around the Supreme Sect all day? That cultivator’s master invited you over for a chat. It’ll be a good chance to talk about his disciple.” Sang Chuyu: “He’s like him! The Immortal’s style of dress is a bit like his!” System: Enough! How many substitutes are you going to find?! ** Everyone in the Supreme Sect knows that the junior sister from the neighboring sect is in love with their senior brother. The senior brother knows it too, and he feels the same way. But he’s prejudiced against the demon clan, so he treats her coldly every day. Then one day, he notices his junior brother staring intently at his eyes all day. A serpent demon from the neighboring sect asks him what he uses to improve his luck, and even his master starts paying attention to what he wears and what jade he carries... Not to mention all the strangers who suddenly pop up to ask how he does his hair, what he likes to eat, and what kind of wine he usually drinks. He can’t make sense of any of it until he catches the junior sister from the neighboring sect walking alongside a white-robed gentleman. She bites a grape from the gentleman’s hand and says, “You’re like him. Your hands are a bit like his.” He recognizes the gentleman too. Just yesterday, the man had called him a close friend and told him to abstain from worldly desires and focus on cultivation. Their eyes meet. At last, the senior brother understands, but he leaves without saying a word. That night, someone knocks on Sang Chuyu’s door. It’s the usually proper and decorous senior brother, now red-eyed and utterly disheveled. “Chuyu, what is it about the person in your room now that’s like me?” [Reader’s Guide] The main story has an open ending. The senior brother in the blurb isn’t the male lead. Everyone is openly and intensely pining after the heroine, who has no romantic feelings for anyone. At heart, it’s a melodramatic harem competition with a touch of groveling-romance redemption. Theme: Though the endless sifting is hard, when the sand is washed away, gold is found.