After Becoming a Bandit

Flirtatious transmigrator x scheming young man

After transmigrating into a book, Xu Qingru found herself in the role of a cannon-fodder supporting character who died at the very beginning after being violated by others.

To rewrite her tragic fate, she used her knowledge of the original plot and her medical skills to enter a bandit stronghold, living cautiously every day.

Among the vicious bandits, only the beautiful, Buddha-faced young man seemed to retain a shred of conscience, though Xu Qingru knew it was probably an act.

Just as she carefully maintained the fragile peace, the stronghold's third-in-command suddenly came to her at night. Threatening her over her past killing of one of the bandits, he ordered her to go out and buy poison.

To keep living in peace, Xu Qingru lowered her eyes and accepted the task.

Everything went smoothly, until their group was ambushed by assassins on the way back to the stronghold. In the bloody chaos, only she and that young man remained.

And by some twist of fate, she took a sword meant for him.

Inside a stone cave, the young man lowered his eyes and yanked the curved blade from her shoulder. He immediately tore off some of his own clothes to bind the wound, his movements practiced. He never once looked at her exposed, snow-white skin.

She felt a sharp pain. Half-conscious, she gazed into the young man's beautiful, shimmering eyes, and a powerful thought sprang to mind:

How long did she have to keep living in such fear?

Since he owed her a debt, she would make him her devoted admirer. She had to live long enough to see the bandits successfully wiped out, just as the book said!

So Xu Qingru gently took the young man's warm hand and, as he stared at her in surprise, slowly placed it against her waist...

After each encounter, the young man would always call her "Sister" softly. His ears would turn bright red, his eyes would shine, and he looked like a gentle puppy. But Xu Qingru never stayed to indulge him. She would silently get dressed and leave.

At last, dawn broke after the darkest night.

On the day the heir of Prince Chengyang led troops to suppress the bandits, Xu Qingru personally handed the young man a cup of deadly poison.

"Did you send them the information, Sister?" The young man's eyes were as bright as ever. Then he smiled and drained the cup. "...With this wine, we'll meet in the next life."

She said nothing. Wiping out the bandits was the greater good, and what she had done was an even greater act of virtue.

Not long afterwards, Prince Chengyang's household rewarded her with a residence in Yunzhou. Xu Qingru spent her days treating patients and helping the people, occasionally visiting her maternal grandmother, and even took a liking at first sight to her shy, refined, handsome fiance.

She thought the good days were only just beginning.

*

Early spring.

The reclusive Prince Jingyan, long said to be sickly, had now recovered. The emperor granted him a fief in Yunzhou.

So the young prince traveled from the capital to Yunzhou in extravagant fashion.

The new prince's mansion hosted a banquet for the city's influential families, and the estate was crowded with guests.

Everyone clinked glasses and drank together, enjoying the lively occasion, yet the prince himself was nowhere to be seen.

Apricot blossoms fluttered down in a secluded bedchamber in the prince's mansion.

Xu Qingru, dressed in fine brocade, was tied to a chair with her hands behind her back. Her hair was slightly disheveled, her shoulders trembling, her clear eyes brimming with tears. She looked helpless and pitiful, inviting compassion.

The young new prince sat high above her, his eyes shadowed as he looked her over without restraint. "...Sister, I heard you're getting married?"

*

A touch of mystery. The hero faked his death.

The blurb does not reveal the whole story. Both leads are virgins. The heroine really does want to kill him.

Content warnings:

1. I consider this a melodramatic story, so please don't expect too much logic.

2. The early chapters at the bandit stronghold move more slowly; the pace picks up later.

Coming next: "Cover You, My Queen" (forced possession)

After sixteen years of arduous study, Huang Zhaoxiang graduated from university, only to transmigrate into the body of Huang Zhaoqing, the daughter of a concubine in a merchant family in Jinan Prefecture.

From childhood at six to the age of sixteen, Huang Zhaoqing had been careful in word and deed, never daring to make a mistake. The only time she had ever stepped out of line was at a poetry gathering, when she dropped a handkerchief that was picked up by the second young master of the Xu family. The young man was captivated by the girl's lotus-like beauty and fell for her at once.

The handsome young master promised to marry Huang Zhaoqing.

Huang Zhaoqing believed him. After making plans, she got her father and the head wife to agree to the marriage. But one month before the wedding, a new prefectural judge, Zhao Wulin, arrived in Pingzhou.

He oversaw the treasury and public finances and supervised officials. A young jinshi who had won the emperor's favor, he was only twenty-two. They said he was as handsome as carved jade, but his temperament and methods were cold and ruthless.

Huang Zhaoqing had no wish to get involved with a man of such importance. But when she went out one day, he took a liking to her, and that same day he sent a proposal to the Huang household.

She hid behind a curtain and watched this powerful man propose to her fifty-year-old father. How utterly upside down! And yet, it seemed perfectly suited to this capricious man.

Huang Zhaoqing did not want to marry him.

She couldn't bear such humiliation.

Her father slapped her, then locked her in a small courtyard. After much effort, she managed to get a message to the second young master of the Xu family. The two agreed to elope.

It was a dark, stormy night, with rain pouring down. Huang Zhaoqing packed her things and, with help from people arranged by Xu Er, slipped out of the Huang residence and got into a carriage.

The storm raged on. Just as they were about to leave the city, they ran into Zhao Wulin returning from an errand. His calm, imposing eyes swept over the carriage in the dark, and Huang Zhaoqing's heart leaped into her throat.

She held her breath. Zhao Wulin let them pass. But just as they thought they were safe, he turned back, lifted the carriage curtain, and saw Huang Zhaoqing's ghostly face, pale with terror.

He raised an eyebrow and called out calmly, "Miss Huang."

*

On her wedding day, Huang Zhaoqing was deathly pale, a dagger hidden beneath her pillow as she waited for the groom.

But he never came. Instead, a maid rushed in with a frightened message: her father had been poisoned and was waiting for the physician, so the groom could not come to her courtyard for now.

A smile appeared beneath her veil. Huang Zhaoqing lifted it herself, her face glowing red, and was about to have a few drinks when someone burst through the door. Zhao Wulin glared at her coldly, strode over, and gripped her chin. After a long pause, he addressed her in a low voice, without the slightest respect: "Mother."

Then he added, "You're part of the Zhao family now. Go and attend to Father."

*

Zhao Wulin had thought Huang Zhaoqing was a fragile young lady from a sheltered household, naive and stubborn, someone who would snap with a single squeeze. That was until she happened to save his life. When he asked her what she wanted, she looked at him calmly and made a quiet request:

"I ask Your Excellency to grant me a divorce."

Theme: Brave the wind and waves, and forge ahead