Volume 3, Chapter 263 – I Left Her for You

Every time I meet a pretty girl I call her Sister?

Nonsense!

I never called Qu Qingtang Sister.

I called her Nanny Qu.

Lu Zhuxin grumbled silently to herself.

This girl was in a temper right now, and she knew better than to butt heads with her.

So Lu Zhuxin lowered her head slightly and said, “I’m sorry, Sister.”

“Why are you apologizing to me?” Chi Xiyan asked. “Have you done something to wrong me?”

Lu Zhuxin felt her fists going rigid.

She drew a slow breath and made herself calm down first.

Tch. Why doesn’t Qu Qingtang’s Pure Yang mark kick in at moments like this?

“Sister, I’ve fallen short of your guidance,” Lu Zhuxin said. “I haven’t been keeping myself in my proper place.”

“I shouldn’t… call everyone Sister.”

As she said it, Lu Zhuxin dropped her head with a pitiful look. “Please don’t be upset with me, Sister.”

Chi Xiyan pressed her lips together lightly. “I’m not upset with you. And it’s certainly not because you called someone else Sister.”

Lu Zhuxin nearly rolled her eyes.

That is exactly the issue here!

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All this sourness over one little word. What was so special about being called “Sister” anyway?

Actually, it seemed like it really was.

Lu Zhuxin thought back to Chi Xiyan’s characterization in the original novel.

This girl had grown up in a twisted environment from the very start.

In a world where everything was measured in interests and value, there had been no family warmth, no affection.

Qin Qingfen had only ever treated her as a tool for climbing higher, passing along nothing but warped values.

Chi Jingwen hadn’t treated her badly. He’d sent her to study alchemy, permitted her to learn swordsmanship, even taught her commerce himself.

But he had never given her fatherly love.

The Chi family was bound together by bloodline and ruled by ability and worth.

Growing up, Chi Xiyan had almost no concept of genuine feeling or what love even was.

That she had managed to maintain a normal sense of right and wrong, without turning into a villain, was entirely because she was the Heaven-Mandated female lead.

Because Lu Zhuxin had not written her as a bad person.

Right. That was why, in the original novel, Chi Xiyan had been so indifferent toward her feelings for the Heaven-Mandated male lead.

She had never experienced love, so she simply didn’t know what it was.

To her, the Heaven-Mandated male lead was nothing more than a useful tool. Even after marrying him, he had just been a reusable rotten cucumber.

That also explained why Lu Zhuxin had never written any rivalry drama into the original. When you only think of someone as a rotten cucumber, why would you care how many other people wanted that rotten cucumber?

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But things were different now.

Chi Xiyan was showing an unusual fixation, almost an obsession, over the word “Sister.” And toward Chi Muxue as her little sister, she harbored a strangely intense possessiveness.

This was actually a dangerous sign. In palace drama novels, this kind of emotion indicated a character trending toward something dangerously obsessive.

This was a development the original story had never had.

The Chi Xiyan of the original novel had been detached about feelings from beginning to end.

For Lu Zhuxin, this was a good thing.

It meant that Chi Xiyan, as a character, had already begun to change under her quiet, gradual influence.

Her attachment to Chi Muxue, her possessiveness over Chi Muxue, would pull this character off her original story trajectory.

Just as Lu Zhuxin had done with Song Shiyuan before. As long as she helped Chi Xiyan fully recognize her own feelings and then severed her engagement to Song Shixuan, it would mean this Heaven-Mandated female lead’s conquest was complete.

With that thought, the small flicker of irritation she’d been carrying quietly dissolved.

She could see the light of a successful conquest ahead.

Of course, what Lu Zhuxin needed to do first was to make Chi Xiyan aware of her own feelings. To help her understand the true nature of the emotion unsettling her.

Lu Zhuxin knew this type of character all too well. The kind untouched by romantic feeling.

That unfamiliar emotion would leave her disoriented, adrift. Even frightened and troubled.

And getting her to recognize it wouldn’t work by having someone sit her down and drily explain that it was love. That would only make her recoil.

What Lu Zhuxin needed to do instead was to nurture and ripen the feeling already taking root inside her.

The simplest method was to provoke her. To push her far enough to fully unlock that obsessive streak.

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But “obsessive” was a delicate thing.

Because there was no guarantee that once Lu Zhuxin successfully provoked her, the result would be a female lead who was passionate and devoted, rather than one who was simply unhinged with nothing soft left in her.

Plenty of cautionary tales existed where things had gone that badly sideways.

So she needed to be more careful.

Lu Zhuxin thought for a moment, then said, “Sister, I understand. I was thoughtless. When addressing others, there are other respectful terms I could use.”

“Calling someone ‘Sister’ is too familiar. It’s not the manner befitting a Chi family young lady.”

For now, she would smooth things over and give this girl some room to breathe.

And this reasoning was natural enough not to seem forced, saving Chi Xiyan the trouble of having to come up with her own excuse.

Lu Zhuxin suddenly felt very considerate of herself. The other person was being unreasonable, yet here she was not only accommodating her but helpfully supplying a sensible reason on her behalf.

Chi Xiyan listened, and the shadow in her eyes eased somewhat. “These are small matters. As long as you understand, there’s no need to bring it up again.”

“I don’t want to keep correcting you over trivial things.”

Sure, sure! You’re the female lead, everything you say is right!

A villain’s young lady had no business trying to win an argument with the female lead. The far better approach was physical persuasion.

Lu Zhuxin grumbled inwardly but kept her expression perfectly obedient. “Understood, Sister.”

Chi Xiyan’s expression softened a fraction more. “As for the matter of Lan Shuang’er, you should have discussed it with me first.”

Lu Zhuxin genuinely couldn’t argue.

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Bu Lianshuang’s appearance had been unexpected even for her.

“I’m sorry, Sister. I got carried away.” Lu Zhuxin said. “When I saw her, all I could think was that her strength would give you more options.”

“I thought that since I had become the Chi family’s second young lady, I could act on my own judgment to help you.”

“You were right. I was too presumptuous.”

Lu Zhuxin bowed her head low. “Sister, can we return Shuang’er?”

Seeing her like that, Chi Xiyan let out a helpless sigh. “There’s no need to go that far.”

“You acted without asking, and it was foolish. But the final decision was still mine.”

“Since I bought her, I did so after considering it carefully enough.”

Lu Zhuxin looked up at that. “Sister, you agree to keep Shuang’er?”

“You already brought her home,” Chi Xiyan said. “How could I in good conscience turn her away now?”

There was still a trace of something pointed in her tone.

“But Sister, didn’t you think her appearance was too eye-catching?” Lu Zhuxin tested carefully.

Chi Xiyan’s eyes narrowed just slightly. “And wasn’t it precisely because she was pretty that you took a liking to her?”

Wait. How did this loop back around again?

Lu Zhuxin felt a sudden ache in her teeth.

“Enough.” Chi Xiyan said. “I know you like the way she looks. That’s why I left her for you.”