I'm Competing With The Male Lead For A Woman - Chapter 13

Thinking about this, Xiao Jin rubbed her temples.

How could she have such an absurd thought? After all, whoever wants to pair up with Chu Shao, aren’t they tired of living?

It was getting late. Su Tan lit a lamp in the room while wrapping gauze around Chu Shao.

The warm yellow candlelight shone on Chu Shao’s white robe. With this light, Xiao Jin looked closely at Chu Shao’s arm.

She couldn’t figure out how the female lead’s arm, which was so slender, could have held a sword and killed so many people in the blink of an eye.

The ointment was applied to the wound, causing a cold, stinging sensation.

Chu Shao’s lips held a smile, but she felt a sense of pleasure in her heart.

Applying medicine when the blood hadn’t dried should have been extremely painful, but this nerve-stimulating pain allowed Chu Shao to briefly remember the feeling of the moment.

This kind of pleasure.

Chu Shao felt very happy, so she slightly raised her head, looked at Xiao Jin, and smiled at her.

Xiao Jin was speechless.

Seeing Chu Shao’s gentle smile and then thinking about her swift and ruthless killing, she found it hard to imagine how someone could perfectly combine innocence and cruelty.

And when these two completely opposite traits appeared on Chu Shao at the same time, it even seemed natural, as if there was nothing strange about it.

She had to admit that Chu Shao did look like someone who had many secrets—and was a little crazy.

Xiao Jin frowned, trying to recall what had gone wrong.

Unexpectedly, after applying the medicine, Chu Shao walked straight in front of her.

Xiao Jin sat in her wheelchair, looking up at Chu Shao. She didn’t find anything wrong. But when she moved her gaze down, she was a little surprised.

Because Chu Shao was holding white gauze and ointment in her hand.

“Your Highness’s wound has not been treated yet. Let me apply the medicine for you.”

Looking at the smile on Chu Shao’s face, Xiao Jin somehow felt that the other person seemed to be looking forward to it.

But the black-clothed man didn’t use his full strength when he slashed her. So the wound on her arm was not very deep. It was truly unnecessary to wrap it in gauze.

Xiao Jin wanted to refuse.

But when she looked past Chu Shao and glanced back, she unexpectedly met Su Tan’s gaze.

The look in her eyes was very unkind, and it seemed to hold a warning.

Xiao Jin was immediately amused. Did the second female lead think she had put a spell on Chu Shao? Sorry, the female lead is naturally strange. This is not her fault.

So under Su Tan’s gaze, Xiao Jin nodded and smiled faintly. “Thank you, Princess Consort.”

Of course, the smile was mostly for Su Tan to see.

When Su Tan saw the smile on Xiao Jin’s face, she coldly looked away and turned to feed the white parrot in the cage. But her mind was still pondering things.

Ever since that incident in the palace, she had resigned from her position as an imperial physician.

She had traveled to the four kingdoms over the years and had heard that the Prince of Yan of Northern Qi was cruel and brutal. Now, it seemed that was not entirely the case.

On the other side, Chu Shao gently lifted Xiao Jin’s sleeve and stared at the bloody wound.

She felt a little regretful because the assassin’s cut was not deep. It didn’t seem to need much medicine. But it wasn’t impossible to make Xiao Jin feel the same pleasurable pain she did.

She could apply the ointment with her fingertips and slowly put the medicine on Xiao Jin.

The cool ointment on the wound, mixed with the uncongealed blood, and her fingertips gently swirling could easily make Xiao Jin feel a prolonged pain.

This was what Chu Shao had in mind, and she was ready to do it.

Just as she was about to put it into practice, she suddenly remembered that when she was walking towards Xiao Jin with her sword raised, the other person had asked her a question.

—Does it hurt?

For Chu Shao, pain was the most memorable thing. The deeper the wound, the more she would savor it.

After all, she had too much time to kill.

The only thing she could recall from time to time was the sticky feeling of blood splattering on her wrist.

However, this pleasure would also fade quickly, so Chu Shao had always wanted to find a long-lasting, eternal bliss.

But after Xiao Jin asked that question, Chu Shao was a little confused: Wasn’t pain something that made everyone happy?

Why would Xiao Jin ask her if it hurt?

Xiao Jin saw that Chu Shao was not moving for a long time. She remembered that the other person had just applied medicine. If she applied medicine to her again, wouldn’t it affect her wound?

Admittedly, Xiao Jin definitely didn’t have a conscience.

But she was still a person, unlike Chu Shao, a lunatic who enjoyed tormenting others for fun.

So she coughed twice and said in a low voice, “You just got medicine. It’s not good for you to move around too much. I’ll do it myself.”

Upon hearing this, Chu Shao finally understood.

So that was it.

Although Xiao Jin was very interesting, some of her thoughts were clearly different from hers. Maybe she didn’t think that feeling pain was a pleasant thing.

Chu Shao could understand that other people’s thoughts were different from hers because she didn’t care. She would still act according to her own will.

However, Xiao Jin was her accomplice.

Chu Shao really couldn’t accept that Xiao Jin had promised to be linked by fate with her but didn’t agree with her thoughts.

So, Chu Shao decided to punish Xiao Jin—to punish Xiao Jin so that she would never be able to feel any deeper pain until the bet was over.

Chu Shao felt that this punishment was very cruel, so she was very gentle and careful when applying the medicine, as if she was treating a rare treasure.

In fact, when Chu Shao said she wanted to apply the medicine for her, Xiao Jin was a little worried.

Was applying medicine just an excuse? Was Chu Shao just trying to torture her?

But when the other person actually started applying the medicine, aside from the ointment being a little cool, Xiao Jin almost had an illusion.

The medicine was applied, but not really.

She couldn’t feel anything.

Su Tan reached out, about to feed the white parrot. But when she saw Chu Shao applying medicine to Xiao Jin out of the corner of her eye, the wooden spoon she was using to scoop the feed trembled.

Even when she learned that the Great Yao Kingdom had fallen, her emotions hadn’t fluctuated so violently.

This is absurd.

How could the daughter of the Emperor of Yao be with the Prince of Yan? Who is Xiao Jin? She is the main culprit who destroyed the Yao Kingdom.

The ointment was very cool. Xiao Jin didn’t feel any pain. On the contrary, she felt quite comfortable.

After applying the medicine, Chu Shao even took a clean cotton cloth and wiped off the excess ointment from the edge of the wound for Xiao Jin.

Then, she took gauze and wrapped it.

Chu Shao’s sleeve was very close to her wrist, almost touching it. This made Xiao Jin frown slightly.

Because Chu Shao’s movements were too gentle, her fingertips were lightly touching her skin through the gauze, which was surprisingly ticklish.

Xiao Jin lowered her eyes and looked at the tear mole at the corner of Chu Shao’s eye. Even the warmth of the other person’s unconscious breath seemed very aggressive.

She felt very uncomfortable. Goosebumps were about to appear.

Fortunately, although Chu Shao’s movements were very light, she wrapped the gauze quite quickly and didn’t make her suffer for too long.

Chu Shao tied the knot and looked at Xiao Jin with a smile. “Your Highness, my movements didn’t hurt you, did they?”

“…”

Why did that sound so strange?

However, Xiao Jin still answered truthfully, “No.”

Chu Shao knew that she had successfully punished Xiao Jin, and the other person was still blissfully unaware.

She was very happy because until the bet was over, Xiao Jin would never know that she had deprived her of the right to feel pain.

Chu Shao smiled slightly, feeling that she was truly very cruel.

Looking at the smile on Chu Shao’s face, Xiao Jin somehow felt that many things had happened without her knowing.

At this moment, the system began to settle the score.

“Congratulations, Host, for completing the sudden mission. Given your excellent performance this time, the system will increase your life extension by one week.”

One week. That’s a generous reward.

“Also, through this mission, congratulations on unlocking a new character, Su Tan. Currently, Su Tan’s favorability towards you is 0. Different favorability levels will trigger different events. Please be mindful of this, Host.”

Xiao Jin was surprised. She didn’t expect Su Tan’s favorability towards her to not be a negative number.

So the question was, wasn’t Chu Shao’s favorability the most crucial one?

“Host, don’t worry. The female lead, Chu Shao, does not have a favorability attribute.”

Xiao Jin almost thought she had misheard.

The system then said, “However, if the female lead, Chu Shao, did have this attribute, the system would not be able to detect whether it was a good thing or a bad thing.”

“All in all, please continue to work hard, Host.”

••••

The next day, Baima Temple.

In the temple’s wing, a distinguished guest had woken up early.

The distinguished guest stood by the window, her gaze sweeping over the plants in the mountains, listening to the sound of the bell echoing among the mountains.

It wasn’t until the last chime of the bell had completely dissipated that the guest closed the window, turned around, and looked at the shadow that had appeared in the room.

Today, she was wearing a scarlet robe with a crane pattern embroidered with silver thread. But it didn’t matter what she wore, because her name represented everything.

The distinguished guest sat back down on the chair and fastened a crudely made wooden hairpin in her hair while looking into the bronze mirror.

After she had fastened it, the shadow in the room dared to speak, reporting everything that had happened yesterday in detail.

From beginning to end, the distinguished guest’s expression didn’t change at all, except when she heard this one sentence: “Replying to Your Highness Princess Zhaoyang, a secret report from the royal residence guards says that His Highness the Prince of Yan also found a token on one of the assassins and carried one of the bodies back to the Prince of Yan’s residence.”

The distinguished guest, who was also Princess Zhaoyang, Xiao Shuang, listened to this information and frowned slightly.

“How many people from the Shenji Camp were there?”

“There were a hundred cavalry soldiers from the Shenji Camp and twelve guards from the Prince of Yan’s residence. Three of them have died.” The shadow answered.

“A hundred people. That’s indeed a bit much. I can’t kill all of them in a short time.”

Xiao Shuang’s tone was very casual. “Jin’er is still young and doesn’t know how to clean up the mess. Then let me do it for her.”

Then she smiled faintly, stroking the wooden hairpin in her hair.

“Find an excuse to send all one hundred of them to the border. Watch them and order them to never step foot in the capital for the rest of their lives.”

“Yes.”