I'm Competing With The Male Lead For A Woman - Chapter 17

Chu Shao raised the jade object in her hand high, ready to smash it on the floor.

Seeing the scene outside, she paused and didn’t smash it after all. Instead, she watched the people outside with a mysterious smile.

Xiao Jin didn’t understand. She turned her wheelchair around and looked outside.

What she saw was a moment that felt like an eternity.

The night rain drifted into the long corridor, highlighting the panic on Steward Zhang and the maids’ faces. The lantern tumbled on the wooden floor, and the shadows flickered, creating a desolate scene.

Xiao Jin looked at everything with an expressionless face. She had only one thought.

Oh, for heaven’s sake.

Steward Zhang and the maids were frozen in place, looking at the light and dark red marks on Xiao Jin’s neck. Not only did their jaws drop, but their eyeballs almost fell out.

Oh, my heavens.

Seeing Xiao Jin’s visibly sour expression, Steward Zhang, as the head of the residence’s servants and the source of the jade objects, was the first to kneel, kowtowing and shouting, “Please have mercy, Your Highness! This old servant… this old servant heard a sound from outside the courtyard and was afraid that a villain was trying to harm Your Highness, so I recklessly barged in…”

The saying goes, “Fear not a god-like opponent, but a pig-like teammate.”

Xiao Jin knew that everything that happened to her tonight was thanks to Old Zhang. She sneered in anger. “I don’t know if anyone else is trying to harm me. But, Old Zhang, you’ve become so ‘good’ at handling things. I feel like you’re the biggest villain here.”

Upon hearing this, Steward Zhang’s face turned ashen, and his legs went weak with fear. He didn’t understand what he had done wrong and only dared to beg for mercy. “Please have mercy, Your Highness! This old servant deserves to die a thousand times!”

She didn’t know what kind of persona the original owner had established, but Xiao Jin only spoke one sentence with a cold voice, and the maids immediately knelt with Steward Zhang, begging for mercy in fear.

“Please don’t be angry, Your Highness. We deserve to die a thousand times…”

Xiao Jin’s head ached from all the noise. How tyrannical was the original owner’s personality for these people to want to die a thousand times at the drop of a hat?

Unable to bear it any longer, she glanced at Old Zhang and waved her hand to stop them. “You truly deserve to die a thousand times. You only ‘dabble’ in the field of antiques, yet you dare to bring any kind of jade artifact for appreciation.”

Steward Zhang had always known Xiao Jin’s temper.

He knew he was in big trouble. Kneeling on the ground and trembling, he could already predict which way Xiao Jin would choose to have him die.

He said he deserved to die a thousand times, but his heart was filled with despair. He kowtowed until his forehead was almost bleeding, only hoping to leave a complete corpse.

He trembled as he lay on the ground, having given up all hope of survival. But Xiao Jin’s voice reached his ears:

“Why should you die? I only plan to punish you by having you clean up all the shattered jade on the ground and deducting a month’s salary.”

“In addition, from now on, you are not allowed to bring these filthy things into the residence. If there is a next time, you will be directly kicked out.”

Steward Zhang was stunned for a moment.

The tears in the corners of his eyes hadn’t even come out yet. He suddenly heard that he only needed to sweep up the shattered jade and have a month’s salary deducted, and the matter would be over.

Steward Zhang couldn’t believe it. He looked up and met Xiao Jin’s calm eyes, only then realizing that he hadn’t been hallucinating.

He walked in on something like this, and His Highness didn’t kill him?

He… was still alive.

Xiao Jin looked at the purple bruise on Old Zhang’s forehead and didn’t know what to say.

He really kowtowed hard.

Helpless, she could only frown and say, “Old Zhang, after you go back, treat the wound on your forehead. You are still the steward of the Prince of Yan’s residence. What kind of dignity is that with a bruise on your forehead?”

After hearing Xiao Jin’s words, Old Zhang was completely stunned.

If he wasn’t kneeling in the corridor, he would have rushed forward and hugged Xiao Jin’s leg, wailing and shouting, “Long live the Prince, long, long live!”

Xiao Jin’s eyebrows were locked in a frown. She really didn’t know that Old Zhang was hiding a potential for Stockholm syndrome.

She only knew that she had fired the first shot in the internet purification campaign.

Seeing Old Zhang and the maids picking up the shattered jade, the view in front of her was finally a little clearer.

She didn’t know how a shameless and lewd steward like Old Zhang could appear in a Jinjiang web novel.

To clear the air in the residence, before the maids and Old Zhang left sullenly, Xiao Jin coughed twice. While wiping the lipstick from her neck, she instructed them, “You must remember, you are not to bring these ‘items’ into the residence again. I… don’t need them.”

When she said the word, Xiao Jin’s voice paused for a moment before she uttered “don’t need them.”

She felt that besides being a little embarrassed, there was nothing wrong with it.

But Chu Shao beside her let out a small laugh.

The laugh was pleasant to the ear, and also quite sarcastic.

Xiao Jin wiped the lipstick marks from her neck and frowned at Chu Shao, only to see her eyes curved like a silver hook.

“Why is the Princess Consort laughing?”

Chu Shao reached out and rested her hand on the edge of the wheelchair. A gentle smile appeared on her lips. “This concubine thinks Your Highness is very wise, so I’m happy.”

Xiao Jin didn’t see happiness on Chu Shao’s face. She only saw that she was saying one thing and thinking another.

But even so, it was better than when she was acting crazy.

Although she had gone through this, Xiao Jin was always good at self-soothing. She always believed that as long as she wasn’t embarrassed, everyone else was.

Similarly, as long as she didn’t feel mortified, everyone else would be.

But Xiao Jin didn’t expect that even after wiping her neck with a silk handkerchief until her skin was red, she couldn’t wipe off the kiss marks.

Her composure was gone.

Just now, when Chu Shao leaned in, Xiao Jin’s mind was almost as blank as a feather.

She could feel Chu Shao’s slightly parted lips and the moist feeling on her skin. But her brain’s nerves had malfunctioned, and it was difficult for her to fully process all the information.

Xiao Jin knew that Chu Shao was dangerous.

So when Chu Shao got close, she felt the other person’s warm, light breath and the pressure of her deliberately getting closer.

Xiao Jin chanted to herself that Chu Shao was a dangerous person who killed without blinking.

But when Chu Shao actually touched her, and the small mole that looked like a tear appeared in her sight, her body couldn’t help but freeze for a moment.

Then, she felt a chill.

That chill came from Chu Shao’s fingers. A few of her fingers were restless, rubbing against her collar. With just a slight twist, she could unbutton the outer garment.

Xiao Jin instantly sobered up.

Even if this kiss was deliberately deepened by Chu Shao, and she kissed and licked her lips softly, the ultimate goal was not pure.

The reason Chu Shao did this was to find out something.

Although the system had given her a shield cheat, Chu Shao was clearly a smart person. The intelligence-lowering attack was aimed at intelligence, but Chu Shao’s probing relied entirely on intuition.

Chu Shao’s sixth sense was so terrifying that even the system couldn’t interfere successfully.

Suddenly, Xiao Jin’s perception of Chu Shao rose to a new level. She decided to win over this unpredictable factor, Chu Shao.

After all, if the plot followed the original novel, and Chu Shao became the male lead’s aid, she would have no hope of completing her mission and would never be able to go home.

Xiao Jin decided to first probe and see how much Chu Shao knew.

Thinking this, she responded to Chu Shao’s words. “It’s not about being wise. However, I am very curious about one thing. Since the Princess Consort’s sword skills are so superb, why didn’t you escape during the fall of the Yao Kingdom? Instead, you willingly allowed yourself to be captured by my army and placed in a position to be slaughtered?”

A smile appeared on Chu Shao’s lips. “That is not a very wise question, Your Highness.”

“Why?”

“Because… the one who conquered the Yao Kingdom was you, and the one who captured this concubine was also you. Your Highness should actually be asking yourself that question.”

Xiao Jin met Chu Shao’s smiling eyes and was almost stunned.

Fortunately, she reacted quickly, pretended to cough twice, and didn’t show too much of a flaw.

Chu Shao’s meaning was that after the fall of the Yao Kingdom, the original owner had actually captured and recruited her? But she wasn’t the original owner. How would she know what happened back then?

She couldn’t possibly ask, “Tell me, why did I capture you?”

Her head ached.

Xiao Jin was actually a little nervous inside. But on the surface, she had to pretend to be a mastermind. She asked with a profound tone, “Even if I captured the Princess Consort, with your martial arts, you were fully capable of escaping.”

“You’re joking. The Yao Kingdom has fallen. Where else could this concubine escape to?”

Chu Shao smiled gently, and her tone was very light. “Besides, I don’t love the Yao Kingdom. There is no place in the nine states and four seas that I want to go. I have never had a hometown, so it makes no difference where I stay.”

After hearing this, Xiao Jin couldn’t find any logical flaws for a moment.

It seemed that was indeed the case. Because she had no place she wanted to go, it was the same no matter where she went. That made a lot of sense.

Once she accepted Chu Shao’s logic, everything seemed to become easier to understand.

…But this still wasn’t a good reason for Chu Shao to have peerless martial arts yet willingly become a prisoner.

No one would believe this. Not even the original author could make the logic self-consistent.

Unfortunately, the original owner was already gone. Xiao Jin couldn’t pull her out and ask her how she had captured the female lead back then.

So Xiao Jin could only settle for the next best thing: hoping to get some useful information from Chu Shao.

For example, the crape myrtle flower on the token.

Xiao Jin took out the token that she had hidden in her sleeve, placed it in her palm, and showed the side with the crape myrtle flower.

“Although the Princess Consort believes that it doesn’t matter where you stay, a few days ago, you made an alliance with me.”

“Allies should be honest with each other. Only then can we share life and death and be linked by fate.”

This was very logical.

Even Xiao Jin herself felt that if Chu Shao didn’t reveal some information, it would be a disservice to the serious expression she was faking.

Sure enough, Chu Shao listened to Xiao Jin’s words and then began to seriously observe the token in her hand.

This made Xiao Jin even more certain that Chu Shao knew something.

Xiao Jin watched Chu Shao’s lips move, and she had a hunch that the other person was about to reveal a big secret that she didn’t know.

Chu Shao, of course, did not disappoint Xiao Jin’s expectations. She looked at Xiao Jin’s hand and smiled faintly. “Being honest with each other? I have to say, Your Highness’s fingers are indeed very slender. I’ve always thought so. Now, it seems my thoughts were correct.”

“…”

Xiao Jin controlled her facial expression. After pondering for a moment, she spoke as calmly as possible, “Princess Consort, maybe you should look at the token in my hand. After all, it is related to my assassination.”

She knew that Chu Shao didn’t care about the lives of others.

But she really didn’t expect that this person’s ability to ignore things was so superb that she could not even see the large token in her hand.

Through Xiao Jin’s special emphasis, Chu Shao suddenly realized and said apologetically, “You’re right. I should have known that since Your Highness brought out the token of the Fourth Prince, you must have a purpose.”

…So she knew it was on purpose all along? Her reaction time is too long.

Xiao Jin’s mind was already numb. As she savored Chu Shao’s words, she suddenly realized that something was wrong.

Wait.

Chu Shao just said, “brought out the token of the Fourth Prince”?

Looking at the gentle smile on Chu Shao’s face, Xiao Jin almost couldn’t hold the token in her hand.

She repeatedly told herself to calm down. Maybe Chu Shao wasn’t intentionally hiding things before. After all, a yandere’s way of thinking was different from everyone else’s. She just had to get used to it.

Suppressing the shock in her heart, Xiao Jin took a deep breath before slowly speaking, “Then, how did the Princess Consort know?”