I'm Competing With The Male Lead For A Woman - Chapter 20

“That’s a good question.”

Xiao Jin was silent for a moment. In the end, she picked up the cup in her hand. While the two women stared at her, she calmly took off the lid and took a sip of tea.

Today, Xiao Jin was not wearing a crown. Her hair was tied with a dark-colored ribbon embroidered with silver bamboo.

Her black hair hung down on the back of the wheelchair as she lowered her eyes and quietly stared at the olive-colored tea leaves floating on the surface of the water.

Such a calm and leisurely action indeed had the demeanor of a great person.

In reality, this series of actions by Xiao Jin was indeed a bit of a show-off.

Because of this, Chu Shao looked at the cup of tea in Xiao Jin’s hand and was curious about what the other person would say.

However, Xiao Jin’s mind was blank.

She didn’t know what to say after drinking the tea. She only knew that she had only three seconds left to react.

A true hero often only needs three seconds.

In the three seconds it took for Xiao Jin to swallow the tea and put the cup back on the table, her thoughts were in a chaotic mess.

But when Xiao Jin raised her head again and looked at Su Tan, the look in her eyes was very calm and nonchalant.

Su Tan looked at Xiao Jin’s confident expression. She had to admit that she was also a little inexplicably expectant, although she couldn’t understand why she would be expectant of Xiao Jin, who was showing off to the extreme.

“I would also like to ask you, Doctor Su, why can’t this worm be a Gu worm?”

Xiao Jin slowly asked this question. Although there was no expression on her face, the look in her eyes was extremely sharp.

Why can’t it be a Gu worm?

Su Tan was stunned. She met Xiao Jin’s scrutinizing gaze and was almost stumped by her question.

Then she quickly reacted. This corpse had been in a dark room for a long time, and the capital had been rainy recently. It was normal for it to rot and breed maggots.

Although this black slender worm was indeed a Gu worm, Xiao Jin had never studied medicine. Yet, with just a glance, she was able to determine it was a Gu worm. There must be something more to this.

Thinking this, Su Tan felt that her thoughts were very clear. She was about to refute based on this logic, but Xiao Jin spoke again.

“Doctor Su, not only do I know that this worm is a Gu worm, but I can also determine what kind of Gu poison this assassin died from.”

Xiao Jin’s tone was calm. She didn’t give Su Tan a chance to refute and made a series of bold statements as if she was answering her own questions.

If Su Tan had felt that Xiao Jin was just bluffing before, causing her to be confused, now she started to re-examine what the other person was saying.

The reason was simple. The Gu poison in the assassin’s throat was something she had created. But she didn’t know why it would appear in the Qi Kingdom.

However, this matter was a secret of the Great Yao. Besides the most noble people of the Yao Kingdom, very few people knew about it.

Su Tan put down her scalpel, looked at Xiao Jin, and her voice even carried a hint of a smile. “Please speak, Your Highness. I’d like to hear the details.”

[Beep! Congratulations, player. Su Tan’s favorability +10]

Xiao Jin looked at the slight smile on Su Tan’s lips and was a little confused.

It was also the first time she knew that arguing with someone could increase their favorability.

However, fortunately, Xiao Jin remembered what kind of Gu this was. So now she could confidently argue with Su Tan.

Xiao Jin lowered her eyes, glanced at the corpse on the ground, and said calmly, “This Gu is the most potent of Gu poisons. It is called ‘Absolute Sorrow.'”

After she finished speaking, Xiao Jin put on a profound expression. She wanted to wait for Su Tan to continue asking questions so she could tell the story slowly.

But Su Tan fell silent after hearing this. And if you looked closely, her face was even a little pale.

Xiao Jin was very confused.

The so-called “Absolute Sorrow” Gu was something she had read about a few days ago when she was bored and flipping through books in the original owner’s study.

Logically, this Gu should be common knowledge, which was why it was written in a regular book. But judging from Su Tan’s reaction, it didn’t seem to be the case.

What surprised Xiao Jin even more was that the person who spoke next wasn’t Su Tan, but Chu Shao, who was standing beside the corpse.

“Your Highness, I’m a little curious. What is ‘Absolute Sorrow’?”

Chu Shao’s lips were smiling, calm and gentle.

But when Xiao Jin looked into Chu Shao’s eyes, she knew that things were far from simple.

Chu Shao’s gaze was too calm. It had lost the gentleness she usually feigned.

Her delicate eyelashes trembled slightly. It didn’t look fragile. Instead, the lack of a smile in her eyes revealed a hint of coldness.

However, the arrow was on the string and had to be released.

Even if Xiao Jin realized that something was wrong, she could only bite the bullet and continue.

Xiao Jin had a feeling that if she didn’t speak according to her original plan, this matter would be even more difficult to resolve.

So she coughed twice and explained, “The so-called ‘Absolute Sorrow’ Gu is a Gu worm that hides in the throat. The poison has three stages. The first stage is to control a person’s mind, causing their personality to change drastically and making them a puppet for the user.”

“The second stage devours a person’s flesh and blood, making them as skinny as firewood and endure the pain of having ten thousand Gu worms gnawing at their heart every night. As for the last stage, it can turn a beautiful face into a pile of bones, and black hair into white hair, forever erasing all sorrow. This is why it is called ‘Absolute Sorrow.'”

Xiao Jin recited the original words from the book. Her expression was calm and composed, with no emotional fluctuations.

In reality, while she was talking eloquently, she was also observing Chu Shao’s and Su Tan’s expressions.

No matter what, Chu Shao’s face was always the same smiling one, and it was impossible to see any obvious emotional fluctuations.

Su Tan’s reaction was very strange. Her lips were tightly pursed, and her already pale, snowy face seemed to have become even more bloodless.

Through Su Tan’s reaction, Xiao Jin suddenly thought of a possibility: the book that was casually placed on the original owner’s bookshelf might not have been a common book.

So what she thought was common knowledge might actually be an unknown secret.

This is absurd.

Xiao Jin was clearly a transmigrator, yet because of certain discrepancies, she always had the illusion that she had read the original novel, but not completely.

Su Tan’s silence, Chu Shao’s out-of-character behavior, and the Gu poison that was never described in the original novel. The author didn’t fail to explain these things. They just never mentioned them at all.

Xiao Jin suddenly regretted not listening to the advice of a fellow reader in the comment section and quickly reading the side stories.

Just as Xiao Jin was regretting that she hadn’t read the side stories in time, which led to her knowing nothing about the plot, Su Tan, who was standing nearby, had a solemn expression, and her hands were a little cold.

How did Xiao Jin know all this? It was as if no secret could be hidden from her.

The two women were completely unaware that they had a deep misunderstanding of each other.

The only person who was still clear-headed was Chu Shao.

Chu Shao was already used to too many strange things. So she wasn’t too surprised that Xiao Jin knew about the “Absolute Sorrow Gu.”

Standing beside the corpse, she even smiled and asked a question, “Your Highness’s explanation of ‘Absolute Sorrow’ is very clear. But your knowledge of the three stages of this Gu’s toxicity doesn’t seem to have a strong connection to how you were able to identify this worm as a Gu worm with just a glance.”

“In other words, you know about the toxicity, but you can’t necessarily be sure that this worm is a Gu worm. So I am still very curious about how you knew it was a Gu worm.”

Xiao Jin touched the armrest of the wheelchair, and her movements paused slightly.

No way, even my brilliant change of subject was discovered by Chu Shao?

After listening to Chu Shao’s words, Su Tan frowned slightly and realized that she had been successfully led astray by Xiao Jin.

Because Xiao Jin had brought up a topic that shocked her, it made her forget what she had been asking.

Su Tan had asked, “How do you know this worm is a Gu?” but Xiao Jin answered, “This Gu is called Absolute Sorrow.”

It sounded very logical, but it didn’t make any sense. After beating around the bush and making things up, they were back at square one.

Xiao Jin was very upset inside.

What else could she say? She couldn’t possibly throw the web novel tropes and summary at the female and second female leads’ faces, could she?

Xiao Jin lowered her eyes and looked at the corpse on the ground. She knew she couldn’t explain herself, so she decided to just go for it.

So she didn’t answer Chu Shao’s question and instead pushed her wheelchair.

The wheels rolled on the floor with a dull sound.

In the dark room filled with the smell of decay and corpses, aside from her slightly pale face due to her illness, Xiao Jin’s eyes remained calm. She was not at all like the hot-tempered and moody person from the rumors.

Looking at the Prince of Yan like this, Su Tan felt that this person was not the “Ghost Rakshasa” who had destroyed the Yao Kingdom but a scholar with a book in her hand, walking slowly through a bamboo forest.

It was very strange. The eyes of the Prince of Yan of Northern Qi were filled with a calmness and compassion that did not match her identity.

The wheelchair slowly moved to the side of the assassin’s corpse.

Xiao Jin sat in her wheelchair and looked at her assassin friend. Her eyes were indeed filled with infinite compassion. Fortunately, my friend, you were lying far away, so I could push the wheelchair for so long and think about how to continue making things up.

Since Su Tan was working to decipher the assassin’s identity, the corpse was now in pieces, and there wasn’t much good flesh left.

In the bloody mess, the only intact part was probably the person’s face.

So, Xiao Jin had to suppress the urge to vomit and look into the person’s mouth.

After looking for a while, she retracted her gaze and said unhurriedly, “I just said that this person was poisoned with the Gu ‘Absolute Sorrow.’ This poison usually doesn’t enter the victim’s stomach but attaches to the throat. Furthermore, if the corpse had decomposed naturally and bred maggots, the maggots should be white and not black like that Gu worm.”

“Moreover, there are small wounds inside this person’s mouth. The wounds are very strange. They are faintly bleeding as if they were bitten by some kind of insect.”

At this point, Xiao Jin frowned again and coughed violently twice.

After wiping the blood from her lips with a silk handkerchief, she cleared her throat. Her voice was slightly hoarse but firm.

“From this, I can determine that this worm is definitely a Gu worm. And the wounds in the mouth should be the result of the Gu worm trying to crawl out of the person’s tightly closed mouth and biting after the assassin stopped breathing.”

Xiao Jin ignored the surprised looks that the two people gave her.

She thought, What’s there to be in awe of? It’s just explaining a picture. Anyone can do it.

But in reality, her eyes were sparkling with wisdom. Her desire to show off in front of the protagonists was extremely strong.

As if possessed by a certain character, Xiao Jin extended her fingertip and caressed the light green pattern on the teacup before slowly reciting that classic line.

“So, there is only one truth—”

Xiao Jin raised her hand and pointed to the aromatic pill that Su Tan had placed on the table. She said to the two women, “This aromatic pill has a problem.”