I'm Competing With The Male Lead For A Woman - Chapter 3

Xiao Jin watched the smile on Chu Shao’s lips, the tingling on her scalp refusing to go away.

She wasn’t the original character. She was a modern person who had read countless online novels, so she could reasonably guess that the female lead’s character had broken.

Not just broken, but shattered somewhere between gentle and completely insane.

Xiao Jin really couldn’t understand how a perfectly normal, old-school female lead could turn out like this.

Seeing that the maid had already knelt down in fear from their strange behavior, Xiao Jin didn’t know if the maid was afraid of her or of Chu Shao.

Maybe both.

Xiao Jin dismissed the trembling maid, then tried to deal with Chu Shao.

Chu Shao still watched her with a smile, her anticipation not diminishing in the slightest.

…What was she so anticipating?

Xiao Jin didn’t quite understand, only that the female lead had likely gone astray, heading in a very strange direction and never looking back.

The system subtly reminded her of the progress: “Host, it’s time to drink the shared wedding wine.”

After the system’s reminder, Xiao Jin remembered that people in ancient times also had to drink shared wedding wine.

After all, in Empress of Great Yao, this ancient, dog-blood novel, there was no part that described the female lead drinking shared wedding wine on her wedding day.

Because the male lead had politely refused the bestowed marriage, the female lead was then granted to the male second lead by an imperial decree from the Qi Emperor.

Since this was an old-school, dog-blood angst novel, the male second lead felt like he had received the male lead’s leftover goods and was very unhappy.

Therefore, he humiliated the female lead in every way and even kicked her out on their wedding night, making her sleep in the woodshed.

Everything was in line with the development of an old-school novel. Afterward, it was only natural for the male lead and male second lead to enter into a chase-the-wife crematorium arc.

It followed the tropes but insulted the intelligence.

If she hadn’t been so bored, Xiao Jin probably would never have opened this novel.

At this moment, Xiao Jin met Chu Shao’s gaze and performed self-hypnosis with an expressionless face:

Xiao Jin, even though the female lead is a yandere, you’re not a good person either. You’re the Prince of Yan who destroyed the Yao Kingdom. How can you be afraid of a mere princess of a fallen kingdom?

After the hypnosis, Xiao Jin, with a “go with the flow” mentality, looked at the smile on Chu Shao’s lips. She reached out and stopped her hand beside the other woman’s face.

She had to admit that the original character had a very beautiful hand shape.

But because she had contracted a serious illness during her military campaigns, her hands were almost transparently white and a bit too bony.

Chu Shao watched Xiao Jin’s hand stop beside her face, her eyelashes fluttering lightly, but she didn’t move.

The smile on her lips grew wider.

Chu Shao was a little curious whether the Prince of Yan would slap her or tighten his grip on her neck.

However, Xiao Jin was destined to disappoint Chu Shao.

She was just an ordinary modern person with no storage for such sick behaviors.

So Xiao Jin reached out, moved her fingers, and took the phoenix crown off of Chu Shao’s head.

Without the sculpted crown, Chu Shao, dressed only in red, was even more breathtakingly beautiful.

Seeing that Xiao Jin had only removed her phoenix crown, Chu Shao was slightly surprised.

However, Chu Shao thought it was just an accident, so the smile on her face did not fade. “If Your Highness finds me an eyesore and wants to kick me out, just do it. Why take it out on the crown?”

“…”

Xiao Jin was speechless.

The female lead was probably seriously ill. She had only thought the headpiece was too heavy and kindly helped her take it off. How did it escalate to her being “taken out on”?

Xiao Jin gave a concise explanation, “The phoenix crown is too heavy and gets in the way.”

So it was just getting in the way.

Chu Shao smiled. She could understand Xiao Jin’s thoughts.

After all, many people felt that these complicated accessories would get in the way of their fun.

And before Xiao Jin entered the room, Chu Shao had hidden a dagger under the pillow.

Now, she was happily thinking about what kind of angle and what kind of method she should use to send the dagger into Xiao Jin’s heart.

The thought of the pleasure of the blade cutting into skin made Chu Shao’s heart beat a little faster.

Chu Shao’s heart was filled with joy, but she raised a gentle smile on her lips. “I understand. It is indeed in the way.”

Xiao Jin nodded.

She felt that the female lead wasn’t completely from an ancient-style novel and could still communicate to some extent.

But she didn’t know that Chu Shao had to suppress her trembling hands to keep the smile on her face gentle and elegant.

However, in the next moment, Xiao Jin’s actions made Chu Shao’s smile fade.

Because Xiao Jin did nothing to her. Instead, she shifted her gaze and took two cylindrical gourds from the table.

The gourds were filled with wine.

The handles of the two gourds were tied together with a red string. They seemed to be from the same gourd, just cut into two halves.

Chu Shao frowned and asked, “What is this?”

Xiao Jin was silent again.

The female lead had been in this ancient world for so many years, yet she didn’t even know what shared wedding wine was. This fictional protagonist was a complete failure.

Facing a clueless Chu Shao, Xiao Jin, drawing on her experience from reading countless online novels, took the lead and introduced it to the local resident. “This is a bitter gourd. It contains shared wedding wine.”

Chu Shao nodded thoughtfully and asked, “Does this wine have any purpose?”

If it were the original character, she would have long ago become impatient and killed Chu Shao for asking so many questions.

Admittedly, Xiao Jin didn’t have much patience either, but it was definitely better than the original character’s.

Fortunately, there was no one else in the room now, and the female lead had just met the original character. Xiao Jin didn’t have to worry about breaking her character’s persona.

Considering this was their first meeting, Xiao Jin maintained her patience, picked up a gourd of wine, and handed it to Chu Shao. “It has no purpose. Just drink it.”

Chu Shao took the other half of the bitter gourd, and the smile in her eyes gradually disappeared, replaced by confusion.

She had been observing Xiao Jin the entire time, so there was no way Xiao Jin could have secretly poisoned the wine when she handed it to her.

Chu Shao looked at the wine in her hand with a puzzled expression.

So, what was the point of the Prince of Yan of Qi Kingdom inviting her to drink a non-poisonous wine?

A moment later, Chu Shao held the gourd of shared wedding wine and felt a little happy again.

Someone was claiming to have fallen for her, and that person was the main conspirator who destroyed the Yao Kingdom.

Things seemed to be getting interesting.

But what a pity, this person looked terminally ill and seemed like she wouldn’t live past tomorrow.

Chu Shao thought about this with glee as she brought the gourd to her lips, intending to drink the shared wedding wine. But before the wine reached her throat, Xiao Jin grabbed her wrist.

Xiao Jin noticed that Chu Shao’s wrist trembled violently for a moment.

The wine in the gourd rippled with the movement.

Doubt arose in Xiao Jin’s mind. She felt that Chu Shao’s reaction was a conditioned reflex.

So…what about her gentle persona? She was way too guarded.

Without leaving Xiao Jin to wonder for too long, Chu Shao’s body quickly relaxed and was no longer as tense as it had been. She asked softly, “Your Highness, why did you grab my hand?”

Although Xiao Jin was not a native, she knew that shared wedding wine was not drunk this way. She explained, “When drinking shared wedding wine, the couple must interlock their arms.”

Chu Shao looked at the wine in the gourd, and a smile began to bloom on her face again. “Interlock arms? How do you do that?”

“Like this.”

Xiao Jin sat in her wheelchair, leaning slightly forward, demonstrating the proper posture to Chu Shao.

Her left hand crossed over Chu Shao’s raised wrist. Her sleeve accidentally brushed against the other woman’s skin, and the wine in the gourd rippled again.

The gourd wobbled.

Xiao Jin could vaguely sense that Chu Shao didn’t like physical contact with others.

It turns out Xiao Jin was right.

Chu Shao indeed loathed being touched. When Xiao Jin first touched her, she almost instinctively wanted to grab the other’s hand in a counterattack.

But Xiao Jin’s knuckles were very cold, and the feel was not as rough as that of an ordinary man.

Apart from the thin calluses that had formed on her fingertips from practicing martial arts, her whole hand was soft. It was an extremely gentle and casual touch.

The feeling was like the ice lotus flowers that bloomed in winter.

Chu Shao did not love the Yao Kingdom, but she loved the ice lotus flowers that grew there. So her wrist only trembled for a moment and did not struggle out of that cool restraint.

However, Xiao Jin was ready to give up.

Since Chu Shao didn’t like drinking the wine this way, she wouldn’t force her.

Xiao Jin was about to skip the shared wedding wine ceremony when Chu Shao’s hand suddenly and lightly rested on her wrist.

Before she could understand what the other woman was thinking, she heard the smiling voice, “Why isn’t Your Highness drinking?”

The two ends of the gourds were tied together with a red string.

If one person didn’t drink, the other couldn’t either.

Xiao Jin could only raise her hand, lift the gourd full of wine, and drink the shared wedding wine with Chu Shao.

They were in the same room, very close to each other.

When they tilted their heads to drink, their sleeves slid down, their wrists pressed against each other, and the sound of them swallowing the wine was very clear.

Chu Shao felt a little excited because she had never drunk wine this way before.

Although for her, drinking wine was no different from drinking water, Xiao Jin’s skin was smooth and cool, and she carried a faint scent of mint.

She didn’t seem like a man whom Chu Shao would hate. Instead, she seemed like a woman who had just bathed, someone who would carry such a light fragrance.

Chu Shao’s eyelashes trembled.

The speed at which she swallowed the wine also increased due to her inner delight.

If she could cut off Xiao Jin’s hand at the wrist and put it in a box, would she be able to always smell the scent and keep that strange feeling of touch?

Xiao Jin didn’t know that Chu Shao’s thoughts were so morbid. She only saw that the other woman was drinking more and more eagerly, with wine even staining her lips.

She was a little surprised. Did the Yao Kingdom not produce wine?

Even if it didn’t produce wine, it could act as a wine transporter and import it from other countries.

Look at how eager this person was. She was a princess, yet she had never even drunk wine in her life. No wonder she was seriously ill.

The ends of the gourds were tied together with a red string.

Chu Shao drank quickly, and Xiao Jin was not to be outdone.

In her modern life, she would savor even a small amount of liquor, but now she drank a large gourd without showing any weakness, fully displaying the heroic demeanor of the Prince of Yan.

But after forcing herself to act tough, Xiao Jin set down the gourd and leaned against the wheelchair, coughing violently.

She frowned, her chest hurting with every cough.

By the time Xiao Jin finished coughing, not only were her clothes stained with fresh blood, but even the carpet was splattered with a shocking red.

At this moment, Xiao Jin finally understood the purpose of the original character’s black clothing.

It was a good idea.

First, it didn’t show dirt. Second, it was economical.

But after Xiao Jin finished coughing, she looked at Chu Shao again and was stunned to find that a few drops of striking red had splashed onto her pure white shoes.

Oh dear.

This was not looking good.