A Consequence of Opposing the Heroine’s Halo (GL) - Chapter 1

Ever since transmigrating into this book, Liu Sanye hadn’t touched a phone or a computer for an entire month. At the thought of this, something in her snapped. She suddenly tossed her hoe and basket aside, straightened her back, and flopped straight down into the potato field.

The dried clumps of mud poked painfully into her flesh, but she didn’t care about her image. She spread her limbs wide and stared blankly at the scorching sky.

Across the empty fields, a few sparse tree branches swayed. After staring for too long, her vision blurred, and colorful spots began to dance before her eyes.

Liu Sanye let out a sudden sigh, her mood plummeting. She felt as though she might be trapped in this book for the rest of her life. Her future looked bleak.

“Transmigrating into a book is one thing, but why did I have to end up as a wicked female supporting character?” Thinking of how she was destined to die a miserable death at the heroine’s sword, she—someone who was never usually the sentimental type—actually found herself lamenting her tragic fate.

However, before her melancholic thoughts could drift any further, they were abruptly cut short by a silly, childish male voice.

“Third Sister, help! Sav— Save me!”

In the distance, a large-framed boy no more than thirteen or fourteen years old, covered in dirt and grass roots, came running toward her in a state of utter panic. Though he was young, he already had the build of an adult.

The newcomer was Liu Sanye’s older brother in this world, Liu Ercao.

True to his name (which meant “Second Grass”), he was a genuine simpleton and a total loser. He was also a supporting character in this book who, through sheer dumb luck, would become the heroine’s “savior.”

“What is the cause of such alarm?” Having watched too many historical cultivation dramas, Liu Sanye instinctively asked in a refined, bookish manner. Realizing this didn’t fit her image as a village girl, she forced a change in tone: “What’s up, Ercao?”

“I… I… you…” Because he was so panicked, Liu Ercao gestured wildly for a long time without being able to get a word out. He was on the verge of tears; so was Liu Sanye, out of frustration.

Liu Sanye frowned at him. “What are you actually trying to say?”

Liu Ercao opened his mouth wide, revealing a chipped front tooth. “Tong… Tong…”

Liu Sanye finally caught the keyword: Tongtong.

Tongtong was Bai Tong.

She was the heroine of this cultivation novel. According to the original plot, the heroine should be getting bullied by the village brats right about now, and Liu Ercao had come to ask his younger sister for help.

In the original story, Liu Sanye didn’t help them. After all, she was the future villainess; she loathed her loser brother and naturally had no love for his “child bride,” Bai Tong.

Furthermore, Bai Tong was blind.

Seeing that Liu Sanye remained unmoved, Liu Ercao grew anxious. Like a headless fly, he turned and dashed back the way he came.

Since this book revolved entirely around the heroine, Liu Sanye knew she couldn’t just sit idly by while the lead was in trouble. She picked up her small hoe and basket and followed him.

After crossing a small hill, Liu Sanye spotted the heroine.

Bai Tong was cornered against a crumbling wall by five or six half-grown village boys. Broken wooden sticks littered the ground.

Clad in tattered hemp clothes, Bai Tong had been beaten to the ground. Her hair was as messy as weeds, and her face was buried in the mud, making it impossible to see her features. This was a secluded spot surrounded by haystacks, perfectly hidden from the view of the adults working in the fields.

…Liu Sanye’s body was, after all, only that of a frail twelve-year-old girl. By the time she climbed the hill, she was panting and drenched in sweat. As she leaned over with her hands on her knees to catch her breath, her dim-witted brother rushed into the crowd of boys without a second thought.

The big dummy yelled with effort, his face turning beet red: “Don’t… don’t… bully people!”

“Oh, the idiot’s back.” The leader of the brats slapped Liu Ercao hard on the head. “I thought you ran away, but you actually came back. Quite loyal, aren’t you?”

The others burst into laughter. One of them said jokingly, “Boss, if he loses such a beautiful blind wife, he won’t find another one even if he searches with a lantern. If it were me, I’d come back too.”

The group roared with laughter.

“You’re right. He’s got to protect her well.”

“An idiot and a blind girl—a match made in heaven!”

Liu Sanye watched from the side, frowning. As expected of a heroine: a tragic backstory is standard equipment! She recalled the description from the original novel. The heroine came from a cultivation family that possessed a celestial treasure called the Ice Soul Celestial Pupils. Coveted by a demon, her family was massacred. Because the treasure had already recognized her as its master, the demon forcibly gouged the pupils from her eyes. Consequently, Bai Tong’s eyes lost their color, becoming a deathly, stagnant gray. She could see nothing.

A normal person would have died from such trauma, but the heroine survived through sheer willpower. Her body had floated down the river to this small village, where the silly Liu Ercao picked her up. After she woke, their mother kept her in the house to be his child bride.

With her cultivation destroyed and her spiritual roots damaged, Bai Tong was weaker than an average person. Since the village was surrounded by wild beasts, she had to stay put for now. She was waiting—waiting for the Hegui Sect to come to this village to recruit disciples. Until then, she had to endure everything in this savage village; otherwise, as an outsider, she would be driven out.

Teenage boys are at an age where they aren’t necessarily at their most evil, but they are at their most transparent regarding their cruel nature. They hated “the idiot” and bullied him constantly; the idiot never fought back and only gave silly smiles. Bai Tong had hit the boys once to protect Ercao, and now they had marked her as a target.

At that moment, the fallen Bai Tong seemed to finally recover. She slowly stood up, dust and pebbles falling from her body. She suddenly opened her eyes and looked at the crowd in silence.

Bai Tong’s face was like fine white jade, flawless despite the dirt. She should have possessed the world’s most pure Celestial Pupils, but now those eyes were a terrifying, ghostly white.

Standing to the side, Liu Sanye finally saw it clearly: Bai Tong’s eyes were vacant and soulless. Like a grey-white wall, they held no color—only the aura of death.

Perhaps due to her “protagonist aura,” the boys who were bullying her actually staggered back a few steps in fear when she opened her eyes.

“Monster!” someone in the crowd yelled. Simultaneously, a clump of mud struck Bai Tong sharply on the head.

The shouts of “Monster!” grew louder, and mud clods began to rain down like hailstones. Bai Tong didn’t move, letting them pelt her until her head was bleeding.

Initially, Liu Ercao tried to block a few hits for her, but when it started to hurt, he just sat down and began to cry like a fool. He wailed for them to stop while snot and tears streamed down his face.

Liu Sanye hadn’t expected her brother to be such a coward. She stepped forward and kicked him. “You’re so big and strong, and you can’t even beat a bunch of little brats?”

However, Liu Ercao was even more useless than she imagined. He cried even harder. “Waaaah… I’m scared… I don’t want to fight… Good kids don’t fight…”

Liu Sanye’s eyelid twitched violently. She shoved him aside, picked up a clump of mud, and took a stance. She hurled it directly at the head of the lead brat!

The hit was solid, making the boy see stars.

“You little crazy girl! Why did you hit me?!”

“You’re bullying my brother! Who else would I hit?” Liu Sanye raised an eyebrow, picked up a larger piece of mud, and threw it with all her might.

The boy hadn’t expected Liu Sanye to fight back. He dazed for a moment and got hit again! Snapping out of it, he roared in rage, “Your mom is a big crazy woman, and you’re a little crazy girl! Your whole family is insane! Today, I’ll act on behalf of Heaven and deal with you!”

The boy dropped his mud and charged at Liu Sanye like a furious little rooster.

Seeing this, Liu Sanye immediately turned and bolted. She wasn’t a “tough bone” like Bai Tong.

“You little crazy girl, stand still!”

“Brothers, catch her!”

Liu Sanye wasn’t stupid. She didn’t waste breath replying; she saved her energy to sprint toward a specific plot of land—the place where her mother was working today.

From a distance, she saw her mother’s silhouette. She screamed with all her might, the wind rushing into her mouth: “MOM! Someone’s bullying Second Brother!”

Her voice was incredibly piercing and reached the ears of the Widow Liu instantly. A middle-aged woman with broad shoulders and heavy hips came charging over, her body trembling with every step.

“Which little bastards?!” Her voice was like a booming bell, full of power.

Exhaling in relief, Liu Sanye pointed behind her with the smug look of a villain who had just called for backup. “Mom, it’s them!”

The arrogant boys, seeing the locally famous “Ogress” glaring at them with murderous eyes, instantly lost their bravado. They stopped running, breaking out in cold sweat. One boy’s mud clod fell to the ground with a dull thud.

The Ogress cracked her knuckles. She said viciously, “Good, it’s you lot again…”

Soon, agonizing screams echoed across the empty fields.

Having dealt with the brats, Liu Sanye brushed the dust off her clothes and returned triumphantly to pick up her hoe and basket. When she returned, she found her brother still sitting on the ground crying, but the heroine was nowhere to be seen.

Liu Sanye asked, “Ercao, where’s Bai Tong?”

Liu Ercao sobbed, “Tong… Tong… she went back… to wash clothes…”

“Oh, I see.” Liu Sanye nodded thoughtfully. Seeing Ercao still crying, she couldn’t help but lecture him. “You’re such a big guy, why are you still crying? Stop it!”

Ercao poked the bump on his head and said aggrievedly, “It hurts where they hit me.”

Liu Sanye was speechless. She waved him off, muttered, “Fine, keep crying then,” and headed back to her field. She didn’t have time to coax a fool; she was busy.

However, after a few steps, she stopped. She saw the pile of broken wooden sticks on the ground.

After a moment of thought, she climbed a tree and used her hoe to hack off a sturdy branch. She trimmed it, placed it on the ground, and then clapped her hands clean before leaving for good.

Seeing that Sanye hadn’t comforted him, Ercao cried even louder. But no matter how hard he wailed, Liu Sanye didn’t look back. Eventually, he gave up and limped toward his mother to seek comfort.

Once everyone had gone, a figure rustled out from behind a haystack.

The person was covered in dirt, with messy hair and tattered clothes. It was Bai Tong.

She hadn’t left; she had been hiding behind the haystack. Her blind cane had been broken by the bullies, and without it, she couldn’t see the path home.

Bai Tong crouched down awkwardly, crawling on the ground and searching bit by bit, trying to find a stick. Fortunately, her luck was good. Before long, she touched a branch.

She seemed to pause for a moment when her fingers brushed against it.

After a long while, she slowly stood up, leaning on the new branch, and walked away with an indifferent expression.