After I Failed to Reform the Female Lead of a Tragic Novel - Chapter 13

Gong Dongling hurried into the shop, eyes fixed only on that grayish-blue figure. But when she drew closer, she realized that person was not Xie Yu at all. It was even a male disciple.

No wonder. After all, that grayish-blue Daoist robe was merely Buzhou Mountain’s uniform. Many people had one, so it was not strange to see it on the street.

An empty burst of joy was even more disheartening. Just as she was about to leave, that disciple turned around at some point and saw her. His eyes lit up, and he called out in pleasant surprise, “Senior Sister Gong!”

Since he had already called out to her, Gong Dongling had no choice but to stay and exchange a few polite words. She simply could not recognize who this disciple was, so she looked up and smiled. “Ah, a junior brother from Buzhou Mountain.”

“I really didn’t expect to run into Senior Sister just by coming down the mountain to buy some pills. I hardly ever see Senior Sister in the sect.” His skin was a healthy wheat color, but his white teeth were especially bright. He looked like a strong, sturdy youth. “Did Senior Sister come to the market to buy pills too?”

Gong Dongling thought for a moment, but still did not reveal that she was looking for someone. She only shook her head. “No. I came to ask about the market purchase prices for pills.”

Before the young disciple could speak, the shopkeeper casually cut in. “Eh? Why are so many people asking about purchase prices today? Is the immortal lady asking on someone else’s behalf, or are you planning to sell them yourself?”

“I’m asking for someone else.” Gong Dongling immediately grew alert. Not knowing whether Xie Yu might be among the people the shopkeeper mentioned, she asked, “Shopkeeper, among those who came earlier to ask about purchase prices, was there a girl dressed similarly to him? She and I came together. I don’t know if she has asked at your shop yet.”

The shopkeeper lifted his eyelids, not even needing to look at the male disciple. “There was. Isn’t that Buzhou Mountain’s uniform? How could I fail to recognize it? She did look somewhat similar to you, immortal lady. But she came in the morning, and it’s been quite some time since then. I don’t know where she went.”

Hearing the shopkeeper describe her this way, Gong Dongling felt much more at ease. At the very least, she had guessed the right location, and her efforts had not been wasted.

After saying goodbye to the shopkeeper and the disciple, she walked back toward the candied hawthorn stall from earlier, only for her footsteps to suddenly stop.

Xie Yu was standing off to one side. She did not step forward for a long time, only silently looking at the rings of candied hawthorns stuck into the straw rack, her eyes holding a trace of longing and melancholy.

While Gong Dongling froze in place, unwilling to disturb Xie Yu, the old man walked over with two skewers of candied hawthorns and stuffed them into her hand. Then he also looked toward Xie Yu.

“Did the immortal lady buy two skewers to share with her? Every time she passes by my stall, she stops and stares for a long while before leaving sadly. Once, I really couldn’t bear it and wanted to give her a skewer, but she shook her head and left. She must have some sorrowful memory tied to it.”

After hearing this, Gong Dongling froze. She looked up at the old man, only for him to give her an encouraging smile. She nodded.

Holding the two skewers of candied hawthorns, Gong Dongling quietly walked to Xie Yu’s side and called softly, “Junior Sister.”

Startled back to her senses by the voice, Xie Yu looked at Gong Dongling, her face full of shock. “Se… Senior Sister, why are you here?!”

“I bought candied hawthorns for you!” Gong Dongling’s eyes curved into crescents as she reached out and handed Xie Yu a skewer.

Xie Yu looked at the candied hawthorn. Her eyes darkened, and the wrist holding the skewer trembled slightly without her realizing it.

After hesitating for a moment, she still copied Gong Dongling’s example and bit one hawthorn off with her teeth. But that first bite made her expression change. After eating one piece, Xie Yu looked up and said dully, “It isn’t tasty. The sugar is too sweet, and the fruit is too sour.”

“Did someone once tell you it was delicious?” Gong Dongling tilted her head and looked at Xie Yu.

“My grandmother. She said my grandfather bought her a skewer before he passed away. She said it was the sweetest thing in the world and told me that once I had money to honor her, I had to buy candied hawthorns.”

Xie Yu looked at the candied hawthorn in her hand. In the end, she did not take a second bite.

She had been raised in the mortal world by an old woman. That woman had been her grandmother, though she had passed away for some reason before Xie Yu came up the mountain.

Gong Dongling looked toward the sunset at the edge of the sky and took a deep breath. “No. Your grandmother didn’t lie to you. Because your grandfather bought it for her, it became the sweetest thing in the world. If your grandmother had bought it for you, it definitely would have been very sweet too.”

“But if only she hadn’t known back then that I wanted to eat candied hawthorns,” Xie Yu said, her words filled with grief that would not dissolve.

It was something that, even after all these years, she still could not let go of.

“Let’s not talk about this anymore. It’s clearly my private matter, but I’ve made even Senior Sister lose her appetite. When I was hungry, even tree bark tasted good to me, yet now I’m being picky about such a delicate snack.” Xie Yu gave a bitter smile and ate the candied hawthorn in her hand in a few bites.

Gong Dongling seemed thoughtful. In the end, she said nothing more. Only when Xie Yu was willing to open her heart to her would these mysteries be revealed.

All she could do was take two Fasting Pills from her storage ring and give one to Xie Yu. “A Fasting Pill. You’ve reached Foundation Establishment and can practice inedia now, so you still need to pay attention to this.”

Only after watching Xie Yu obediently swallow the pill did Gong Dongling carefully tell her what had happened earlier in the Training Hall, as well as the promise she had made about the broadcast.

After hearing everything, Xie Yu’s expression did not change much. She seemed long accustomed to this kind of farce. She only glanced at the recording jade tablet, as if she had rarely seen a Recording Stone before.

But unlike at the beginning, she was no longer resistant toward Gong Dongling speaking up for her in front of the steward. “Senior Sister, thank you for helping me with all this. Though it seems difficult for anything to really change.”

“How has nothing changed? Next time, the steward definitely won’t dare leave your name off the list,” Gong Dongling said. “From being cleared of those charges, to learning the truth behind the scenes, to breaking through in cultivation—which part hasn’t been slowly getting better?”

“Those people suppressing you does not mean you deserve to live like that. You feel dissatisfied in your heart, so why don’t you show it?”

She took in every detail of Xie Yu’s expression and narrowed her eyes, worry flashing through them. In the original text, whenever ordinary fellow disciples made things difficult for Xie Yu, she always numbly endured it. But when things truly became beyond repair, she exploded—and that was when she fell into demonic cultivation.

Only by changing Xie Yu’s personality and beliefs little by little could Gong Dongling raise her into an upright, well-adjusted, new-era junior sister far away from blackening.

“I tried… I’ve never succeeded before.” Xie Yu thought of how she had usually chosen to endure and go numb. Her voice grew increasingly unconfident.

“You failed before only because you weren’t strong enough at the time. Now that you’ve grown, do you really think the result will be the same as before? You simply don’t dare try.”

Xie Yu stared at her blankly. Her lips parted, but no words came out. She only felt that in her mind, a belief that had formed over a long time was slowly cracking and melting away.

Gong Dongling snapped the candied hawthorn stick into several pieces.

“I’ll tell you a story too.

“When I was little, my health was poor, so I couldn’t exercise intensely. My fellow… fellow disciples saw that and insisted on taking my things away. You throw it to me, I throw it to him—the thing flew everywhere around the classroom and just wouldn’t come back to my hands. Telling the teacher was useless too. After all, they were only playing around. Guess what I did?”

In Xie Yu’s impression, Senior Sister had always been someone adored by everyone. How could she have such a past? Xie Yu shook her head.

Gong Dongling gave a soft laugh. “I said that whoever took my thing and returned it to me, I would buy them the newest toy. In the end, because they all wanted that toy, they actually started fighting. Finally, the teacher had to pull them apart and return my thing to me.”

“I was so much weaker than them, but didn’t I still achieve my goal?”

After a long while, Xie Yu said softly, “Senior Sister, I understand. In the future, I won’t run away anymore.”

“Don’t worry. I’ll help you too. Speaking of which, you ran out on your own and didn’t even tell me in advance!” Gong Dongling suddenly remembered this matter, and her temples began throbbing. “If I hadn’t reacted quickly, we would have fallen straight into that old fox Qiu Yan’s ditch!”

Xie Yu looked aggrieved. “Before I left, I went to Senior Sister’s residence to say goodbye, but Senior Sister wasn’t there…”

Being stared at by those big, pleading eyes, Gong Dongling’s anger came quickly and left even faster. She tapped Xie Yu on the head. “You never learn! Let’s connect our Recording Stones. It’ll be easier to contact each other in the future. Honestly! If I didn’t understand you, where was I supposed to fish you out from?”

“I… I don’t have a Recording Stone.”

This only added frost to Xie Yu’s already snow-covered disappointment. Right now, she was practically the crying cat meme itself.

Among all types of cultivators, sword cultivators were already the poorest. Aside from commissions to exterminate demons, they had few ways to earn money. Most relied on sect subsidies and resources, leaving them so poor their pockets jingled.

Xie Yu was the poorest of the poor. Xu Ruozhen never gave her any subsidies. Who knew whether he had forgotten or whether someone had pocketed them? She could only earn a little money to survive by doing odd jobs for the Library Pavilion master and selling the spoils she received from training missions at the market.

Although Recording Stones were popular among cultivators, they were definitely not cheap. Of course Xie Yu did not have one.

Gong Dongling froze. Only then did she remember that Xie Yu’s first Recording Stone had been given to her by the scumbag male lead during a later incident.

Her blood immediately surged with anger. “Senior Sister will buy one for you.”

Anything related to the scumbag male lead’s plotline would be strangled at the source! Don’t even think about touching my cabbage!

“No, no, no. How can I rely on Senior Sister for everything? I’ll buy one myself when I have money.” Xie Yu gritted her teeth and refused. She owed Gong Dongling more and more. She knew she should not accept the other girl’s kindness so naturally.

But Gong Dongling smiled. “Didn’t you help me investigate the pill market? Consider it my payment to you. Of course, this one time definitely won’t be enough, so I’ll have to trouble you to keep asking around afterward.”

At this, Xie Yu remembered the matter. She hurriedly pulled a stack of papers from her bundle and handed them to Gong Dongling. “These are the general market prices of pills from all the shops I investigated today. I’ve already marked the shops with relatively high purchase prices or the ones that could cooperate long-term. Senior Sister can take a look.”

After saying that, she stood in place, her eyes still holding a trace of expectation.

Gong Dongling flipped through them roughly and discovered that the data was so detailed it covered every kind of pill she had refined. There were dozens of densely written pages. Xie Yu’s thoughtfulness could be seen clearly.

“With this many pills, how did you remember them all?” If she did not look at the pills or the book, Gong Dongling herself could not name more than a few right now. She stared at Xie Yu, dumbfounded.

Under Gong Dongling’s gaze, Xie Yu covered her reddened cheeks with both hands, unable to hide the happiness in her eyes. “I just… accidentally remembered them.”

If I had that kind of memory, I would’ve memorized and written down the entire novel as soon as I transmigrated! Back when I saw that the supporting female character had the same name as me, I should’ve started memorizing! I was careless!

Gong Dongling regretted it bitterly in her heart.