After Transmigrating As The Second Male Lead In Qn Old-School Angsty Romance - Chapter 3

“You’re right. It is this heir’s fault.”

Sun Zibai rubbed his chin solemnly, looking deeply regretful. “This heir also feels that I was wrong this time.”

The servants and guards all looked at their heir in astonishment, clearly unable to believe their heir would say such a thing. Then Sun Zibai’s next sentence came out.

“Tomorrow, I must invite Divine Doctor Liao to examine this heir’s eyes. This heir must have contracted some extraordinary eye disease.”

Otherwise, how could he have been blind to this extent?

Several guards were still confused and did not understand. Some even looked at their heir worriedly. Surely he was not going blind at such a young age? They had not heard any rumors about it.

Hu An, however, could not help tugging at the corner of his mouth, looking as if he wanted to laugh but did not dare. Sun Zibai’s personal steward, Sun Hong, simply let out an unrestrained snort of laughter.

He had followed the heir since childhood. Although he was very confused by the heir’s sudden change of temperament today, he was far too happy that the heir was no longer acting foolishly over this delicate, womanish Young Master Qin.

Qin Mo felt wronged and miserable, while Xiao Yiyan felt that he had suffered a tremendous humiliation.

Xiao Yiyan gritted his teeth and glared fiercely at Sun Zibai. At this moment, he hated so much. He hated his lowly birth. If he had a status equal to the heir’s, how could he have fallen to this point? Right now, what he felt was regret. Because of his own recklessness, he had harmed Ah Mo.

“I’m sorry, Ah Mo. I harmed you.”

Qin Mo smiled sorrowfully. “You don’t need to apologize to me. I was the one who implicated you.”

“To be able to die together with you, I am already satisfied.”

“In the end, we can still be together.”

The two looked at each other with faces full of misery, affection stretching endlessly between them. It was a picture of two people prepared to die together. As for the pros and cons Sun Zibai had just analyzed for them, as well as the people they would implicate, they were about to die, so who could still care about those things? To die together with the person one loved was also a kind of happiness, was it not?

For love, it was worth it.

Sun Zibai shook his head as he watched.

That was it?

These two were really very naïve, all right? Thinking of the original plot, there were countless methods in this world that could torment a person more than death.

Clap, clap, clap.

Sun Zibai applauded their love that disregarded life and death. Then he said,

“Since the two of you care so little for life and death, why don’t this heir simply fulfill the wish of you pair of ill-fated mandarin ducks?”

The two looked disbelieving, yet foolish joy appeared in their eyes.

“What do you mean?”

Could it be that the heir had been moved by their love and was going to let them leave?

“Didn’t you want to die? This heir will fulfill your wish. You can die right now, die together. This heir does not mind collecting your corpses. I can even generously allow you to be buried in the same grave. How about it?”

Sun Zibai spoke seriously, yet also as if he were merely joking. However, no matter what, the fact that their lives and deaths were completely in his hands was beyond dispute.

At most, by then there would be another rumor like, “The heir is cruel and violent; on his wedding night, he tortured his wife to death.” That was all. In any case, the heir was already such a person, so it did not matter.

“However, this heir was betrayed by my newly wedded wife, and the adulterer even came all the way to my home. This heir is not the type to swallow his anger, so you two would not mind if this heir vented this rage elsewhere, would you?”

The two of them could die cleanly enough, but what about the families behind them? What about the people they cared about? Xiao Yiyan did not care about the cold and heartless Xiao family, but his mother was in the Xiao family. Qin Mo was the same. He was kind by nature. He could not bear to leave his dad behind, and he was also afraid the Qin family would be implicated because of him. Although that family had not treated him well, it was still his family, and his father was still his father. How could he do something so unfilial?

Clearly, they had just been ready to die for love with their hearts full of resolve. But when they were truly made to die, they hesitated again.

Qin Mo hesitated. He only hated—hated why he had not clarified his relationship with Xiao Yiyan sooner, hated why he had gone out that day and been seen by the heir, and hated the unfairness of Heaven.

Xiao Yiyan also hesitated. His heart was full of ambition. For all these years, he had been enduring patiently. He had endured humiliation and borne heavy burdens only so that one day he could rise above others, make those who looked down on him see him in a new light, and make those who had humiliated him pay the price. But he had not done anything yet. How could he willingly die like this?

“Tch.”

The two’s brief hesitation directly invited Sun Zibai’s ruthless mockery. That snort of laughter was enough to pierce their hearts.

The two immediately felt ashamed and guilty. For a moment, they actually did not dare look at each other.

“Sun Hong, take him away first.”

Sun Zibai suddenly signaled to the young servant. Sun Hong dragged Qin Mo away, showing not the slightest respect for the heir’s wife.

The two were startled.

“What are you trying to do!”

Both of them had been tormented physically and mentally, and there was not even a definite answer as to whether they would live or die. Thus, any action from Sun Zibai could make them panic.

Was the heir planning to use some vicious method to torture Ah Yan to death? After learning that Qin Mo loved another man, was the heir really that jealous? Why did such a malicious person exist in this world?

“Demon! You are a demon!” Qin Mo screamed hoarsely.

“Kill me too! If anything happens to Ah Yan, I will never live alone.”

Sun Hong looked disdainfully at the struggling Qin Mo in his hands, then reached out and covered his mouth. All those self-righteous curses were immediately muffled.

Heh heh. Sun Hong happily thought that he had said it before. This person was ordinary through and through. How could he possibly be worthy of his wise and mighty heir?

At last, it was quiet. Xiao Yiyan’s face was ashen, and his heart felt an unprecedented sense of defeat.

“Heir.” Xiao Yiyan gritted his teeth and knelt down in humiliation. This time, Hu An no longer needed to press him down. At this point, he was the fish on the chopping block, and the heir was the knife. Where did he still have the right to choose? “Whether you want to kill me or cut me to pieces, do as you please. I only beg you to let Ah Mo go. This matter is all because of my recklessness. It has nothing to do with him.”

Sun Zibai snorted coldly. “You keep saying Ah Mo this, Ah Mo that, and you say it has nothing to do with him?”

“Besides, if it has nothing to do with him, why did you come to the marquis residence tonight? For fun?”

Xiao Yiyan choked.

“Since the heir loves him, why must you force him and make things difficult for him like this? Although he and I once loved each other, in the end, we were not fated to be together.”

Xiao Yiyan’s face was full of bitterness, along with unspeakable unwillingness and humiliation. If not for his birth, how could he have pushed the person he loved into another’s arms?

“Since the heir has already married him, you should love and protect him.”

“Tsk.” Sun Zibai frowned. “Why are you still trying to morally blackmail me?”

Xiao Yiyan did not quite understand what that meant. He only heard Sun Zibai suddenly change the subject.

“You are very unwilling, aren’t you?”

Xiao Yiyan gritted his teeth. The unwillingness in his eyes was far too obvious.

“You must be blaming Heaven for being unfair, for not letting you be born into a better family. As for why this heir can stand above you and take away the person you love, it is all because this heir has a good grandfather. So it is not that you are inferior to this heir. In fact, you are even a hundred times stronger than this heir. You only lost to this heir’s birth.”

“Is that right?”

Xiao Yiyan laughed mockingly. “Is it not?”

“No, no.” Sun Zibai shook his head. “This heir’s status is naturally important. But Xiao Yiyan, have you ever thought that when the grandfather this heir relies on was your age, he was nothing more than a rough martial man of the wilds, rejected by the world? His status was even far beneath yours now. Yet through his own efforts, he ultimately changed his fate. Only then does this heir possess the position I have today.”

“So if you want to blame someone, at most, you can only blame the ancestors of your Xiao family for being incompetent.”

“Also, your status as a concubine-born son is indeed difficult, but the Xiao family is powerful. You had too many opportunities to change your fate. This heir remembers that the current Grand Tutor was also born of a concubine. Even the present emperor has to call him Teacher. So being concubine-born is not an excuse. You are simply incompetent.”

“As for you and your Ah Mo, you have known each other for more than a year. You had too many chances to become partners before this heir ever met him. Yet you did not. Now that you have missed your chance, you turn around and accuse this heir of ruining your marriage fate. Do you not find that laughable?”

In the end, it all came down to Xiao Yiyan’s incompetence. How could he blame his own incompetence on others? And now he had even lost his head over love and done something so stupid and reckless, harming himself and others, not to mention implicating who knew how many people. With that, what face did he still have to feel unwilling? Was this not exactly what he deserved?

Xiao Yiyan’s face was deathly pale, and the sense of defeat in his heart grew even stronger. He did indeed have ambition, and he had imagined countless times the future he and Ah Mo would have. But in the end, he had failed to say everything and settle everything at the right moment. Now, everything had become a joke, and he had even harmed Ah Mo. Was he truly such an incurably stupid person?

But clearly, he was not. This person was born noble. He simply did not know how difficult it was to be a concubine-born son who was not valued by his clan. He was merely speaking without understanding the pain.

“So, what right do you have to ask this heir to let Qin Mo go? You have no qualifications to negotiate with me at all.”

Every word Sun Zibai spoke was like a knife stabbing viciously into Xiao Yiyan’s heart. His breathing grew hurried. Anger, unwillingness, regret—all kinds of emotions mixed together. Yet facing this Sun Zibai, he could not say even a single word in rebuttal.

In the end, he only used all the strength in his body to squeeze out one sentence.

“What exactly do you want?”

If the goal was to kill a person’s heart with words, then the heir had clearly accomplished it. For the first time, Xiao Yiyan understood so clearly the gap between them. It was as if a chasm separated them. This was clearly a spoiled noble everyone cursed, a wastrel who wantonly squandered the status granted by his grandfather, a vicious good-for-nothing. But at this moment, Xiao Yiyan knew that everyone had misjudged him.

Perhaps, if Ah Mo had met the heir first, he would never have fallen in love with Xiao Yiyan at all.

Sun Zibai leaned forward slightly. Suddenly, he used his fan to lift Xiao Yiyan’s chin. Xiao Yiyan met Sun Zibai’s deep eyes in a somewhat disheveled state. It was clearly an incomparably handsome face, but Xiao Yiyan could only feel coldness and fear.

“You do not seem worried that this heir will deal with the Xiao family?”

Xiao Yiyan’s eyes flickered. Sun Zibai, however, continued with certainty,

“You hate the Xiao family.”

Xiao Yiyan had thought he had hidden it well. He had not expected…

“Make a deal with this heir.” Sun Zibai suddenly curved his lips into a smile. “You do not have the qualifications to make a deal with this heir, but this heir does not mind creating those qualifications for you. How about it? Do you want to consider it?”

Xiao Yiyan could not guess what Sun Zibai truly wanted to do. This person was unpredictable and impossible to read. And someone like that was extremely dangerous and terrifying.

He did not speak, but Sun Zibai was not angry. He merely used his fan to casually tease Xiao Yiyan’s chin, looking exactly like a frivolous noble young master flirting with a beauty.

“Your situation in the Xiao family is terrible, isn’t it? This heir can help you.”

In the plot, Xiao Yiyan was initially the concubine-born eldest son of the Xiao family, but he had never been valued since childhood. His father seemed to dislike him very much, and paid no attention to his mother either, as if those two people simply did not exist in the Xiao residence. Thus, Xiao Yiyan had grown up enduring cold treatment. Even though he had the best results and the most talent among all his brothers, his father still turned a blind eye to him.

His anger and unwillingness were useless.

Not being valued meant having no authority. Even now, the other sons of the Xiao family each had their own businesses and reputations. Only he, the concubine-born eldest son, remained obscure and nameless, as if he had been forgotten. Although Xiao Yiyan had also been working hard in private, he was restricted by too many things and still had to act secretly. It was truly difficult for him to contend against those brothers, let alone directly oppose the entire Xiao family.

It was precisely because of this that he and Qin Mo had met using false names, and also because of various reasons, they had never managed to reveal their identities to each other. In the end, Sun Zibai had beaten him to it.

If Xiao Yiyan had held even a certain position within the Xiao family, how could he and Qin Mo have developed to this point today?

In Sucheng, Sun Zibai could be described as a local emperor. Once he helped him, why would Xiao Yiyan worry that his abilities could not be displayed? The problem was, why would Sun Zibai help him?

“Why? Why would the heir help me?”

“Didn’t I say it? A deal.”

“This heir can help you become the person in power in the Xiao family, replacing that old thing Xiao Yuan.”

Xiao Yiyan’s eyelids twitched violently. Was this not the dream he had held since childhood? Then he heard Sun Zibai continue,

“In addition, this heir can also promise you that I will never touch your Ah Mo. And as long as you can satisfy this heir, this heir can even return him to you.”

“You…”

Xiao Yiyan was truly shocked. His heart pounded wildly, and his mouth went dry.

“What does the heir want me to do?”

“Is that not simple?”

Sun Zibai closed his folding fan and tapped it against Xiao Yiyan’s head.

“I want the Xiao family to become this heir’s vanguard.”

Xiao Yiyan’s pupils trembled violently. This meant Sun Zibai wanted him to submit to him—and not only him, but even his descendants would have to acknowledge Sun Zibai as master. Otherwise, if it were merely simple allegiance, with the power of the Pingnan Marquis Residence, the Xiao family would naturally rush over to flatter them the moment they extended a hand.

Sun Zibai was not the useless wastrel the world thought he was. Nor was he simply a tyrant. This person hid himself deeply, so deep that no bottom could be seen.

Xiao Yiyan was so shocked that his pupils trembled. Such a person was very dangerous. One careless step, and one could fall into eternal ruin.

But the conditions the heir offered were truly tempting.

Sun Zibai looked down from above and curved his lips again. Once more, he used the folding fan to lift Xiao Yiyan’s chin, his voice seeming to carry a bewitching note.

“Tell this heir. What is your answer?”