After Transmigrating, the Female Lead Went Dark (GL) - Chapter 34

After staying in Yunxi Pavilion for a while, Zhou Zhuying became somewhat unable to sit still.

Xiao Xinyue asked her, “What, did nails grow on the chair?”

Zhou Zhuying: “…”

It had been so long since she was scolded by the female lead that she actually felt a little nostalgic?

Was she really a masochist after all?

She said, “I was just wondering whether my sewing machine can be sold.”

Xiao Xinyue took her to find Shopkeeper Xue. The latter froze for a moment, then seemed to wake from a dream and hurriedly led them into the inner courtyard. There, Zhou Zhuying saw five women sitting behind sewing machines, sewing clothes. They were well-trained, their movements neat and orderly.

“It’s already been put into use so quickly?!” Zhou Zhuying said in surprise and delight.

Shopkeeper Xue glanced at Xiao Xinyue, then smiled and replied, “Yes! Ever since we got these sewing machines, the speed of making ready-made clothes has become much faster. The wealthy households in town, and even in the county, have all come to us to order custom clothing.”

“Supervisor Wen’s efficiency is really high. It’s only been a few days, and even the workers have already been trained!” Zhou Zhuying praised.

Shopkeeper Xue looked down at her nose and her heart, saying nothing.

“Now you can rest assured,” Xiao Xinyue said.

“Mm!” Zhou Zhuying nodded heavily.

“Then where do you want to go next?”

Zhou Zhuying asked, “New Year is almost here. Does Sister Saintess want to buy two new sets of clothes for the New Year?”

Xiao Xinyue said, “No need. I still have many clothes.”

Seeing that she had not understood her intention, Zhou Zhuying could only confess honestly. “I just saw quite a few nice clothes in Yunxi Pavilion’s ready-made clothing section. I want to buy them, but I have no money.”

Xiao Xinyue: “…”

Shopkeeper Xue looked at Xiao Xinyue in surprise, as if saying: Why has the Pavilion Master fallen to the point of having no money at all? Did Steward Xiao mistreat the Pavilion Master? Or did the Pavilion Master hand over all her private savings after marriage?

No matter what, as both a subordinate and a worker, she ought to step forward and help her employer out of this situation. She said warmly, “The Saintess’s Wife does not need money to buy things at Yunxi Pavilion. The Saintess’s Wife may choose whatever she likes.”

The surprise came too suddenly, and Zhou Zhuying felt rather overwhelmed by the favor. “Really?!”

“Naturally!”

“What kind of heavenly treatment is this?!” Zhou Zhuying felt as if she were taking advantage of someone. Was the female lead’s name this useful in Yunxi Pavilion? Was this one of the benefits of marrying the female lead?

“After I finish choosing, will you receive a long string of bills?” Zhou Zhuying quietly asked Xiao Xinyue.

Xiao Xinyue said, “You have a close relationship with Yunxi Pavilion. Since Shopkeeper Xue says you can choose as you please, you need not worry that she will come asking you to pay afterward.”

Thinking that she still had dividends from selling the sewing machines, Zhou Zhuying immediately entered the identity of a Yunxi Pavilion shareholder and happily ran off to choose two sets of clothes. In addition, she also chose one set for Xiao Xinyue and said, “You wear one, I wear one, and when we walk on the street, people will think we are sisters. So this is called sister outfits!”

Xiao Xinyue said, “But we are not sisters.”

Zhou Zhuying immediately revealed her true thoughts. “Then treat them as couple outfits!”

Xiao Xinyue did not expose her either. She accepted the clothes and asked, “Aside from clothes, is there anything else you want?”

At present, Zhou Zhuying did not lack food or clothing in Moshan Sect, so she did not have much desire to shop. However, she thought of something and said, “Let’s buy some tea leaves. I see that you quite like drinking Yunxi Pavilion’s tea. I wonder what tea is used here?”

“It is Jingyang fu brick tea,” Shopkeeper Xue said. “Later, I will have someone bring two tea bricks for the Saintess to take back.”

“Many thanks, Shopkeeper Xue.” Xiao Xinyue did not refuse.

After leaving Yunxi Pavilion, Zhou Zhuying casually said, “Sister Saintess, you grew up in Jiangdu. Shouldn’t you prefer drinking Biluochun, Longjing, or other green teas? Why do you like this dark tea from the Central Plains region?”

Xiao Xinyue: “…As long as it is good tea, I drink it.”

Zhou Zhuying had only said it casually and did not pay much attention. Holding the two tea bricks, she pondered, “These two can be drunk for a long time. Yunxi Pavilion’s shopkeeper really is generous. Although I have a share from my cooperation with Yunxi Pavilion, taking so many things for free still makes me feel a little embarrassed. I just saw that the spinning wheels they use for silk floss and hemp are different. The one for silk floss is relatively backward. I can help improve it so twisting silk floss thread will become more efficient.”

“Does the Cult Leader have another marvelous idea?”

“I wouldn’t call it a marvelous idea. I just want to use my brain. If the brain is not used for too long, it will degenerate.”

—

The two returned to Moshan Sect. Not long after entering, they saw Fu Feifei standing in a horse stance on wooden posts in the courtyard, both hands holding a basin of water high above her head. She looked extremely miserable.

Chen Mishan, who had once been the “jailer” guarding Zhou Zhuying, was also on the wooden posts. However, he was only standing in a horse stance and did not have a basin on his head. He kept comforting Fu Feifei. “Only half an incense stick left. Junior Sister Feifei, endure it!”

“Shut up. Don’t distract me!” Fu Feifei said irritably.

Seeing Xiao Xinyue appear, Chen Mishan called, “Saintess!”

Fu Feifei was clearly being punished, but Zhou Zhuying did not sympathize with her in the slightest.

Xiao Xinyue asked, “Senior Sister Hongxue punished her?”

When Fu Feifei saw her, her eyes lit up, and she said, “Senior Sister Xinyue, go help me plead with Senior Sister. I know I was wrong.”

Chen Mishan also echoed from the side, “That’s right, Saintess. Junior Sister Feifei really knows she was wrong.”

Xiao Xinyue ignored Chen Mishan’s act of tender concern for the fairer sex and looked at Fu Feifei. “Do you truly know you were wrong?”

Fu Feifei looked at Zhou Zhuying, her eyes filled with unwillingness. But her arms were already sore, and her legs had begun to tremble. If she fell from the wooden posts, she would be punished with another incense stick of time, and she could not bear that.

So even though she was unwilling, she still struggled to apologize to Zhou Zhuying. “I’m sorry.”

Zhou Zhuying smiled gleefully like a petty person who had achieved success. “What did you say? I didn’t hear clearly.”

Fu Feifei glared at her, fire almost shooting from her eyes. Originally, being made to apologize to the Demon Sect Leader had already felt humiliating. Yet the other party still wanted to provoke her. How could she not be angry?!

Through gritted teeth, she shouted in a low voice, “I’m sorry! Is that enough?”

“Although your apology is not sincere, I am magnanimous and won’t lower myself to your level.”

Fu Feifei’s face turned livid. She felt extremely stifled.

After a while, Xiao Xinyue said, “Do not do this again. Come down.”

Chen Mishan actively helped Fu Feifei remove the basin from her head. After she jumped down from the wooden post, she staggered and nearly fell. Chen Mishan hurriedly threw away the basin and supported her. She raised her head, wanting to say something to Xiao Xinyue, only to see that Xiao Xinyue and Zhou Zhuying had already walked far away.

Fu Feifei stomped her foot in anger.

Chen Mishan also noticed this fact and advised, “Junior Sister Feifei, this concerns whether the jianghu can be peaceful and whether the various sects can be harmonious. The Saintess had no choice but to marry the Demon Sect Leader. Moreover, the position the Saintess occupies does not allow her to be partial. She must weigh the pros and cons.”

“What are you even talking about?” Fu Feifei said impatiently while rubbing her legs.

“What I mean is, for the next period of time, you should still get along peacefully with the Demon Sect Leader. Otherwise, I’m afraid you won’t be able to stay in the sect for long.”

“What do you mean?”

Chen Mishan explained, “Previously, there was a junior sister responsible for taking care of the Demon Sect Leader’s food and daily life. In the end, because she neglected the Demon Sect Leader and even spoke rudely, the Saintess sent her to Mizhou to help the branch hall deal with the matter of our goods being detained by river bandits.”

“How is that weighing pros and cons? That is favoritism! Senior Sister Xinyue’s bias has gone completely off the edge!”

Chen Mishan hurriedly covered her mouth. “Lower your voice. The Saintess marrying the Demon Sect Leader was approved by the Sect Master, and they have already married and consummated the marriage. Even if you oppose it, it’s useless now, isn’t it?”

Fu Feifei was so anxious that she bit his hand. He let go in pain, and then heard her ask sharply, “What do you mean, they consummated the marriage? Aren’t they both women?”

Chen Mishan told her about how the Demon Sect followers had requested books and illustrations about grinding mirrors between women for the Demon Sect Leader. Finally, he said, “Demon Sect people originally have no sense of etiquette, righteousness, shame, or honor. They also act in a loose and unrestrained manner. Since the Saintess married her, then if they are acting, they must act the whole part. That is why…”

“Then Senior Sister Xinyue’s sacrifice is far too great!” As long as Fu Feifei thought of her perfect and flawless senior sister being defiled by the Demon Sect Leader, her heart ached, as if the sky had collapsed.

“No. I want to kill that Demon Sect Leader!” Fu Feifei pulled out her multi-section whip, twisted the handle slightly, and the segmented whip immediately turned into a long spear.

She lifted the spear and charged, but Chen Mishan stopped her. “Junior Sister Feifei, calm down! Do you still want to be confined, punished to stand in a horse stance, and hold a water basin on your head?”

Xiao Xinyue’s impartial and iron-faced appearance surfaced in Fu Feifei’s mind, and she instantly wilted.

—

Hearing the commotion behind her, Xiao Xinyue shook her head. She had Zhou Zhuying go back first, while she went to find Mo Hongxue to fulfill her promise of speaking on Fu Feifei’s behalf.

Zhou Zhuying first put away the things she had obtained from shopping today. Seeing that it was not yet time for dinner, she ran to the study again, planning to ponder the matter of improving the spinning wheel.

As soon as she sat down, she suddenly saw the guqin placed on the qin table in the corner. She remembered that Xiao Xinyue had not played the qin in a long time. The last time Xiao Xinyue played it, Zhou Zhuying seemed to have said something that made Xiao Xinyue unhappy, and after that, Xiao Xinyue had not touched the qin again.

Zhou Zhuying tried to recall why Xiao Xinyue had gotten angry, but after thinking for a good while and failing to remember, she simply gave up.

Her heart surged with excitement. They had tea now. Beneath flowers and moonlight, the conditions for that breathtakingly beautiful scene of “the female lead playing qin while I boil tea” had already been fulfilled. How romantic was that!

They would do it tonight!

She put down her brush and ran over to pick up the qin, preparing to wipe the dust off it first. Otherwise, when Xiao Xinyue played it later, she might eat a mouthful of dust.

With such a famous and expensive musical instrument, Zhou Zhuying did not dare use a rag on it casually. She chose a soft silk handkerchief and first gently brushed away the dust on top. But when she flipped it over to the back, she froze.

“The heart-moon shines on Yunxi?”

She understood the inscription “Illuminating the Mind and Seeing One’s Nature” above the dragon pool. That was probably the name of this qin. But she could not quite understand the small characters on the side: “The heart-moon shines on Yunxi.”

Xinyue, as the name suggested, was Xiao Xinyue. Yunxi—did it have anything to do with the Yunxi of Yunxi Pavilion?

For some reason, she suddenly thought of that “zongzi” from Yaoshan Sect, Liang Kong, saying, “But how much do you really know about the Saintess?”

Although these two things could not be connected at all, Zhou Zhuying had no choice but to face the fact that she truly did not understand the female lead.

Xiao Xinyue, Yunxi, Yunxi Pavilion. According to her previous inference, Yunxi Pavilion’s Pavilion Master Zhou Shuren had a close relationship with the woman she saved, Yunxi, and had even named the pavilion after Yunxi. It was clear that in Zhou Shuren’s heart, Yunxi must be someone she valued.

And the female lead’s relationship with Yunxi Pavilion was also extremely close. When the female lead and Shopkeeper Xue talked behind closed doors on the second floor, Zhou Zhuying had once looked up from the window and discovered that Shopkeeper Xue’s attitude toward the female lead was extremely respectful.

At that time, she had not thought much of it, believing Shopkeeper Xue was showing courtesy because of Wen Xi’s relationship with the female lead. But thinking about it now, the female lead was more likely to be some high-ranking figure in Yunxi Pavilion.

In addition, the female lead knew Yunxi Pavilion’s affairs like the back of her hand. Zhou Zhuying had no choice but to guess in the direction of “the female lead is Yunxi Pavilion’s Pavilion Master, Zhou Shuren.”

After all, the female lead had powerful martial arts, which fit the image of the Pavilion Master being a chivalrous heroine who saved one woman after another from suffering with her powerful martial arts.

Furthermore, even though Zhou Zhuying had not read the original novel, she could calculate on her fingers that three or four years ago was exactly the period when the female lead’s family had been annihilated.

The female lead traveling everywhere to investigate the Xiao family massacre, encountering injustice along the way and lending a hand, also fit her identity as the Saintess of Moshan.

As for why she used the name “Zhou Shuren,” weren’t martial arts dramas all like this? It was to avoid alerting the enemy, so she changed her appearance and identity and chose a name that would not make people connect it to her true identity!

“The heart-moon shines on Yunxi. Just hearing it feels full of deep affection. Last time, she refused to tell me who the person was who treated her wound when she was injured. I’m afraid it was this Yunxi!” Zhou Zhuying sourly put the qin back.

Aside from the male lead, plain-water zongzi, and Fu Feifei, now there was another Yunxi. The female lead’s romantic luck was really outrageously prosperous!

Zhou Zhuying coldly snorted in her heart.

She was basically certain now. This definitely was not the original novel, but a fanfiction—and a female-oriented harem novel where the great female lead took both men and women!

But what kind of novel she had transmigrated into was not important. What mattered was that she should not have been so self-sentimental in the first place, thinking the female lead would fall for the Demon Sect Leader who had a blood feud with her for the massacre of her entire family!

Thinking this, Zhou Zhuying completely lost the mood to ponder improving the spinning wheel.

“Sigh…”

When Xiao Xinyue walked into the study, she heard the Cult Leader sighing. Zhou Zhuying was also slumped in a round-backed chair in a dispirited posture, her head resting on the chair back and her eyes lacking all light.

“What happened?”

She had only not seen the Cult Leader for a short while. How had the Cult Leader become like this?

Xiao Xinyue quickly walked to her side. “Could it be that your wound hurts?”

The moment the Cult Leader saw her, her heart felt very sour.

She knew what this emotion was. Rather than saying she was unwilling to accept that there was someone else in the female lead’s heart, it was more the tug-of-war between emotion and reason that arose when she persuaded herself to recognize her own identity.

“I…” The Cult Leader’s words reached her mouth, then changed into, “I’m hungry.”

Xiao Xinyue looked at her and saw her slightly reddened eyes. Discovering that Zhou Zhuying was unwilling to tell the truth, Xiao Xinyue’s heart sank slightly. In the end, she said nothing.

“Then I will go urge the kitchen.”

Zhou Zhuying jumped up. “I’ll go too. I can learn the way while I’m at it. Last time, I was trying to find someone to ask how to get to the kitchen, and that’s how I met your junior sister.”

With this lively appearance, where was the dejection from just now? For a moment, Xiao Xinyue did not know whether to suspect that she was truly fine now, or that she had hidden the matter deep in her heart.

If it was the former, that was all right. But if it was the latter, it would probably be worrying.

The two went to the kitchen, and Zhou Zhuying memorized the route.

The next day, Xiao Xinyue’s “marriage leave” ended. In truth, it was because the sect masters saw that the Demon Sect matter had been resolved and set off to return. Of course, they also left disciples here so that Xiao Xinyue could arrange and handle follow-up matters. Xiao Xinyue represented Moshan Sect in sending them off.

Zhou Zhuying thought that Xiao Xinyue’s hand still had not healed after so many days, so it was probably because eating rich fish and meat together with her these past days had affected the wound. Also considering that it was inconvenient for Xiao Xinyue to use chopsticks, she planned to make Pingqiao tofu soup for Xiao Xinyue.

When one was sick or injured, one had to eat something light!

She found someone to help buy tender tofu and various ingredients. Just as she carried them into the courtyard where the kitchen was, she saw Fu Feifei boiling medicine at the doorway. The thick smell of medicinal herbs filled the kitchen courtyard.

“Hmph!” When Fu Feifei saw her, she gave a cold snort and turned her face away, ignoring her.

Zhou Zhuying also did not plan to pay attention to her and went straight into the kitchen.

When the cooks saw that she wanted to personally cook, they hurriedly stopped her and said, “Saintess’s Wife, whatever dish you want made, just give us an instruction. How can we let you personally do it?”

“I want to make Pingqiao tofu soup for the Saintess. If I don’t make it myself, it has no meaning at all, okay?”

The cooks looked at one another.

Fu Feifei leaned against the doorway. “Pingqiao tofu soup? What dish is that?”

One of the cooks said, “It is a Huaiyang dish.”

Fu Feifei gave a mocking laugh. “Making Huaiyang cuisine for Senior Sister Xinyue? What are you thinking?”

“What do you mean?” Zhou Zhuying turned back to look at her.

Fu Feifei said, “Huaiyang cuisine has such a bland taste. Only people from the Jianghuai region eat it. Senior Sister Xinyue doesn’t eat Huaiyang cuisine at all!”

Zhou Zhuying subconsciously retorted, “She’s from Jiangdu. How would she not eat it?”

“The Xiao family was indeed in Jiangdu, but she was accepted as a disciple by the Sect Master when she was young and practiced martial arts in Moshan. Naturally, her tastes followed ours here. How would she eat Huaiyang cuisine?”

Author’s Note:

Saintess: Because “the heart-moon shines on Yunxi,” I used the fake name “Yunxi.”

Cult Leader: The heart-moon shines on Yunxi—“Xinyue” wholeheartedly faces “Yunxi”?!

Saintess: …