I Snatched the Male Lead’s "Cool Novel" Script - Chapter 1

Yan Yu died. The last novel she read before she passed away was a trashy male-oriented harem story with a rushed ending.

The setting was a completely fictional continent in an alternate world where everyone was born with their own Animal Spirit. Those who passed the Animal Art Grading Examination were honored as Animal Art Masters. The ranks for Animal Art Masters were divided into four grades—Special, A, B, and C—and their status was higher than that of commoners.

Since women in this world lived nearly three times longer than men, it naturally resulted in a social structure where women were superior and men were subordinate. It was common for one woman to have multiple husbands.

The selling point of the original book lay right there: the male protagonist transmigrated into this world and built a massive harem. Despite being a piece of trash who couldn’t pass the Animal Art Grading Examination for ten years, he spent the story leveling up, slapping faces, and gaining wealth, power, and the hearts of the people.

As luck would have it, Yan Yu transmigrated into this very book.

Even more unluckily, while the male protagonist transmigrated with his own “Golden Finger” system, she transmigrated only to inherit the script of a sickly cannon fodder.

At this moment, to save the male protagonist, this cannon fodder supporting female character was standing before the gates of the female lead’s home. Lifting her thin little arms, which struggled even to hold a pen, she loudly announced to several tall, sturdy guards that she intended to assassinate the female lead and take her head.

If she had transmigrated just a few minutes earlier, Yan Yu might have been able to stop herself from seeking death like this. But now, those words were already out.

The guards, who had originally ignored her, walked over upon hearing this. Without a word, one picked her up by the collar with one hand and weighed her. The guard’s posture was more relaxed than if she were subduing a naughty toddler in a kindergarten.

Clatter— A dagger with a rusted blade was shaken out and fell to the ground.

The female guard sneered and kicked it away.

“If I said I was joking just now, would you believe me?” Yan Yu asked in a small voice.

The guard let out another chuckle. Without further nonsense, she tied Yan Yu’s hands together and pulled a circular object from her waist. She traced a symbol on it with her finger, and the stone gate opened in response. With a lift of her hand, she threw the bound Yan Yu inside.

The light behind the stone gate was too dim. Yan Yu struggled to widen her eyes but still couldn’t see a thing. She tentatively took a few steps forward when a hand suddenly grabbed her from behind. It tightened around her neck and forced her body down.

A scent of soap mixed with mint hit her nose. Yan Yu remembered the original book mentioning that in Yin Beiqing’s Langdie Valley, all maids were required to use a bath cream of this specific scent.

So, she was now a prisoner being transferred from the gatekeeper to a head maid. She didn’t know how this maid walked; there wasn’t a single sound.

With her hands tied behind her back, Yan Yu was pressed forward by the maid. The pain from her twisted arms and her struck abdomen made it impossible for her to straighten her back. A thick, metallic taste filled her throat; it felt as if she could spit out a mouthful of blood if she just loosened her jaw a bit.

“Don’t try any little tricks,” the maid warned her.

The female lead, Yin Beiqing, disliked having her face seen. Therefore, all the maids in Langdie Valley wore a white silk scarf over their eyes, whether they were sleeping, eating, or walking.

They collectively wore white dresses and walked barefoot without making the slightest sound, like ghosts haunting the night.

However, even the lowest-ranking maid in Langdie Valley was a powerhouse who had passed the Grade B Animal Art Master test. Placed in an army, any one of them could at least be a captain of a ten-person squad. Even if they looked unremarkable, their strength was absolutely not to be underestimated.

Thus, the original body’s attempt to rush in alone to save someone was somewhat ill-considered. She couldn’t even necessarily beat a Grade C Animal Art Master, yet she dared to come to the heavily guarded Langdie Valley to assassinate Yin Beiqing.

In the short time it took to walk a few steps, Yan Yu was hauled by the maid to a place with an open view.

Unlike the stone path outside, the floor here was covered with a thick layer of snow-white plush carpet. The room was filled with a pleasant-smelling incense. Further ahead, up the steps, a woman in red leaned lazily against a patterned animal-skin seat.

The woman wore a black iron mask that covered half her face, leaving only the tip of her shapely nose and her thin, crimson lips visible. Her eyes were half-closed as she boredly fanned herself with a bone fan.

A white python, as thick as a man’s arm, was coiled to her right. Its emerald-green vertical pupils were cold as it hissed and flicked its tongue, possessing an aura that struck fear into hearts just like its master.

Yan Yu only took a brief glance before looking away. Her heart began to race, and her hands subconsciously gripped her hem. It felt as if the air around this woman carried a bloody scent that made one’s legs go weak.

“Presumptuous!” The maid behind her pressed down on Yan Yu’s neck, forcing her head down. “Who gave you the courage to peer at the Valley Master!”

Though their eyes were covered, it didn’t mean they couldn’t “see” anything.

Mature Animal Art Masters were skilled at using Spirit Power to detect the shape, size, and even temperature of surrounding objects. Furthermore, the maids of Langdie Valley had been trained from an early age; their application was far more proficient than ordinary people, and not even a rustle of grass could escape them.

With this shove, Yan Yu could no longer hold back the blood in her mouth. After a few suppressed coughs, spots of blood splattered onto the snow-white carpet, looking particularly eyesore.

Almost the instant she coughed out the blood, Yan Yu panicked.

Yin Beiqing had an eccentric personality and many strange habits. One of the most important was that she couldn’t tolerate even a speck of filth. This was why all the maids in Langdie Valley wore white dresses and had to bathe for half an hour before serving her closely. She was the same; every time she returned from killing someone, she would soak in a bath for an entire day to clean herself.

Yan Yu was a doctor herself and was normally very attentive to hygiene. While she wasn’t as extreme as Yin Beiqing, she could understand the sentiment.

To think how much a person like that would lose their mind seeing someone spit blood on their carpet—one could figure it out with their toes.

Shing—

Seeing this, the dozen or so maids present simultaneously unsheathed their swords, surrounding Yan Yu and pointing them at her.

Catching the reflection of the longswords out of the corner of her eye, Yan Yu’s breath hitched.

Right now, she was an ant that Yin Beiqing could crush on a whim. Moreover, based on the other woman’s personality of “slaying gods and buddhas alike,” even if the original body was the descendant of a general’s house related to the Empress, Yin Beiqing would undoubtedly take her head with clean efficiency.

After all, this was a woman known as the “Living Yama.”

Thinking of this, Yan Yu couldn’t help but secretly complain about the original body’s “love-brain.” To sacrifice her life and wade into these muddy waters for a scumbag like the male protagonist…

Yan Yu rarely lost her temper, but mentioning this book made her fume.

Giving the male lead a Golden Finger, letting him grind maps, and collecting a harem—this was the trope of nearly ninety percent of similar novels. But what Yan Yu loathed most about the original book was its objectification of female characters and its crude, blatant fantasies.

The male lead treated the supporting females and even the female lead as stepping stones on his path to level up, discarding them once they were used. Several supporting females gave him their full sincerity, yet without exception, they were all betrayed by him—ending up dead or crippled. Even when the male lead reached his “Happy Ending” with the most “cost-effective” female lead in his arms, they still had to “sensibly” offer their blessings.

Undoubtedly, the male lead and the author were satisfied, but as a reader, she was nearly sickened to the point of vomiting.

The childhood friend’s entire family was executed because of him, and she was killed by the female lead to be fed to wolves just to save him. The Princess of the Golden Kingdom stole a national treasure to give to him as a gift, only to be demoted to a commoner and die in a foreign land. The general of an enemy country blocked a Spiritual Technique for him, becoming half-crippled, yet she was still willing to wash her hands and cook soup for him.

Even the decisive and overpowered female lead had her Animal Spirit Pearl stolen, her Heart Method snatched, and her Master taken by the male lead—only to be taken advantage of by him using an aphrodisiac and forced to be with him.

The character Yan Yu had transmigrated into was that very childhood friend whose family was executed. According to the timeline, her family members were already souls under the blade. She estimated that she wasn’t far from the “killed by the female lead and fed to wolves” part either.

Since the swords hadn’t pierced her yet, it meant the maids were still waiting for Yin Beiqing’s command.

The reclining Yin Beiqing didn’t fly into a rage as Yan Yu had expected. She opened her eyes, her beautiful gaze lazily sweeping over Yan Yu’s pretty, pale face. Her heart remained completely unmoved.

Fear, trembling, despair—she had seen far too much of it. Not only did she find it boring, she had long grown weary of it.

“Kill her. Feed her to the wolves.” Her tone was nonchalant, as if she were ordering a most ordinary chore, yet it made the hair on Yan Yu’s body stand on end.

A drop of cold sweat fell from her forehead, once again polluting the cream-colored carpet. The hands behind her back could no longer stop shaking.

Yan Yu knew she was afraid, but she still gritted her teeth against the pain and straightened her spine, meeting Yin Beiqing’s gaze with a firm stare.

“If you kill me, you will definitely regret it.”

After saying this, it felt as if the surrounding air had thinned significantly. Even the wind that had been blowing the maids’ skirts just now ceased.

No one moved, and no one spoke. Only Yin Beiqing’s sharp eyes, which seemed ready to pierce through Yan Yu, told her that the woman had indeed heard those words and taken them to heart.

Yin Beiqing finally deigned to sit up. Her long hair brushed over her shoulders and fell behind her, its smooth luster like a cascading waterfall.

She raised her right hand to support her temple. While making these movements, her gaze remained locked onto the weak figure below, who looked like she might blow away with a gust of wind, as if she wanted to tear her apart on the spot.

She had thought this sickly woman would cry or beg for mercy, but she hadn’t expected her to have the guts to say such a thing.

“Are you threatening me?” Her voice was deep, but it was clearly a beautiful female voice.

Question: In front of Yin Beiqing, what can make you die faster than provoking her?

Answer: Threatening her.

Yan Yu naturally knew this, so she had only one sentence’s worth of time to save herself.

“In the Radiance Era, a Goddess shall descend. She knows the heavens above and the earth below; she foretells a thousand years of fortune and woe, and solves ten thousand years of mysteries. With her divine hands, she heals all illnesses; she rekindles dying embers and brings back those who have passed.”

This passage came from a prophecy in an ancient book. The above was the original text; the version most widely circulated among the common people was the translated vernacular version.

In the year 6000 of the Radiance Era—which was this year—a Goddess would appear. She would be omniscient and omnipotent, able to predict the future of a thousand years and solve riddles from ten thousand years ago. Most importantly, “she” possessed a pair of divine hands that could cure all diseases and even turn the dead back into the living.

Yin Beiqing suffered from a malignant ailment and had long been searching for this woman without success. So, hearing Yan Yu suddenly recite the uncirculated original text of the ancient book, she truly hesitated. Sensing her mood, the maids lowered their swords as well.

Yan Yu secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

She felt like she was walking a tightrope. One wrong word or one wrong look, and she would lose her life in a heartbeat.

In the original book, this so-called Goddess was never found. Her title was merely used by the male lead in the early stages to trick the female lead out of her Animal Spirit Pearl. Afterward, it seemed the author forgot such a person existed and never mentioned her again.

Thus, Yan Yu felt that even if she impersonated this never-before-seen “Goddess,” she wouldn’t be exposed.

It was true the male lead had his Golden Finger system, but she wasn’t empty-handed either.

Thanks to the genetics of her high-IQ parents, Yan Yu had possessed a photographic memory since childhood. No matter how miscellaneous or thick a book was, she could remember it after reading it just once.

In other words, the plot of the original book was now firmly etched in her mind. She knew every move the male lead would make; she could even recite the names and measurements of the minor characters without missing a word.

—She could always be one step ahead of the male lead.

Since Yin Beiqing wanted to find a Goddess who could prophesy and tell fortunes, why shouldn’t she volunteer?