I Snatched the Male Lead’s "Cool Novel" Script - Chapter 27

“…” Yan Yu pointed at the bed. “Why don’t you sleep first? You need to properly recover from your injury.”

Yin Beiqing remained unmoved, still standing where she was and staring at her, looking as if no one was allowed to sleep until she got an answer.

Yan Yu realized she could not brush this off at all this time, so she could only sigh and say, “She’s a child, and she was crying. I was only comforting her.”

Was that reason sufficient enough?!

Who knew this person would wrinkle her nose and let out an unclear, soft huff before turning around and lying down on the bed, her back facing Yan Yu.

Yan Yu could not figure out her attitude, but after thinking about it, keeping farther away so Yin Beiqing did not have to see her should definitely be right.

She had just tiptoed and was planning to walk out the door when a voice sounded behind her again.

“Get on.”

“This bed is too small.”

“Get on.”

“My clothes smell too.”

“Get on.”

“…”

Unable to argue with her, Yan Yu could only take off her shoes and carefully find a spot at the edge of the bed, lying down on her side in a position that took up as little space as possible.

The two lay back to back, close enough that each other’s breathing could be heard very clearly.

Yan Yu grabbed a corner of the pillow and clenched it in her hand. She estimated that if she kept this stiff posture with her eyes open until morning, her waist and arms would both be ruined when she got up.

She had not been lying down for long when she heard the person behind her say, “You sleep inside.”

“I’ll sleep outside.”

“If you sleep outside, you block the wind. It’s too hot.”

Hot?

The temperature here was at least below zero, and this still counted as hot?

“Is it backlash from Jiwu’s butterfly poison?” Yin Beiqing’s body temperature was higher than ordinary people’s because she had always carried butterfly poison in her body. If the amount was small, it was fine. Guilian’s soul power could restrain it.

But today, she had made an exception and combined beast form with Jiwu. Perhaps because of this, the butterfly poison in her body had reached an excessive level.

The more Yan Yu thought about it, the more uneasy she became. She turned over and sat up. “I’ll go find Zhongpu.”

“It isn’t that. It’s just ordinary heat.” Yin Beiqing grabbed her from behind. “Just lie down quietly.”

“Are you sure?”

“Do I look like the kind of person who selflessly sacrifices herself and silently suffers grievances?” Yin Beiqing asked coolly.

True.

Yan Yu instantly felt relieved.

“Then I’ll sleep inside,” she said.

“Mm.” Yin Beiqing did not move while lying there. She merely propped her head up with her arm and looked up at Yan Yu.

Yan Yu lifted her leg, trying to find a position that would not touch her, but there was nowhere to step at all.

“Move aside.”

The person on the bed remained unmoved. Only her eyelids shifted, signaling Yan Yu to hurry up and get in.

With no other choice, Yan Yu could only inhale and hold her breath, carefully lift one foot, and lightly step onto the inner side of the bed. When she shifted her center of gravity and was about to bring her other leg up as well, Yin Beiqing suddenly started coughing. The wooden bed creaked and shook, and Yan Yu’s leg slipped. She sat down directly.

Her legs straddled Yin Beiqing’s waist, and her hands were very awkwardly gripping the bed rail. In that instant, her brain spun rapidly, coming up with at least a hundred excuses to explain why her leg had slipped.

But she felt that not one of them could be used. Every single one had about the same credibility as a celebrity saying they accidentally liked something because their hand slipped.

“Hiss—” Yin Beiqing drew in a breath. Her arm still maintained its original carefree posture of pillowing her head, but her tone sounded as if she had suffered some great grievance. “It hurts.”

Yan Yu felt as though something were stuck in her throat, inexplicably feeling wronged, as if she had been scammed.

“Sorry. I’ll be more careful.”

She braced her arms against the bed board, about to straighten up, but Yin Beiqing suddenly laughed. “I’ll do it instead.”

“Mm?”

Yan Yu was still thinking about what kind of “do it” this meant when a pair of hands landed on her waist. Like the way she lifted her little niece up high, Yin Beiqing directly picked her up into the air and placed her to the side.

“Sleep.” Yin Beiqing signaled with her eyes to Yan Yu, who was still dazed.

“Ah… okay.”

Because Yin Beiqing’s body temperature was high and she feared heat, she pushed all the blankets over to Yan Yu.

Yan Yu was “buried” under the thick blankets. Although she felt they were a little heavy, for someone who feared the cold, her old life was more important.

The Red Stone from before had been pierced and hung around her neck. Now it lay against her heart, warm and faintly heating.

Very soon, even her stiff fingers regained warmth. But even so, Yan Yu still did not feel sleepy at all.

In fact, she was very tired. It was just that ever since she had been weaned, she had never shared a bed with someone else. The feeling of suddenly having someone lying beside her made her very unused to it.

The oil lamp on the table was blown out, and the room darkened. Aside from the whining sound of the north wind outside the window, only the breathing that seemed to be right beside her ear remained.

She stiffened her body and listened as that breathing gradually became rhythmic and long. When she felt it was about time, she softly opened her mouth in a breathy voice. “Yin Beiqing?”

No one answered.

Then she should be asleep.

Yan Yu’s whole body relaxed because of this realization. Before long, her tired eyelids fell shut, and she turned her head and fell asleep.

Perhaps because she had consumed too much during the day, she slept deeply. So she did not notice that not long after she fell asleep, the person behind her suddenly opened her eyes.

Those silver eyes stared at her back for a while. Then Yin Beiqing suddenly reached out, adjusted Yan Yu’s shoulders, grabbed one of her arms, and placed it around her own waist, awkwardly arranging them into something like an embrace.

It was already not—

…

Yaochi Mountain and the You tribe settlement were connected by a suspension bridge. The mountain had abundant medicinal herbs and water resources, and the tribe members often went up the mountain to gather herbs and draw water.

Before this suspension bridge was built, they had to carry heavy wooden baskets on their backs, descend to the bottom of the cliff hundreds of chi deep, and then climb barehanded up to the opposite shore. One trip took most of the day. Back then, the tribe members mostly followed the habit of taking fewer trips but carrying more each time. Once they went, they would be gone for a week. Most families relied on selling these medicinal herbs to make a living.

After the suspension bridge was built, travel became easier, medicinal herb collection increased, and the tribe members’ quality of life improved. But some time ago, a strange phenomenon of golden rings around the sun and moon suddenly appeared. A few days later, the bridge broke without warning.

The tribe members once again returned to the days of getting up early to gather herbs. Every day, countless ropes were lowered from this side of the broken cliff, wearing the cliff wall full of pits and grooves.

Generally speaking, no one would climb down the cliff at night. It was too dangerous. But right now, someone was hanging on this steep cliff, breathing heavily. It looked like he had already been climbing for a long time.

His face was covered with a mask, and a rope was tied around his waist, the other end fixed to a large tree beside the broken bridge. The dagger in his right hand, used for support, had already developed rough edges and looked not far from being scrapped.

“Damn stinking women!” Guo Lu cursed viciously as he climbed. “If I had successfully gotten the Beast Soul Pearl, how would I have ended up like this?”

This person was precisely Guo Lu. That day, in order to escape from Langdie Valley, his system points had almost been emptied. He had originally thought that was miserable enough, but the system suddenly told him that mission failure would deduct another one hundred points. His already meager points instantly turned negative.

Not only that, the system soon issued the next task, telling him to go to Yaochi Mountain, make Lin Hegui accept him as a disciple, and obtain more soul power as soon as possible to exchange for points.

Without points, he could not exchange for skill cards from the system shop. Even food and lodging became a problem, so he could only go to underground folk guilds and take on some odd jobs.

These tasks were also divided by rank. Missions like killing evil spirits had high rewards, but the danger level was also high. In the end, he only accepted rough work like feeding Beast Souls for wealthy households and cleaning up their droppings. After finally scraping together enough travel money, he traveled through wind and dew all the way to Yaochi Mountain and was nearly shot to death by a rain of arrows at the entrance of the You tribe settlement.

Later, he used the invisibility cloak and successfully sneaked into the depths. He had thought the dawn was right ahead, but what awaited him was a broken suspension bridge.

With no other choice, he could only take advantage of the empty night and quickly climb to the opposite shore.

He hung in midair and rested for a while. After recovering some strength, he continued climbing downward. After only a few moves, he suddenly felt something cut his right hand. It burned painfully.

He grimaced and turned to look. It was a strangely shaped plant. Three or four serrated, octagonal leaves overlapped, arching into a shape similar to a turtle shell.

Based on his experience reading novels, these strangely shaped plants growing on cliffs and precipices were mostly very useful.

Thinking this, Guo Lu immediately picked it, hid it in his lapel, and grinned happily.

He really was someone with a protagonist halo. People said that surviving great disaster would bring future fortune. This was heaven about to place a great responsibility on him, first tempering his mind and exhausting his bones and muscles. He was the chosen one!

The night was deep, yet someone had already started daydreaming about dominating the Jin Kingdom.

“Just wait. Once I successfully become a disciple and turn into a Special-rank Beast Arts Master, watch me repay the humiliation from before tenfold!”

…

“Xueji, did you hear something?” Zhongpu, who had come out at night to scout the road, raised her head and asked.

“Did I?” Xueji’s legs were straddling Zhongpu’s neck as Zhongpu carried her on her back. She tugged Zhongpu’s ear without much interest. “Don’t bother with whatever sound it is. Let’s hurry and finish Boss’s order and go back. There’s no one here. So boring, so boring!”

“Don’t, don’t.” Zhongpu raised her arm to steady Xueji’s swaying body. “Don’t fall. Sit properly.”

“Hmph.” Xueji swung her legs.

Her two thin little legs hanging around the neck of the tall, sturdy Zhongpu looked so comical that it was like the latter was wearing a little scarf. Her mischievous feet swung a few times before Zhongpu pinched them in one hand.

“The bridge is broken.” Zhongpu narrowed her eyes and looked over. “I’ll try to see if I can fly across. Sit steady.”

“Ao.” Xueji obediently lay down and hugged her head. Her right hand stretched straight forward in a “charge” gesture. “Little Pu, Little Pu, fly, fly, fly!”

Zhongpu seemed long used to her loud, sharp voice and resigned herself to becoming transportation, rising into the air.

Actually, the so-called “flying” was using wind-element spiritual arts to lift the body, then changing wind speed to accelerate and shift direction.

But just as Zhongpu flew to the edge of the broken bridge, her spiritual arts suddenly failed. Her body lost weight and fell downward. Fortunately, her movements were agile enough. She quickly grabbed the cliff wall and pushed herself up with her arm.

“Hahahaha! Fun, fun! This is fun! Wuhu~” Xueji felt no lingering fear at all. On Zhongpu’s back, she happily waved her arms and legs. “Again, again!”

“Mm-hm, I’ll take you to play again later.” Zhongpu coaxed her while crouching down with a serious expression, slowly reaching one hand forward.

“What’s wrong?” Xueji seemed to notice something was off as well and leaned by her ear to ask.

Stretching out her hand like this did not seem to give any feeling, but what happened just now had absolutely not been an accident.

Zhongpu frowned. The hand she had reached out formed a basic hand seal.

No reaction?

She mobilized her soul power and sent it toward her arm, but the result was still the same.

No matter how much soul power she used, as long as it crossed the boundary of this broken bridge, it vanished without a trace, like a stone thrown into the ocean.

“Xueji, take a look. Is there some kind of barrier here?” Zhongpu patted her hand, signaling for her to get down.

Xueji was skilled in soul-bewitching and barrier arts, and her techniques were exquisite. If it was her, she would definitely be able to see something.

“I’ll look.” Xueji put her legs together and landed lightly on the ground.

With both hands behind her back, she lifted her nose and sniffed the surrounding scents, carefully smelling above and below, but found nothing.

“No.” Xueji shook her head at Zhongpu, then pointed at the tree standing beside the broken bridge, looking especially abrupt among the bare rocks. “I’ll go look at that. Maybe there’s something wrong with it.”

The two walked over together. Xueji sniffed the tree from top to bottom again, but still found nothing. Instead, she became interested in the stele standing in front of the tree.

She bent her knees and crouched down, pointing at the words on it one by one as she read along. “Sacred Spirit Monument? The people here are really strange. Like our Boss, they like to enshrine dead things as keepsakes.”

“Dead things?” Zhongpu asked. “Why didn’t I sense anything?”

“Ao, they’re not people.” Xueji propped her chin with both hands, her white lashes lowering. She looked not very happy. “They were all very sad when they died. If only I had been here. I definitely would have very considerately helped them leave easily and happily.”

Xueji had a natural, deep connection with animals. She could communicate with animals that had not developed spiritual awareness. Ordinary Beast Arts Masters could generally sense departed souls, but only humans who had possessed soul pearls while alive. Xueji, however, could sense animals and Beast Souls as well. If the bond was deep enough, she could even make them take form and speak.

Zhongpu’s expression did not look good, because she remembered Teng Jingjie mentioning that the You tribespeople here all worshiped a “Sacred Spirit Monument” below Yaochi Mountain. Of course, Teng Jingjie had also relayed Li Zhao’s little story, which carried a strong color of personal suspicion.

But after hearing Xueji’s words, Zhongpu suddenly felt that Li Zhao’s words might not be completely impossible.

“Have the two young ladies also come to worship the spirit monument?” A voice suddenly appeared behind them.

Both their gazes changed. With a swish, they turned around and drew their weapons, entering combat readiness.

To be able to approach two A-rank Beast Arts Masters without either of them sensing it meant either this woman was extremely good at concealing her aura, or… her strength was above both of theirs.

“Sorry, did I frighten you?” The mysterious woman smiled faintly. Long hair, white dress, pale-red lips—she appeared completely harmless.

But Zhongpu and Xueji became even more tense.

The person before them looked almost exactly like Yan Yu.

Aside from the difference in demeanor and the pair of striking red eyes she had, her facial features were as if carved from the same mold.

“Please don’t be afraid.” The woman took the initiative to extend her hand toward them. “I am a wandering doctor temporarily staying in the tribe. My name is Shen Nanxing. You two young ladies look unfamiliar. Are you new guests at someone’s home?”

Xueji glared without answering, and she did not put down the weapon in her hand either.

Seeing that she was more guarded, Shen Nanxing turned to Zhongpu and smiled. “Perhaps you have heard the tribe members mention me. I am the goddess they speak of.”

Zhongpu nodded.

“You two young ladies are very quiet.” Even though she was treated coldly, she still smiled, looking as if she had no temper at all. “It was thoughtless of me. I shouldn’t have disturbed you.”

“It’s fine. We were just about to leave.” Zhongpu took Xueji’s hand.

Xueji looked at her, then looked at Shen Nanxing, curled her lips, and put away her knife.

“All right. I’ll see the two of you off.” Shen Nanxing moved aside and said with a smile, “Evil spirits appear at night. Be careful when you travel in the future.”

Zhongpu ignored her and quickened her steps, preparing to leave. Just as they were passing that tree, Xueji was suddenly tripped by something and fell hard to her knees on the ground.

She lowered her head and saw that for some unknown reason, a rope had been tied around the tree root. She had tripped on this thing just now. Xueji angrily puffed out her cheeks and raised her hand to cut it.

“Annoying.”

The end of the rope seemed to have a heavy object hanging from it. As soon as it was cut, it was pulled with great force and fell toward the cliff below. A brief cry was ignored by her.

“Was the fall bad? Let me look.” Shen Nanxing seemed very nervous. She ran over, crouched down, and lifted Xueji’s trousers.

Her fair knee had already been scraped open, with sand mixed into the flesh. It looked painful, but Xueji’s face remained wooden without the slightest reaction.

“Little friend, let me treat the wound for you.” She smiled, her eyes gentle enough that one could hardly refuse.

Xueji glared at her with an extremely unfriendly gaze: You’re the little friend! If Little Pu weren’t stopping me, you’d already be dead!

“No need.” Zhongpu reached out an arm and scooped up the feather-light Xueji with one hand, carrying her over her shoulder. “Thank you for your kindness.”

Xueji lay on Zhongpu’s back as she was quickly carried away. She lifted her head and looked in Shen Nanxing’s direction.

That woman was truly like a wooden stake, standing unmoving in place as she watched the two of them leave.

Perhaps sensing her gaze, Shen Nanxing suddenly curved her eyes and smiled at her.

Xueji tilted her head and, for some inexplicable reason, pulled at the corner of her mouth, also revealing a smile.

This smile was different from her usual ones. It was very stiff, like it had been pulled open from her cheeks by an external force.

Then, she suddenly spoke.

“Little Pu, she isn’t human.”