[Host, why must you act so obnoxiously?] System couldn’t help but speak out. ‘Can’t she just quietly complete a mission for once?’
“Hey, life shouldn’t be too peaceful.”
[……] ‘…It’s because you can’t show off that way, right?’
System decided it would be better off not commenting but instead become more aloof, else it’d be angered to death by its Host one of these days.
……
Thud!
Jun Hanlin crashed into the crowd, landing right in front of Qin Langyue. With so many people around, he couldn’t afford to lift his head to look back at the roof, so he could only whimper incoherently about the pain.
“Seventh Brother, how come you-” The Third Prince pointed at the sky and couldn’t help but laugh, “How come you fell from the sky? Is this the fabled ‘perfect match bestowed by Heaven’? Hey, now that I think about it, Seventh Brother and Eldest Miss Qin are simply perfect for each other!”
The crowd let out an uproarious laugh upon hearing his words, followed by countless nasty gazes on the two. No one bothered to inquire why Jun Hanlin would fall from the sky in the first place.
“An idiot and a fool, the perfect match! Wouldn’t you say so, fellows?”
Qin Langyue gazed sharply at them as killing intent surfaced in her eyes. Suddenly, she felt something tug on the edge of her clothes as someone hugged her legs.
“Hurts… Wuwu, it hurts… please don’t hit me…” Jun Hanlin grabbed onto Qin Langyue for dear life.
“Looks like Seventh Brother agrees, hahaha! No problem! I’ll help you out; I’ll enter the palace to request that Father dissolve my engagement to Eldest Miss Qin!”
Third Prince had just been worrying over not having an appropriate excuse to break the engagement. Since the engagement was by edict of the late Emperor, he didn’t dare to just ask his Father to break it.
But what if… Qin Langyue and the Seventh Prince happened to be ‘together’?
Qin Langyue knew things were taking a turn for the worse the moment she heard Third Prince’s declaration. She was eager to break the betrothal, but on her own terms.
However, Third Prince left Qin Langyue no chance to raise objections as he left eagerly with his entourage.
After the background mob characters had finished jeering at her, they dispersed, leaving behind Jun Hanlin who was still clutching tightly to her legs.
Shi Sheng clicked her tongue. She couldn’t help but sigh at Plot-sama’s power. ‘Just one opportunity was all it took for the ML and FL to be bound on the same ship…’
Shi Sheng didn’t know what method Third Prince had employed, but he really did end his engagement to Qin Langyue and had even managed to transfer it to Jun Hanlin.
As someone who had tolerated insult and injury for so many years, he would naturally not begin showing signs of rebellion now. Once others told him Qin Langyue was his fiancée, he began sticking to her like glue.
Originally, Qin Langyue and Jun Hanlin would’ve met under more favorable circumstances, one which have allowed Qin Langyue to discover that Jun Hanlin was no fool at all.
‘Will she still fall for him whilst unaware that he’s perfectly normal?’
……
“Nooo! Go away! You beasts! You’ll die horribly–ah! Go away, let go of me! Let go…”
The sounds of a woman’s struggles in the otherwise silent woods reached Shi Sheng’s ears. She turned her head to peer through the canopy towards the source.
Under a tree not far from her, several youths held down a girl, laughing as they tore off her clothes.
The girl appeared familiar. Shi Sheng pondered for a while before recalling that this was the girl Qin Langyue had protected the other day.
She seemed to be called Qin Kui, a branch member of the Qin Clan. Qin Langyue brought her along because she’d always been nice to her.
‘Oh, seems like this is the part where Qin Kui was tormented and raped to death by a bunch of silk-pants1.’
Qin Langyue would end up teaching them a lesson later on, of course.
Shi Sheng adjusted her position, her hand propping up her chin as she observed the assault. In those calm, black eyes, there was neither pity nor gloating, merely a calm comparable to a dead pool.
The girl’s cries became weaker and weaker, until she finally took her last breath.
Though those lowlifes appeared to have discovered the girl had died, they actually proceeded to continue raping the corpse!
Once they finally satisfied themselves, they abandoned the body of the girl, covered in bruises and filth, and escaped the scene.
Shi Sheng leapt from the tree, just so happening to come face-to-face with Qin Langyue, who had come sprinting from another path. Qin Langyue turned her head, and when she caught sight of the girl on the ground, her expression warped.
“Qin Kui!”
A youth accompanied Qin Langyue. He had a very cold aura, like an unsheathed treasure sword.
It was Jiang Mu, one of Qin Langyue’s followers. After a brief glance, Shi Sheng shifted her gaze and made to leave, but the youth blocked her path.
“Shen Yaoguang!” Qin Langyue covered up the defiled body before charging over, seething with killing intent.“Who was it?!”
‘Fuck! Well, aren’t you bold, FL-sama?! You dared to call me by name!’
Shi Sheng retreated a step before speaking in a ridiculing tone, “How would I know who did it?”
Qin Langyue grilled Shi Sheng in a loud voice, “You were here, weren’t you? How would you be unaware of who committed these atrocities?! Or were you the one who got people to do this?!?”
“I was just passing by.” Shi Sheng suddenly grinned maliciously. “If I were the one who masterminded this, I’d have made sure there wouldn’t even be a corpse left for you to find!”
Qin Langyue’s pupils contracted. ‘What’s with this Shen Yaoguang who oozes wickedness…?’
Qin Langyue glanced at where Qin Kui was before turning to stare at Shi Sheng again. She suddenly asked, “You witnessed everything?”
“Yep.” ‘Wasn’t all that appealing to look at. Wish I could scrub my eyeballs.’
“Then why didn’t you save her?!” Qin Langyue lost control of her emotions. “Since you saw it, why didn’t you save her?! She was still so young! She had her whole future ahead of her! All you had to do was speak out, and you’d be able to save her! So why didn’t you?!”
‘Who doesn’t know what kind of status Shen Yaoguang has at the academy? Would anyone have dared to disobey if she’d only just spoken up?!
Yet she chose not to do anything…’
Qin Kui was the only one who had treated her wholeheartedly since she’d arrived in this world. Qin Langyue had already begun seeing her as a family member. Yet now, this family member had been humiliated to death, and before her stood a person who had done nothing to prevent it, even going to far as to act as if it was to be expected…
Shi Sheng’s lips curved into a beautiful arc. “Why would I save her? What reason would I have for doing so?”
Who was Qin Kui to her? A stranger! So why should she have saved her?
‘Saving people is done out of kindness, while not saving them is simply acting out of self-interest. What’s wrong with that?’
To Shi Sheng, morals weren’t even worth a fart. ‘And besides, even if you put aside the fact I(bbb) wasn’t even acquainted with her, I(bbb)still wouldn’t save her since she’s on the FL’s side.’
“Shen Yaoguang, how could you be so cruel?!” Qin Langyue’s hands balled into fists as she loathingly glared at Shi Sheng. ‘Qin Kui died all because she didn’t save her!’
“So?” ‘If you’re not cruel, there’ll always be someone else who’s crueler. Then you’re the one that dies.’
“As if the likes of you are worthy of being called a genius!” Qin Langyue laughed coldly. ‘I just knew that no one from the great clans was any good!’
Shi Sheng peered in seeming perplexity at Qin Langyue. After all, she was a killer who had witnessed countless filthy acts committed. Even if she was feeling a bit out of sorts after arriving in a foreign world, she should’ve already understood that this world only respected the strong.
‘What? It’s perfectly okay for you to go around killing people, but when other people do it, it’s immoral? On what grounds?! Don’t we all do it to further our own goals?’
“Regardless of whether or not I’m worthy, I am a genius!” Shi Sheng praised herself shamelessly, causing Qin Langyue to be at a loss for words.