The male lead

Dongfang Minghui squeezed her eyes shut in fright, unable to bear the thought of her face being disfigured. She was so tense that she failed to notice the heroine's hand hovering protectively at her waist.

"Miss, aren't you being a little too vicious?" A sexy, resonant voice suddenly sounded beside her ear. Dongfang Minghui cautiously opened one eye, then the other, and discovered a tall man in blue standing before her.

"What business is it of yours?" The girl lashed out again at the slightest disagreement.

The man in blue showed no restraint either. They traded blows in the cramped space, and wherever the whip swept, the shop's wares suffered along with it.

Dongfang Minghui and Dongfang Wanyu quietly withdrew from the shop. Dongfang Minghui still wanted a clear look at the man in blue's face, but Dongfang Wanyu caught her arm. "Don't go gawking. I think we can leave now."

Dongfang Minghui was a little dumbfounded. Leaving without so much as a word hardly seemed right. After all, the man in blue had stepped in to help them.

Wait. A man in blue, holding a Flirtatious Fan, handsome and dashing, standing as gracefully as a jade tree in the wind... wasn't that a perfect description of Li Yunan, one of the male leads?

Thinking it through, she inwardly groaned. Oh, this is bad. Li Yunan was supposed to play the hero rescuing the beauty here today, meet the heroine, then encounter her again during their travels, with hardship revealing their true feelings. Instead, I've ruined their chance. How did rescuing the beauty turn into rescuing me?

"What, have you fallen for that gentleman in blue?" Dongfang Wanyu asked coldly, folding her arms across her chest.

She remembered that she had died so miserably precisely because she kept courting death by stealing the heroine's men. Now that she had a second chance, she naturally wanted nothing to do with any of them. Running into even one was practically a summons from death.

Dongfang Minghui hurriedly shook her head in denial and caught Dongfang Wanyu's hand. "Seventh Sister, let's hurry and go."

Only after they returned to the Dongfang residence did Dongfang Minghui pat her chest, still looking shaken, and murmur, "Finally dodged that."

"Dodged what?"

Dongfang Wanyu stood behind her and suddenly asked.

Dongfang Minghui nearly jumped out of her skin. How does the heroine appear and disappear like a ghost? "Nothing, Seventh Sister. Why did you come back?"

Dongfang Wanyu tossed a small porcelain bottle into her hands. "These are Marrow-Cleansing Pills. This settles what happened today."

She opened the little bottle and found three pills inside. Their fresh, sweet medicinal fragrance wafted toward her, and their quality seemed quite good. The heroine had done this because she did not want to owe her a favor.

Drawing such a clear boundary was hardly a good sign.

Dongfang Minghui knew very little about pills and had no idea how precious Marrow-Cleansing Pills were to other people. She casually tossed the small porcelain bottle into her room.

That night, Dongfang Minghui slept soundly, smacking her lips as though dreaming of delicious food, a satisfied smile spreading across her face.

"Catch the assassin! Catch the assassin!"

"Someone, come quickly! Catch the assassin!"

"..."

In the dead of night, when all had been silent, those shouts jolted most people awake.

Cui'er slept in the outer room. Hearing the noise, she immediately pushed open the door and called Dongfang Minghui awake. "Miss, Miss, wake up! Something terrible has happened!"

Dongfang Minghui rolled up out of bed, her eyes still bleary with sleep. "What happened?"

Cui'er pointed outside. "Listen, Miss. It sounds as though an assassin has entered the residence."

An assassin?

Dongfang Minghui instantly woke fully. She cautiously leaned toward the crack in the door and peeked out. Lights blazed outside, and figures darted back and forth. Something serious really did seem to have happened.

"Miss, don't go out. It's dangerous outside."

"I'm going to take a look." Dongfang Minghui dressed and slipped out.

Naturally, Cui'er followed her. "Miss, they haven't caught the assassin yet. Where are you going? Shouldn't we have the guards escort us?"

Dongfang Minghui shook her head. An assassin appearing in the residence was most likely another person coming for the heroine. Wouldn't openly bringing guards to search for her be courting death?

"One more word out of you, and you can go back first."

Cui'er immediately clamped her mouth shut. Following along, she soon realized they had reached a remote little courtyard within the residence. It had been left to decay for years, overgrown with weeds until there was nowhere even to set foot, yet no one had ever thought to repair it.

The rotten branches beneath Dongfang Minghui's feet cracked noisily, sounding particularly frightening in the middle of the night. She instructed, "Cui'er, keep watch outside."

"Yes, Miss."

They actually made the heroine live in such a shabby place. No wonder she showed the Dongfang family no mercy in the end, old ties be damned.

Dongfang Minghui wondered whether she ought to ask the heroine to move out tomorrow. Otherwise, this was far too unfair to her.

"Seventh Sister, are you there?"

It was pitch-black, and she had no idea which dilapidated room the heroine lived in, so she simply stood in the courtyard and called at the top of her voice.

Inside a room, Dongfang Wanyu and the black-clad intruder were locked in a standoff. Dongfang Wanyu held a blade against the intruder's neck, while the intruder's hand gripped her vital point tightly. Neither had the upper hand, and neither would yield. If Dongfang Minghui had not called from outside, they would probably have continued.

"Do you want to live or die?" Dongfang Wanyu sneered. "If I shout, the people outside will hear me. Once that happens, escaping won't be so easy."

"You're a member of the Dongfang family. Would you let me go so easily?" The black-clad woman sounded doubtful, but her distinctly feminine voice reached Dongfang Wanyu's ears clearly.

"You have no choice, whether you believe me or not. I'll count to three. If you don't let go, I'll shout. Then even wings won't help you escape."

Having said that, Dongfang Wanyu really began counting. "One, two-"

"Seventh Sister, are you asleep?" After receiving no answer for so long, Dongfang Minghui simply began searching room by room.

The black-clad woman weighed the situation, then released Dongfang Wanyu first.

"What are you making such a racket for? Even if I were asleep, you'd have woken me." Dongfang Wanyu straightened herself up, opened the door, and spoke with obvious displeasure.

"Seventh Sister, nothing happened here, did it? An assassin came into the residence tonight, and Father's conducting a full search." Dongfang Minghui's large eyes roved over Dongfang Wanyu.

Although the courtyard was dark, the moonlight still allowed her to make out the heroine's clothing. It was exactly what she had worn when they went out earlier that day.

Dongfang Wanyu gave her a complicated look. "Enough. Other than rats, I doubt anyone would come to this wretched place of mine. You've had your look. You can stop worrying now."

"Seventh Sister, it's too dangerous for you to live alone. Why don't you rest in my courtyard tonight? Tomorrow, I'll have people come tidy this place up," Dongfang Minghui kindly suggested.

"I want to rest. You should leave." Dongfang Wanyu did not appreciate her kindness in the slightest and directly ordered her out.

"Then how about this? I'll sleep here with you tonight, Seventh Sister. If anything happens, we can look out for each other." Pretending not to understand, Dongfang Minghui offered another suggestion.

Dongfang Wanyu narrowed her eyes and sized her up. "This little temple of mine cannot accommodate a grand figure like you, Ninth Miss. If any rumors spread tomorrow, how could I bear the blame? Leave now, or-I won't be polite."

The moment the heroine turned fierce, Dongfang Minghui's calves began trembling uncontrollably.

She left with her head hanging. Her plan to interfere had failed.

The assassin was a close friend of the heroine's mother. She had come to find the heroine and, along the way, tell her the truth about her origins.

The heroine was not a member of the Dongfang family. She had merely been fostered here and raised by her aunt, Qian Beiying, the Dongfang family's Fourth Madam. Since Fourth Madam had no children of her own, she had publicly presented herself as Seventh Miss's mother.

Once the heroine learned she was not a member of the Dongfang family, she would soon find a way to leave. When she returned again, it would probably be to deal with the Dongfang family-and first in the line of fire would be Dongfang Minghui, the cannon fodder who had offended her.

Dongfang Minghui returned to her room and asked Cui'er to bring a pot of tea, then quietly pondered the road ahead.

Staying comfortably at home would be quite pleasant, with a maid to serve her and a mother to dote on her. But once the heroine turned back to settle accounts with her, she would certainly be headed for a dead end.

If she wanted to live, however, she would have to follow the heroine out to train and gain experience, winning her favor whenever possible so that the heroine would rise above petty grievances and forget the foolish things she had done before.

But a support-type spiritual practitioner like her had no fighting ability and was little different from a useless person. Going out to train would probably mean nine chances of death and only one of survival.

"This is hard."

Dongfang Minghui could not help sighing. Why is the road to survival so difficult?

Would following the heroine give me a better chance of staying alive?

Once she made up her mind, Dongfang Minghui was a woman of action. She immediately began preparing everything she would need for her journey. Money was essential, of course. She gathered a large heap of bottles and jars and packed some of her jewelry as well, in case of an emergency.

All that remained was to wait for the heroine to leave the Dongfang residence, then follow her.

Dongfang Minghui watched and waited for several days before the heroine finally went to see Fourth Madam Qian Beiying and Father Dongfang.

She secretly followed and hid by the door, brazenly eavesdropping.

"Yu'er, you're still young. You're not ready to go out and train. Don't take someone else's words as truth. Besides, you-you know perfectly well how mediocre your aptitude is." Fourth Madam was rather annoyed. Nothing she said seemed to get through to her. The infant in swaddling clothes from all those years ago had grown into a graceful young woman, and that face, almost identical to that person's, was particularly offensive to her eyes.

Qian Beiying took a deep breath before concealing the viciousness in her eyes and putting on the expression of a loving mother once more.

Father Dongfang glanced at his wife, however, and disagreed. "Beiying, Yu'er isn't that young anymore. If she wants to, what harm is there in letting her try? If she fails, it won't be too late to come back."

Normally, Qian Beiying paid little attention to Dongfang Wanyu. Now that the heroine wanted to go to the Royal Academy and gain experience along the way, even Father Dongfang had agreed, yet she kept obstructing her. It seemed there was something fishy here.

"Father, Fourth Mother." Dongfang Minghui suddenly walked in from outside, bowed to them both, and said, "Since Seventh Sister wants to try her luck at the Royal Academy, why not agree, Fourth Mother? If you're truly worried about her safety, wouldn't having Father send a couple more experts to escort her solve it?"

Father Dongfang burst into hearty laughter at the sight of Dongfang Minghui. Hearing her suggestion, he said, "My little Jiu'er really is clever, coming up with a solution so quickly."

"That settles it, Beiying. We'll do as Jiu'er said. Yu'er's matter is decided."

Father Dongfang settled the matter with that final word. As Dongfang Wanyu left the hall, she gave Dongfang Minghui an indifferent glance.