"You're nothing but a bastard born to a brothel woman. What gives you the right to stand as my equal?!"
"All you ever do is show off in front of the grand tutor and charm him into doing whatever you want. Every trick you have is just like your vixen of a mother's!"
In the imperial academy within the palace, where the princes studied, an overbearing youth was berating another, silent youth with biting words.
A crowd had gathered around them, but not one person stepped forward to speak for the silent youth.
Outside the courtyard, Zhou Ye stood beside Emperor Chaoyang of Great Wei, clad in military attire. Looking into the courtyard, he asked the system in his consciousness, [Sweetie, are you sure the villain you mentioned is the quiet one, not the arrogant bully?]
Although the little system had heard the man call him Sweetie many times, he still couldn't help feeling shy. In a soft voice, he said, [That's right, host. The quiet one is the villain. It was because he was bullied so much in his youth that he became a tyrant later on.]
[Your task is to treat him well, become his white moonlight, and then die in battle according to the plot.]
[Once you've completed the task, you can have a healthy body that doesn't need to follow a plot and live freely in this world!]
Zhou Ye was a transmigrator who had entered a book.
In the real world, he had contracted a terminal illness and died young.
He had thought his life was over, but he unexpectedly bound himself to a system, which brought him into a novel called The Yandere Power Minister Loves Me as His Life.
The novel told the story of a male lead who rose from a minor official to a powerful minister to avenge his family. Along the way, he met the female lead, and together they fought the main villain, Wei Mingxiu, the tyrant of the State of Wei.
Of course, none of that plot had a damn thing to do with Zhou Ye.
At the point in time when he transmigrated, the male lead had only just been born. The character he transmigrated into shared his full name: Zhou Ye, the villain Wei Mingxiu's white moonlight in his youth, the northern pacification general's eldest legitimate son, and the young marshal of the Northern Frontier Army.
It was said that he had recognized and supported Wei Mingxiu, only to be killed on the battlefield through the machinations of the intensely suspicious Emperor Chaoyang.
It was this incident that turned Wei Mingxiu into a madman.
In the end, to seize imperial power, he killed his brothers and father and wiped out the court officials, becoming a villainous tyrant whose name struck fear into everyone who heard it.
As for why Zhou Ye had been pulled into this world, the system said it was because the Zhou Ye in the novel had died prematurely, creating a loophole.
It would undermine the stability of the world.
So the system found Zhou Ye, who had just died of illness, and had him complete the plot task. As long as he completed it, he would be given a healthy body and allowed to live another life.
Zhou Ye thought the terms were good, so he naturally agreed.
And now, after transmigrating and spending more than a year fighting foreign enemies on the border and earning military merit, this was his first day back in the capital, summoned by Emperor Chaoyang to receive his rewards.
It was also his first time meeting the young villain Wei Mingxiu, whom he had only heard about in casual conversations with the system.
While Zhou Ye was lost in thought, Wei Mingxiu's expression had already turned grim.
He said to Wei Chengye, "Don't insult my mother."
"Insult her? Haha! She was a singing girl of lowly status who seduced Father Emperor while he was traveling in disguise. She only got into the palace because she bore him a son, and now we're not allowed to say it?"
The third prince, Wei Chengye, paid no attention to Wei Mingxiu's reaction.
After all, Wei Mingxiu had stolen all his limelight in class that day.
The grand tutor had praised Wei Mingxiu for having the realm at heart and knowing how to govern a state at such a young age.
Wei Chengye, on the other hand, had been scolded in front of everyone because his essay wasn't good enough.
Wei Mingxiu's mother had been a singing girl from a brothel, the least presentable woman in the entire palace. Even when she died, she had only held the rank of Noble Lady.
Compared with his mother, Noble Consort Shu, she was as far beneath her as the earth was below the heavens.
How could he swallow this insult?!
With that thought, he reached out and snatched the silver hairpin with two flowers from Wei Mingxiu's hair. He sneered, "This hairpin was left to you by your mother who died early, wasn't it? What a shabby thing. Even the palace maids serving my mother wear better! A wretched thing for a wretched bastard with a wretched life!"
His action finally became the spark that snapped Wei Mingxiu's reason.
"Give it back!"
Unable to endure it any longer, Wei Mingxiu lunged at Wei Chengye, knocking him to the ground amid the crowd's cries of alarm, and reached for the hairpin.
Wei Chengye hadn't expected Wei Mingxiu to attack him so suddenly and was stunned for a moment.
But he quickly recovered. Pushing at Wei Mingxiu, he said to the palace maids and eunuchs who followed him, "What are you all standing there for?! Pull him off me!"
The attendants in his palace had all been given to him by his mother, Noble Consort Shu, so they naturally obeyed him.
They immediately stepped forward and pulled at Wei Mingxiu, secretly punching and kicking him as they did so.
"Your Highness, Sixth Prince!"
"How can you lay hands on His Highness?!"
Wei Mingxiu had only one young eunuch with him. Seeing them secretly beating Wei Mingxiu, he couldn't help worrying that Wei Mingxiu would get hurt and struggled forward to help.
But he was too small and weak. He was shoved to the ground, and his head struck a rock and began to bleed.
Wei Mingxiu, meanwhile, held fast to the other end of the hairpin, refusing to let go despite the eunuchs' kicks and blows and the palace maids' pinching and scratching. Though he was young and not strongly built, his gaze was fierce.
A chill suddenly rose in Wei Chengye's heart.
The feeling lasted only a moment before Wei Chengye came to his senses.
But immediately afterward, he was overcome with fury!
Damn it! How could I be frightened by that little bastard's eyes?!
Unable to contain his anger, Wei Chengye tightened his grip on the hairpin and exerted force.
But instead of pulling it back, he thrust it forward, straight at Wei Mingxiu's eye!
He wasn't afraid of Wei Mingxiu!
Today, he would teach this brat a lesson!
He would make him bleed!
Make him cry and beg for mercy!
But just as the tip of the hairpin was about to touch Wei Mingxiu's eye, a slender hand suddenly appeared from above and seized Wei Chengye's wrist!
At the same time, a mature man's deep, magnetic voice rang out.
"Your Highness, Third Prince, are you going to blind your own younger brother in front of His Majesty, even at the risk of being charged with harming an imperial heir?"
His question rang out, striking at the heart of the matter.
It also brought Wei Mingxiu out of his fixation on taking back the hairpin. He raised his head, following the large, well-defined hand upward.
He saw Zhou Ye in silver armor, standing against the light.
The man had swordlike brows, bright eyes, and a handsome face. He still carried the fierce, steely aura of one hardened by countless battles, making people instinctively regard him with awe.
Yet they were drawn to him all the same.
Unable to look away.
Wei Mingxiu remembered what the grand tutor had said.
A month ago, Great Wei's Northern Frontier Army had won a great victory over the Hu People at Tianxia Pass. The young marshal of the Northern Frontier Army who had led the troops, said to be like a war god descended to earth, would return to the capital to report in today.
As expected, the man before him was probably that very person.
Zhou Ye.
"General Zhou..."
--
Hehe, I'm starting a new story! Updates are usually at eight every evening! Please try not to stockpile chapters! Otherwise, I won't have any income and I'll freeze to death QAQ!!
And a note: this book focuses heavily on the plot, and there's lots of foreshadowing!! Things will become clear if you keep reading. As for readers who skip around, I won't insist that you change your reading habits; I only ask that you don't leave comments cursing me when you don't understand what you've read. (After all, I'm sure I can tie up all the foreshadowing, so I won't accept mockery or abuse in any form.) Also, Zhou Ye is a strong shou. The gong is young at the beginning, but he doesn't have that soft, delicate, weepy-child feel. There are lots of supporting characters, a bit of an ensemble cast, and they all have character arcs.
Later on, Zhou Ye will fake his death, then return under a different identity. The age gap between the two won't be quite so large then, and there'll be some emotional push and pull afterward. I'll try to write it with care.
I hope you all enjoy it. (*´▽｀*)