Running Off with the Villain - Chapter 1

“Ahem. He’s not for sale anymore!”

I snatched back the indenture, stuffed it into my robes, and looked at the foreign youth. “Hey! What’s your name?”

The man had been forced to his knees before me. Several welts slashed across his porcelain-pale face, yet did nothing to diminish his beauty.

His eyes were cold and sinister, as fathomless as a lightless pool.

“You… think yourself worthy of asking my name?”

He was terribly weak, his voice nearly scattering in the wind, but every syllable dripped with contempt.

Tch. What a poser.

Unfortunately for him, no one in this world was allowed to be more arrogant than me.

I slapped him across the face.

“You belong to this young lady now. I’ll do whatever I please with you!”

I pulled out the indenture and glanced over it.

No name.

“If you don’t have one, I’ll call you Wuming! Listen carefully. I bought you, so I am your mistress. From now on, I am your heaven, your earth, and your very life. You live for three things: following me, supporting me, and serving me. Do I make myself clear?”

Wuming clenched his teeth so hard that his whole body shook with rage.

“Never! What manner of creature are you, to think yourself worthy—”

Before he could finish, he coughed up a mouthful of blood and collapsed.

I froze.

Seriously? Was his temper that bad?

My servant Tiezhu stared at me blankly. “Young Mistress, this thing looks like he’s… a little dead.”

“Impossible! Absolutely impossible!”

He was the male lead. He couldn’t die that easily.

“Carry him home first. Find a physician to look at him.”

I sounded confident, but inwardly I was starting to worry.

Maybe I really had gone a little too far…

His whole family had just been wiped out. A bit of a temper was understandable.

Besides, the floating comments said his family still owned gold mines. I couldn’t bully him to death before I got them.

I turned toward home.

Then I spotted a stall selling male slaves in the nearby market.

Inside one cage sat a white-robed youth with bright eyes and perfect teeth. He was every bit as handsome as the one I had just bought.

I swallowed.

Buying one or buying two—what difference did it make? Perhaps…

Before I could finish the thought, a young woman in red beat me to him and had him taken away.

I was bitterly disappointed.

When my carriage reached home, dozens of servants greeted me with raised fists.

“Young Mistress! Young Mistress!”

I swept past them with my back straight, pleased beyond words.

I, Jin Yuse, might lack many things, but money was not one of them.

I walked roads carpeted in flowers, lived in a mansion with courtyard after courtyard, and wore robes embroidered in gold and silver thread.

The children of old noble clans laughed at me for being nouveau riche.

Hah. They simply had no taste.

In the main bedchamber, several physicians were busy stitching and bandaging Wuming’s wounds.

The pain must have roused him, because his brow furrowed and his eyes opened.

The moment he saw me, his gaze darkened. He tried to rise, only to discover that he had been tied down.

He flew into a rage.

“Insolence! Release me at once!”

Who did this man think he was, speaking to me like some exalted sovereign?

My hand rose to slap him again.

I stopped myself.

Fine. He was pitiful enough already.

“Quit struggling. Both your legs are broken. If we don’t keep you still, you’ll never stand again.”

“Spare me your nonsense! Untie me now if you value your life. When I recover, I will cut you into a thousand pieces!”

I sucked in a breath and scratched my forehead.

This raving lunatic had the temperament of a male lead?

I had read plenty of storybooks. Even if a male lead wasn’t chivalrous and grateful, surely he ought to have some basic manners.

“Enough of your babbling. I can’t understand a word. Tiezhu, strip him!”

“What—what are you going to do?”

He panicked. Pain brought sweat pouring from him, and he could barely breathe.

I had only meant for someone to wipe away the blood. But seeing that reaction made me want to tease him.

“There are three things I, Jin Yuse, love most. First, gold. Second, fine jade. And third…”

I tipped up his chin with one finger. “Beauty, of course. With such beauty sprawled across my bed, what else could I possibly do?”

“You dare!”

He roared, felt another spasm in his chest, and spat out yet more blood.

“You’re not about to die again, are you?”

I hurriedly pulled out a pill and smacked it straight into his mouth.

He choked, his expression twisting. “…What did you feed me?”

I pouted and decided to toy with him.

“That was a Ravishing Body Pill! In less time than it takes an incense stick to burn, your whole body will go limp, your mind will grow hazy, and you’ll be helpless to stop me from doing whatever I please!”

“Shameless!”

“That’s what you get for disobeying me. Wait here like a good boy. I’m going to prepare the bathwater!”