The Villain's Delicate Beauty Won't Run Away - Chapter 1

On a snowy night, with the marquis’s residence utterly still, I slipped away to its secluded plum grove.

I was going to meet a man in secret, and my nerves troubled me the entire way.

A cat suddenly darted across the path. I stumbled and landed in the snow.

My bottom hurt so badly that tears sprang to my eyes. I felt terribly wronged.

If Father hadn’t insisted on separating me from my cousin and marrying me off to Xie Jinxiu, the marquis’s unfavored son by a concubine, I wouldn’t have had to sneak out for a tryst in the freezing middle of the night.

I wiped away my tears, got up, brushed the snow from my clothes, and rubbed my sore bottom. Each step made the pain obvious.

It was bad enough that Xie Jinxiu was a repulsive sickly monster who drank blood in secret. Now even the ground at his family’s residence was bullying me.

Indignant, I turned and stamped twice on the spot where I’d fallen.

Once I’d vented my anger, I took my time getting to the grove.

I had barely stopped to rub my hands together when someone embraced me from behind. “Cousin, I’ve finally seen you.”

I smiled and was about to turn and embrace him when a row of words appeared before my eyes.

【How exciting. Her villain husband is about to lock her up.】

A chill ran through me. I broke free of Lin Qingheng’s arms, rubbed my eyes, and looked around, but saw nothing unusual. I thought my eyes had played a trick on me.

“Did you miss me, Cousin?” Lin Qingheng stepped closer and cupped my face.

His icy hands made me flinch. I pushed him away in discomfort.

I was just about to pour out all the grievances I’d suffered in the marquis’s household when the words changed again.

【Poor supporting character. She has no idea the villain is watching her tryst from the shadows.】

【Such a beautiful woman, and soon she’ll be locked in a secret room and made into a human doll.】

Now I knew it wasn’t an illusion.

I was going to be locked up and made into a human doll? My villain husband was Xie Jinxiu? He was watching me right now?

The questions came so quickly that my face drained of color.

Lin Qingheng gripped my shoulders. “Cousin, what’s wrong? Are you feeling ill?”

【The villain hates it when anyone touches what’s his. That cannon-fodder guy really knows how to hit a nerve.】

【Once the villain skins him and uses him as fertilizer, she’ll probably fear and hate her husband even more.】

【That’s what happens when a deranged, obsessive man falls in love. If he can’t have her, he loses his mind.】

【If she knew her sickly husband was an imperial prince and the future regent, she probably wouldn’t despise him so much.】

【The reborn heroine has guts, though. She’s been fawning over the villain to raise his affection level.】

Xie Jinxiu was a prince? The future regent, with power over the entire court?

My mind could scarcely keep up.

Another comment appeared: 【The villain has taken out a chain.】

Startled, I shoved Lin Qingheng away and snapped through my trembling, “Stop harassing me!”

“I’m deeply in love with my husband. Even if he dies of his illness, I’ll remain his widow for the rest of my life!”

Lin Qingheng froze, disbelief written all over his face.

When I turned to leave, he caught hold of me. “You’re lying, aren’t you? Have you forgotten the vows we made to each other?”

Love was precious, but freedom was worth more. I had no intention of being shut away forever, never to see daylight again.

I pried his hand off, tore up the letters he’d sent me in secret, and threw the scraps at him.

“I was young and foolish. I mistook affection between cousins for romantic love.”

“It wasn’t until I saw my handsome, upright husband and lay awake thinking of him all night that I realized I’d fallen for him.”

“Go. Let’s pretend we never met tonight.”

The comments flooded my vision. 【Holy crap, when did the supporting character grow a brain?!】

Clearly, I’d done the right thing. But I had no idea whether Xie Jinxiu, hidden somewhere nearby, still wanted to lock me up and make me into a human doll.

Terrified of what I didn’t know, I pulled up my hood and ran. I kept glancing around, only for my foot to slip and send me sprawling into the snow again.

Cold and numb all over, I looked up through reddened eyes and saw a pair of black boots before me.

Above them stood Xie Jinxiu in a white fur cloak, his face marked by illness. He looked as otherworldly as an immortal cast down to earth, but all I could think of was how he’d looked when he lost control and drank blood.

Did someone like him really love me?

I shook uncontrollably. Tears rolled down my cheeks. I wanted to beg him to spare me and promise I’d behave, but I couldn’t get a word out.

Xie Jinxiu slowly crouched before me. His cool, jade-like fingers brushed away my tears.

Smiling, he parted his thin lips. “Why are you crying, Susu? Did the fall hurt?”

His smile was so gentle that it chilled me to the bone.

“It hurts,” I whispered, my voice trembling.

“Be good, Susu. Your husband will carry you back.”

Comments kept popping up before my eyes. 【The villain smiled! That’s all it took to placate him?】

【Doesn’t anyone else think his smile makes him even scarier?】