Transmigrating into the world of Jade Dynasty, I was targeted by the female lead in a reverse romanc

Lu Xueqi remained seated on the stone bed, her posture seemingly unchanged.

The dim light cast swaying shadows on her face, her expression hidden in the light and shadow, indistinct. Only her eyes remained clear, fixed on him, churning with extremely complex emotions: shock, realization, pain, pity... finally settling into a bottomless stillness.

The stone chamber was eerily quiet, with only the occasional crackling of the oil lamp flame and the heavy breathing of the two people.

In her mind, Linglong "listened" to Jiang Xiaochuan's story, the earth-shattering secret about the "original work," the "story," and the "time travel."

She recalled Jiang Xiaochuan's occasional strange remarks, and now she understood... It turned out that the world she lived in had a predetermined trajectory and ending in another "story," and the boy in front of her actually came from outside the "story."

She felt a bizarre shock, and a sense of relief that she herself did not realize. She fell silent, completely silent.

After a long time, so long that Jiang Xiaochuan felt his heartbeat was about to burst his eardrums, Lu Xueqi finally moved.

She slightly adjusted her posture and crossed her arms over her chest.

She stared at Jiang Xiaochuan, her eyes unblinking, her cool voice echoing in the silent stone chamber, utterly calm:

"so what?"

Jiang Xiaochuan was stunned.

So what? What kind of reaction is this?

He had imagined countless reactions from Lu Xueqi: shock, disbelief, anger, thinking he was crazy, or even storming off... But he never expected her to respond with such a calm "So what?"

"I..." He opened his mouth, but found that all the explanations and repentance he had prepared seemed pale and powerless in the face of these three words.

Lu Xueqi continued speaking before he could organize his thoughts, her tone remaining calm, as if she were recounting someone else's story:

"So, you're trying to tell me that in the 'story' you saw, my name is Lu Xueqi, I'm a disciple of Xiaozhu Peak in the Qingyun Sect, I loved someone named Zhang Xiaofan, waited for him for ten years, finally married him, had children, and lived in seclusion in Caomiao Village?"

Jiang Xiaochuan nodded stiffly.

"So, you're trying to tell me that Biyao was annihilated to save Zhang Xiaofan, and that Zhang Xiaofan betrayed Qingyun to save Biyao, transforming into Gui Li and killing countless people?"

Jiang Xiaochuan nodded again.

"So, you're trying to tell me that you come from another world, know the 'original' fate of all of us, that you took over a role, or that you appeared out of thin air, that your heart is the Bloodthirsty Bead, your bones are the Soul-Capturing Staff, and that a gun spirit named Hong Li lives in your body. She saved you, repaired you, and may even have feelings for you, and now you feel indebted to her because you feel you've dragged her down and caused her to fall into a deep sleep?"

Jiang Xiaochuan continued to nod, his throat tightening.

"So," Lu Xueqi paused, her gaze sharp as she stared into his eyes.

"You want to use this 'story,' your 'origins,' your 'difference' to tell me that you're not worthy, not good enough, and that I should stay away from you, is that it?"

Jiang Xiaochuan, realizing she had hit the nail on the head, lowered his eyes in embarrassment and tacitly agreed.

Lu Xueqi suddenly stood up. She was tall, and in this not-so-spacious stone chamber, she brought an invisible sense of oppression. She walked up to Jiang Xiaochuan, stopped, and looked down at him.

"Jiang Xiaochuan," she called his name, her voice soft yet carrying immense weight, "Listen to me."

"When I was eight years old, I first saw you on Xiaozhu Peak. You were hiding behind Uncle Tian, ​​peeking out half your head with bright black eyes, watching us, a group of senior sisters, practicing swordsmanship. At that time, I thought, this junior brother from Dazhu Peak is so cute."

"On the Rainbow Bridge, you ran over to me with a grin and said, 'Let's fight again at the Seven Peaks Martial Arts Tournament in six years.' It made me furious, but I couldn't argue with you. At that time, I thought, 'This person is really annoying.'"

"On a thunderstorm, I was hiding behind a rock in a mountain stream, terrified of thunder. You appeared, soaked to the bone, carrying two fish strung together with straw rope. When you saw me, you paused for a moment, and then stammered something about 'cloud friction' and 'positive and negative charges' to me."

I didn't understand a word, but listening to your stuttering and seeing your comical expression, I suddenly felt that the thunder wasn't so scary anymore. Later, the rain subsided, and I fell asleep on your soaking wet shoulder. It was a very brief sleep. When I woke up, you were stiff and didn't dare to move, and you asked me, in your silly way, if I was scared. At that moment, I thought, this person... isn't so bad after all.

"The things you gave me later were a small pot of plum blossoms, a box of osmanthus sugar, a box of rouge, and a... terribly ugly sword tassel."

I keep the plum blossoms on the windowsill and water them every day. The osmanthus sugar is so sweet that I can't bear to eat it all at once. The rouge is too bright, so I've never used it. I hang the sword tassel on the celestial pendant and have never lost it. No matter what it is, strange or worthless, I keep it all because it was a gift from you.

"In the Seven Peaks Martial Arts Tournament, you used your body to withstand my Divine Sword Thunder Control Technique."

I watched you stand there, head tilted back, your eyes filled with excitement, not fear.

At that time, I thought, if you can even catch a blow like that, does that prove that you and I are from the same world?

Can you... understand all my unspoken thoughts?

"Your cultivation level has dropped, and you're lying motionless on the bed. I'm by your bedside, and I feel like the sky is about to fall."

"You woke up and still made up lies to fool me, saying you have a special constitution, how stupid of you."

"In the Kongsang Mountain and the Ancient Cave of Ten Thousand Bats, you protected me behind you and rushed into the swarm of bats, fighting until you were covered in blood. I watched through the light screen, and my heart almost stopped."

You came back covered in blood after you finished killing, and asked me, "Am I handsome?" You were filthy, but I didn't think you were filthy at all.

"In the Abyss of the Dead, on the shore of the Heartless Sea, you threw me up there and then fell in yourself. When I was up there, I felt like the whole world had gone dark. Jiang Xiaochuan, you bastard."

"Liuboshan, you're telling me esoteric stories, those profound principles, and sharing your ideas. Do you know that there's a light in your eyes when you speak?"

"Tongtian Peak, the pills you gave me, the way you stood in front of me... every single time, every single time."

Lu Xueqi's voice was steady, like counting treasured beads, one by one, clearly and distinctly. She recounted the details that Jiang Xiaochuan remembered and didn't remember, the trivial and thrilling details, without any fancy words or exaggerated emotions, just a calm narration.

"Tell me, is this fake?" she asked, taking a step closer.

Jiang Xiaochuan shook his head subconsciously.

Those were all true; they were his personal experiences, etched deeply in his memory.

Tell me, was all my kindness to you fake?

Was it a lie that I waited for you for seven years?

Was it a lie when I asked those junior disciples on the mountain path, "Are we worthy?"

Was it a lie when I said I wanted to marry you?

Jiang Xiaochuan continued to shake his head.

"Then tell me,"

Lu Xueqi stopped in front of him, so close that he could see his own reflection in her eyes, and the unfathomable yet intensely burning emotions within them.

Would Lu Xueqi in the story do these things?

He'll chase you across half the world, snatch you away from other women, hold you tight and won't let go, forcefully kiss you, and... even prepare a basement to lock you up. He'll go around asking others if you're "good enough" for him. Will he directly propose to his master and mistress?

Jiang Xiaochuan was stunned. He carefully recalled Lu Xueqi from the "original work".

Aloof, reserved, and silently waiting, she buried her love deep in her heart until the very end...

No, that Lu Xueqi would never do anything like the Lu Xueqi in front of him has done.

"Look," Lu Xueqi's voice lowered, carrying a strange gentleness and an undeniable firmness.

"The story is a story, and I am me. You like the aloof, proud, and silently waiting Lu Xueqi in the story, don't you?"

Jiang Xiaochuan nodded blankly. That was his childhood ideal, his imagination of beautiful love.

"But I am not her," Lu Xueqi said firmly, raising her hand to gently stroke his face. Her fingertips were slightly cool, but the gesture carried a sense of cherishing.

"I am Lu Xueqi. I waited for you for seven years, almost going crazy, so I decided to stop waiting and take you with my own hands. I am Lu Xueqi who gets jealous, gets angry, locks you up, declares ownership everywhere, forces you, and also... wants you."

Her thumb gently caressed his cheek, her gaze so focused it was breathtaking:

"Jiang Xiaochuan, listen carefully. The world may be a 'story,' but the person standing in front of you is real."

Every bit of kindness I show you, every bit of affection I have, every thought of wanting to marry you—it's all genuine, it comes from within me, it's not something copied from some 'story'.

But something inside her was throbbing with sharp pain.

Every time he mentioned "Lu Xueqi from the novel," the gentle light in his eyes pricked her like needles.

He felt sorry for the woman who had waited for ten years, and pitied her lonely figure.

He never saw that Lu Xueqi, who stood in front of him, had also waited for seven years. In those seven years, she walked every road he had walked, saw every moon he had seen, and wrote the three words "Jiang Xiaochuan" on paper and tore them up in countless late nights, afraid of being discovered, and even more afraid that no one would know.

He pities the shadow in that story, but who will pity her?

That figure was at least written into the book, remembered by millions of people, and revered as a god by him in his youth.

And what about her?

She stands here alive, capable of crying, laughing, feeling pain, and making a fuss, yet she is merely a "non-original" stand-in.

When he looked at her, his eyes were always looking through her at another woman.

Lu Xueqi suddenly smiled, a faint hint of mockery in her eyes. The smile didn't reach her eyes, which concealed a grievance she herself was unwilling to admit.

"You mean Lu Xueqi, who waited for Zhang Xiaofan for ten years, and finally they smiled at each other in Caomiao Village, a picture of peaceful contentment?"

Jiang Xiaochuan nodded blankly: "...Mm."

Lu Xueqi's eyes sharpened: "That's because she's stupid."

Jiang Xiaochuan looked up at Lu Xueqi urgently: "She's not stupid. She knows Zhang Xiaofan's predicament. Biyao's soul was scattered for him, and he carries this burden of life. How can he come back in peace? She understands him, which is why she waits. That's not cowardice, it's... it's fulfilling his wish!"

Lu Xueqi looked at him quietly, her gaze unchanged: "Oh? Understanding? Compromise?"

She took a step forward, staring intently at him:

"Then let me tell you, Biyao isn't completely dead. One of her soul fragments is still being held by the Hehuan Bell. Zhang Xiaofan has killed countless people and collected rare and precious treasures over the past ten years, all to revive her. Does Lu Xueqi in your story know any of this?"

Jiang Xiaochuan was taken aback: "She... probably found out later."

Lu Xueqi sneered, "You know that, so why are you waiting?"

Watching him go mad for another woman, watching his hands stained with blood, watching him drift further and further away from Qingyun and from her.

Then he stood on the Moon-Viewing Platform and waited?

She shook her head, her tone resolute: "This isn't understanding, it's self-torture. It's living your life as a backdrop in his tragic story."

Jiang Xiaochuan opened his mouth, wanting to refute, but didn't know what to say: "But that's how she loves..."

"Her love is so cheap."

Lu Xueqi interrupted him, her eyes burning: "Ten years of youth, exchanged for a facade of 'understanding'? Jiang Xiaochuan, listen carefully."

She reached out and touched his heart with her fingertips: "If one day, for Xiaobai, or Biyao, or anyone else, you leave me to do something dangerous, and you might not even come back."

She leaned closer, speaking each word carefully, her breath brushing against his face:

"I'll go with you, even if we're tied up, we'll stay together. We'll die together, we'll go crazy together. Understand? I don't need to understand. I just want you where I can see and touch you."

Jiang Xiaochuan's throat went dry: "What if... what if I don't want to?"

Lu Xueqi looked at him calmly:

"Then lock him up."

I'll keep you locked up until you figure it out.

Jiang Xiaochuan, I am not the Bodhisattva in the story.

Waiting for a flower to bloom depends on fate.

I am Lu Xueqi.

The flowers I want

Pick them yourself.

I raise them myself.

"I'll keep watch over it myself."

"Biyao is pitiful and foolish, I admit it."

If she's trying to use some past relationship, or something else, to stage a scene of being willing to die for you, in an attempt to sway you...

"I won't let her get away with this." She said this calmly, but with a chilling edge.

"Xiaobai, she's just a fox. If she behaves herself, I don't mind if you keep her. If she doesn't behave herself..." Lu Xueqi didn't finish her sentence, but her meaning was clear.

"As for Linglong," she paused, her tone even more indifferent, "she lived thousands of years ago, she's long dead, it doesn't matter."

"Hong Li," she looked into Jiang Xiaochuan's eyes, "a gun spirit, without even a body, she saved you, repaired you, I remember her kindness, but if she really wants you to 'repay her with your body'..."

Lu Xueqi suddenly smiled, a faint smile, yet carrying an absolute, almost domineering confidence: "You'll have to ask me if I agree."

Jiang Xiaochuan was completely stunned.

He looked at Lu Xueqi, a woman both familiar and unfamiliar, and listened as she effortlessly shattered and dissolved all his concerns, his feelings of unworthiness, and his secrets with each word, or perhaps...

He was in a state of confusion, wondering if he should simply bring her into his territory. Yet, something deep inside him, something frozen and hard, was quietly cracking and melting.

Lu Xueqi's hand slid down his face and landed on his shoulder. She gently pulled him closer until their breaths were in sync.

"Jiang Xiaochuan," she looked at him, her gaze clear and bright, reflecting his bewildered face.

"I've hugged you, kissed you, touched you, and looked at you. I've seen things I shouldn't have seen and things I should have seen, things I shouldn't have touched and things I should have touched. It seems like I've done everything."

Jiang Xiaochuan's face flushed red again, and he said urgently, "When did I ever see you...?"

"I've seen you before."

Lu Xueqi calmly interrupted him, a faint glint of cunning in her eyes, "I've seen everything I should and shouldn't have seen."

Jiang Xiaochuan: "!!!"

"So," Lu Xueqi concluded, her tone matter-of-fact, "I have to take responsibility for you."

Jiang Xiaochuan's mouth was wide open, and he couldn't close it for a long time.

Is there something wrong with this logic?

Shouldn't it usually be the man who takes responsibility when he sees a woman?

Why is it the other way around when it comes to her?

And... wasn't that to save him?

Was it something they had no other choice but to do?

Why does it sound like he suffered a huge loss?

"No, I..." he tried to explain.

"Any more questions?" Lu Xueqi raised an eyebrow.

Jiang Xiaochuan looked at her face, which was so close to his own; there was no mockery on it, only a calm and serious expression.

He suddenly felt that all language and all reason were pale and powerless in front of this woman. She had her own set of logic, an unbreakable logic centered on "Lu Xueqi wants Jiang Xiaochuan".

He lowered his head in frustration, his shoulders slumped, and silence spread through the stone chamber, broken only by the occasional crackling of the lamp wick.