The male supporting character was actually myself.

Pah! How shameless!

Just like a gigolo! Even a skinny camel is bigger than a horse. A gigolo could easily support his family by farming a little land and raising some livestock, but he does nothing and continues to live a life of luxury by borrowing money from loan sharks every day.

You four are also petty scoundrels and big parasites. You have hands and feet but don't earn money, yet you shamelessly default on debts and eat and drink at other people's expense! You even lie and deceive people—it was the eldest son of the Marshal's Mansion, Li Dongchen, who set fire to the cowshed; your father, a gigolo, was burned to death because your brainless little sister ran into the fire looking for some rag doll, the one she was holding!

The murderer is the youngest sister of the Ruan family!

The arsonist is Li Dongchen…

The teenagers threw stones and jumped up and down, shouting, and the sound quickly spread throughout the small village.

"I've heard about it too. It's all over Yucheng—last night, the Li family went to collect a debt, but Ruan Fannan refused to pay and Ruan Xiangyun ate the IOU they had. In a fit of anger, Li Dongchen threw a torch into the cowshed to force the Ruan family to leave. As a result, Ruan Xiaomei rushed into the fire, and Ruan Fannan followed her in and was burned to death. It was Li Yexiao who rescued him!"

"Tsk tsk, really? Is Li Yexiao really that kind?"

“I don’t know if he’s that kind, but it’s true that Ruan Fannan has been aloof and has never associated with poor people like us for many years. The year before last, when my youngest son got married, I wanted to borrow two tables from his house to host the banquet, but he refused outright, saying that the tables were too expensive and we couldn’t afford to pay for them if they got damaged.”

"That's right, they are a wealthy family. They've lived here for so many years, but they really don't have any connection with the Ruan family."

"It's a fact that the man surnamed Ruan borrowed money at exorbitant interest rates and didn't repay it. As the saying goes, even a broken boat has three thousand nails. If I had such a large estate and so much land, it would just be enough for a family of a few to eat. I could easily make some money by doing anything. Borrowing money at exorbitant interest rates and not repaying it... pshaw... his character is really terrible. He deserves to die!"

"Ruan Fannan's life has been worthwhile, hasn't it? He was supported by his wife for half his life, and when the money ran out, he didn't work in the fields or do any labor. He just looked at the flowers and plants every day, and he bought the best food, clothing, and daily necessities with high-interest loans. When the debt collectors came to collect, he burned down the manor and jumped in to end it all..."

…………

The details of Ruan Fannan's death, fueled by the secret machinations of certain individuals, quickly became a new topic of gossip, rivaling the popularity of the Marshal's Mansion's celebratory events.

As more and more details emerged, a notice bearing the official seal of the Li Family Money House was posted at the city gate at noon, briefly explaining the cause and effect of the money house's repossession at Yuqin Mountain and warning that no one was allowed to enter Yuqin Mountain without the permission of the Li Family Money House, and that violators would bear all consequences.

This indirectly proves that Ruan Fannan's death, which has been the subject of much debate, was entirely his own doing!

Soon after, the story of the rich young lady's elopement, which had been widely discussed when Qinya Villa was built, was brought up again.

Ruan Fannan is a lazy, unproductive, and irresponsible man who lives off his wife's savings. His children are even more so, sophisticated egoists who can't distinguish right from wrong and are good at confusing the public.

In order to spread rumors and extort money from the Marshal's Mansion, he fabricated himself as a victim, completely ignoring the fact that his whole family borrowed money and did not repay it, and that Ruan Xiangyun swallowed the receipt in an attempt to renege on the debt. He also forcibly shifted the blame for his younger sister's madness in rushing into the fire and killing their father onto Li Yexiao.

But Li Jiangchen barely said a few words, yet he still gave them money after the manor burned down and people died. Instead of being rewarded for his good deeds, he was scolded by the Ruan siblings and they pinned the blame on him.

"Isn't this money exchange bullying orphans and widows? Anyway, the people are dead and the estate has been burned down, so they can just say whatever they want about what really happened."

"Tch~ Do you really need the Marshal's Mansion Money House to talk about the good-for-nothing family? The money house has plenty of debts to collect, and who doesn't pay back their debts? Anyway, there's not a single decent person in the entire Ruan family. Every now and then I see those two grown-up girls running around playing. Why don't they do something to earn some money to pay off their debts?"

"How many good-hearted men can abduct a rich girl, live off her savings, and then boast about it everywhere? They deserved to be burned to death!"

"Ugh~ Little Sister Ruan, who killed her own father, is already twelve, right? And she's still so immature! She rushed into the fire when she saw it, is she stupid?"

"I heard that a shepherd at the foot of the mountain lost a sheep. He went up the mountain to look for the sheep at night and happened to see a commotion, which is how the news spread."

"I heard that the four siblings of the Ruan family shamelessly moved into the home of a widowed old lady. They ate up several days' worth of food in one meal. They are clearly wearing gold and silver jewelry that could be pawned for a few dollars, but they never mention money!"

"Oh dear, what an ill-mannered and shameless person..."

…………

Rumors quickly spread throughout the small and poor village. The female protagonist, Ruan Xiangqin, who always valued self-respect, could no longer bear it. She took off her gold earring and handed it to the old lady, saying, "We have offended the Li family, the most powerful family in Yucheng. We are destined to suffer the consequences."

Grandma, please take this gold earring and sell it for grain. Consider it a gift from us siblings to thank you for your compassion and help.

We can't stay here any longer, Grandma. Take care of yourself. We'll be leaving now!

"Big sister!" Seeing this, Ruan Xiangyun felt heartbroken and helpless. She whispered, "Those were the earrings that Mother left you! The fire burned down our house, and Mother didn't have much left for us!"

The elderly woman paused for a moment, holding the heavy gold earrings. "Since they are your mother's keepsakes, you should keep them. It's just a cornbread meal, nothing valuable."

Moved to tears, Ruan Xiangqin knelt down at the old woman's feet and cried, "Grandma, we will never forget your great kindness! We will definitely come back to repay you when we earn money! Second sister, little sister, little brother, come and kowtow to Grandma."

The four siblings knelt in a row, and their mother-in-law put the gold earrings on her.

The siblings had nowhere to stay in the small mountain village, and they had no money or travel expenses, so they wandered aimlessly, trying to find a way out.

"Big sister, Father taught us the best piano skills, and you and second sister inherited Mother's beautiful singing voices. Why don't we... go play the piano and sing songs? We don't have to work in the wind and sun or wear out our hands from hard work. We can earn money while looking pretty!" The little sister suddenly suggested, holding a rag doll that had been partially burned.

The younger brother, panting from walking, nodded hurriedly upon hearing this. "I heard Dad say that he went to some brothel called Ruihua to teach the girls to play the zither and sing. He also said that even though he played and sang well, he only earned a few copper coins, while the girls could earn a lot of money if they could only learn a little bit!"

"Make a lot of money?" Ruan Xiangyun's eyes lit up when she heard this, and she grabbed her older sister's arm eagerly, saying, "Sister, let's give it a try! Even if we ask for a lower price, we'll only sell our art, not our bodies. Once we've earned enough money, we can rebuild Qinya Manor!"

Chapter Eighteen: Entering the Paramount

Ruan Xiangqin initially refused, thinking that such a place was not a place a respectable young woman should go.

But she soon bowed to reality. She had no relatives or friends and no money in her pocket. Her siblings had been pampered by their parents since childhood and had never done any hard work. As the eldest sister, how could it be easy for her to find a place to stay tonight to support her younger siblings?

Do you want to work in a women's factory?

Although food and lodging are provided there, you have to work very hard for at least four hours a day, which sounds terrifying. More importantly, you can't earn more than a few copper coins a month after working so hard. Those factory owners are simply skinflint!

It's impossible to raise my younger siblings through hard work and support their education and martial arts training so they can kill Li Yexiao in the future; that would require a huge sum of money.

Moreover, I really want to rebuild Qinya Manor...

For a fleeting moment, Ruan Xiangqin thought of the gentle, handsome Li Dongchen, and then her heart broke. Last night, he revealed his true colors and was so repulsive. After her father's tragic death, Li Dongchen didn't offer a single word of comfort from beginning to end, not even as much as Li Yexiao. Just a moment ago, he had been all lovey-dovey with her!

The thought of the painful memories of last night brought tears to her sorrowful eyes.

Li Dongchen, how wonderful it would have been if we had never met!

Why is God so unfair? Why did He let me fall into despair after such a wonderful beginning?

With a younger brother and sister to care for, and no musical instrument to even sing on the street, is she really destined for prostitution? Will she ever have the chance to meet a charming gentleman or lady who won't despise her and fall in love with her?

The four siblings walked for a long time before arriving at Yucheng. From afar, they could see many people gathered at the city gate, discussing something in a lively atmosphere.

"Sister, look over there, it's so lively!"

"Let's go see what's new!"

"Wow, so many people! It's so lively! Our house is really nice, but it's too far from the city center and not lively at all. It would be so great to live in Yucheng in the future!"

The younger siblings were all clamoring to go and see what was going on, and Ruan Xiangqin, wanting to know what was so interesting, nodded in agreement, "Let's go and see."

Last night, the incident happened suddenly. The Ruan siblings were all wearing pajamas and had their hair in simple buns. This morning, the villagers pooled their money to hold a funeral for Ruan Fannan and bought white cloth to make mourning clothes for them. After burying their father, they took off their rough mourning clothes and are now wearing exquisite silk pajamas.

Even so, their clothes were brighter and more gorgeous than those of the onlookers, not to mention the girls wearing gold earrings, bracelets, hairpins and other accessories, making them stand out from ordinary people.

The crowd, who were originally gathered together, looking up at the notice and discussing it, made way for the brightly dressed young women who were squeezing in, as if they were afraid of bumping into the young ladies of a wealthy family. Then, people who knew them began to whisper and point at each other.

"Aren't these the Ruan siblings? Their father just died last night. Even if they don't wear mourning clothes, they should at least wear mourning clothes. Instead, they're wearing bright red and green and walking around in the street all smiles. The rumors are true! A bunch of ingrates!"

"Tsk tsk tsk, look at all that gold and silver jewelry and the clothes they're wearing, they're really extravagant. They must have bought it with high-interest loans! What a selfish family. If they had just pawned the gold and silver jewelry to pay back some of the money to the loan sharks, things wouldn't have turned out like this."

"The eldest son's estate occupies a mountain, so he can live a rich life even if he just forages for food. It's a waste that this family only eats and does nothing, and their daughters are so beautiful. No wonder they can't get married."

"How could the poor know the extravagance of the rich? It's easy to go from frugality to extravagance, but difficult to go back to frugality. If you're down on your luck and still refuse to be frugal, you'll just ruin your family..."

…………

Ruan Xiangyun excitedly squeezed into the crowd, glanced up, and her face immediately fell. The notice on the far right was actually posted by the Li Family Money House. It detailed what happened at Yuqin Mountain last night and declared that Yuqin Mountain was the private property of the money house and that no one was allowed to set foot there.

She turned back to look at the crowd of people pointing and whispering with various expressions, and a surge of anger welled up inside her. "This...this is the bank making baseless accusations! It's not like that! How can you people be so heartless? Don't you have even a shred of compassion!"

"Our father was killed by the Li family, our manor was burned to the ground by them, and we siblings, who have no parents, don't even have a home anymore, yet we are still being humiliated like this and pointed at and gossiped about. I... I will go find Li Yexiao and avenge myself!"

After she finished her frantic rant, someone in the crowd sneered, "Oh, you have the nerve to accuse passersby of being indifferent? Your father just died last night. Even if he's buried today, you four siblings still have to observe three years of mourning. You couldn't even last a day before dressing up in bright colors and strolling around the streets. Pity you? You'd be better off pitying the stray dogs on the street."

"Exactly! No matter how much you complain about how miserable you are, it's no use. Those people dressed in gold and silver are far better off than us!"

"Hey, isn't that Ruan Xiaomei holding the doll? You know you killed your father? How can you still be holding that doll? You're the culprit who burned your father to death, don't you feel any remorse or psychological trauma?"

"What a shameless and brazen family! What bad luck!"

Ruan Xiangyun trembled with anger at the mockery of the crowd, but dared not retaliate against each of them. Her father had once said that these poor peddlers were not to be trifled with; they knew nothing of propriety, righteousness, or respect for the weak. If a fight broke out, she and her siblings would surely suffer.

"Waaaaah... You're all bad people!" Ruan Xiaomei cried, clutching her rag doll. "This is the rag doll my mother gave me. I just wanted to go back to my room and get it. I can't sleep without it. How was I supposed to know the fire would kill Dad? Waaaaah... It wasn't me! I'm not the murderer, Li Yexiao is! If he had sent someone in to save Dad, he wouldn't have died..."

The commotion didn't bother Ruan Xiangqin at all; she was completely stunned as she stood beneath the majestic city wall at the city gate.

Further ahead were the wedding invitations from the Marshal's Mansion, written clearly in black ink on red paper—in seven days, the eldest son of the Marshal's Mansion, Li Dongchen, will marry his fiancée, Zhang Ziqiu, the daughter of the Zhang family, with whom he has been engaged for nearly four years!

He was already engaged!

He's about to get married and take a young mistress!

The series of thunderclaps were like a bolt from the blue, leaving Ruan Xiangqin completely stunned.

She paid no attention to her younger siblings' crying and commotion. Looking around, she only saw a crowd of people pointing and whispering with mocking smiles. Their voices were a buzzing noise, and Ruan Xiangqin felt as if every word they uttered was a repetition—"Li Dongchen is getting married!" "The eldest son of the Marshal's Mansion already has a fiancée!" "He doesn't want you anymore!" "He's going to marry the stunning Zhang family heiress of Yucheng..."

"Let's go! Let's go!" Ruan Xiangqin dragged her crying and cursing siblings away from the city gate as if they were fleeing. They walked into Yucheng covered in dust and dirt, feeling lost and confused.

What should we do?

My only hope has been shattered. I only ate two cornbread buns today and I don't even know where my next meal will come from. In this vast world, where is there a place for a weak woman like me?

[Mission: Help the Ruan Xiangqin sisters successfully enter the Paramount Ballroom through various forms of humiliation, and get the manager to agree to the condition that they will only perform and not sell their bodies. Reward: One-time use D-grade item x1]

The sudden task startled Jiang Chen. He casually took out the script and glanced at it to confirm that it had not been updated. Most likely, the female lead's storyline was still the same as before: after her father died, she had to go and sing for a living as a singer.

However, given the looks, piano skills, and voices of the female protagonists, it shouldn't be difficult for them to get into the Paramount Ballroom. Why would they need the help of the best supporting male character like himself to get in?

Is the condition of performing arts but not selling one's body too harsh?

"Host!" Just as he was racking his brains, the fluffy little dumpling came running over happily, and cried out in a long voice as it pounced into its host's arms, "Meow~ The female lead is really a jinx, a white lotus. Her biological father just died and she was buried and immediately ran to someone else's house to eat for free, without any restraint."

That old woman who helped them was so pitiful; they used up several days' worth of her food in one meal.

Long Er's efforts to spread the news did have some effect. The female lead originally wanted to give the old woman a gold earring as a token of gratitude, but the second female lead cried and said that it was her mother's heirloom. The old woman repeatedly refused to accept it, and they ended up getting a free meal.

Fortunately, evildoers get their just desserts!

Now everyone in the city knows that the Ruan siblings are scoundrels. The female lead went to brothels like Ruihua Tower and Qingmeng Tower, asking to perform but not sell her body, but nobody paid her any attention! Now even the manager of the Paramount Ballroom is turning them away, for a ridiculous reason—they're afraid they'll get addicted to the receipts and then cause trouble if they start hanging around the ballroom.

Hahaha... Even dance halls don't want us; the female lead's career has hit a snag, so the main system has no choice but to pull us out to save the day!

"So that's how it is." Jiang Chen raised an eyebrow, a slight smile playing on his lips as he flicked his riding crop. "Let's go, let's help the female lead out and get on the mission!"

Looking at the hazy lights that had already lit up the street, Ruan Xiangqin felt utterly desperate and cold inside.

My younger siblings have said they're hungry several times, and I feel a pang of hunger myself. But what can I do? I've lowered my expectations again and again, even begging at brothels, but the madams only take in my younger siblings after groping them and demanding they perform and sell their bodies.

Selling oneself? Absolutely not!

I am an innocent young woman, how could I do such a despicable thing?

Before last night, with the villa and her father's protection, she lived a carefree life like a pampered young lady. But now... in less than a day, she has experienced all the hardships of life.

He was ridiculed, accused, and even his poor little sister was called a murderer. Heaven is blind! Good people don't get good rewards, while people like Li Yexiao, whose hands are covered in blood, live recklessly!