Aromatic Flesh

Shen Rong had always been serious and attentive during these lectures, every single knowledge point would be listed clearly while the explanations would be lengthy and repeated, as this would deepen the listener’s understanding and memory of the knowledge.

He had performed this task perfectly, even though his student was the person he hated the most.

He was an excellent young man in both character and studies, and he had an all-rounded development of morality, intelligence, and looks, easily leaving behind a good impression on outsiders.

This was why Shen Yue’s mother was so caught up on her new step-son, as he was extremely well-behaved and sensible. Throughout the years, her fondness for him had grown to the point that every time she spoke to Shen Yue, she would tell her to learn more from her brother and try her best to be admitted into the best high school in the capital like him, and whatnot, try to follow in his footsteps and eventually be recommended by the school to the best Imperial University in the capital!

Gu MingYue had been listening to these words for so long that she felt like her ears were growing calluses daily, but still, her mother chattered on happily while her stepfather would always nod his head in agreement.

That was to be expected from her stepfather, as Shen Rong had always been the pride and joy of the Shen Family since childhood. As the eldest son of Shen Family’s direct line, Shen Rong was the dazzling new star in the younger generation of the family, so much so that his brilliance almost blinded Gu MingYue’s slightly myopic eyes every day.

He was the epitome of what other parents would call ‘someone else’s child’, and was usually the nightmare in the minds of other teenagers. Shen Rong was the prince charming in the girls’ minds and the unattainable looming mountain in the boys’ minds.

But to Gu MingYue, he was the freak that she could not successfully conquer.

In fact, he would be moving out of the Shen Family’s mansion at the end of August to live in the student dormitory of the Imperial University. He would continue to excel in life and acquire a huge group of new followers, and eventually, in the final year of University, meet the prettiest and purest white lotus in the school. Afterward, as if both of them had their protagonist halos at maximum power, both of them would continue to excel at their love and career lives.

Shen Yue, who was accompanied and supported by his pretty little wife, would eventually be the capital’s youngest and most successful politician, and the both of them walk hand-in-hand towards their Happy Ending.

Such an unpleasant story plot… Gu MingYue pouted slightly from an angle that was Shen Rong’s blind spot. And judging from the countless numbers of novels she had read in the past two years ever since coming here, Shen Rong, the protagonist of this world, was definitely born with Midas’s touch1. He was definitely the kind of male protagonist who was ‘bugged’ and anyone who tried to hinder his progress and achievements in life would be removed with no effort.

In fact, Gu MingYue hated Shen Rong. He was too full of himself, with the temperament of a typical middle-school teenager protagonist in an anime. He was the kind of person that considered himself the center of the universe and that everyone else in the world was indebted to him and that everything should go his way.

At this age, neither the original Shen Yue, nor Gu MingYue had done anything sorry to him nor done any damage to his life. Furthermore, didn’t he, too, enjoy the love and care from Mother Shen, his newly acquired stepmother2?

Gu MingYue’s eyes were sullen as she thought of the past two years, silently wishing that she could beat him up with a metal rolling pin. In fact, Shen Rong had been playing tricks on her for the past two years behind Father Shen and Mother Shen’s back. He would ‘accidentally’ bump into her and cause her to hit the edge of the table on her hipbones, ‘accidentally’ embarrassed her at their Family Meetings… These were actually petty tricks, slightly troublesome at most, but Shen Rong did it so naturally and well that Gu MingYue was unable to keep her guard up and prevent them from affecting her.

To think that the original Shen Yue was able to maintain her love towards Shen Rong even after being bullied to such lengths… She’s definitely someone in the final stages of Stockholm Syndrome, otherwise, there was no way she would be convinced that the level of bullying is equivalent to his love for her…

Gu MingYue was unable to apprehend these sort of childish fantasies, nor was she a masochist, hence it was very difficult for her to develop any sort of positive feelings towards someone who was constantly revealing his true cruel nature to her.

This irritating brat had shut his heart towards everyone in the world and created a lonely space for himself. Though, the ‘everyone’ mentioned above obviously did not include the heroine of this world, of course…

Gu MingYue had taken the ‘clever and quiet younger stepsister’ path initially, full of admiration and love for her new stepbrother in hopes that she would secure a spot in his heart slowly and securely.

However, she slowly came to terms with the fact that her plan was faulty. Shen Rong hated her pretty face, and to him, her biggest crime was this face of hers, hence, no matter what she did, it was never going to change his hatred towards her. And worst of all, there was no fixing this because this was probably the kind of feeling that arose within his subconscious mind when they first met, when her pretty face overlapped with the face of the woman who destroyed his family.

Translator’s Notes:

Will be uploading the second part of this Chapter by today!

Footnotes: