How To Survive as a Villain

“Hey!”

Hong Xiu’s slap was about to hit the faces of the two men sleeping on the bed. Xiao YuAn quickly stepped forward to stop her from doing so.

“Your Majesty! Don’t get angry! This maidservant will skin these two bitches alive. I’ll cut them into pieces and throw them to feed the dogs!” Hong Xiu gritted her teeth and roared in anger.

I’m not angry! You don’t need to look for knives everywhere, there are no knives here! And this is the male lead! The protagonist! You can’t make a move against him!! Although I don’t know why the male lead suddenly became gay, this is a stallion protagonist that sleeps with whoever he wants, it’s really just a daily thing! A daily thing!

Seeing that Hong Xiu was going to try to slap them again, Xiao YuAn hurriedly said: “Hong Xiu, calm down. Calm down.”

Naturally, because of the noise, the two men sleeping on the bed gradually woke up.

Xiao Fengyue was worried that he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep last night. At this moment, he slowly opened his eyes, pretended to be horrified and rolled off the bed. Then, he kneeled on the ground: “Y-Your Ma-Majesty?!”

Yan HeQing gasped, he held his forehead and slowly got up. His head seemed to be in great pain, he opened his eyes and stared at everyone standing in front of him. His eyes were surprised and he was dazed for quite a long time. Finally, he laid his eyes on his naked body as if he suddenly understood something. He immediately turned to look at Xiao Fengyue, his eyes were full of calculations, regret and anger.

Hong Xiu seemed to have calmed down, so Xiao YuAn let go of her. Lowering her head and thinking of what to say, Hong Xiu took two deep breaths, suddenly stepped forward, and slapped Xiao Fengyue’s face hard: “Slut! How you dare do such a lousy thing!”

Xiao Fengyue was slapped on the first side of his white cheek, five fingerprints appeared on it. He turned his head back, and his voice was weak: “Your Majesty, Yan HeQing and I are in love. We promised each other, I hope His Majesty can understand.”

Xiao YuAn: “pff–cough cough cough, ah???”

What, what did you say?

Man, do you have the guts to challenge the authority of the female lead?

“Shameless!” Hong Xiu was red with anger. She grabbed Xiao Fengyue’s hair and slapped him a few more times, then she turned around to tear Yan HeQing apart.

Jie1! Why do you want to hit him again! You can’t fight the male lead!!

“Hong Xiu!” Xiao YuAn held Hong Xiu back. He turned his head to look at Xiao Fengyue, who was in a mess with his long hair scattered everywhere, and said: “Put on your clothes, and go back first.”

“G-go b-back?” Xiao Fengyue raised his head. His eyes were astonished, his cheeks were red and swollen. He looked very pitiful.

Xiao YuAn asked him: “Yes, by the way, what’s your name?”

Seeing that Xiao YuAn’s expression wasn’t angry, and instead he asked for his name, Xiao Fengyue’s body trembled all over. For a while, he didn’t know how to answer. It took him a long time to speak: “Xiao, Xiao Fengyue.”

Hey, why does this name sound so familiar?

It seems that it was from the last time he asked Hong Xiu if there was a Qin player inside the Jing Yang Palace, her answer was this name.

“Go back first.” Xiao YuAn tried to comfort him.

Xiao Fengyue put on his clothes while shivering, leaned over and walked out of the wing room. Once he was outside, he raised his head and saw the last man he wanted to see right now. Xiao Fengyue’s eyes darkened, his lower lip was bit fiercely to stabilize his mind, making it almost bleed.

Yang LiuAn looked at the person coming out of the wing room and suddenly his eyes opened widely. He quickly stepped forward, but Xiao Fengyue passed by like he didn’t see him, leaving in a hurry with his head lowered.

Once he saw that Xiao Fengyue had already left, Xiao YuAn said to Hong Xiu: “Hong Xiu, please go out first, I want to talk with Yan HeQing alone.”

“Your Majesty….I understand.” Hong Xiu stopped herself from saying something, but still bowed her head and went out of the wing room.

The wing room had finally quieted down. Xiao YuAn turned his head and looked at Yan HeQing. Then he approached him with a smile and sat on the opposite side of the bed: “Don’t you have something to say?”

Yan HeQing exhaled slowly: “I was framed.”

“Say something I don’t know.”

Yan HeQing was stunned, he stared at Xiao YuAn and said: “Do you believe me?”

“Of course I believe in you.” Xiao YuAn sneered. “I told you yesterday that I’ll come to see you in the morning. But you still do this kind of things, you think I’m mentally disabled, or do you think you’re more stupid. So, would you like to put on some clothes first?”

His figure is too good, and the visual impact is too big.

Seeing that Yan HeQing was slowly getting dressed, Xiao YuAn couldn’t help but sigh in his heart. He looked really thin while wearing clothes, but once he takes off his clothes he’s all muscles. He’s always looking thin and slender, but it turns out that his figure is well built!!

After Yan HeQing finished getting dressed, he frowned and started to explain: “Last night, he came to me with a clear porridge, and he convinced me that the porridge…”

“Wait a minute, he convinced you to drink it?” Xiao YuAn interrupted Yan HeQing’s words.

If a young woman convinced Yan HeQing to eat porridge, Xiao YuAn could still understand it. But how could a man convince him to drink it, why did Yan HeQing lose his way?

“Because he said that this porridge was sent by you.” Yan HeQing glanced at Xiao YuAn.

“That’s a false Imperial order.” Xiao YuAn nodded. “There was drug inside the porridge.”

Yan HeQing said: “Yes.”

“Did you know him before?”

“I don’t know him.”

Xiao YuAn touched his chin: “I guess he was caught by someone, and he was ordered to hurt you. Otherwise, he would’ve had guilt and hate against you, and he wouldn’t be willing to die together with you in this way.”

The symptoms of the drug caused Yan HeQing to have a headache. He frowned tightly, and pressed his forehead with one hand, slowly inhaling and exhaling: “What are you planning to do next?”

Xiao YuAn hurriedly got up and poured a porcelain cup with water for Yan HeQing: “Ah… well, I didn’t think about that. I’d better send him away from the Palace first, to avoid any more troubles.”

It’s impossible to go to Yongning Hall now that something unexpected happened.

After Xiao YuAn and Hong Xiu finished talking about how to handle the problem, they wanted to go find Xiao Fengyue alone, but Yang LiuAn knelt in front of him and begged him to go with them.

Xiao YuAn wasn’t a fool, how could such an obvious clue be ignored. He just remembered that he heard a Guqin sound when he met with Yang LiuAn twice before. Then, he thought about Yang LiuAn’s attitude and he suddenly was enlightened.

It’s you! Theme song-man! This man is the reason you have a theme song!

When you figure out something, a lot of things will suddenly come to light.

Xiao YuAn suddenly remembered something. In the original novel, after Yan LiuAn protected the Young Monarch from dying; there was a paragraph mentioning that on the day the news of Yang LiuAn’s death reached the Palace, a mournful Guqin music could be heard throughout the Palace for a whole night. The music was sad, and heartbreaking. The next morning, a Qin player was found dead after he hung himself inside the Palace.

At that time, Xiao YuAn thought that this paragraph was used to exaggerate the sadness of Yang LiuAn’s death, but now, he realized that this wasn’t the case at all!

Maybe the original book buried many foreshadowing metaphors, but Xiao YuAn was only interested in the business of the male lead while reading the book; he didn’t go too deep into these side characters. He didn’t expect that he would actually miss so much plot.

Xiao YuAn asked Yang LiuAn with a tentative tone: “Are you and Xiao Fengyue…”

Yang LiuAn suddenly kowtowed, hitting his forehead hard against the ground several times until his forehead started to bleed: “Your Majesty is very kind to me, but in the end I betrayed you. Indeed, we should die for our sins2, be chopped a thousand times into pieces3. However, I ask His Majesty to let me see his face one last time. After that, I would like to end my own life. If His Majesty is not satisfied with this, then I plead for torture and punishment. ”

The favors weigh as much as mountains4, according to the plot of the original book, it’s clear that the Young Monarch owes his life to Yang LiuAn.

What will be the last thing to happen, how will it end, it’s hard for the little Imperial Bodyguard to talk.

Xiao YuAn didn’t know whether to cry or laugh. He stepped forward to help him get up: “Get up, let’s go, we’ll go to see Xiao Fengyue.”

Yang LiuAn’s eyes were shining, and he had to kowtow again. Xiao YuAn hurriedly stopped him: “You still want to knock your head? Don’t do it, otherwise you can’t go.”

When they reached the wing room, Xiao YuAn raised his hand and knocked on the door, but nobody answered after a long time.

Oh? Don’t try to escape just because you fear being punished.

Xiao YuAn wanted to wait, but after seeing that Yang LiuAn was anxious, he had no other choice than to push open the door.

In the end, the scene they encountered inside the wing room almost made Xiao YuAn’s heart jump out of his chest.

Three feet of white silk, dressed in white clothing, Xiao Fengyue was hanging under the beam, and a chair was pitifully tilted sideways.

Footnotes:

Footnotes

姐 jiě; Sister.罪该万死啊 zuì gāi wàn sǐ a; It’s a Chinese idiom, it means to be guilty of a crime for which one deserves to die ten thousand deaths / A thousand deaths will not atone for one’s crime / be guilty of a crime for which even death cannot atone / be very guilty and deserve death. From 《东周列国志》(dōng zhōu liè guó zhì), “Chronicles of the Eastern Zhou Kingdoms”. Written by (冯梦龙 féng mèng lóng) Feng Menglong [1574-1646], an historian, novelist, and poet of the late Ming Dynasty [1368-1644].千刀万剐 qiān dāo wàn guǎ; It’s a Chinese idiom, It means to cut off the flesh of a criminal and put him to death / When someone commits a great crime, only death is not enough / Hacked to death / Cut somebody to pieces / Give somebody a thousand cuts. From 《盆儿鬼》(pén ér guǐ), “Basin Ghost”, by an anonymous author from the Yuan or Mongol Dynasty [1279-1368].恩重如山 ēn zhòng shān; a great debt of gratitude. From 《删定官供职谢启》(shān dìng guān gòng zhí xiè qǐ), “To Delete and Appoint an Official”. Written by (陆游 lù yóu) Lu You [1125-1210], a poet from the Song Dynasty [960-1279], he’s also widely regarded as the greatest poet of the Song Dynasty.