After the Villainess Awakens

Xiao Mian felt like he had been taken advantage of. He struggled free from her grasp and held his sword defensively in front of him, afraid that she would pounce again.

Leng Mushi looked at him with tears in her eyes and asked in a heartbroken voice, “Do you hate me so much? Don’t you like me even a little bit?”

As she spoke, she shook her head and stepped back, gauging the distance to the cliff’s edge. Then, pretending to lose her footing, she fell towards the precipice. Xiao Mian swiftly channeled his spiritual energy, rushing to grab Leng Mushi as she plummeted downwards. In that instant, panic and fear surged through him, exceeding anything he had ever anticipated.

He had never experienced such intense emotions, never before.

By the time Xiao Mian pulled Leng Mushi back from the brink, she had fallen into his arms. His hand, still tightly gripping her arm, wouldn’t let go.

They lay together on the cliff’s edge, countless stars twinkling above. Leng Mushi looked up into Xiao Mian’s eyes, which were filled with the reflection of the starry sky and a lingering fear that left him looking dazed. Overcome with emotion, she couldn’t help but lean in and kiss his lips.

She had regressed through several lifetimes, aiming to make amends, to suppress and detach.

But this lifetime was different. This time, she truly hoped that everyone could make a new choice.

Her memories with Xiao Mian held very little sweetness, mostly bitterness. Even their only moment of intimacy had been a part of her plan and scheme.

Only now, at this moment, did she kiss him simply because she wanted to.

Their lips touched, and Leng Mushi’s heart pounded in her chest. As Xiao Mian stared back in astonishment, she covered his eyes with her hand and deepened the kiss.

She even sensed his struggle, his attempt to use his abilities to restrain her. In that moment, she yearned to awaken his memories and share a night of pure passion with him.

But in the end, she didn’t. Xiao Mian, regaining his senses, pushed her aside and scrambled to his feet, running away.

Leng Mushi sat cross-legged on the ground, touching her lips as she laughed.

She had been worried, worried that in this lifetime, Xiao Mian wouldn't fall for her again.

She had witnessed all the joys and sorrows of the world. Human emotions were the richest, yet also the most fickle.

But just now, she was certain that no matter how many times they started over, she didn't need to worry about Xiao Mian disliking her.

When one was intimate with another, the body reacted before the mind.

He held her, responded to her. Even if it was clumsy, it wasn’t rejection or resistance.

Leng Mushi ran her tongue over her lips, savoring the sweetness of that kiss. Xiao Mian was undeniably inexperienced, but that inexperience only made it more delicious.

Leng Mushi remained seated, and as she expected, Xiao Mian returned a short while later.

His previous disheveled appearance and clothes were nowhere to be seen. He looked at Leng Mushi with a solemn expression, his voice as clear as shattered jade. “Come with me back to Fei He Courtyard now and tell me who let you out. I can choose not to report you.”

“Why would you report me?” Leng Mushi turned her head to look at him, deliberately licking her lips. “You kissed me. If you report me, I’ll report you too. I’ll say… that you forced me!”

She watched his reaction mischievously. As expected, he was furious. “You!”

He took a deep breath. “How could you be so…”

“So vicious?” Leng Mushi finished his sentence and stood up, walking towards him.

Xiao Mian stood there, his face a mixture of anger and shame, his fingers gripping the hilt of his sword.

Leng Mushi smiled and said, “We kissed. Even if we go to the Disciplinary Hall now, the elders will easily see what we did.”

Xiao Mian frowned slightly at her. Leng Mushi rolled her eyes and said, “I like you, but it’s not easy to enter the Inner Sect. I need to find a backer, don’t I?”

“Xiao-gege, protect me,” Leng Mushi leaned closer to him, her voice soft and alluring. “I’ll do whatever you want. What do you think?”

She deliberately spoke suggestively, smearing her own image. She wanted to see if he would still like her if she was a woman who would stop at nothing to achieve her goals, even sacrificing herself.

“What are you talking about!” The veins on the back of Xiao Mian’s hand, still gripping his sword, bulged. “You…”

“This is who I am,” Leng Mushi said frankly. “Didn’t you enjoy kissing me just now?”

As she spoke, she traced her fingertip along the white jade pendant on her neck, her gaze following the line of the pendant down towards her chest.

“Xiao-gege, think about it. Do you really not like me?” Leng Mushi asked. “I can tell you who let me out of Fei He Courtyard, but you have to kiss me, just like I kissed you.”

Xiao Mian was almost driven mad by her. In the end, he grabbed her by the collar and dragged her back to Fei He Courtyard without another word.

However, Leng Mushi didn't sense any true coldness from him, because he had protected her.

He didn’t report her. The next day, when he found her on the stone steps again, he silently followed her to the cliff.

Xiao Mian hadn’t slept all night. Standing at the edge of the cliff, he didn’t sit down to eat the food Leng Mushi had brought. Instead, he asked coldly, “What are you trying to do? I can report you right now.”

That’s right. They hadn’t kissed today, and the lingering scent of their intertwined breaths must have been washed away by his spiritual energy overnight. Leng Mushi had no leverage over him anymore.

So, Leng Mushi resorted to playing the victim. “Xiao-gege, are you really so heartless? I just like you very much.”

Leng Mushi continued, “There are so many high-ranking male disciples in the sect. I didn’t approach anyone else, I specifically sought you out. You’re not very talkative, and I’m just asking for your protection. If you’re not willing…”

Leng Mushi closed the food box, her smile vanishing. She turned and left without hesitation.

Xiao Mian didn’t sleep that night either.

No, it should be said that he didn’t sleep for the next few days.

He couldn’t sleep. In the end, he couldn’t even meditate peacefully. He didn’t report Leng Mushi, but he also never encountered her again during those late-night moments when he deliberately made himself vulnerable, her mischievous smile greeting him as she pulled him into secluded corners.

This went on for ten whole days. Then, something happened in the disciple courtyard. Two disciples got into a dispute over their lodgings.

It was originally a matter for a disciple from the Disciplinary Hall to mediate, but Xiao Mian used this as an excuse to tag along.

He saw Leng Mushi in the courtyard. She was talking and laughing with Li Nan, a disciple who had just climbed from the Outer Sect to the Inner Sect and was now in charge of overseeing Fei He Courtyard.

Her smile was beautiful, her eyes curving into crescents, exactly the same way she smiled at him.

Xiao Mian couldn’t describe the feeling in his heart. The turmoil of the past few days, coupled with the sight of Leng Mushi currying favor with someone else, made him appear extremely gloomy.

Leng Mushi had Fen Lian keep an eye on Xiao Mian’s expression and report back to her through their telepathic connection.

She was indeed chatting and laughing with Li Nan, but she wasn’t flirting. Instead, she was threatening him. “Don’t think that nobody knows what you did with that rich young master from Courtyard Number Four. You’d better take back all the pills you sold, every single one, or I’ll report you.”

The smile on Li Nan’s face froze, a flicker of darkness crossing his eyes. However, he had finally climbed to his current position and had cultivated an expressionless mask.

“Junior Sister, what do you want?” Li Nan asked. “I’m not known for my good temper, but I’ve always been gentle with Junior Sisters.”

“I know your spiritual roots are quite mixed. In the future, when you enter the Outer Sect…” Li Nan continued, “I did spend a good few years there.”

His words were both a threat and an enticement.

As luck would have it, Xiao Mian, who had drawn closer, overheard this sentence. His blood boiled, truly believing that Leng Mushi had abandoned him to cling to someone else. He stormed off in anger.

Only after seeing him run off did Leng Mushi say, “Then you don’t have to worry about it. If you don’t want me to report you, be good from now on. Get me some potent aphrodisiacs that cultivators can’t detect, and arrange a separate room for me.”

Li Nan raised an eyebrow in surprise. Leng Mushi smiled at him. “I like a certain Immortal Lord in the Inner Sect. I’m a little impatient and want to give him a little push. You just get me the stuff, and I guarantee that when that young master goes down, you’ll be fine too. It’s not easy to enter the Inner Sect, Senior Brother. You should know better than anyone.”

Obtaining undetectable drugs was not difficult for Li Nan. He had spent several years in the Outer Sect and a year in the Inner Sect, excelling at scheming and building connections everywhere. That’s why he dared to be so bold. Who would have thought that a young girl would catch him red-handed?

However, her request for inferior drugs was all too easy for him.

That night, Leng Mushi received the drugs. In her new room, she lit them, setting her trap.

The rabbit she was waiting for, Xiao Mian, was struggling desperately. His internal energy was in turmoil, his mind filled with images of Leng Mushi’s cunning schemes and her bright, curved smile.

He now believed that Leng Mushi was an unscrupulous woman, a vicious person, someone… someone he didn’t think he could ever like.

Yet, he couldn’t get her out of his head.

She was like a splash of cinnabar red on an ink painting, so vivid and jarring that it eclipsed everything else.

In the end, Xiao Mian still stealthily made his way to Cang Sheng Courtyard. He violated Tai Chu Sect’s rules and even found himself standing outside the door of Leng Mushi’s new room. He stood there for a full fifteen minutes, wanting to leave several times, but his eyes remained fixed on the sliver of light escaping from under the door. He couldn’t bring himself to move.

Finally, he knocked.

Leng Mushi responded with a delicate voice. Before opening the door, she asked, “Is that you, Senior Brother Li?”

The door opened, and Xiao Mian’s grim face came into view. She feigned surprise and made to close the door, revealing that she was only wearing a thin, translucent robe.

Xiao Mian felt his head spinning. It was anger, but there were other emotions mixed in that he couldn’t even begin to decipher.

He smelled the cheap, pungent scent of the drugs wafting from the room and understood Leng Mushi’s intentions. He clenched his jaw.

She was too wicked.

Too reckless!

How could she be this kind of person?!

Xiao Mian couldn’t believe it. Such despicable methods and lust were things that cultivators should never touch. He knew he should leave.

But anger, intertwined with those other unidentifiable emotions, surged within him. He reached out and grabbed the door that Leng Mushi was desperately trying to shut, his hand getting caught and pinched painfully.

He forced his way into the room, grabbed Leng Mushi’s wrist, and pushed her against the door. Then, cupping her startled face in his hand, he covered her lips with his own.

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