NOVEL NEXT Chapter 1 - Changing conquer target
“Didn’t I tell you to stay away from the Chu Yu? Can’t you understand?”
Who’s barking like a dog?
Tang Yuan thought confusedly.
[New World Loading Progress: 100%—]
As the mechanical voice faded, clarity returned to her vision, and she finally saw her situation.
Warm water enveloped her body, with a pair of slender, jade-like arms floating on the surface. Her delicate fingers were choking another person’s neck.
Suddenly, her gaze met a pair of pitch-black eyes. Tang Yuan’s heart skipped a beat, and she quickly released her offending hands, stumbling backward in a panic. She kept retreating until her lower back hit a blunt stone, the sharp pain forcing a gasp from her lips, snapping her back to reality.
“Cough, cough, cough…”
The girl who had been choked and pushed into the water by Tang Yuan was now leaning against the edge of the pool, coughing uncontrollably. Her face was flushed, but her lips were pale. She looked at Tang Yuan, her eyes looking as if she were staring at something no longer alive.
“Alright, alright! That’s a wrap for this scene! Well done, everyone. Add Little Yuan’s lines in post-production. Come on up, don’t catch a cold.”
As the director’s words fell, a crowd surrounded Tang Yuan, helping her out of the hot spring. A white towel was wrapped around her, and the air buzzed with concern as voices blurred together, treating her as if she were their ancestor.
Meanwhile, the other girl silently climbed out of the pool. Her drenched period costume plastered to her body, her face pale, and her steps heavy. Yet, it was as if she had been forgotten by everyone—no one paid her any attention.
Tang Yuan pushed through the people around her, grabbed a towel, and hurried over to the girl.
“Jiang Zi!”
Jiang Zi halted in her tracks as a white towel wrapped around her, shielding her from the cold wind and offering a faint warmth.
She lowered her gaze, looking at the girl standing beside her. She could see the girl’s evident unease and nervousness in her eyes, as if she were afraid of her.
A flicker of confusion crossed Jiang Zi’s eyes. Wasn’t she the one who had just wanted to kill her? And now she’s running over here, pretending to care—what kind of act is this?
Jiang Zi grabbed the corner of the towel, ready to toss it back, but suddenly, her wrist was gripped tightly.
Impatience began to surface in Jiang Zi’s eyes, the reflection of Tang Yuan’s figure deep within her pitch-black pupils.
Then, a timid, soft voice whispered in her ear: “I didn’t mean to just now. I’m sorry…”
Under Jiang Zi’s expressionless gaze, Tang Yuan’s voice, on the contrary, gained an additional layer of confidence like someone smashing a cracked pot. In a moment of heated impulse, she blurted out something crazy:
(Tl: 破罐子破摔(to smash a cracked pot): to allow things to worsen even if you know there are faults or mistakes)
“I just don’t like how your eyes are always on Chu Yu! What’s so great about him? You only have Chu Yu in your eyes. When will you ever look at me!”
Just then, the system’s mechanical voice sounded again:
[New World Information Loaded Successfully. Host Identity: Villainous supporting female character. Ultimate Goal—Live a Long Life(Live to a hundred years.]
[Request Detected from Host, Analyzing…]
[Request Approved. Target Changed. Main Quest—Conquer the Heroine, Jiang Zi.]
Request? When did she send a request? Before Tang Yuan had time to gather her thoughts, her hands were suddenly flung away in a moment of distraction.
Jiang Zi’s cold voice abruptly broke the silence, “I’ve never…”
However, Jiang Zi’s words paused for a moment. Suddenly, her sharp eyes locked onto Tang Yuan as if searching for something in her bright gaze, her expression dark and unreadable.
Tang Yuan perked up her ears, fully focused, waiting for her to continue. But Jiang Zi’s words came to an abrupt halt, and then, as if she couldn’t stand saying another word to her, she walked away with a cold expression.
Tang Yuan was momentarily stunned before hearing someone call her from the side:
“Ah Yuan, go change your clothes first. They’re soaked, and the weather is freezing—you’ll catch a cold if you stay like this.”
Tang Yuan thought for a moment and reluctantly gave up on continuing to pester Jiang Zi. She needed some time to sort out the current situation.
There was no work for her on set today, so the driver took her home.
This was her tenth mission as a professional employee of the Time-Space Bureau. Compared to the previous nine missions, where she ended up as an early-dead white moonlight(first love) character who didn’t survive the first two episodes, this time, she seemed to have gotten a promotion—she was now a villainess. Although she was labeled as a villain, at least she was the second female lead, a character who would be involved throughout the entire story.
Because of her obsessive love for the male lead and the powerful influence of her family, she effortlessly became the biggest obstacle to the male and female lead’s relationship.
In the end, she met a gruesome death, paving the way for the male and female leads’ love story to conclude perfectly.
But…
Her mission had changed from conquering the male lead to the female lead?!
[Yes. Due to the host’s excellent performance in previous missions, you have been evaluated as an outstanding graduate. Therefore, many new features have been unlocked in this book-transmigration mission, including the option to change your conquer target—though you only have one chance to do so.]
So, what she had just experienced was the most classic scene from a dog-blood tragic romance: bullying the female lead and warning her to stay away from the male lead.
But, because of one nonsensical comment she made, the system misunderstood it as a request to change the conquer target and accidentally switched her from the BG romance channel to the Yuri channel?!
Good, good, good.
“Is there a feature to check favorability?”
[Sorry, system authority level is insufficient; this function cannot be unlocked now.]
…That’s not exactly good news.
However, as a professional employee of the Time-Space Bureau, she had excellent professionalism. Receiving the original plot from the system, Tang Yuan began to analyze it carefully.
The Tang family is the most prestigious family in QingCheng, with a long lineage of high-ranking officials. During times of war, they shifted to business, but their prosperity never faltered, and neither did their wealth. As the Tang family’s young princess, wherever Tang Yuan went, there was always a large number of people to flatter her to please her—truly a textbook example of the second female lead.
As for Chu Wei, as the male lead of this small world, he naturally had an impressive identity and status, and he had grown up alongside Tang Yuan.
Childhood friends, innocent and pure, a match made in heaven with talent and beauty—these were the compliments Tang Yuan had heard all her life. With all these buffs stacked up, Tang Yuan naturally believed she would end up with Chu Yu.
The Westermarck effect falls equally in domineering CEO literature, where the childhood friend will never win against the heavenly descent.
(TL: Westermarck effect: People tend not to be attracted to peers with whom they lived like siblings before the age of six.)
Tang Yuan, with her haughty and unreasonable personality, was disliked and annoyed by Chu Yu. He was then attracted by Jiang Zi’s cold and extraordinary aura, which set off the plot for an aggressive pursuit and deeply tormenting romance.
Meanwhile, the original villainess became a stepping stone for the male and female leads’ emotional development. After repeatedly causing trouble, she eventually met her end at the story’s conclusion.
At the moment of her death, the original villainess glimpsed the heavenly secrets, awakened her consciousness, and tried rewinding time, which alerted the Time-Space Bureau staff.
Thus, she was made to enter the Time-Space Bureau as a worker and began her missions in another small world.
Having understood the original plot’s details, Tang Yuan’s thoughts returned to the present as she watched the car approach the manor.