Mismatched Couples
Lin Yi regretted asking the question as soon as she did. She had been too direct. With such a pressing tone, even if someone really liked another person, they wouldn't usually say it out loud.
Xie Chengnan seemed to chuckle slightly, or perhaps he merely twitched the corner of his mouth. "Does it matter whether I like it or not?"
Lin looked into those eyes and asked, "Isn't it important?"
Xie Chengnan laughed as if he had heard the biggest joke in the world, his chest shaking with laughter: "Important? You actually tell me it's important?! This imperial decree that we begged for so long, this golden marriage bestowed by His Majesty the Emperor himself, has Miss forgotten it so quickly? Or is it that you regret it?"
He clearly had a sunny, refreshing, and spirited young face, but at this moment, there was a hint of malice in his eyes, and his tone was drawn out, especially the words "a perfect match," which seemed to be crushed between his lips, bringing out a touch of cruelty.
Lin Yi lowered her eyelashes dejectedly. She was unwilling to play along, but she still had to use her brain to deal with it quickly.
During the wedding ceremony, he mentioned Xie Chengfeng, the eldest son of the Marquis of Yong'an. The Marquis of Yong'an was once very famous, but later gradually declined. The Marquis of Yong'an had already passed away before the novel began, and the eldest son was mentally challenged since childhood. Therefore, the only person in the entire Marquis's mansion who could marry Qiu Qingye was Xie Chengnan, the youngest son of the Xie family.
Moreover, judging from his gritted teeth, this marriage was probably arranged by Qiu Qingye himself.
Lin raised his eyes again, his eyes filled with a resolute determination that seemed to say, "What's the use of trying?"
It's a mistake, but the system only said to complete the task and maintain the goodwill value; it didn't say that you had to hide your identity.
She mimicked Qiu Qingye's arrogant and haughty demeanor, slightly raising her chin and saying calmly, "Of course I haven't forgotten. As for regret... Young Master Xie seems to regret it more than I do."
In the original book, Qiu Qing is portrayed as arrogant, spoiled, and ruthless. Lin Yi believes that his words just now, which demonstrated his arrogance and treachery while also cutting into Xie Chengnan's heart, are quite in line with his character.
She calmly threw the question back at him, but her heart was pounding. The original book didn't describe Xie Chengnan much, and she really didn't know what kind of temper he had. If the original owner of this body had no emotional connection with him, her words might have already angered him.
As expected, Xie Chengnan laughed in anger. But miraculously, he calmed down afterward.
"What are you saying, sister? How could I regret it?" she said, then blinked innocently.
The boy's voice sounded clear and well-behaved. Lin Yi was stunned by his sudden change of address to "sister" and felt uncertain.
Is there some hidden story behind this? Does he really like Qiu Qingye?
Before Lin Yi could react, Xie Chengnan's expression changed again, his speed so fast that even Sichuan opera masks would pale in comparison.
He stepped forward, looked directly into Lin Yi's eyes, and coldly questioned, "Miss Qiu, is this fun?"
Originally, the two were about a table's width apart, but Xie Chengnan took a large step, stepping over the corner of the table, and now the distance between them was only two feet. Lin Yi could clearly see the triumphant mockery and disdain on his face; this man was actually toying with her!
Realizing she had been tricked, Lin Yi blushed with embarrassment and anger. But the more she said, the more mistakes she would make. She was new to the place and had transmigrated into this identity, so she could only endure it for the time being. Only after she eliminated the crises that belonged to Qiu Qingye one by one could she be herself again.
Unable to gauge the appropriate level of interaction with this person, she suppressed her anger and remained silent.
Xie Chengnan, however, was not about to let her off so easily. He took another step forward, his words becoming increasingly aggressive, "You know perfectly well why we got married. Even if you have a heart of stone, Miss, you should still restrain yourself in the Xie family, or you will lose face for more than just yourself."
Damn it! Is this person calling her shameless? She's not Qiu Qingye, how would she know! Lin Yi closed her eyes tightly, suppressing the inexplicable surge of emotions, and said in a fairly polite tone, "I understand, please get out."
Xie Chengnan's expression changed, and he said coldly, "Miss Qiu, do you even realize that you're standing on bricks from my Xie family's house? This is my home, and you're telling me to get out?"
"I had long heard that Miss Qiu was a proud and arrogant young lady, and seeing is believing. Her ability to argue even when she's wrong is truly admirable!"
These words were harsh, and Lin Yi tried to hold back, but he couldn't hold back any longer.
They keep calling her "Miss Qiu" and "the daughter of the Qiu family"! She's not Qiu Qingye, not that vicious supporting character. She never enjoyed a single day of Qiu Qingye's life as a young lady in her first twenty years, yet now she has to bear this infamy and this fate. It wasn't Lin Yi who wanted to be here, and it wasn't her who wanted to marry Xie Chengnan!
Lin Yi was filled with grievances and resentment, but she couldn't utter a single word. With nowhere to vent her emotions, she could only weakly but desperately scream and repeat, "I told you to get out!!"
After shouting that, Lin Yi's eyes suddenly reddened.
Bloodshot streaks appeared on the once clear and clean whites of her eyes, completely masking the aloofness and arrogance that the Qiu family's daughter usually maintained.
Xie Chengnan pursed his lips, acting as if she had suffered some great injustice. But looking into her eyes, which resembled those of a wronged rabbit, he ultimately couldn't bring himself to say the malicious words. Even if what he said was true, those words were still a bit too much for a girl. Xie Chengnan realized he had gone too far, but he couldn't bring himself to apologize. He just gave her a mock glare and left.
Lin Yi stood there for a long time, her eyes reddening, but she ultimately did not shed a tear.
She stopped crying many years ago.
Lin Yi stood there for a moment, and before she could compose herself, a mechanical voice suddenly sounded: [The character has become angry for no reason; according to system settings, 5 points of goodwill will be deducted.]
Lin Yi breathed a sigh of relief; thankfully, it was only a 5-point deduction. Then, realizing what he'd said, she retorted indignantly, "What do you mean by 'getting angry for no reason'? Didn't you hear how awful his words were?"
From the perspective of the original book, what he said was all true.
"So, I deserved to be insulted like that, and I couldn't even talk back?"
Strictly speaking, Xie Chengnan didn't insult you; he was referring to Qiu Qingye, not you, the host, telling him to get out.
Lin Yi was utterly speechless. Xie Chengnan was eloquent and could curse without using any vulgar language, but he took advantage of her poor communication skills, only saying "get lost" and wanting to deduct 5 points of her goodwill for no reason.
Lin Yi protested: "You only told me that doing good deeds adds points and doing bad deeds deducts points, but you didn't say that even swearing is not allowed."
In this way, she's only 15 points away from the -50 threshold! If she says "get lost" three more times, she'll be dead. How can she accept that?
The system paused briefly, and Lin Yi pressed his advantage, saying, "Don't you know that to judge a person's character, you shouldn't look at what they say, but rather what they do?"
[You are arguing unreasonably. The system has its own judgment rules; please do not interfere.]
Lin Yi rolled up his sleeves, ready to take this damn system down with him, when the mechanical voice continued, "[This time, the system was not informed beforehand, so it can rescind the point deduction. Next time, please keep your emotions stable and don't affect others.]"
Lin Yi was exhausted, but at least she managed to retain her 5 points of goodwill. She knew when to stop, so she waved her hand at the void and said, "I understand. Please leave gracefully."
The system fell silent, but Lin Yi felt it hadn't left yet, because the atmosphere around him, though silent, still had a faint eeriness about it.
After a while, the feeling of being pricked by thorns disappeared.
Lin Yi lay down on the bed.
But before long, the door opened again. Xie Chengnan walked in.
Before Lin Yi could speak, Xie Chengnan's sharp gaze fell on the plate on the table, and a smile slowly spread across his lips. "I thought you had suddenly developed some backbone and wanted to emulate Boyi and Shuqi, 'refusing to eat wild vegetables and starving to death.'"
Why does that sarcastic remark sound so familiar?
Lin Yi sat up abruptly from the bed, her gaze fixed on his face.
Xie Chengnan frowned and said, "What are you looking at? I heard you were on a hunger strike, so I came to see if you really killed yourself. Miss Qiu, you should take good care of yourself. After all, this is a marriage arranged by the Emperor. If you suffer any injustice in our Xie family, His Majesty will blame you."
What's going on? He said the exact same thing when he came in, but now his words have changed...
Lin instinctively wanted to shoo them away, but then remembered the system's instructions and didn't dare say anything too extreme.
She just wanted to get rid of him as soon as possible, so she grabbed the blanket and covered her head, saying in a muffled voice, "I'm not feeling well. If Young Master Xie has nothing else to say, please leave."
Xie Chengnan hadn't expected to be driven away after only a few words, but hearing her muffled voice, he realized she was indeed unwell. He glanced at the broken porcelain shards on the ground and said, "Don't forget what Miss Qiu promised me," before leaving.
Lin Yi felt something was wrong. He called out to the system several times, but received no response.
After a while, the door opened again, and Xie Chengnan came in again, starting with the same words...
After repeating this countless times, Lin Yi finally had no energy left to deal with it.
She timed it and barricaded the door shut.
Noticing Xie Chengnan's footsteps stop at the door, he called out through the door, "I've already eaten. I'll compensate you for the broken bottle. Your deal with Qiu Qingye remains unchanged. Young Master Xie, please leave!"
The person outside seemed surprised by this turn of events. His hand hovered in front of the door for a long time before he finally lowered it and left in silence.
Xie Chengnan left the west annex and walked back absentmindedly. He felt that something was not quite right.
This was his second close encounter with Qiu Qingye. The first time was when the young lady personally came to him to cooperate in taking revenge on the Crown Prince. Xie Chengnan had always been at odds with the Crown Prince, and thinking that he could annoy the person he disliked, he agreed. However, he did not expect that this eccentric young lady would ask him to join forces through marriage.
That was the second time. Although he hadn't even seen the person in person, for some reason, the image of that person with red eyes telling him to get out suddenly appeared in his mind.
That usually quick-witted mouth suddenly fell silent.
Xie Chengnan shook his head. What did it matter if he couldn't figure it out? He didn't care anyway. She spoke with a strong voice; if she could eat and smash things, then it wasn't a big deal.
Xie Chengnan breathed a sigh of relief. As long as nothing happened at the Xie residence, it was none of his business. He would still go to 'Wanmuchun' to listen to music as usual today.
After Lin Yi chased the people away, the system, which had been silent for a long time, finally stirred. A faint electrical hum sounded, like a spark suddenly rising in the deep darkness. This sound, which had annoyed Lin Yi not long ago, now sounded like heavenly music.
"What happened?" Lin Yi asked anxiously.
The system has experienced a temporary malfunction and is currently undergoing emergency repairs.
"I think I just got stuck in a loop, was it due to a glitch?"
Yes. This is the first time the system has attempted to reverse a point deduction. Due to a bug in the system's development, the reversal function is not yet fully functional, causing the host to get stuck in a time loop. We sincerely apologize for this.
Apologies aren't important; it's just that the endless cycle of these apologies is suffocating.
During those recurring time gaps, Lin Yi even thought that if it continued like this, she might as well curse to her heart's content until her goodness points were depleted and she was sent back to her original world as a corpse. That would be better than wasting her days in this meaningless cycle.
Now that she has returned to normal time and is experiencing unfamiliar yet fresh conversations, she feels truly alive. The joy brought by this "normality" even washes away some of the dissatisfaction she had from her time travel, making her realize that there are things in this world more unacceptable than facing a predetermined fate as Qiu Qingye.
Some things suddenly become clear. And once she understands, she naturally needs to pave the way for the future.
“I do not accept your verbal apology. Due to a system error, I experienced more than ten cycles of reincarnation, causing indelible damage to my mental health. I need more tangible compensation.”
She deliberately exaggerated the situation, hoping that if she could use this opportunity to get the system to relax the standards for deducting goodness points, or to deviate from the original plot, then going through these dozen or so cycles wouldn't be a loss.
The system fell silent.
Lin Yi did not back down and remained silent in response.
After a while, the system relented and said, "[The system is willing to compensate the host for the losses and can activate a cheat system for you to help you complete subsequent story missions.]"
Lin Yi feigned composure and asked calmly, "What is it?"
To fully meet the diverse needs of users, the host can choose one of the following cheat abilities.
[Portable Space: A spatial cheat ability that allows the host to store any item without the risk of being discovered.]
This hidden space wasn't of much use to her: "What's next?"
[Universally Adorable: A powerful cheat ability that makes everyone who meets the host inexplicably fond of you, which is extremely useful in changing an inevitable death ending.]
Everyone loves her… Does that include the male lead? If so, wouldn't she become the female lead's rival? If she really becomes an obstacle to the male and female leads' happy ending, how will she survive? Lin Yi shook his head, “Next.”
[Book Index: Skill-based cheat code. Any book the host has read will automatically provide a solution when encountering related problems. This cheat code has channel restrictions; the host can choose one from food, makeup/hair, medicine, or life skills.]
That's good. If Lin Yi wants to complete the mission and survive, she needs a lot of goodwill points. And is there any greater good deed than saving a life? Not to mention that she herself has some medical knowledge, Qiu Qing also comes from a family of doctors and must have access to a lot of medical books.
As long as she reads enough pharmacopoeias, treatment methods will automatically pop into her head when she encounters patients. Such a cheating device is simply too overpowered.
"This is it, I'll choose the medical index."
Ding—[Okay, the system has bound this cheat code for you.]
With the help of her cheat system, Lin Yi felt much more at ease. Even though the future was unknown and uncertain, she ultimately faced it head-on.
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