The novel "The Little Lucky Koi’s Harem" can be summed up as a story where handsome, capable men with high cultivation levels all eventually fall for the female protagonist, Yu Xiaoxiao, showering her with abundant resources.
Even treasures and rare materials that others in the story desperately seek often seem to find their way to Yu Xiaoxiao effortlessly.
Without having to put in much effort, Yu Xiaoxiao is blessed with an abundance of good fortune—a life destined to be as lucky as suggested in the title of the novel.
Wen Shuangbai’s so-called "cheap fiancé," Xie Ziyin, is one of the many supporting male characters enamored with the heroine.
The only reason Wen Shuangbai decided to read this novel was because a reading app promoted it with a cash reward for finishing the book.
In the story, Xie Ziyin is technically the third male lead.
His father is an elder of the Qingling Mountain Medical Pavilion, and his mother was a fellow disciple of the female protagonist's mother.
This familial connection is the reason for the arranged marriage between the two families.
Much like the original Wen Shuangbai in the book, Xie Ziyin’s life journey is also riddled with hardships.
His father died in a mystical realm when Xie Ziyin was five years old. The current head of the Medical Pavilion was once a rival of Xie Ziyin’s father’s teacher, which naturally made him hostile toward Xie Ziyin.
Over the years, Xie Ziyin received no cultivation resources from the Medical Pavilion and was constantly given the hardest, dirtiest tasks to perform.
However, through years of tending to injuries and treating illnesses, Xie Ziyin honed unparalleled medical skills, accumulating his knowledge and becoming a semi-saint in the field of healing, capable of reviving the dying and restoring broken bones.
Unfortunately, he was too devoted to the heroine, who ultimately belonged to the male lead.
Unable to attain her love, he first killed his own fiancée, then betrayed the protagonist group by allying with demonic cultivators to frame the male lead. In the end, he was killed by the main characters.
To sum it up: a tragic fool of epic proportions.
Wen Shuangbai wanted nothing to do with such an idiot.
Not that she felt any need to avoid suspicion either.
Why should she?
She, as someone who had suffered her own share of tribulations, had struggled every step of the way—her time was precious.
Besides, judging by how ostracized Xie Ziyin was in the Medical Pavilion, it was clear that for ten out of every eleven days, he’d be stuck on duty.
How annoying.
Standing outside the medical hall, Wen Shuangbai pursed her lips and was about to bid farewell to Lu Jiayao.
But Lu Jiayao continued to support her without letting go, cheerfully saying, "Let me take you inside."
Wen Shuangbai gave him a look of speechless exasperation. "What’s next? Are you going to take me back home afterward too?"
Lu Jiayao, a man of boundless enthusiasm, replied, "Of course! I don’t have anything else to do today anyway."
Wen Shuangbai: "…Fine."
"Well, your recovery looks pretty good. Just one more round of medication, and you’ll be fully healed," the elder on duty at the medical hall commented after glancing briefly at Wen Shuangbai’s injured leg, his eyes gleaming with a greenish tint as he made his diagnosis. "Go to the back hall and have your senior brother change the dressing. After that, there’s no need to come back. In three days, you can remove the bandages and wash it yourself."
This was one of the wondrous peculiarities of the fantasy continent.
Healer cultivators’ eyes worked like modern ultrasound, X-rays, or MRI scans combined.
In truth, there were faster and better methods to heal her injury—but they were expensive.
Most cultivators chose to stick to the traditional route of changing bandages and taking medicine.
Even that wasn’t something she could afford.
She’d done her research beforehand: every trip here cost 500 spirit stones.
Given her total assets—for instance, a grand total of three physical spirit stones and a mountain of debt totaling 100,000—the price was simply beyond her reach.
Fortunately, a few days earlier, her senior brother had gone out of his way to arrange payment for the medication in advance.
All things considered, this accident involving a fall down a cliff had cost her senior brother almost 10,000 spirit stones.
How absurdly expensive.
Wen Shuangbai felt a wave of melancholy in her heart and, alongside Lu Jiayao, pushed open the half-closed door to the rear hall.
She had come over right after finishing breakfast; it was still early. At this hour, the rear hall was devoid of other patients, leaving only a single medical cultivator inside.
The cultivator wore a slightly worn white robe, his jet-black hair meticulously tied. He was seated at the desk, casually flipping through a book.
Noticing someone had entered, he leisurely lifted his gaze. His striking features resembled the misty landscapes of Jiangnan, unfolding gently in Wen Shuangbai’s vision like a painting come to life.
His eyes were as enchanting as spring peach blossoms, and the tear mole at the corner of his eye added a mesmerizing allure.
However, perhaps due to recently recovering from a severe injury, his complexion was unusually pale, giving him an air of coldness and aloofness.
Wen Shuangbai raised her brows slightly.
She thought to herself, Well, he’s definitely good-looking.
It seemed the man recognized her too, and his gaze landed on her with a highly invasive judgment.
It was the kind of superiority-laden look characteristic of someone in power surveying their subordinate, condescending and distant—making Wen Shuangbai distinctly uncomfortable.
She rolled her eyes dramatically, plopped herself onto the patient chair, tossed the prescription before him, and said coldly, “Change the medicineThe man frowned ever so lightly.
But he said nothing, picking up the prescription and rising to prepare the medicine.
Wen Shuangbai avoided looking at him. Her gaze swept across his desk, then suddenly froze.
She had initially assumed he was reading a medical text, but it turned out the book in his hands was *Records of the Mystic Heaven*.
This book detailed information about the Xuantian Continent and fundamental knowledge on cultivation.
The Xuantian Continent was divided into seven major states—Qingzhou, Yongzhou, Yunzhou, Xingzhou, Youzhou, Wuzhou, and Emperor’s State—each governed by a prominent sect.
For example, Qingzhou was managed by the sect known as Qingling Mountain.
Likewise, the cultivation on Xuantian Continent was divided into seven realms, ranked from lowest to highest: Spirit Initiation Realm, Enlightened Aperture Realm, Void Piercing Realm, Tribulation Crossing Realm, Great Vehicle Realm, Supreme Peak Realm, and Saint Realm.
Currently, Wen Shuangbai’s cultivation level was at the third layer of the Spirit Initiation Realm.
This particular book was extremely basic. Typically, only novice cultivators who had just embarked on the path of cultivation would take the time to read it.
Wen Shuangbai had skimmed through the first ten pages several days earlier, as the original "her" hadn’t been very interested in cultivation.
Why was this composed-on-the-outside, utterly-shallow-on-the-inside fool reading it?
Wen Shuangbai was still puzzling over this when there was a sudden creak. Xie Ziyin hooked his long leg beneath the desk, pulling out a low stool. He set it down in front of Wen Shuangbai’s injured leg and spoke bluntly, “Leg. Up.”
Wen Shuangbai: “…”
Up your foolish stool, she inwardly cursed.
Did he think every word he uttered was pure gold, that he couldn’t spare a single extraneous syllable?
Wen Shuangbai was on the verge of grinding her teeth to pieces; the atmosphere in the rear hall instantly grew tense and combative.
Lu Jiayao, standing nearby, didn’t dare utter a word, wishing he could become utterly invisible.
Yet his eyes sparkled with unrestrained enthusiasm, darting back and forth between Wen Shuangbai and Xie Ziyin. He almost seemed to wish they’d argue or, better yet, fight.
Unfortunately for Lu Jiayao, Wen Shuangbai didn’t oblige his hopes.
She lifted her skirt with dramatic flair and brazenly rested her injured leg atop the stool, watching as Xie Ziyin crouched down at her feet, his movements steady and practiced.
Wen Shuangbai had initially planned to give Xie Ziyin a hard time—if he dared exploit the act of changing her medicine to settle personal scores, she’d make him compensate her for every single penny in medical expenses.
Unfortunately for her scheming, the man’s medical skills turned out to be genuinely competent.
Unlike the clumsy and careless medics from before, who had made her wince in pain during treatment, this time the wound dressing process was nearly painless. Her injury was handled beautifully, and even the bandaging technique was flawless, leaving no room for criticism.
Since that was the case, Wen Shuangbai had nothing much to say and prepared to get up and leave.
But the usually taciturn man spoke: "What will it take for you to agree to annul the engagement?"
Lu Jiayao, who had been reaching out to help Wen Shuangbai, quickly pulled back his hand and pricked up his ears.
Wen Shuangbai raised her eyebrow, thought for a moment, then calmly sat back down.
She even propped her foot up on the small stool again in a rather comfortable manner.
Annulling the engagement was naturally something she was going to do.
However, Wen Shuangbai wasn't in a hurry. She didn’t have anyone she fancied, so having an engagement or not made little difference to her.
Her initial plan was to bring it up later in the story, at a point where it would thoroughly humiliate Xie Ziyin and Yu Xiaoxiao, giving her a sense of satisfaction and payback.
But, if Xie Ziyin could give her what she wanted, she could let the matter slide.
One thing about Wen Shuangbai was that for most matters, as long as the price was right, she could be persuaded.
Right now, Xie Ziyin was clearly short on money. From the half-worn fabric of his clothes, it was obvious.
Asking him for money was unrealistic; she figured she'd earn money faster herself.
But there was one thing he had that was extremely valuable.
In the cultivation world, medical care didn’t come cheap—it was outrageously expensive.
And for cultivators, getting injured was just a part of life.
Xie Ziyin’s medical skills were undeniably excellent.
Doing a quick calculation in her mind, Wen Shuangbai said, “Give me one hundred opportunities to receive free medical treatment from you.”
The man, standing at the table and washing his hands in a bowl of clean water, froze.
“?”
One hundred times?
She sure dreamed big.
Xie Ziyin’s expression remained impassive as he stated his bottom line: “Ten times.”
Wen Shuangbai: “?”
Ten times? Was he trying to fob her off like she was some beggar?
Narrowing her eyes, Wen Shuangbai watched him wipe his hands with a white cloth and chuckled, “What’s this? Has the esteemed healer Xie not woken up properly yet in broad daylight?”
Hearing this, Xie Ziyin shot her a glance. His gaze was icy, as cold as the sterile lights in an operating room.
One hundred times?
Did she want to be tied to him for life while also exploiting him for medical expenses?
It was just as the trainee had said.
This so-called “villainous supporting character” was malicious, calculating, and thoroughly insufferable—crafty to the core and full of schemes.
Xie Ziyin withdrew his gaze, deciding it was pointless to continue the discussion.
She clearly had no intention of annulling the engagement; this was just a trick to negotiate from a stronger position.
With a soft snort of derision, Xie Ziyin picked up the water basin without even glancing at this “wicked woman” and walked away decisively.
Seeing this, Wen Shuangbai let out a cold laugh. Agitated, she struck the table with her palm.
The loud bang startled Lu Jiayao.
Using the force from the strike, Wen Shuangbai stood up. She didn’t want to stay a second longer and marched out of the back hall in large strides, not even waiting for Lu Jiayao.
Lu Jiayao, not daring to breathe too loudly, hurried after Wen Shuangbai and slipped out behind her.
And just like that, their first negotiation over the engagement ended in a complete bust.
