Crack——
Silver light blazed, thunder rumbled so loudly that it shook the eardrums. Lou Yue kept her eyes squeezed tightly shut, not opening them until the roaring in her head faded away.
Somehow, the dark night had turned into broad daylight, and through the hazy glow, a figure was walking straight toward her.
Lou Yue was just about to speak when her gaze locked onto a pair of icy, deep black eyes. To her horror, the man holding a spear was driving it right toward her chest.
"Wait! Hold on a second!!" Lou Yue's eyes went wide. She couldn't care less about upholding the dignified image of Miss Lou that she was known for, and raised her hand in a hurry to yell.
But before her hand could even move past half its path, a dull squelch drifted into her ears.
Lou Yue stared blankly down at her body, watching the spearhead sink completely into her right chest. Searing pain spread through every inch of her in an instant, her legs went weak, and she crumpled toward the ground.
"Young Master!!" A crowd of people swarmed over to catch her.
Lou Yue shakily pointed at the man holding the spear, whose eyes were now flashing with surprise: "You..."
As soon as she opened her mouth, blood gushed out. All around her, shouts of "Young Master" rose in a chaotic, wailing din. Lou Yue had no idea who they were calling for, she only stared fixedly at the murderer who still stood arrogantly before her, and used the last of her strength to speak each word clearly: "You... are... done for..."
Her head lolled to the side, and she lost consciousness entirely.
"Young Master!!!"
When Lou Yue woke up again, most of the pain in her chest had faded away. She lay still without moving, and the cold, sharp face of that man popped up in her mind.
Hmph, being good-looking doesn't help you at all.
In a society ruled by law, how dare he wield a spear in broad daylight and stab Miss Lou right through? He can look forward to rotting in a prison cell for the rest of his life!
Lou Yue bared her teeth in a grim smile and opened her eyes, only to meet four pairs of teary, stunningly beautiful eyes, one after another.
"You've finally woken up, my lord... I've been so worried about you, Dou'er was crying her eyes out." The woman in the sheer pink dress grabbed Lou Yue's hand and pressed it to her own cheek.
The woman at her side pulled Lou Yue's hand away: "Brother Yue, you've been unconscious for two whole days. Jiaojiao couldn't sleep a wink, I wanted to stay by your side the whole time, but Lord Xuan wouldn't let me, I..."
Before she could finish, the woman in white crouched down and pushed the other two aside, wrapping Lou Yue's hand in both of hers, her voice so soft it seemed like it could drip water: "My lord, is there any part of you that still hurts? Would you like Shuang'er to rub it for you?"
The woman in yellow who had been standing to the side watching them all this time suddenly asked, "My lord, is something the matter?"
Lou Yue tugged at her hand twice but couldn't pull it free, so she gave up struggling. She licked her dry lips and asked, "Is this Hengdian?"
The woman in pink dabbed at the non-existent tears at the corner of her eyes: "What's Hengdian? This is the Langlang Residence that you just bought, my lord."
Langlang Residence... what a tacky name... but why are they calling me "my lord"? If this isn't Hengdian, why is everyone wearing ancient-style clothing?
Lou Yue glanced around the antique furnishings of the room, and pushed herself up to sit.
The beautiful women rushed to help her up, propping her up and fetching back cushions for her, waiting on her like she was an empress dowager. Before Lou Yue could get fully settled, a patch of pale white skin came into her view.
Her collar had slipped open a little when she sat up, exposing most of her chest and abdomen.
Layers of gauze were wrapped around the wound on her right chest, making that side slightly higher than the left, but even so, it was still completely flat, no curves at all.
Lou Yue's eyes nearly popped out of her head. Where did her proud breasts go?!
"My lord?" A soft, questioning voice sounded beside her ear.
Lou Yue closed her eyes. Her left hand, still hidden under the quilt, trembled as she reached down toward her lower body. The moment her fingers brushed against the bulge in her trousers, she snapped her hand back like she'd been burned.
Damn it, that bastard who stabbed me isn't the one who's finished first—I am.
I've turned into a man! What kind of cruel prank is this?!
Lou Yue was so angry she almost laughed out loud. She might have an easygoing personality, but she never ever wanted to become a bulky, rough man with a hard body! This is totally impossible, I must be dreaming!
Right, it's just a dream!
Lou Yue frantically tried to hypnotize herself in her mind, and once she'd convinced herself of that, she flopped back down onto the mattress.
"Ugh—" A searing pain shot through her chest, the pain so sharp it forced her to face reality.
"My lord! What's wrong? Did you pull your wound?"
The beautiful women crowded around her in a panic, only to see a glisten of tears welling up in Lou Yue's eyes.
"This is terrible! The pain is so bad it made the young master cry! Hurry up and call the doctor and Lord Xuan over!" the pink-clad woman named Dou'er exclaimed in alarm.
"..." These are tears of anger, you know!
Lou Yue grabbed Dou'er's wrist, and forced a smile that looked like she was bearing her injury bravely: "It's nothing, I'm not in pain. Really, it doesn't hurt at all."
Her mind was in total chaos, but the top priority was to figure out where exactly she was. She held her patience and chatted with the women to gather information.
After a long while... Lou Yue folded her hands in front of her, and gave the line of beautiful women a gentle smile: "I want some quiet time alone. All of you, go out for a while."
The women obediently agreed and filed out. The door creaked shut behind them.
Now that she was alone in the room, Lou Yue waited until the sound of their footsteps had faded completely, then threw off the quilt, barefoot, and darted over to the full-length mirror in the corner of the room.
The mirror, made of some unknown material, reflected her figure with perfect clarity. Her face looked 50% similar to her original one, but the features were more delicate and striking—she had a high straight nose, thin, well-defined lips, a look that was both bright and heroic, a sharp, stunning beauty that could easily pass for either masculine or feminine.
Lou Yue's gaze drifted down the mirror, landing on the half-exposed chest of the person in the reflection.
It was perfectly smooth and flat, with not a single curve, only making the line of her neck look longer and more slender, carrying the unique lean, lanky air of a young man.
"..."
For a moment, she couldn't even tell if she should be glad that the new body was so good-looking, or upset that she'd swapped genders.
Lou Yue stepped away from the mirror, pacing back and forth irritably across the room, until she broke out in a sweat and the wound began to ache, forcing her to stop.
From all the information she'd just gathered, she had really transmigrated.
She'd crossed into that Long Aotian harem novel she'd spent the whole previous night mocking and complaining about.
She didn't end up as one of the women in the protagonist's harem, but damn it, she'd woken up as a man—and the male lead's rival in love, at that!
She no longer had to compete with all the women in the harem for the protagonist's favor, but now she had to go up against the Long Aotian male lead himself. The book was 1000 chapters long, and this rival survived 999 of them... his entire life's mission was to use every despicable trick possible to steal women away from Long Aotian.
The male lead had been dying to get rid of this rival for ages, but the original owner came from the Lou clan of Xuandu, a clan that controlled a quarter of all cultivation resources in the cultivation world. Before he had enough power, the male lead could only hold back his anger.
Finally, in the second-to-last chapter, the original owner fell right into the male lead's hands. His spiritual meridians were crippled, his tendons in his hands and feet were cut, and he was left in agony worse than death. In the end, the original owner begged the women in the male lead's harem through tears just to get a quick, clean end to his miserable life.
The more Lou Yue thought about it, the more hopeless she felt. Not only did she transmigrate into a man, she transmigrated into someone who was fated to die a horrible, tragic death at a young age—this was the worst luck ever!
She leaned back and collapsed into a carved wooden chair, sighing deeply. A beam of unruly sunlight streamed through the window lattice and landed right on her face, so bright that she couldn't even focus on wallowing in her misery.
Lou Yue snatched a teacup off the table and clapped it over her eyes. Perfect, now the whole world was nice and dark and quiet.
She didn't know how much time had passed before there was a knock on the door.
"Knock knock."
"Knock knock, knock knock."
Lou Yue didn't feel like answering, but the person outside was insistent and kept knocking, so she lazily raised her voice: "Who is it?"
"Young Master, it's me, Little Qiu." The voice from outside the door was thick with fawning, and anyone could tell at a glance that this was the original body's most loyal sidekick.
Lou Yue tossed her teacup back onto the table. "Come in."
Little Qiu, a short, scrawny fellow with a shifty, sharp face, stepped over the threshold and leaned in, grinning from ear to ear. "Young Master, you're finally awake, I—"
Seeing he was about to launch into a long, rambling speech full of fake concern, Lou Yue shot him a look of clear disgust. "Cut to the chase."
Sensing Lou Yue was in a foul mood, Little Qiu thought for a second and asked in a considerate tone, "Young Master, are you upset about Xiao Rangchen?"
"Who did you say?" Lou Yue wondered if she'd heard wrong.
"Xiao Rangchen! He hurt you, and right now he's locked up in the water dungeon, just waiting for you to wake up and decide what to do with him."
Lou Yue froze. Xiao Rangchen. The male lead of this harem novel, the original body's rival in love, the one and only Long Aotian.
That was right. The person who had stabbed her earlier wore a black gold thorn earring on his right ear cartilage, which was basically the signature mark of the novel's male lead. But she couldn't remember any plot point where the male lead shot the original body and then got locked up in a water dungeon.
"Young Master?"
Lou Yue snapped back to her senses and asked, "How is he doing?"
Little Qiu bared his teeth in a grin. "Don't worry, Young Master. Xiao Rangchen is completely unharmed, no one has laid a finger on him! We've made sure he's in perfect shape for you to have your fun with!"
Lou Yue choked a little. "...Then tell me, exactly what kind of fun did you have in mind?"
Thinking Lou Yue wanted him to come up with torture methods, Little Qiu immediately gushed on and on. "You took a fancy to his little sister, even gave him a chance to fight you, and that ungrateful brat not only didn't show any gratitude, he took the chance to hurt you. Why don't you shoot him a few times first, then do his sister right in front of his eyes to drive him crazy!"
Lou Yue: ... That's so vicious. He really lives up to being the despised villain's sidekick.
After he finished speaking, Little Qiu craned his neck, his eyes sparkling, waiting to be praised.
Lou Yue slowly raised her hand and pinched his shoulder blade, her tone loaded with meaning. "Little Qiu, you really are such a good subordinate of mine..."
Little Qiu chuckled. "Thank you for the praise, Young Master!"
Lou Yue's sharp glare went completely unnoticed, and she was too lazy to waste any more time chatting with this dim-witted, wicked sidekick. She pushed herself up with the armrest of the chair, her legs having fallen a little numb.
"Young Master, are you heading to the water dungeon? Shall I help you change your clothes?"
Lou Yue paused at those words.
In the novel, Lou Yue was a domineering, narrow-minded, dissolute and profligate aristocratic wastrel, while Long Aotian Xiao Rangchen was loyal and devoted, tough and decisive, cold and unflappable. The thought that the man who had shot her was still completely unhurt, keeping up his cold, unflappable act, made her too restless to stay sitting.
"Yes, I'm definitely going!" And she was going to go there full of swagger and confidence!
The water dungeon was located underground of Langlang Residence. It was obvious the cells had been newly dug, but they had every facility, not a single mess in sight. It was clear the person who had built the water dungeon was very experienced, though Lou Yue could not help but wonder where all that experience came from.
There were only two guards inside the water dungeon, both broad and muscular, each one as strong as two of Lou Yue put together. The moment they saw Lou Yue, they instantly perked up. "Young Master!"
Their voices boomed so loud Lou Yue almost winced and reached for her ears, but when she spoke, her own voice came out louder than usual. "Where is he!"
The first guard flipped the switch beside him, and with the clanking of interlocking gears, a cage was hoisted up from the water, revealing the soaked figure of Long Aotian inside.
