Escape the Miaojiang Villain - Chapter 1
Chapter 1: His Little Slave Bell-The Bride Theft
She had to run!
Tu Lingxiang had repeated this sentence in her mind a hundred and eight times already.
Yet, she couldn’t escape.
Currently, the plot dictated that she sit in the bridal chamber waiting for her groom to return.
But instead of the groom, she ended up waiting for the novel’s main villain.
Tonight, she was destined to be abducted by him.
She tried to stand up, but the System controlled her body and placated her: 【Author Dear, don’t bother struggling. Where could you possibly escape to?】
“You vile creature! You’re just a villain intoxicated with petty power. I will definitely find a way back!”
【Author Dear, still so arrogant at a time like this? No matter how arrogant you are, don’t you still have to listen to me? Hahahahaha.】
Tu Lingxiang’s spirits deflated. How could there be an author as miserable as her?
She was just an ordinary web novelist who, out of sheer laziness, had randomly used her own name for a minor cannon-fodder female character.
Who could have guessed she’d actually transmigrate into her own book?
Transmigrating was bad enough, but the worst part was becoming a sadomasochistic character destined to be abducted, imprisoned, and abused by the villain—while suffering from severe Stockholm syndrome!
(T/N: Stockholm syndrome is a psychological response where a victim or hostage develops a positive emotional bond, sympathy, or loyalty toward their captor or abuser.)
Even though she was a total sucker for villains, she certainly didn’t want to be trampled and tortured by one in real life.
This was an old-school Xianxia angst novel.
The male lead was the chief disciple of Changyan Sect, one of the two major Xianxia sects.
However, he fell in love with a Miaojiang girl allied with demons, beginning a agonizing, heart-wrenching romance.
She, on the other hand, was the only daughter of the Sect Master of Tianyi Sect—the other major Xianxia sect.
She had been betrothed to the young master of Changyan Sect since childhood, and today was their wedding day.
The two shared no actual romantic feelings; the marriage was merely to fulfill a past promise.
Now, she had already arrived at Changyan Sect in the bridal sedan chair.
They had completed the ceremonial bows to Heaven and Earth.
At this moment, she sat in the bridal chamber adorned with red silk and bright lanterns, awaiting her wedding night.
This night was destined to be turbulent.
The bridal chamber was far removed from the banquet hall.
The noisy chatter and clinking of wine cups couldn’t reach her here. Outside, it was quiet and serene, save for the occasional chirping of cicadas.
【He’s here!】
The moment the System finished speaking, it vanished.
“Hey, don’t leave! I’m scared by myself! Don’t leave me alone to face that big villain!”
No matter how she called out, the System gave no further reply. Only the gusts of wind surging from outside the window remained at her ears.
The wind blew eerie and strange, making the two carved wooden window panes—pasted with the red “Double Happiness” character—creak incessantly.
She tightened her grip on her overlapping hands atop her lap, her heart racing with unease.
The high-burning red candles inside the room were snuffed out by the demonish wind. In an instant, the entire bridal chamber plummeted into darkness.
Darkness filled her with panic.
She cautiously lifted a corner of the red bridal veil, wanting to see what was happening outside. Has the villain arrived?
She sat directly facing the window.
The large red “Double Happiness” paper on one window pane dangled down from the wind, fluttering as if ready to drop—looking strikingly like a withered, decaying rose.
A falling Double Happiness paper was hardly an auspicious omen.
She shifted her gaze toward the window.
A full moon hung high, the starry river quiet. The mountain was densely forested, with green shadows swaying. Perched upon a slanted pine tree was the tall, slender figure of a youth dressed in red.
Her eyes froze instantly—it was the villain, Lian Jing!
Lian Jing was the worst villain in the book: the son of the Demon Lord and the second prince of the Demon Race.
As a child, he had witnessed the slaughter of the Demon City, his father’s death, and his older brother being crippled.
From then on, he became a morbid, gloomy, and unpredictable person.
A person like him was someone you must never provoke. Once provoked, he wouldn’t even leave your bones behind.
He leaned sideways against that tree, his robes fluttering—a red as vivid as clouds—as if he were about to stain the full moon behind him into a blood sacrifice.
His long, pale fingers twitched a green leaf, playing with it in a leisurely, elegant manner.
The corners of his eyes slanted in her direction, his lips curving into a smile of absolute control.
Panicked, Tu Lingxiang dropped her veil and hid back in the darkness. She knew she was about to become the prey he toyed with in the palm of his hand. She couldn’t escape.
The youth on the tree discarded the leaf. With a few graceful leaps—like a butterfly flitting through the wind and stepping over leaves—he landed inside her window.
The “Double Happiness” paper on the wooden window finally gave up and fell to the floor. The youth’s dark-cloud silver-thread boots stepped ruthlessly onto the paper.
Tu Lingxiang’s shoulders trembled slightly. She heard his boots making sounds on the floor like an approaching evil spirit, each step treading right upon her heart.
With her head lowered, she caught sight of a pair of feet beneath the gaps of her fringed red veil. The vibrant red hem of his robes blended into the color of her wedding dress, as if he were the groom coming for the wedding night.
The next instant, just like a groom, one of his long fingers—steeped in moonlight—pried open the bottom edge of her gold-bordered red veil and flipped it open with a sweep of his hand.
Rough and rude.
She shrank back in fear, lifted her eyelashes, and looked up at him.
This… was the character she had written?
The youth possessed dark hair and a handsome face, fair skin, and red lips. His long, elegant eyebrows were sharp as sword blades, and his crimson peach-blossom eyes curved slightly upward. His high-bridged nose was nearly translucent under the moonlight, his jawline smooth and defined, and his thin lips naturally red without any rouge. He was several times more handsome than she had imagined!
She was so immersed in his good looks that she couldn’t tear her eyes away.
So this was what it felt like to see a character from her own pen stand before her.
Surreal, yet laced with tension.
She saw a smile rippling in his eyes, the corners of his lips curving slightly, but the words he spoke were exceptionally piercing:
“Just this pathetic trash?”
His tone carried extreme disdain.
Tu Lingxiang: “???”
Having said that, he heavily dropped her red veil back down. With a stretch of his long arm, he hoisted her onto his shoulder.
“Ah!!!”
Tu Lingxiang shrieked. She was hauled over his shoulder, head facing down, her entire body hanging upside down against him.
The satin mandarin-duck veil slid right off her head. She helplessly clutched his clothes, terrified she might slip and crash down.
She wailed in her heart: Can’t you be a little gentler?!
This inverted position made her stomach churn terribly. Before they had even taken a few steps, she began to feel dizzy and lightheaded.
Outside the room, several maidservants had long since collapsed in a faint.
Lian Jing held both of her legs with one hand and carried her effortlessly over his shoulder as he walked toward the courtyard.
Having finally made a trip to Changyan Sect, how could he settle for taking just the bride?
His eyes shifted, and he turned toward the clamorous banquet area.
“Young hero… how about… you knock me unconscious?”
Tu Lingxiang held onto his clothes and pleaded. She felt truly miserable—she wanted to vomit but couldn’t, and she was too dizzy to faint, forced to endure it clear-headed.
If she fainted, it wouldn’t hurt anymore.
Hearing her voice, the youth paused and turned his head to look at her, suspicion showing in his handsome features: “Why aren’t you screaming?”
“…???”
I asked you to knock me out, and you’re asking me to scream?
Tu Lingxiang had no choice but to open her delicate mouth and try calling out twice: “Help! Help…”
Her calling sounded like a cat scratching—completely devoid of strength.
The youth said discontentedly: “Scream louder.”
“…”
Pervert!!!
Finally unable to control her emotions, she burst into bitter tears.
How could she be so unlucky to transmigrate into this minor character’s body? At the thought of enduring all sorts of inhumane torture from him in the future, with home being impossibly far away, she felt overwhelmingly aggrieved.
Hearing her crying, the lingering suspicion in Lian Jing’s heart finally evaporated, replaced by an excited gleam in his eyes. Carrying her on his shoulder, he traversed the winding mountain paths. Beneath the sparse moonlight, he looked like a thrill-intoxicated ghost coming to claim a soul.
The girl was slung over his shoulder, her red wedding dress embroidered with exquisite golden phoenixes fluttering against the night wind. The golden hairpin and phoenix crown on her head jingled and swayed, casting brilliant sparkles under the moonlit night. The faint weeping from her mouth sounded like the mournful cry of a nightingale, sobbing and complaining.
The youth bounded over several steps as light as a swallow, while the girl on his shoulder turned deathly pale, dry-heaving twice in agony.
Heavens, who will save this author?!
The youth finally halted.
His tall, upright figure stood atop a boulder, looking toward the grand wedding banquet not far ahead. Lanterns and colorful decorations were hung everywhere, with red silk draped high. A man in bright red ceremonial robes was walking between tables holding a wine flask, offering toasts. Flush with joy, he had no idea his bride had long been carried off.
“Bride theft, is it?”
A malevolent smile curled up the corners of the youth’s mouth.
“Then of course it must be done… grandly and sensationally.”
With those words, he placed Tu Lingxiang into a nearby haystack.
The straw bale, bound from dried grass, was typically used by Changyan Sect disciples for martial arts practice.
There were twenty to thirty of them in this area, each as tall as a person. He stuffed her inside to hide her, sealed her acupoints, and then turned and departed.
Tu Lingxiang watched his figure vanish quickly. With the dry grass concealing her body, she could only peek through the tiny gaps to see the situation outside.
Before long, several alarmed cries rang out: “Fire! Fire!”
Soon after, she saw bright red flames bursting forth from the eaves ahead. The red “Double Happiness” lanterns hanging under the eaves were swallowed by the tongues of fire in no time.
The panicked voices of the disciples grew louder and louder. Everyone was shocked by the sudden disaster on this wedding night; only Tu Lingxiang knew that Lian Jing had set the fire.
“Put out the fire! Quick, put out the fire!”
Countless voices erupted from all directions. Tu Lingxiang saw the fire outside growing brighter and brighter, like a phoenix reborn from flames, soaring straight into the dark blue sky.
Someone passed by her haystack. Anxious, she tried hard to open her mouth, but she couldn’t make a single sound.
It wasn’t just one person—many people ran past her.
She heard someone say: “What on earth is going on? How could a fire break out so suddenly?”
“I don’t know! Could some drunk guy have knocked over a candlestick?”
“Doesn’t look like it. This fire is suspicious—it started simultaneously from four directions, and only Zhengqing Hall, where the banquet is held, caught fire. It looks like someone deliberately set it to disrupt today’s wedding.”
Hiding in the haystack, Tu Lingxiang thought to herself: Kid, since you’re so smart, can’t you think a little bolder? Like… the bride being kidnapped?!
She watched helplessly as their backs disappeared, feeling utterly hopeless. How could not a single person notice that this haystack was abnormal?
Suddenly, a haystack not far ahead caught a stray spark somehow and burst into flames.
Immediately after, the haystack next to it ignited too—two, three… spreading endlessly.
Tu Lingxiang looked in horror at the raging flames. Thick smoke billowed into her nostrils, and unable to reach up to cover her nose, she had no choice but to inhale the fumes.
She didn’t know when the flames would spread to her. Could she really be this miserable—dying on her very first day of transmigrating into the book?
Lian Jing, hurry up and come back!
she screamed in her heart.
Unbeknownst to her, the youth she was calling for in her heart was currently half-crouching on a tree to the side. In his hand, he held a bundle of small, dry twigs with sparks lit at their tips. He pinched a twig, narrowed his eyes to aim, and shot it down toward a haystack. With a smile curling his lips, he looked relaxed and leisurely, as if playing darts.
He was having a blast. Soon, only the very last haystack at the bottom remained unignited.
And Tu Lingxiang was cowering right inside that very haystack. Surrounded by swirling smoke and scorching heat, sweat poured off her body. Her face was flushed red from the heat, and her almond eyes were filled with tears from the stinging smoke.
Helplessness sprouted wildly in her heart. She couldn’t move, couldn’t escape—she could only wait to be burned to death.
After an unknown amount of time, a red-robed youth dropped down from the smoke ahead. She felt as joyful as if seeing a savior, but the moment she saw the spark-bearing twig pinched between his fingertips, she instantly fell into an abyss of ice.
So the fires in the surrounding haystacks were set by him!
He did it on purpose!
The youth walked at an unhurried pace, dressed in elegant red robes. A hairband woven with silver thread and red ribbon bound his long hair, fluttering wildly in the wind. He walked out from the firelight, bearing the overwhelming pressure of the God of Death.
In mere moments, he arrived before her. His slender fingers parted the dry grass in front of her face, as if tearing through the night’s firelight.
In his other hand, the sparks on the twig danced cheerfully—didn’t it look just like dreamlike, dazzling fireworks?
His peach-blossom eyes were saturated with firelight. In those two pools of fire, Tu Lingxiang saw her own pathetic, feeble reflection. She saw the outer corners of his eyes slant slightly upward as he brought the twig close to the haystack. In an instant, the haystack was ignited. Yet, at the very moment the flames flared up, he softly called her name:
“Tu Lingxiang.”
His gaze turned ruthless, filled with boundless, surging hatred.
“Did you… miss me?”
It was a greeting from three hundred years ago—a greeting to a mortal enemy.
