How To Survive as a Villain

The young soldier, Bao Yinxin, left with a wound and two pairs of medicine, a golden glow falling behind him. Zhang Baizhu patted Xiao YuAn’s shoulder: “If the Eastern Wu Kingdom defeats the Southern Yan Kingdom, will they have to send a small team here to thank you?”

Xiao YuAn shook his head. He wanted to smile, but his mouth was full of bitterness. He had to stop trying to smile as he turned around, walking back into the medical shop in silence.

Zhang Changsong was bent over the medicine cabinet to grab some medicine, when he saw Xiao YuAn walk in. He glanced at him and asked: “When are you going to the Western Shu Kingdom?”

Xiao YuAn replied: “I’ll leave the day after tomorrow.”

Zhang Changsong nodded and tossed him a small medicine bag: “I’ve heard that there are many poisonous insects in the Western Shu Kingdom. If you wear this, you’ll be less likely to get bitten by them. Also, in recent years, there has been a lot of wars; and even though the Western Shu Kingdom has been a safe space, it’s still a long journey. You should be more careful.”

Xiao YuAn bent his eyes as he took the medicine bag, putting it inside his clothes. “Yes, I know. Thank you, Shifu.”

Zhang Changsong coughed: “If you can, act as a matchmaker for Baizhu.”

After saying that, Zhang Changsong’s face was red, the blush even spread on his neck. He hurriedly walked from the main hall to the back hall. Xiao YuAn was completely stunned for a brief moment, when he came back to reality, he started to laugh out loud: “Shifu, I know! I’ll find him-…”

A loud roar suddenly came from the back hall: “Don’t shout so loud, you damn brat!!!”

Zhang Baizhu poked his head from behind the door: “What, what, what?”

From the back hall the loud roar continued: “Nothing! Go sun dry the medicinal herbs!!!”

…

On the seventh day of July, in the Western Shu Kingdom, the color red was spread all over the Imperial City. The gong sounds and the Suona¹ could be heard everywhere. The high pitched voices echoed in every corner, and the streets were bustling with people², even a drop of water couldn’t leak out³.

“Heavens, whose young lady is getting married with such great pomp?” Said a surprised man.

“Hahaha!” Some bystanders were laughing at him. “You’re clearly not from the Western Shu Kingdom, are you? In the land of Jiuzhou⁴, what woman of any family would have such a show?”

“And she is?”

“She’s the Princess of the Western Shu Kingdom, Princess PingYang, is getting married!”

“So that’s how it is!”

As soon as the voices of the passersby fell silent, the wedding procession, which had no tail in sight, came bustling along. What’s even more surprising, was that there wasn’t a Prince riding on a big horse wearing wedding clothing in the procession!

Instead, there were two big sedan chairs carried by eight men, with carvings of Luan⁵ and Phoenixes on them. One in front of the other, walked slowly towards the General’s residence, accompanied by the lively wedding music in the background.

The General’s residence was already filled with red lanterns and covered with red gauze, decorated with lots of lights all around. When the sedan chairs landed safely at the gate of the General’s mansion, the maids beside the sedan chairs lifted up the curtains, and helped Yongning and Xiao PingYang, who were wearing embroidered Phoenix red veils.

Amidst the sound of congratulations from the guests, the two women were helped into the hall.

Xiao YuAn watched the two women wearing the Phoenix-crowned veils slowly walking towards him. Since he was Yongning’s Elder Brother, and since her father was dead, Xiao YuAn was considered as Princess Yongning Gaotang⁶.

Although he couldn’t see their faces under the red veil now, Xiao YuAn could still imagine how unique and stunningly beautiful they should be looking right now.

When Xiao YuAn arrived at the Western Shu Kingdom, the two girls couldn’t wait to talk with him about how much they missed each other, and what they had experienced in the year or so since the last time they saw each other. The two girls spoke only of goodwill to him, and passed over all malice.

However, Xiao YuAn could still guess how many hardships and obstacles they must have gone through to get to this point.

Princess Yongning, coming from an unknown origin, spent so much effort just to be acknowledged.

Making accommodations⁷, and being inferior to others, were things that this Princess, who had been held as a jewel ever since she was born, had to experience.

In order to live in seclusion with Princess Yongning, Xiao PingYang not only gave up competing for the throne with her brothers, but also planned to give up her position as General in the future.

The thorns along the way bruised the two girls. Fortunately, today, the Lord of Heaven didn’t disappoint these two beautiful women.

The wedding banquet was attended by the Xiao Royal family. Because in the original book the Western Shu Kingdom has the element of female pride and dignity, most of the Royal family with the Xiao surname were women. They were also very elegant, and didn’t involve themselves into the vulgarity of drinking and shouting.

Xiao YuAn is aware that he’s an outsider. As he was quietly watching the dancing while drinking wine, he couldn’t help but overhear the conversations and addresses of the women beside him, and think…

Hey, this one will be one of Yan HeQing’s wives in the future.

This other one will also be Yan HeQing’s wife.

Oh, another wife.

And another Yan HeQing’s future wife.

So in the original book, and just from the Xiao Royal family alone, did Yan HeQing really sleep with so many girls?!

In addition to beautiful women, the Western Shu Kingdom is also famous for its wine. There was no need to mention how intoxicating the Princess’s wedding wine was, but he even drank a whole jar of wine. Xiao YuAn’s head was heavy and his feet were light⁸, his whole body felt like it was floating.

He got up unsteadily, wanting to pee, and after asking some people, he drunkenly walked to the back garden of the General’s mansion. Unexpectedly, as soon as he stepped out of the main hall, he collided with a man.

Xiao YuAn’s head was pounding with pain. For a moment, he lowered his head, covered it, and then inhaled softly. At the same time, he heard someone screaming behind him, “Wangye!”

“I’m fine.” The man held Xiao YuAn’s arm and smiled warmly behind him, indicating that he was unharmed. Then he looked back at Xiao YuAn to ask him: “Xiongdi, are you hurt anywhere?”

Xiao YuAn rubbed his head and waved his hand: “No, no.”

“That’s good.”

“Xiao-Wangye, Princess PingYang is still waiting for you.” A young man urged him.

“Ah… right, let’s go.” The man nodded as he released Xiao YuAn and walked away.

Xiao YuAn, who was in a trance because of the pain, felt that the voice of that man was particularly familiar. He rubbed his head and turned around to look. However, because of his drunk state, he could only see a vague and blurry figure walking away.

It was reasonable to say that from the Western Shu Kingdom, he didn’t know anyone other than Xiao PingYang, so Xiao YuAn thought this weird feeling was just his own delusion as he rubbed his head and walked towards the garden.

After peeing and being blown by the cool breeze from the garden, Xiao YuAn’s head was now much more clear. At least, he wouldn’t be fidgeting on his feet and seeing people as blurry shadows.

Xiao YuAn didn’t hurry back to the main hall, instead, he wandered around the garden. The scenery was very beautiful, but unfortunately, the buzzing of the mosquitoes made Xiao YuAn feel very annoyed. He touched his waist, only to find out that at some time, which Xiao YuAn wasn’t aware of, the medicinal bag Zhang Changsong gave to him to repel insects had gone missing. It should’ve been when he was still in a drunken state that the bag must have fallen, without him noticing.

Xiao YuAn had no choice but to go back to the main hall; however, when he stepped in, a black-clothed Imperial bodyguard, with a sword at his waist, suddenly stopped in front of him. Xiao YuAn was so shocked that he took half a step back and thought to himself ‘I didn’t do anything’.

The Imperial bodyguard, with a straight face, reached out and handed over a small medicine bag to him: “Before, when you two collided, this fell off from you. Wangye picked it up and asked me to give it back to you.”

Xiao YuAn nodded his head in sudden realization and said: “Thank you.”

The Imperial bodyguard nodded, turned around, and walked towards a man standing at the gate of the mansion. After the Imperial bodyguard briefly whispered to the man, the man nodded and walked out of the General’s mansion.

Xiao YuAn’s eyes followed the Imperial bodyguard’s footsteps all the way, until finally, he stopped at Wangye’s face.

However, after a single glance, all of a sudden Xiao YuAn felt that all the blood in his body was rushing to his head. The wine he had just drunk was rattling through his limbs. His body was so stiff that he felt like he couldn’t breathe properly, and his eyes, who intensively stared at that man, couldn’t believe what he had just seen a moment ago.

That Wangye was dressed in a silver and white embroidered crane robe. His clear and elegant features were really handsome, his eyes were warm and moist, and the corners of his mouth were raised in a beautiful and heroic smile.

This Wangye, and Xiao YuAn’s original appearance from his previous life, looked exactly the same. Even in terms of height and figure. It was exactly the same.

Yay for 100 translated chapters!!! ☆*:. o(≧▽≦)o .:*☆(Although I started at the 11th hehe) Thank y’all for reading this novel! Now, we’re 135 chapters (including extras) away from the end 👀💕💕

Ohhhhhh our Princesses are married (((o(♡´▽`♡)o)))💕💕💕 and who’s that “familiar” Wangye 👀👀👀👀

Footnotes

1. 唢呐 suǒ nà; The suona is a reed wind instrument. The traditional suona is bright in tone and loud in volume, the body is made of wood, with a round vertebral link-like shape and a reeded “whistle” at the upper end. The suona is a wooden pipe with a brass bell at its lower end called a bowl. The shape of the suona is more like the oboe in an orchestra. It’s used in festivals and processions or for military purposes.
2. 熙熙攘攘 xī xī rǎng rǎng; It’s a Chinese idiom, it’s used to describe people coming and going, very lively and crowded / Describes how noisy people are. From《史记·货殖列传》(shǐ jì·huò zhí liè zhuàn), “Records of the Grand Historian: A Biography of Merchants”, written by (司马迁 sī mǎ qiān) Sima Qian [145-86 BC], an historian from the Han Dynasty [202 BC–220 AC], also known as the father of Chinese historiography.
3. 水泄不通 shuǐ xiè bù tōng; It’s a Chinese idiom, it means crowded or surrounded very tightly / Impenetrable / Crowded so tightly that you can’t move / Be packed with people / So closely surrounded that it is impossible to break out. From《景德传灯录》(jǐng dé chuán dēng lù), “Record of the Passing the Lantern from Jingde”, written by (释道原 shì dào yuán) Shi Daoyuan, a writer from the Northern Song Dynasty [960-1127].
4. 九州 jiǔ zhōu; An alternative name for ancient China. The word Jiuzhou first appeared in the pre-Qin period, and has been a national concept of the Chinese Han ancestors since ancient times. Since the Warring States period, Jiuzhou has been a synonym for ancient China, and since the Han dynasty, it has been a synonym for Han regions. After 1912, the term 中国 zhōng guó (China) was used to refer to this multi-ethnic country.
5. 鸾 luán; A mythical bird related to the Phoenix. It’s a popular saying in the Han and Jin Dynasties’ fiction that the Luan is regarded as the messenger of the Goddess of Spring, and the symbol of the Eastern and Western Princes.
6. 高堂 gāo táng; Honorific name for one’s parents. In other words, since Yongning’s father is dead, Xiao YuAn has the role of the Father in the wedding.
7. 委曲求全 wěi qū qiú quán; It’s a Chinese idiom, It means to accommodate reluctantly in order to preserve security. It also means to make concessions for the sake of the greater good. From《汉书·严彭祖传》(hàn shū·yán péng zǔ chuán), “History of the Former Han Dynasty: Yan Peng Ancestral Biography”, written by (班固 bān gù) Ban Gu [32-92 AC], an historian from the Eastern Han Dynasty [25-220 AC].
8. 头重脚轻 tóu zhòng jiǎo qīng; It’s a Chinese modism, it describes physical discomfort. Also known as dizziness, it’s a common, unpleasant sensation when you feel dizzy, often accompanied by the feeling that you may faint.