Editor: Casey

The memories that Shi Qing saw were still quite clear and crisp.

After all, the original was only sixteen years old this year, and his days were rather monotonous and repetitive. In light of this, Shi Qing decided to skip through the parts related to the original plotline.

This was a counter attacking story set in an alternative past.

According to the original author’s setting, the world fell into chaos after the monarchy collapsed. With the imperial family all dead, some of their subordinates began to covet what was not theirs. Some among them could be considered very distantly related to the royal family, while others rose from nothing or were former ministers. All raised their own banners and declared themselves kings.

The number of rebels was too large to count on one hand. But since the Central Plain was so large, people were too busy consolidating their own territory to bother with others, leading to a patchwork of territories.

The patchwork was especially shoddy-looking. After all, there were just too many rebels.

The total number was unclear because more and more people popped up with their own banners, like bamboo shoots after the spring rain.

In these turbulent days of war, there was one city that wasn’t particularly affected due to being ruled by the most powerful and well-established feudal king.

In this city, the young ladies of the wealthy families were still competing over clothes and jewellery as usual, and the young masters of the wealthy families were still dressed in vibrant robes and riding wild horses for fun.

For them, the chaotic situation outside had nothing to do with them. They were still young masters and mistresses, brothers and sisters.

The male protagonist’s family and the original host’s family both live inside this Crane City.

However, despite both being children of rich and powerful families, their fates were very different.

The protagonist’s family was a large one, with more than a hundred descendants in the mainline alone. He was just the son of a maidservant born from a drunken encounter with the second master.

Although the world was changing and some of the commoners were starving, it was still business as usual for these large families. They could take in as many concubines as they want and place just as much emphasis on the main family line and family background as before.

So you could imagine what life was like for the protagonist who was born to a slave girl since his status was even lower than a concubine’s son.

However!

He is the protagonist!

Of course he could not live like this for the rest of his life.

So back when he was still a young boy, since he was not qualified to go to the interior school and could not afford to go to an outside school either, the protagonist could only quietly listen to the lessons by the window to supplement his knowledge.

When he grew up and became more knowledgeable, he made his own plans.

Of course there were cannon fodders trying to harm him along the way, but the cunning protagonist, he took care of all of them methodically.

However, the protagonist, who was living a pretty decent life so far, suddenly suffered an inexplicable calamity.

Things went like this: In Crane City, there was only one family in equal standing with the Crane City Jiang Family, and they were the Crane City Shi family.

Unlike the Jiang family, which has descendants aplenty, the Shi family has always had few children and grandchildren. By the original host’s generation, even though his father tried hard to marry in aunts and wives, he ended up with one son and a bunch of daughters. Naturally, that son was the original host.

So you could imagine how important this little sprout was. Even if he wasn’t particularly good at anything, even if he was spoiled and domineering, he was the entire Shi family’s lifeline.

Alas, the Jiang family’s second master’s legitimate son, aka the protagonist’s older brother, married this little lifeline’s legitimate older sister. He didn’t treat her with the slightest bit of respect. He drank and played around outside all day, sometimes sending a message back that she would be sharing the bed with a prostitute he brought back at night.

In any era, the status of a prostitute was at the bottom.

By comparing a prostitute with a lady from the Shi family, this dimwitted guy was basically stepping on the entire Shi family’s face. No wonder the original host, who happened to be invited to the flower boat at the time, flipped out.

He was always a vengeful person, so he straight up fought with the Jiang family’s young master. However, his upbringing made him all bark and no bite. Not only did he lose, he was also pushed into the water.

After pulling the original host up, that Jiang family young master knew he had gone too far this time. Afraid of getting into trouble, he threw the pot to the protagonist.

That young master relied on the fact that no one actually saw the push amidst the chaos. Anyways, the original host just needed a scapegoat to vent his anger and salvage his reputation. So the neglected protagonist, who was even less than a servant in the eyes of the Jiang family, became the original host’s punching bag.

In front of many people, the original host took his whip and gave the protagonist a hundred lashes until he fainted from the pain.

Fortunately, he was a weak young master who had just been pulled out of the water, so the protagonist’s life was spared.

But a hundred lashes weren’t enough for the protagonist to escape from the clutches of the original host. His legitimate brother was afraid of the Shi family blaming him, so he decided to give the protagonist to the original host.

That’s right. Even though they were brothers, he, the legitimate son, was able to give away his concubine-born brother with all the confidence in the world.

The protagonist happened to somewhat resemble his older brother, who was mortal enemies with the original host. The two families could not afford to feud over this, so the original host whipped and tormented the protagonist whenever he was upset.

The protagonist endured this for two years before escaping through careful planning at the age of twenty.

He killed whoever blocked his path, going straight to one of those people proclaiming themselves king and becoming a general.

As a stumbling block in the protagonist’s journey, of course the original host panicked after seeing the person he had humiliated in every way ascend to a position of power.

He was afraid that the protagonist would retaliate, so he acted first and bribed someone to fabricate evidence that he was planning to attack Crane City. This angered the ruler of Crane City, who was getting on in age and already afraid of people taking away his power. Upon catching wind of this, he immediately sent people over to that ‘king’, threatening war if the protagonist was not handed over.

The king the protagonist served was also a straightforward man. He gave orders to capture him and hand him over.

But the protagonist’s title wasn’t just for show. He wouldn’t let himself be captured that easily.

When he saw that thing weren’t looking good for him, he decided to revolt and flee to a third ‘king’ with his troops and horses. The two of them worked together to take down Crane City and incorporate its troops into their own.

Shi Qing didn’t even have to look at the ending. The protagonist definitely fought his way to the top and became the emperor etc. etc.

A typical refreshing story.

The author was pretty skilled. They kept the internal logic of the novel consistent and the plot riveting. Alas, it was written too well. The readers liked it so much that the story became a world of its own.

As a result, the protagonist was immediately besieged by many problems now that his protagonist aura was gone.

The first problem was that a person who had been whipped a hundred times and dragged to a cold, wet woodshed couldn’t survive without medicine.

That’s right, the protagonist died after the world became real.

His cause of death was unclear, but that didn’t matter because the world definitely collapsed due his death. And the person who killed him was none other than the original host, whose body Shi Qing was using.

At this point, he’s almost figured out why that person had become the villain.

After all, although the original owner did not have much strength, he had a strong background. As the only son of the Shi family, and a legitimate one at that, everyone from the old mistresses to the concubine-born daughters spoiled him.

His own father didn’t like him much due to him being so high key despite having little ability. But since Shi Qing was his only son and inheritor, he was allowed to walk all over the Shi family, no, the entire Crane City.

After all, in this chaotic era, the Shi family, with its back to the mountains and money and food in hand, held a very high status in Crane City.

Shi Qing: System, check the animosity value.

System: Ding! Jiang Bieyu’s animosity value: 100

/100

That came as no surprise.

Shi Qing was used to it at this point.

He was already getting excited about the protagonist becoming a big shot in the military in the future.

He sat up straight away and listened to the woman outside curse.

The Shi family moved to this city from Jiangnan, so their way of speaking was very soft and sticky. As a result, her cursing didn’t sound vulgar at all. In fact, it was quite pleasing to the ear.

While Shi Qing listened in a good mood, he suddenly realized something.

He opened his mouth and tried to say something.

As expected, his voice was just as soft and sticky. His curses held no force behind them.

Author’s Corner

This is fantasy! Fantasy! Fantasy!!

This world’s setting was changed, la. The original had some aspects that touched on sensitive matters, and I was told writing it wouldn’t be good. I’ve changed the world’s setting, but the relationship and plot will stay the same. It’s a fantasy world, so I can still get my wish to make the Gong wear cool military attire and ride a white horse