Chapter 41.1: Raising a Bride 2

Xie MingLang's home was a humble little wooden house situated by a creek in the valley.

It was a quiet place, with beautiful looming mountains in the background and the water was clean and clear, in fact, the stream originated from the top of the mountain, where natural snow melted and eventually formed a long stream that stretched out of the valley.

Gu MingYue followed the man silently and along the way, she quickly browsed through the plot of the original story.

When she entered this world, her emotions were in a state of disarray, so she had not paid too much attention to the entire plot, and instead, only the important bits just so she would not behave unusually in front of Xie MingLang and give rise to suspicion.

In fact, she should be grateful for the timing of it, because she was given the opportunity to mourn her grief and vent all of her negative emotions in the name of Xie Zhang.

May the grief and nostalgia she had for that particular person subside and flow away together with her tears...

After crying, she would be able to regain her energy to complete the task at hand. At this point, Gu MingYue imagined herself to be an emotionless machine that would only complete tasks efficiently and would no longer have personal emotions such as love, joy, or sadness. She would transcend beyond the need for emotions and desires, and force herself to move forward with only one goal in mind.

And she would use every advantage she had to achieve this.

In fact, she wondered if she should've done this a long time ago, but her own inability to let go of her newfound joy backfired on her terribly, giving her a taste of unforgettable pain and despair.

If time could be reversed and if the mission could be repeated, if she saw that person again... Gu MingYue felt her heart hardening into freezing ice and her mind becoming unusually calm.

The mission target was just yet another man... And for a person whose heart no longer beat with colors, she could easily achieve twice the results with half the effort if she made full use of her given advantages to complete the task.

For someone who no longer considered themselves a human, what else did she need to worry about?

Gu MingYue carefully ran through the original plot in her mind. In the plot, the officially recognized love interest for Xie MingLang was a woman named Hui Niang, who was married to a wealthy widower. Hui Niang was in her early twenties, with a charming and graceful demeanor, and when she spoke, it was as if her voice was coated in layers of honey, causing her to be extremely popular with the men around her.

And because Hui Niang had a lot of ways and methods of dealing with men, she managed to hold full control of her husband's properties within her palms. Hence, when she became a widow within two years of marrying into the wealthy businessman's family, her luxurious lifestyle did not change thereof.

After becoming a widow, Hui Niangquickly sold off all of her family's properties, dismissed all of the original servants in the family, and re-selected new ones from the human-trade merchant before settling down in Ji Jiang City, where Xie MingLang and his children lived.

Hui Niang bought a big mansion, and she spent her days hooking up with handsome young men in the city. In fact, for a woman who was born and raised in this era, Hui Niang was indeed a bold person. She would often drink and have fun with the men in the city with no regard for her own reputation at all.

It might also be due to the chaotic world that they lived in right now. The Central Plains were divided into sixteen small countries, each with its own army forces. And because the previous unity no longer existed, the people were used to wars breaking out everywhere and human lives were unimportant.

At such times when the common people were fearful and depressed, many chose to put aside the shackles of philosophy and religion, and instead, spoke and acted unrestrainedly, hence developing this free and easy attitude toward life. They craved and cherished everything that would provide emotional value as no one knew when their lives would end, so many chose to spend their remaining days however they liked.

This is also an era where wine was already discovered, and many chose to be intoxicated with alcohol, and their pursuit of culture, beauty, and pleasure had also reached an unprecedented level.

This had caused Hui Niang to be exceptionally popular with young men, because not only was she a charming beauty, she too had some talents in creating poems and arts. How could anyone not rejoice under such a talented beauty?

Contrary to the common people, the nobles chose to place greater importance on the view of the entire family, and in order to maintain their noble lineage, the nobles developed the attitude of neglecting their concubines and their children as they were of inferior bloodlines, sometimes treating them worst than the family servants. After having his life endangered by his so-called 'family', Xie MingLang had chosen to leave and lived in seclusion within the mountains and forest. After his wife passed away, he spent most of his time raising his two children alone for years. He had no way of communicating with young women and lived a life like an ascetic monk.

One day, Hui Niang and her handmaiden decided to enter the forest to enjoy the landscape but ended up losing their way in the forest and unintentionally reaching the valley near the creek. She was then accidentally bitten by a poisonous water snake by the stream, and Xie MingLang appeared like an angel to save her life. He had sucked out the poisonous blood from her ankle with his mouth and then carried her all the way home before carefully washing her wounds and bandaging them.

Xie MingLang's looks were not widely sought after, because in this era's aesthetics, most women craved men who were as pale as snow with a thin and skinny frame. Meanwhile, Xie MignLang was tall and strong, with healthy honey-tanned skin and a lean but muscular body. And though his face was handsome and cold, his words and deed were not vulgar, and instead, very polite and gentlemanly.

The beautiful and affectionate Hui Niang had fallen in love with him at first sight, and started pursuing him with her ways. Under such circumstances, how could he endure the seduction of such a mature and charming beauty?

After that, the remaining plot was basically cliché. Hui Niang ended up marrying Xie MingLang, and both he and Xie Yi moved into Hui Niang's mansion within Ji Jiang City.

However, as soon as Hui Niang realized that her adopted daughter was so much more beautiful than herself, she instantly decided that Xie Yi was an eyesore. Hence, under the pretense of a mother's goodwill, she quickly married Xie Yi off to a wealthy man in the city, who was infamous for torturing and murdering women.

Xie Yi eventually died of a 'sudden illness' not long after getting married to the wealthy man, while Xie MingLang, who had been kept in the dark about the real cause of her death, was unaware of what happened to Xie Yi.

As the saying goes, a stepmother would bring about a stepfather... It seemed that this was still the eternal truth of the world.

Gu MingYue was twelve years old and her body was already showing signs of a blooming lady. At this time, Hui Niang had just gotten married to the wealthy widow, so the original plot had not yet unfolded, giving her plenty of room to make her moves.

After long consideration, she was determined to take advantage of Xie MingLang's love and fondness for her, his remaining family member, to eventually pursue an intimate relationship with him. Hence, she needed to change his perception of her, from an adopted daughter to that of a woman that he can embrace with his heart and body.

Gu MingYue looked down at her petite body speechlessly, but decided to fight for it anyway! A lolita vs uncle relationship had always been surreptitiously sought for among many, this was what she found out from the novels she had read in her previous life.

Her young and flawless body had just begun developing, and such a young body could easily arouse a man's sexual desire, as the man would have the opportunity to raise and bloom the girl into the specific flower he preferred, and many men might subconsciously hope to have such an opportunity.

This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, that would be enjoyed by Xie MingLang in the near future.

Gu MingYue had initially felt uneasy about this, as she had still not yet fully recovered from the modern morals that she had gotten accustomed to, but she had quickly convinced herself otherwise. This was a time and era where women were considered mature after their first bleeding, and were expected to be married with children by fifteen...

Whatsmore, wasn't she herself originally from such an era too?...

I was busy with work yesterday so I didn't manage to translate anything 🥲

It seems as if our MC is hella not used to going back to the ancient days with her modernized culture 😂 Hell, if I went back in time, I would die within one day of not having my phone with me ngl...