"Ali, what are you having for lunch?"
Tang Li sighed, slumping over her desk as she heard Axi's daily routine question.
She turned her head to look at Qin Ruoxi, who was busy putting on makeup in the mirror, and lazily teased her: "Is Axi's 'Xi' the 'C' for NPC? Why do you repeat the exact same thing every single day? Who are you going on a date with this time?"
Qin Ruoxi had just finished her makeup. With a sharp snap, she closed her compact mirror and said indignantly, "If this world really is a novel, I'm going to tear it apart. This damn world! The old fogey is forcing me to go on another blind date. I'm naturally gorgeous, yet he's still worried I won't be able to get married."
Tang Li curved her eyes into a smile, looking like a cunning fox: "I bet your dad is still traumatized by what happened back then. Everyone in the circle is gossiping that he's trying to sell his daughter off, and he even tried to arrange a marriage with my eldest brother."
"Ugh, don't mention it. Your eldest brother is way out of my league. Say something nice instead," Qin Ruoxi complained, giving Tang Li a light poke.
Tang Li swatted away the hand digging into her waist, her voice thick with sleepiness: "Like what?"
"Like what we're having for lunch, of course."
Whenever Qin Ruoxi went on blind dates, she treated them as mere formalities. The moment she arrived, if she saw that the guy was a little short or ugly, she would turn around and leave immediately. She felt that rather than eating with someone who ruined her appetite, she'd much rather dine with someone pleasing to the eye like Tang Li—it made food look much more appetizing.
"How about Japanese?" Tang Li suggested, her eyes narrowing.
"Sure. Why are you so sleepy, Ali? Did you stay up late writing your thesis again?" Qin Ruoxi lowered her mirror with a mischievous grin, leaning close to Tang Li's ear with obvious intentions.
Tang Li buried her entire face in the crook of her arm and muttered muffledly, "Yeah. You should write your own—you're graduating soon, so you'd better watch out or Old Gao will come looking for you."
"Oh, please. I am by no means Old Gao's prized final disciple. It'll be a miracle if he even remembers he has a student like me; usually, I'm the one tracking him down," Qin Ruoxi complained casually while pulling out her phone to check if the off-road vehicle she had reserved would be ready for pickup today.
A moment later, she let out a heavy sigh: "Ali, I really envy you for being such a happy trust-fund kid."
"Aren't you one yourself?" Tang Li mumbled sleepily in a counter-question.
Sighing heavily, Qin Ruoxi struck a tone that was equal parts humblebrag and helplessness: "We are definitely not the same. I'm the only child in my family, while you have three older brothers and sisters. If you don't want to inherit the family business, you have them to help you out. If I don't inherit mine, I'll be left drinking the northwest wind."
Tang Li silently rolled her eyes, her voice muffled: "Then why don't you gift me your family business to inherit? That way you won't have to stress about it anymore."
"Deal. I'll talk to the old man later and have him send betrothal gifts to the Tang family. Even though Ali isn't as pretty as me, she's barely good enough to match me," Qin Ruoxi said, blowing a kiss to herself in the mirror.
"Heh, forget it. You're not good enough for me. The professor's here—help me answer the roll call and wake me up when class starts." Tang Li pulled up her hoodie to relax her nerves.
Qin Ruoxi glanced at her and asked the boy sitting in front of them to help pull down the window blinds.
Hearing her voice, the boy instantly perrified to attention, hurried to pull the blinds, and then cast a shy, lingering glance back at her.
Qin Ruoxi put away her mirror, raised an eyebrow with a seductive smile, and asked softly, "What is it?"
The boy looked at the head resting on the desk, thinking it looked rather cute, and pulled out two iced Americanos, placing them in front of Qin Ruoxi while giving a suggestive look toward the sleeping Tang Li.
"Oh~" Qin Ruoxi caught his hint. "She doesn't like drinking this."
Unfazed, the boy pushed the paper bag forward, gesturing for her to drink it.
Qin Ruoxi didn't mind. She was sleepy herself, and if she hadn't been rushing to class, she would have bought one too. Besides, incidents like this happened every day—sometimes they were her suitors, sometimes Tang Li's.
"Thanks," she said, inserting the straw and taking a sip.
The boy silently mouthed "you're welcome" to her, then turned back around with flushed ears.
Qin Ruoxi took another sip, feeling that something was off. Just as she was about to say something to Tang Li, before she could even open her mouth, everything went black and she slumped forward.
Tang Li didn't even need to look to know what had happened. She couldn't be bothered to care, as this sort of thing happened every day. Hearing Axi hit the desk with a thud, she was about to raise her head to check when her consciousness was suddenly yanked hundreds of thousands of miles away.
"Master is currently in closed-door seclusion. No one is to disturb her."
"No, I must see Master today! I have an extremely urgent matter to report to her. Let me pass."
"Really, you can't, Senior Sister! I'll be punished if I do this."
"Master! Master, your disciple begs an audience! Your disciple has urgent matters to report, please grant me a hearing, Master..."
"Tsk." The chaotic noise by her ear startled Tang Li awake. Frowning, she was about to tell Axi to stop playing melodramatic romance videos out loud when she found herself inside a cave, her clothes transformed into luxurious, embroidered white silk robes.
She sat in place, bewildered for a few minutes, before confirming that she had transmigrated into another world as a line of bullet comments materialized out of thin air before her eyes:
[The villainous Master is a beast, but she's seriously gorgeous. The moment she appears, people in the comments are already dropping their pants. No wonder the author wants to turn her into cannon fodder.]
Tang Li's mouth twitched slightly. While the phrasing was crude, it wasn't inaccurate—though this viewer's choice of words was certainly too vulgar.
Judging by the comments, she guessed she was about to die; she was none other than the villainous Master destined to be written off as cannon fodder by the author.
Though she didn't know how she would die, it surely had something to do with the noise outside.
Patting her sleeves, she walked to the cave entrance and crouched behind a stone tablet to observe the situation in secret. Seeing only two people outside, she turned back and picked up the sword lying to the side.
The moment she touched the hilt, fragmented memories rushed into her mind, and the blade hummed slightly, as if whispering instructions.
An echo suddenly rang out in her mind: "Kill them. Kill them all."
She tapped her head, and the voice vanished. After smoothing out her attire, she stepped gracefully out of the cave.
The two people in the middle of arguing instantly fell silent, standing frozen as they gazed at the Master who seemed aloof from the mortal world.
Knowing that the more one spoke, the more mistakes one made, Tang Li simply looked at them with detachment in silence, naturally projecting an oppressive aura.
Realizing their lapse in etiquette, the two dropped to their knees, trembling.
"Master, this disciple has something to report." The pretty-featured girl bowed to the ground, though her spine remained rigidly straight.
"What is it?" Tang Li asked calmly, realizing her voice remained her own.
"Eldest Senior Sister proclaimed in the assembly hall that Master ripped out her sword bone and repeatedly bullied her using your position. Father said to investigate the matter once Master came out of seclusion, but Senior Sister produced evidence. Qing'er refuses to believe it, which is why I risked my life to seek an audience with Master, wishing to know whether this is true or false?"
Tang Li saw a gray title floating above the girl's head: [Cannon Fodder Junior Sister / Xue Zhiqing].
She guessed this must be true, as another bullet comment materialized out of thin air:
[The only brainless character in the whole book has appeared. The female protagonist has already laid out the evidence, yet she still refuses to believe it, foolishly coming over to ask—she won't even know how she dies in the end.]
"I..." Before Tang Li could finish, a jolt of electricity zapped her mouth.
Recovering quickly, she cautiously tried phrasing it differently: "This master..."
No shock this time.
Junior Sister raised her head, her eyes brimming with tears as she awaited her master's reply.
Tang Li hooked the corners of her lips slightly and reached out a hand toward her.
Looking at the well-defined fingers before her, a wave of heat suddenly rushed to the Junior Sister's face. Tremblingly, she placed her own hand into them. Just as she saw her master's lips move, she was struck as if by a lightning tribulation and promptly passed out cold.
Tang Li touched her lips; residual current still lingered there.
She had only meant to say she wasn't from this world, but she hadn't expected the feedback to be so powerful.
If she spoiled plot points to people in this world, would the backlash be greater or lesser than this?
She cast her gaze toward the disciple without a title—probably an extra so insignificant she didn't even deserve a name.
Lightly patting that disciple's head, she opened her mouth: "Master is cannon fodder..."
Before she could finish the spoiler, that disciple slumped over and passed out immediately.
Anyone who had ever conducted experiments knew that the most important variable in an experiment was the control, so Tang Li wasn't entirely sure whether spoilers or declaring her foreign origin inflicted stronger force upon NPCs.
Still, she wasn't particularly concerned with that question; right now, all she wanted was to go home.
She wondered if dying here would let her return. As for uncertain matters, she had never been one to try them lightly, so for now, she could only take things one step at a time.
An evil plan bubbled up in her mind, and Tang Li instinctively curved her lips into a smile, making her look exceptionally warm and radiant.
The newly revived Junior Sister was greeted instantly by her master's smile, and she lay on the ground, staring in a daze of infatuation.
"Take me to the assembly hall." Seeing her wake up, Tang Li estimated she had been out for about five minutes.
"Yes, Master." Blushing fiercely, Xue Zhiqing scrambled to her feet, summoned her flying sword, and stepped onto it, hovering a few meters up.
Tang Li broke out in a cold sweat. Having just arrived, she didn't know how to fly, and on top of that, she was terrified of heights. Ever since her sister had taken her rock climbing as a child and she had fallen from a height of over ten meters—even with safety mats below—it had left her with a psychological trauma. From then on, being anywhere high up terrified her.
"Master, what's wrong?" Xue Zhiqing anxiously stole glances at her master's expression, fearing she had caused some displeasure.
Lowering her gaze, Tang Li pondered how to respond.
She couldn't ask if the assembly hall was far away, nor could she naturally propose walking there.
"Nothing. Come stand with me so I can inspect whether your cultivation has grown lax lately," she forced herself to say after racking her brains for an excuse.
Xue Zhiqing, whose face had only been red a moment before, now blushed down to the tips of her ears. She hurried over to her master's side and obediently yielded two-thirds of the space.
Feeling her master's hand rest upon her shoulder, she couldn't help trembling slightly.
The unique fragrance emanating from her master enveloped her from behind, making her head spin.
The moment they lifted off, Tang Li, eyes tightly shut, felt that this Junior Sister was rather unreliable.
"Clear your mind and steady your breath," she steadied her trembling voice, imitating the cold-faced master from novels to instruct her disciple.
Xue Zhiqing swallowed hard, growing even more tense.
"Don't be afraid. Recite the sword-flight incantation aloud," Tang Li instructed in a gentle voice like early winter snow.
With her master's fragrant breath wafting against the back of her neck, Xue Zhiqing's mind went entirely blank; the harder she tried to remember the incantation, the less she could recall it.
The sword abruptly wobbled, and Tang Li lost her composure, instinctively grabbing onto the nearest thing.
With her master's arm wrapped around her waist, Xue Zhiqing completely lost her wits.
Guided by its master's chaotic thoughts, the sword spirit began careening wildly in all directions.
Rolling her eyes in sheer terror, Tang Li fainted.
Before her consciousness sank into darkness, she fervently hoped all of this was just a dream.