Chapter 31: Princess Jin Min
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“Wake up, wake up, little girl, wake up!”
Dazed and confused, Bai Mianmian opened her eyes.
A burly man clad in armor immediately greeted her with a broad smile.
“Good, you’re awake. Don’t be frightened. Uncle here isn’t a bad man. I may have a face full of beard, but I’m definitely one of the good guys!”
“Waaah... I want to go home! I want my mother...”
“Don’t come any closer! Stay away! Ah... help! Somebody help me!”
“How dare you! Who gave you permission to be so rude to this princess?! Go away, go away!”
Compared with the various surprises discovered in the other crates, she was the sole oddity.
After staring at the man for a moment, she slowly rose to her feet.
Having gone two days without so much as a drop of water, she was rather weak. Even the way she looked around was soft and feeble.
That was precisely how she needed to appear at a time like this.
Soldiers surrounded them on every side, all sharp-eyed elites.
If she appeared even slightly too composed, she could be singled out and interrogated later.
“Oh dear, be careful. Who knows how many days you’ve been asleep? Your hands and feet have gone stiff.”
Bai Mianmian made a convincing show of stumbling.
After she nearly fell several times, the burly man reached out and caught her. She, meanwhile, pressed her lips together and raised a resolute hand to point toward the plump little girl.
The man understood at once. He hurriedly scooped Bai Mianmian up into his arms, carrying her like a princess. She found the position somewhat uncomfortable.
“Erya!” The little girl wore an equally bewildered expression. “Are you all right?”
Bai Mianmian: “...”
Just as expected of the heroine.
She was first-rate at putting on an act!
“It looks like someone rescued us...”
“Brother Zheng! Brother Zheng! You nearly scared me to death! If you hadn’t come to save me, I would have been angry with you~ Waaaah... I knew Brother Zheng was the best. I knew you would come rescue me...”
The delicate, coquettish voice interrupted Zhang Huilan’s deliberate prompting.
Amid the crowd, a radiant young girl dressed in pale yellow came flying toward them... and threw herself into the arms of the tall young man standing beside Zhang Huilan’s crate.
“Princess Min!”
A cry of astonishment rang out, and the surroundings fell silent in an instant.
The radiant girl’s sobs sounded especially loud in the stillness.
“Waaah... I was so frightened! Brother Zheng, I ran into bad people. One of them pressed a disgusting handkerchief over my mouth and nose. No matter how hard I struggled, I couldn’t break free...”
“Weren’t you supposed to have returned to the capital?!”
The young man finally came to his senses and pushed the girl away.
She staggered and frowned. Then, when she noticed the anger between his brows, she shrank her neck and murmured, “I missed Grandfather, so I wanted to come to Black Tiger Pass first and see him.”
“Utter nonsense!” the young man roared.
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Wasn’t it utter nonsense?
The heroine, hero, second female lead, second male lead, and third female lead had actually all gathered together!
The person who had opened the heroine’s crate was none other than the hero himself!
And that shrill voice calling out for Brother Zheng belonged to the second male lead, Xu Jingyi.
In the novel, the hero, Zhao Zheng, left the capital, accompanied by his good friend Xu Jingyi. His cousin, Princess Jin Min, secretly followed them.
When they reached Lishan Prefecture, Princess Jin Min was discovered by Zhao Zheng and sent away.
Naturally, a young girl who had managed to sneak out of the capital would not be the obedient sort.
She immediately circled around and got ahead of Zhao Zheng.
Afraid that she would refuse to give up, Zhao Zheng proceeded slowly. As a result, he happened to encounter the heroine and the others, who had escaped from the traffickers’ caravan.
When a hot-blooded young man encountered injustice, helping was inevitable.
And the clever, mischievous Princess Jin Min received the lesson she would regret most for the rest of her life.
She was abducted and sold to the Kingdom of Ling, eventually becoming the finest weapon in the hands of Ling’s iron-blooded general against the Zhao family.
Later, after the original Bai Mianmian—the vicious supporting female character—left the stage, it would be Jin Min’s time to shine.
“Uncle, could you give me something to eat? I’m starving.”
The plump little girl quietly tugged at her, drawing Bai Mianmian’s wandering gaze back.
The man blinked and came to himself, then repeatedly promised to make arrangements.
“Erya, do you know what’s going on?” Zhang Huilan asked, taking hold of her.
Bai Mianmian nearly failed to suppress an eye roll.
“If you don’t know, how would I know?”
“We’re really lucky this time.” She glanced toward the pale-yellow figure in the distance. “That girl is clearly not as insignificant as we are.”
“She certainly isn’t like me.” Bai Mianmian tilted her face toward the sky at a dramatic angle.
The premonition that the third female lead was about to rise to prominence was deeply unsettling.
If Jin Min replaced her and became the second female lead, what would happen to her?
System?
The system had not crashed, as she had assumed. It appeared again almost immediately.
What happened? Why didn’t you respond earlier?
The system is blocked by the heroine’s dimensional space.
...
That answer really struck a nerve.
Host, please pay attention to returning the plot to its proper course. If you cannot keep up with the storyline, even the system will be unable to save you.
Bai Mianmian felt despondent.
Not wanting to live was one thing. Being killed by someone else was another.
What came next in the plot?
The heroine would secretly water the crops in her family’s fields with spiritual liquid, increasing the harvest.
Then she would lead the entire village to prosperity and eventually become famous for her medicinal cuisine!
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“Erya, we need to get our story straight.”
The princess had been abducted. She knew for certain that she had been taken in Tongming County, which meant that the officials and common people of the entire county would bear responsibility.
There was no need for the two of them to act rashly. Sooner or later, someone would come looking for them.
“I’m starving.”
Ignoring the plump girl’s desire to discuss the matter, Bai Mianmian followed in the big man’s footsteps.
“Erya.” Zhang Huilan grew anxious. “We need to—”
“We need nothing. We went into town to deliver meat and were abducted here. Someone has to send us home. And this matter can’t be made public, either. If people find out we’ve been abducted again, they’ll laugh their heads off!”
What kind of person was the hero? He had practiced martial arts since childhood.
Whether they were his personal attendants or the servants of his friends, everyone around him was highly skilled.
If the two of them discussed matters here, wouldn’t they practically be handing people evidence?
Between the two of them—one plump and one thin—they were practically perfect fertilizer for growing flowers.
Who would believe that girls from the countryside like them would dare infiltrate a band of traffickers?
Who would believe that two people incapable of anything would dare barge into a traffickers’ caravan?
“I’m telling you, even you can’t stop me from demanding justice for myself today. All that meat of mine—all that meat was snatched away just like that! It was enough food to feed my whole family for ages!”
They had simply been abducted on their way into town. They had done nothing else.
The plump girl was clever enough to understand her meaning at once.
Her eyes flickered, and the corners of her mouth curved upward.
“The last time I was abducted, my family was terrified. I don’t even know how worried they must be this time. We have to ask when someone will send us home.”
What was the normal reaction expected of a young girl who had been abducted?
Crying, making a fuss, feeling wronged, and seeking someone to stand up for her.
And what would any ordinary person taken far from home be most anxious about?
Getting home, naturally.
The two girls no longer complained about being hungry. Instead, they shouted about catching the bad people and going home.
As if by coincidence, several of the boys and girls rescued first on the other side of the crowd were crying and wailing as well.
The passersby and soldiers who heard the two girls’ words gave them an extra glance.
“Rest assured. Don’t be afraid. We will see you safely home,” a burly man who appeared to be in charge stepped forward to reassure them.
“Everyone, stay calm and don’t be frightened. You’re all safe now. There is no further danger. Once we have sorted everything out, we will escort you back to your hometown.”
Before long, steamed buns and water were distributed, and an inn where they could rest was arranged as well.
A large procession of more than a hundred people made its way toward the inn.
The crowd of onlookers following to watch the spectacle was even more tightly packed.
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