Wake Up, I’m the Former Villainess

“Where did everyone go?”

“Go that way to look for them.”

“Be careful and don’t go too far away.”

……

Nian regained consciousness upon hearing a lot of loud fuzzy voices. Taking a deep breath, she tried to move herself. But everything ached. Her head, palm, elbow and knees had a burning sensation, as if they were injured.

She was sprawled out on the ground in a wretched mess.

That useless system never gave her a better landing posture.

Getting up from the ground, she looked at herself and what came into view was a small seven or eight year old body. A flat silver bracelet adorned her snowy white wrists. She wore a half worn out cream coloured cotton shirt and an off white pleated skirt. She was dressed like a little maid.

The fall had made her clothes dirty. Her hand was bleeding with mud and teared skin was all in plain sight, it looked quite disturbing.

With a throbbing pain in her head, she tried touching her temples only to see a blood soaked palm. The sight of excessive blood made her eyebrows twitch. 

She looked around to see a picturesque beautiful big garden, surrounded by lush green trees and flowers, gurgling water sounds. Not far away was a towering palace, with its many eaves and turquoise glazed tiles reflecting the dazzling light of the setting sun.

The place where she fell was a deserted corner of the garden. Under her feet laid a raised stone. The original owner probably tripped over it while running and died. And henceforth, the system sent her there to complete the plot.

That was right, Nian Nian didn’t come to this world accidentally. Rather she was a tasker sent to complete a novel plot as the villainess. 

In every book, there was a villain or a group of villains who abused the protagonist, did evil things and at the end died meaninglessly. At the end, they became a stepping stone for the protagonist, enabling him to gather experience and make a reputation for himself, allowing him to get the perfect emotional and bright future end. And finally retreating with a tragic end. 

Villains were hateful, but they were necessary to drive the plot further ahead. Without them, the world in the book would be incomplete and be at a risk of collapsing.

Nian Nian’s mission was to go through novels and replace the important villains who were unable to continue with the plot due to an accident, so as to complete it and ensure that the novel world functions normally and doesn’t collapse.

Mission completion level and the hatred value of the male and female leads could be converted into health points, which could not only be used to exchange items in the system mall, but also help to complete the mission. She could also get the chance to return to her original world when the value exceeds 100.

This time, Nian Nian played the role of the wicked wife who cuckolded the male lead.

The only problem was- 

Nian Nian looked down at herself, where was the evil wife she was told to be? This one looked to be too young.

“Lao Du, you said the whole residence has turned upside down searching for her, what is the identity of this little girl?”

“I heard that she is a young maid that stole something important from the Count.”

The man who had spoken earlier took a breath, “How dare the little maid hit on the Count’s wife, doesn’t she want to live?”

“She didn’t realise it or was she simply foolish for not knowing the ruthlessness of the princess. If she gets caught, she will surely be tortured!”

“You are crazy, she arranged this!!”

Old Du’s voice suddenly wilted, “Isn’t it right in front of you… Ouch, I won’t speak anymore.”

Hearing that, she raised her eyebrows: this Count’s wife is so powerful. 

Her eyes unconsciously swept over the bulging bag at her feet, and she was silent for a moment.

 ‘Wait, the little maid they were looking for couldn’t be her, could it?’

The sound of footsteps was getting closer by time. She limped over to pick up the bag and hid in the crevice of the rockery.

Two soldiers with a hat and cyan armor embroidered with the word “Shun” stopped in front of the rockery and went around it. Nian Nian shrank deeper into the gap, trying to hide her small body in the shadows without making the slightest bit of sound.

When the men were gone, Nian Nian took out the mission manual. It was an ancient, thread-bound book with a parchment cover of the size of a palm, a thin inconspicuous looking book.

 From the implementation of the third mission onward, the system that was suppressed by the law and could not interfere too much in her task process gave her a task manual, which could remind her of the progress of the plot and the villain’s important tasks at each stage of the plot, so as to avoid the plot to be go astray. 

She opened the manual and on the first page were words:

Plot completion: Zero

Initial health: 50

Initial value: Zero

On the second page, it read “Plot Summary”. On the third page, it read “Plot Mission Release” and “Character List” on the left and right respectively. There was a blank space at the bottom of the page. It seems that the plot mission hadn’t been triggered yet.

The fourth page started with mentioning “item list” and “storage grid”, which was equivalent to the system mall and storage space. It was the same as the original one, she couldn’t see where the enhanced version of the system was enhanced.

Nian Nian took out medicine from the storage compartment. There were two types of medicines, for internal and external wounds, which she had redeemed with her life value/points in the previous mission world, and fortunately she hadn’t used them all and still had some left over.

After skillfully cleaning herself up and dealing with the injury, she opened the burdensome bag left by the original owner.

The baggage was messily stuffed with many exquisite and valuable jewellery items, including a full of delicate looking jewel encrusted hundreds of treasures, heavy eight treasure gold collar, long bead chain with the same size of South Pearl, palm size, and exquisite white jade wall carved with suet, all of which were valuable.

Nian Nian’s eyes were dazzled with the sight before her, making her vision go blurry.

Was the identity of this girl really that of a young maid who stole her master’s belongings? She looked down at the shabby clothes she was wearing and really couldn’t say in good conscience that these things belonged to the original owner.

The system’s standards were getting lower.

Nian Nian was really speechless and after thinking about it, she decided to find a place to hide and wait for the plot to trigger. Before that, she had to make sure she was safe. She didn’t want to be arrested. After all, that princess seemed scary and cruel, if she fell into her hands, the consequences could be really bad.

More importantly, she had to fill her stomach first. 

(Editor’s Note: Tummy first! Go girl!)

She didn’t know how long it had been since the original owner had eaten anything. Now, her stomach was growling and making a lot of noise.

Before her mind could wander anywhere else, an aroma wafted into her nose.

Following the direction of the aroma, she saw a young man dressed as a housekeeper. He was around thirteen or fourteen years old. He was very thin. With a bamboo food box in his hand, he hurried into a moon cave door not far away.

Nian Nian couldn’t help but look at the box and quietly follow him.

Behind the moon cave door was a gravel road, overgrown with weeds and gnarled with old trees, concealing a row of dilapidated houses.

“Xiao Yi, Xiao Yi, I’ve brought you food!” 

From the house came the anxious cry of a young boy shouting, “Wake up, wake up. The murderous Countess is so cruel!”

Nian Nian tsked in her heart, ‘It’s that princess again. How come she does nothing right!’

The young man’s cries grew louder, “Don’t die, wait, I’ll go and find a doctor to save you. I’ll get on my knees and beg him, you mustn’t die!”

The sound of hurried footsteps could be heard moving. Nian Nian hid her form, just to see the teenager boy, empty-handed darting out. When his figure had finally completely disappeared, Nian Nian dashed into the house.

A pungent smell of blood hit her nose.