I Really Like the Male Supporting Character (Quick Transmigration) - Chapter 1
Before Ah Luo could open her eyes, she heard a loud splash in her ear. The splash was followed by the sounds of many people’s panicked shouts and hurried footsteps, which in turn were followed by further splashing sounds. Suddenly, her surroundings became very rowdy.
“Someone fell into the water! Hurry, save her!”
“Is there anyone who can swim? Get someone who can here!”
“Who fell into the water? Which noble miss is it?”
“I saw it happen. It’s Su Baiwei, the second young miss of the Su family, who fell into the water. She was standing there and talking with Su Luoyan just moments ago.”
The voices rushed into Ah Luo’s ears like a tide. She caught some words from the conversations around her. As she figured out the time point at which she had arrived, Ah Luo’s heart skipped a beat. She quickly opened her eyes and looked straight ahead.
In front of her was a dark blue lake. It was clean and dotted only with lotus flowers. In its center floated an exquisitely painted boat with vermillion railings. A gentle breeze brought a faint floral fragrance about the entire lakeside. It was a perfect place for sightseeing.
However, at this moment, a girl broke the smooth, mirror-like surface of the lake. The girl in a pink dress rose and sank into the water as she struggled to remain afloat.
There were many people gathered on the lakeside. However, most of them only watched or shouted as the girl struggled.
They had all come to this place today to attend a flower-viewing banquet hosted by the grand princess. (1-1)
The grand princess had invited many young masters and young misses who resided in the capital to attend this banquet. As such, all of the guests were young misses and young masters from well-known and influential families. This side of the place was reserved for the women; how many of these pampered young misses would know how to swim?
Besides, Su Baiwei—the girl who had fallen into the water, was a mere concubine-born daughter of the grand tutor. (1-2, 1-6)
She was unpopular and had never been treated with much respect in their circles. Thus, those calling for help were all doing so slowly; in fact, they didn’t seem to be in any hurry.
Upon hearing the commotion, the male guests hurriedly came to the female side of the banquet. In the water, Su Baiwei started to sink. Her hands were now the only part of her that was still visible above the surface.
As soon as the male guests appeared, the young misses hurriedly turned away. They hid half of their faces behind their fans or handkerchiefs, and they dared only to sneak shy glances at the men from behind them.
However, Ah Luo had a completely different reaction to them. She caught a glimpse of a white-clad figure from the corner of her eye. Then, she called out to her sister and, without thinking, jumped straight into the lake. She heroically sacrificed herself to save Su Baiwei.
Ah Luo’s unexpected action stunned everyone. They watched her enter the lake with a splash and flail towards Su Baiwei, only to start sinking herself after a few clumsy strokes.
At that moment, everyone’s thoughts were surprisingly unanimous. They thought she could swim because of how certain she seemed when she jumped into the water; however, she turned out to be just a show-off. Since she couldn’t swim, how did Su Luoyan get the courage to jump in? Could it have come from the deep sisterly love between her and Su Baiwei?
If Ah Luo had heard this, she would have said that it was all ‘for the sake of the storyline!’ Besides, the reason why she was so calm, despite having got herself into a life-or-death situation, was because she knew that someone would come to save her soon.
Anyhow, right now, Ah Luo has no time to worry about other people’s opinions because this body truly couldn’t swim. She felt her limbs getting heavier as her body was sinking. She heard panicked shouts from the lakeside, but they were all muddled and unclear.
“Hurry… save… the young miss… Su family…”
“Your Imperial Highness!” (1-3)
This shout was particularly loud. Even though Ah Luo was submerged, and the water muffled all the sounds she heard, she could still hear this one very clearly.
She heard another splash from far away. Another person had entered the water. The man was dressed in all black. As he entered the water, he looked like a drop of ink falling into the water. He was an expert swimmer and swiftly approached the two girls who had fallen into the water.
The black figure sped forward. That black figure swam like a fish as he passed right by Ah Luo without even seeming to notice her drowning. Perhaps he was so focused on one thing that he ignored everything else.
That person went straight past Ah Luo to Su Baiwei. He reached out and pulled the girl in pink into his arms.
Ah Luo was not surprised at all by this. However, there were several surprised shouts from the lakeside. Some people shouted words at that person, telling him things like ‘he’d saved the wrong person’ and so on.
He didn’t save the wrong person, though. He saved the right one.
Ah Luo remembered clearly that this plot point was a crucial turning point in the storyline.
In the novel ‘The Overbearing Crown Prince’s Beloved,’ the female protagonist—Su Baiwei, was a concubine-born daughter of the Su family. She had a secret affair with her sister’s betrothed, the crown prince. She had planned to fall into the water at this flower-viewing banquet; as long as the crown prince rescued her, she would be able to take advantage of the situation and get what she wanted. She wanted to marry the crown prince as his concubine before her legitimate sister, Su Luoyan, became the prince’s consort, the crown princess.
Unexpectedly, it was another man—the male supporting character, who saved her instead. Her scheme fell through. Moreover, because she appeared in front of everyone in soaked clothing and ruined appearance, her reputation was ruined. She had no other option but to marry the male supporting character—the heir of a noble family, who saved her then.
Despite this, Su Baiwei was still the female protagonist of the novel. Even though she was already married, she continued her affair with the crown prince even after marrying the noble heir. They carried on their affair behind the back of the noble heir and the graceful crown princess—Su Luoyan.
At the end of the story, when the crown prince—Gu Xiuyan, ascended to the throne, he disregarded the opposition of his courtiers and deposed Su Luoyan, before seizing Su Baiwei, who was the wife of a subject, and made her the empress. To eliminate any future threats, he even exiled the noble heir and ensured that he could never return to the capital city of the empire.
At the end of the story, the deposed Su Luoyan died in the cold palace after being tortured by servants, while the noble heir wandered away from his home for the rest of his life.
Such a morally corrupt storyline naturally caused disgust and outrage in many readers. Ah Luo was an existence awakened by these readers’ resentment towards the plot. She traveled through many different story worlds—which had the plot of different novels and fulfilled the tasks of saving the male and female supporting characters and altering their tragic original fates.
Now was the perfect time for her to arrive, as the original storyline of the novel had just begun at this point. To save the supporting characters—Su Luoyan and the noble heir, she needed to ruin their marriages. Since the crown prince had already rescued Su Baiwei, the noble heir would naturally not save Su Baiwei and have to marry her. Now, all Ah Luo needed to do was wait for the noble heir to make his appearance.
Ah Luo calmly waited. She counted to three inside her mind before then opening her mouth and allowing water to get into her mouth and nose. Then, she started to drown.
She started to feel suffocated, and her struggles weakened. A white figure descended from the sky like a light bird and floated gently down in the water.
The figure’s movements were swift and agile. As Ah Luo sank deeper, she saw through the clear water that he was swimming rapidly toward her. The snowy white figure, glowing softly in the dark lake, moved with grace.
Ah Luo contentedly closed her eyes and let her consciousness fade. The man wrapped his arm around her waist and lifted her to the surface. Ah Luo managed to grab his collar tightly, then completely lost consciousness.
It all felt like it happened over an eternity; however, it all actually happened in an instant.
The grand princess and her servants hurried over towards the lake shore. At this time, the girls had already been rescued. Su Baiwei fared better than Ah Luo and remained awake; she leaned weakly on the crown prince’s arms and softly coughed.
Meanwhile, Ah Luo—or Su Luoyan, was lying in the arms of a young man who was wearing white robes. Her eyes were closed, and she had yet to regain her consciousness.
The people around the lake wore different expressions on their faces, but all of them remained silent.
Facing the belated arrival of the grand princess and the strange looks that people were throwing at him, the crown prince seemed displeased. His tone was cold as he said to the grand princess, “Your servants need to be punished for their negligence. If you had come any later, they wouldn’t be here to save people, but to capture ghosts.”
The grand princess’ expression stiffened. It was quite disrespectful for the crown prince to speak to her this way. Fortunately, the grand princess had a good temper and assumed that the crown prince only spoke that way because he had been too worried about his betrothed.
However, after the grand princess got a closer look at the girl that the crown prince was carefully protecting in his arms, she realised that the girl seemed unfamiliar. She was certainly not Su Luoyan, as she had thought. This realisation left her deeply puzzled.
Wasn’t Su Luoyan supposed to be the future crown princess? Why didn’t the crown prince save her but instead save her concubine-born sister?
The grand princess didn’t have time to ponder this matter further right now. Something had happened to the two young misses of the Su family at her banquet; this was a serious problem for her.
“Your Imperial Highness, please forgive me. I will definitely punish my attendants for this matter. However, there is a more important matter at hand,” said the grand princess. She then turned to her attendants and said, “Take the young misses back. Call an imperial physician here. Do you hear me? Hurry!”
Suddenly, a man spoke in a gentle voice and attracted the attention of the people around him. He asked, “Your Imperial Highness, could you please ask someone to bring us some clean clothes?” (1-4)
The grand princess followed the voice and saw a young master wearing white clothes. He had a face that was as refined as a crown made of jade. His expression was calm and gentle. He radiated a serene and unworldly aura. Despite his noble bearing, he stood where he was in silence, to the point that he was almost unnoticeable, like the tranquil moonlight at night.
Most distinctively, he had amber-colored eyes, which were clear and bright like glass in the sunlight.
The grand princess recognised him from his eyes. She asked, “Are you Wenren Jin, son of the marquis of Yuanting?”
Wenren Jin nodded. He was slightly frowning, though it was barely noticeable. In a gentle voice, he answered, “Yes, I am.”
Then, he reminded her, “Please, Your Imperial Highness.”
It was summer, and both of the noble misses—Su Luoyan and Su Baiwei, wore thin silk and gauze clothing, which became almost transparent when wet. This made it extremely improper for other people to see them right now; it’d be very damaging to their reputation for them to continue wearing these clothes.
The grand princess snapped out of her daze and took her gaze away from Wenren Jin’s eyes. She realised her negligence and hurriedly ordered the maids to fetch some clothes.
Although Su Baiwei was nestled in the crown prince’s arms, no one dared to look at her.
Meanwhile, Wenren Jin covered Su Luoyan’s body with his wide sleeves. He even covered her face as well.
Despite this, they were still in an improper state, and this would affect their reputation.
Seeing that both girls had been rescued, the male guests moved away, leaving only the female guests and the two young men who had saved them on that side of the lakeside.
Su Baiwei was gently assisted away from the crown prince’s arms by a maid. She kept her head down, as she didn’t dare to look around. She hadn’t expected that her sister would jump into the water in an attempt to save her. Now, her plan had been completely disrupted.
Su Baiwei did everything as planned, but Su Luoyan created an unexpected issue and threw a wrench in her plans for her.
The maid found that the young eldest miss of the Su family was tightly clutching the waist sash worn by the marquis of Yuanting’s son.
Her grip was so tight that her slender fingers had turned white, and it was impossible to pry her hand open and release her grip.
The maid was unwilling to give up just like that and attempted to pry her hand open using more force. However, the white-clad young man gently said, “If you can’t do it, I can go with her. There’s no need to be so rough.”
“This… may not be appropriate,” the maid said, troubled.
Wenren Jin gently shook his head. His voice remained calm as he said, “I have been blind since I was a child and cannot see her. It’s fine.”
The maid wasn’t the only one to be surprised by what he said. Some bystanders were also surprised to hear it.
Wenren Jin’s eyes, though unusually coloured, seemed clear and focused when he spoke to other people. He also had been swift and precise when he went to rescue Su Luoyan earlier; he had shown no sign of impaired vision.
Perhaps sensing the suspicion and disbelief that everyone was directing towards him, Wenren Jin said, “I have merely trained in martial arts and learned to locate by sound. My eyes indeed cannot see.”
The grand princess glanced at the crown prince, who was dressed in dark clothes. Seeing his expression, which was calm and showed no hint of displeasure at Wenren Jin’s suggestion, she said, “In that case, I’ll have to bother you, Heir, and ask you to go with her.” (1-5)
Since the grand princess had already said that, the crowd finally believed Wenren Jin, if half-heartedly.
How could such a handsome and refined young man be blind? Many in the crowd couldn’t help but feel sorry about it.