Picked up by the Protagonist of a Tormented! MC Novel

Translator: Piper Panda

Editor: Kleep

TLC: Sen

Earl Duin happily prepared for the wedding, but little did he know his expectations would only ever be that—expectations.

Soon, on the evening of the day before the wedding, Xi Wei shoved out all the servants who wanted to make a "wedding dress" for him, along with the worried Andre…

The Earl Duin, who had become henpecked even before marrying his wife, had no other choice, and could only reluctantly leave.

Suji looked at Xi Wei uneasily, then she lowered her head. After a long time she did not hear any movements, so she quickly glanced up like a thief.

Just to be hit, head on, with Xi Wei's gaze.

……

Xi Wei was very cold, “If you want to say something, say it.”

Suji didn’t dare to say anything at first, but after sneaking a peek at the still sleeping Zeno, she clenched her fist and spoke openly, “Does the master really want to marry…marry the Earl?”

She almost bit her tongue saying those words.

Xi Wei did not answer, and instead asked back, “Do you want me to marry the Earl?”

When Suji heard this, she suddenly became extremely angry, “How is that possible! How can the master with his prestigious identity marry a mortal!”

“Then, who do you want me to marry?”

Suji suddenly felt her neck become cool. It was as if, should one of her answers turn out to be wrong, her little life would not be guaranteed.

Then the poor maid swallowed and thought hard, “The master’s partner must be the most loyal and reliable person.”

Xi Wei seemed to be satisfied with this answer, he lifted his chin, "Continue."

Suji felt the atmosphere warm up a bit, and boldly said it, “It must be a person who dedicated their whole person and gave everything, and the most important thing, they must be the master’s favourite!”

When she finished speaking to there, Suji felt her confidence becoming even stronger. The more she thought about it, the more she felt it was the truth.

Xi Wei was stunned. Originally, he just wanted to warn her not to meddle in his business. Who knew that the maid would actually hit it head on?

Moreover, it seemed quite reasonable.

Before that, Xi Wei never considered the problem of a partner. In Ye Sa City, a partner was like a joke. At first they were a partner, but when things get rough then they would become an enemy.

However, if it was the person who met these conditions, then perhaps it was possible to find a partner. Maybe.

So, who would fit those criteria?

His gaze could not help but float to the side of the bed, where someone opened his mouth and breathed in while sleeping like a pig.

He was shocked by his own thoughts. Xi Wei frowned and shook his head to expel this unreliable thought, but then he asked Suji in a curious manner, “If there was such a person, what would you do?”

Suji was stunned, “Of course if it was for the happiness of the master, I would be willing to do anything!”

“Remember your words.”

The maid nodded like she understood, but she was genuinely clueless about what just happened.

After saying this, Xi Wei took the pile of bridal gowns out to do who knew what.

Suji trembled. The master was scary, his face looked like he would chop someone into pieces. The little master was definitely the cuter one.

After that, Suji went to the bedside to guard Zeno and ended up falling asleep.

When Zeno woke up, he could not tell where he was for a long time. He scratched his head and sat up while stretching. He felt full of strength in his mind and there was magic in his body. He felt great.

Subsequently, he looked around and found he was in a strange environment. Suji was sitting on the edge of the bed snoring, with her head nodding up and down.

After his head cleared up a little, he finally remembered that he lost consciousness after he took a drink of the tea Xi Wei gave him. The taste of the water magnolia was so obvious, only a fool would not know what he drank.

Feeling his spirit and magic that should have disappeared, Zeno's mood became complicated. He could not think of what he had done for Xi Wei to do that favour for him.

Originally, it was only a vague conjecture. Now, Zeno was almost certain that Xi Wei figured out his identity. Otherwise, how could the indifferent protagonist dress up like a woman in order to find medicine for a mere stranger?

The more he thought about it, the more complicated he felt.

Just as he was thinking himself into a mess of thoughts, someone pushed open the door. Zeno opened his mouth, but he did not say anything, because anything he could have said would have appeared pretentious.

It was Xi Wei who came in. His face was indifferent like always. It seemed like nothing could move him. He saw that Zeno had woken up and did not say anything. He just pushed Suji to wake up the maid.

Suji was asleep until she saw her family’s master's cold face. She jumped up feeling shameful and then reported, “Master, the smal… Zeno is normal, he is still sleeping.”

……

Zeno, who was still 'sleeping', poked Suji’s arm silently.

The maid froze and snuck away.

Zeno was a little uncomfortable. The only two people left in the room were Xi Wei and him. Xi Wei did not look at him, but turned to move something in the cupboard.

Zeno opened his mouth a few time but could not find the right words to say.

Then, Xi Wei seemed fix that thing in the cupboard, and turned around to say, “What are you doing there? Tomorrow is the wedding to Earl Duin.”

“Wedding?” Zeno was successfully strayed into that new topic, while he suddenly jumped up and reacted, “What! Wedding! You are going to marry the Earl Duin?!”

Xi Wei suddenly lifted the corner of his lips, and Zeno felt a cold puff of air.

“Marry?”

Zeno shook, “I didn’t say anything.”

Xi Wei threw a few pieces of clothing at his face. Zeno pried the clothes off of his face and found that they were normal men’s wear. Only then did he realize that he was only sporting undergarments. No wonder something did not feel right.

“If you don’t want to hear the news about Earl Duin's wedding on the magic bulletin tomorrow, put that on quickly, otherwise the position of tomorrow’s bride will fall to you.”

When Zeno heard that, nothing else mattered. Whoever wanted to be the countess could be the countess. In any case, it would not be him, Zeno.

That dark and windy night, the courtyard was set on fire.

Earl Duin was so excited that he couldn't sleep, and he suddenly heard the servants shouting, “Fire! There's a fire!”

Andre shuddered, and without even putting on any shoes, he ran out. The vigil servant followed him and shouted at the Earl to put some shoes on. However, Andre saw the direction of the flames and lost his soul.

The fire burned all night. The fire made by Suji's alchemic potions could not be extinguished.

It wasn’t until the next morning that people found out that the Earl’s House, which was hung in red silk, had been redecorated with white gauze today¹.

Then, rumours began to boil.

When the fire was extinguished, not even the corpse of the future countess could be salvaged. The servants only found some pieces of clothing and a precious piece of blood jade, which seemed to be condensed blood in the burning embers.

The blood jade belonged to the future countess. People often saw her wearing it on her neck. Now, the treasure was still there, but the person was buried in the sea of ​​fire.

There was a change in conversation that day between the people in the town of Siwa.

In the end, the news of Earl Duin's future wife spread like wildfire. He was no longer brought up in a longing and envious way. Even plain-looking girls avoided the Earl's estate, as if they were afraid that he would see and take a liking to them.

Andre stared at the blood jade for three days, and in that time he lost enough weight to go down a full size.

After three days of not seeing Baba and not seeing 'Mama', Lori's endurance reached its limit. She climbed up onto the Earl’s lap, tugged at Andre's tender cheeks, and she said, “Where's Mama, Lori wants to see Mama.”

Earl Duin smiled bitterly, “Lori, Mama went far away.”

Little Lori did not understand, “Then let’s go find Mama.”

Earl Duin stroked his daughter’s hair and listened to her immature words, then he suddenly became cheerful.

“Lori is right. Mama is gone, so we will go find her and get her back.”

Immediately following that, Andre made people gather a few hunting dogs, took out the box that had been filled with the Yulan Water Magnolia to let the hunting dogs remember the smell, then let them loose.

Starting from that day, Siwa was thoroughly explored by the hunting dogs of the Earl's house. However, it was destined to be in vain. At that time, the strange combination of two teenagers and one beauty was on the road outside of Siwa.

Xi Wei was still dragging the handle of the Sword of the Gods while slowly walking.

Suji was worried, “Can this method really fool them?”

Zeno thought for a moment and shook his head, “There was no body after all. When Count Duin calms down, he will understand that this was just a scam.”

“What should we do?” The maid became nervous.

Zeno said, “This is why Xi Wei left the blood jade. In terms of value, the blood jade is worth more than the thousand-year-old water magnolia. It was compensation for the Earl.”

Otherwise Andre may fall into a rage over his loss of property.

It was better to minimize trouble as much as possible.

Zeno understood Xi Wei's thought process quite well, but he did not understand that not all things in the world could be solved by simple equivalent exchange².

Zeno did not ask if Xi Wei had recognized him, nor did he ask about the protagonist’s disguise. They seemed to have some kind of unspoken understanding. They evaded the problem tacitly, just as naturally as they did when they were young. That had always been the case, things had never changed.

Not far behind them, two men followed side by side. The brown-haired man asked, “Why do you want me to teach him to use the Sword of the Gods? It is so heavy, it should not be a used as a starting sword for a mortal.”

Asil replied, “Xia Zuo, believe me, you won’t regret it.”

Xia Zuo's hands were behind him, "You care too much about Evelyn's child, even the caregiver who brought him is cared for so much by you?"

“Xia Zuo, you don’t understand. I don’t want to repay him because he saved Zeno, but I faintly felt that the survival of this era is closely related to him.”

Asil did not want the world that he and Xia Zuo worked so hard for to fail to escape the curse of fate that would come about in the near future.

Piper: OMG! I actually finished a chapter in one sitting! I didn't think that was possible for me XD took me 2 hours and 45 minutes a record time! I'm going to study for finals now, see you later!

Kleep: In case you were curious, this is chapter 57.

1. Red silk is china's wedding decorations while white gauze are funeral decorations, I think. ↩
2. cough Fullmetal alchemist anyone? Okay I'll leave now… ↩

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