Little Alpaca – Chapter 23

Volume 1: Little Alpaca

The Qinyuan’s sting, is aimed at the alpaca’s butt.

The afternoon¹ sun sprinkled in from the wide-open window, bright and warm.

After the bathtub was moved away by the inn assistant², Yi Qiu, who had just finished her bath, lay prone in the sunniest spot in the room, her eyes half-closed, quietly sun-drying her damp fleece.

You Yan’s long hair was not tied up. She just sat quietly at the table. Perhaps to pass the time, she had asked the assistant to help buy some things and send them up.

At this moment, with an embroidery hoop in one hand and a needle and thread in the other, who knows what she was embroidering, but in any case, she looked quite serious.

Yi Qiu simply couldn’t believe it. A female devil like You Yan actually knows how to do embroidery?

Isn’t this a pastime that only those well-bred young ladies³ and pretty girls from humble families⁴ in the human world have the leisure to learn?

That pair of hands that has killed countless people, even if they could really embroider a flower, it would surely be a man-eating flower, right?

Yi Qiu felt that she was understanding You Yan less and less.

You Yan had probably discovered something. Even if she hadn’t yet, she must have noticed that something was not quite right with her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have suddenly said things to her like 「wash your flowery intestines」 and 「your elbow is bending outwards」.

Yi Qiu did not like the You Yan in the novel, and she truly felt that the novel’s ending, which made You Yan the biggest winner, was the most infuriatingly bad one among the countless ways the story could have had a bad ending.

But if she were to speak from her conscience, You Yan truly had not treated her poorly these past few days.

Although the number of times You Yan bullied and frightened her was not few, in all this time, You Yan had never deprived her of a single meal.

What’s more, it wasn’t just once or twice that she had made You Yan angry, but if one excluded the kick she received when she failed at climbing into her bed⁵, You Yan had never harmed a hair on her head. Not only that, but she had even taught others a lesson for her—

Although the methods were so cruel she didn’t dare to recall them, the feeling of being protected by someone was truly very real.

It was just like…

Like today. She must have aroused You Yan’s suspicion and displeasure at some point, but You Yan didn’t punish her, only gave her a small warning.

Yi Qiu gazed at You Yan thoughtfully, seeing her seriously doing her embroidery, looking very much like the gentle and virtuous well-bred young ladies in novels.

A female devil, must she be black from head to toe?

Yi Qiu couldn’t help but fall into a moment of deep thought.

After being here for so long, it seemed she had never seriously thought about what kind of person You Yan truly was.

Because she didn’t need to think. The original text had written it with perfect clarity; this villain was just that cold-blooded and heartless, with no weaknesses, no soft spots.

She didn’t even have a very clear motive for her actions. Just for the sake of a single phrase, 「interesting」, she played with everything in the palm of her hand, completely indifferent to the suffering of others.

But was You Yan really this kind of person?

Humans are not grass and trees⁶; even if being fierce and cruel was true, she shouldn’t be severing feelings and scant on righteousness⁷.

What’s more, after spending so much time together, Yi Qiu increasingly felt that You Yan didn’t seem as bad as she was written in the novel.

It wasn’t just You Yan; even Luo Mingyuan was not quite the same as the male lead in her impression.

In the original text, the male lead in the early stages was just a delicate little white face⁸ who had taken the female lead’s script⁹. He was both a waste material and timid, and in his bones, there was a sense of inferiority from being born a demon. He didn’t dare to fight or snatch anything, and when bullied, he would only swallow his grievances. This situation only changed after the revenge plotline began following the murder of his adoptive parents.

Why would a male lead like that chase her for several hundred meters and even tie her up with such force?

If one were to say that You Yan’s change was more or less influenced by her, this unlucky alpaca, then what caused the male lead, who had never had any interaction with her before, to undergo such a change?

【Character disposition.】

The system, which had been quiet for a long time, suddenly made a sound. After a brief moment of shock, Yi Qiu couldn’t help but follow the system’s hint and continue thinking.

Character disposition? With the male lead’s initial personality, shouldn’t he be all weak and fragile, chased all over the place by a grass mud horse?

Could it be that the male lead’s personality is actually different from what was written in the novel? Just like how the novel only ever wrote about You Yan doing bad things, but never wrote that this female devil would also enjoy tea and do embroidery in her leisure time.

It had to be said, even if the novel 《Thin, Withered Branch》 didn’t have a bad ending, it had always been very controversial.

Its comment section was never short of scolding voices, and a lot of the negative ratings were contributed by this male lead.

Putting aside the part where he gradually blackened and became a scumbag after growing up in the mid-to-late stages, just talking about the early stage, many people said this male lead was effeminate and useless except for his face, completely unworthy of the female lead.

This was indeed not false. The male lead was indeed frustratingly useless in the early stages, truly like a girly shou¹⁰ in some Danmei novels¹¹, so fragile it seemed he would shatter with a single touch.

At that time, people in the comment section often complained, saying the author had portrayed the male lead as too weak, not at all in line with his true identity.

That was the Son of the Heavenly Emperor, the Sun God Bird, the Three-legged Golden Crow. Even if he underwent tribulations for nine lifetimes and all ended in failure, having already depleted most of the divine blood in his body, he wouldn’t be reincarnated as a coward¹² that anyone could bully, right?

If it was truly due to character disposition, then Luo Mingyuan reacting completely differently from in the novel, did that mean there was a discrepancy between the novel and the reality here?

In that case, is this world an independent world, or a world manipulated by the author’s words?

And these characters she had come to know through words, did they truly exist, or were they just string puppets under the author’s pen?

Yi Qiu shook her head. She found that she was completely unable to think this problem through.

And that system, which had once claimed to 「know everything and say everything¹³」, also suddenly went silent, clearly unable to provide an answer to this.

“Hah, why am I thinking about all this? The main plotline has to proceed. Regardless of whether the characters’ personalities have changed, if I want to change the ending, this elbow will always have to bend outwards. Can I really expect the great villain to abandon evil and turn to good?”

Yi Qiu pouted, stopped her wild thoughts, and just closed her eyes, feeling the sunlight that was scorching for an ordinary human, but for her, an alpaca with spiritual power protecting her body, was very warm.

She dozed off in a daze, and when she opened her eyes again, it was already sunset.

The evening sun on the horizon was exceptionally red, scorching every cloud that drew near.

Yi Qiu squinted her eyes and subconsciously looked towards You Yan. That bird-woman was actually still at the table embroidering. Who knows where she got such leisurely and refined interest.

Hmph, don’t tell me she’s embroidering some scented pouch or sachet¹⁴ or something, preparing to give it to 「Luo-dage」 who is more than three thousand years younger than her?

The little alpaca couldn’t help but roll her eyes, turning her head to stop looking, but unexpectedly, her stomach gave two pathetic gurgles.

You Yan’s gaze suddenly turned towards her. She also put away the messy thoughts in her mind, quickly and politely turning her head back to meet You Yan’s gaze, her little head tilted slightly, her somewhat dry tongue subconsciously licking her lips.

“What do you want to eat?” You Yan asked faintly.

Perhaps because she was still holding the embroidery hoop and needle, Yi Qiu actually felt that the You Yan at this moment was extremely gentle, even possessing some of the scholarly and reasonable temperament of a rich family’s young lady.

Seeing that Yi Qiu didn’t answer, You Yan withdrew her gaze again. “Looks like you’re not hungry.”

“Hungry, hungry!” Yi Qiu quickly got up and stood at attention, saying obediently, “I’ll eat whatever Master eats. Whatever Master likes, I like!”

“Quite the sweet-talker,” You Yan said, putting down the needle and thread in her hand. A wooden hairpin¹⁵ materialized in her palm, and she casually coiled up her loose black hair, then gathered her skirt and stood up, walking towards the stairs.

The villain sat there embroidering for a whole afternoon, who knows what on earth she embroidered.

Yi Qiu stared blankly at the corner of the cloth hanging down from the side of the table. The curiosity in her heart grew heavier and heavier, so heavy it was about to burst its banks.

Doing embroidery, isn’t it meant to be shown to people once it’s done?

Taking a peek beforehand shouldn’t be a big problem, right?

Yi Qiu stretched her four little short legs on the spot, trotted over to the side of the table, and stretched her neck to glance at You Yan’s unfinished “masterpiece,” and suddenly, her vision went black.

Yi Qiu’s first glance at this 「masterpiece」—ugly, it was truly too ugly.

Yi Qiu’s second glance at this 「masterpiece」—Grass mud horse!

She wasn’t cursing.

You Yan really embroidered a grass mud horse!

It was a crookedly stitched grass mud horse. On the side, there was a hovering thing that wasn’t finished yet, but it looked like a bee’s rear, the kind with a super sharp stinger!

The unfinished part, that’s a Qinyuan bird, right?

You Yan spent a whole afternoon making this ugly thing. She definitely wouldn’t give it to the male lead. So, she was probably trying to express something to her.

The Qinyuan’s sting, was aimed at the alpaca’s butt…

Yi Qiu couldn’t help but start trembling.

Could this mean, if I don’t listen obediently, she’ll sting me to death?

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