"To dare barge in during my heat... you've got some nerve."
"Have you thought of your last words?"
The feeling of suffocation at her neck forced Jiang Qingli to open her eyes. When she saw the situation before her, she sucked in a sharp breath.
On a luxurious bed, a stern-faced man had one hand clamped around her neck, the corners of his eyes crimson.
Those golden, slitted pupils, so close to her own, were filled with a sinister malevolence that sent a chill down her spine.
Her gaze traveled down over his pathologically pale skin and clearly defined muscles, only to find that his lower body abruptly transformed into a jet-black snake tail.
The snake tail was wrapped around her waist, its cold scales pressed tightly against her feverish body, the black and white creating a stark, powerful contrast.
Jiang Qingli froze, a series of question marks floating through her mind.
'One second I'm reading a beast world novel, and the next, I'm having this kind of dream?'
'In the dream, it seemed I'd been drugged. My body was burning up, and the very cells of my blood were screaming for me to devour the man before me.'
'And if it's a dream, what reason is there not to enjoy it?'
She raised her arms to wrap around the man's neck, tilting her head up to touch his lips.
At the soft, warm touch of the female, the male instantly went rigid. His pupils constricted to pinpricks, but he couldn't utter a single word.
The hand clamped around Jiang Qingli's neck loosened unconsciously, and horror flashed in the male's eyes.
He had killed countless people, yet he found himself unable to harm this female.
There was only one possibility—
'Our Match Value is too high. My genetic instincts are forcing me to protect her, so much so that even I can't harm the female before me!'
'But I had my genes tested long ago. There isn't a single female in the world who's a match for me. How could this be...?'
Her hands, clinging to his shoulders, slid down, tracing over his skin and sending a tingling numbness through him...
A disbelieving grunt escaped his throat. The snake tail coiled tighter as his reason told him he had to kill this female who had offended him.
However, the moment she touched him, the dark thoughts in his mind began to dissipate.
In the mind of the formidable, ferocious beast, only a single word remained: "Surrender."
...
「The next morning.」
When Jiang Qingli woke up, she stared at the wall in front of her, her mind a raging tempest.
Ten minutes ago, a system in her head had informed Jiang Qingli that she had transmigrated into a book.
She had transmigrated into the risqué beast world novel she was reading before bed.
In the book, the female lead, Bai Yiyi, used a Guidance System and various props to win the affection of countless talented young men. Doted on by all her Beast Husbands, she reached the pinnacle of her life.
The original owner of the body, who shared her name, was scripted as the villainess.
Relying on her noble birth, she had stolen Bai Yiyi's five Beast Husbands.
The five Beast Husbands only pretended to tolerate the original owner while actually loving Bai Yiyi. The day before the marriage registration, they colluded to trick her into the Underground City. After drugging her, they sent her into the room of the novel's biggest villain, the Underground City Lord, Ye Linyuan, who was right in the middle of his heat.
Ye Linyuan was a snake-type Beastman. Manic and irritable during his heat, he assumed the original owner was there to forcibly take his innocence. He strangled her to death and threw her into a beast pit to be devoured by thousands of creatures.
The next day, when the five Beast Husbands arrived at the Underground City, the original owner was already in pieces.
Once the original owner died, the Jiang Family purged the Underground City. Ye Linyuan was eventually killed after slaughtering countless nobles.
Meanwhile, the five Beast Husbands painlessly returned to being single, pursued the female lead, and got their happy ending.
"What the host needs to do is..." The system glitched for a moment before continuing, "Survive."
Jiang Qingli: 'That's it?'
System: "Five hosts have already been killed by Ye Linyuan. We... BZZT... finally found you..."
The sound of static was interrupted by something, making it choppy and hard to hear clearly.
Behind her, the feeling of being watched was intense, made all the more unsettling by the system's staticky voice.
Jiang Qingli whipped her head around and met a pair of oppressive, golden, slitted pupils.
A slender and well-built male was reclining beside her, his hair as black as ink, his handsome face dark and sinister.
Jiang Qingli asked tentatively, "Ye... Ye Linyuan?"
The man sneered. "So you know who I am now?"
Jiang Qingli: "..."
Something felt coiled around her waist. Jiang Qingli looked down to see the snake tail wrapped tightly around her, its cool scales slowly rubbing against her skin.
It felt like a flirtation, but also like he was looking for an opportunity to strangle her.
Jiang Qingli's brain shut down.
'Last night wasn't a dream. It was real.'
'The good news is, after transmigrating, I changed my certain-death ending.'
'The bad news is, I slept with the main villain.'
'This won't lead to an even more gruesome death, will it?'
The girl lowered her head, her crimson lips slightly parted, a look of nervous confusion on her beautiful face.
Ye Linyuan's eyes were grim as he began coldly, "Last night..."
Jiang Qingli was still trying to figure out a solution. At his words, her eyes shot open, and her survival instinct made her blurt out, "Last night was a misunderstanding!"
The air froze for a few seconds.
The great villain's expressionless face grew even colder. "You marked me, yet you don't want to take responsibility?"
'After she slept with me and marked me last night, I didn't sleep a wink. I tried every way I could think of to kill her.'
'Several times, the blade was already against her skin. One light slice and blood would have splattered everywhere, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it!'
Reason told Ye Linyuan that once he woke up, he should stay as far away from this female as possible.
But hearing her so eagerly try to distance herself from him only irritated him more.
'How could she say something like that, acting as if nothing happened after marking me!'
His long fingers traced down her cheek and rested loosely around her neck, as if he would choke her to death instantly if she said another word.
Jiang Qingli froze.
'Wait, marking?'
In the original book's setting, "marking" was an act of possession a female performed on a male.
After being marked, the female's totem would appear on the male's body, representing that he now completely belonged to her. He would become physiologically dependent on his female master, and if he ever harmed her, he would suffer the same injury in return.
This was also why those five Beast Husbands had to kill the original owner before the wedding. After marriage, females were protected by the Empire's system. Even if a female master forced herself on them, they would have no choice but to endure it. And once marked, they could only bow their heads in submission for the rest of their lives.
It was tantamount to a double shackle.
But marking wasn't always successful on the first try. Generally, the two parties' Match Value needed to be above 80%, with the success rate being highest during a heat.
Jiang Qingli glanced at Ye Linyuan and saw that there was indeed a totem over his heart.
But before she could get a clear look, Ye Linyuan raised a hand to cover it, glaring at her as if she were his mortal enemy.
Jiang Qingli couldn't believe that she had managed to mark the villain without even remembering it...
'I probably won't die now, right? But it's not certain. What if Ye Linyuan decides to take me down with him...?'
She was biting her lower lip, lost in thought, when she suddenly heard a BEEPING sound.
Ye Linyuan pulled the blanket up to cover the totem on his chest, glanced at his terminal, and pressed the answer key. He spat out a single word: "Speak."
The person on the other end said respectfully, "There are five men here. They say they're looking for their female master, their fiancée."
It was on speaker, so Jiang Qingli heard the conversation clearly.
Ye Linyuan scoffed. "Putting on such a show for a mere fiancée."
Jiang Qingli: "..."
'A villain's gonna be a villain. His sarcasm skill is maxed out.'
After a moment's thought, Jiang Qingli asked, "Can I have a word with them?"
If it had been anyone else standing before her, Jiang Qingli might have acted arrogantly, relying on the power of the mark.
But this was the psycho villain who had nearly taken the male lead down with him. It was better to be polite.
Ye Linyuan tossed the terminal to her.
He was expressionless, but Jiang Qingli could feel the snake tail around her waist tighten, as if afraid she would run away.
Jiang Qingli struggled for a moment but couldn't break free. She spoke into the device, "Let Ling Qing take the call."
Ling Qing was the oldest of the five Beast Husbands. A White Snake Beastman, he was the one the original owner had pursued the longest and also the one who had fought hardest to break the engagement.
On the other end of the terminal, Ling Qing's brow furrowed the moment he heard Jiang Qingli's voice.
'Last night, we went to great lengths to shove Jiang Qingli into the Underground City Lord's room.'
'The Underground City Lord is extremely mysterious, but he's also congenitally abnormal. Countless females who have tried to conquer him have ended up dead.'
'Jiang Qingli should have been dead for sure!'
'But not only is she not dead, she's even able to speak to me?!'
'How is that possible?!'
'Could it be that she has an ace up her sleeve we don't know about?'
'But no matter what, I can't let her find out that we were the masterminds behind last night's events.'
Ling Qing composed himself, took the terminal, and sneered contemptuously, "What tricks are you playing at now?"
Jiang Qingli spoke calmly,
"All five of you are there, right? Perfect. Let's cancel the engagement today."
-
Author's Notes (Content Warnings):
1. The female lead is universally adored, and the male leads will fight dramatically over her. This is a "taming the beast" story.
2. All male leads are virgins (body and heart) and become completely devoted once they fall in love. There will likely be more than five male leads, and they will all meet this standard.
3. The female lead will become stronger, but this is not a "strong female protagonist" story. It's mainly a sweet and satisfying romance. Please don't be too harsh on the FL~ If you have any opinions about the story or the male leads, please express them gently. Thank you! つ♡⊂
4. All male leads in this story only love the female lead. Please don't ship any BL (Boys' Love) pairings.