Love from the Male Protagonist’s Harem

The young man Ye Ze, with his jet-black hair tied back by a red ribbon, placed the writing paper in his hand on the pear-wood table, composed and not saying a word.

“Why are you here at Siguo Pavilion?” Xia Ge waggled an eyebrow and winked at him, “What mistake is Senior Sister punishing you for?”

A couple of blue veins suddenly pulsed on Ye Ze’s forehead.

Xia Wuyin actually had the nerve to ask?!

Was this person without shame?!

“Ai, why don’t you say something? It’s lonely copying here by myself.” For Xia Ge was actually quite excited to have someone toiling alongside her.

“Were you lonely when you went creeping around the back mountain dressed all in black?”

Sitting down with a straight back, Ye Ze picked up his brush, his voice cold.

Xia Ge: “How do you know about that?”

“Doesn’t everyone know what our great noble son Xia Wuyin gets up too?” Ye Ze dipped his brush into the ink, face expressionless, tone mocking. “Going to the Jianfeng in the middle of the night, peeking at the little sisters bathing before getting beaten half to death. Failing the Danfeng entrance examination seven times. Going to Shoufeng to steal eggs for eating, only to get bitten by the mother beast and not leave bed for three days. And then there was the time you got wildly drunk and wanted to do a striptease…wasn’t that all you?”

Confronted with ironclad evidence, Xia Ge desperately tried to save face: “The…Danfeng’s seventh entrance examination hasn’t even happened yet…”

Ye Ze cast a sidelong glance at Xia Ge: “You think you can pass?”

Xia Ge: “……”

Straightening her face, Xia Ge attempted to restore her reputation once more: “I really wasn’t spying on the girls bathing!”

She’d just wanted to take a bath herself. Who the hell had known that all the little sisters of Jianfeng were already there?!

Besides, she was a little sister too, alright? There was nothing wrong with a little sister seeing other little sisters!

No one understood the trials and tribulations of a girl dressed as a boy.

Deeply sighing, Xia Ge raised her eyes heavenwards.

Ye Ze snorted, apparently too lazy to pay her any attention.

Not minding Ye Ze’s indifference, Xia Ge uninhibitedly scooted closer to him: “You haven’t said why you’re here at Siguo Pavilion. So why are you? I’m familiar with this place, and you don’t come here very often.”

Ye Ze’s hand holding his brush clenched tightly while the blue veins on his forehead throbbed again.

This person actually had the cheek to ask again…

Gritting his teeth, Ye Ze answered: “I saw you yesterday.”

Xia Ge stared blankly.

“At the back mountain,” Ye Ze clarified impatiently.

“I thought you were a thief at first, then I saw that it was you…Concerned, I followed you and got caught by a Jianfeng disciple—what were you doing at the back mountain yesterday?”

“You were discovered by a Jianfeng disciple?” Xia Ge’s eyes opened wide with surprised indignation, “Oh! Are you alright? Jianfeng’s dogs like to bite!”

So the person who’d stepped on the twig last night had been Ye Ze……

“Don’t change the subject, Senior Sister stepped in, but I was still penalized to copy the Danxun 300 times…Now why were you on the back mountain?”

“Eh? 300 times?! I have to copy 3000 times!” Xia Ge promptly and piteously started crying. “Why is Senior Sister so good to you?! ! She’s probably biased towards you, cause you’re the male protagonist!”

Not at all oblivious to Xia Ge’s constant avoidance of his question, Ye Ze snapped: “What male protagonist?! Xia Wuyin! When are you gonna tell me the truth?”

[Ding! Liuli Tree Approaching…]

“……”

Xia Ge immediately assumed a honest and respectable expression: “Never mind that—Ye brother, right now we should be doing our copying. Concentrating, calm, quiet—that way we can cultivate good brushwork…..”

The brush in Ye Ze’s hand made a ‘kacha’ sound while he practically spat out his words: “I asked you why—”

""

“Ye Ze, have you finished your three hundred copies?”

At the sound of that cold, indifferent voice, Ye Ze’s face froze. His snapped brush fell soundless onto the papers in a moment of perfect quiet.

For a split second Xia Ge found Ye Ze’s rigid expression very distressing.

Truly.

Regardless, Xia Ge affected an extremely proper attitude and shamelessly broke the silence: “Good morning, Senior Sister. I have been obediently copying.”

At the entrance of Siguo Pavilion stood a young lady in snow-white garb, delicate red maple embroidery on her sleeves, distant and haughty. Her bright red belt accentuated her slender waist, her long black hair of jade was tied with a red ribbon, her back straight, and her eyes were like something out of a painting.

Gu Peijiu, the great disciple of Danfeng.

Her brief sympathy for Ye Ze already long gone, Xia Ge stole a sidelong look at the young man with cold sweat beading his forehead, the little villain in her heart almost rolling with laughter.

Hahaha! Serves you right, Ye Ze!

I told you to act upright!

“Morning was a long time ago.”

Voice light like a clear spring, Gu Peijiu next asked: “Ye Ze, what were you doing just now?”

From between his teeth Ye Ze squeezed out word by word: “Answering Senior Sister, I was…getting ready to start copying the book.”

“Oh?”

The young lady glanced at the tragically snapped in half bamboo brush, the blank paper with nothing written on it, and her eyebrows gently furrowed: “Why is your brush broken?”

Because he was young and full of fury, angry in his heart, and his ‘Three Flowers Gathering at the Top, Five Qi Chaoyuan’ cultivation was shoddy, and in a moment of inattention he’d broken it himself.

So Xia Ge imagined, and she secretly relished his misfortune. Laughing in her heart, Xia Ge thought—Oh, young man, remember impulses are the devil.

However Xia Ge’s glee only lasted about three seconds.

“What are you smiling about?”

The young lady looked at Xia Ge with still black pupils.

Xia Ge: “…me?  I’m not smiling.”

Sure, she’d been gloating in her heart.  But her face had remained very solemn and serious!

No joke.  The key to upgrading her system, the Liuli tree, was with Senior Sister.  What grievances she would suffer if she lost it by delighting in Ye Ze’s bad luck!

How could Senior Sister know that Xia Ge had been tittering to herself?

Even if she’d been inwardly making fun…had it really been that obvious?

Thankfully, Gu Peijiu didn’t pursue it any further.  She turned her impassive gaze back to Ye Ze.  Ye Ze’s face was bright red, yet he wasn’t saying a word.  Assessing the young man, Gu Peijiu dryly commented: “Juniors are energetic, their temperaments unsteady.  They require time to cultivate themselves.”

To herself Gu Peijiu thought: “He has a dark anger inside, but he holds it back.  And he’s got a sharp edge to his eyes.  If he’s in trouble, he bears it and concedes.  When he can stay stable for a while, he can study jiandao.”

“Yes.”  Ye Ze bowed his head, answering Gu Peijiu.

“Notwithstanding, you will still be penalized,” Gu Peijiu said, “One month’s salary…”

A month’s salary?!  Ye Ze’s?!

Xia Ge was abruptly jolted out of her schadenfreude, her body quivering.

“Senior Sister!”

—A righteous voice suddenly interrupted Gu Peijiu.

Gu Peijiu cocked an irritated eyebrow at Xia Ge: “What is it?”

“Taking away a man’s salary like that is like chopping off his head!  Senior Sister, you…you can’t…be like this…penalizing over something that trivial, so cavalierly……”  Xia Ge’s voice become smaller and smaller under the weight of Gu Peijiu’s penetrating gaze.  Finally there was only a muttered whisper: “…you can punish me instead…”

If Ye Ze lost his monthly wage, who would Xia Ge freeload food off of?!

Nevermind that Ye Ze was the male protagonist of the stallion novel.  And that he often hogged the conversation with thieving drivel.  Was too tsundere and too timid.  Or that sometimes Xia Ge enjoyed tripping him up.  Despite all that, Ye Ze had been her brother for years within the beggars’ gang.  That was a fact.

Sometimes, there were people who, over a period of time, could no longer be merely characterized as ‘stallion male protagonist.’

Moreover…

If she couldn’t sponge off of Ye Ze’s inner disciple monthly wage, how else would she be able to occasionally run off to drink wine and eat peanuts?

What little copper she’d possessed she’d lost over being penalized for the back mountain incident.  If she didn’t tightly hug Ye Ze’s thigh, she’d probably die of malnourishment.

Recalling the feeling of overwhelming hunger, Xia Ge’s pupils subconsciously shrank.

Fear can make people brave.

And the threat of Ye Ze being fined a month’s salary was tantamount to starving to death in the streets.  Unmatched audacity immediately sprang from Xia Ge’s dantian, soaring straight to the sky: “Senior Sister, please, you can penalize me to copy the Danxun 30,000 times.  But you can’t take away Ye Ze’s salary!!”

Ye Ze: “……”

Gu Peijiu: “……”

Sizing up in all seriousness the youngster who had yet to finish the first 3,000 copies of the Danxun, Gu Peijiu noted the flushed face glowing with righteousness and determination.  Indeed, this person was the very picture of a supportive and virtuous citizen, now fearless in the face of copying the Danxun 30,000 times.

Truly…what commendable courage.

The young lady in white raised her chin, black eyes ice-cold: “Mmm?  Very well, if you feel this strongly about it, you will copy the Danxun 30,000 times.”

Xia Ge was choked with emotion—however the damage was done, she’d just have to continue on with a thick face.  Being shameless was nothing!  Money was everything!  Yes!

“Then, the salary……”

“As you wish,” Gu Peijiu replied, “I won’t penalize Ye Ze a month’s salary.”

Xia Ge was about breathe a sigh of relief when Gu Peijiu’s frosty voice continued: “Ye Ze, your 300 copies, Xia Wuyin will complete those for you.  You may go back.”

Ye Ze: “……”

Xia Ge: “……”

What?  No!  Hold on, is there some kind of misunderstanding?!!

Why does she have to do the omnipotent stallion male protagonist’s copying assignment?!

Xia Ge watched helplessly as Ye Ze packed up his writing paper and walked away with a refined expression.

Wait…wait…already gone?  He’d really left just like that?  Without saying anything?!

Wrong……

……I’m stuck here, doing your homework for you, and you can’t even give me a sympathetic look?!

What the hell?!

Ye Ze had departed, but Gu Peijiu had not.

Resisting the urge to flip over the pear-wood table, Xia Ge reluctantly forced a falsely polite smile at Gu Peijiu: “Senior Sister, you’re still……”  Why are you still here?  What else is there to say?  Get lost before I go berserk!!

Gu Peijiu calmly regarded Xia Ge for a long while.

“Just now…”

Xia Ge strove to maintain the wobbly smile plastered on her face, while still suppressing the impulse to damage the furniture: “Hmm?”

“Just now, about him, was that genuine?”  Gu Peijiu’s tone was detached, “Now, personally, I think it was fake.”

[Ding!  Congratulations On Receiving Grand Disciple Of Danfeng Gu Peijiu’s ‘Hypocritical Outer Disciple’ Impression!  This Impression Will Result In A 30% Drop Of Credibility With This Target.  Please Check It Carefully.]

Xia Ge: “……”

Hold on…hold on!  What had just happened?!  What had Senior Sister just said?  About her?  Senior Sister, you think I’m fake?  How am I a fake?  And what the fuck was a hypocritical outer disciple?!  No, wait, why hadn’t she known her system had this function?

Gu Peijiu turned and strode off, about to leave behind with a hoodwinked and foolish Xia Ge.

“Senior Sister, wait……”

Halting her steps, Gu Peijiu interrupted Xia Ge with an apathetic voice: “Harboring delusions of chivalry, but disrespectful to your teachers, juvenile, and extremely frivolous.”

“The lone, brave, and foolish ‘chivalrous swordsman’ still needs to be tempered.”

Then Gu Peijiu was gone, leaving behind only her concluding words: “30,000 times, not one less.”

Xia Ge: “……”

The author has something to say:

Senior Sister: “Just now, about him, you were being genuine.”

Translation: “You spoke up for him with sincerity.”

Senior Sister: “Now I’m the fake one.”

Translation: “You were being awfully false and hypocritical to me though.”

Summary: “Dishonest-Anger.”

Xia Ge: ???

剑道[jiàn dào]

Kendo

丹田

dāntián

point two inches below the navel where one’s qi resides