The Birth Of A Villainess

The Rei Emperor named Erkin was renowned for his tyrannical ways. He was originally not destined to rule after his Father Emperor because he was not favored by him. He was also the son of a lowly concubine who couldn't even receive a proper title after giving birth to a son with the former emperor.

His life after being born was naturally not straight and easy as he was constantly suppressed and even experienced countless assassination attempts which, every single time, he almost didn't survive.

Thankfully, he was able to evade and escape with his life still intact. Forget about the fact that he was injured seriously every time. At least he still lives.

However, even being a prince was not at all beneficial to him as the former Rei Emperor even tried to kill him because he abhorred seeing this son of his becoming more prominent as he grew.

Of course, it was also the same towards his siblings, women in the imperial harem, and nobles, who didn't want to have a prince born from the emperor and a merchant* succeed in life.

Thus, he was consistently forced to bow down and oppressed by others..

Fortunately, the gods were not unfair towards him as he was able to transcend against all his troubles after someone helped him.

Although that person's help couldn't be really considered as a real help since it was just a few compelling words handed to him, however, these words might be worthless to others, but Erkin did not believe that at all.

After all, those words were the reason why he was now standing at the top and became the current Rei Emperor.

For five years, he held onto that person's words and raised his own army and allies from the Jianghu*. He also did everything to rope in talented, clean, and honest scholars with him in order to replace the current nobles in the empire.

And lastly, he purged the entire capital and royal palace. He didn't show any mercy to anyone and massacred whoever stood before him. Not only that, he publicly beheaded his own father, giving him the title of the tyrant of the Rei Empire.

When all is said and done, Erkin might be the one who took all the actions and won the bloody battle. However, it was still the person who helped him and compelled him to do all this who won the bet.

However, Erkin never met this person. He also lost contact with this person for a few years and thought that his adviser had already passed on.

But who would have thought that not only his adviser did not die as he initially thought, Erkin reconnected with this person, his adviser actually turned out to be a woman!

"I thought you were an elderly man with long white hair and beard, whose life is about to extinguish after a few more years. Or some old scholar who had nothing to do after retiring and decided to help." Erkin grinned as he looked at her.

Erkin's assumptions were nothing strange at all. If anyone were to receive a letter that Erkin should find his maternal family, gather his strength, and purge the Rei Empire, they would instantly think that it was sent by a lunatic if they refused to believe the letter.

But Erkin believed in it and thought that his benefactor was an older man.

"So, all along, you've been thinking that your benefactor was an old man." Lin Xiaofei completely guessed what he was thinking.

Erkin sheepishly nodded. The scary tyrant that everyone didn't want to anger was now acting like a little brother who was caught redhanded doing something in mischief by his older sister.

However, Erkin was much older and looked just like his age. He was currently thirty-two. Thus, it was pretty strange to see him act like this to someone younger than him.

"Well, I also thought you're a guardian angel sent to me by my mother. It turns out you're actually a ghost."

Lin Xiaofei sent him a glare. His meaning was grasped entirely by her. She wasn't the guardian angel he thought she was, and she was the ghost who scared his men shitless outside.

"Anyway, I have never thought that you're a woman," Erkin told her in amazement. He raised his cup to sip some tea.

Raising her eyebrow, Lin Xiaofei said, "What makes you think I am?"

Erkin was about to swallow, but when he heard her words, the tea stopped in his throat and climbed back to his mouth to spurt it outward, making a sparkling fountain.

"You-you-you... You're not a woman?!" He pointed his finger at her as he exclaimed. His eyes roamed her body before he shook his head and said, "That's impossible! Although you're wearing that mask over your face, that figure couldn't belong to a man!"

Erkin was right. Although Lin Xiaofei wore black robes for men, her figure that was very noticeable and distinct to a woman's were not concealed at all. On the contrary, because she wore black, it only accentuated her feminine body and made others imagine until their faces flushed red.

Besides her figure, Lin Xiaofei did not try to alter her voice so, Erkin was certain that she was a woman.

However, what if she really wasn't?

Erkin couldn't help but ponder. There were some men who were feminine since the time they reached adolescence, and some were even born with a woman's features. Thus, there was a slim chance that she was really not a woman, as she said.

Seeing how the tyrant was considering her words seriously, Lin Xiaofei felt a headache rushing to her.

Without anyone's help, Lin Xiaofei untied her hands and knocked on the table between them. "So, what about the things I told you a few days ago?"

Lin Xiaofei decided it was time to stop him from remunerating this matter and go back to the important things she came here for.

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Notes:

Merchants were considered as the lowest rank in the past. Nobles, scholars, farmers, commoners, and merchant. This was the ranking and hence, Erkin's status was unfavorable as a prince.

Jianghu are kind of a community that gathers all the experts. They are not necessarily part of any faction and mostly did things alone and are fearless.

This novel isn't historically accurate and doesn't follow how world originally works in our real world. Just fiction added with a touch of historical concepts.