Horror movies, aaaaah!
As soon as the gentle spring breeze and sweet rain descend, the scenery in the capital seems to be washed in a fresh, bright hue, dazzling enough to lift anyone’s spirits.
Pan Residence.
It was not yet midday. Sunlight drifted into the back courtyard, carried by the soft breeze, illuminating the red swing. Seated on it was a young girl in a pale green half-sleeved blouse embroidered with gardenias. Her rose-red skirt, adorned with scattered clusters of white and blue roses, fluttered gently in the wind.
Perhaps it was the warmth of spring that brought on a languid drowsiness. The young girl did not move the swing, only leaned against it, staring absent-mindedly at the distant eaves.
[Welcome to the bonus mini-game “Pet Reigns Supreme – Zero-Spend Edition”]
[Detecting game login account—Identity information bound.]
[Game loading in progress. Loading time is longer than usual, please wait...]
[Beep—!]
[Kind reminder: System activation failed.]
[Game login unsuccessful. Please refresh and try again or re-download the game.]
Pan Yu—or rather, now she should be called Pan Yulian.
Staring at the login screen that had failed to load for over a decade despite her repeated attempts, she couldn’t help but let out a soft sigh.
Back in the modern world, who would stubbornly persist with a broken game that never loaded, for years on end? And yet, here she was, still trying after more than ten years.
But in this fabricated ancient world, Pan Yulian had no choice.
To this day, Pan Yulian remembered that fateful dawn before she transmigrated.
She had been lying in bed after a midnight snack, charging her phone and binge-watching dramas. The streaming app was running a promotion: watch ads to unlock more viewing time.
She saw the most ads for a certain palace intrigue mini-game.
As everyone knows, the more enticing the ad, the more likely it is to lure people in. The game’s rewards scrolled endlessly, almost hypnotically:
“Log in and receive: Beauty Illustration Card x1, Pink Powder Fragrance (Outfit) x1, Cloud Feather Robe Draw x3, Silver Leafs x10, Velvet Cloud Threads x100.”
“Check in daily for free vouchers.”
“VIP privileges for free, log in now for a mountain of resources...”
Gleaming, gorgeous jewelry sets with poetic names flashed across the screen: “Charming Warbler, Singing Swallow,” “Jade Splendor, Flowing Pearls,” “Peach Blossom Beauty’s Smile”—a dizzying display of florid titles.
Occasional pop-ups demanded she choose her birth background, then her character traits—everything designed to dazzle and draw the eye.
Drowsy, Pan Yu accidentally tapped into the game’s login page. Before she could exit, a sudden, explosive blast engulfed her—and she found herself reborn in another era.
The mini-game came with her into this new world. But since her birth as Pan Yulian, the game had stubbornly refused to load past the login screen.
[Pet Reigns Supreme – Zero-Spend Edition.]
As Pan Yulian gazed absentmindedly at those words, voices drifted from behind the eaves, hidden by the nearby shrubbery—
“Did you hear? The lost little prince from the Prince Xin’s household has been found!”
“That news is all over the capital—who doesn’t know?”
“They say the little prince saved the old prince’s life and was recognized that way.”
“Truly the noble blood of the imperial line—blessed by fate. Even after being harmed by villains and lost among the commoners, he was found after all these years.”
“I’ve even heard that the old prince—always so strong and dignified—has wept several times. The little prince hasn’t even woken up yet, but the old prince has already requested an imperial decree to install him as heir. As soon as he recovers, he’ll be brought back to the capital and ennobled.”
...
The legendary tale of the lost prince returned by fate had reached Pan Yulian’s ears in a hundred variations in just a few days. Now, lounging on the swing, she could only droop her eyelids in despair, all hope drained from her face.
Oh heavens, it’s true she enjoyed reading melodramatic novels for amusement, but spectating and living through the story are two entirely different matters!
Not only was Pan Yu a transmigrator—she’d landed straight into a novel.
And the book’s title? “The Runaway Consort of the Tyrant Emperor.”
The title alone was enough to tell her what kind of story this was.
In the original, Pan Yulian had the ‘honor’ of participating in and witnessing the male lead, Murong Ye, the noble bloodline lost among commoners, rise from humiliation and a broken engagement to reveal his true identity, defeat his enemies, and then—entering the “thirty years east of the river, thirty years west” phase—soar to his own glory, taking fate into his own hands.
But fate played a cruel trick: Pan Yulian had drawn the wrong script.
She was the side character—beautiful but brainless, greedy for wealth, and doomed to be the one who breaks off her engagement and humiliates the future emperor—a classic cannon fodder.
The original story said Murong Ye fell off a cliff as a child and was rescued by a hunter, losing his memory in the process. The childless hunter and his wife took him in, and he grew up under the name Xu Ye.
Years later, this same miraculous hunter rescued Pan Yulian’s grandfather, Pan Tan, then a magistrate.
The old man, ever sharp-eyed, saw the potential in the young boy and, to repay the life-saving favor, arranged a betrothal on the spot.
This fateful decision would later pave the way for the male lead’s journey to the capital and his vengeance.
Years later, Pan Tan died, the hunter perished in the mountains, and disaster struck Xu Ye’s home region. Forced by circumstance, Murong Ye brought his ailing foster mother to the capital and sought refuge with the Pan family.
The old man had been a man of character, but his only son, Pan Tongdian, was not. Petty, greedy, sycophantic to his superiors and cruel to his subordinates, his only ambition was to climb as high as possible.
Such a man would never let his precious daughter be wasted on a poor, ill-fated commoner—not even a concubine’s daughter.
He tore up the betrothal letter, confiscated the token, humiliated and beat Murong Ye, and threw him out.
Thus, when Murong Ye, battered and with a broken leg, crawled through the mud, he finally snapped.
Henceforth, Murong Ye, now fully blackened, became the archetype of the cold and brutal emperor.
A household that could treat the future emperor so mercilessly—what good end could they come to?
But the male lead had a soft spot for the heroine.
Yes, the protagonist of the novel was Pan Yulian’s legitimate elder sister, Pan Wenjun.
The pure and kind-hearted heroine had already sown the seeds of love in the male lead’s heart—she quietly sent him money to heal his mother and leave the capital.
Oh, how amusing.
These days, it’s all about the great female lead, but someone still has to play the shamelessly eye-catching villain...
Can a cannon fodder even be considered a person?
In a feel-good novel like this, the more wretched and miserable the cannon fodder, the better.
Faced with the male lead in rampage mode, what could the Pan family do?
They knelt without hesitation, wept and begged forgiveness, and delivered “the goods” straight to his door—leaving Pan Yulian to suffer his wrath.
She became the tool for the leads’ emotional tug-of-war, the living example of the male lead’s cruelty, the person he used to threaten the heroine.
There was even a scene described in the book—
In a room carpeted in crimson, a figure lay sprawled, scarcely clothed, her jade body bruised and battered, trembling uncontrollably from exhaustion.
Outside, Pan Wenjun clutched her chest, eyes brimming with tears as she gazed at the male lead, her voice choked with emotion.
“A-Ye, even if Fourth Sister is in the wrong, you shouldn’t treat her so. Besides, I wanted to leave—that’s the real cause...”
“A-Ye, I never imagined you could be so cold, so ruthless, so unreasonable.”
Murong Ye, dressed simply but no less imposing, replied coolly, “Wenjun, you know what kind of man I am.”
“If you ever dare think of leaving me again, I’ll show you what true despair means.”
Pan Yulian, already beyond hope: ...
Just imagining what awaited her—binding, whipping, jade beads, strings, torture, forced abortion, the whole ghastly list—made her shudder.
For the leads, it’s a cathartic tale of revenge and romance; for Pan Yulian, it’s a horror story!
Her only hope was the wretched, unresponsive system.
Palace intrigue? Yes, she knew Murong Ye would eventually become emperor, and a palace intrigue system made sense—but could she even survive that long?
By then, the weeds on her grave would be three meters tall. Even if the system finally activated, what would be the point?
Haunt the male lead in his dreams? Or maybe compete in an underworld consort contest after his death?
Living was suffering—dying brought no peace.
The more Pan Yulian brooded, the more hopeless she felt. What use was a swing now? She might as well hang a rope from it and end it all.
Heavy-hearted, she trudged toward the Ninglan Court, but halfway there she stumbled upon Pan Fangyan and Pan Nianyao quarreling again.
Each clutched a long scarf, trading barbed remarks about whose was better, all smiles and hidden daggers.
Normally, Pan Yulian would have joined in the mischief, but today she lacked the spirit.
She tried to skirt around the argument, but Pan Fangyan’s mocking words to Pan Nianyao stopped her in her tracks—
“Who in this house doesn’t know Third Sister has high standards?”
“A pity though, truly a pity.”
Pan Fangyan shook her head in mock regret. “Third Sister’s standards are high indeed, but her possessions are hardly impressive.”
She covered her mouth, laughing. “They say only the wealth of the imperial family could match Third Sister’s tastes—wouldn’t that suit her perfectly?”
“You!”
Pan Nianyao, furious, glared at the delighted Pan Fangyan.
But Pan Yulian was struck by a sudden realization—
The emperor... Aside from the male lead, wasn’t there a ready-made one?
...