MTL - Examination of the Imperial Examination - Chapter 23 people's hearts

Ye Xi crossed over into a typical idol romance novel as the villainess.

For the sake of her safety, she decided to distance herself from the male and female protagonists while silently observing their real-life version of a school idol drama. Everyday, she would repeatedly ridicule the main protagonists in her thoughts, along with their group of friends and fans.

It’s not surprising, however, that the male protagonist’s special ability is to hear the voices of other people’s thoughts. So he listened to all kinds of curses that Ye Xi secretly harbored and recorded them one by one.

Expressionless Male Protagonist: the future is long, your debts will slowly be collected.

Ye Xi covers her ears: I’m not listening, not listening, *recites Wang Ba’s Sutras*

- Description from Novelupdates

After her rebirth, Rita vows not to repeat her past mistakes. This time, her first priority is to stop her brother, who is about to marry into the Lopez family, from participating in the initial game beta test. In her previous life, she was deceived by this scheming brother until her dying breath. It was only at the end that she realized she was merely a villain in a male-oriented novel about a live-in son-in-law, with all the malice and manipulation orchestrated by him behind the scenes. In this life, Rita decides to change the rules of the game. She will stay in the shadows and seize all the opportunities meant for the male and female leads. By participating in the beta test and re-selecting her abilities, she systematically dismantles the protagonists’ advantages, all while making them believe she’s on their side. Rita has no intention of harming innocent people, nor is she a selfless saint. In this game, she works with the authorities for mutual benefit, all to achieve her ultimate goal—becoming the true master of her fate.

The prince of Maldonia, Prince Artemis of House Arteides, the bear killer, the slayer of the elves is crowned King when his father King Arteides dies. The whole kingdom of Maldonia depends on him now, but he puts the throne in jeopardy after he refuses to marry Princess Thelma of House Taelin from the kingdom of Prophis and opt to marry Aurora Kholin, the love of his life.

Aurora is a seer and a powerful witch who has yet to aknowledge her powers, only Artemis knows of it. Lucian Mithandir is in exile recruiting an army to fight Prince Castellan of house Taelin for the throne of Prophis. Artemis wants no parts of this war, but he is very aware whoever wins the war will later turn to Maldonia.

Artemis has no clue that a bigger war is coming which will set kingdoms on fire, Aurora has seen it in her dreams and it’s for the Sweet Waters Throne in Maldonia. The end is uncertain but the ways are clearer, who will sit on the throne after the war between Lord Gandalf of House Old City who owns mighty huge lions and King Artemis of Maldonia who has Aurora and dragons breathing fire.

~ Excerpt Scene ~

The men of the secret council remained behind after the king walked away to further discuss the situation at the borders of the kingdom. The battlefield was named Stonedance and that’s because of its stony surface and this part of the place was usually abandoned and without inhabitants. Some people claimed Stonedance was cursed, that’s because it laid in the middle of two powerful kingdoms.

Stonedance was neither cold nor humid as it stood between the hot and shining Maldonia, and the freezing and gothic Prophis. It was the perfect place to fight and camp, the two battalions had all the space to themselves to prepare for war. Three hundred thousand men loyal to King Castellan Taelin of Prophis laid on the East, and two hundred thousand men keen to keep Lucian Mithandir.

Whatever was going on in Stonedance was of no Artemis’s concern as he focused more on sharpening his swordsmanship skills. He trained from morning to noon, with the lord commander of his kingsguard, Sir Dante Lucan who he befriended and these two became inseparable in a span of just a week.

“Come to me! Hard” Artemis urged his lord commander to not be easy on him.

“If I go hard on you Your Grace, we shall be left without a king to rule” replied Sir Dante Lucan with a smile. “You are getting better day by day; may I ask why the sudden interest in swordsmanship?”

.....

“I am a celebrated knight Sir Dante. I have fought in wars ever since I was nine”

“Exactly my point Your Grace. You are good with your sword, and have been for some time” Sir Dante smiled softly “Is it the war in Stonedance which makes His Grace nervous?”

“Some say I am ought to join my uncle, support the house my mother called it home. While others say my uncle betrayed me the very first day he took Mithandir inside his walls”

“And what do you say, Your Grace?”

Aurora joined them and Sir Dante excused himself. It had been a week and four days since they were last seeing at court.

“I am a warlock Artemis” For the first time ever since Artemis knew Aurora, this was the first she’s declared and accepted her true nature. “I am a seer, spaewife, or any other words you may want to use but I am not normal”

“We have talked about this Aurora, when the time is right…”

Aurora interrupted “The time is now!” she said. “I can feel the flames in my dreams getting hotter. If I don’t seek the help I need now, I fear for my own existence. I saw myself riding a ─” she paused softly.

Artemis leaned on to her “Riding a what?” he asked suspiciously.

“It may sound crazy, I mean I have never heard of such creatures and even if they exist…”

“What were you riding Aurora?”

After a few seconds of not being sure how will Artemis react or take it, Aurora finally exhaled softly and brought herself to speak “A dragon” and then she paused waiting to see how will Artemis take all of it.

The miracle doctor, Xu Qing, accidentally fell into the water and died. When she opened her eyes again, she found herself having transmigrated into a farming novel. Then, she felt excruciating pain in the lower half of her body. Xu Qing looked down in disbelief. As a thirty-year-old unmarried single woman, she was in the midst of giving birth to a child! Staring at the three babies who were barely breathing, Xu Qing almost went mad. Why did she suddenly become a mother of three?

Her father exclaimed, “How dare you give birth to b*stard children before getting married?! We don’t have a daughter like you. Scram!” Before Xu Qing could even catch her breath after bearing children, she was chased out of the house by her father. Fortunately, her mother pitied her and secretly gave her an acre of land to aid in her survival. With no options left, Xu Qing picked up a hoe and started farming.

‘Hey, that unconscious mister over there, please die somewhere else! Don’t dirty my corn field!’ After dragging the unconscious man to a side, Xu Qing suddenly remembered that she needed help taking care of her children. This man would do!

Later on, Qiao Yanhui knelt down before his angry wife with an aggrieved look on his charming face. He had one child on each arm, and another clinging to his head. He looked up at Xu Qing pitifully. “Honey, it’s the effect of my family genes. I can’t control my genes from producing so many babies…” “Out! Get out now!” Xu Qing kicked him aside. Who knew that the man she picked up turned out to be the father of her children. Had she known, she would’ve left him to die in the corn field.