Chapter 1: The First Night After Transmigrating as a Villainous Female, Capturing the Antagonist

"You’ve got some nerve, breaking in while I’m in heat."

"Have you thought of your last words?"

The sensation of suffocation around her neck forced Jiang Qingli to open her eyes. As she took in the situation, she gasped.

On a luxurious bed, a man with cold, sharp features held her by the throat with one hand, the corners of his eyes stained a deep, bloody red.

Those golden, slit-pupiled eyes, mere inches from her own, were filled with such sinister, malevolent intent that it made her blood run cold.

Her gaze drifted downward, taking in skin so pale it looked sickly, stretched over well-defined muscles, only for the lower half of his body to transform into a pitch-black snake tail.

The tail was coiled around her waist, its cold scales pressed against her feverish skin, creating a stark, high-tension contrast between black and white.

Jiang Qingli froze, a string of question marks floating through her mind.

She had been reading a beast-world novel just a second ago—was she having a dream like this now?

In the dream, she seemed to have been drugged; her body was burning, and every cell in her blood was screaming at her to devour the man before her.

Since it was a dream, why not enjoy it?

She reached up to wrap her arms around his neck, tilting her head to touch her lips to his.

As the female’s soft, warm touch made contact, the male went rigid. His pupils contracted into tiny needles, yet he couldn't utter a single word.

The hand clamped around Jiang Qingli’s neck loosened involuntarily, a flash of shock crossing the male’s eyes.

He had killed countless people, yet he found himself unable to harm this female.

There was only one possibility—

Their compatibility was too high. Genetic instinct was forcing him to protect her safety; even he couldn't bring himself to hurt the female before him!

But he had undergone genetic testing long ago. There was no female in the world compatible with him. How could this be...

The hand clinging to the male’s shoulder slid downward, grazing his skin and sending a jolt of numbness through him...

A muffled, incredulous groan escaped his throat. His snake tail coiled tighter. 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.

For a powerful, ferocious beast, only one word remained in his mind: "Submit."

...

The next morning.

After waking up, Jiang Qingli stared at the wall, her heart in turmoil.

Ten minutes ago, the system in her head told Jiang Qingli that she had transmigrated into a book.

She had entered the explicit beast-world novel she was reading before bed.

In the book, the heroine, Bai Yiyi, relied on a "conquest system" and various items to win the favor of countless young elites, eventually reaching the pinnacle of life under the doting care of various beast-husbands.

The original owner, who shared the same name as Jiang Qingli, held the script of a vicious supporting character.

Relying on her noble birth, she had snatched away Bai Yiyi’s five beast-husbands.

The five beast-husbands played along with the original owner on the surface, but they loved Bai Yiyi. The day before the marriage registration, they conspired to trick her into the underground city, drugged her, and sent her into the room of the story’s greatest villain—the underground city lord, Ye Linyuan, who was currently in heat.

Ye Linyuan was a snake-type beastman. During his heat, he was manic and irritable. Thinking the original owner had come to force herself on him, he strangled her and threw her into the beast pit to be devoured.

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, and Ye Linyuan was executed after killing countless nobles.

The five beast-husbands then painlessly returned to singlehood, followed the heroine, and lived happily ever after.

【What the host needs to do is...】 The system glitched, then continued, 【...survive.】

Jiang Qingli: 【That’s it?】

System: 【Five hosts have already been killed by Ye Linyuan, we... hiss... only just found you...】

The sound of static interrupted it, making it intermittent and hard to hear.

Behind her, the feeling of being watched was intense, which, combined with the raspy system voice, was incredibly eerie.

Jiang Qingli whipped her head around, meeting a pair of golden, slit-pupiled eyes filled with immense pressure.

The tall, muscular male lay diagonally beside her, his hair as black as ink, his appearance handsome yet sinister.

Jiang Qingli tentatively spoke: "Ye... Ye Linyuan?"

The man sneered: "Know who I am now?"

Jiang Qingli: "..."

Her waist seemed to be wrapped in something. Jiang Qingli looked down and saw the snake tail tightly coiled around her, the cool scales pressing against her skin, slowly rubbing back and forth.

It was like flirting, yet also like he was looking for an opportunity to strangle her.

Jiang Qingli’s brain crashed.

Last night wasn't a dream; it was real.

Good news: She had changed the inevitable death ending after transmigrating.

Bad news: She had slept with the main villain.

Would she die even worse now?

The girl kept her head down, her crimson lips slightly parted, her beautiful face showing tension and confusion.

Ye Linyuan’s eyes were dark and sinister as he spoke coldly: "Last night..."

Jiang Qingli was still thinking about how to resolve this. Hearing him, her eyes widened, and her survival instinct made her blurt out: "Last night, it was actually a misunderstanding!"

The air froze for a few seconds.

The villain’s expressionless face grew even colder: "You marked me, yet you don't want to take responsibility?"

After being slept with and marked by this female last night, he hadn't slept a wink, trying every way possible to kill her.

Several times, his blade had been pressed against her skin—a light swipe would have drawn blood—but he simply couldn't bring himself to do it!

Reason told Ye Linyuan that after waking up, he should stay as far away from this female as possible.

But hearing her so eager to distance herself from him made him even more annoyed.

How could she say something like that after marking him, as if she were completely unaffected!

His long fingers traced down her cheek, loosely gripping her neck, as if he would strangle her the moment she said anything else.

Jiang Qingli froze.

Wait, marked?

In the original book’s setting, "marking" was a female’s act of claiming a male.

After being marked, a totem of the female would appear on the male, signifying that he belonged entirely to her. He would gradually become physiologically dependent on his female master, and harming her would result in him suffering the same damage in return.

This was also why those five beast-husbands had to kill the original owner before the wedding; once married, the female was protected by the Empire’s system, and even if the female master forced herself on them, they had to endure it. Once marked, they were destined to bow down to her for the rest of their lives.

It was a double shackle.

But marking wasn't something that could be successful in one go; generally, it required a compatibility rate of over 80%, with the highest success rate during the heat cycle.

Jiang Qingli glanced at Ye Linyuan; there was indeed a totem on his chest.

But before she could get a good look, Ye Linyuan covered it with his hand, looking at her as if she were an enemy.

Jiang Qingli hadn't expected that she could mark the villain while having no memory of the event...

She shouldn't die now, right? But it wasn't certain—what if Ye Linyuan wanted to take her down with him...

She was biting her lower lip 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, pressed the answer button, and coldly spat out one word: "Speak."

The person on the other end said respectfully: "Five men have arrived here. They say they are here to find their unmarried female master."

The speaker was on, so Jiang Qingli heard the conversation clearly.

Ye Linyuan sneered: "Quite the arrogant stance for 'unmarried' men."

Jiang Qingli: "..."

A villain is a villain; his sarcasm skills were maxed out.

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Qingli asked: "Can I say a few words to them?"

If someone else were standing in front of her, Jiang Qingli might have acted arrogant, relying on the mark.

But this was a crazy villain who almost took the protagonist down with him; she’d better be polite.

Ye Linyuan tossed the terminal to her.

He remained expressionless, but Jiang Qingli felt the snake tail around her waist tighten, as if he were afraid she would run away.

Jiang Qingli struggled but couldn't break free, so she said to the terminal: "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 been the most aggressive about calling off the engagement.

On the other end of the terminal, Ling Qing’s brow furrowed the moment he heard Jiang Qingli’s voice.

Last night, they had gone to great lengths to shove Jiang Qingli into the underground city lord’s room.

The underground city lord was extremely mysterious and innately mutated; countless females who wanted to conquer him had been killed.

Jiang Qingli should have been dead for sure!

But not only was she not dead, she was actually able to talk to him?!

How was this possible?!

Did she have some trump card they didn't know about?

Regardless, he couldn't let Jiang Qingli discover that they were the masterminds behind last night.

Ling Qing steadied himself, picked up the terminal, and sneered disdainfully: "What kind of trick are you playing now?"

Jiang Qingli spoke calmly,

"You’re all there, right? Good. Let’s cancel the engagement today."