The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System fan fiction

This is exactly why I made so many references in his past posts. FORESHADOWING.
edit: New fic posts in progress. :V

 

Poor Aoguang digging himsepf into a deeper hole! I feel so sorry for him.... really.... I do.....


.......PFT!!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!


*Wheezes* It hurts!!! *Coughs* It hurts to breathe!!!! *continues laughing

 

Oh! Um... I'll be troubling you then. Would you please assign me a dark, cozy room filled with enough books to start using them as furniture?

 

TOFFEE CAKE

Spoiler

ATDSVT
***
Ziming was one of several children of a certain prince of high rank, the imperial uncle. Of this man's children, his most favored was his third son, who constantly competed with his eldest son who was born to the di wife.

Of the children, the majority were born to that Imperial Uncle's concubines. Some of the children had no mothers or mothers of pathetically low rank.

Ziming's mother had been the previous beloved concubine. Virtuous, extremely tactful, talented and intelligent, she had sided with the di wife in all things. In fact, they were natural allies to the point that when she had died and her position was taken by the new favored concubine, the di wife lamented her passing and chose to treat her son quite well.

As such, in his youth, Ziming had lacked for nothing.

By contrast, his younger brother Zisheng had been born to an unfortunate tongfang and the new beloved concubine had been quite vicious in her schemes against every woman that the Imperial Uncle had gotten children on.

Zisheng's mother had been treated as the lowest ranked of the so-called 'favored' concubines and eventually died due to the schemes of her fellows in the harem, leaving Zisheng alone and at the 'mercy' of his higher ranked halfsiblings.

It wasn't much of a mercy until Ziming found him and essentially picked him up to raise.

Zisheng wasn't the only unfavored child, of course. There were quite a few others.

For instance, sixth born Ziqing was small, fair, frail and received quite a lot of bullying because of his appearance which took after his beautiful mother, who everyone had once called a fairy. It was a pity she was a huakai from a brothel who sold her skills in the four arts before being bought by his father.

Miss Ziling on the other hand, had not inherited her mother's beauty and had been born sickly besides. Everyone had thought she would die quickly so she had one of the smallest resource allocations unlike her lovely and healthier sisters. She had an old doctor to look after her and a medicinal herb allowance but there wasn't enough of a budget allocated to her for her to have fine clothing and jewels like those of her sisters.

Therefore, to these three younger children, the care of their older brother was like a meat pie from heaven.

Ziqing quickly adjusted to the new dynamic and now that he had backing, he threw himself into his studies, intending to become a great scholar and strategist. Someday, he intended to be a minister.

Ziling decided she would become a doctor, just like the old doctor who had cared for her all these years. With her already low status in the rear court, unexceptional appearance when compared to her other sisters, and with elder brother Ziming like a shady tree, shielding her from the others, she was able to undertake her studies in relative peace.

It was Zisheng who was the problem.

Zisheng was a crybaby.

Zisheng didn't like violence. Zisheng didn't like fighting. Zisheng got bullied a lot. That was a recurring problem in their youth.

Of course, at first, Ziming protected him, just like he protected Ziqing and Ziling. He played with him, sat with him and patiently tutored him like he did for them. He carried him around on his back like he did with the others.

However, this period of peace and bliss could not last forever because Zisheng was growing up. He couldn't rely on Ziming forever; it wasn't safe.

The problem was that Zisheng had begun to consider his elder brother to be his comfort zone, his safe space and that was dangerous.

That was why Ziming had to push him in the direction of making something of himself. It was for his own good because once Zisheng had proved himself to be useful to their father, he would have more resources and be able to have a home and assets of his own.

But alas, Zisheng was clingy.

As a result, Ziming had to start prying him off his thigh (sometimes even literally) so he could learn to stand on his own. At first, Ziming had tried to coax him into it gently but that only meant there were long periods of crying and clinging.

That meant Ziming had to be clearer and more firm. Each time Zisheng slid back into clinging and crying. Each time, in response to that, Ziming's words became sharper and he began to push Zisheng in earnest.

It got to the point that Ziming had to punch bullies in the face and then lecture the younger prince to bully them back instead of always relying on Ziming to arrive and save him.

Eventually, Ziming had to bully him into taking the examinations.

After that he had to bully Zisheng into taking posts as a scholar official. Then he bullied Zisheng even harder, into taking martial arts. Then he bullied him right into the army.

Finally when Zisheng had a well established reputation of service, Ziming felt he could relax and take care of his own matters.

*
Naturally, when Zisheng found out his beloved elder brother was in love with a man and was courting him, it felt like the sky was crashing down on him.

And when he had the matter investigated and found out that it was Qing Jing's Wang An and that Wang An had been courting three other men, he flipped a table.

Also the door didn't survive his temper tantrum either.

*
To Zisheng's great mental trauma (and both his internal and external wailing), it was soon obvious that not only did his (preciousssss) Big Brother know that Wang An had intended to marry three other men... He also didn't care.

Despite all his attempts to talk some sense into his Ziming, Zisheng found it was useless.

"But he intends to marry three other men!" Zisheng all but wailed miserably.

"He told me that he would marry them in advance, and then gave me the choice of either pursuing him or breaking it off. He was completely fair and honest. I decided I would court and marry him anyway." Ziming said firmly.

Zisheng's mind wailed about the unfairness of the universe. QING JING WAS SO FAR AWAY!

In addition, their father would never let him follow Big Brother while he was alive.

Then he found out his father had actually approved the marriage. And encouraged Big Brother to marry That Man. Maybe, behind-the-scenes, he even ordered Big Brother to marry That Man!

That was the day when Zisheng decided he was going to take over his father's territory.

 

/waits for the rest of this little side story

 

Sure. For now, eat more cake while waiting!

MOLASSES CAKE

Spoiler

ATDSVT-Flashback
***
It was a bright and sunny summer day when a young lady's world ended.

Ziming reluctantly visited his fiancee's home in order to break the engagement.

It wasn't because of any personal dislike, neither was it out of callousness or lust. He certainly had no intention of hurting her.

It was just the sad fact that with his new status being as it was, with his recent rise in rank, he could not marry someone who had become a 'waste' in the eyes of the public without incident. He was a Marquis now, while Ziqing and Zisheng were Counts and that meant he had to marry someone who could make a good showing.

The Imperial Uncle could have only one heir to his position. As a result of that, the di son and the son of the current favored concubine were fighting endlessly over it.

To save his face, he would have to marry a woman who fit his status, someone of beauty, dignity, talent and personal distinction.

She wasn't talented in the four arts, she was awkward, shy and she stuttered, and for her, every social occasion was a trial.

That automatically took his fiancee out of the running. Before, as a son with no rank, he could have married her, they could have lived together in one of the smaller estates on the outskirts of the city.

But now, with a given position, he could no longer give her that. Her every action would come under scrutiny and people would be cruel.

That didn't mean he would let anyone bully his former fiancee. She was a nice girl and he didn't intend to let anyone hurt her, even if she wasn't suitable for him.

That was exactly why he had come in person to gently break it off and save face all around while making sure that her parents and other such people couldn't take it out on her or make her life more difficult.

There were things expected of greater noblemen's wives that weren't expected of the lower ranks, and while he wasn't a duke...yet... any wife of his would still be invited to formal events.

Events like flower viewings and formal banquets where women would gossip and tear each other apart verbally. Where a stutter and a shy demeanor would only crush her.

Ziming knew the drill, because of his mother. He also knew that not sending her to those would only make it clearer that she was 'inadequate'.

So he was breaking the engagement this day.

And to make it clear that he knew he was the one at fault, he was bringing back the entirety of the dowry, and much more in terms of goods as an apology.

Sadly, he knew it would still hurt her. That was unavoidable. But he could talk to her father and her stepmother and lay some sort of provision for her to be better treated. He already knew it was difficult for her as the only person in the household who was 'untalented' to this degree, because all her more talented siblings made fun of her, but if he could leave some sort of gratuity, they might take his request seriously.
***
It did not go well. That was to be expected.

MoQin was his friend, they had gotten to know each other for the years since their childhood engagement.

His straightforward statement of why he could not marry her, had thrown the fat into the fire.

She had tried to go and slam her head against the nearest pillar and he had to stop her from doing it.

That now meant her forehead hurt, and his belly hurt.

Next, of course, there was the negotiations. Her parents were greedy and the stepmother was the worst. If he hadn't needed to forge an alliance with the father to help him gain some military office for Zisheng to work his way up, he would not now be hearing the man offer his 'more satisfactory' second daughter as a replacement for the first.

They really wanted to keep the engagement, huh.

His statement of how much he was returning to their family in addition to the dowry had the stepmother smiling.

No doubt they wanted to take all of that, so he would have to add some kind of stipend to continue caring for her even if there was no marriage.
*
In response to his offering them this in exchange for a full cessation of the engagement, their offer was outrageous. They quickly offered up their second daughter to be his main wife while little MoQin would be his concubine.

That was most certainly not what he had planned on doing. His intention was to get MoQin a stipend for her needs while giving her a large enough dowry to get a scholar official as a husband.

Nevertheless, if he didn't agree to this offer and simply cut off the engagement, who knew what could happen to MoQin if they blamed her for his breaking the engagement?

What to do, hm.

Well, since this was Zisheng's fault in the first place, that brat may as well help him pay for it!

He called Zisheng on over and told him he expected him to take care of MoQin as if she was gold, by which he clearly meant he expected Zisheng to take her into his household. Zisheng after all, was in the military right now and would have less strictures or requirements for his wife.

That provoked a fresh outburst of crying and then he had two crying people to soothe.

Honestly, this was ridiculous.

To his deep disgruntlement he still ended up saddled with the second miss in spite of his wishes.

Right. If she was going to make him miserable by being his wife, he was going to give her lectures about how to treat her soon to be sister in law!

 

Le-maow! Wang An got told as The Man. With capital T and M~ hahhahahahah


Ahhhh bro cons....so overpowered to because they want to keep their brothers~

 

Ziming is totally tsuntsun for Zisheng. There are more povs in this series of events, stay tuned.

 

But Wang An always like those he find cute (in a strange way) so how did he find Ziming cute? Do tell!

Got saddled with the second miss?? But you're pursuing Wang An. And he's possessive af! How's that gonna work?!
P.s. I dislike the second miss already. Just because.

 

You do realize the title says very clearly 'Flashback' right?

 

Errr kinda forgot the moment I started reading

 

—> He also knew that
Sorry...that’s the only grammar issue

Now for actual response and comments on the whole

Gentleman through and through. Doing everything he can to salvage the good from the pain. I approve of this man. Will not ever like the stepmother, overly ambitious father, or scheming sister.

 

If he's trying to get rid of Cansheng wouldn't the hate-sex just be encouraging him and his other stalkers?

Does G know that Aoguang's type is the Sect Master? Or is this like the "when I grow up I'll marry someone like Papa!" kind of thing? What about the Xian Shu ladies, have they done a sequel to the master and disciple story yet?

Dong-Mei: Fujoshi's (and Fudanshi's) shall take over the world! "evil laughter"
Aoguang: "hides in a corner"
Ma Kong: Dong-Mei, soo cool.

Seems like Aoguang inherited G's paranoia.
Waiting eagerly for the new posts.

 

Ziming looks like the total opposite of Wang An's type. Can't wait to read how Wang An hooked up with him, or is it that he hooked Wang An.
All hail the brocon. Zisheng sounds like he'll cause all sorts of mayhem for That Man that stole his precious brother away.
And worst of all taking him away where he can't run to him for cuddles.

 

Been feeling panda deprived for a while.

 

And I won't forget our fairy.

 

Waaaah~ so pretty. Do they taste good as well?

 

I've only tried the mooncakes and the cake balls. And yes they do taste good. （￣ｗ￣）Ψ

 

@Gin_Seishin, @Hydrochoerus and any readers online.
Enjoy.

RED ENVELOPE

Spoiler

ATDSVT-Flashback
***
Stuttering, stammering, a crippling shyness didn't mean that someone was stupid.

Neither did a lack of skill at the four arts or cultivation.

MoQin's body had always been weak from childhood, her writing was like a child's writing excercises, her skill with a musical instrument was abysmal, she could barely match couplets of poetry and her timidity and speech impediment ruined all her chances of skill in poetry readings, declamations or other such public occasions.

It also meant that her family was perpetually embarrassed by her and considered her a waste.

However, as Zisheng, Ziming, Ziqing and Ziling would be willing to testify, she was not stupid.

She had a fine skill with calculations and mathematics, a practical bent that meant she could quickly grasp the running of an estate from bargaining over goods to digging up the best recorded methods for developing resources, a fine way with cooking and an excellent memory that worked best with books including treatises and history.

In short, if she had been allowed to spend the rest of her life only corresponding with people through her not-beautiful childishly written notes, she could probably run a household of a noble quite well.

The problem was that in a noble household where social gatherings were expected, the wife absolutely had to be skilled at the four arts and presentable in public.

In addition, she was polite and gentle, goodnatured, kind, generous and not inclined to tearing people down verbally.

That meant she was at an automatic disadvantage in any situation involving her fellow noblewomen, many of whom had learned the skill of barbed words in the rear court.

She and Ziming got along quite well by constantly passing notes.

Sometimes these were long notes on treatises, or short notes about what she planned to cook that day. The fact of the matter was, few other people would have the patience to only correspond with MoQin through the medium of notes for extended periods and MoQin knew it.

She also knew that the other noblemen out there wanted wives who they could talk to, and that they looked at the four arts to judge a woman of a good family. Her skills were abysmal, who else would give her a chance?

She had grown to love Ziming for his patience (patience honed by dealing with his younger siblings' various problems) and to have her engagement to him ruined because of the social responsibilities of a Marchioness was to be thrown back into the wasteland of the marriage market, a fate she could not bear after being secure for so many years.

That was why she had unhesitatingly charged at the pillar.

In modern terms, it was remarkably similar to the situation of a japanese or korean student who had failed every single exam and would never be able to rise higher or get a good job. The vast majority of such people tended to jump off of buildings.

Fortunately for her, Ziming had protected her from herself, and done his best to provide for her by leaving her in Zisheng's care.

Zisheng would never go against his brother on this, and they both knew it. In addition they and Ziqing and Ziling were on fairly good terms for his brother's sake, so she had nothing to fear.

That didn't mean she was reconciled to her sister being engaged to her closest friend in her place.

RED ENVELOPE

Spoiler

ATDSVT-Flashback
***
In truth, the infighting between the eldest son, who was also the son of the di wife, and the third son, who was the son of the current beloved concubine, was a terrible war of attrition.

The Di son was in the right by law, but the beloved concubine was ambitious and her son was the one that her husband spent the most time with, among all his children.

That son was also the Imperial Uncle's favorite child. Had he a daughter by the same consort, most likely she would have been the favorite daughter as well.

This particular Imperial Uncle had gotten his nice position specifically because he wasn't a threat to the current Emperor and never had been one. He wasn't perceptive or ambitious enough, so he got this nice cushy position and palace so the current emperor could show fraternal love, benevolence and cement his reputation.

He cooperated quite well with his Di wife, but he didn't love her, his emotions to her and her son were lukewarm. He had liked Ziming's mother, had been caring, fond and appreciative of her. If she hadn't been the epitome of tact, loyalty, friendship and diplomacy towards his di wife, the harem would have been much worse off.

He allocated a certain budget to each of his concubines and then mostly forgot about their circumstances. As for his 'favored consorts' who had his kids, he basically allocated them more resources than the concubines who gave him no children and forgot about them in general unless he wanted his kids to show off their obedience, merits and filial piety to him.

As it was, the Imperial Uncle's true love was the current beloved consort, who was a white lotus schemer and also gained the lion's share of the resources after the Di wife and son's portion were taken out. This beloved consort was also ambitious for her son and wanted him to be the Imperial Uncle's heir. This meant a lot of scheming was going on. As a result, many relationships between siblings in the Imperial Uncle's harem were strained.

In front of their father, all the sons and daughters had to be filial, pious and display all the traits expected of noble ladies and gentlemen. Out of his sight, the women competed over attracting potential husbands, the men took sides between the Di son and the third son.

It was a battlefield of hidden threats and barbed words and Zisheng, Ziming, Ziling and Ziqing wanted nothing of it.

If it were possible, they would have avoided it all like the plague. As it was, they spent literal years watching what was probably the metaphysical equivalent of radioactive fallout and trying to stay clear of it. It wasn't completely successful.

By sheer dint of studying, they had each managed to get a precarious freedom and estates of their own. Ziling had a quiet little pharmacy and a shady, tree filled, very small estate to practice medicine in, Ziqing and Zisheng were Counts with their own estates and Ziming had the largest piece of land of the three.

That didn't mean their brothers' really stupid war couldn't drag them back in. For instance, Zisheng and Ziming had both gotten injured as collateral damage in one of the third son's schemes. They were nominally on the eldest son's side for his mother's sake, and due to their gratitude for her benevolence, they would never kill him or let him be slain, but they weren't happy about being involved in this at all.

Zisheng's feelings for their father were simple and clear. He hated the man.

That man had abandoned his mother. As long as he lived, Zisheng could not do as he wished because he was bound to obedience by the social norms of filial piety, because going against that man would result in losing connections, backing, resources. His father could easily crush him and suppress him at will to the point that he could not work or live in 'polite' society.

In addition, Zisheng was well aware it was Ziming who had undertaken the task of getting him, Ziqing and Ziling their resources and initial positions. Ziming and not their father.

So, no, there were no good feelings there.

There was actually more gratitude on behalf of the di wife and di son than there was for their father. The Di wife's benevolence for Ziming on his mother's behalf had spilled over to the siblings he raised, and the Di son didn't target them or bully them either. If the Di son inherited, say, the next day, Zisheng knew he would be free to do as he pleased... right after the Di son was confirmed in his position.

 

1. That is why I am still rolling dice for Cansheng while Cansheng's muse is clinging to my leg in hopes of swaying me. :V

2. It's sort of a mix of both of those and the 'I want to marry someone like the Sect Master because he and Shifu are so well suited and lovey dovey that I'm horribly envious." Thing.

3.No sequel yet. They're starting to churn out fanfics using G's past lives and his bros as inspiration, though.

4.No, Aoguang's paranoia was always there. Blame his father for everything.