If she was still QQ, she would never have imagined meeting her own written character in person.

That should have been a crazy thing. One that only happened in the fantasies of delusional writers.

Now that she happened to be in this situation, she could only laugh.

The Fate of Nuo Ying Su (TFNYS) was written because she got tired of reading novels. Carrying her frustrations on unfinished or half-assed stories, she wrote her own.

Writing came naturally to her. Once she had a pen and notebook in hand, the letters and words would automatically be transferred.

What once was a past-time became a fleeting distraction to her own world.

It wasn't an escape though.

It was merely a 'time-out.'

Not even once did she show her face. Up to the last moment, she was the faceless author of twenty-some books full of beautiful heartaches and pains.

But TFNYS was different.

It was her only story that had hope in it and carried that hope until the end.

Hong Chun remembered writing Si Hai's character to be extremely loyal to the point of stupidity.

Now that she met him, she found him to be just like how she described him in her book.

He even kept the name Jiang Ming gave him despite being forsaken by this master of his.

Yes, Jiang Ming named an orphan 'Dead Child' to constantly remind him that without his master, he was nothing.

What Hong Chun couldn't understand was how Jiang Ming never discovered Si Hai's peculiarity.

It was one of the loopholes she was trying to fix before but couldn't find how. Maybe the loophole had a real reason in this world.

That side-villain's true identity...

This novel's plot was pretty simple as this was the first one she as QQ ever finished.

A girl from the modern era, Nuo Ying Su would transmigrate to a world that had similar traits as Ancient China.

From there, she would meet several people who couldn't tolerate her Mary Sue existence. They would all try to bring her down a notch.

But she would be saved either by her own wit and strength or by the borrowed hands of those who claimed to love her.

Like all stories of this genre went, there was a happy ending. Among Nuo Ying Su's suitors, she would only accept her one true pair who was the Second Prince of Han, Long Yi Ran.

Together, they would fight for the throne.

They would face sorrow and pain with each other. And their bond would get stronger and stronger after every trial that they passed.

This storyline was the norm but readers were suckers for this kind of development.

The OTP's last hurdle was the evil son of the Prime Minister.

Jiang Ming was an ambitious youth who wanted the throne for his clan. His father also supported this as their family had been attempting to revolt for a few generations already.

This time, their courage rose as Jiang Ming's aunt became a favored consort in the Imperial Harem. A pearl in the Emperor's eyes.

Another factor that spurned him to hate the male lead was he fancied Nuo Ying Su.

He wanted her to be part of his harem once he ascended the throne. A stupid dream if you asked Hong Chun.

Tough luck for him who went against the main leads. In the end, their family's plans were revealed, courtesy of the protagonists.

The court learned that it was them who poisoned the Emperor and their whole clan was sentenced to death.

In his moment of desperation and utter madness, Jiang Ming tried to pin all his deeds on his remaining loyal retainer.

This was none other than Si Hai. But the court saw this alibi null because it wouldn't be fun to accuse an orphan and a nobody of regicide and high treason.

Moreover, this retainer was proven to be someone with a weak brain so instead of executing him, he was sold off as a slave in a far-flung province in the South.

Earlier, Hong Chun tried to look underneath Si Hai's sleeves to see the evidence of him undergoing slavery: marks of shackles on his wrist.

All that was left were freshly scabbed scars by now.

She expected this much but seeing it in reality was still a little overwhelming.

That boy could only be here to see his master again. But it was too late as the Jiang clan was executed half a year ago.

She couldn't help but admire his tenacity. All for the sake of his master, he must have traveled days and nights curbing his hunger and enduring the cold.

It must have been traumatizing for him when he learned there was no more master to go back to.

She didn't need to think to know what he'd do next but the question was how and could he really enact his revenge?

That night, Hong Chun ate dinner alone. Hong Ting stayed in the academy for four days a week so she'd be by herself for a while.

After eating, she stayed up late writing.

This was how she passed her days here. Practicing calligraphy and perfecting her narrative poems.

The poets of this generation had yet to explore narrating with rhyme. All the literati ever did was describe how beautiful the surrounding was, how pretty the maidens were, how jolly the people were and so on and so on.

There were very few who acknowledged narration as true art.

Story-telling was seen as vulgar and filled with gossip. Spoken narrators were only heard in certain teahouses that sell pleasure at night or in groups that performed operas.

Nevertheless, it was a good thing females here were taught to be literate. It was something Hong Chun was satisfied with.

That was why her family never questioned her fondness for the four treasures of the study.

Besides, no one ever read the things she wrote except for her.

Who would waste time reading a dreamy maiden's notes?

Even Hong Shu Cao wouldn't invade her privacy that much.

But just to be sure, she tweaked the traditional character system. Switching the meanings here and there and memorizing them as she went.

If anybody else read her work, they would dismiss it as scribbles. Meaningless series of characters would look like it was only for practice.

And they would praise her as a young lady who wanted to perfect her calligraphy.

Who would know that she was writing the plot of her old story so she could recall it?

If someone could understand the real meaning of the things she wrote, she would either be hailed as a blessed prophet or she'd be hunted down as a dark witch. Because the things she wrote all happened in the course of her stay in this world.

Of course, it would happen because it was how the plot of the story went. But nobody knew that other than her.

The candlelight flickered and illuminated Hong Chun's solemn face.

If Mao Zhen could see her right now, she would say that her friend was starting to look like a true daughter of an imperial official.

Prim and proper. Not the slouchy, didn't care for anything type of person that she was.

But in truth, Hong Chun was only recalling Si Hai's back story.

She remembered mentioning Si Hai as a foreshadow for the second book.

...Jiang Ming's unnamed retainer used a secret art to escape the clutches of the slave-trainers of that forsaken place. From the barren mountains of Yun, he traveled all the way to the capital of Hanjing with a hallow chest and thoughts of revenge...

She couldn't remember actualizing the series because she went on to write other things back then. But if Si Hai was actually here in the capital, it could mean that the book would continue even if it was unpublished.

However, even if Jiang Ming's retainer was here with vengeance in his heart, it would hardly affect Hong Chun.

As far as she knew, her family wasn't mentioned even once in her written drafts.

Despite thinking up to here though, she couldn't help feeling uneasy.

An author incarnating inside her novel was never a good sign. So now, she was trying to analyze the possibilities.

The protagonists knew that Jiang Ming's loyal servant came from a dark sect that specialized in soul-tainting. But because his role was only minor from start to finish, no one cared if he died or not.

Even Hong Chun's readers only fussed over him when he was mentioned near the end of the story as a foreshadow.

Si Hai's real identity, Hong Chun was kind of hoping her thoughts were wrong.