Meng Mei fell asleep in the library that night. She had tried to leave when she realized how late it had gotten but she was stopped by an attendant who was waiting outside for her.
He'd told her that Madam Meirong had been dead serious when she said that her daughter wouldn't leave the library until she was finished. So Meng Mei walked back in and sat down at her desk.
She'd fallen asleep with her face squashed in the open rulebook and her hand dangerously close to the inkstone.
She woke up the next morning to the sound of Amah (she'd resigned herself to the fact that she'd never get her real name) coming in with breakfast.
Amah had tutted over her as she ate. Saying how Madam Meirong really ought to be kinder, Meng Xiāng was only eight years old after all. She huffed and puffed at the idea that Madam Meirong wasn't allowing her to have any fun.
"You're only two years away from attending classes at YuHu. You should be allowed a little fun before you meet your fiance."
Meng Mei had startled a little bit at that. Zhong Changming and Meng Xiāng haven't met yet? So was she supposed to meet him for the first time at YuHu?
The thought of Zhong Changming and Han Xiaolian wouldn't leave her mind for a long time after that. She realized that she most definitely needed a plan of action. Since she arrived yesterday afternoon she had just kind of been focused on the here and now. But the minute she met the main characters and stepped foot on YuHu, she'd have to start playing the long game.
She officially finished transcribing the rulebook a little after lunch time. She was supposed to go find an attendant and tell them that she was done so that she could leave the library. Instead she took the blank scroll that she didn't write on, carefully grabbed her inkstone, and set out into a deeper part of the library.
She found a spot far away from the doors and settled down on the floor. Her back was pressed against a part of the wall and her writing materials were laid out in front of her.
"Okay. Well I know the plot of Seasons of Sorrow like the back of my hand." Meng Mei thought aloud as she pondered where to start her planning.
"But what is everything I know about Meng Xiāng?"
The first thoughts that came to mind were bully, spoiled, traitor....which really wasn't going to work now that she was Meng Xiāng. And she'd only read about Meng Xiāng's actions through the eyes of Han Xiaolian, which was a very biased perspective. Meng Xiāng had bullied Han Xiaolian starting from when they were ten until they were fifteen.
That's five years of very valid resentment building up. So everything that happened after the 'studying at YuHu' arc was a questionable characterization of Meng Xiāng.
"Gahhhhh, okay. I just need to write down all the objective facts that I know about her. Like she really looks up to her mother for one."
She quickly wrote down all the objective facts that she knew about Meng Xiāng.
– Wants to be just like Madam Meirong
– Enjoys painting (and is really good at it)
– Has two older brothers
– Adores her Amah
– Engaged to Zhong Changming (in love with him?)
– Libaogong sect heir
– Always carries a fan
– Most graceful sword fighter
"Well that's a start at least." she mused as she looked down at her eight bullet points. Could she really 'take over' Meng Xiāng's life without knowing anything about her?
[Would A-Mei like the system to save your list so that you can add to it later? 「(°ヘ°)]
"Yeah but in a minute, I will need to get rid of it anyways so nobody finds it and starts looking into it." Meng Mei sighed. "But first, I need to plan how I'm going to rescue Lai Huang from his miserable life and prevent his blackening. And I need to figure out how I'm going to act around the main couple."
She drew a little tiger face under the list to represent Lai Huang. She didn't know where exactly he was right now so she didn't know what event he was currently going through. Hence the system's reward for finishing her current quest.
There were three major things that happened when Lai Huang was eight years old (as told in the SoS side stories).
1. His mother contracts a fatal lung disease and passes away, giving him the name and location of his birth father. He goes to the YuHu sect and has a private meeting with Zhong Shoushan, his father and the leader of YuHu. Zhong Shoushan doesn't accept him as a son and buys him from the leaders of the sect that Lai Huang used to be a servant child at. Only to make him a servant to YuHu.
2. He meets Zhong Changming for the first time while following the main family to their hunting grounds a week's travel from YuHu. By this time young master Zhong Changming had heard rumors of Lai Huang being his father's son and he was enraged. He spent the whole three month retreat being cruel to Lai Huang.
3. An elder at YuHu beats Lai Huang half to death after he 'looked at him disrespectfully' and 'didn't know his place and held contempt for the sect leader's real family'. Lai Huang was locked in a cellar for a month to repent for his 'crimes'.
It made Meng Mei's blood absolutely boil! Lai Huang had just been a kid! A kid who has lost his mother and gone to look for a new family with his father. He didn't deserve to be treated so cruelly!
Of course Meng Mei just wanted to run and scoop him up from whatever dangerous situation he was in but she couldn't. She was Meng Xiāng now, heir to Libaogong. She couldn't just kidnap her fiance's half brother who was a servant and then pamper him. No matter if she was a child now or what.
No, as much as it pained her she had to wait until she was a disciple at YuHu before she made contact with him. There might be a work around in the future but it was too soon to tell. All she could do now was cheer him on from the sidelines.
With a saddened sigh she started writing out ways that she could possibly cross paths with him once she was at YuHu. Once she established trust with him through a couple of 'chance' meetings she'd be able to invite him places. Lai Huang didn't completely shut out everyone around him until he was twelve.
Until then he was just a kid who wanted a family. A badly abused kid who could use a friend. If she used that then she'd be able to stop him from turning down the wrong path.
"I'll get back to his plan since I don't have a set time for when I'm meant to meet him."
She moved further down the scroll and drew a quick chickadee to represent Han Xiaolian.
Meng Mei already knew exactly what she had to do when it came to Han Xiaolian. Since Meng Xiāng was the main antagonist throughout the study arc then Meng Mei knew of every instance where the two crossed paths.
Their first meeting for example. Han Xiaolian had only gotten into YuHu sect by using a false name, and at the welcoming ceremony she'd been assigned to Meng Xiāng as her junior. Meng Xiāng was cordial with her and was a good sect shijie until Han Xiaolian demonstrated her sword skills. She used a lesser known sword stance taught only to those of her clan to avoid her opponents swing.
Meng Xiāng recognized the stance and in a fit of suspicion had probed into Han Xiaolian's background. She eventually uncovered her true name and was appalled to find out that she was Han Liwei's niece. The man who had tried to kill her future father in law.
After that first day everything went downhill for Han Xiaolian. For a while Meng Xiāng was satisfied with simply blackmailing her. But when Han Xiaolian had tried to fight back Meng Xiāng hadn't hesitated to expose her to the rest of the disciples.
That exposé had led to Han Xiaolian getting constantly bullied. And Meng Xiāng was always the mastermind behind it.
So Meng Mei's plan? Just do the opposite of her predecessor. She'd be kind to Han Xiaolian and not expose her. It would eventually happen anyways probably. It wasn't a very well kept secret after all. But even after it was revealed Meng Mei wouldn't bully her, she would undoubtedly have to distance herself since her fiance was directly affected by the situation.
She wrote down everything she was NOT supposed to do under Han Xiaolian's section and then just added a simple 'BE KIND' at the bottom.
"Only one more to go.." she hummed as she drew a little wolf further down to represent the last main character. Her fiance, Zhong Changming.
Zhong Changming was a complicated character, his relationships with people were even more so. At the beginning of Seasons of Sorrow he was an absolute jerk to anyone that wasn't his friends or his fiance. And he was only nice to Meng Xiāng out of duty.
When he got with Han Xiaolian he claimed to have never loved Meng Xiāng. When Meng Mei reread the early chapters there was nothing to indicate that he was lying. So he clearly had some mixed feelings about their engagement.
He had to go through a lot of character development arcs before he became even a decent person. He was arrogant and selfish, but also brave and strong.
She really didn't know where to start with him. Meng Mei had assumed that he and Meng Xiāng had been childhood friends at the very least but they hadn't even met yet.
With a shrug she simply wrote down one thing for Zhong Changming.
'Whatever you do, do not stick to him'
[New Tutorial Quest: Take Over The Role
• Description: Meng Mei must successfully convince Meng Xiāng's family that nothing has changed.
• Duration: 5 day(s) 19 hour(s) 2 minute(s)
• Upon completion Meng Mei will be able to find out the whereabouts of Lai Huang
• Failure to convince Meng Xiāng's family will result in Meng Mei's death and the passing on of her role.]