How to Survive as a Villain Chapters 8-13

In this episode we are discussing chapters 8-13 of the Danmei: How to Survive as a Villain by Yi Yi Yi Yi. Enjoy!

Book Summary: When domineering CEO Xiao Yu’an opens his eyes, he finds himself in the body of a doomed emperor in a third-rate stallion novel—a.k.a. the villain who imprisons the righteous protagonist Yan Heqing and dies a gruesome death for it.

Not on his watch.

Armed with knowledge of the plot and a strong will to stay alive, Xiao sets out to rewrite his fate. Instead of cruelty, he offers kindness. Instead of power games, he offers friendship. After all, Yan is supposed to build a grand harem and rise to greatness—Xiao’s just here to support him… from a safe distance.

But as fate unfolds, nothing goes according to plan. The story still hurtles toward war, conquest, and betrayal. And Xiao finds himself tangled in misunderstandings, overly helpful courtiers, and a very conflicting relationship with the man he’s supposed to fear.

Link to book: https://yiggybean.com/products/how-to-survive-as-a-villain-vol-1-novel-pre-order-read-details-below?_pos=1&_psq=how+to+survive+as+a&_ss=e&_v=1.0

I use Yiggybean as the USA’s distributor for Rosmei translated books, but you can look on their website (see below) to find if your country has a partner.

https://rosmeihey.top/pages/partners-1

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Transcript

Hi everyone, and welcome to the ninth episode of the Danmei Digest, where I talk about whatever danmei novel catches my interest. I will be discussing How To Survive as a Villain by Yi Yi Yi Yi, translated by Rosmei.

Last we left off, Yan Heqing has just become the personal guard of Xiao Yu’an.

At the start of this next section, we get introduced to a couple new side characters. Li Wuding, a military officer, and Xie Chungui, a former pleasure slave who wants to be part of the military. In the original story, these characters were fated to be against each other. Li Wuding defected from the Northern Kingdom, while Xie Chungui fought for the Northern Kingdom until its destruction. The Northern Kingdom being where the story takes place right now.

Li Wuding is also the second male lead, although based on the description given about his role in the original novel, he isn’t much of a second male lead. While Yan Heqing builds his harem of women, Li Wuding just spends his time reading military strategies and training. We’ll have to see where these characters will end up in this now changed world.

We also get a couple of cute interactions between Xiao Yu’an and Yan Heqing as they continue about their lives as emperor and personal guard. An interesting quirk of Xiao Yu’an’s, is that he can’t fall asleep if there isn’t someone in the room with him. Up until now, his personal attendant, Hongxiu, stayed in the room with him until he fell asleep. However she just left to tend to her ill sister, so Yan Heqing gets to step up to the plate! Very cute! Another cute scene, is when Xiao Yu’an is shivering because of the cold, and Yan Heqing gives him his outer robe to keep him warm.

Amidst these cute moments, we learn more about Xiao Yu’an’s backstory, which is unexpectedly more tragic than I expected. Based on the beginning of the book, I thought he was born into wealth. It turns out that he’s an illegitimate son, and his father only wanted him back after he became unable to have more children. Unfortunately by then his mother had died by overdosing on some pills, and his brother was born crippled. So he has a dead mother, a scum father, and a brother that resents him due to his healthier body. Maybe the way he acts, singing random songs, being carefree, is because he has felt trapped for so long in his original life. This is further supported by the fact that his dream is to just live a stress free and enjoyable life.

The plot continues, and for the emperor’s birthday, envoys from Western Shu have been invited. We are introduced to one of the women who will eventually be a love interest for Yan Heqing in the original novel, her name is Xiao Pingyang. Xiao Pingyang is a female general, strong both in character and on the battlefield. In the original novel, she became the empress after marrying Yan Heqing. But we all know, that in this world, nothing goes the way Xiao Yu’an expects it to. Instead, it’s Princess Yongning that captivates Xiao Pingyang. It seems to me like love at first sight. Xiao Pingyang sees Princess Yonging practicing her dance for the birthday celebration, and immediately I knew that they were destined to be a pair. Of course Xiao Yu’an is so oblivious, he has no idea. In fact during his birthday party, when he’s watching Princess Yongning dancing, he sees Yan Heqing’s blank face watching her, and thinks wow he must be so enthralled that he’s speechless. 

Oh boy, he’s living in a dream world. In fact, him and Princess Yongning fall into the cold water during his birthday party. Xiao Pingyang saves Princess Yongning, and Yan Heqing saves Xiao Yu’an. If that’s not obvious, I don’t know what is.

It’s the calm before the storm, and the book takes this moment to give us some sweet moments between the two main characters. One scene I actually laughed out loud at, was when Xiao Yu’an was being smothered by blankets after the incident as his birthday. Xiao Yu’an reaches out a hand to Yan Heqing, asking for him to rescue him, but Yan Heqing just stuffs his hand back under the blankets. That evening, the two sneak out to the night market outside of the palace grounds. This is definitely the scene on the cover of the book. The main characters gazing at each other with lanterns floating in the background. Yan Heqing carries a flute, which Xiao Yu’an has just bought for him at the festival. Such a beautiful cover, and an adorable scene. 

Then guess who they run into, Xiao Pingyang and Princess Yongning. Xiao Yu’an tries to let Princess Yongning and Yan Heqing have some alone time, but he’s ruining the two ladies’ date! Princess Yongning and Xiao Pingyang say they are going to head back to the palace, but we know they just want to get rid of the well meaning, but romance killing Xiao Yu’an. Once they are gone, Xiao Yu’an gets really drunk at the festival. And as Yan Heqing carries him back, he realizes that he has fallen in love with him. Yan Heqing can’t resist kissing him, but Xiao Yu’an is so drunk that he just thinks it’s a dream. Xiao Yu’an is just way too oblivious for anything to happen anytime soon. And there’s still the issue I mentioned in the last episode, Xiao Yu’an doesn’t see the people here as real people. He still sees them as characters in a book. 

But that all changes when Prince Wuning tries to overthrow Xiao Yu’an and kill him in a coup. Prince Wuning is related to the emperor through marriage. Xiao Yu’an was aware that eventually, Prince Wuning would try to overthrow him. But he’s unprepared, because it happened in the book much later than present time. He gets separated from Yan Heqing, and is just about to die when Hongxiu, his attendant, jumps in front of a blade for him and dies. Xiao Yu’an is in shock, because she wasn’t supposed to die here, and he grew to care for her as an individual. That’s when he realizes that the choices he’s made, have a real impact on this world. The book even says it, that he can no longer see himself as an outsider, and treat others according to his whims. Right as Hongxiu dies, she gives him the hair stick that he had given to her earlier in the book. This serves as a reminder for him, that these are real people.

This is a huge turning point for Xiao Yu’an. He swears on Hongxiu’s memory that he will do his best for the Northern Kingdom, who is depending on him. He also realizes, that he can’t keep protecting the protagonist if he wants to think of the wellbeing of his kingdom. While Yan Heqing didn’t plan this coup or intend for Xiao Yu’an to die, he did know that it was going to happen at some point, because Prince Wuning sent him a note about the attack. Additionally, there is a lot of animosity between the Northern Kingdom and Southern Yan, which is where Yan Heqing comes from. The Northern Kingdom wiped out Southern Yan with no warning, so Yan Heqing does hold real hatred and vengeance towards the Northern Kingdom. The Northern Kingdom also had loved ones killed in the war with Southern Yan. So the politics at play, won’t allow for Xiao Yu’an to prioritize his two agendas, protecting Yan Heqing, and protecting his kingdom. So Xiao Yu’an lets Yan Heqing go and sends him back to Southern Yan, knowing that he might come back to kill him someday. The farewell between the two is sad, because the next time they meet will be as enemies. And from there on, Xiao Yu’an tries his best to be a good emperor.

And he tries so hard. Rooting out corruption, providing for the common people. But it seems like the world is against him. First a horrible drought, then an attack from another tribe. Neither of which happens in the original book. Then Southern Yan launches their attack. They are running out of money and food, and being attacked on all sides. 

I can’t help but wonder if there is some evil force driving all these attacks, or if it’s just fate pushing the world in a certain direction. There has been no sign of a system being part of Xiao Yu’an’s transmigration, so in this case, I think that it’s just fate. In some time travel scenarios, there are certain events that can’t be changed no matter what. Maybe the destruction of the Northern Kingdom is just one of them. 

Well, things go downhill pretty quickly. The Northern Kingdom suffers heavy losses, including the second male lead, Li Wuding, who sacrifices himself to destroy supplies of the Southern Yan troops. Xie Chungui tries his best, but they are outnumbered and have run out of rations. The Southern Yan fights their way to right outside of the palace. Meanwhile everyone in the palace has fled, looting as they go. Gosh this book really went from 0 to 100 super quickly, but that’s war for you. The once carefree Xiao Yu’an is now in an abandoned and destroyed palace, with only a few people staying behind. Princess Yongning, and surprisingly Eunach Zhao. I don’t know how this book did it, but it made me kind of like Eunach Zhao. For a reminder, Eunach Zhao was one of the people who tormented Yan Heqing earlier in the book. But he did that all out of loyalty for the emperor, whom he cares about deeply. Eunuch Zhao stays by Xiao Yu’an’s side, and asks to do his hair one last time like he used to do when he was a child. Then he goes to a temple, prays for Xiao Yu’an’s happiness, and takes his life as a sacrifice for his wish. 

This book got really good, so quickly. Although I enjoyed the humor, I was bothered by the overly light tone of the first 3/4 of this book. But now I kind of miss it. The last quarter of the book is tragic in so many ways, but the kind where you just have to keep reading.

Xiao Yu’an knows that his kingdom is lost, and he surrenders himself to the Southern Yan troops. He’s forced to walk in the cold with hardly any layers on, and his wrists are rubbed bloody from his journey to the enemy camp. There he meets Yan Heqing again, who is faced with a tough choice. If he spares Xiao Yu’an’s life, his people will see it as him debasing himself and abandoning his pride. And even if he did save Xiao Yu’an’s life, he did just destroy his kingdom. To no surprise, he chooses love. Although this choice was expected, it still takes a lot of courage to choose the person you love, over the pride and respect of your people.

Xiao Yu’an does not get the memo, and pulls out a knife. He thinks that Yan Heqing is going to kill him, so he cuts himself twice, asking for Yan Heqing to spare Princess Yonging and the common people of the Northern Kingdom. Yan Heqing can’t bear to see Xiao Yu’an hurt himself, so he takes the knife away and tries to stem the bleeding. Xiao Yu’an is shocked, but he has reached his limit, and passes out. And that’s how the book ends! Kind of a cliffhanger, but kind of not. 

What will happen to Princess Yongning? Will she go to Western Shu and take shelter with Xiao Pingyang? What happened to Xie Chungui? Also what struggles will Xiao Yu’an and Yan Heqing have to face to be together? Probably the biggest will be Xiao Yu’an’s obliviousness. But also there’s a lot of bad blood between the two’s kingdoms.

For some final thoughts, there are definitely some parallels between Scum Villain’s Self Saving System and this book. Both main characters are pretty oblivious to the love interest’s feelings, since they are both transmigrated into the body of a villain who dies in the original book. It starts off pretty lighthearted, but then dives into some angst and misunderstandings later. And also the humor is not quite the same, but the vibe feels similar in some way. 

Well as I mentioned earlier, I grew from feeling just meh about this book, to really growing attached at the end. I feel a lot more invested in the characters after the intensity of this last quarter. But the first part of the book was necessary to build the initial relationship between Xiao Yu’an and Yan Heqing, and also lay the groundwork for Xiao Yu’an’s character development. The plot itself was pretty light for most of the book except the end, but that sets up the future books to perhaps be more plot heavy. I’m actually quite excited to read the future books. Both to see where the plot goes, and also see a happy ending for these two characters. It started off as a 3/5, but ended as a 4/5.

For my next book, I’ll be reading I Can Do It, which I’m excited for because I haven’t read a lot of danmei’s with the gaming genre.

Thank you all so much for listening, and until next time.