After Transmigrating As The Scumbag Alpha In An Ancient Pregnant-And-Run Novel - Chapter 3

When Shen Liunian woke, she felt warmth all around her, and confusion filled her mind. Had she not been punished to kneel in the pavilion? The first snow had fallen, and the cold had seeped into her bones. How could she possibly feel warm?

But right now, her body was warm, and a faint fragrance lingered at the tip of her nose. It was the same scent as the one on that dog Yun Chenghuai.

She vaguely remembered seeing Yun Chenghuai’s face before she fainted.

That dog had not been sleeping in the middle of the night. How could she possibly have braved the cold weather just to come see her?

Had Shen Liunian frozen to death? Was this a hallucination before death?

It was not until she felt the pain in her knees that Shen Liunian returned to reality.

The dead could not feel pain.

She slowly opened her eyes, and the first thing that entered her sight was actually Yun Chenghuai. Why was this dog lying in her bed?

Immediately after, she sensed something was wrong. She did not like incense. Her room would never have such a strong fragrance, much less be warm enough that she vaguely felt sweat on her body.

There was no charcoal fire this strong in her room.

Shen Liunian hurriedly sat up on the bed and observed her surroundings. On the night of their wedding, she had been to Yun Chenghuai’s room before. Aside from the red silk and double happiness characters being removed, the layout had not changed much.

So she was in Yun Chenghuai’s room? Why was she here?

Could that dog Yun Chenghuai have done something to her? The moment this thought arose, she pulled out the dagger hidden against her calf.

The instant the dagger reached Yun Chenghuai’s neck, she restrained herself.

For the next quarter of an hour, every time Shen Liunian’s thoughts changed, her hand moved toward the dagger once. She had drawn it no fewer than three times.

Yun Chenghuai had no idea that, in this short quarter of an hour, she had nearly died more than ten times.

After coming back to her senses, Yun Chenghuai saw Shen Liunian’s expression, so dark it almost seemed about to drip water, and recalled the reason the original owner had punished her last night. Once again, she inwardly despised the original owner.

During the original owner’s confinement, she had received news that the Emperor intended to send her away from the capital to govern her fief.

In the original owner’s heart, as long as she had not left Shangdu for a single day, she still had a chance to fight for the throne.

After all, the current Crown Princess was her biological older sister. Once the Crown Princess passed away, the Crown Princess’s entire faction would be used by her. At that time, perhaps there might still be a sliver of opportunity.

Yet the Emperor actually wanted her to leave for her fief. This meant that even if the Crown Princess died, she would have no chance to use the opportunity to make a comeback.

After receiving this news, the original owner stormed into Shen Liunian’s courtyard. Whatever she picked up, she hurled at Shen Liunian.

If not for several loyal servants desperately protecting her, even if Shen Liunian had not died, she would have been seriously injured—let alone the fact that she was pregnant.

At this point in the memory, Yun Chenghuai remembered that three days later, one of the important reasons Shen Liunian made up her mind to leave was because the people who had accompanied her as part of her dowry, in order not to become a burden to her, collectively created chaos in Shangdu City. Some picked up weapons and caused a disturbance in the prince’s manor, and in the end, all of them threw themselves onto the blades of the manor guards.

It was precisely because everyone sacrificed themselves in such a tragic and heroic way that Shen Liunian left Southern Qin carrying towering hatred.

The reason Shen Liunian had chosen to compromise and not resist was because the original owner often threatened her with the lives of the people who had accompanied her as part of her dowry.

When the original owner told her to go kneel in the rear garden, Shen Liunian, unwilling to implicate the people around her, obediently went.

She was not stupid, so naturally she did not choose to kneel somewhere exposed to the open sky. She walked to the pavilion of her own accord.

As she faced the scrutinizing gazes and endless mockery of the servants coming and going through the manor, she shivered in the cold wind.

After this incident, for the sake of their master’s life, and in order to let their master leave this man-eating place, the servants of the Shen family all chose to give up their own lives together.

Yun Chenghuai felt furious at the original owner’s methods of using power to oppress others and threatening people with human lives.

The chaos in Shangdu City, combined with the Shen family completely siding with Northern Qi, led to the original owner being confined, and then to her death.

The original owner had reaped what she had sown. Yun Chenghuai naturally would not. She absolutely could not repeat the same mistake.

But a sudden change would definitely arouse suspicion. If someone discovered that the soul inside this body had changed, she might very well be treated as a monster and burned to death.

She thought in silence for a while, then fixed a gentle gaze on Shen Liunian and said softly, “Princess Consort, you’re pregnant.”

Changing her attitude because the other party was pregnant—this reason was convincing enough, right?

Shen Liunian: “……”

Her face grew darker and darker. She was so stunned by the news of her pregnancy that she could not say a word, completely failing to notice the difference in Yun Chenghuai’s tone.

In Yun Chenghuai’s memory, the two of them had only consummated their marriage once, during Shen Liunian’s last heat.

The Emperor had heard that the two of them still had not consummated the marriage and issued the original owner a strict order. Therefore, the original owner took advantage of Shen Liunian’s vulnerable state and marked her while she was in heat and had lost her rationality.

The original owner’s thinking was rather trashy. Even if she did not like Shen Liunian, as a prince, what was wrong with marking her own princess consort?

So the original owner had permanently marked Shen Liunian.

In the novel, after Shen Liunian left Southern Qin, in order to remove the mark on her body, she went to the Valley of Eccentrics and nearly lost half her life before the mark was finally removed.

From then on, Shen Liunian began to grow frail and sickly.

Yun Chenghuai loathed the original owner’s actions, but now she could only make up for the wrongs the original owner had committed. It was for the sake of saving herself, and perhaps also because she could not bear to let the female lead continue suffering.

When she had read the novel, she had felt distressed for the female lead. Now that she had seen Shen Liunian’s true circumstances, that distress had multiplied many times over.

“What did you say?” Shen Liunian could not believe that she was pregnant. She thought Yun Chenghuai had come up with some new way to torment her.

Yun the dog had been grounded by the Emperor for a month. Perhaps she was using Shen Liunian to amuse herself.

Yun Chenghuai knew very well that Shen Liunian was prejudiced against the original owner. Of course, now it was prejudice against her.

She took a deep breath and said happily, “Princess Consort, we’re about to have a child.”

A smile rose on her face. It could not be called particularly sincere, but it was still a smiling expression.

When had Yun Chenghuai ever had such a good attitude in front of Shen Liunian?

Shen Liunian looked at her coldly, then got out of bed. As a result, her legs went weak, and she nearly fell.

Yun Chenghuai was just about to support her, but Shen Liunian shook off her hand.

Enduring the pain in her knees, Shen Liunian pulled aside the bed curtains and walked out.

Being on the same bed as Yun the dog was truly disgusting.

Every extra second she stayed made her feel another degree of revulsion.

Yun Chenghuai hurriedly got out of bed after her. She knew that Shen Liunian would not believe what she said, so she tugged the bell beside the bed.

Six maids pushed the door open and entered together, all young and graceful. Yun Chenghuai only felt her head ache.

When the wives of wealthy and noble households went out, they would have dozens of maids and servants. As a prince, the people serving her alone numbered over a hundred before and after, truly enough to be called a crowd of servants.

Only six maids had come in now, and there were still more than ten waiting outside.

The original owner, this dog, really knew how to enjoy herself. No wonder she had no money.

The maids entered the room with their heads lowered and lined up in the outer chamber. An older maid stepped forward and curtsied. “Your Highness.”

The maid was Lanping, the daughter of the original owner’s wet nurse. Later, she had always remained in the original owner’s estate and served as a first-rank maid. Even among the first-rank maids, she held quite a high position.

In the novel, Lanping often mocked Shen Liunian with cold sarcasm, frequently withheld things from her courtyard, and bullied and beat the Shen family’s servants. Later, when the Shen family’s servants caused unrest, she was hacked to death by random blades.

Lanping was one of the main people at the original owner’s side who bullied Shen Liunian. In the novel, some ink had been spent describing Lanping’s death.

Yun Chenghuai struggled to match every person she saw with the names in her memories.

Although she had received the original owner’s memories, for the time being, she still could not use those memories skillfully.

“Lanping, go invite the resident physician. Also, heat up the medicine the resident physician prescribed last night. Once the princess consort finishes breakfast, bring it to her.”

Yun Chenghuai gave her instructions in meticulous detail. The faces of the servants waiting beside her, though lowered, were full of surprise.

Lanping was stunned for an instant, then hurriedly said, “Yes, Your Highness.”

Lanping had bullied Shen Liunian and the Shen family’s people because she had been following the prince’s will, acting tyrannically under the prince’s tacit permission.

From top to bottom, everyone in Prince Chuxiang’s manor acted according to Yun Chenghuai’s attitude.

Her attitude represented how everyone in the manor would treat Shen Liunian from now on.

No one dared question her words. In an era where imperial power reigned supreme, one sentence from her could determine everyone’s life or death.

Even if everyone was extremely surprised by how carefully and thoroughly she was treating the princess consort, by the time they lifted their heads, the shocked expressions on their faces had long since been hidden.

Beside her, Shen Liunian’s brows were tightly furrowed. She gave Yun Chenghuai a deep look and began to suspect that she really might be pregnant.

However, everything would have to wait until the resident physician arrived.

Clearly, Yun Chenghuai had called the resident physician because she wanted to tell Shen Liunian that she was not lying, nor did she have any intention of playing tricks on her.

In truth, a first-rank maid like Lanping had already known about Shen Liunian’s pregnancy after the resident physician came last night.

She had originally thought the prince would hate the child because she hated the mother. Unexpectedly, Shen Liunian actually seemed to have a chance to turn things around because of her pregnancy.

In ancient times, people valued the mother according to the child. For a time, everyone in the prince’s manor who learned that the princess consort was pregnant began thinking about what attitude they should have toward the princess consort in the future.

But these people would certainly take Yun Chenghuai’s attitude as the standard.

What attitude could Yun Chenghuai have? The power over her life and death rested in Shen Liunian’s hands. Of course she had to treat her well.

She lifted her eyes and looked at Shen Liunian’s expression. The other woman’s complexion was very poor.

That made sense. Their consummation had been engineered by the original owner. Now Shen Liunian was pregnant too, carrying the child of the person she hated most. Who could possibly be happy about that?

Yun Chenghuai hoped Shen Liunian could remove this blade hanging over her head as soon as possible.

Before long, the resident physician on duty hurried into the room. She first bowed to Yun Chenghuai, then, at Yun Chenghuai’s signal, went to take Shen Liunian’s pulse.

Yun Chenghuai stood to the side while several maids helped her wash up and dress.

It was not that she wanted to adapt to local customs. It was simply that ancient clothing was too complicated. She did not know how to wear it.

The clothing of Southern Qin was similar to the attire of the Ming Dynasty. As a prince, the material of Yun Chenghuai’s clothes was the finest, and the embroidery was exquisite.

She was grounded at home, so what she wore was casual clothing. But even the original owner’s casual clothes were still gorgeous. The whole outfit was bright red, the collar edged with silver-thread patterns, and vermilion birds embroidered all over it in gold thread.

This outfit was worth a great deal, but it was far too flashy and arrogant. No wonder the court officials all disliked the original owner.

In the original owner’s memories, most people’s casual clothes were just ordinary garments, with darker colors as the main tone. They would not embroider too many patterns on them, and even if they did, they would not use gold or silver thread.

Southern Qin was wealthy, yet the court officials were plain and frugal. That was because the current Emperor advocated thrift.

Just as the original owner, as a prince, set the trend for everyone in her manor through her own actions, the current Emperor’s behavior set the trend for the entire country.

If the Emperor was frugal, then even if the court officials were extravagant at home, they would not dare act recklessly in front of the Emperor.

Ministers with even a little discernment would more or less prepare a few sets of clothes that did not look so ornate.

Unlike the original owner. It was one thing for her to dress gaudily at home, but even when she went out, she dressed like a peacock spreading its tail.

Yun Chenghuai was very curious. What exactly made the original owner think that, without Shen Liunian, she would be able to inherit the throne?

She felt that she had another important matter to handle, and that was preparing a few outfits that were not so ostentatious.

Yun Chenghuai got dressed while inwardly disdaining the outfit. As the maids tied up her hair, she glanced at Shen Liunian from the corner of her eye and saw that after the resident physician confirmed her pregnancy, Shen Liunian’s gaze moved past the physician and landed on her.

She hurriedly raised a smiling face and said gently, “Princess Consort, you must rest well. If you have any instructions, just say so. Everyone in the prince’s manor is at your command.”

As she said this, she felt that speaking this way might easily make people suspicious, so she added, “Our child deserves the best.”

After hearing her words, however, Shen Liunian thought she was deliberately disgusting her. Her already icy eyes grew even colder, as if they were about to freeze Yun Chenghuai to death.

Yun Chenghuai had no doubt that if there had not been so many people in the room, Shen Liunian might very well have rushed up and bitten her to death.

Indeed, that was exactly the case. Shen Liunian’s hand lowered slightly, its target precisely the dagger hidden against her calf.

Fortunately, there were many people present. Otherwise, there might truly have been blood.