After Transmigrating Into A Love-Brained Scumbag Villain - Chapter 12

Faced with Wang Yaoshuang’s teasing, Bihe was left speechless.

After a while, Bihe finally organized her words and said, “Thank you for your praise, Princess Consort. If the princess consort wishes for this servant to wash clothes, this servant is willing to serve you.”

Her completely unyielding attitude made Wang Yaoshuang both annoyed and amused.

Among the people present, the only one who could probably order Bihe around was His Highness.

Wang Yaoshuang turned her gaze toward His Highness. Her eyes were bright and rippling, and her sweet voice carried a trace of helplessness. “A melon forced off the vine is not sweet. Your Highness, it seems this concubine can only look for someone else.”

She wanted to use this chance to test His Highness’s attitude once more.

If everything His Highness had done before was merely an act, then at this moment, she would surely follow Wang Yaoshuang’s words and tell her to find someone else, or even cancel the decision to let her manage the prince’s manor’s authority.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Shangrong had always been the type to respond to softness rather than force. Seeing Wang Yaoshuang acting like “a little girl who was sad because she could not get the toy she wanted, but because she was sensible, refused to cling to her parents,” Zhao Shangrong, who originally did not really want to place someone who knew her identity right under the female lead’s nose and increase the risk of her disguise being exposed, immediately made a decision.

“The princess consort has many maidservants by her side. She does not truly need you to wash her clothes.” Zhao Shangrong said to Bihe, “I have handed the various affairs of the prince’s manor over to the princess consort. She has only just entered the manor and does not yet understand many aspects of it. Chief Clerk Chen can teach her official business, but she lacks talent when it comes to internal affairs. You are an old servant of the prince’s manor, so I imagine you should be very familiar with its internal affairs. With your assistance, I believe the princess consort will soon be able to get the hang of managing them.”

Hearing this, Bihe quietly lifted her eyes and quickly glanced at Wang Yaoshuang.

During the previous dynasty, the imperial clan’s power had been too great, which led to the “Chaos of the Nine Kings.”

Within the official system of a princely state, there were no fewer than a hundred officials, enough to be called a small court independent of the imperial court.

Bihe answered, “Yes.”

According to Zhao Shangrong’s previous guess, the maidservants and servants in the prince’s manor who could approach the Prince of Yingchuan were unlikely to be the emperor’s informants. Otherwise, there would have been no need for the emperor to arrange for the legitimate daughter of a powerful noble clan to enter this dragon’s pool and tiger’s den.

The advisors, subordinate officials, and minor officials who held official rank were more likely suspects. They were all court-appointed officials recruited and examined through the imperial court. Although she controlled the channels for their promotion, she could not deal with them casually, so their loyalty to her had to be questioned.

Although Bihe did not understand why the princess consort was so determined to have her help, as if she were certain Bihe was better at handling the prince’s manor’s internal affairs, she did not sense malice from the princess consort.

His Highness had always been cold toward people, yet she was unexpectedly gentle toward the princess consort. Perhaps…

Chief Clerk Chen’s suspicion could basically be ruled out. As for the other officials in the prince’s manor, Zhao Shangrong had not yet interacted with them, so it was hard to judge.

Could it be that the emperor had placed other spies in the prince’s manor, and based on those spies’ information, Wang Yaoshuang had discovered that there was something unusual about Bihe’s identity and wanted to use Bihe as a breakthrough point to investigate the secrets of the Prince of Yingchuan’s manor?

The princess consort was not joking.

Since His Highness had spoken, how could Bihe refuse?

Wang Yaoshuang was worried that if she insisted on taking Bihe over while Bihe was unwilling, it would backfire. So she walked up to Bihe and said gently, “I am not trying to move you away from His Highness. I only want to temporarily borrow you to my side. If you are willing, you may continue staying by His Highness’s side to serve. When I encounter difficulties, I will ask you for guidance. Or, I can have my maidservant Jiumo learn from you. Once she has learned enough, I will no longer need to trouble you.”

Zhao Shangrong had Bihe withdraw first, then asked Wang Yaoshuang as though casually, “How did the princess consort know she has talent in this area?”

Therefore, at present, the Prince of Yingchuan’s manor only had officials such as the Chief Clerk, Military Advisor, and Attendant Gentleman responsible for the manor’s official business.

By the Luo dynasty, it had been stipulated that a princely state’s officials could only assume their posts after the princes went to their fiefs.

After the “Chaos of the Nine Kings” was suppressed, the power of the imperial clan was greatly reduced, and many official positions in princely states that once held real power were hollowed out.

According to Luo Kingdom’s system, after the emperor’s sons were granted princely titles, their fiefs became princely states.

For example, although the Prince of Yingchuan had left the palace and established her own manor, she had not yet gone to her fief to govern the commandery. Therefore, positions specifically responsible for the fief’s government affairs, such as Chamberlain for Attendants, Commandant, and Grand Agricultural Minister, were still vacant. The government affairs of Yingchuan Commandery were still temporarily handled by a governor appointed by the imperial court.

Wang Yaoshuang, who was being tested by Zhao Shangrong, felt alarm bells ring in her heart—His Highness had become suspicious of her!

With His Highness’s suspicious nature, if she wanted to dispel that suspicion, she had to answer carefully.

She said, “This concubine heard that when His Highness left the palace and established the manor, because Bihe was one of the few palace maidservants in the grand consort’s palace who had studied, the grand consort personally chose her to leave the palace with His Highness and take care of you.”

“So that’s how it is.” Zhao Shangrong did not remember this incident, but she did not think Wang Yaoshuang was lying to her either. She could not help inwardly roasting the Prince of Yingchuan: In this era, how rare is a woman who has studied? Instead of making good use of her, you had her wash clothes. Isn’t that a waste of talent?

It seemed she had passed this test smoothly. Wang Yaoshuang quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Luckily, in her previous life, Bihe had mentioned this to her briefly. Even if His Highness went to confront Bihe, she would not find any flaws.

Having thrown the manor’s miscellaneous affairs to the princess consort, Zhao Shangrong had both achieved “burden reduction” and reduced the emperor’s suspicions, accomplishing a “double reduction.” She was in a very pleasant mood: I’m really good at staying alive!

Zhao Shangrong stayed in the inner residence for the entire morning. When lunchtime arrived, she was too lazy to have the princess consort follow her to the North Study for the meal, so she had the maidservants bring the dishes to the princess consort’s place instead, eating with her and drinking the indispensable bowl of medicinal soup after the meal.

After lunch, Zhao Shangrong claimed that she did not want to disturb the princess consort’s afternoon rest, then ran off to wander around the inner residence by herself, looking for those maidservants and asking them to teach her the most popular games for passing time.

After Jiumo learned of this, she returned and complained to Wang Yaoshuang, “How is His Highness not wanting to disturb the princess consort’s rest? He just wanted to find an excuse to go play with the maidservants.”

Wang Yaoshuang, who was undressing in preparation for her afternoon nap, paused at those words. Somewhat disbelieving, she asked, “Is that true?”

She could not believe that the Prince of Yingchuan, who had been full of malice toward women, would one day actively seek out maidservants to play with.

But Jiumo thought the princess consort was unhappy that His Highness was getting close to other women.

Although these maidservants had all been brought from the Wang family by the princess consort, and some of them were even dowry concubines the Wang family had specially prepared for His Highness, His Highness had not even consummated the marriage with the princess consort and had not yet had a legitimate heir with her, yet she was already going to get close to other maidservants. That was somewhat excessive.

Besides, there were so many beautiful maidservants in the prince’s manor. Why did His Highness not look for them, but insist on coming to harm the princess consort’s maidservants?

Wang Yaoshuang heard the resentment in Jiumo’s tone and had no time to dwell on His Highness’s unusual behavior. She said sternly, “Jiumo, have you forgotten what I told you?”

She did not want Jiumo to repeat the same mistakes, so she had to correct some of her bad habits.

Jiumo reacted, and her face instantly turned deathly pale. She hurriedly said, “This servant misspoke. Please punish me, Princess Consort!”

“I know your loyalty, and I know that everything you do is for my sake and with my interests in mind. But the prince’s manor is not like home. The rules here will not tolerate your recklessness.”

Jiumo said, “This servant knows her mistake!”

Wang Yaoshuang sighed. “Go find Bihe. She understands the rules of the prince’s manor. Have her teach you, and take the opportunity to remember the lesson well.”

Jiumo had no complaints. “After this servant helps the princess consort settle down to rest, this servant will go receive punishment.”

Wang Yaoshuang lay down full of worries. Jiumo covered her with a thin quilt and had another maidservant wave a bamboo fan to drive away the heat for the princess consort. Only then did she go to the laundry courtyard to find Bihe.

Wang Yaoshuang could not fall asleep. She turned over and lay on her side facing the window, thinking absentmindedly while gradually growing drowsy amid birdsong and the fragrance of flowers.

Between sleep and wakefulness, she vaguely heard laughter coming from outside the window.

Laughter and smiles were rare “luxuries” in the Prince of Yingchuan’s manor. In a daze, Wang Yaoshuang thought, I must be dreaming. How could there be laughter in the prince’s manor?

Yet somehow, this “dreamed” laughter gave her a trace of security.

Author’s Note:

Now—

Princess Consort: Laughter lets me sleep peacefully. It gives me such a sense of security!

Later—

Princess Consort: His Highness is laughing so happily. You must be very happy, right? Would you mind letting this concubine experience Your Highness’s happiness too?

His Highness, with a beauty in her arms: QAQ