After Transmigrating Into A Love-Brained Scumbag Villain - Chapter 15

The residences in Wuyi Lane had once all belonged to the Wang and Xie families. After the Xie clan was destroyed, their residences were either confiscated and bestowed by the emperor upon new nobles at court, or sold off. The Wang family had taken the opportunity to buy the two residences on either side, connect them, and transform them into gardens and places where the clan’s younger generation could practice riding, archery, and amuse themselves.

As Zhao Shangrong walked in, servants stood in groups on both sides. The houses were decorated with gold, silver, jade, and precious stones. There was even a pond where koi were raised, the bottom paved with pearls and coral. Under the sunlight, they refracted sparkling rays of color together with the ripples of the water.

Zhao Shangrong suddenly understood why the emperors of Luo all wanted to suppress and abolish the noble clans. Even her own household wealth as a prince who could support more than a thousand people was not as abundant as that of one aristocratic clan. The estates, population, and private armed forces these clans possessed were almost comparable to one of her fiefdoms.

But those were the male lead’s worries. They had nothing to do with a salted fish like her, who had firmly decided to become a carefree idle prince drifting like clouds and wild cranes.

After she took her seat according to rank in the Wang family’s front hall, she could feel many scrutinizing gazes falling on her.

She was gradually getting used to it, but one gaze remained especially bold and unrestrained, making her somewhat uncomfortable.

Whenever she tried to find the source of that gaze, however, it disappeared.

It was not until Zhao Shangrong followed the proper process and met with the Wang family’s sons, relatives, and friends that she discovered that gaze most likely came from an acquaintance of the Prince of Yingchuan—Fan Ye.

Although he was an acquaintance, the Prince of Yingchuan’s impression of him was not good, because this fellow was the Minister of Ceremonies who had arranged the marriage between the Prince of Yingchuan and Wang Yaoshuang.

During the previous dynasty, imperial clan affairs had been handled by the Minister of the Imperial Clan, but later, they were merged into the Office of Ceremonies, which managed ancestral temple rituals. In Luo, the Office of Ceremonies was renamed the Court of Ceremonies, and its chief official was the Minister of Ceremonies. Therefore, matters such as births, funerals, marriages, and weddings of the imperial family were all handled by the Court of Ceremonies. Incidentally, the imperial physicians and imperial medicine bureau were also under the Court of Ceremonies.

Before deciding to marry Wang Yaoshuang to the Prince of Yingchuan, Wang Ru and Xiao Nian had already known what kind of person the Prince of Yingchuan was. Therefore, hoping that “he” would dote on their daughter after marriage was far too naive. If they were going to hope for anything, they could only hope “he” would not torment their daughter mentally and physically.

Moreover, upon closer thought, one would discover that Fan Ye’s words to her were also laced with sparks of provocation. With the slightest carelessness, he could easily stir up her anger.

Zhao Shangrong said in a sarcastic tone, “Since you care about me so much, why did you not bring the Chief Imperial Physician today to examine me?”

Zhao Shangrong had just been about to retort at him when she suddenly realized this was not her own thought, but the Prince of Yingchuan’s emotion toward Fan Ye. Influenced by the Prince of Yingchuan’s memories, she had almost been driven by that emotion into doing something irrational.

Fan Ye was dressed in black. He said, “No matter how one puts it, the marriage between Your Highness and the princess consort was handled by this official. On such a grand and solemn day, coming to ask for a cup of wine is not excessive, is it?”

He paused, his gaze landing on Zhao Shangrong’s snow-white face, which had little color. With concern, he said, “Why does Your Highness look so unwell? This official heard that Your Highness drank heavily for three days, overindulging in alcohol until your body became unwell, and later even fainted. Are you still ill now?”

Zhao Shangrong’s tone was rather meaningful. “Why is Minister Fan here?”

Xiao Nian came from the Lanling Xiao clan, also a great aristocratic family. Her upbringing and knowledge were extraordinary, so she would not act like parents from ordinary families, holding her daughter and wiping away tears or questioning her about her marital relationship.

In a pavilion in Orchid Garden on the east side of the Wang residence, many female relatives had gathered together. Young children chased butterflies in the garden where butterflies were kept, and laughter rang out without end.

Zhao Shangrong grumbled inwardly, So the Wang family is basically an undercover nest!

The Minister of Ceremonies was the head of the Nine Ministers. It was impossible for the emperor to arrange someone he did not trust into such an important position, so Fan Ye was the emperor’s trusted subordinate. This could be inferred.

Wang Yaoshuang enjoyed this beautiful and peaceful time, until the Wang family’s female relatives, who were extremely interested in her married life, repeatedly threw the topic to her. She became exhausted from dealing with them and no longer had the leisure to enjoy the happiness of returning home.

But considering that even her princess consort was the emperor’s undercover agent, it did not seem strange that Fan Ye would be at the Wang residence.

After experiencing so many bitter matters in her previous life, Wang Yaoshuang felt so wronged that tears fell from her eyes, but she did not resent her parents. She said, “Mother, I understand your and Father’s helplessness and painstaking intentions.”

But even this seemed to have become a luxury. The Prince of Yingchuan’s refusal to personally welcome her and perform the bowing ceremony, humiliating Wang Yaoshuang, was something they had learned on the very day it happened. Aside from submitting memorials to the emperor to complain and pour out their grievances, and cursing the Prince of Yingchuan at home, they had no way to do anything.

As one party in an arranged marriage, the Prince of Yingchuan, while dissatisfied with the emperor, naturally also transferred her anger to Fan Ye.

Fan Ye’s expression did not change. “This official was not thoughtful enough. From the look of things, the Assistant Court Physician in Your Highness’s manor is not skilled enough. Why not have the Court of Ceremonies assign another Assistant Court Physician to you?”

“No need.” Zhao Shangrong said flatly, then left him aside and went to greet the rest of the Wang family.

After meeting the Wang family’s female relatives, Wang Yaoshuang’s mother, Xiao Nian, sent everyone else to the garden, while she herself sat close with her daughter for a heartfelt talk.

A thousand words eventually turned into one bitter sigh from Xiao Nian. “You have suffered, child.”

Wang Yaoshuang had been weak from birth due to poor nourishment in the womb, but her parents had not given up on her. Instead, they had thought of every possible way to keep her alive.

After finally hoping until she grew up safely, they then heard that if a woman married too early, she might have difficulty bearing children, and might even die from difficult labor. Because of this, they had delayed marrying her to Xie Shizhi, to whom she had long been engaged.

This marriage was delayed until she turned twenty. Only after the Xie family came to urge them did they begin preparing the wedding between the two families… only for the Xie clan to be destroyed.

Wang Ru and Xie Mian received news one after another that the emperor intended to act against Xie Mian himself, Xue Rao, and Fu Yanzhi. Wang Ru hurriedly wrote a letter to Xie Shizhi breaking off the engagement.

Xie Mian realized that the Wang clan could not possibly stand on the Xie clan’s side. If even the Wang clan had abandoned the Xie clan, who else could save them? In order to preserve the other members of the Xie clan, he lost all hope and chose suicide.

After the Wang family extricated themselves cleanly, the reputation that Wang Yaoshuang had reached twenty without marrying spread completely throughout Jiankang.

At that point, it was already too late to carefully search for a suitable husband of equal status for her. After all, the Wang family’s act of breaking off the engagement had made the other noble clans rather disdainful of them.

Just then, word came from the palace that the Court of Ceremonies was arranging a princess consort for the Prince of Yingchuan. After Wang Ru and Xiao Nian thought it over carefully, they ultimately handed Wang Yaoshuang’s birth chart to Fan Ye.

To show his love and care for his siblings, the emperor certainly would not choose a princess consort for the Prince of Yingchuan from the middle- or lower-ranked noble clans. Among the high-ranked noble clans, the only family with a woman of marriageable age that the emperor could also manipulate was the Wang family. The Wang and Xie families had once been closely connected, so the emperor could use this as a pretext at any time to act against the Wang family.

To preserve the Wang family, on the surface, the Wang family was forming a marriage alliance with the Prince of Yingchuan. In reality, they were becoming a chess piece for the emperor to restrain the Prince of Yingchuan.

Of course, that alone was still not secure enough. If the Prince of Yingchuan truly won over the Wang family, that would be no different from creating another enemy for the emperor. That was why, in her previous life, the emperor had wanted to make an even closer marriage connection with the Wang family…

Thinking of this, Wang Yaoshuang gently wiped the corner of her eye and asked, “By the way, Mother, where is Xiaoshuang?”

At the mention of her second daughter, Xiao Nian said with some headache, “That girl? Early this morning, she put on your elder brother’s clothes and ran off somewhere to play.”

As if Wang Yaoshuang had thought of something, she said helplessly, “Then I know where she went… She must have mixed into the crowd, looking for a chance to observe His Highness.”

After three rounds of wine, the return banquet also neared its end.

The sun slanted west. Under the Wang family’s gazes, Zhao Shangrong and Wang Yaoshuang walked out of the Wang family’s main gate.

Behind Wang Yaoshuang, more than a dozen strong servants carried several large chests out after her. Zhao Shangrong asked awkwardly, “What, were all the gifts I brought returned?”

Wang Yaoshuang could not hold back her amusement and explained, “This is private money Father and Mother gave this concubine.”

Her tone was lively, carrying a little smugness.

This money was different from her dowry. Her dowry had already been generous, but this time, after Xiao Nian heard that she had obtained authority over the prince’s manor, she specially took out more than three hundred thousand from her own private savings so Wang Yaoshuang could use it to manage people throughout the prince’s manor.

This had not happened in her previous life, probably because from beginning to end, she had never truly become the mistress of the prince’s manor.

Zhao Shangrong asked gossipingly, “I don’t mean anything else. I just want to ask, how much is there?”

With that curious tone, even if she had some other intention, it definitely was not greed.

Perhaps because the return visit had gone very smoothly today, or perhaps because she had changed the future in which His Highness was disfigured, Wang Yaoshuang’s mood was better than ever before. She even briefly forgot the shadow brought by the Prince of Yingchuan and leaned close to whisper by Zhao Shangrong’s ear, “Not much. Only three hundred thousand.”

Zhao Shangrong’s eyes widened.

Three hundred thousand coins, and that was not much? The money Yingchuan Commandery handed over to her every month was not even that much!

One return visit brought three hundred thousand coins. Could they return home every day from now on?

Speaking of which, her princess consort was actually a little rich woman!

Zhao Shangrong took a deep breath, then suddenly covered the princess consort’s hands with both of hers and said solemnly, “Princess Consort, in the future, if you miss home, come back. If you want me to accompany you back, that is fine too. No matter what I am doing, I will definitely accompany you.”

Wang Yaoshuang: “…”

Was His Highness serious?

She seemed to be serious.

The moment their hands clasped together, the Wang family members who had not yet gone back, as well as the noble clan youths nearby who were watching the gossip unfold, suddenly felt that the cold melon in their mouths had lost all flavor.

Heavens, they were holding hands again. How could they be so sweet? What happened to the promised “the Prince of Yingchuan dislikes the princess consort”?!

Author’s Note:

His Highness: I’m not doing this for the money. Mainly, I’m being considerate of the princess consort.

Princess Consort: )