After Transmigrating Into A Love-Brained Scumbag Villain - Chapter 19

Seeing His Highness’s shoulders droop, looking dispirited as though she could not muster interest in anything, Wang Yaoshuang hesitated for a moment before asking, “Did this concubine’s method fail to meet Your Highness’s expectations?”

Zhao Shangrong lifted her eyes, rubbed her nose that itched as if she wanted to sneeze, and said, “The princess consort may decide.”

Wang Yaoshuang could not figure out His Highness’s thoughts.

At that moment, Zhao Shangrong asked her again, looking pitiful and wronged, “Princess Consort, were you scolding me in your heart just now?”

Wang Yaoshuang: “?”

What was His Highness blindly imagining now?

Could His Highness be looking for an excuse to make trouble for her?!

Alarmed, she hurriedly said, “This concubine has been wronged! Why would Your Highness suspect this concubine so?”

Zhao Shangrong said with complete confidence, “Because I sneezed!”

She explained that completely unscientific theory as if it were perfectly reasonable. “As the saying goes, ‘One sneeze means someone is scolding you, two sneezes mean someone is thinking of you, three sneezes mean you caught a cold.’ If I sneezed once, that means someone was scolding me. Two sneezes means someone misses me. Three sneezes means I caught a chill.”

Wang Yaoshuang: “…”

The general meaning was that when one missed someone so much that one could not sleep at night, one caught a chill and sneezed, hoping the other person would miss them to that same extent.

Wait. How had her thoughts been led astray by His Highness?

Wang Yaoshuang looked helpless. However, she believed she had some understanding of His Highness’s temperament. She could not oppose her directly, so she followed His Highness’s words and nodded shamefully.

The maidservants below, meanwhile, felt numb. The two masters were busy showing affection and had completely forgotten that they were still waiting to be selected, hadn’t they?

But no one dared pierce the pink bubble of hazy affection that had invisibly surrounded the two of them.

Zhao Shangrong’s mouth moved faster than her brain. “So that… means you were thinking of me?”

The tips of Zhao Shangrong’s ears turned red.

When working before His Highness, who was temperamental and unpredictable, one needed to know how to adapt to changing circumstances.

Wang Yaoshuang opened her mouth, intending to correct His Highness’s mistaken understanding. However, thinking of His Highness’s rebelliousness, she swallowed the words at the tip of her tongue and proposed a solution instead. “Your Highness can sneeze once more.”

After putting away her thoughts, she once again devoted her mind and energy to the beauty pageant—no, the interview process.

“Two female attendants for lighting lamps, one female attendant for clothing, five female attendants for cleaning…”

In the end, the memories of her previous life allowed Wang Yaoshuang to calm down slightly. She drove all charming and romantic thoughts out of her mind.

This had to be His Highness teasing her. Perhaps His Highness was secretly laughing at her ignorance and embarrassment in her heart!

But this was so boring!

Oh no. Her careless words just now seemed to have triggered some dangerous sapphic plot development.

His Highness seemed to be acting up again.

She had even quietly inserted two trusted aides she had brought from the Wang family.

But after thousands of years of artistic processing and oral transmission, it had turned into a folk saying: “One sneeze means longing, two sneezes mean scolding, three sneezes mean being talked about.”

In the end, Wang Yaoshuang selected more than a dozen maidservants with ordinary appearances, who, in her previous life, had also managed to live safely until the Prince of Yingchuan was executed. Being able to live safely until then meant they knew how to be flexible, adapt to circumstances, and respond to situations.

After the interview ended, Zhao Shangrong lay exhausted on the couch and secretly swore: Next time, she should stop blindly making trouble.

Wang Yaoshuang: “?!”

An ambiguous atmosphere once again silently spread between them.

I wasn’t. I didn’t!

There were so many people present. How could His Highness be certain that Wang Yaoshuang was the one scolding her in her heart?

However, when His Highness sneezed just now, Wang Yaoshuang had indeed been thrown into inner chaos because His Highness had touched her face, so she could not exactly be called innocent…

She did know there was such a saying about sneezing. It came from “Zhong Feng” in the Book of Songs: “Awake, I speak and cannot sleep; I wish that when I speak, you would sneeze.”

She suspected that in the original novel, the Prince of Yingchuan’s psychological problems had grown increasingly severe because she had shut herself away for three years.

After all, if someone stayed cooped up in the prince’s manor all day, doing nothing but eating and drinking, of course she would only sit alone and overthink.

No one accompanied her to relieve her boredom, and there was no psychological counseling. What had originally been only a mild mental illness might have later evolved into psychological abnormality.

At that moment, three characters on the roster spread open and thrown to one side caught Zhao Shangrong’s attention.

“Variety Theater?”

Oh, just now, the princess consort seemed to have mentioned that there was a Variety Theater in the prince’s manor, where more than twenty jesters and musicians were kept. Because the Prince of Yingchuan did not particularly like variety performances, they only had the chance to appear during banquets.

Considering that this interview was mainly to choose maidservants to serve His Highness, those jesters and musicians obviously did not serve people, so Bihe had not called them over.

Zhao Shangrong immediately sat up.

Wang Yaoshuang had not yet left. Just now, seeing His Highness lie down, she had thought His Highness was preparing for an afternoon nap. Unexpectedly, His Highness suddenly sat up again, her eyes so bright they seemed to overflow with light.

Following the principle that “happiness shared with others is better than happiness enjoyed alone,” Zhao Shangrong invited Wang Yaoshuang. “Princess Consort, are you leaving? Why not stay and watch the variety performances with me?”

Wang Yaoshuang: “…”

When had His Highness become so good at making trouble?

Oh, no. The Prince of Yingchuan had always been quite good at making trouble, but that had been the kind of trouble that tormented people. The current His Highness was more accurately described as noisy and restless.

Wang Yaoshuang wanted to stay and see what kind of strange stunt His Highness was going to pull next, but after helping His Highness “select beauties” for the entire morning, her emotions had gone through ups and downs, twists and turns. She was truly rather tired and only wanted to return and rest properly.

Worried that the princess consort would be put in a difficult position, Jiumo risked being scolded and stepped forward. “Your Highness, please forgive us. The princess consort lacks the strength and urgently needs rest. I fear…”

Wang Yaoshuang stopped her. “Jiumo, do not act presumptuously!”

Zhao Shangrong was slightly startled and felt annoyed with herself for actually forgetting that the princess consort’s body was already weak. Today’s matter had left even Zhao Shangrong exhausted, let alone the princess consort!

Thinking of this, she immediately got up and gave up her own couch. “Then let us watch the variety performances another day. The princess consort has worked hard today. Why not rest here at my place? The weather is starting to get hot anyway, and my place is warm in winter and cool in summer. It is most suitable for an afternoon nap.”

Wang Yaoshuang’s breath caught. In her mind, heaven and man fought. In only an instant, under His Highness’s earnest gaze, she agreed.

She turned her head and saw His Highness standing to the side, then asked, “Does Your Highness not need to rest?”

Zhao Shangrong, who could not hear that Wang Yaoshuang was trying to send her away and instead mistook it as an invitation to nap together, was somewhat tempted.

However, the sense of danger that her disguise might be exposed struck her heart, and she immediately stopped all her restless thoughts.

Zhao Shangrong, who did not think she needed to avoid suspicion since they were both women, went to a seat and sat down. “I am very energetic. I do not need an afternoon nap.”

Wang Yaoshuang: “…”

This was His Highness’s territory. If she did not wish to leave, then no one, including Wang Yaoshuang, dared open their mouth to drive her away.

Wang Yaoshuang sat down on the couch. Jiumo instinctively moved to help her undress, but His Highness was still there, so Wang Yaoshuang somewhat awkwardly gripped her own clothes.

Jiumo understood and only removed the pearl ornaments from her hair.

After her hair ornaments were taken off and the rouge and powder on her face were removed, Wang Yaoshuang lay down with a stiff scalp, yet had no sleepiness at all.

No one knew how much time passed. Wang Yaoshuang gradually grew used to this familiar yet unfamiliar environment and also to His Highness’s presence. Once her heart settled, drowsiness came over her.

In a daze, she heard a maidservant ask, “Your Highness, should the meal be served?”

His Highness gave a soft “shh,” and her voice became gentle and quiet. “The princess consort is still resting. I will wait until the princess consort wakes, then eat together with her.”

Wang Yaoshuang wanted to advise His Highness not to wait for her, but she was already so sleepy that her consciousness was blurred. She could not tell whether she had actually opened her mouth or not.

Inside the cool hall, the breeze lightly stirred and incense drifted through the air. Aside from the faint creaking sound of maidservants waving fans, there were no other noises.

Zhao Shangrong suddenly stood. The jade ornaments at her waist collided, making a crisp tinkling sound.

The maidservants waiting nearby in drowsiness startled and hurriedly gathered their spirits, quietly paying attention to His Highness’s movements.

They saw Zhao Shangrong walk to the side of the couch and look down at Wang Yaoshuang, who was already sleeping peacefully.

With her back to the light leaking in through the window lattice, her face was buried in shadow, inexplicably making people feel that some unfathomable meaning was hidden in her eyes.

Jiumo nervously watched His Highness’s every move.

Suddenly, Zhao Shangrong reached out and pulled up the thin quilt Wang Yaoshuang’s feet had kicked and tugged down to her waist, covering it up to her chest before turning and leaving again.

“With the princess consort’s constitution, if she doesn’t cover herself properly and catches a cold here with me, won’t I be blamed?” Zhao Shangrong secretly thought.

Author’s Note:

His Highness: I’m not concerned about the princess consort. I’m just afraid the male lead will settle accounts later!

Princess Consort: From head to toe, His Highness’s mouth is the hardest.