After Transmigrating Into A Love-Brained Scumbag Villain - Chapter 20

Perhaps because she had been thinking about how His Highness was still waiting for her to eat lunch, Wang Yaoshuang only slept for less than half an hour before slowly waking.

She saw the unfamiliar roof beams, and her brain froze for a while before she quickly remembered that she was napping inside His Highness’s living hall!

“Jiumo.” She sat up, and Jiumo, who was beside her, quickly stepped forward.

Looking around, Wang Yaoshuang did not see His Highness. She asked, “Where is His Highness?”

Jiumo’s gaze shifted to the side. Just as she was about to speak, Zhao Shangrong emerged from behind the curtain and asked somewhat happily, “Princess Consort, were you looking for me?”

Zhao Shangrong’s heart felt sweet. She thought, The princess consort looked for me as soon as she woke up. She must have been thinking of me!

Wang Yaoshuang was a little curious about what she had been doing behind the curtain, but she had just woken up. Her hair was not yet arranged or decorated with flowers, nor had she applied powder. She truly should not meet people with this appearance.

Zhao Shangrong said, “Since the princess consort is awake, let the meal be served!”

Wang Yaoshuang said awkwardly, “Your Highness, this concubine has not yet washed up and dressed properly.”

“Washing up will not take long. As for dressing up… Princess Consort, you are already beautiful by nature. Even bare-faced, you are charming and lovely.” After praising her, Zhao Shangrong added, “Of course, whether you dress up or not depends entirely on your own preference. If the princess consort likes dressing up, then I do not mind waiting a little longer.”

Send ships directly from Luo to the place of origin?

Luo’s maritime technology was not that advanced yet!

Combining the Prince of Yingchuan’s memories with her understanding of the original novel’s focus on power struggles and military strategy among men, even if the male lead possessed great talent and vision, he had never thought of developing navigation technology, training a navy to expand territory, or realizing that there were other continents across the ocean.

His Highness had grown up in Jiankang since childhood, so her taste should be like most Jiankang people’s—leaning sweet.

Wang Yaoshuang did not know whether to laugh or cry. Since His Highness had said this, even if she liked dressing up, she could hardly take her time dressing while making His Highness wait for her to eat.

So if she wanted to eat chili peppers in her lifetime, she was dreaming!

However, she was already someone who had died once. Now, she could continue living in another time and space with memories of the beautiful life of modern times. It was equivalent to having picked up another life for free. Thinking of it this way, although she felt sorrowful about living in this feudal society, she would not become overly pessimistic.

Wang Yaoshuang listened for a long time but still did not understand what dishes His Highness had been reciting.

Why had His Highness’s tastes changed after her rebirth?

Thinking this, she somehow asked, “Does Your Highness not like sour and sweet flavors?”

Thus, after she washed up and simply arranged her hair in a bun, the meal was served.

Zhao Shangrong did not notice that Wang Yaoshuang was testing her and said, “I don’t like them. I like spicy food, such as chopped chili fish head and boiled fish. But it is not that I completely cannot eat sour food. I do like fish with pickled vegetables.”

She suddenly missed modern life a little.

Chili peppers originated from the South American continent. At this time, Columbus had not yet discovered the Americas, nor had he brought chili seeds back to Europe. Europe had also not yet brought spice seeds, including chili peppers, to Africa and South Asia through colonial rule. Luo, located in East Asia, naturally could not bring chili seeds back from South Asia through the Silk Road.

In her previous life, although Wang Yaoshuang had rarely eaten with the Prince of Yingchuan, she knew that the dishes the kitchen courtyard prepared for the prince were all very common in Jiankang. This showed that the Prince of Yingchuan’s tastes were no different from those of Jiankang people.

Unfortunately, this place only had pepper, not chili peppers.

She said, “Since Your Highness does not like eating them, then next time, have the kitchen courtyard make dishes with other flavors.”

The honey-preserved fish intestine sauce and the three kinds of kidneys in wine and vinegar last time had been specially picked out by His Highness for her to eat. Coincidentally, the fish this time included sweet-and-sour fish as well as sour wine-fermented steamed fish, so His Highness had not touched either dish at all.

Wang Yaoshuang quietly observed for a while and discovered that it was not that His Highness disliked eating fish. Clearly, she did not like sweet or sour dishes.

Wang Yaoshuang saw that Zhao Shangrong’s chopsticks had barely touched the fish and felt puzzled. Did His Highness not like fish? But last time, there had been fish on His Highness’s table.

Zhao Shangrong’s train of thought was unusual. “If I order the kitchen courtyard not to prepare sweet and sour dishes for me, then the kitchen courtyard will inevitably cancel those two flavors outright in order to save trouble. But in the prince’s manor, only I do not like them much. There are actually more people who do like them. If they cannot eat dishes that suit their tastes because of me, would that not be my fault?”

Although the two of them still ate separately, there was no longer any difference between their dishes.

Although this discovery could answer part of Wang Yaoshuang’s doubts, it made her even more confused.

Wang Yaoshuang found that she could not refute this.

She wondered whether the Prince of Yingchuan in her previous life had also thought this way.

Very quickly, she overturned that guess, because Zhao Shangrong continued, “Although I will not eat these two dishes, I can reward them to people who like eating them. That way, there will be no waste, and the people who get to eat food they like will feel happy. Is that not the best of both worlds?”

Wang Yaoshuang put down her chopsticks and silently stared at Zhao Shangrong in a daze.

Something was wrong.

This His Highness was very wrong.

Because the Prince of Yingchuan was simply not someone with such empathy. She would not consider other people’s thoughts and circumstances. She would only care about her own likes, dislikes, interests, and losses.

His Highness’s recent change in personality was not so much a change caused by altering the future of her disfigurement. It was more like a deeper, more thorough change—a complete reversal in personality.

Because even if the Prince of Yingchuan had not yet been disfigured, her temperament could absolutely not have been this peaceful. She would not respect or care about Wang Yaoshuang, much less show pity toward the servants in the manor.

Although these past few days, His Highness had always appeared cold as frost and high above everyone, she would always inadvertently reveal an approachable side.

Compared with a cold and harsh person deliberately pretending to be considerate—cold inside but warm outside—the current His Highness was more like someone whose nature was kind, but who deliberately acted cold: cold outside, warm inside.

After all, a person’s temperament might change according to their situation and state of mind, but it was unlikely for their temperament to change drastically without any stimulus.

Being stared at by her made Zhao Shangrong’s back turn cold. She could not help asking, “What is it? Was what I said wrong?”

Wang Yaoshuang shook her head, then suddenly asked, “When this concubine was asleep, what was Your Highness doing?”

In her previous life, she had almost never asked the Prince of Yingchuan face-to-face about what she was doing. Even recently, the questions she asked His Highness had always stayed within a safe range. She would never inquire directly about things she should not ask.

This question was a test of His Highness’s bottom line.

Her topic changed too quickly. Zhao Shangrong froze for a moment, then revealed a mysterious and slightly smug smile. “Eat first. After we finish eating, I will let you know what I was doing just now!”

His Highness’s reaction was within Wang Yaoshuang’s expectations. She quietly sensed her own heart and found that she no longer felt the earlier anxiety and unease.

In other words, subconsciously, she had already gained a certain understanding of His Highness’s temper and personality. She was no longer constantly fearful, nor was she particularly afraid of His Highness’s unpredictable moods. That was why she could remain so calm.

“All right!” she said brightly.

That smile dazzled Zhao Shangrong for a moment. In an instant, it was as though sweetness spread over the tip of her tongue.

She even suspected for a moment that she had picked up a piece of sweet-and-sour fish to eat. However, she had not touched a single sweet dish.

This could not help making her think of that Zen saying: “The wind has not moved, the banner has not moved; it is the heart that has moved.”

By the same logic, she had not eaten anything sweet, nor tasted sweetness. It was her heart that had sweetened first.

Stop. The emperor male lead’s harem is not something I can fantasize about.

Zhao Shangrong silently thought.

—

After eating, Zhao Shangrong fulfilled her promise and let Wang Yaoshuang know what she had been tinkering with just now.

She took out a sheet of paper with drawings on it. Wang Yaoshuang could not help exclaiming, “Your Highness’s drawing is truly lifelike!”

Zhao Shangrong said proudly, “Of course. I studied art, after all…” She paused, then changed her words. “I have studied calligraphy and painting. If I could not draw well, would that not be embarrassing?”

Wang Yaoshuang offered no comment.

“Do not focus on my drawing skill. You need to look at the content of the drawing!” Zhao Shangrong said.

When Wang Yaoshuang saw an image, her habit formed over many years was to first observe the overall picture, then study the details and appreciate them one by one. It was difficult for her to change this immediately.

She followed Zhao Shangrong’s words and examined the image on the paper. On it were several large objects like fans. They were fixed onto a pole, and below them were many gears.

“What is this?”

“A transmission device,” Zhao Shangrong said. “Although the Beginning of Summer has not yet arrived, the weather is already somewhat hot. I noticed that the fans we usually use are too tiring to wave. The wind is not strong either, and their efficiency is extremely low. So I came up with this kind of rocking fan. One only needs to turn this handle, and through the transmission of spiral gears, the fans can be rotated steadily with the least amount of effort, thereby increasing wind power and making things cooler.”

Wang Yaoshuang fell silent.

If the rocking fan His Highness had conceived could truly be made, then those who would benefit would certainly be the maidservants who were usually responsible for waving fans for them, the masters.

To specifically think of such things in order to reduce the maidservants’ burden—if this were her previous life, or even before they married, it would have been impossible.

His Highness truly… was very different now.

Author’s Note:

His Highness: The engineering soul of an art student never dies!!!!

—

Funny Little Theater

Instant Noodle Jun: Let me interview His Highness. As someone who studied art, how did you end up doing typesetting?

His Highness, smoking a Pretz stick: I was young and ignorant. It’s a long story…

Princess Consort: You can make a long story short.

His Highness: Today is Crazy Thursday. Treat me to a Family Bucket, and together, listen to my past!

Princess Consort: …