After Transmigrating Into A Love-Brained Scumbag Villain - Chapter 26

The gardens of the Prince of Yingchuan’s manor were very large. Not only were there stretches of pine, cypress, and bamboo planted there, but there were also artificial hills and flowing water made from stones dug up outside the city. Flowers and birds roamed freely in the garden, while fish swam in the ponds, along with the occasional idle crane drifting in to forage.

Tall pavilions were hidden among them, with only their pointed tips showing. From afar, one seemed to be able to hear the sound of wind chimes hanging beneath the eaves.

Although Zhao Shangrong occasionally entered the inner residence, she rarely came to the gardens.

She wanted to stroll around for a while, but then remembered that her purpose in coming was to meet Wang Yaoshuang’s twin younger sister, Wang Xiaoshuang. The garden could be visited at any time, but the princess consort’s twin sister was not someone she often had the chance to see.

Although twin sisters usually did not differ too much in appearance unless they were fraternal twins, and seeing Wang Xiaoshuang would be the same as seeing Wang Yaoshuang, Zhao Shangrong was still very much looking forward to the interesting sight of seeing two princess consorts.

When the maidservant led her to the thatched cottage within the bamboo forest, her steps paused. She stood where she was and looked for a while.

Then, toward the woman sitting on the east side of the thatched cottage, dressed in a plain ru skirt, she revealed a smile. “Princess Consort!”

The woman sitting on the west side, dressed in a red upper ru and a purple skirt, was slightly astonished and somewhat puzzled as she turned her gaze toward her elder sister, Wang Yaoshuang, who sat opposite her.

Wang Yaoshuang lifted a hand to cover her smile and asked the question for her. “How did Your Highness recognize this concubine?”

Zhao Shangrong sat down casually on the mat to the north. As if confirming their identities, she first looked at Wang Xiaoshuang, who was wearing the princess consort’s clothing, before turning her head to Wang Yaoshuang. “Because that outfit she’s wearing—I just saw the princess consort wearing it two days ago.”

Oh. Now, besides them, there was one more person who had discovered this habit before they did: His Highness.

Wang Xiaoshuang was even more confused. “Would that not prove even more that I am Elder Sister?”

Since her rebirth, only her personal maidservants such as Jiumo had noticed it.

Wang Yaoshuang also froze. So it turned out that she changed clothes that frequently?

She lightly glanced at Jiumo, who was waiting outside. Jiumo tacitly nodded at her.

Inwardly, Wang Xiaoshuang could not help thinking that it was fortunate her elder sister had rejected her plan. Otherwise, once they truly put it into action, she would certainly have exposed herself very quickly.

Wang Yaoshuang: “…”

She thought that perhaps this habit had been formed in her previous life.

However, the more careful and sharp His Highness was, the more Wang Xiaoshuang could not allow her elder sister to deal with such a dangerous and terrifying person here alone.

This was something Wang Yaoshuang had never noticed before.

“Under normal circumstances, most people would indeed subconsciously think the person wearing the same outfit must be the real one. However, after I married the princess consort, I have yet to see her wear the same outfit twice! The princess consort is the sort of person who changes into a new outfit even after waking from an afternoon nap. How could she possibly wear the same outfit twice within such a short period?” Zhao Shangrong spoke with a smile at the corner of her mouth, becoming more confident as she continued.

Zhao Shangrong raised her brow and said, “Aside from the flaw in the clothing, you and the princess consort also do not look completely identical… perhaps ninety percent similar. Your complexion is much better than the princess consort’s. Most importantly, your eyes are different.”

Such a detail—fortunately His Highness had noticed it!

It was a gaze that wanted to dissect a person and probe their secrets.

Why had neither Wang Yaoshuang herself nor her twin sister, who believed they shared a mutual understanding, ever noticed this fact?

Wang Xiaoshuang’s gaze, however, was very direct. On the day of the return visit, Zhao Shangrong seemed to have felt the same gaze.

Only after hearing this did Wang Xiaoshuang admit defeat.

Zhao Shangrong did not know how to describe the sisters’ eyes either. Her most direct impression was that when Wang Yaoshuang looked at her, her emotions often involuntarily revealed themselves through her eyes, carrying a hint of complexity.

Zhao Shangrong had already grown used to it, so she did not feel offended.

Wang Xiaoshuang said with some reluctance, “That reason is too forced.”

Wang Xiaoshuang: “…”

It was as if they were currently standing within a sea of bamboo, where light and shadow were mottled and bamboo silhouettes swayed—at times deep and quiet, at times bright with sunlight.

Wang Yaoshuang smiled faintly and asked her younger sister, “Are you convinced now?”

Wang Xiaoshuang sighed, then properly and elegantly bowed to Zhao Shangrong. “This young woman, Wang Xiaoshuang of the Wang clan, greets Your Highness.”

“We are all family. No need for so much courtesy,” Zhao Shangrong said.

Wang Yaoshuang then asked Zhao Shangrong, “This concubine heard that Chief Clerk Chen came over?”

Since taking charge of the prince’s manor’s internal and external affairs, her sources of information had become increasingly well-informed.

The reason she could spread her eyes and ears throughout the prince’s manor in such a short time, aside from His Highness instructing Bihe and the others to assist her fully and using money to win people’s hearts, was that choosing close maidservants for His Highness had also prompted the servants in the manor to draw closer to her.

As long as she asked about His Highness’s recent situation, plenty of people would come to report to her.

Zhao Shangrong said carelessly, “Mm. He came over to tell me that His Majesty has ordered the Court of Ceremonies to inspect and recommend literary aides and study attendants for the princes.”

Thinking that she would actually have to attend classes in the future, she could not help complaining, “Old Eight really handled this matter unreliably.”

Wang Yaoshuang: “…”

This development was something she had not expected, but thinking carefully, it was not completely without signs.

In her previous life, after the accident at the “flying-boat regatta,” the Prince of Yiyang was assigned a “teacher.” But because he had become enemies with the noble clans, no scholar was willing to serve as his literary aide. Therefore, until he left for his fief, he only had one study attendant from a humble family by his side.

After an instructor was assigned to the Prince of Yiyang, it was like a floodgate had opened. From then on, the emperor used the nominal titles of “teacher” and “friend” as a means of rewarding noble clans, and one after another, arranged princely tutors and princely companions for the princes.

Whether the princely tutors and companions had talent, learning, or moral character was not important. What mattered was that these titles were given symbolic status and honor.

As for the Prince of Yingchuan, perhaps because of the disfigurement incident, the emperor was especially indulgent toward her. When she personally requested the appointment of Chen Huaizhi of the Yingchuan Chen clan as her “friend,” the emperor also approved it.

In this life, the flying-boat regatta had not yet occurred, yet the emperor had already made such arrangements. On the surface, it seemed that after learning of the grudge between the Prince of Yiyang and Xu Zhan, he blamed himself for neglecting his younger brother’s discipline. In reality, he had long intended to plant eyes and ears beside the princes. He had simply never found the opportunity.

Now that His Highness and the Prince of Yiyang had personally delivered the opportunity to him, who knew whether His Highness was regretting it at this moment?

Wang Yaoshuang tested, “Does Your Highness know whom His Majesty has chosen as Your Highness’s literary aide and study attendant?”

“They haven’t been chosen yet! But what does it matter who gets chosen?” Zhao Shangrong absolutely would not court death by opposing the emperor.

What comforted her slightly was that a literary aide usually lectured once every ten days. In other words, they would only come give her a lesson, explain the classics, and expound upon the Great Dao once every ten days.

As for study attendants, they merely accompanied her in reading and advised her to study. No matter how diligent they were, they would only come to the prince’s manor to check in once every few days.

Wang Yaoshuang’s heart stirred. His Highness had actually not personally requested that Chief Clerk Chen’s clan brother be appointed as her literary aide?

At that moment, a guard came to report that the Prince of Yiyang had arrived.

Zhao Shangrong just so happened to want to ask him how exactly he had reported the matter to the emperor, and why his report had somehow resulted in a crowd of literary aides and study attendants being assigned to the princes.

His Highness left in a rush. The bamboo forest, which had just been lively, quieted again, and the tense atmosphere that had filled the thatched cottage eased.

Wang Yaoshuang could sense her twin sister’s nervousness and vigilance when facing His Highness. In truth, she herself had not fully lowered her guard at the time, so she had no standing to advise her younger sister otherwise.

Sensing that her younger sister had something she wanted to say, she waved her hand and dismissed all the maidservants.

Once no one else was around, Wang Xiaoshuang relaxed a little and said with relief, “No wonder Elder Sister did not approve of my plan. So you knew the Prince of Yingchuan could see through us. Fortunately, Elder Sister has a discerning eye.”

Hearing her younger sister’s words, Wang Yaoshuang’s brows and eyes curved.

She took out the round fan she carried and lightly waved it, her gaze fixed on the depths of the bamboo sea. In a deep tone, she said, “It was not because I had a discerning eye. In truth, your plan was very feasible.”

In her previous life.

Three days had already passed since Minister of Ceremonies Fan Ye had presented the name cards of eligible young women submitted by the noble clans to the emperor for review.

Wang Ru and Xiao Nian both hoped there would be news from the palace, and yet worried that news would come.

Amid their anticipation and anxiety, Fan Ye came to their door and brought news from the palace. “Xiyi, good news. Grand Consort Yun is very pleased with your family’s eldest daughter, so His Majesty has personally appointed her as the Princess Consort of Yingchuan.”

There was little joy on Wang Ru’s face. He merely exhaled in relief.

Sorrow appeared in Xiao Nian’s eyes beside him. After Fan Ye left, Wang Ru advised her, “I know you cannot bear it, but only by doing this can our Wang family withdraw safely.”

To him, using a frail and sickly daughter in exchange for the emperor’s trust and renewed use of the Wang family was a worthwhile bargain.

As a father, he was also unwilling to sacrifice his daughter.

But aside from being a father, he was also the pillar of an entire clan.

The Xie clan had once been flourishing and possessed overwhelming power. Now, almost all the Xie clan members within Xie Mian’s three degrees of kinship had been cleaned out. Although there were still Xie clan descendants outside the three degrees serving as officials at court, their status was not even equal to those commoner clans that had only risen in recent years.

Therefore, he absolutely could not allow the Wang family to repeat the Xie clan’s fate. He did not dare hope that the Wang family could regain the glory and status they had enjoyed during the previous dynasty. He only hoped the Wang family would not continue declining in his generation.

Wang Yaoshuang also understood her position.

She had long been prepared to sacrifice herself, but her twin younger sister Xiaoshuang did not want her to have such awareness.

Xiaoshuang had originally followed an Imperial Academy Erudite out to give lectures. After accidentally learning from someone else that the Court of Ceremonies was already preparing the marriage between His Highness and her elder sister, she hurried back. First, she quarreled with their father and mother, then said to Wang Yaoshuang, “Elder Sister, on the day you marry, change into my clothes and go find my teacher.”

Wang Yaoshuang said sternly, “You want me to flee the marriage? Xiaoshuang, marriage is not child’s play. This is not the house-playing game we played as children. The person I am to marry is not someone ordinary either. It is the Prince of Yingchuan. If I flee the marriage, the Wang family will certainly fall into crisis.”

Xiaoshuang said, “It is precisely because Elder Sister is marrying the Prince of Yingchuan that I cannot let Elder Sister marry over. The Prince of Yingchuan has a cruel, vicious personality, and there are rumors that he is not close to women but favors men. Elder Sister is already weak and sickly. If you marry over and are mistreated by him in every possible way, how could you endure it?! In any case, we look the same. Father and Mother often cannot tell us apart either. So let me marry into the Prince of Yingchuan’s manor in Elder Sister’s place! Once everyone discovers it, the rice will already be cooked, and it will be too late to regret.”

“The more you speak, the more outrageous you become.” Wang Yaoshuang rejected her younger sister’s suggestion.

If marrying the Prince of Yingchuan meant she was destined to fall into a quagmire, then she should be the one to do it. Because her younger sister was healthy and lively, she could live longer than her, walk farther than her, see a wider world in her place, witness all forms of life, and experience joys and sorrows.

After she married into the Prince of Yingchuan’s manor, and after the incident in which the Prince of Yingchuan disfigured the first group of beautiful maidservants, she sank into enormous unease. At night, even a faint crying sound could startle her awake from sleep.

Later, even when she heard crying, she no longer had the courage to ask what had happened.

At this time, Xiaoshuang secretly came to visit her and again proposed staying in the Prince of Yingchuan’s manor in her place, allowing Wang Yaoshuang to recuperate at one of the Wang family estates outside.

Wang Yaoshuang was unwilling to let her younger sister know that the Prince of Yingchuan’s manor was a hell, and even more unwilling to let her younger sister place herself in such danger, so she still refused.

It was only later that Jiumo’s fate completely crushed her will and all the perseverance she had maintained for so long.

Xiaoshuang asked her, “Why must the one sacrificed always be Elder Sister?”

As if hypnotized, she questioned herself through tears. “Yes. Why must the one sacrificed always be me?”

She was in so much pain that she wanted to forget everything. Xiaoshuang said again, “Elder Sister, go to the estate to recuperate for a while. I am here.”

This time, she selfishly chose to escape. She chose to let Xiaoshuang replace her and face alone, inside that hell, the blade that could fall upon them at any moment.

The Prince of Yingchuan did not care about her and almost never paid attention to her movements or whereabouts. Therefore, when she proposed going to a temple to worship Buddha, the Prince of Yingchuan did not even spare her a glance.

She successfully left the Prince of Yingchuan’s manor and changed clothes with Xiaoshuang at the temple.

Author’s Note:

His Highness: Hm? So this was the beginning of the princess consort playing Love Nikki-Dress UP Queen?

—

Actually, the younger sister appeared a long time ago. Back in Chapter Fifteen, His Highness sensed a gaze that kept following her. She thought it was Fan Ye, but it was actually the younger sister. The princess consort also guessed that her younger sister had changed into their elder brother’s men’s clothing and was probably mixed into the crowd, secretly watching His Highness.