After Transmigrating Into A Love-Brained Scumbag Villain - Chapter 27

The first time Wang Yaoshuang walked through the world under someone else’s identity, her heart was filled with hesitation and unease.

She worshiped Buddha and prayed for blessings at the temple, trying to obtain a trace of peace. Yet the nightmare lingered in her heart all along. She could not stop worrying about her younger sister Xiaoshuang, so she changed identities back with Xiaoshuang.

But once a person trapped in a lightless abyss saw a ray of dawn, they could never give up searching for light.

Once there was a first exchange of identities, there would be a second.

This time, she recuperated at the estate for a very long time, and her illness mostly recovered.

During this period, she subconsciously avoided everything related to Jiumo, not daring to recall Jiumo, until she gradually became numb.

Relying on her understanding of Wang Yaoshuang and her own abilities, Xiaoshuang easily maneuvered among people in the Prince of Yingchuan’s manor.

It seemed no one discovered that the two of them had exchanged identities.

No. Actually, someone had.

Bihe had discovered it.

However, Bihe was not someone who liked meddling in other people’s business. She even appeared and helped Wang Yaoshuang out when Wang Yaoshuang was preparing to leave the manor to exchange identities with Xiaoshuang for the fourth time, only to be troubled by malicious servants and nearly trapped inside the manor.

The picture-perfect scene disappeared. Zhao Shangrong came back to herself and said with slight disdain, “Mm. I got impatient with him, so I told him to hurry back to his own prince’s manor and stay there.”

She was so beautiful it was practically against the rules!

Wang Yaoshuang had once thought of winning Bihe over and testing whether Bihe had discovered the secret of her exchanging identities with Xiaoshuang, but in the end, she still did not do so.

Once, she had been able to deeply sense her elder sister’s emotions.

Zhao Shangrong did not know that keeping a guest for a simple family meal actually involved so many rules. She gave a rather unconcerned “Oh,” then had the maidservants outside carry in a rocking fan.

The setting sun sank westward, and cicadas cried from all directions.

This kind of ordinary and plain conversation inexplicably relaxed people. Wang Yaoshuang sat below her and explained with a faint smile, “To host a guest for a meal, one must prepare in advance. This concubine had not arranged it beforehand, so I did not keep her.”

The sunset glow spilled over half her cheek, outlining her smooth forehead, long curved lashes, delicate nose bridge, and the lips that made her look somewhat sickly.

When they officially met today, His Highness’s attitude was even a little more approachable than it had been at the Wang residence that day.

Immediately after, Wang Yaoshuang stopped this topic. After all, her elder sister had already rejected this plan.

Hearing that her elder sister Wang Yaoshuang had acknowledged her plan, Wang Xiaoshuang became confused. “Since it was highly feasible, then why…”

It made Zhao Shangrong, who had studied art, unable to resist wanting to place her inside a painting.

For a split second, Wang Xiaoshuang’s heart wavered, but very quickly, she pulled herself together again.

There were some things that did not need to be asked aloud for one to know the answer.

As if knowing His Highness had arrived, Wang Yaoshuang slightly turned her face. Only after her gaze caught His Highness’s figure did she put down her book and rise to welcome her. “Has Your Highness finished meeting Eighth Brother?”

She was merely somewhat dispirited. Why could she no longer read her elder sister’s emotions and heart?

As for why Bihe, who was so loyal to the Prince of Yingchuan, never told anyone after discovering this matter?

Wang Yaoshuang had once wondered whether there was some conspiracy or scheme in it.

Zhao Shangrong once again stepped into the residence where the princess consort lived.

Wang Xiaoshuang’s pupils abruptly shrank. For an instant, she felt as if she had nowhere to hide before her elder sister.

Wang Yaoshuang smiled and said, “Because it is no longer necessary. Xiaoshuang, His Highness… is not someone very difficult to get along with. I have not suffered any grievances here, so you do not need to worry about me either.”

—

Could it be that the two sisters had grown apart?

Thinking of this, the smile returned to her face. “Xiaoshuang, I will not tell you what kind of person His Highness is, because no matter how much others say, it is not as good as personally interacting with her yourself. I know you have things you wish to do, and I will not stop you. By that time, perhaps you will understand His Highness’s character even better than I do.”

How could that be possible? Before her elder sister married, they had still been perfectly fine.

She asked, “The princess consort’s younger sister has already gone back too. Why did you not keep her for dinner before letting her return?”

Wang Yaoshuang’s smile faded slightly.

Wang Xiaoshuang was only a woman. She could not represent the Wang family, and His Highness had no need to curry favor with her. So His Highness’s interaction with her elder sister just now had not been a deliberate act. It was their everyday way of getting along.

So if leaving the Prince of Yingchuan’s manor could bring Wang Yaoshuang spiritual release, perhaps Bihe turning a blind eye to it had also been a kind of salvation.

But only much later did Wang Yaoshuang understand that Bihe’s loyalty to the Prince of Yingchuan might have been due to her own background and position.

This matter had indeed been quite a blow, but that was in the previous life.

In this life, instead, it was her elder sister who had learned how to use the special connection between their twin souls to pry into the secrets of her heart, leaving her no place to hide.

However, at that time, everyone had guessed that His Highness had deliberately lowered her posture in order to win over the Wang family.

Bihe was loyal to the Prince of Yingchuan. Apart from that, she also had compassion and sympathized with the maidservants who had suffered under the Prince of Yingchuan’s vicious hands.

In the fragrant courtyard, Wang Xiaoshuang was nowhere to be seen. There was only Wang Yaoshuang’s graceful figure leaning by the west window, reading by the light of the evening sun.

Wang Xiaoshuang could not refute these words. The last time His Highness had accompanied her elder sister back to her maiden home, her attitude had also been neither humble nor arrogant. She had not been overly warm, nor had she been as cold and harsh as the rumors said.

Her gaze sharpened as she said, “Even so, it is still true that back then, he did not perform the wedding procession or the bowing ceremony. Did he never think about how great a humiliation that was for Elder Sister? Even if Elder Sister successfully completed the temple audience ceremony and became a daughter-in-law of the Zhao clan, the Princess Consort of Yingchuan in the eyes of the world, she still is not his wife, Zhao Shangrong’s wife.”

Zhao Shangrong rarely entered the princess consort’s room. However, relying on the fact that she was the master of the prince’s manor, and that she and the princess consort were both women, she sat down on the mat with an armrest without the slightest sense of being an outsider. She even waved for the princess consort’s maidservants to fan her and drive away the heat.

As for this life, Wang Yaoshuang thought, perhaps she had already let it go.

She said, “I did not expect the craftsmen of the prince’s manor to be rather capable. They made the rocking fan so quickly.”

Zhao Shangrong suddenly thought that, at Wang Yaoshuang’s age, if this were modern times, she would merely be a university student. Perhaps she would be like this now, sitting in a campus pavilion, or sitting at a long table by the window in a library, quietly reading a book.

The rocking fan was not large. On the wooden pole, four fan blades were fixed at an angle, and there was a handle behind the base.

Zhao Shangrong went up and turned it twice herself. She saw the four fan blades rapidly rotate as the wooden pole turned. They stirred up a cool breeze, whooshing toward Wang Yaoshuang.

The wind lifted Wang Yaoshuang’s sleeves and ribbons, its strength visibly powerful.

Wang Yaoshuang also found it very interesting. She could not help moving closer to His Highness, wanting to try whether turning this fan required much effort.

Zhao Shangrong gave the handle to her. Worried that this was Wang Yaoshuang’s first time operating it and that she would not know how to control her strength, Zhao Shangrong placed her hand over hers without thinking. “If you turn the handle once, the fan blades will turn several times. So if you want the wind to be gentler, turn it more slowly. The faster you turn the handle, the faster the fan blades will spin…”

Wang Yaoshuang’s hand was covered by His Highness’s palm. She became slightly dazed and thought: The wind blown out by this fan is not even as cool as His Highness’s hand.

Sensing that Wang Yaoshuang’s hand was almost being guided by hers, and that the two of them were getting closer and closer, Zhao Shangrong abruptly withdrew her hand, straightened up, and said, “Cough. That is roughly how it is used…”

The cold touch disappeared. Wang Yaoshuang subconsciously looked at His Highness. After a moment, she smiled and said, “This concubine has learned.”

Zhao Shangrong caught from the corner of her eye that the princess consort had been staring at her. She dared not look directly at her even more, and still pretended to be calm as she said, “You are the princess consort. Even if you had not learned, it would not matter.”

Wang Yaoshuang smiled faintly. “Your Highness is right.”

She had the maidservant who usually handled fanning come over and try it, and using the excuse that “only by sitting together can one feel the wind,” she continued sitting by His Highness’s side and did not return to her original seat.

The wind from the rocking fan was very cool, but Zhao Shangrong felt unbearably hot. Her heartbeat also seemed to have lost all sense of order.

For the first time, she felt that sitting together with the princess consort was such torment.

His Highness was like she was sitting on pins and needles, while Wang Yaoshuang’s body relaxed more and more each time. She even took the initiative to ask whether His Highness wanted to stay here for dinner.

Zhao Shangrong seemed to have found an excuse to escape and said, “I did not instruct the kitchen courtyard in advance, so Princess Consort, eat by yourself. I will go back first.”

Wang Yaoshuang called after her, “There is only one rocking fan. Your Highness has given it to this concubine, so what about Your Highness?”

Zhao Shangrong: “…”

With a cold and aloof face, she said, “The prince’s manor is not so poor that it cannot make a second rocking fan.”

After saying that, she quickly left as if fleeing.

Wang Yaoshuang thought helplessly, Was her place some dragon’s lair or tiger’s den?

Only after Zhao Shangrong “fled” back to the North Study did her mood calm down.

However, this false calm did not last long.

After realizing that her thoughts were not pure, waves once again rose in her heart.

She patted her own face and repeatedly warned herself, “Zhao Shangrong, wake up. This is not the twenty-first century. These kinds of feelings cannot possibly receive a response!”

Being forced to transmigrate into a book was already bitter enough. She truly did not want to make her life more bitter—the torment of emotions and the suffering of the inner world were also a kind of bitterness.

At that moment, the female attendant beside her considerately asked, “Does Your Highness wish to have the meal served?”

“Serve it.” Zhao Shangrong paused. “Also, have the Variety Theater come entertain me and relieve my boredom.”

The female attendant accepted the order and went to make arrangements.

His Highness had mentioned the Variety Theater before, but because the princess consort had needed an afternoon nap, that arrangement had been stopped.

But no one dared overlook the matter. The jesters and musicians of the Variety Theater knew His Highness might summon them at any time, so they had to be ready to be called!

Because of this, the jesters and musicians, who had been idle for a long time, suddenly became busy and chaotic. Some had let their skills grow rusty, some had stiff bodies and could no longer dance with the beautiful grace of the past, and some could not remember their lines.

The entire Variety Theater looked as if it had encountered a chaotic army attacking the city, burning, killing, and looting everywhere. It was noisy, chaotic, and extremely miserable.

The female attendant knew that if the Prince of Yingchuan saw this scene, none of the people here would have good endings.

They were all lowly people struggling to survive in the prince’s manor. The female attendant did not wish for His Highness to know about this.

She walked around and discovered that in the women musicians’ quarters of the Variety Theater, there was no panic. The women musicians inside were orderly rehearsing and performing music. Even the singing and dancing performers from the neighboring song-and-dance quarters had come over to borrow the women musicians’ music to choreograph their dances.

The dance and music complemented each other.

When they saw the female attendant, the women musicians and song-and-dance performers all stopped.

The female attendant explained her purpose and said plainly, “His Highness has not held a banquet in a long time. The performers and jesters in the Variety Theater have all grown rusty in their skills. Only your side remains orderly, so I presume you prepared early. Those performers and jesters temporarily cannot be counted on. I only hope you can perform well and help the Variety Theater get through this crisis.”

The women musicians and dancers all had worried faces. Usually, the entire Variety Theater was mobilized, so each person only needed to appear once or twice. Now that only the dance and music performers were left, once they became tired from performing, it would be easy to make mistakes.

At this, one of the women musicians said, “Since His Highness did not specifically instruct how the program should be arranged, why don’t we take turns performing solos?”

When everyone heard this, they thought it was a good idea.

Thus, they all listed the instruments and pieces they were skilled at, then paired them with the dancers’ songs and dances. Under the premise that everyone would have enough time to rest and adjust, they could put together twelve performances in total. Performing until His Highness rested would not be a problem.

The female attendant felt that this woman musician had quick wit, so she asked her, “What is your name, and what are you good at?”

“My name is Zhenyue. I am skilled at the pipa… Elder Sister, were you recently promoted to serve by His Highness’s side?” the woman musician Zhenyue asked the female attendant in a flattering manner.

The female attendant said without changing expression, “Thanks to His Highness and the princess consort’s appreciation, this servant is able to serve close to His Highness.”

No one knew what she thought of, but she looked Zhenyue up and down and warned, “You need not try to get close to me, nor should you think of approaching His Highness through me. After being in the prince’s manor for many years, you should know His Highness’s temperament. I advise you not to entertain any crooked thoughts, lest you harm both others and yourself.”

Zhenyue’s face turned slightly pale from being told off. She wanted to explain, but felt it would be futile. In the end, she still respectfully thanked the female attendant.

By the time Zhao Shangrong finished dinner, the sky had already darkened. The maidservants skillfully removed the dishes and lit the palace lamps all around. The vast main hall immediately became as bright as day.

Zhao Shangrong waited for the performances until her mouth felt a little dry, so she had someone bring over some tea soup.

After thinking about it, she changed the tea soup to wine—without wine, how could she create the decadent salted-fish image of someone extravagant, drunkenly dreaming through life, uninterested in power, and indifferent to worldly affairs?

There was wine now, and the female attendant who had gone to the Variety Theater to arrange performances also returned with a group of women musicians holding various instruments, as well as graceful performers.

Zhao Shangrong’s eyes immediately lit up.

She had thought that the maidservants she saw during the interviews that day already counted as peerless beauties. She had not expected the true peerless beauties to all be here!

That made sense. Without some beauty and talent, how could they have entered the Variety Theater?

“Your Highness, where should they begin?” the female attendant asked.

“You can request songs?” As someone used to listening to music on “play in order,” Zhao Shangrong was very casual about this. “Just go in order!”

Very soon, the sounds of zithers, se, strings, and bamboo instruments drifted leisurely out from the hall along with the silver light of the bright moon, flowing into the steamy bathing room.

Wang Yaoshuang, who was preparing to bathe, heard the sound. She listened for a moment and asked Jiumo, “Where is that zither sound coming from?”

Jiumo carefully said, “It is the women musicians of the Variety Theater performing for His Highness.”

She quietly observed her mistress’s expression.

Wang Yaoshuang merely lost focus for a moment. Then she helplessly pressed her temple and said, “Keep an eye on it. If it is only music and amusement, then leave it be. But if…”

She suddenly thought that His Highness perhaps would no longer repeat the same mistakes, and she also did not need to watch His Highness at all times like a nursemaid, worrying everywhere on behalf of the maidservants in the prince’s manor.

“Forget it. There is no need to pay attention.”

To Jiumo, these words sounded like Wang Yaoshuang was annoyed that His Highness was drinking and making merry.

Jiumo, sharing her enemy’s hatred, thought, His Highness really is too much. Just now, she left in such a hurry that I thought there was some important matter. I did not expect it was to seek pleasure and amusement!

With her mouth, she comforted the princess consort. “Princess Consort, do not worry. The female attendants by His Highness’s side now were all personally chosen by you. If His Highness favors any other woman before consummating the marriage with the princess consort, the female attendants will definitely inform you at once.”

Who knew how this girl Jiumo had the face to say such words? Wang Yaoshuang scolded her with feigned anger. “What nonsense are you saying?”

Jiumo muttered, “This servant is telling the truth.”

“Do not always keep watch over matters in His Highness’s room. If you have time, spend more effort learning how to manage internal affairs from Bihe.” Wang Yaoshuang chased her out.

Jiumo felt somewhat wronged. Clearly, the princess consort often asked them what His Highness was doing. She merely kept frequent track of His Highness’s movements so she could quickly answer the princess consort’s questions.

After Wang Yaoshuang finished bathing, she sat on the couch and flipped through the book she had not finished reading today.

A clear breeze came slowly. She lifted her eyes and glanced at that rocking fan, and in her mind immediately appeared His Highness’s spirited appearance as she introduced the rocking fan.

Wang Yaoshuang: “…”

She closed the book, her heart somewhat restless and stifled.

Tomorrow, she had to remind His Highness that making merry at night disturbed the people.

Author’s Note:

Princess Consort: Your Highness, I received a complaint that you disturbed the people at night. From now on, you are not allowed to make merry at night!

His Highness: ￣△￣ Only not allowed at night?

Princess Consort: Be sensible and say you will not make merry morning, noon, or night.

His Highness: …