After Transmigrating Into A Love-Brained Scumbag Villain - Chapter 6

In her previous life, Wang Yaoshuang had been a marginal figure within the Prince of Yingchuan’s manor, so she did not understand the full story behind the Prince of Yingchuan’s disfigurement. She did not know why the Prince of Yingchuan had entered the palace, nor why Grand Consort Yun, in her frenzied state, had chosen to slash the Prince of Yingchuan’s face instead of stabbing or scratching some other part of her body. Even less did she know whether there had been any conspiracy involved.

This time, although His Highness had agreed to enter the palace with her, she still could not let down her guard.

Along the way, Wang Yaoshuang’s mood was extremely heavy. Countless possible situations they might face after entering the palace played out in her mind. She was so nervous that, without realizing it, her hands clutched the fabric beside her.

Zhao Shangrong, who had originally also been very nervous and thinking about how to avoid the plot-mandated death flag—the scene where Grand Consort Yun disfigured her—noticed that the sleeve on the side nearest Wang Yaoshuang had been grabbed, and her attention was immediately distracted.

Zhao Shangrong felt too embarrassed to openly study Wang Yaoshuang, so she kept sneaking glances at her from the corner of her eye. After looking for too long, her eyes inevitably became sore. Without realizing it, this turned into occasional furtive glances where she turned her head, while secretly wondering when Wang Yaoshuang would finally realize she had grabbed the wrong sleeve.

One had to say, there was a reason Wang Yaoshuang could become one of the female leads.

Although Zhao Shangrong had not read much of the original novel, from her own aesthetic point of view, Wang Yaoshuang’s body, if placed in Dream of the Red Chamber, could somewhat be described with the words used for Lin Daiyu: “When still, she was like a delicate flower reflected in water; when moving, like a frail willow supported by the wind.”

However, the fact that Wang Yaoshuang had risked being silenced by the Prince of Yingchuan to go undercover in the prince’s manor and search for evidence of the Prince of Yingchuan’s treason proved that her personality was absolutely not weak. She was soft on the outside but strong within, and Zhao Shangrong could not look down on her because of her fragile appearance.

Whether someone was slender in appearance but firm inside, or strong both inside and out, they were both types of women Zhao Shangrong admired and respected.

Now, the representative of the type of woman she admired was clutching her sleeve. Why did it feel more and more oddly inconsistent the longer she looked… Perhaps this was what people called “gap moe”?

Before considering whether it was cute or not, Zhao Shangrong first had to filter the female lead’s character setting through her mind a hundred times so she could figure out how to get along with her.

“Your Highness, what is wrong?” Wang Yaoshuang asked.

In a palace shrine in one corner of the Empress Dowager’s Palace, a stunningly beautiful female Daoist priest sat quietly behind a desk. One hand held a needle and thread, while the other held several pieces of cloth that she was sewing together. Suddenly, her expression twisted hideously, and she stabbed the needle fiercely into the cloth. The tip pierced through the fabric and stabbed into the palm of her other hand. Drops of blood immediately welled up, staining the cloth in her hand red.

The man frowned and pondered for a long while before summoning an inner attendant. “Go inform the empress and the grand consort that Seventh Brother suddenly fell seriously ill and turned back to the prince’s manor halfway. Princess Consort Wang must remain by Seventh Brother’s side to attend to his illness, so she will also be unable to enter the palace to perform the rites.”

Zhao Shangrong raised a hand to support her forehead. She had just been about to say she was fine, but her vision suddenly went black, and she collapsed directly inside the carriage.

The sight made the palace servants around her feel their hearts tremble, yet the woman seemed completely unaware of the pain. Instead, she burst into loud laughter.

Zhao Shangrong once again woke from the nightmare with a start.

Therefore, this Empress Dowager’s Palace had no true master. Those who lived here were only a few consorts left behind from Emperor Wu’s time.

“Your Highness?!”

Although her real complexion was covered by rice powder, Wang Yaoshuang still noticed that something was wrong with the person beside her. Ever since they had left the Prince of Yingchuan’s manor, although the carriage had been somewhat bumpy, Zhao Shangrong’s body had remained almost rigid apart from occasionally turning her head. Now her body was beginning to sway from side to side, clearly showing that something was wrong.

The man left through Fengzhuang Gate and arrived at the Empress Dowager’s Palace, located on the east side of Jiankang Palace, between Hualin Garden and the Cavalier Attendants’ Office.

After Zhao Shangrong recovered her senses, she realized that this nightmare was a scene the Prince of Yingchuan had personally witnessed as a child. Such things seemed to have happened many times. She guessed that these incidents had frightened and scarred the young Prince of Yingchuan, indirectly causing her temperament to become increasingly violent.

That beauty who appeared normal, but could fall ill at any moment, was none other than the Prince of Yingchuan’s birth mother—Grand Consort Yun.

News that the Prince of Yingchuan had suddenly fainted on the way to accompany her princess consort into the palace to perform the rites soon reached the palace.

The man paused, then rose and said, “Forget it. Seventh Brother did fall ill on the way into the palace, after all. As for the grand consort, I should personally go and inform her.”

The spacious carriage instantly fell into chaos.

The inner attendant answered, “Yes.”

The emperor’s legitimate mother and birth mother were both dead. The deposed emperor’s birth mother, Empress Dowager Zhang, was still alive, but after the deposed emperor was overthrown and killed, she too had been demoted to grand consort and moved out of the palace.

Suddenly, Zhao Shangrong felt a sharp pain in her head. Her face, already covered in white rice powder, instantly turned even paler.

In the towering, spacious Shiqian Hall, a man dressed in black robes finished listening to the inner official’s report and waved his hand. The inner official immediately bowed and withdrew from the hall.

No one found it funny. Instead, they felt her laughter was eerie, sending chills down their spines.

—

Zhao Shangrong did not understand why she had suddenly dreamed of her, but there was an old saying: “What one thinks of by day, one dreams of by night.” Perhaps because she had been too worried about the appearance of this plot-mandated death flag, some fragments about Grand Consort Yun buried deep in her memories had been activated.

Zhao Shangrong suddenly felt that something was wrong.

She looked around, then immediately sat up in shock. Right, wasn’t she supposed to be accompanying Wang Yaoshuang into the palace? Why was she on the bed in the prince’s manor?

“His Highness is awake!”

Her movement also startled the maidservant waiting outside the curtain, and the maidservant cried out in delight.

Perhaps because she was too excited, it was only after she shouted that she remembered her master had a very bad temper. Previously, there had been a close attendant whose tone had merely risen slightly while speaking in front of His Highness, and His Highness had slapped his face dozens of times on the grounds that it was grating to the ear. His face had been ruined and had yet to recover even now.

The maidservant clearly realized that she had made the same mistake. Her face instantly turned deathly pale, and she hurriedly prostrated herself on the floor, hoping that this humble attitude would calm His Highness’s anger.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Shangrong had no attention to spare for her at all. What she was thinking was: Fainting in front of outsiders carries the risk of my disguise falling off!

She examined herself and saw that her clothes and appearance were still properly in place. Only then did she let out a breath of relief.

At that moment, a figure moved behind the screen, and Wang Yaoshuang’s voice sounded. “Your Highness, may this concubine come in?”

Only then did Zhao Shangrong realize that the maidservant had not been excited about her waking up, but was informing the third person present that she had regained consciousness.

“Come in.” Zhao Shangrong pinched the space between her brows. She still felt somewhat unwell, but ordinary methods could not relieve her discomfort at all. She could only use this method to give herself a little psychological hint and make herself feel slightly better.

Wang Yaoshuang went around the screen and lifted the curtain. Her gaze paused on the maidservant, then moved away without a trace. Standing outside the bed curtains, she asked softly, “How does Your Highness feel?”

Instead of answering, Zhao Shangrong asked, “Did the princess consort not enter the palace to perform the rites?”

Wang Yaoshuang had not expected her to care about that. She was surprised inwardly, but on the surface, she pretended to be very gentle and considerate. “Your Highness suddenly fainted on the road. How could this concubine ignore Your Highness?”

Zhao Shangrong sighed emotionally in her heart: As expected of the female lead. Her heart is truly kind!

Although it had not been Zhao Shangrong’s intention, in the end, she had indirectly caused Wang Yaoshuang to be unable to complete the rite of “becoming a daughter-in-law.” Thinking that Wang Yaoshuang would become a laughingstock among the titled women of Jiankang because of this, Zhao Shangrong could not bear it. “I dragged you down.”

Wang Yaoshuang’s glistening, peach-blossom-like eyes widened and rounded as if she had witnessed something earth-shattering.

What had His Highness just said?

Had she heard wrong?

Zhao Shangrong observed her reaction and also knew that her words had collapsed the character setting too much. Thus, she added stiffly, “You need not concern yourself with me. You may enter the palace on your own.”

Wang Yaoshuang did not dwell on this topic and asked, “How does Your Highness feel now?”

“How long was I asleep?” Zhao Shangrong asked in return.

“Two hours,” Wang Yaoshuang answered.

Zhao Shangrong turned her head to look out the window. The sun had indeed already slanted westward, falling over the roof eaves.

She thought, Looks like we won’t be able to enter the palace today.

Outside the bed curtains, Wang Yaoshuang said again, “Earlier, His Majesty ordered the Assistant Imperial Physician to come and administer acupuncture to Your Highness. The Assistant Imperial Physician said that after the acupuncture, Your Highness would wake within half an hour. It was indeed so.”

Zhao Shangrong frowned. “Did the Assistant Imperial Physician say what illness this body of mine has?”

Wang Yaoshuang hesitated, then said, “Your Highness was unconscious, so the Assistant Imperial Physician could not be certain. But based on the symptoms and what the Assistant Court Physician said, he believes it may perhaps be a head ailment.”

Zhao Shangrong: “…”

Were these so-called top private doctors of the country actually reliable or not?

One moment, it was caused by drinking too much alcohol. The next, it was a head ailment…

Where had all those divine doctors in novels who could bring the dead back to life gone?

However, in the original novel, the Prince of Yingchuan ultimately died from being torn apart by five horses, which showed that this little illness was not fatal. Zhao Shangrong soon adjusted her mindset.

She said, “I will accompany you into the palace tomorrow, then.”

The way she was so anxious and kept emphasizing the matter of entering the palace made Wang Yaoshuang think that she was impatient to find the emperor and make him fulfill his promise of letting her go to her fief.

Wang Yaoshuang shook her head and said, “His Majesty has already issued an edict exempting this concubine from the palace rite. The empress also bestowed upon this concubine ten bolts of purple gauze brocade, a pair of gold bracelets, and a set of gold-and-jade writing implements, telling this concubine to first take good care of Your Highness. The matter of performing the rites can be discussed another day.”

In other words, she had already become an external titled woman recognized by the imperial family, the Princess Consort of Yingchuan. Even if she did not enter the palace, no one would criticize her, so His Highness did not need to keep thinking of ways to use this opportunity to enter the palace and find the emperor.

After Wang Yaoshuang finished speaking, her heart pounded like a drum. Was His Highness’s face inside the bed curtains dark and terrifying? Was a storm about to arrive?

But unexpectedly, Zhao Shangrong threw open the bed curtains and asked with a face full of delight, “Really?!”

Wang Yaoshuang: “?”

Author’s Note:

The Highness Wangfei imagined: Angry!

The actual Highness: Oh yeah!