After Transmigrating Into A Love-Brained Scumbag Villain - Chapter 9

After dinner, the maidservants brought over the medicinal decoction the kitchen courtyard had prepared for Zhao Shangrong to drink. Of course, Wang Yaoshuang, whose body was equally weak, also failed to escape the fate of drinking medicine.

As Zhao Shangrong drank her medicine, she pondered the matter of layoffs.

In truth, after thinking about it carefully, the number of people in the prince’s manor had not only recently increased. Supporting so many retainers, servants, and private troops was practically standard practice among aristocratic clans and powerful noble families.

Back when the male lead emperor had wanted to move against the three regent ministers—Xie Mian, Xue Rao, and Fu Yanzhi—the soldiers Xue Rao and Fu Yanzhi led when they rose in rebellion were mostly the private troops they had raised.

The Prince of Yingchuan’s manor also had storage rooms specifically used to store weapons and armor. The private retainers living near the manor were a private armed force protecting the Prince of Yingchuan.

If the emperor wanted to centralize imperial authority, consolidate military power, and suppress the powerful clans, he would inevitably have to ban such forces that possessed private armed troops. The destruction of the Xie, Xue, and Fu clans was one example.

However, the emperor clearly did not intend to take too large a step and provoke the powerful noble clans into uniting against him.

Moreover, the emperor still needed the princes and imperial clan members, connected through the patriarchal clan system, to balance the noble clans. This was also why the emperor had not acted against the Prince of Yingchuan’s older brothers.

In other words, even if Zhao Shangrong was currently still supporting over a thousand private retainers, the male lead would not see her as a threat because of that alone. What would truly make her a threat was if she became an Inspector, controlled a regional government, and commanded provincial troops—establishing three armies with five thousand soldiers.

As for Zhao Shangrong worrying about expenses, although she was not very clear about the prince’s manor’s income and expenditure, she vaguely remembered that the Prince of Yingchuan’s title was first rank. She had a fief income of five thousand households, as well as fifty qing of official salary land and over a hundred qing of private land. Normally, these were all farmed by her private retainers. Aside from being self-sufficient, the rest of the produce would be handed over.

Spending the night here was impossible. Wang Yaoshuang was afraid she would have nightmares.

Zhao Shangrong decided that tomorrow, she would summon the Chief Clerk and ask him in detail about the exact expenses. If she had relatively ample funds on hand, then she could boldly and confidently formulate her plan for “how to create the image of a carefree prince with no interest in power.”

Zhao Shangrong had not even begun enjoying the good life yet, and she truly did not want the exposure of her female identity to cause her to lose all peaceful days.

In short, exposing her identity might make the male lead stop viewing her as a threat, but the future she would have to face might not necessarily be better than her current situation.

Sharing a bed with the female lead would not affect her innocence, but there was no guarantee that the female lead would not discover her female identity and report it to the emperor.

As long as His Highness was willing to consummate the marriage with the princess consort, then surely no one would use His Highness’s absence from the wedding ceremony to mock the princess consort anymore!

She had actually considered confessing her female identity. That way, she could lower the male lead’s hostility toward her. After all, who would think a woman could pose any threat to imperial power?

When she changed from a prince into a princess, the role society assigned her would become that of an accessory who must “obey her father at home, obey her husband after marriage, and obey her son after her husband’s death.”

She had thought a little too far. Zhao Shangrong returned to her senses.

But as soon as that thought appeared, she strangled it.

The sky had grown somewhat dim. Maidservants came in to light the lamps. Once the lamps around them were lit, Wang Yaoshuang said, “Your Highness, it is getting late. Please rest early. This concubine will take her leave first.”

Zhao Shangrong also did not keep her there for the night—she had to protect her disguise.

If she had the ability, she could absolutely continue supporting these people and add a little joy to her dull transmigration life, where her life could be in danger at any moment!

She had fallen into the trap of limited thinking. She herself had first denied the legitimacy of women’s desire for power… It was precisely because the world believed women should not touch power, and that if they participated in government, it would be like a hen crowing at dawn, that they were stigmatized and demonized.

Such ideas were rotten and backward.

It was rare that His Highness was so easy to speak to today and was willing to treat the princess consort kindly. Why did the princess consort not understand how to grasp the opportunity and take the chance to propose staying overnight?

If that was the case, then layoffs were not absolutely necessary. After all, who did not like playing with pretty young ladies? There were so many young ladies in the prince’s manor, each with different personalities and all charming in their own way. Just looking at them every day would be a beautiful, pleasing thing!

So call her selfish or cowardly, but unless absolutely necessary, she did not want to take off this disguise.

Zhao Shangrong should not be complacent just because, as a woman, she posed no threat to imperial power. She should feel sorrow over it.

The female attendant by Wang Yaoshuang’s side did not dare act rashly, but inwardly, she could not help feeling anxious for the princess consort.

Even if she wanted to resist, it would ultimately be difficult for her alone to withstand the surging current.

Wang Yaoshuang returned to the inner residence.

The female attendant by her side gathered her courage and asked, “Princess Consort, please forgive Jiumo for being rude, but I dare to ask—why did you not take the opportunity to stay overnight in His Highness’s study?”

Wang Yaoshuang looked at this young girl who had grown up with her since childhood. She thought of her previous life, when after she had been neglected and ignored, this girl had always felt indignant on her behalf and had often secretly cried because of the difficulties imposed by the prince’s manor officials.

During the Lantern Festival in the second year, Wang Yaoshuang searched everywhere for the girl but could not find her. She only heard someone mention that the girl had once encountered the Prince of Yingchuan.

So she boldly went to look for the Prince of Yingchuan. The latter’s face was covered with an ugly and ferocious mask, and paired with that eerie smile, she looked like a king of asuras from hell.

The Prince of Yingchuan told her, “Today is the Lantern Festival. I prepared a great gift for you.”

The servants of the prince’s manor carried out a person whose head had been burned by fire beyond recognition and who was still moaning. From the person’s voice and clothing, Wang Yaoshuang recognized her as the female attendant by her side—Jiumo!

“Surprised?” The Prince of Yingchuan looked at Wang Yaoshuang, her smile gradually becoming savage and insane.

“Ah—why? Why?” Wang Yaoshuang was both shocked and terrified.

The Prince of Yingchuan gave a contemptuous laugh. “A mere lowly maid dared to act presumptuously before me?”

Only later did Wang Yaoshuang learn that Jiumo had coincidentally encountered the Prince of Yingchuan. It just so happened that the Prince of Yingchuan had been in a bad mood, so she had used Jiumo for amusement.

Jiumo had been unable to endure it and had vented the resentment in her heart. As a result, the enraged Prince of Yingchuan ordered that they begin by burning off her hair, watching as she painfully lost her appearance, and in the end could only slowly die in agony.

After being frightened like that and hearing that Jiumo had endured three days of suffering before finally breathing her last, Wang Yaoshuang had collapsed from fear, grief, and pain. She had burned with fever for three days and lost all will to live. If her younger sister had not come to visit and persuaded her to survive, she likely would have died as well.

Recalling her nightmare-like previous life, Wang Yaoshuang did not know how she had found the courage today to spend an entire day with that person!

She felt especially afraid after the fact, to the point that her breathing became rapid. Her whole body once again began to feel dizzy and weak in the limbs.

“Princess Consort?!” Seeing this, Jiumo was startled.

Wang Yaoshuang tightly grasped Jiumo’s hand and said, “Jiumo, from now on, living inside this Prince of Yingchuan’s manor, you—and all of you—must remember this: you must never act presumptuously before His Highness.”

Although Jiumo and the other maidservants did not know the reason, they all answered one after another, “Yes!”

“I am fine now. All of you should go rest early.” Wang Yaoshuang returned to her room, waved her hand, and had them all withdraw.

Jiumo was somewhat worried about her, but she still obeyed the order and led the maidservants away.

Wang Yaoshuang sat down on the bed, fearfully clutching the quilt, and silently shed tears.

Since her rebirth, many days had passed, and too many things had happened. She did not dare reveal even the slightest flaw, so even if she was afraid, she had to pretend that nothing was wrong.

Only at this moment, when she was alone, did she dare let her true emotions show.

After only a short while, she wiped away her tears and forced herself to gather her spirits, sorting through today’s results.

She understood deeply that since her goal was to change the future, that meant once the future changed, the events she knew from her previous life might not happen. Her “foresight of the future” would no longer be her advantage.

So what she needed to do was not treat her foresight of future events as her trump card, but rely on her own knowledge and abilities to deal with all kinds of unforeseeable crises, then prevent situations from worsening.

Through her direct intervention today, she preliminarily judged that the “Prince of Yingchuan’s disfigurement incident” was indeed the most direct cause of the prince’s personality beginning to twist. Before the disfigurement, His Highness had not been an unreasonable person.

Then next, she needed to ensure that on the day of her return visit, His Highness would not repeat the same mistake because she suddenly changed her mind or was suddenly summoned into the palace by people from the palace.

On the night after Zhao Shangrong and Wang Yaoshuang formally met, the former was no longer disturbed by nightmares in her sleep. The latter, however, slept rather restlessly.

When Zhao Shangrong was eating breakfast, she remembered tomorrow’s return visit and asked the Chief Clerk, “Have all the things needed for the princess consort’s return to her maiden home tomorrow been prepared?”

The Chief Clerk hesitated, then said, “The princess consort said she would personally prepare them, so this subordinate…”

Zhao Shangrong remembered that Wang Yaoshuang had indeed said that yesterday. She then asked the maidservant, “Where is the princess consort?”

The maidservant hurriedly said, “The princess consort did not sleep well last night. She only lay down again when the sky was just beginning to brighten, and she is still asleep now.”

Insomnia and frequent dreams. The female lead’s sleep disorder was caused by excessive stress!

Where did the female lead get so much pressure from?

The pressure of being an undercover agent?

But was the female lead’s psychological endurance really that poor?

It was only the fourth day of being undercover. How had she already started feeling pressure?

Zhao Shangrong lost her appetite for breakfast and said, “When the princess consort wakes, have the Assistant Court Physician go with me to see her. Also, have the kitchen courtyard keep the food warm. The princess consort may be hungry at any time after waking.”

“Yes!”

Wang Yaoshuang did not sleep for too long. Usually, her sleep schedule was rather regular. It was only because her mind had been unstable since her rebirth that she had been sleeping poorly at night.

After sleeping only half an hour longer than usual, she got up.

When she heard that His Highness had already brought the Assistant Court Physician over, she thought she was still dreaming.

Outside the door came Jiumo’s voice. “Reporting to Your Highness, the princess consort has just risen and is currently dressing and arranging her hair.”

“No matter. I will wait.” Zhao Shangrong was clearly very patient. After transmigrating, she no longer needed to go to work, and there was not much entertainment to pass the time. For the current her, the thing she had in greatest supply was time!

But Wang Yaoshuang did not dare make His Highness wait too long. She hurriedly applied some powder to her face to make her complexion look a little better, then dressed properly, making sure she would not appear improper before His Highness.

When she came out, she happened to hear His Highness questioning the Assistant Court Physician’s medical skills. “Is there something wrong with the prescription you gave the princess consort? Otherwise, why did the princess consort sleep poorly after drinking the medicine?”

The Assistant Court Physician felt extremely wronged. The princess consort’s problem lay in a knot in her heart. The medicine could only treat her body, not untie the knot in her heart. Therefore, if they wanted to treat the root of the problem, His Highness, as her husband, would have to think of a way!

Of course, he did not dare tell His Highness the truth. He could only smile bitterly, take the blame, and then examine the princess consort.

Wang Yaoshuang also knew the Assistant Court Physician was innocent, but she could not speak the truth. She could only silently apologize to him in her heart.

Author’s Note:

Princess Consort: Staying overnight here is impossible. I’m afraid I’ll have nightmares.

Later—

Princess Consort: Your Highness, I’m afraid I’ll have nightmares. May I stay here tonight?

His Highness: …