After Becoming the Cannon Fodder Live-in Spouse A (GL) - Chapter 19: The Nineteenth Day

Chapter 19: The Nineteenth Day

Before Ye Fuguang groggily woke up, she felt as if vines were wrapped around her neck and limbs, making her more exhausted the more she tried to rest, even struggling to breathe—

When she opened her eyes, she realized she had kicked off the blanket and had one arm sprawled across Shen Jinglan’s body. There was nothing binding her.

The materialist college student Ye concluded she had been pressed by a ghost in her sleep.

She noticed Yinping nearby, looking over with deep worry, unsure whether to move her bold arm. Seeing her awake, Yinping immediately beamed with joy:

“The princess is awake?”

“Dinner is ready. Would you like to eat now?”

Ye Fuguang nodded listlessly.

After getting out of bed, Ruyi brought a cup of hot tea and a wrung-out face towel. As Ye Fuguang walked to the washbasin, Ruyi quietly asked, “Princess, why did Alan win the city defense battle but die from an ambush arrow on her way home?”

She mumbled, “The prince would never do that.”

“Artistic technique…” Ye Fuguang said, gargling with tea.

Ruyi: “Huh?”

After wiping off the tuckahoe cream and tossing the willow twig used for brushing her teeth into the basin, Ye Fuguang looked up again. “I mean, it’s supposed to be handled this way. Feeling regret is the point. She’ll have to die several more times later.”

Ruyi let out a confused “oh,” lowered her head to think for a while, then said, “This story could be sent to the bookstore, but don’t let Steward Yu know you’re doing this. If she finds out you’re slandering the prince like this, you might not even get mung bean soup.”

Ye Fuguang: “!”

Water droplets fell from her eyelashes as she blinked, looking like she was tearfully shedding tears, inexplicably tugging at Ruyi’s heart.

Then she heard her master say in a pitiful tone, “First suppress, then raise. Don’t you get it?”

Ruyi shook her head. “Nope.”

“—But,” she leaned closer to Ye Fuguang, her eyes sparkling, whispering in her ear, “I asked Yinping and Quhua. Since you entered the mansion, the prince hasn’t had a single new injury. You’ve never hurt the prince, right?”

Ye Fuguang blinked.

Ruyi met her gaze, flashing a mischievous smile. “I believe in the prince. Even before waking, she’s protecting you. The princess must have something special.”

College student Ye felt embarrassed by her words and was about to humbly deflect, telling her not to trust so blindly, when Ruyi changed tack. “But I’m paid by the mansion, and my heart is with the prince. So, until your story includes content that clears the prince’s name, I won’t submit it to the bookstore for you.”

“…?”

Ye, the college student who had never stepped into society, was now outmaneuvered by little Ruyi. Thinking of her future of updating 100,000 words daily, her vision darkened. “Didn’t you just say I must have something special?”

Ruyi nodded. “Yes, but I haven’t seen it yet.”

You little—

You’d better keep both eyes open tonight.

Ye Fuguang gritted her teeth. “I’ll whisper in the prince’s ear tonight.”

Ruyi, seeing a Qianyuan act like a seductive vixen for the first time, laughed and bowed to her. “If a small fry like me can make the prince wake up, I’ll accept any punishment.”

Ye Fuguang paused, eyeing her wickedly. “You said that, right?”

…

After one incense stick’s time.

“Alan looked closely and realized she was back in that familiar room. An old woman’s peddling calls came from outside the window. She counted silently in her mind, and after three beats, she indeed heard a dog barking from the neighbor’s house—”

At this point, Ye Fuguang glanced toward the long table by the window. “Done yet?”

Ruyi’s brush moved like a dragon. “Almost.”

Ye Fuguang pretended to be impatient, urging halfheartedly, “You’re writing a bit slow.”

Ruyi: “…”

Still indulging in the thrill of “voice input” writing, college student Ye leaned over, pretending to critique. “Is that hairpin flower script? It’s pretty.”

Only then did the little girl helping with the transcription smile again.

Clearing her throat, Ye Fuguang was about to continue the next part when Jixiang suddenly reported, “Princess, Miss Ye from your family sent a visiting card. Steward Yu has arranged for her to wait in the guest hall.”

Ye Fuguang froze. “Now?”

She glanced at the sky, thinking it was almost the hour of Hai. Why would Ye Yuge suddenly visit the mansion?

The plot didn’t mention anything happening to the Ye Family at this time, did it?

After racking her brain with no answers, she headed toward the door. “Where’s the guest hall?”

Ruyi hurriedly put down her brush, wiping ink from her fingertips with a handkerchief. “Princess, please change first.”

“Oh.”

–

It was Ye Yuge’s first time stepping into Prince Qi’s mansion.

This place was once the most untouchable in the entire Great Dynasty. The gates, corridors, bricks, tiles, plants, and trees lived up to their reputation. She had been invited to flower-viewing parties and poetry gatherings with Yong’an City’s nobles, but even those splendid displays of rare flowers paled in comparison to Prince Qi’s mansion.

Yet, sitting in this unfamiliar opulence, she remained calm, not showing the slightest unease, like a still bamboo grove.

Until the person she awaited arrived with cheerful footsteps, stirring the bamboo leaves like a breeze.

“Ye Yuge, you came to see me?”

Compared to the peach-pink outfit on her return visit, today she wore a green robe with silver-threaded floral patterns on the cuffs and waist. The layered, fading green looked like spring snow pressing on fresh meadow grass. With her double hair buns, she was cuter than any Dikun Ye Yuge had seen.

Yet she was a Qianyuan.

Ye Yuge lowered her eyes and casually said, “I came to check if the ‘Lord’s End’ poison in you has cleared.”

Ye Fuguang gasped. “I almost forgot. Quick, check me—”

She rolled up her sleeve, eagerly staring at the doctor.

Looking at the pale, lotus-root-like wrist, Ye Yuge recalled how this person had never trusted her so much before, even seeming to forget their clash on the return visit day.

After a while, she casually checked her pulse, her gaze reassessing her, then suddenly said, “You’ve lost weight.”

Even the flesh on her face was less.

Ye Fuguang: “Huh?”

Ye Yuge’s expressionless face looked very serious. “What have you been eating lately?”

At this question, college student Ye couldn’t help glancing toward the door, trying to spot Steward Yu, who was behind her diet, but found no one. She slumped back, muttering, “It’s hot. I’m losing weight.”

Even if the divine doctor spoke the truth, it couldn’t change her current diet. Ye Fuguang quickly changed the subject. “If the poison is gone, I owe you one. I’ll treat you to a meal another day. You pick the place. How’s that?”

She wondered if this excuse could get her out of the mansion.

In her mind, Ye Fuguang started reciting a stand-up comedy routine, ‘Naming Dishes’, reaching “sticky rice stuffed duck, jar-roasted pheasant” when Ye Yuge suddenly asked, “If we switched places, Ye Fuguang, and I was poisoned with the remnants of ‘Lord’s End,’ would you save me?”

Swallowing hard, Ye Fuguang snapped back to reality, looking at her. Because of her story writing, she couldn’t help nitpicking the setup. “When you say switch, do you mean souls with memories swapping or just positions swapping?”

Ye Yuge: “…?”

Her brow furrowed. “What’s the difference?”

Ye Fuguang rigorously explained, concluding, “Anyway, if I became you, I’d save you. With your superb medical skills, you must have a heart for saving people. No matter who’s in front of you, a doctor’s first thought is to save, right?”

Not saving would be out of character, wouldn’t it?

Ye Yuge silently stared at her.

The one being stared at suddenly remembered she was still playing the role of a useless, incompetent character. Holding her breath for a moment, she couldn’t resist muttering softly, “It’s fine without switching. I wouldn’t have saved you before, but I owe you one, and I’ll definitely repay you, so I’d definitely save you.”

She smiled at Ye Yuge, jokingly asking, “Would you believe me?”

Ye Yuge didn’t answer.

But on her way back to the Ye Family mansion, her mind flickered between tomorrow’s imperial summons and Ye Fuguang’s words, “With your superb medical skills, you must have a heart for saving people.”

This little useless thing still didn’t understand her—

Her medical skills were superb.

But only because they were simple and easy to learn, nothing more.

Ye Yuge never thought about saving anyone. Even tomorrow’s audience with the emperor, she knew, was because the suspicious emperor suspected someone was guiding Ye Rong, had gone through the Ye Family with the Imperial Guards’ commander, and finally locked onto her.

The emperor’s chosen one to control Prince Qi’s life and death wasn’t Ye Rong, but her.

Ye Yuge thought she had already made her decision.

But after dinner, strolling and ending up at Prince Qi’s mansion, she wavered again.

…

Inside the mansion, Plum Garden.

After seeing Ye Yuge off, Ye Fuguang still didn’t know why she came tonight. She returned to the hall in a daze, planning to drag Ruyi into writing more of the story, but her heart felt uneasy, pounding restlessly. She chalked it up to the aftereffects of staying up all night and, for the sake of her health, went to bed early.

Before sleeping, she suddenly remembered something, turned to face Shen Jinglan, and whispered in her ear:

“By the way, I think there’s a ghost in our room, maybe the kind that sucks people’s energy, a seductive ghost.”

“Prince, can’t you be a bit fiercer and scare that thing away?”

The faint camellia fragrance, stirred by her closeness, stilled the moment her words landed. All the budding petals and stamens on the branches slowly, slowly closed again.