After Becoming the Cannon Fodder Live-in Spouse A (GL) - Chapter 24: The Twenty-Fourth Day

Chapter 24: The Twenty-Fourth Day

After hearing that soft, sticky voice for a while, Shen Jinglan now saw its owner and found her little Princess Consort even cuter than she imagined, like a ball of red bean sticky rice that could be kneaded at will.

Noticing tears in the girl’s eyes, Prince Qi slightly raised her brow—

Was she that scary?

Shen Jinglan curved her lips, saying meaningfully, “You’re excused,” to the little girl, who was still dazed. Meanwhile, Yu Qing rushed in from outside with even more commotion than last time, enough to wake the reluctant plum blossoms on the branches.

“Greetings, Prince!”

Even the commander of the Imperial Guards in the mansion appeared.

Ye Fuguang, who had just been excused by Prince Qi and was about to stand using the desk for support, saw everyone kneeling uniformly. Standing out awkwardly like a crane among chickens, she glanced around, and under some inexplicable pressure, her knees buckled, and she slowly sat back on the floor.

She thought she was being discreet, unaware that in Shen Jinglan’s eyes, she was the most conspicuous person in the room.

But now that she was awake, Shen Jinglan had much to do. With her little Princess Consort still under her watch, not seeming like someone who’d run off, she coldly ordered, “Change my clothes.”

“Yes.”

As Yu Qing stood, a servant handed over neat clothes and an outer robe. The ornate screen separating the inner and outer rooms was pushed aside. Yinping and Quhua, before entering, subtly glanced at Ye Fuguang.

Ye Fuguang: Should I leave?

Even when Prince Qi was unconscious, she respected the patient’s privacy and didn’t peek much. Now that Shen Jinglan was awake, her every word and action carried an oppressive aura, making Ye Fuguang even less daring to linger. As Yinping and Quhua approached, she silently lowered her head, hunched over, and tried to slip out.

But Shen Jinglan, being helped up, casually glanced at her. “Where’s the Princess Consort going?”

“…”

Ye Fuguang froze mid-step.

Though the kneeling people outside didn’t look up, she felt the illusion of being humiliated under everyone’s gaze, like being back in middle school during Monday’s flag-raising, called out by the grade director on the platform to give a public apology.

Flustered, almost standing pigeon-toed, she didn’t dare stare at Shen Jinglan’s strikingly aggressive beauty as usual. Like a timid wife, she lowered her head and mumbled, “I… I’ll go stand outside?”

Hearing her self-reference, Yu Qing, who was instructing other servants to prepare food, tea, and the main hall, suddenly frowned noticeably at her.

Ye Fuguang met her gaze, confused.

After two seconds, her expression was like, “Teacher, I know I failed, but I don’t know which question I got wrong.”

Yu Qing was about to remind her when Shen Jinglan, sitting up on the bed, chuckled lightly. “No matter. While I was unconscious, I vaguely heard the Princess Consort pour out her heart. Since you admire me so much, why stand so far away?”

“Come here,” she said.

Ye Fuguang: “!”

Her breath caught.

Her mind raced, replaying all the bold things she’d said by Shen Jinglan’s ear while she was unconscious. Each step toward her felt like walking on a boomerang, each one stabbing back at herself.

—

In the brief ten seconds of standing by Shen Jinglan’s bed.

Ye Fuguang had mentally dug out another Prince Qi’s mansion with her toes.

She realized the sleeping Shen Jinglan was vastly different from the awake one. Before, she was a silent, renowned weapon, sheathed and quiet, sometimes held by Ye Fuguang. Touching the hilt or scabbard wouldn’t hurt her and could even intimidate spirits.

But facing a talking, moving Shen Jinglan, Ye Fuguang suddenly realized this wasn’t a weapon she could control but a superior with strong self-awareness in a rigid feudal hierarchy.

In the short time since Shen Jinglan woke, the once-quiet mansion seemed to come alive. Under Yu Qing’s coordination, stewards and servants began preparing celebrations for Prince Qi’s recovery, far livelier than the silent evening Ye Fuguang married into. This was the true Prince Qi’s mansion.

Every blade of grass, every brick, every person walking here was a gear, turning by the will of its sole master, existing for her every command.

—Including her.

From the corner of her eye, she saw the person on the bed change into a dazzling crimson robe, its collar and hem embroidered with gold threads forming a four-clawed python symbolizing royal power. Her satin-like long hair was carefully tied up by a maid. Ye Fuguang snapped out of her self-deceptive dream.

It was as if she arrived at Prince Qi’s mansion today, meeting this legendary myth of the Great Dynasty for the first time. The thread of fate she thought she held wavered again.

In the tense atmosphere, Ye Fuguang’s thoughts wandered. Distracted, she stepped aside for Yinping, who was tying Prince Qi’s hair, and accidentally bumped into a gilded vase on a long table by the wall, pricked by a sharp plum blossom branch inside.

“!”

Ye Fuguang endured it, not making a sound.

She quietly hid her hand behind her sleeve, hoping to end this act of playing a quail once Shen Jinglan forgot about her.

…

In Shen Jinglan’s view, the Imperial Guards had reported her awakening to the palace at top speed. Until an imperial edict arrived, they couldn’t leave and had to continue protecting Prince Qi.

But the commanders of the three bureaus of the Imperial Guards had earned their ranks under Shen Jinglan’s battlefield achievements. While she was unconscious, they could act confidently. Now that she was awake, if Yong’an Palace delayed the order to withdraw, their protection would become an imperial confinement.

Thus, Shen Jingming sent a carefully chosen infantry commander from the Imperial Guards, newly promoted and unindebted to Shen Jinglan, named Wang Huan.

Wang Huan came only to congratulate Prince Qi on her recovery, as if it were routine, saying nothing more.

“Is Grand Tutor Wang Xuyao your elder?”

“Yes, Prince. My grandfather also serves as Privy Councilor this year.”

After he spoke, the inner room fell silent.

Shen Jinglan closed her eyes lightly, letting Yinping and Quhua massage her arms and legs to ease her long-bedridden muscles, her expression unreadable.

A faint smell of bl00d mixed with snowflakes lingered in the room. She wondered when this little snowflake would stop holding back.

Ye Fuguang, unaware of her thoughts, instinctively treated the scene as a reading comprehension exercise. This world’s bureaucratic system blended Song and Ming dynasty traits, with centralized power. Besides Shen Jinglan, the unique royal general, military power was split three ways: the Privy Council, the Emperor’s Black Armor Imperial Guards in the three bureaus, and the Ministry of War.

In the six months Shen Jinglan was unconscious, Shen Jingming had divided the loyalty of the Shen family army, devoted to Prince Qi. If she never woke, the three bureaus, directly under the Emperor with the Privy Councilor as Grand Tutor, could easily claim all the troops loyal to Prince Qi.

Ye Fuguang brainstormed history facts nearby but saw Shen Jinglan open her eyes again, her phoenix-like gaze like a mountain stream outside Yong’an City, its winter ice broken and flowing, directed at her.

“!”

Ye Fuguang’s eyes widened reflexively, meeting her gaze, warily guessing what she was about to order.

◇

But Shen Jinglan said, “Didn’t I tell you to come closer? Sneaking off again?”

Prince Qi slightly narrowed her eyes, the pink scar under her left eye deepening, like a plum blossom falling from a branch onto her eye’s corner, glowing like a demonic weapon, deadly.

Ye Fuguang shuffled to her bedside, whispering in defense, “…I didn’t.”

Her response was Prince Qi’s firm command: “Show your hand.”

Ye Fuguang jumped, thinking that just taking a few steps was defying her and warranted punishment. Trembling, she extended her hand by her side, nervously watching, wondering if she was about to get her palm struck.

Prince Qi’s mansion had overly strict rules!

As she tried to look away for some household law, Shen Jinglan said, “The other one.”

“…?”

Ye Fuguang reflexively showed the hand hidden behind her back. Opening her palm, she saw dried bl00d in the creases and belatedly recalled being pricked by the plum branch.

Shen Jinglan slowly placed her hand on Ye Fuguang’s wrist, staring at the dark red, her voice softening: “Is this how you serve your master?”

Though she didn’t glance at them, Yinping, Quhua, Jixiang, and Ruyi all knelt uniformly, even bowing, “Prince, forgive us!”

They didn’t offer a single excuse.

Completely unlike their usual lively selves around her.

Ye Fuguang froze, reflexively pulling her hand, but couldn’t break free. Though Shen Jinglan only used three fingers on her wrist, her skin pale from lack of sun, it pressed painfully on her bones.

In this small struggle, Yu Qing calmly ordered someone to take them away to relearn manners. Ye Fuguang, startled, quickly said, “It-it was me, I accidentally hurt myself just now. They didn’t see.”

From this angle, she could see the person on the bed’s long, dark lashes, so thick they shaded her eye’s corner, like raven feathers extending her eyeliner.

By rights, Ye Fuguang, looking down, should have had the upper hand, but she now realized:

In extreme conditions, she could learn to play the humble role.

She didn’t dare treat Shen Jinglan as a mommy—this was an ancestor to be revered!

As if hearing her thoughts, Shen Jinglan lifted her gaze, her lips curving, and suddenly said:

“Don’t be afraid.”

“!”

Ye Fuguang thought she was done for, staring blankly, her heart racing faster.

Shen Jinglan, unintentionally feeling her pulse, sensed the lively heartbeat under her delicate skin, thumping vigorously. She softly ordered, “Medicine.”

As a servant went to fetch salve, she said to Ye Fuguang, “Don’t be nervous. This Prince has unreasonable love for you, loyal until death. How could I bear to hurt you?”

Ye Fuguang: “…”

Aaaah, stop reciting, please!

Just kill her!

Right now!

She really didn’t want to live!