After Becoming the Cannon Fodder Live-in Spouse A (GL) - Chapter 35: The Thirty-Fifth Day

Chapter 35: The Thirty-Fifth Day

Ye Fuguang raised her head and glanced at that flower tower soft beauty who smiled sweetly and charmingly, then looked at the legitimate wife Shen Jinglan sitting right beside her, feeling that she herself seemed like that kind of innocent victim at work who had been hit with some fabricated scandal of yellow rumors and found it very hard to defend herself.

She shook her head. “I do not know her.”

“I do not know her?”

Shen Jinglan indifferently raised her hand to prop up her head, showing no particular reaction to her answer. When Ye Fuguang noticed the atmosphere growing stiff and instinctively wanted to turn her head to see why the wonton stall owner had not yet brought the meal to this table, she heard Shen Jinglan’s indifferent tone rise unhurriedly again.

“If you do not know her, then how did she get your tooth mark tattoo on her arm?”

That unique red, grain by grain, with vivid color—

It was absolutely impossible to leave such a beautiful scar just by biting hard; one had to bite a slight mark first and then embed beautiful pigment into the skin to create such a tooth print that was艳 yet not vulgar.

Ye Fuguang: “!”

She widened her eyes, not expecting that in this world where the plot mainly featured meat scenes, even a cannon fodder like herself could randomly unlock such an erotic side quest. Moreover, even though she had denied any relationship with this Tang’er now, the original host might have left affections in other places in Yong’an. If another person jumped out later with an even more outrageous love token, she really would not be able to clear her name even if she jumped into the Yellow River.

The little princess consort parted her lips, wanting to explain something, but found it truly difficult to start.

What should she say?

I am just an innocent transmigrator; I have no relation to the original host, so those romantic debts have nothing to do with me?

…

Those thoughts tumbled for a long time, but Ye Fuguang felt that she and Shen Jinglan had not yet reached that stage, so she could only shake her head like a dead scumbag who had not yet been confronted with ironclad evidence and insisted on being stubborn to the end. “I do not know.”

Shen Jinglan looked at her expressionlessly.

After a moment, she seemed to considerately offer a suggestion. “Oh? Then did I see wrong? How about we go up and ask?”

And the little princess consort’s response was as she expected. “No, do not.”

She pitifully played the victim. “I have not yet had breakfast, wife lord.”

As soon as the words fell—

The owner finally came to the rescue gracefully, as if worried that the surrounding onlookers whose eyes all said “fight” might really not be able to hold back and stir up trouble, causing these nobles at her table to wreck her small business. She hurriedly said to Ye Fuguang, who appeared kinder in expression.

“It is here, it is here! Fresh small wontons!”

Ye Fuguang thanked the owner, raised her hand to take the chopstick holder on the table. Her expression showed little guilt and instead held an indescribable grievance. When she discovered that the person upstairs had left but the window remained open, allowing the scent of fragrant powder to drift out and mix with those flower petal traces that seemed specially treated for lasting fragrance and had fallen on her earlier, it made even the aroma of the small wontons change tone.

Breakfast went from full of eager anticipation earlier to tasteless now as it entered her mouth.

Fortunately, she had been truly hungry for a long time, so she gulped down the bowl of wontons. Then she looked at Shen Jinglan, who had hardly touched her chopsticks, and asked, “Do you not like it? Then shall we return to the mansion?”

Returning to the mansion meant they would not run into these warbling warblers and swallows anymore and could pretend they did not exist?

Shen Jinglan thought so and nodded indifferently, rising first to head toward the carriage.

–

Half a shichen later.

Yaoguang Pavilion.

Yu Qing had heard the story of the prince and the side consort from early morning court from Quhua. After pondering for a moment, she had someone bring out the previous letters investigating Ye Fuguang. She silently knocked on the door of Yaoguang Pavilion and, after obtaining Shen Jinglan’s permission, entered and placed them on her desk.

Inside, there were not only the absurd things Ye Fuguang had done in Jiangning in the past but also, after following Ye Rong to Yong’an, she had visited every flower house everywhere and even fixedly left a解语 flower in each place, giving every Dikun the illusion of “you are my only true love, only when the mountains have no edges and heaven and earth unite will I dare to part from you.”

Perhaps because her face was too deceptive and too pure and kind, from Jiangning to Yong’an, many pitiful women in the flower houses had fallen completely for her and truly believed that the person she loved was only herself.

Even, she was so different from other Qianyuan—

Each time she gave money but would not do anything ferocious; she only ordered a tune and let them serve her in drinking and eating dishes. At most, as seen today, she would bite an arm and ask them how the pain compared to being marked with dew print by Qianyuan. When they held back tears and smiled to say it did not hurt, she would then seemingly jokingly add a line.

“If it does not hurt, then keep it forever. Next time I come, if this tooth print is gone, I will be angry.”

In fact, those women did not want to keep any guest’s mark on their bodies.

But compared to being repeatedly marked with dew prints, marriage prints, and the like by one guest, causing them endless pain and even receiving no pity in rough treatment, sacrificing for some perverted guests and using such a small trace to retain a generous and gentle patron was not a loss.

Shen Jinglan looked at one detailed story after another unfolding before her. If this were the romantic history of some disciple from Yong’an or a great clan in Datong, she estimated she would not even bother to blink and would just flip past them.

But it was precisely the person in this story named Ye Fuguang.

It was that Ye Fuguang who had longed for her to wake during her illness, made many efforts for her, and after she awoke, had pampered and obeyed her in every way without ever going against her, so obedient that it always made her feel tender.

The beautiful Qi prince sat by the window of Yaoguang Pavilion, letting the light from outside fall in and spread a shallow gold on the desk. And in that gold, the last letter was recorded.

Inside were her complaints to a little girl in the west city of Yong’an.

“Dikun is Dikun; how can they take on those big matters?”

“In my view, that Qi prince is just too fond of showing off, which is why she wages war in such a way that exhausts the people and wastes resources. I hate most this kind of noble who causes trouble for others without knowing it. It is only because her family background is too good that she can be so willful. If I had such a family background, I would not disgrace myself like her.”

…

Shen Jinglan felt that the words before her eyes had become somewhat blurry again.

It was not due to emotional agitation or other reasons. She put down the letter in her hand and thought very calmly that it seemed her strange ailment had acted up again.

Did planting a dew print only last for three days?

She thought expressionlessly, put down these letters, sat in Yaoguang Pavilion, and watched the golden light on the desk gradually dim, as if the sky was about to darken with twilight gathering and the light disappearing bit by bit in her eyes.

And Yu Qing still waited by her desk, as if guarding for some order from her.

However, Shen Jinglan would not issue any instructions because the current her still needed Ye Fuguang’s letter fragrance to suppress this strange illness for herself. So she was silent for a moment and then said, “Is there more?”

“Reporting to the prince, there is none.”

“Then go down.”

“Yes.”

And Shen Jinglan sat there for a while, beginning to think whether the usual Ye Fuguang who cried more than a Dikun in front of her and was as soft as a puddle of water, or this one who coaxed flower house women effortlessly outside but was actually greedy, useless, and foolish, which one was the real one?

She had not yet figured out the answer when she heard voices outside Yaoguang Pavilion.

It was the maid by her side consort’s side; it should be the talkative Ruyi, who was reporting something to Yu Qing but was stopped and not allowed to enter to disturb. However, the maid’s tone was very anxious.

“What is the matter?” she asked.

Not long after, Yu Qing led the person in, and the two sets of footsteps stopped before her. Then Ruyi’s voice rang out. “Prince, the princess consort just got drunk in Plum Garden and cried and made a fuss very fiercely, nearly injuring herself… May I ask if the prince can go and see?”

This seemed very much like the tricks played by those secluded women in high-door great households to attract the family head’s attention and regain favor.

–

In fact.

Ye Fuguang had only returned to Plum Garden feeling momentarily depressed for a while. Ruyi did not know about the arguments they had on their outing and saw her sullen and unhappy, thinking she was displeased at being woken too early and stuffed into the prince’s carriage.

Thinking of the green plum wine she had ordered in Taiqing Tower earlier and assuming she liked that taste, Ruyi immediately mentioned that the mansion’s wine cellar had plenty of good wine, especially the pear blossom brew made with pear flowers from early last year, which could be drunk just right this year, and asked if she wanted some?

Ye Fuguang agreed without hesitation.

This bit of ancient wine, hmph, might not even have a higher alcohol content than the wine-brewed pills she had eaten in the other world.

However, the little waste had forgotten—

When she transmigrated, she changed bodies, so the little waste who would not be knocked down by this bit of alcohol in the original world was now made dizzy by a few cups of sweet pear blossom brew here.

“Too, too dizzy…”

When Ruyi wanted to help her into the room, she waved her hand vigorously, sat dazedly on the threshold of Plum Garden, and said, “This class is too hard to attend; I have to go back to study.”

Jixiang also tried to come over to help, but the drunken princess consort was harder to hold down than a New Year’s pig; she would not let them support her and instead circled in the garden herself, nearly getting her face scratched by the branches in the full garden.

So they had to let Jixiang calmly and steadily “hmm hmm” to coax her while Ruyi hurried to invite Shen Jinglan.

…

Not long after.

That bright and beautiful figure appeared at the entrance of Plum Garden, and the servants in the courtyard all knelt down in a clatter.

Only Ye Fuguang was oblivious, hugging that bowl and dish, staring blankly in front of a plum blossom tree, which suddenly reminded Shen Jinglan that on the day she had just woken up, she had stood by the bed just like this, silent even when scratched, as if quite able to endure grievances.

However, the intelligence showed that she had once, when visiting a flower house and lightly bumped by a clumsy errand boy carrying a tray, thrown down a bag of silver, called the flower house madam, and had that shortsighted errand boy whipped harshly until she watched him beaten until his skin split and flesh bloomed before she would relent.

But the one before her eyes, on the day she set the rules, would cry and beg mercy for Jixiang and Ruyi.

Shen Jinglan raised her hand to press her head. Earlier, from afar, she did not know if the little waste had injured her letter gland again. That faint cold intent reflexively followed the direction where she was, making her vaguely able to see a bit of light again.

And the closer she got to this person, the clearer she could see.

She could not leave this floating light.

This was very ironic.

Her expression was indifferent as she had the people around withdraw and walked toward that figure still emitting a sharp letter fragrance in the courtyard. When she got close, the lonely little one seemed to only then notice her, raised her head to look at her once, then lowered her head as if nothing had happened.

After a while, she suddenly turned her head. “Eh? It is you.”

Shen Jinglan narrowed her eyes. “It is me.”

Ye Fuguang immediately showed a smile, hugged that bowl and dish, and rubbed the edge. “That is great. Boss, I want to resign! I quit naked!”

“……?”

As the beauty before her developed a trace of doubt from her words, Ye Fuguang sighed earnestly. “I never told you before, but actually I have not even graduated; my thesis first draft did not pass either. Look, we have not even signed the three-party agreement, so no formal employment relationship is established. How about you let me go back?”

She seemed to be seriously persuading her. “You were sick before, very serious, but fortunately you are awake now. No matter what difficulties you encounter, with your ability, you can surely turn misfortune into fortune—”

Shen Jinglan listened to the many obscure terms in her words and interrupted expressionlessly. “Where do you want to go back to? Ye mansion? Jiangning?”

The person before her stood under the plum blossom tree, her cheeks and neck flushed with the intent of alcohol, like a plum with rouge red marks.

Then this plum mysteriously shook her head at her and uttered a string of bird language. “Nonono, I go back to school.”

“You like to go to the academy?” Qi prince raised an eyebrow, thinking that the materials did show she extremely hated studying in her early years, always refused to follow Ye Rong’s arrangements, and after angering away several tutors, even when pressed by the household servants to go to the academy, she slacked off every day, arriving late and leaving early.

In short, she looked like rotten mud that could not be helped up the wall.

Then the Ye Fuguang before her nodded seriously. “Knowledge changes destiny.”

After a pause, she carried the sweet wine scent of that pear blossom brew, leaned close to Shen Jinglan, and sighed. “No way around it; after all, I have no father and no mother. After entering society later, I cannot rely on father or resources, so I can only rely on myself. Thus, I must study hard. You understand, right?”

“…”

It was hard to understand.

Shen Jinglan thought that cursing Ye Rong was one thing, but Jiang Yu had always doted on and loved her dearly from childhood and was the only one in the Ye family who could control her. That letter wrote that after Jiang Yu’s death, this reckless Ye Fuguang had properly observed filial piety for her mother.

The many disputes with Ye Rong afterward all arose because of the dowry property left by her mother.

Like a little beast that lost its mother beast in the wild and wailed helplessly, not knowing what to do.

Thinking of this, a trace of smile appeared in her eyes again, thinking that actually cursing her father like this would not do either, because the Great Dynasty valued ethics most, with ruler to ruler, subject to subject, father to father, son to son. If others knew of such thoughts, even if she had not entered the Qi prince mansion as a son-in-law back then, this little waste would have no way to walk the official path.

Such a reason for impeachment was enough to take her life.

–

The two talked like chickens to ducks, but the atmosphere was still harmonious.

It could be said to have the flavor of mutual respect after the emperor’s finger marriage.

After chatting for a while, Ye Fuguang regarded the boss before her as a confidant and said to her with beaming smiles. “I knew helping you back then was right. You are really understanding and considerate, nothing like what those people outside make up. The great general indeed has a broad mind.”

Being able to patiently chat with an employee who wanted to resign made her a good boss!

With her speaking like this, Shen Jinglan recalled the content of that letter and casually mentioned, “Make up? What kind counts as making up? For example, if you were me, born in the Shen family, you should do better than me?”

Ye Fuguang’s puppy eyes immediately filled with terror.

She waved her hands frantically.

“No no no I cannot; I cannot even do armchair strategizing!”

“Then what do you want to do?”

The little waste was quiet for a while.

Perhaps because the drunkenness on her head was truly severe, as she thought and thought, she forgot the premise and only remembered that she was born in the Shen family. So she looked at Shen Jinglan’s beautiful face that was dazzling to the eyes, and after a long while, she mumbled in that sweet wine-scented tone:

“… Ah Lan sister?”