After Becoming the Cannon Fodder Live-in Spouse A (GL) - Chapter 36: The Thirty-Sixth Day

Chapter 36: The Thirty-Sixth Day

Ye Fuguang actually did not feel that she was drunk, because she still recognized who had come to find her.

Even when Shen Jinglan spoke to her, she also felt that her responses were all very good and very sincere, especially the last question: if she had been born into the Shen family, what kind of appearance would she have?

When she had transmigrated, this book had not yet been fully updated. The male protagonist Shen Jingming only occasionally recalled past matters when he suffered slight defeats on the battlefield, such as his younger sister who was blue out of blue and better than blue, who was invincible in her attainments in military strategy, or his eldest brother who was decisive in killing.

It also included the Late Emperor—

When he truly stood in that supreme position, without a single family member who could assist him, he began to reminisce about the past.

However, even those past events were merely glimpses in countless passages of the narrative, insufficient to help Ye Fuguang outline the grand scene of the Yan King’s fief in the north in former times. She could only imagine based on the current status of Shen Jingming or Shen Jinglan, feeling that it should have been quite good.

In chaotic times, one had soldiers; in prosperous times, one held power.§

The Shen family was the noblest surname in this world. If she could be born into their family, with parents and elder brothers to protect her, and with a sister as formidable as Shen Jinglan, she only needed to lie down to bask in the light of their power and glory. That would certainly be much better than her eating from a hundred families, applying for scholarships and financial aid, and then working holiday jobs to earn living expenses?

After Ye Fuguang called out “Sister Alan,” she tilted her head and said no more, feeling that she had already answered the questions given by the boss.

She could not quite discern Shen Jinglan’s expression, so after being well-behaved, she very politely and courteously asked, “Then can I go home?”

……

Shen Jinglan came back to her senses from that soft “sister” she had just called.

She looked at the pitiful little thing before her, who seemed like a small dog already prepared to bid her farewell. For some reason, she could not match the information provided by Yu Qing with the person in front of her. After a long silence, she asked again, “Where exactly do you want to go?”

But this time, without waiting for Ye Fuguang to answer, Shen Jinglan continued on her own, “No matter if it is the Ye mansion, Jiangning, or the academy, this king can send you there—”

“However, the prince’s mansion is your home.”

No matter where she wanted to go, as long as Ye Fuguang remained her side consort, she would ultimately have to return here.

The little dog thought seriously for a moment and seemed very eager to refute this topic, but Shen Jinglan did not let her speak further, because Prince Qi suddenly did not want to hear more of her drunken words. If any happened to match the contents of the letter, she would have to punish this little side consort.

The little girl did not seem like someone who could abide by any rules of the prince’s mansion either.

So it was best to stop here.

Shen Jinglan thought that as long as she could be obedient and not cause trouble or do anything to anger her during her time as side consort, she would find a way to let Ye Fuguang return to the place she wanted to go after she found a solution to this strange illness in the future.

However, not now.

Thus, she spoke to stop the little side consort’s words. “Enough, you are drunk. Go back to your room and rest.”

Ye Fuguang seemed very eager to protest, but Shen Jinglan’s gaze was somewhat fierce, causing her to slowly recall the other’s unquestionable authority in this mansion. Thus, she shrank her neck and reverted to that appearance of a working-class little wife. “Oh.”

She turned around and did not remember to put down the cup in her arms. As a result, before she had taken a step out, Shen Jinglan suddenly lifted her hand and hooked the clothing at the back of her collar.

She wanted to see what exactly was going on with this child’s pheromone gland, why it had just released so much pheromone scent, even enough to reach Qingfrost Courtyard and seek her out in Yaoguang Pavilion, where the dew mark had been planted.

Then she saw a bright red patch on the snow-white skin at the back of Ye Fuguang’s neck, with several small needle puncture wounds still remaining on it.

“What is this?” Was this what Ruyi had meant when she said she had nearly injured herself?

The little girl, whose collar was tugged and who could not breathe easily, did not struggle. She only moved her neck slightly. “I asked Ye Yuge. She prescribed a formula for me, along with acupuncture points that need treatment every two days. This way, it seems it can heal properly and also produce pheromone scent—”

Her drunken eyes were wet and glistening. She had just stood in the garden under the bright daylight for half a day, and when answering Shen Jinglan’s questions, she had looked at her eyes with utmost sincerity, only speaking slowly and sluggishly, as if needing to think through it, thus forgetting to blink. As a result, her eyes brimmed with physiological tears.

The little dog, not permitted to break free from her restraints and release her freedom, did not fuss or cry. She obediently reverted to her previous appearance and stared at her as she answered, “The wife master needs this.”

–

“……”

For a moment, the focused gaze that Ye Fuguang directed at her, combined with the hot alcoholic breath exhaled at close range, almost made Shen Jinglan think that the drunk one was herself.

But she was the type who could hardly get drunk even on the burning knife spirits of the desert. How could she possibly be felled by this soft and sweet pear blossom brew?

It was just that.

She was once again drawn into the vortex of information from earlier, thinking that the Ye family had also sought doctors for this little Qianyuan in the past, attempting to treat her congenital deficiency, but those doctors had ultimately all been beaten and thrown out by her orders. Even after Ye Rong entered the Imperial Medical Bureau later, she had not seen her receive any further treatment for this pheromone gland.

Shen Jinglan had thought that her illness was too difficult to cure.

Yet it turned out that it was merely… in the past, she had refused treatment.

Why now, for her sake?

In the past, when others said that a prodigal son’s return was worth gold, Shen Jinglan had scoffed at it. But now, standing before her was such a Qianyuan who indulged in wine and women, whose sincerity could be broken into many pieces, who was full of flowery words, glib-tongued, beautiful on the outside but rotten within. Every imaginable term for poor character could be applied to her.

Then, such a scummy and wicked fellow, like reforming and becoming virtuous, folded away her formerly rampant wings, shrank within her prince’s mansion, and did everything to convey one message: she was the most special.

Prince Qi was different from those green leaves in the flower groves of the past. She was the person for whom Ye Fuguang was willing to change and cherish in her treatment. She was willing to humble herself for Prince Qi and treat this unspeakable affliction for her.

It turned out that a prodigal’s true heart was not precious—

What was precious was the uniqueness she offered, making the recipient feel that she herself was the most special, the one most worth treating well.

Shen Jinglan thought that it was no wonder those people in the flower houses were willing to wait for her, because her little side consort truly had quite the knack.

She did not wish to sink further into the vortex woven by Ye Fuguang, so she calmly and restrainedly lowered her eyelids and said, “What exactly do you want to obtain from this king?”

They should return to the domain she was most adept at.

Whatever Ye Fuguang wanted, she would give it, and then this little Qianyuan would exchange it for pheromone scent. That would suffice.

……

Ye Fuguang was truly quite dizzy.

She felt that she could hardly stand steady, but Shen Jinglan seemed to have an endless stream of questions. Her eyes could barely stay open, yet she still had to cope with the boss’s interrogation.

Thus, she barely managed to hear clearly.

What exactly did she want?

Of course, she wanted to live well. In her previous life, she had been the type with such poor transmigration luck, yet she had still striven so hard with her own abilities to get into a decent university. Although the major was somewhat unsatisfactory, and because she was busy with work, her GPA was not great, leading to her inability to switch majors, at least there had been a future and prospects.

But then, for some inexplicable reason, she had transmigrated to this unfamiliar world, becoming a fence-sitting cannon fodder who had to watch the expressions of the male and female protagonists, Prince Qi’s expression, and even Ye Yuge’s expression every day just to barely preserve her little life and these happy days where she could eat more than ten dishes in one meal.

Could this precarious but joyful life last a bit longer for her?

Or, simply give her a quick end and send her back to her original world?

Ye Fuguang looked at the cold beauty before her, who was so beautiful it was dazzling, and dazedly thought for a long time. She felt that with Shen Jinglan’s capabilities, achieving the first option for her would still be faster—

Thus, in the fragrant daylight falling in the Plum Garden during spring, she earnestly answered:

“You live on.”

You just live on.

As long as you continue to live in defiance of the plot, I can also live well, looking forward to every sumptuous feast in the prince’s mansion, looking forward to the genuine gold and silver monthly stipend half a year from now, looking forward to seeing more antique treasures that she could only encounter in books.

She feared that her mumbled voice and her current dizzy and swollen-headed state would make Shen Jinglan unable to hear her words clearly. Without blinking, she looked toward the other and repeated her request once more:

“I want you to live on, Your Highness. All right?”

–

What treasonous words.

Shen Jinglan thought that she was the first-rank imperial prince under one person and above ten thousand others in the Great Dynasty, with honors heaped upon her.

Even though Yancheng had fallen in defeat, causing the Great Dynasty to cede sixteen cities and suffer the greatest humiliation since the founding of the nation, her imperial brother had not even been willing to impose any substantial punishment on her. Instead, he had chosen to severely penalize the military supplies, grain and fodder押韵, as well as the three departments and the transport commissioners of several northern prefectures and counties.

It even included punishing the people in her army.

But solely excluding her.

The imperial grace was vast. Who knew how many politicians, upon returning to their mansions, gnashed their teeth at her, wishing they could transform their grief and indignation into strength and impeach her with a hundred or eighty memorials.

During the court dismissal today, Shen Jinglan had also learned from Duke Yong that when the Great Dynasty had signed the alliance with Da Zhi previously, she had still been in a coma. The Hanlin Academy had then incited scholars from various places to enter Yong’an, beat the drum of complaints, and petition the emperor on the palace path of the imperial city to severely punish Prince Qi.

Now, half a year had passed since the Battle of Yancheng. That battle had become an unspeakable wound for the entire Great Dynasty, yet she still stood here. In that Chenji Hall, who could see that the ground beneath her feet was already thin ice, ready to plunge her into an abyss at any moment?

Or perhaps, they only feared that she would not fall fast enough.

Only Ye Fuguang seemed to stand by her side, as if witnessing every step of her crawl back from the gates of hell, even making such a meticulous request to her, as if truly afraid that in the next moment, the next day, she would once again fall into deep slumber and become that walking corpse subject to slaughter.

…Why her of all people?

Why was it Ye Fuguang who said this to her?

Shen Jinglan stood under that slanting clear shadow, also bathed in that dancing golden light. Her dark phoenix eyes were deep as she continuously watched the back of the little princess consort as she left, supported by the maidservant, and returned to her room.

Actually, she should leave.

Because the pheromone scent from earlier was already sufficient to sustain her light for a while longer. Even if it was feeble, Shen Jinglan had never been so controlled by others. Her pride would not allow her to give one more glance to such a morally corrupt Qianyuan who dallied with flowers and grass, and who even slandered and humiliated her outside.

Yet it was as if roots had grown from her feet.

Also rooting into the soil of the Plum Garden, which had just been watered and was still soft and loose.

As if she wanted to transform here into a camellia tree that could gaze at the sky, waiting for those flakes of snow to fall upon her, wetting every one of her petals and green leaves.

She closed her eyes, steadied her breathing, treated the rebellious pheromone scent as a lingering effect of the previous dew mark planting, and only then turned away with an expressionless face.