After Becoming the Cannon Fodder Live-in Spouse A (GL) - Chapter 38: The Thirty-Eighth Day

Chapter 38: The Thirty-Eighth Day

Ye Fuguang did not return to the prince’s mansion until the hour of Hai that day.

Early the next morning, she skipped even breakfast and happily took her maid out again. For several days in a row, she was like a fledgling just leaving the nest, full of yearning for the outside world. Not only did she tour the famous flowing banquets of Yong’an City with Xu Leyao, but she also earned the title of “Poetry Recitation Expert” among the scholars.

Because she always came up with fresh verses that no one had heard before, and each one was clear and easy to recite, memorable and pleasant to the ear. Yet she never admitted that any of them were her own creations. She attributed them either to “Li Bai and Du Fu” or to “Su Shi and Tao Yuanming.” Many students talked about this Ye Ying in private, saying she was most suited to write those court-taboo storybooks. The officials wanted to arrest people but could not catch her in that layered turtle shell—

When Xu Leyao repeated this passage to her, Ye Fuguang was squeezing into a small alley with her, waiting for a household to sell braised dishes to the workers coming and going in Yong’an City. Because it was a small business, the prices were extremely cheap, but the ingredients inside—a pig’s ear, half a slab of beef, and so on—were used very generously. So occasionally, literati from nearby families with decent circumstances would send their book boys here to buy some braised dishes to take back.

But there were absolutely no wealthy young masters and misses like the two of them, who had removed their rings, hairpins, and jewelry, dressed in plain colors, and come just for a bite to eat.

Ye Fuguang was originally pondering whether to give the boss a negligible little suggestion, such as adding some chicken feet, duck wings, and offal to the big pot of braised dishes. After hearing Xu Leyao’s words, her expression became strange:

“…Great Master Lu Xun is actually me?”

What virtue and ability did she have?

Xu Leyao held a blank folding fan and casually fanned away some of the heat drifting from the braised dish pot. But that domineering aroma did not dissipate with it; instead, it enveloped both of them in the same scent. She focused her gaze on Ye Fuguang and guessed in her heart that the other should be a Zhongjun.

Because she did not smell the scent belonging to Ye Fuguang.

Moreover, generally, the Qianyuan of wealthy families, in order to emphasize their difference from the crowd, would apply a scent similar to their own faith fragrance. This would fill their robes, handkerchiefs, and hair with that aroma, so that even a Zhongjun who could not smell the faith fragrance could guess the other’s gender from the spice scent.

Thinking this way, she spoke up: “Who is Lu Xun?”

Before Ye Fuguang could answer, this future Prime Minister Xu had already smoothly continued, “Ah, another great literatus who has long passed away.”

…

Ye Fuguang nodded.

Just then, Ruyi brought up the portion of braised noodle dish she had ordered. The thinly sliced and finely cut beef and the translucent pig’s ears were arranged on handmade noodles, garnished with chopped cilantro, fried peanuts, and ginger and garlic drizzled with hot oil. The aroma made one’s scalp tingle.

She casually reached for the chopsticks on the table, but Ruyi habitually pressed down her sleeve and then took out a pair of wooden chopsticks she had brought from the prince’s mansion for her. Xu Leyao saw this and laughed, “Yo, I thought your maid would at least bring you a pair of ivory ones no matter what.”

“…”

Ye Fuguang’s face turned somewhat red.

She felt as if she were on a school outing with classmates, where everyone brought their own snacks, but her bag was full of fruits that her parents thought were healthy, and she even had a thermos cup with a sticker hanging around her neck.

She wanted to go out and play on her own, but Ruyi and the others absolutely disagreed. Because Ye Fuguang’s appearance, softer than a Dikun and with delicate skin and tender flesh, utterly without the strength to truss a chicken, had ingrained itself in the heart of everyone in the mansion. Coupled with her scandalous past history, and the fact that Prince Qi had not done anything to her but had once punished the mansion’s most loyal chief steward for her sake, who would dare let her meet with any mishap?

So she nonchalantly lowered her head to eat the noodles, then casually changed the topic, mentioning the idea of adding some feet and wings to this braise, which could also serve as snacks to gnaw on in daily life. Xu Leyao cooperatively thought for a moment and felt that this idea was good.

Then, when settling the bill, the boss waived the charge for their table—

Xu Miss even said to this little boss in return, “In half a month, I’ll come to check the account book. If the business from the new idea is good, I’ll come to take my share.”

Exactly.

Just now, while Ye Fuguang was burying her head in eating the noodles, she had already relied on her clever business mind and her skill at speaking to almost directly invest in this small business with just one idea.

Ye Fuguang was accustomed to it. After all, she was the future able minister who would manage a financially strained great treasury, earn money for the male lead, and raise military funds. Now, treating a cannon fodder like her to food and drink and even earning pocket money was simply too normal.

Recently, she did not need to ask Yu Qing for advance silver when going out; she could even slightly replenish her own money pouch. Ye Fuguang was simply extremely happy.

Then she willingly spoke up to ask, “Where are we going next, Sister Xu?”

Xu Leyao closed her folding fan, and her already soft voice made her ears somewhat hot.

Just which family’s good child was this Ye Ying?

It would be good if she were really her little sister.

–

However, after the two of them came out of Fly Alley, they still could not successfully proceed to the next destination. Shen Liu suddenly appeared, said something to Ruyi, and then waited at a distance in the alley mouth with his knife.

Ye Fuguang had a bad premonition, and sure enough, she heard Ruyi lean close to her ear and whisper very softly in relay, “The prince is running horses today at the manor outside Yong’an City, very close to the west gate. He wants to have the princess consort picked up to go there now.”

Previously, when Ye Fuguang was interacting with Xu Leyao, she had not used her true identity. Ruyi was very sensible and knew she did not want to reveal too much information, so recently, many things related to Prince Qi’s mansion were said to her in very low voices at her ear.

Before she could find an excuse, she heard Xu Leyao teasingly ask, “What’s this, your family head came to catch you?”

Xu Leyao could completely see that her new friend here was doted on and spoiled at home. Clearly, the people around her had all received proper training, yet her various behaviors and ideas were extremely unconventional. That contrast made her like a treasure chest full of secrets.

Xu Leyao really wanted to explore what else was in this treasure chest.

Ye Fuguang shook her head, “No…”

She answered vaguely, “But there is something at home; I need to go out of the city for a trip. I’m afraid I cannot accompany Sister Xu anymore today. Just right, tomorrow is the metropolitan examination. Then I will go to the examination hall to see you off.”

Xu Leyao did not get an answer but was not anxious; she gladly agreed, “Alright.”

So Ye Fuguang parted from her at the alley mouth. When following Ruyi toward the west gate, it took a good while before she saw the carriage, and she curiously asked, “Did the prince say what he wanted me

to do?”

Ruyi shook her head.

But she had an expression that seemed hesitant to speak.

Because in the recent evenings, although Shen Jinglan had not rested in Plum Garden, when Ye Fuguang returned to drink her medicine and had Jixiang help her insert needles near the faith gland to activate the acupuncture points, the guarding Ruyi could always see that shadow standing outside Plum Garden.

It was precisely Shen Jinglan.

She did not know what exactly the princess consort had said to the prince after drinking wine that day; she only felt that the atmosphere between these two was somewhat strange.

For Ye Fuguang’s future, she thought about it and still advised, “In any case, princess consort, just be like before.”

…

When arriving at the entrance of that manor, Ye Fuguang nearly shook her brains loose inside the carriage. If she had known the road out of Yong’an City was so bumpy, she would not have chosen to jostle in a carriage with such poor shock absorption even if she had to walk on foot.

Outside, there were thunderous hoofbeats ringing out, mixed with the stern whistling of sharp arrows slicing through the long sky.

Ye Fuguang slid down onto the wooden floor of the carriage compartment. Because she had not yet recovered from that bout of jolting, her expression was still dazed and bewildered until a burst of hoofbeats stopped beside the carriage. Someone pulled open the carriage curtain for her, and she saw Shen Jinglan sitting on a pitch-black tall horse, her expression cold, yet contrasting with the bright red robe on her body, like a god descending to the world.

Upon noticing that her face was deathly pale—not that she did not want to get down on her own, but rather that she had no strength—Shen Jinglan’s expression softened somewhat, and she extended one hand to her.

The little princess consort gripped the carriage bench with one hand and clasped her palm with the other, calling out “Prince,” but before she could react, she was pulled by her from near the carriage shaft onto that equally tall horse.

The sudden added weight made the black horse unhappy; it shook its head and snorted loudly.

Shen Jinglan held the reins with her right hand and pressed Ye Fuguang’s waist with it, lightly patting the horse’s neck with her left hand. “Behave yourself. You’ve been running wild outside lately; you don’t even plan to recognize this prince anymore?”

Sitting on the hard saddle, the little princess consort, who felt her buttocks were suffering a bit, looked up at her from within her embrace. Her gaze was subtly thinking, no way, no way, Shen Jinglan was not scolding her under the guise of addressing the horse, was she?

She quickly reflected.

Wondering if she had offended the other recently. The answer was no.

So when the black horse settled down, because she was suddenly sitting in such a high place without a seatbelt and sitting very unsteadily, Ye Fuguang could only tightly hug Shen Jinglan’s waist. Her arms trembled lightly from tension without her realizing it. “I… this concubine does not know how to ride a horse, Prince. P-put, put this concubine down, alright?”

She was always very skilled at showing weakness.

She was like this in front of Shen Jinglan, and also like this in front of that little Qianyuan from the Minister of Rites’ household.

She just did not know if she used this routine in front of those sisters and little sisters in her flower houses.

Shen Jinglan lowered her gaze and looked at her for a while but did not answer her words. She only said: “Hold tight.”

Ye Fuguang: “?”

–

On the open woodland path, the black horse ran freely and exhilaratingly for a stretch. Clearly, its master had not given it any command, but halfway through, it seemed to sense something and proactively slowed its pace. Finally, when passing a small lake, it had become a leisurely trot.

And on its back—

The woman dressed in the everyday attire of a prince was looking at the little rabbit shivering from crying in her arms.

In fact, she had been holding Shen Jinglan the whole time, and her grip had not slackened. It was just that this lightning-fast ride facing forward with no safety measures at all had frightened her. Ye Fuguang suddenly felt like an innocent passerby whom the amusement park ticket seller had expressionlessly strapped onto the super giant swing hammer. In one moment, she felt like a debtor who had not repaid a high-interest loan and was about to be hung upside down from the top of a dilapidated construction site building.

In short, it was extremely miserable.

She did not even know when the sturdy black horse beneath her crotch had stopped; she cried silently and very sadly.

Shen Jinglan looked at her tear-streaked crying face for a while but inexplicably hooked her lips. She did not know how this Qianyuan had such courage. Where had she gotten the boldness in the past to hook up with multiple partners? Not one of those Dikun whom she had deceived into giving their hearts had come out to deal with her?

She knowingly asked, lifting the chin of the entire person shrunk in her arms. “Why are you crying?”

She said, “These days you like running outside the mansion so much. This prince thought you loved freedom a lot. Today, there happens to be leisure, so this prince brought you out to play, and you cry like this. Those who do not know would think this prince is bullying you.”

Ye Fuguang opened her eyes; tears welled in her eyelashes, making her vision blurry. She could not see Shen Jinglan’s expression clearly but instinctively felt that the other should be angry.

Angry about what?

It could not be that she blamed her for going out to play without taking her, right?

She could not find the reason but did not want to stay on this wild horse anymore. Without even wiping her tears, she used her miserable crying cat face to answer the other’s words. “P-Prince… is… is bullying me.”

Halfway through, because her nose was stuffy and she could not catch her breath, she choked herself and then started hiccuping.

It was also at this moment that Shen Si and Shen Liu had not followed up, and the prince’s mansion subordinates had long since tactfully avoided when the carriage arrived. At this moment, in the countryside, aside from the wind and trees, no one passed by. Otherwise, everyone would think that Prince Qi had done something to this cute little princess consort on horseback.

…

Perhaps because those from the military, whether willingly or not, always carried some imprint of the ranks on them, the former Shen family army’s most upright and unsmiling general now, facing her side consort, had even self-taught the skill of bullying people.

Hearing Ye Fuguang’s words, the smile at Shen Jinglan’s lips grew even more. “Oh?”

She used fingertips with some thin calluses to repeatedly touch the soft skin of the other’s jaw.

Then she asked, “How is this prince bullying you?”

Ye Fuguang had just thought to answer when her lips were blocked.

The lips soaked with tears were very soft and carried a bit of bitter saltiness. But this taste was all too familiar to Shen Jinglan. After all, the most common scent on soldiers in the army was the taste of bl00d and sweat. So suddenly, like in the past when she had conquered all directions, she carried a rare ferocity and ruthlessness, as if she wanted to brand the prey before her with an imprint unique to herself.

Even the originally harmless camellia flowers now bloomed ferociously one by one around Ye Fuguang. The glossy full leaves seemed about to sprout saw teeth, and the petals and stamens were as big as plates, each one facing her, guarding her at all times, coveting her. And the surrounding woodland scenery, under the spring light, was bright and beautiful.

The little princess consort was already short of breath and soon had her cheekbones flushed red from the kiss. Sweat on her temples and forehead, whether from the sun or the heat, she could not even voice a protest, emitting pitiful whimpering sounds. Her clothes were also disheveled.

Until Shen Jinglan separated from her, leisurely helping her wipe away the wet mark at her lip corner, then pinching her tongue tip that she could not retract for the moment, and smiling as she answered:

“This is called bullying you.”

Ye Fuguang: “…!”

This time she really could not speak, whether from shyness or something else; tears fell pattering down.

Until the child looked at her for a long time with damp eyes, as if she had been made unable to speak anymore, Shen Jinglan released her hand. Then, very excessively, she wiped the wet trace on her fingers onto the princess consort’s extremely plain robe today. Seeing Ye Fuguang about to cry again, she coolly spoke:

“When going out to play with your Sister Xu accompanying you, you have a smiling face. When accompanying this prince out, you always cry.”

–

Ye Fuguang was completely dumbfounded.

She felt as if she had smelled the scent of a jar of vinegar being overturned.

Shen Jinglan was tossing her around so much today really because of her going out to play?

She wanted to defend herself but after a long while, she wilted and lowered her head, not knowing what to say. She could not say that she had fun playing with Xu Leyao because the other would not bully her like this, right? Even thinking with her knee, she knew this answer might provoke this great Buddha in front of her even more. So her lips moved for a long time without uttering a word. XZf

The alluringly beautiful yet aggressively invasive Prince Qi, seeing her like this, had her cold intent in her expression increase somewhat. But she pretended to have a very good temper, lifting her chin again and casually, like intimate sisters, asking, “What do you think about every day when playing with her?”

She actually wanted to hear what excuses this slag woman could come up with.

—If Ye Fuguang dared at this moment, to please herself, say that while playing outside she was still thinking of herself, she was dead.

The little princess consort moved her lips and uttered a very light sentence.

Shen Jinglan’s movement paused, and she repeated uncertainly, “What?”

Ye Fuguang wilted and lifted her gaze to look at her, slightly raising her mosquito-humming voice a bit, but without much confidence. However, this time it let Shen Jinglan hear clearly. 〓

She said: “Thinking about how to send her into the prison of the Hall Front Horse and Step Army Division.”

Shen Jinglan: “…”

Shen Jinglan: “?”