After Becoming the Cannon Fodder Live-in Spouse A (GL) - Chapter 6: Sixth Day

Chapter 6: Sixth Day

It took Ye Fuguang a lot of effort to collapse the bed. After all, every plant, tree, bottle, and lamp in Prince Qi’s mansion was top-notch. The bed in the main hall was carved from rosewood.

If the bed designs in the Great Dynasty weren’t made with thin wood and delicate pillars that broke easily, Ye Fuguang really wouldn’t have found a way—

Anyway.

When Yu Qing led the mansion’s maids into the inner chamber, she saw the curtains fallen and the thin gauze toppled in a messy state. Though it didn’t affect the person lying on the bed, it still made her heart skip a beat.

“Prince!”

She called out almost shrilly and rushed to collapse at the foot of the bed.

Ye Fuguang was startled by her reaction. She turned back to confirm she had avoided Shen Jinglan when breaking the bedpost. After all, Shen Jinglan was her financial backer. She’d rather get hurt herself than let anything happen to Prince Qi.

As Yu Qing called for people to check everything, Ye Fuguang cleared her throat, adjusted her clothes, and casually suggested, “Since it’s come to this, Prince Qi’s status is noble, so naturally, she can’t stay in this hall anymore…”

Since it’s come to this?

Before she could finish, Yu Qing turned sharply and glared at her, ignoring propriety. She gritted her teeth and said, “Lady Ye, though this marriage was decreed by the Emperor, everyone knows it was to pray for Prince Qi’s health and bring good fortune. With the Ye family’s status, marrying into Prince Qi’s mansion is already a step up. How can a consort act so improperly?”

Ye Fuguang touched her nose tip.

Sigh, she understood.

After all, she was like someone with no work experience who landed a high-paying job out of nowhere. It was understandable that old colleagues disliked her, and workplace tensions arose.

Holding onto the original owner’s persona, she argued with a bold but shaky tone, “Prince Qi and I are legitimately married. Besides, as a Qianyuan, my body is normal. In the long night… the bed collapsing wasn’t my intention. Since Steward Yu cares so much about Prince Qi, you should focus on choosing a new hall for her.”

She nearly drove Yu Qing to rage.

The mansion’s servants looked down, pretending not to exist, while the Imperial Guards were less discreet, their expressions full of gossip as they watched from the front row.

…

Ye Fuguang finally got her wish.

At dusk, the mansion’s plants and trees were covered in frost. Servants carried four-cornered lanterns to guide her, who was in high spirits. As a Qianyuan, Ye Fuguang had striking looks and a fine figure. Wearing a fox-fur cloak, she resembled snow falling before dawn.

This was her first proper tour of Prince Qi’s mansion since marrying in. The mansion was originally the residence of a lavish prime minister from the previous dynasty. After the Shen family’s army entered Yong’an City, Shen Jinglan’s leading role in the siege earned her this estate as a general’s mansion, later becoming Prince Qi’s mansion.

As she left the courtyard, the east glowed with the first light of dawn.

When the first ray of morning light touched Prince Qi’s mansion, the pavilions, water terraces, orchid gardens, and side halls with high eaves and dragon-patterned walls reflected off the icy pond, dazzling Ye Fuguang.

She tucked her hands into her sleeves, holding a small hand warmer, thinking, “This is like a knife cutting my butt—my eyes are opened.”

After walking for half an hour, she hadn’t seen all the mansion’s courtyards and was already lost, unable to find her way back to the main hall. Ye Fuguang was getting tired.

“Lady Ye?”

The two young maids accompanying her curiously looked around. “Do you want to choose this courtyard?”

“No.”

The scenery here wasn’t much different from the others they’d passed. Like a picky client reviewing dozens of proposals, Ye Fuguang firmly said, “Choose the first one.”

She didn’t want to walk another long trip with Shen Jinglan later.

Jixiang and Ruyi had no objections and even flattered her. “The Plum Garden is indeed the most scenic outside Prince Qi’s main hall and study. Lady Ye has good taste.”

Ye Fuguang gave a perfunctory smile.

Until noon, everyone in the mansion was busy preparing for Prince Qi’s move to a new hall.

–

Yesterday, Ye Fuguang fed Prince Qi mung bean soup all day and noticed her pulse still showed dangerous heat. Today, she had the kitchen make lily and lotus seed porridge. Under Yu Qing’s disapproving gaze, she paused and told them to add some Fulan ginseng.

That’s modern American ginseng.

Even so, Yu Qing was far from satisfied, not understanding why Ye Fuguang ignored the mansion’s century-old ginseng and insisted on foreign stuff.

Ye Fuguang ignored her, standing under the courtyard’s budding wintersweet trees, pondering life—

Prince Qi’s condition couldn’t be fixed with food alone.

To detoxify her, without the right prescription, waking her up would be tough.

“Crack.”

The sound of a dry branch snapping came from nearby.

Her thoughts interrupted, she looked up, squinting at the thin snow on the trees.

Someone stood at the garden’s edge, bowing to her from a distance, apologizing for the unintended disturbance.

Through the slanting shadows of branches, Ye Fuguang glimpsed a red mole by the person’s jaw, matching the unopened plum buds, making her gaze linger.

Ruyi, quick to read people, waved and said, “Come forward.”

Ye Fuguang and the person both froze.

After a pause, the figure walked toward them with her head lowered, wearing the common water-green jacket of mansion servants. Her movements brought a hint of spring buds into the garden.

She stopped at the steps, bowing to Ye Fuguang. “Princess.”

The title was clever. Others called her Lady Ye, which was standard. Yu Qing called her Consort Ye, subtly reminding her of her place. Calling her Princess implied overlooking her secondary status, pleasing those who valued tact.

Ruyi smiled. “You’re good at flattery. Were you trying to catch attention earlier?”

As the only Qianyuan in the mansion, Ye Fuguang could, in a way, have Zhongjun and Dikun submit to her.

Though Ruyi said this, her tone carried a dangerous edge. The other couldn’t agree and apologized again, saying she was new to the mansion, assigned to tend the Plum Garden, and didn’t know the Princess had settled here, causing an unintentional breach of etiquette.

Ye Fuguang stared at her, feeling a sense of familiarity. “What’s your name?”

“This servant is called Wanqiu.”

…What?!

…

Shock flashed through Ye Fuguang’s eyes.

She finally remembered why Wanqiu seemed familiar. The red mole by her mouth was unique to the female protagonist in the original story. She had all the classic romantic heroine traits: snow-white skin, lips like painted vermilion, and every smile as radiant as spring.

Wanqiu, Su Wanqiu.

She used a secret drug to hide her gender, blending in as a Zhongjun among the mansion’s servants. Suppressing her pheromones too harshly meant her heat would hit harder when the drug wore off.

This plot-driven setup naturally led to her first meeting with the male protagonist, Shen Jingming, during one of her heat episodes. In the original story, Ye Fuguang nearly stumbled into it but was distracted by stealing treasures from the mansion’s storehouse to pawn. Mistaking the Imperial Guards covering for the Emperor as coming for her, she fled in panic.

In the original, Ye Fuguang was drawn by Su Wanqiu’s pheromones into Shen Jinglan’s main hall, where Prince Qi was also in heat. Under double temptation, she did something disgraceful.

But for readers—

It was like two luxury cars crashing!

Everyone was too enthralled by the spicy drama to think of anything else. Who could resist such a feast?

Ye Fuguang’s mind flashed to those five chapters of description but recalled something else.

The surname Su wasn’t simple.

It was the royal surname of the previous dynasty.

In short, Su Wanqiu was a remnant of that dynasty’s imperial bloodline.

The original story didn’t explain early on why she was in Prince Qi’s mansion, portraying her as a helpless little flower. She had an accidental encounter with the Emperor in dim light, so Shen Jingming never saw her face. Later, he investigated the mansion’s servants but found no suspicious Dikun.

Ye Fuguang, swayed by Su Wanqiu’s beauty, kept pursuing her until after Prince Qi’s death. Su Wanqiu escaped, only to catch the eye of a Datong prince collecting reparations in Yong’an, who tried to take her to the western regions as a frontier princess.

The later entanglements of the main characters and others aside.

Now, Ye Fuguang only felt this protagonist’s background was too complicated.

With her own safety at risk, she’d better stay far from the main plot.

Snapping out of her long daze, her gaze refocused. She nodded perfunctorily, acknowledging Su Wanqiu, and waved her away.

–

Su Wanqiu felt Ye Fuguang’s probing stare.

She had investigated Ye Fuguang.

Born resembling her mother, she lacked the sharp edges of a Qianyuan. Her cheeks were slightly round, lips soft and full, like a child who never lost her baby fat. Even her pheromones were weaker than other Qianyuans.

But she was always reckless, backed by her stepmother, a famous江南 merchant. Though her family wasn’t prominent, she spent lavishly, acting worse than lowlife thugs, frequenting brothels, choosing disgraced Dikun to serve her, and gambling away family shops.

She was extremely petty. In Jiangning City, anyone who crossed her ended up in trouble.

Until her father, Ye Rong, excelled in medical exams and was summoned to Yong’an, the family moved to the capital. After Ye Rong completed his studies at the Imperial Medical Academy and became a fifth-rank official, Ye Fuguang toned down to marry into Yong’an’s wealthy families.

Of course, she also couldn’t compete with the capital’s true wastrels.

Su Wanqiu already disliked such people, especially after Ye Fuguang’s absurd actions in just two nights since marrying into Prince Qi’s mansion, which were utterly despicable.

If not for wanting to confirm Shen Jinglan’s fate herself, Su Wanqiu wouldn’t bother with such filth.

—She hoped Shen Jinglan would fall into endless nightmares and go to hell soon.

Su Wanqiu prayed this devoutly every day.

She chose the Plum Garden duty because it was closest to Shen Jinglan’s main hall. If Prince Qi died, she’d hear the good news first.

Su Wanqiu could never forget.

When Yong’an City fell, she was dragged by palace attendants, fleeing the palace where she grew up. Her face was smeared with ash, wearing rough hemp clothes that chafed her skin. Her feet bled from sharp stones, nearly sliced by the frenzied soldiers’ blades after the city’s fall.

A bloodied blade was knocked aside by an arrow’s “ding.”

The arrow’s fletching grazed her cheek. Su Wanqiu, too scared to cry, turned to see the fierce figure on horseback in the sunlight.

That moment started her twelve years of exile and suffering after her country’s fall.

Now she returned that nightmare to its source, wondering if Shen Jinglan, in her dreams, felt the same helpless tears.

…

Su Wanqiu was pulled back to reality by Ye Fuguang’s wave.

Noticing Ye Fuguang only looked at her a bit longer without keeping her, she sighed in relief.

As she turned, she heard Ruyi remind Ye Fuguang, “By Great Dynasty rules, tomorrow… does the Princess have plans?”

“Tomorrow?”

Jixiang added, “It’s the return-to-home day.”

Return-to-home?

Ye Fuguang realized, as someone who married in, she must follow Great Dynasty customs like other brides and return home after three days.

Though her current body resembled her original self, just softer and more pampered, the differences couldn’t be erased.

In Prince Qi’s mansion, it was fine since everyone was a stranger. But returning to the Ye family, who knew the original owner well, wouldn’t she be easily exposed? Especially without the original’s memories.

But.

By the story’s setting, her father, Ye Rong, was an Imperial Medical Academy doctor, and her genius Little Sister, Ye Yuge, inherited the family’s medical skills. They might have a way to solve Prince Qi’s condition, which stumped her now.

After all, Ye Yuge later became the exclusive antidote master for the main characters’ love poison.

Though her solutions only added to their romantic antics.

–

“Treat a dead horse as a living one?”

That night.

Ye Fuguang, struggling with indecision, left the matter to the still-peaceful Shen Jinglan in the new room. After checking her pulse, she took Shen Jinglan’s hand to pick a crude lot she made—

The longer end meant returning home.

She looked at the unconscious beauty, hesitant, then sighed. “You’re right. In your state, what bicycle do you need?”

Any doctor should take a look.

Now the pressure was on her.

Could Ye Fuguang play the original’s foolish, vicious, lustful, and narrow-minded role well?

She felt she needed practice.

So she quietly leaned toward Shen Jinglan, who looked like a delicate doll, a large figurine, or a silent museum antique, sleeping peacefully.

She patted Prince Qi’s shoulder and whispered, “I’m so jealous of you.”

“At your age, you still sleep so soundly.”

Ye Fuguang’s tone was sincere. “Really, how do you sleep like that?”