Transmigrated into an Ancient M-Preg Novel as the Scumbag Alpha (GL) - Chapter 2
After ten years of confinement, she would be starved to death. Yun Chenghuai, of course, couldn’t accept such an outcome.
No, she couldn’t be confined, and she certainly couldn’t die. The opportunity for a second life was rare; she didn’t want to be trapped for ten years and face the end of her life.
She had to change the original owner’s fate. As an imperial princess, a princess with two fiefdoms, even if she spent her days indulging in pleasure and doing nothing, she would still enjoy endless wealth and luxury. She’d be crazy to let herself be confined.
Confinement for ten years, in an era without mobile phones or the internet, and no means of entertainment—people would go insane.
She had been at home with the flu for over half a month, with a phone and internet, and still felt bored, let alone ten years.
Having read the novel, she knew that to change the original owner’s ending, the key lay with the female lead, Shen Liunian.
The original owner had tormented the female lead for half a year. How could she change the female lead’s perception within three days?
The immediate priority was to keep the female lead. As long as she didn’t leave, Yun Chenghuai still had a chance to change the female lead’s impression of her.
After all, once Shen Liunian left, the next time they met, it would be with her leading troops to invade the Southern Qin capital. By then, it would be too late.
Shen Liunian escaped Southern Qin through the Crown Princess of Northern Qi. Yun Chenghuai remembered that in the novel, the Crown Princess of Northern Qi had long connected with the female lead. If the female lead hadn’t been worried about implicating her family, she probably wouldn’t have stayed in the princess manor for half a year.
Her current resolve was to protect herself, and also because the Crown Princess of Northern Qi had promised the female lead that Northern Qi would protect the Shen family and grant the Shen family three cities.
This way, the Shen family would not only have mining areas but also cities, allowing them to recruit a large number of private soldiers and gain the ability to protect themselves.
Ultimately, the female lead used these private soldiers, in conjunction with Northern Qi, to conquer Southern Qin in one fell swoop, occupying most of Southern Qin’s cities and becoming the first Kun Ze emperor in history.
Of course, over those ten years, Shen Liunian experienced the ruin of her family and the loss of one family member and friend after another, enduring immense hardship before gradually growing into a “qualified” emperor.
That was also when the original owner died.
Yun Chenghuai lay on the bed, thinking about her own tragic end, feeling a prickle of dread.
Modern times were so much better; unlike ancient times, human lives weren’t valued.
She didn’t know if she could transmigrate back to modern times after her death. Besides, there was nothing in her previous life worth lingering over.
If she had to name one thing, it would be the convenience of modern technology and various electronic entertainment.
She had no family, no friends, living off her parents’ compensation money. She had used all her strength and time to get into a prestigious law school, thinking she would become a righteous lawyer upholding her ideals.
Yet, she transmigrated into a book and became a villainous female supporting character.
Yun Chenghuai didn’t consider herself a bad person and couldn’t bring herself to do the things the original owner did.
The original owner carried the most noble and legitimate direct bloodline of this era. Her birth mother was the former empress. In ancient times, the current empress dowager would still have to bow before the former empress’s memorial tablet.
Children of a second wife were simply not as esteemed as those of the first legitimate wife.
It was precisely because of this that the original owner always treated her sisters and court officials with the air of a future Crown Princess, sometimes even going too far.
Thinking of the original owner’s actions, Yun Chenghuai couldn’t help but get a headache.
She felt that even without the female lead’s revenge, the original owner’s fate wouldn’t have been much better.
Whose fault was it? Only the original owner’s.
Now that she had become this character, for her own sake, she had to prevent the tragedy from recurring.
Since she transmigrated before the female lead left the princess manor, there was still a chance.
She didn’t want to end up like the original owner, with a tragic fate.
—
The manor physician left to prepare medicine after examining Shen Liunian, taking the maid with him.
Only Yun Chenghuai and Shen Liunian remained in the room.
Yun Chenghuai leaned by the bed, carefully observing Shen Liunian, who lay on it.
In her memory, when the original owner first saw her, her complexion was healthy. Unlike now, she was fragile, pale, and completely lacked color in her lips, a veritable sick beauty.
This sense of fragility ignited a protective urge within her.
How could the original owner have the heart to treat such a fragile beauty this way?
Shen Liunian’s ethereal aura, combined with her current vulnerability, filled Yun Chenghuai with compassion.
However, as soon as she thought of how ruthless the female lead became after her dark transformation, she immediately snapped back to reality.
How could she be swayed by beauty? Right now, she needed to sort out her own situation.
Yun Chenghuai lightly coughed, pulling her gaze away from Shen Liunian’s face.
She then seriously examined her room, realizing for the first time how ancient people indulged themselves.
The bed in the room was like a room within a room. To get onto the bed’s platform, one had to pass through three small doors to reach the actual bed.
The bed itself was quite large, estimated to be over two meters in both length and width, easily accommodating two people.
Although Yun Chenghuai didn’t want to be kicked off the bed by Shen Liunian, a wooden platform was still a wooden platform. In winter, sleeping on the bed was definitely more comfortable, and she wasn’t one to inconvenience herself.
So she decided to sleep on the bed. In the cold weather, in the middle of the night, who could resist the lure of a warm bed?
Shen Liunian was sleeping on the outer side, so Yun Chenghuai had to crawl from the foot of the bed inward and then lay down on the innermost side.
Because the bed was large enough, their distance was quite spread out; two more people could comfortably lie between them.
The maid entered, saw the two lying together, quickly pulled the bed curtains closed, and then exited.
Yun Chenghuai heard the movement, closed her eyes, and paid no attention.
There were three days left until the female lead left the princess manor. For these few days, she decided to eat and live with Shen Liunian.
To prevent the female lead from leaving the manor, she resolved in her heart to be a complete nuisance.
She would accompany the female lead for meals and sleep. Anyway, she was currently confined, so she would stick to Shen Liunian’s side, even sleeping together, absolutely not allowing her to leave the manor.
She didn’t want a single oversight to lead to the female lead’s departure, and then for herself to follow in the original owner’s footsteps and be confined by the Southern Qin Emperor.
Not only did she have to cling to Shen Liunian, but she also had to change the other party’s perception of her. This was a long and arduous task.
Besides the female lead, she also faced the danger of the succession struggle.
Fortunately, she had left the eye of the storm. After all, by marrying the female lead, unless something unexpected happened, she would have no claim to the throne, which would protect her to some extent.
A few days prior, the original owner had spoken wildly, and the Emperor had confined her for a month. This month would provide her with temporary stability.
After all, she and the current Crown Princess were biological sisters. Although the Crown Princess was in poor health and could die at any moment, there were too many ways her identity could be exploited. And she had offended many people before, so those people likely wouldn’t let her off easily.
It was precisely because the Crown Princess was ill that the succession struggle became more intense. More than half of the Emperor’s dozen or so imperial princesses were involved.
It was a case of “the winner takes all, the loser gets nothing”; the defeated were bound to meet an ill end.
Yun Chenghuai was the first to be eliminated, but having a sister who was the Crown Princess meant she wouldn’t stay far from the storm.
This month of confinement would give her a chance to breathe and to get along well with the female lead.
She hoped she could prevent the female lead from leaving and change her fate as the villainous female supporting character.
Perhaps it was late, and the room was sufficiently warm. Coupled with the fact that her nerves had been taut since transmigration, Yun Chenghuai soon fell asleep.
She didn’t even consider that if Shen Liunian woke up in the middle of the night, she might not just kick her off the bed, but very likely kill her.
It’s important to remember that Shen Liunian deeply hated Yun Chenghuai. It was difficult to remain rational when facing someone who had tormented you for so long.
The sleeping Yun Chenghuai couldn’t think of such things.
She was a modern person and had never seen murder. She usually shared a room with several girls in the dormitory and currently had no concept of ABO.
In her mind, sleeping with Shen Liunian was no different from sleeping with roommates in a dormitory.
Therefore, she slept very soundly, just as usual, sleeping until dawn.
—
In the early morning, as she emerged from deep sleep into a lighter state, Yun Chenghuai felt an intense gaze fixed on her.
She frowned and opened her eyes to see a stunning woman beside her, staring at her with undisguised disgust.
Woman? Female ghost?
Yun Chenghuai jolted, sitting up sharply in bed.
It took her a moment to realize her surroundings. She had transmigrated, and the person sleeping next to her was Shen Liunian, the female lead from the novel, not a female ghost.
She first breathed a sigh of relief, then her heart clenched again. Shen Liunian’s gaze just now was terrifying, as if she wanted to devour her.
“You… morning.”
Yun Chenghuai opened her mouth, uttering the word with difficulty.
Shen Liunian looked at her in surprise, as if she hadn’t expected such an attitude, thinking she had perhaps conceived of another way to torment her.
“Why am I here?” Shen Liunian’s tone was not polite.
When they first married, Shen Liunian’s attitude, while cool, wasn’t as confrontational and filled with disgust as it was now.
Images of how the original owner had treated Shen Liunian during their half-year marriage flashed through Yun Chenghuai’s mind. She felt that if it were her, she would probably have chosen to perish with the original owner.
If she couldn’t have a good life, then everyone could just die together.
But the original owner, this villainous female supporting character, was truly vicious to the extreme, even threatening Shen Liunian’s family and those who came with her as part of her dowry, which was why Shen Liunian had endured until now.
Shen Liunian’s endurance wasn’t passive acceptance; she just hadn’t escalated the matter outside the princess manor.
After all, if it came out of the manor, given the Shen family’s status, the Emperor would have to make a statement.
The Shen family were merchants, but they owned mines, eighteen large ones at that. They were rich enough to rival a nation, lacking nothing but money.
Rich enough to rival a nation, and not belonging to any single country – if they could be won over, would Southern Qin ever lack money?
In other words, Southern Qin coveted the Shen family’s wealth but looked down on their status as merchants, truly mastering the art of double standards.
The original owner marrying Shen Liunian was equivalent to marrying several mines. The dowry the Shen family gave her included a jade mine, a silver mine, and a copper mine, along with the mining rights for these three mines for a hundred years.
This meant that for a hundred years, all the profits from these three mines would belong to Shen Liunian.
Although the original owner, as a prince, was granted two fiefdoms, the taxes collected weren’t all hers. Compared to Shen Liunian, she was like the difference between a millionaire and a billionaire—insignificant.
Moreover, the original owner was a spendthrift and maintained a large retinue of retainers. In just half a year of marriage, she had used an unknown amount of Shen Liunian’s dowry.
It’s important to remember that in ancient times, using a wife’s dowry was scorned.
So what right did the original owner have? How could she treat her benefactor this way?
Thinking about what had transpired between the original owner and Shen Liunian, Yun Chenghuai actually started to zone out.
Shen Liunian immediately noticed that the person in front of her was distracted. Her hand slowly moved to her calf, where a dagger was hidden.
From the moment she groggily woke up and found Yun Chenghuai, that dog of a person, lying next to her, to now, less than a kezhong (about 15 minutes) had passed, and she had reached for the dagger no less than ten times.
This showed just how much Shen Liunian wanted to kill Yun Chenghuai.