Read Novel Full Chapter 66
Dayan Kingdom, the 30th year of Yuanhong, autumn.
In Qing’an Hall of the Imperial Palace, the girl in a pink-orange dress ran straight to the southwest after entering the palace area, her long black hair that reached her waist swung smoothly in the air. When the palace maids, eunuchs, and even the guards in the palace saw her, they would bend over or bow slightly, but just after finishing the action, the girl disappeared in front of them like a gust of wind, and there was no time to respond.
The people in the hall didn’t care, they seemed to be used to it.
One of the momos, who was familiar with her, saw her as she passed by and instructed her, “Princess, walk slowly and pay attention to your manners!”
*Momo is like a wet nurse or an elderly maid.
The wind-like figure soon disappeared around the corner of the long corridor, apparently not having heard her advice. With the red satin in her arms, she and the young palace maid beside her walked on, shaking their heads and sighing: “She’s about to get married but is still so unsteady, it’s worrying.”
The other people in the palace were walking around with all sorts of things in their hands, and there were a lot of gifts being brought in one after another from outside the palace, and they were all piled up in the main hall waiting to be counted.
The little palace maid with her hair in double balls(pic below) beside the old momo looked worried: “This marriage is a last resort; the Seventh Princess has been different from other girls since she was a child; she is very rebellious; will she really be obedient and go through with the marriage?”
“Alas, being born into a royal family is not a matter of choice, not to mention that she and her brother have no one to rely on in the palace, so this matter will have to fall on her shoulders.”
“I heard that the third prince of the Yao kingdom has a very perverse temperament…”
“Be careful what you say, Shen Yan. Don’t forget why the Seventh Princess is being forced to marry…”
The two palace maids walked further and further away, while the young girl who had passed in front of them ran to a certain bedroom before she stopped her hurried steps, straightened her dress, then raised her hand to knock on the door and spoke tentatively, “Imperial Brother? It’s Wan’er.”
A response soon came from inside.
She pushed the door open and walked in, and the faint smell of smoke that permeated the room instantly hit her nose, it was the smell of medicinal herbs.
At the table with cups of tea and a golden and blue tablecloth sat a slender, tall young man. His long, black hair was half tied up with only a simple wooden hairpin and then fell silently on his back and chest.
The young girl was slightly relieved to see that the man, who had been bedridden for so many days, was finally up and sitting at the table today.
Not far from him stood a maid with a somewhat bemused expression. The young man seemed to have just raised his hand to refuse her approach, his long, slender fingers so white that you could see the veins beneath them.
The girl approached and asked, “What’s wrong?”
The maid explained, “His Highness seems to have just had another headache, I wanted to help him with a massage, but he refused.”
The expression on her face was a little aggrieved and puzzled. “Is His Highness not in a bad mood? I always offered to do it, but now he refuses to let me.”
The girl frowned and was about to speak, but the pale man with an indifferent expression said after a few coughs, “I’m not in a bad mood, I just want to take it easy so I won’t bother others.”
The maid wanted to say something, but he asked her to leave: “My imperial sister is here to see me, she will take care of me if there is anything else. You can go.”
She could only leave in frustration.
The young girl closed the door behind her. She came to the table and stared at the handsome young man with her hands on her cheeks, saying with a smile, “Hehe, imperial brother is so good-looking that he attracts bees and butterflies everywhere.”
The man’s chest tightened, and he coughed harshly before replying, “Is this how bees and butterflies are attracted?”
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that. But …… Xiang’er does have an interest in you. Fortunately, she doesn’t know about your plans; otherwise, she would have become anxious and secretly reported it to father…”
After saying that, she glanced at the frail Ninth Prince, and the corners of her mouth curled downward. Her liveliness also evaporated. “On my way here, I saw the people in the hall making arrangements for the wedding, and the betrothal gifts from the Yao Kingdom have all been delivered.”
The young man in front of her did not answer, looking calm as he poured himself a cup of hot tea to moisten his throat, the warm temperature in his mouth adding a few faint hints of blood to his pale face.
The young girl gritted her teeth and said, “Imperial brother, do you really have to do this? In case it is discovered-”
“I am in poor health, and if they let the imperial physician come to see me, he would say that I am not fit to have intercourse for the time being. This way, I can delay it for you for a while.” His eyelids drooped slightly and the corners of his lips gently tugged upward, but his smile was a little thin. “Anyway, Dayan is on the verge of becoming someone else’s vassal state, so instead of sending you to your doom, I’d rather grab the last glimmer of hope and take a gamble.”
His hand trembled slightly as he put down the teacup, as if the small cup weighed a thousand pounds in his hand.
Gu Xiyu had been in this world for almost a month, he did not completely understand the ways of this world, but he had grasped the basic information.
This was a world with an ancient background, and he had transmigrated as cannon fodder whose identity was the ninth prince of the Dayan Kingdom. The original owner was sickly, and what was more outrageous was that this body, which needed to live on medicine for the rest of its life, was personally caused by the original owner’s mother, Consort Li, who was also the heroine’s birth mother.
When the main system sent him the world’s background data, it said this: [[The deep palace is full of dangers, and Consort Li felt terrified instead of happy that she had given birth to a son, worrying every day and night that her child would be killed by other consorts who had also given birth to sons. The crown prince had not yet been decided, and a boy would have the right to the throne. All the concubines wanted their sons to become crown prince, but Consort Li just wanted to stay out of this harem and see her child grow up safely.]]
[[She thought that if her child was disinherited due to physical disability, he would not become a target for the other princes to kill. She wanted to disable one of the original body’s limbs but hesitated to do so, and finally came up with a compromise, secretly feeding the young child a heavy dose of medicine to completely weaken his body.]]
[[The emperor paid less attention to the original owner after the imperial doctor diagnosed that he was unhealthy and likely to die young. The other concubines and imperial princes also learned of this and treated them with much less malice; they even became the family that the rest were willing to maintain harmony with. Even when Consort Li died of depression later on, the original owner and his sister were able to grow up safely in the palace.]]
Before Gu Xiyu crossed over, the original owner accidentally caught a severe cold and passed away in the middle of the night when no one was around. When he crossed over, the system repaired his body as it did in other worlds, but it only kept the body in a state where he could barely survive and not fully recover.
[[Your persona in this world is that of a sick person, and restoring your body completely will deviate from the original setting. And once you have a healthy body, it means you will also have the right to inherit the throne, which will greatly affect the movement of the original plot, which is not allowed by the world consciousness.]]
Gu Xiyu did not have any objections; the setting of dragging a sick body was not unprecedented; he was conscious enough to remember that these were just fleeting issues, and his goal was to complete the mission.
The target’s risk value on the panel was 60 points, which was normal, and the mission target was the object of the heroine’s upcoming marriage—the third prince of the Yao Kingdom, Wei Chiyan. The heroine happens to be the original owner’s sister, named Murong Qingwan, the seventh princess of the Dayan Kingdom. The Dayan Kingdom was just a small kingdom in the eyes of the Yao Kingdom, but a while ago, the second prince accidentally offended the fifth prince of the Yao Kingdom, Yuchi Sheng, with his arrogance and caused trouble. It was rumored that the fifth prince had been favored by the Emperor of the Yao Kingdom since he was a child, and this incident served as a trigger for a war between the two kingdoms.
The troops of the Dayan Kingdom could never withstand the invasion of the Yao Kingdom, so the Emperor had no choice but to send an emissary to negotiate with the Yao Kingdom. The result of the negotiations was that the Yao Kingdom was willing to accept the tribute and apology sent by the Dayan Kingdom, but they also had to send a princess to join their royal family in marriage. It was unknown what kind of plan the fifth prince of the Yao Kingdom had in mind, but he gave up the opportunity to his elder brother, the third prince, Wei Chiyan.
Murong Qingwan said to him with a downcast look, “I made some inquiries about Wei Chiyan, and he is simply terrible. He is 27 years old this year, and I heard that people around him have been arranging marriages for him since he was 18 and sending girls to him, but none of them have been successful. He is so brutal in nature that he doesn’t even spare women, and several have died in his bed on their wedding night ……”
“Brother, please don’t take over my marriage. At least I have learned some martial arts, but you are so weak, I am afraid that if you are found to be a man, you will not be a match for that Wei Chiyan, and he will definitely play you to death!”
Gu Xiyu: “……” As expected of the heroine, she speaks so bluntly.
That’s right, Gu Xiyu decided to substitute himself for the marriage after knowing that Murong Qingwan was so against this marriage. Anyway, the bride has to put on a veil when she gets into the sedan chair, so no one will see what the bride looks like. Moreover, the people of the Yao Kingdom have no idea what their royal princes and princesses look like, so it would be easy to fool them in the early stages.
There were so many princesses in the Dayan Kingdom, but the only one who lost her mother at an early age was the heroine, Murong Qingwan. She has no background to rely on and can only be pushed out to carry this responsibility. But Murong Qingwan was this world’s heroine; she was different from the other princesses and would also be the key figure in the late rise of the now internally corrupt and crumbling Dayan Kingdom. She had a difficult time in the early stages when she was sent to the Yao Kingdom, where she was unfamiliar with the place and was married to Wei Chiyan, a difficult character.
According to the original plot, the heroine was able to fool Wei Chiyan in a battle of wits and managed to avoid various dangers, but this villain was now replaced by the Great Demon’s soul fragment, and according to the main system’s projection, the heroine would never be able to fool him, and would even die under his hand.
The world would immediately collapse once that happened. So his first mission this time was to stop the heroine from marrying the target. When he thought about it, the most convenient and straightforward way was to marry in place of the heroine.
“Don’t worry, I…… have my own way when the time comes.” Gu Xiyu calmly answered.
In fact, he had no solution for the time being, after all, he had not yet met the Great Demon of this world, so he could only see what he could do when the time came.
He added, “There is no rush; you will also go there with me then, so you and I can look after each other if we encounter any trouble.”
Although he had to marry in Murong Qingwan’s place, she still had to go to the Yao Kingdom, after all, the main protagonist was the fourth prince of the Yao Kingdom, Yuchi Rong. According to the original plot, they met in the palace and eventually got close because they were both burdened with the responsibility of rejuvenating the kingdom and changing fate against the heavens. They shared the difficulties and, over time, fell in love.
The princess would naturally have a dowry maid accompany her. So when the time came, Murong Qingwan only had to disguise herself as his maid and enter the Yao Kingdom with him.
So the wedding preparations went ahead in full swing. The emperor, who had barely been in and out of their palace all these years, made a few trips to make sure Murong Qingwan was obedient and did not rebel.
Since Xiang’er, the maid who accompanied the original owner, had feelings for him, they even transferred her away to prevent anything unexpected from happening, so Gu Xiyu had a peaceful time. It was not until the day of his journey that Gu Xiyu, accompanied by Murong Qingwan and her maid Qing’er, who grew up with her, changed into his big red wedding clothes and put on the red veil.
Murong Qingwan changed into a maid’s uniform and used a lot of powder to disguise herself so that no one could tell what she really looked like. She held his hand tightly as he rode with her in the carriage that came from the Yao Kingdom to welcome her. The carriage was draped in several layers of red and pink gold gauze, and the interior was covered in wine-red silk. The spacious carriage had a low table with fresh fruit, cakes, and tea.
At least the Yao Kingdom showed their sincerity.
The original owner would go to the inner courtyard to recuperate every so often when his health was too bad, and only familiar guards and people were arranged to wait outside, bringing him food and medicine regularly every day. To prevent the Dayan Kingdom from noticing his disappearance immediately, they used this excuse to lie to the public by saying that Gu Xiyu had gone to recuperate and would not be able to come out for some time.
Only when the wedding carriage left the imperial city did Murong Qingwan, who was sitting in the carriage with him, breathe a sigh of relief and pat her chest, saying, “I hope that things won’t be revealed until we enter the Yao Kingdom.”
“It shouldn’t.” Gu Xiyu was actually not worried, as the possibility of exposure was quite low.
The Emperor of the Dayan Kingdom was getting old and unable to govern the kingdom’s affairs properly, but he didn’t want to let go of his throne. In addition to facing the invasion of distant kingdoms, he also had to worry about internal problems. He had too many sons, each fighting with the other for the throne, and the internal strife was worrying.
By the end of the fight, the kingdom’s inner core would be hollowed out, and the enemy would take advantage of the situation.
This is something that will happen very soon.
Gu Xiyu looked at Murong Qingwan beside him. The girl did not know what would happen soon, and he felt sorry for her. He remembered that in the original plot, none of the royal family of the Dayan Kingdom survived, and it was because of this marriage that Murong Qingwan became the only surviving heir. Since then, she has only had one goal—to revive the fallen kingdom.
It must have been a painful journey to go through alone. Gu Xiyu has spent some time with her and now sees her as his own sister. He only hopes that the tasks he undertakes in this world will ease some of the obstacles for her.
A few days later, the grand and dignified bridal party left the territory of the Dayan Kingdom and then passed through the borders of several smaller kingdoms before moving into the territory of the Yao Kingdom.
During this period, the fact that Gu Xiyu and Murong Qingwan had switched places was not discovered, and the strange thing was that the people of the Yao Kingdom did not try to confirm or check anything at all. It was as if, from the moment he put on his wedding clothes, he had been labeled as the exclusive item of the Third Prince Wei Chiyan, and they were all careful when they came into contact with him, afraid of touching him.
The peace that had been maintained for so long was broken on the third day of entering the Yao Kingdom.
Murong Qingwan was still joyfully discussing which of the new cakes they had delivered was tastier when the procession, which had just rested before continuing its journey, suddenly stopped on a deserted road in the countryside.
There was a noise coming from the front of the procession.
“Let’s see what’s going on.” Murong Qingwan, who couldn’t sit still, lifted the curtain of the carriage and looked out for a few moments, and her voice soon came from beyond the curtain, “Huh? It seems like we’re being stopped.”
Murong Qingwan looked out for a while, hating that this distance was too far, and said, “I’ll go down and find out what’s going on, Imperial bro…… Princess, you wait in the carriage first, don’t come down no matter what!”
Before Gu Xiyu could even open his mouth to stop her, Murong Qingwan had leaped off the carriage as lightly as a butterfly and walked towards the front of the procession.
He could only silently withdraw the hand he had just raised.
He had relaxed too soon, forgetting that where there was a protagonist, there should always be a side plot.
The main system had not mentioned this plot when it had given him the background data of this world, so he only hoped it was a case of two processions meeting and needing to avoid each other.
On the other hand, Murong Qingwan, who had almost reached the front of the procession, suddenly saw people on both sides flashing their weapons.
Only then did she realize that the bridal party had met the rampant bandits within the Yao Kingdom.
