Shen Yu did not fall asleep until late at night on a nearby couch. Having ridden a horse all day, the barrage of successive events made her already exhausted body feel even more tired.
Accompanied by the lingering scent of medicine, Shen Yu had a rare, sound sleep. The concrete proof of sleeping well was that she did not wake up until close to noon the next day.
Waking up early, Shen Yu was left completely bewildered. In broad daylight, the opulence and luxury of the room were on full display!
Who am I?
Where am I?
Since when did the Shen family treat her this way?
Giving her such a nice house to live in.
“Your Grace, you’re awake?”
The maid who had been waiting for a long time noticed the movement on the couch and spoke at the right moment, bringing a trace of clarity back to her chaotic brain.
Oh!
This is the Prince Consort’s mansion!
Shen Yu finally remembered that just yesterday she had married the wealthy and beautiful Grand Princess.
The Grand Princess!
Thinking of the Grand Princess naturally brought last night back to mind, and her body reacted faster than her thoughts.
Her gaze instinctively turned toward the bed!
And landed squarely into a vast expanse of ink-black hair!
For a moment, Shen Yu felt as though she had forgotten how to breathe.
The woman on the bed showed obvious signs of illness with pale lips. Leaning against the headboard, her snow-white undergarment made her look even more like a porcelain doll, except that her eyes were exceptionally bright, as if she had discovered something interesting.
Soon, however, that pale face was stained with a thin blush.
Her hands instinctively clutched the lapels of her robe together.
Perhaps within the span of a breath, or perhaps a long time had passed, Shen Yu finally snapped back to her senses and felt utterly mortified.
Although they were already married, staring so bluntly was still far too inappropriate.
Shameless libertine!
The two of them thought this simultaneously in their hearts.
Shen Yu quickly stood up and bowed in apology before Song Shiwei could react.
“This subject is guilty! Because this subject was not attentive enough on the wedding night and caused Your Highness to fall ill, I ask Your Highness to punish me!”
The person before her kept her head lowered so her expression couldn’t be seen, but her words sounded truly earnest indeed.
Song Shiwei’s eyelashes fluttered slightly, and after a moment, she spoke.
“The Prince Consort speaks too seriously. It is simply that my own body is weak. How could I blame the Prince Consort?”
Her usually flat voice seemed to carry an inconspicuous trace of grievance.
Shen Yu blinked, looked at Song Shiwei in bewilderment, and then quickly lowered her head again.
Yet the cluelessness in her eyes still fell into Song Shiwei’s view.
An awkwardness filled the air.
Song Shiwei’s gaze flickered. Seeming to think of something, she looked at Shen Yu and asked:
“Will the Prince Consort not go down and change clothes?”
Only then did Shen Yu realize that she had been exhausted the previous night and had collapsed straight into bed without caring about changing; she was still wearing yesterday’s wedding robes.
“S-Shen Lan was presumptuous and made the Princess laugh.”
This instinctive self-address almost made Shen Yu bite her tongue. Though her reaction was quick, there was still an obvious pause, and a cold sweat broke out on her back. Fortunately, Song Shiwei did not seem to mind that slight pause. She merely waved her hand and told a nearby maid to lead her down to change into fresh clothes.
Shen Yu, who had almost given herself away just now, was naturally eager to get as far away from Song Shiwei as possible right then, and readily followed the maid away.
Yet as they turned a corner, her peripheral vision involuntarily strayed back to that slender, delicate figure.
She looked rather frail.
Fortunately, the thought was fleeting and vanished in the blink of an eye.
Watching that hurriedly departing back, which looked as though it wanted to escape as far away as possible, a mocking curve formed at the corner of Song Shiwei’s mouth.
They are all the same.
A trace of disgust tainted Song Shiwei’s eyes, though it was unclear whom it was directed at.
The person guiding Shen Yu was none other than an acquaintance: Cai Qing, the very maid who had fetched hot water for Shen Yu the previous night.
Sensing the lingering, repeated glances directed at her, the normally steady Cai Qing couldn’t quite figure it out, so she prudently spoke up.
“Is there something on your mind, Your Grace, that you keep staring at this servant?”
Since the maid had spoken up, Shen Yu no longer found it appropriate to beat around the bush.
“Cai Qing, my behavior last night was quite abrupt. Were you burned by the water?”
She had a very deep personal experience with how hot the water was last night. Though it wasn’t enough to make her flinch, that was only because of who she was. If an ordinary person had handled it…
A hint of worry crossed Shen Yu’s brows, making her look all the more sincere.
Cai Qing’s heart warmed, and she couldn’t help developing a favorable impression of this Prince Consort.
For people like them who served as servants, no matter how high their status might eventually climb, working like beasts of burden and bearing all complaints, no one ever thought it was wrong, let alone showed concern.
She hadn’t expected that this rising star of a Prince Consort would actually be a kind master.
Thinking of their frail Princess, Cai Qing’s heart relaxed a bit.
Weighing it in her mind, she didn’t dare be negligent in her speech.
“Thank you for your concern, Your Grace. It’s just routine chores, nothing worth mentioning.”
Shen Yu felt around in her robes and produced a small white porcelain medicine jar, handing it to Cai Qing.
Looking at the white porcelain bottle, a flash of brown quickly crossed Shen Yu’s mind, though it vanished just as fast.
“This is a little trinket I usually tinker with. It’s exceptionally effective for burns. If you don’t mind, just make do with it!”
Cai Qing stared blankly at the porcelain bottle in her hand, instinctively feeling that this broke the rules. When had a servant ever received a reward for doing their proper duty?
Before she could speak, however, Shen Yu continued.
“Just take it! If you don’t accept it, I’ll only feel terribly guilty.”
Cai Qing was struck dumb. In all the years she had lived, this was her first time encountering someone with such an approach.
“Then Cai Qing thanks Your Grace for the reward.”
Shen Yu smiled and said nothing more.
The rest of the way was spent in complete silence.
Little did she know, however, that back in the Princess’s bedchamber, things had already turned upside down.
As for Shen Yu’s good mood, it lasted only until the moment she went to change her clothes.
Sending Cai Qing away, Shen Yu patted herself down left and right, and instantly went blank. She finally remembered what that flash of brown was!
Where was the bottle of medicine Chu Fang had given her?!
Shen Yu searched herself from top to bottom, not even sparing a single strand of hair, turning her bright red wedding robes inside out and shaking them like a tattered rag. Yet she still couldn’t find it.
What in the world!
This kind of item could not afford to be lost!
No matter how much she wailed internally, however, not a single trace of that brown bottle could be found.
That’s not right. She remembered still having it when she came out of the hot spring!
Could she have dropped it on the way?
Impossible!
Although she had been in a rush, her pace had been steady and measured; she couldn’t possibly have dropped something like that!
Even if she had dropped it, wouldn’t she have heard the sound of such a large object falling?
Human memory was strange like that. The more anxious one became, the harder it was to remember.
In the end, Shen Yu could only pray that the item hadn’t landed in the Princess’s room.
Otherwise…
Just imagining the consequences turned her face ashen.
She might just become the earliest-dying Prince Consort in this entire realm!
Oh, wait!
If she died, her male disguise would likely be exposed, and at that point…
Thinking of Song Shiwei’s cold expression, she imagined being subjected to corpse mutilation, execution by chariots tearing her apart, and a lingering death.
“Your Grace, are you done yet? Lunch is about to be served, and we mustn’t keep Her Highness waiting!”
The urging voice from outside pulled Shen Yu out of her soaring thoughts. She shook her head and temporarily cast the matter to the back of her mind.
Never mind, she would just get through lunch first.
As for the aphrodisiac…
Making up her mind, she quickly shed her robes. It was a pity she didn’t have a chest binder and had to reuse yesterday’s. She would just have to make sure to keep a proper supply from now on.
Considering it was the second day of the wedding, the prepared outfit was also a mix of red and green: green-sleeved red robes, paired with a dark green indigo-patterned mamian skirt, embroidered with clear white threads along the cloud motifs, making her look like a supreme deity, unbound, graceful, and dashing.
Shen Yu’s already flawless features were rendered even more ethereal by the attire. Every movement she made was bold and unrestrained, like a blazing sun in the sky.
Cai Qing was inevitably struck dumb with amazement. She was the first, but certainly wouldn’t be the last.
Having served the Princess since childhood, even though Her Highness possessed the rare beauty of an immortal, perhaps due to her environment, she always appeared too pale and detached, her colors either too heavy or too light, starkly contrasting.
The Prince Consort was different. Her palette was brilliantly vivid yet not blinding, as if containing every color in existence, splendid and colorful.
When Shen Yu arrived, Song Shiwei was already seated at the dining table, dressed similarly to Shen Yu except in green sleeves and a red skirt, though the colors either didn’t suit her very well, or suited her perhaps a little too well.
Her post-illness face was entirely devoid of blood color, and against the backdrop of red and green, her already pale complexion looked even more ghastly white.
Sitting rigidly on the stool, her posture hadn’t slackened in the slightest despite the absence of others. She looked as though she had been sitting there for quite some time.
Shen Yu was slightly startled. Was she waiting for her?
Given the Grand Princess’s status, sitting here waiting at this hour was bizarre in its own right.
“Greetings, Princess. You have waited long, and I ask Your Highness to punish me.”
Shen Yu was no fool. Even with her incredible abilities, in the mortal realm there were only officials and commoners, not cultivators, not to mention she couldn’t really be considered a true cultivator right now anyway.
Knowing when to bow her head was just common sense. She didn’t find it humiliating at all.
Besides, this truly was her fault. Making someone wait so long was completely unreasonable under any circumstances.
Yet Song Shiwei’s expression was rather strange, as if she had something she wanted to say, though she only glanced at her…
Uh…
It seemed like more than a glance. But she was still much better than the maid beside her, whose eyes had practically wanted to glue themselves onto Shen Yu the moment she stepped through the door.
Extremely bizarre.
“The Prince Consort need not reproach yourself. Being new here, it is natural to be unfamiliar with things. Just ensure it does not happen again in the future.”
“Thank you for your mercy, Princess.”
Judging by this tone, does she intend to stay here for a long time?
Though her Prince Consort’s mansion was built to the highest standards, it still fell short of her Grand Princess’s estate by a hundred thousand miles.
What kind of quirk made this Princess choose to condescend and live here!
Shen Yu muttered inwardly while her bottom obediently settled onto the stool beside Song Shiwei.
In an instant, the air seemed to freeze.
Shen Yu quickly sensed that something was wrong with the atmosphere, especially the momentary stiffening of the person beside her.
Instinctively, she flashed a polite smile.
Er…
Is there some problem?
Following the maid from earlier, Cai Qing was the second person whose eyes almost popped out of her head.
Shen Yu couldn’t figure it out. She hadn’t even picked up her chopsticks yet!
She knew the rule that the person of highest status at the dining table should pick up their chopsticks first.
Could there be something else she didn’t know?
Song Shiwei looked at Shen Yu with a complex expression, taking in her magnificent and dashing bearing, and finally compromised in her heart.
Fine, I’ll just assume he’s ignorant of the ways.
Yet at the thought of the brown porcelain bottle hidden beneath her pillow, Song Shiwei’s gaze deepened once more.
Shen Yu could rack her brains to death and never imagine that in Great Xia, or rather in this era, a Prince Consort was not qualified to dine at the same table as the Princess.
The Prince Consort’s only role was to serve the Princess.
Pity that Shen Yu didn’t know this yet, by the time she did find out, she had already evolved to the point of clinging into the Princess’s arms to eat her meals.