Unfortunately, she wasn’t particularly attracted to clean-cut, pretty-faced boys. Her preference leaned more toward muscular men with eight-pack abs.
She guessed the original author shared that preference, which was why the Regent Prince became the male lead while the heir ended up as the cannon-fodder supporting character.
Shen Mianmian withdrew her gaze and feigned confusion.
“Why has Your Lordship come here? Why aren’t you resting in Qingfeng Courtyard?”
“I heard you went to Peony Courtyard. Did she make things difficult for you?”
“The Young Madam comes from a scholarly family. Why would she make things difficult for me?” Shen Mianmian replied. “The Young Madam asked me to become a concubine, and I agreed.”
The young man froze.
“Agreed to become a concubine? Didn’t you always refuse? Didn’t you say you wanted one husband and one wife for life?”
“Uh…” Shen Mianmian hesitated.
Only then did she remember that while becoming a concubine would help her avoid the household warfare the female lead was about to stir up, it would be difficult to explain to this idiot phoenix chick.
“I… changed my mind.”
The young man immediately sat upright. His porcelain-white, handsome face flushed with anger.
“Who told you to agree to become a concubine? Who allowed you to make decisions on your own? Why are you betraying me?”
Shen Mianmian felt utterly frustrated.
Betraying you?
Big brother, getting transported into a novel is miserable enough. Now I’m supposed to participate in household scheming too?
If I don’t become a concubine, the female lead will definitely find every possible way to fight me!
In the novel, you end up collecting woman after woman.
And me—well, the transmigrated heroine—ends up humiliated and suffering endlessly!
To let herself get trapped in household battles like the original transmigrator?
Dream on!
She refused.
All she wanted was to survive safely and leave this novel.
The young man grabbed his clothes and started putting them on.
“I don’t care what grievances you suffered in Peony Courtyard. I’m going to talk to Mother.”
Shen Mianmian nearly screamed.
She lunged forward and hugged him tightly.
“No! Please listen to me, Young Master! Everything I said before about monogamy was spoken in anger. Even an imperial princess wouldn’t dare force her husband not to take concubines, let alone someone as insignificant as me!”
What a joke.
If this idiot went to seek justice from his wife, every bit of blame would ultimately land on her shoulders.
Was she crazy?
No.
This brainless phoenix chick clearly had problems. He insisted on dragging her into the spotlight as a living target for the female lead to attack at any moment.
She absolutely needed to create some distance between them.
The young man stared blankly at her.
“You weren’t like this before. Seeing you like this… feels strange.”
Strange?
His words reminded Shen Mianmian of something.
In the original novel, the reason the heir eventually drifted apart from the transmigrated heroine was precisely because of this sense of unfamiliarity.
Originally, he liked the original heroine because of her shocking and unconventional views.
Otherwise, why would two fools have fallen for each other at first sight?
The heroine’s inappropriate and brainless modern opinions sounded to this idiot heir like grand declarations challenging fate itself.
He became utterly enchanted by her.
Later, however, because of the reborn female lead’s schemes, the heroine was defeated by jealousy and greed. She became a vulgar woman constantly seeking favor and asking for money.
The heir no longer recognized the person she had become.
Only then did he gradually fall out of love with her.
If Shen Mianmian used this method to cool his enthusiasm and stop him from constantly confronting his wife on her behalf, perhaps the female lead would lose one opportunity to start household conflicts.
With that thought, Shen Mianmian smiled softly.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, Young Master, but this is how I’ve always thought. I’m not some noble young lady with a powerful family background. I’m merely a trained courtesan. By rights, I should be kept as an outside woman. I shouldn’t even qualify as a proper concubine. How could someone like me demand monogamy?”
The young man looked stunned.
“Then why did you say those things before?”
“Because I wanted to attract Your Lordship’s attention. If I wasn’t the one clear stream among all the glamorous beauties, how could I have caught your eye and been brought back to the Marquis’s residence?”
As she watched his expression shift from shock to anger, from anger to disappointment, and from disappointment to despair, Shen Mianmian mentally awarded herself a perfect score for that speech.
But then another crucial thought struck her.
If she offended him too thoroughly, would she be thrown out of the Marquis’s residence?
And if she left the residence and strayed too far from the novel’s main plot, what if she could never return home?
Thinking of that, she hurriedly added:
“Young Master, you’ve already taken my virginity. You must take responsibility for me. You can’t throw me out of the residence!”
The young man stared at her.
The clarity in his eyes dimmed, and his voice trembled.
“Why have you… suddenly become like this? Why?”
Shen Mianmian continued her performance.
“Young Master, this is actually one of the lessons taught during our courtesan training. Important officials and noblemen see beautiful women all the time, so we have to say shocking things to attract their attention.”
His voice shook even more.
“If you know what I want to hear, why won’t you keep saying it?”
Shen Mianmian looked innocent.
“Because noblemen have limited patience. Before obtaining a woman’s body, they enjoy hearing anything she says. But once they’ve gotten what they want, their patience becomes much shorter. Rather than wait for Your Lordship’s patience to run out, I decided to tell you the truth in advance.”
“…”
The young man’s complexion had always been pale, almost feminine.
Now he looked even paler, as though the blue veins beneath his thin skin might show through at any moment.
He pressed his lips together.
Finally, he rose stiffly, picked up his clothes, and left in a daze.
A short while later—
After the heir had gone, Hanrong finally asked in confusion,
“Miss Shen, why did you say those things?”
Shen Mianmian blinked her bright eyes.
“I was only telling the truth. This is exactly what our Courtesan Training Club taught us.”
“But… but…”
In the end, Hanrong swallowed her thoughts.
Were the methods taught to courtesans really this clumsy?
The legendary courtesans certainly weren’t like this.
Looking at Hanrong, Shen Mianmian thought to herself:
Once Hanrong was won over by the female lead, the first thing she’d probably do would be report today’s conversation.
Good.
Let the female lead know that there would be no opportunity for household warfare.
She could give up already.
…
Very soon, news that the heir had stormed out of Bright Moon Courtyard in anger and returned to Qingfeng Courtyard reached Jiang Yinjin’s ears.
Standing before the window, Jiang Yinjin looked toward Bright Moon Courtyard.
“Why did the heir leave? What exactly happened there?”
After pondering for a moment, she spoke in a low voice.
“Someone.”
Her maid Chuxue stepped forward.
“Young Madam, your servant is here.”
“Go to Bright Moon Courtyard and bring Hanrong—”
She stopped midway through the sentence.
After a brief pause, Jiang Yinjin said,
“Forget it.”
“Tomorrow, the answer will reveal itself.”