Sun Ningning was awakened early by the System.
Rolling over in her large bed, she grumbled irritably:
“If it’s not news about Xiao Ze, I don’t want to hear anything!”
System: “It is about Bai Ze. Friendly reminder: he’s currently dining at Spring Gazing Pavilion!”
Sun Ningning: Now that’s something worth waking up for!
With her fragrant shoulders slightly exposed, snow-white cheeks blushing pink, and lips like crimson, she should have presented a picture of a drowsy beauty.
But the image was utterly shattered by her scrambling upright.
“Ah! Xiao Ze!”
“I’ll be right there!”
Realizing she was being too excitable for a proper young lady, Sun Ningning immediately settled into a languid sitting posture.
She called out: “Xing’er, Xiaoyue.”
Her two personal maids entered the inner chamber upon hearing her summons and began their daily routine of dressing, washing, and applying her makeup.
While Sun Ningning fretted like ants on a hot pan, they continued combing her hair at a leisurely pace.
She couldn’t help rolling her eyes.
Good heavens, if they kept dawdling like this, Xiao Ze would be gone by the time she arrived!
Finally ready, Sun Ningning hastily lifted her skirts and practically sprinted off.
Xing’er and Xiaoyue chased after her, panting breathlessly as they asked:
“Miss, miss, what’s the hurry?”
“Miss, the eldest young lady is returning to the manor today!”
Sun Ningning couldn’t care less about any eldest young lady – her biological sister who was two years older.
Sorry sister, but this is my first time going to see Xiao Ze in person! He’s my future husband, nothing is more important than him!
Maintaining the last shred of decorum expected of a noble young lady, Sun Ningning ran with restrained movements.
Yet she still moved quite rapidly…
Until she collided headfirst into a soft, fragrant embrace at a corner.
So soft that Sun Ningning wondered if she’d flattened the other person’s chest?
Looking up, she was greeted by an stunning figure and height.
An elegant mature beauty? Voluptuous? Long-legged?
“Ouch… are you alright, sister?”
“My apologies, sister, I didn’t mean to.”
Sun Ningning quickly performed a courtesy and stepped forward, about to reach out and rub the spot.
But her forehead was stopped by her elder sister Sun Wanwan’s pointing finger.
“Two years apart, and you’re still as impulsive as ever. Where are you off to in such haste?”
It had to be said, Sun Wanwan was truly beautiful as a gentle, mature beauty.
Sun Ningning herself felt like hugging her.
With her slender waist and full bust, oval face, and elegant arched eyebrows; her features were magnificently refined, clearly bearing the appearance of a “principal wife” and matriarch.
Unlike the original owner who shared her name – whose features were glamorous with a hint of seduction.
Being younger, she still had some childish charm to balance it out.
Having just reached marriageable age a year ago, what would she look like after developing further in another two years?
Sun Ningning’s appearance was exactly what commoners’ wives would describe as “looking improper at first glance.”
No wonder Grand Secretary Sun was in such a hurry to return to the capital – he needed to find a match for the original owner quickly.
In the capital Wangjing, besides princes, there were over a dozen imperial relatives and nobles worthy of the sisters’ status.
“Sister, I forgot I had a lunch appointment today. If I don’t hurry, they’ll think I stood them up. I’ll take my leave now, sister, let’s have dinner together when I return.”
As she spoke, wanting to demonstrate the closeness she’d shared with her biological sister since childhood,
Sun Ningning quickly embraced the unprepared Sun Wanwan who couldn’t dodge in time, then affectionately nuzzled her face against hers.
Wearing an expression both ingratiating and well-behaved.
Yet the very next moment, she was striding rapidly down the corridor again.
Sun Wanwan watched her younger sister, whom she hadn’t seen for two years, hurry into the distance.
Her steps faltered as she took a startled step backward.
She raised her hand and touched her own face.
Recalling the soft sensation when Sun Ningning had thrown herself at him earlier, the faint fragrance of a maiden filling the air…
Sun Wanwan shuddered, feeling strangely unsettled as she hurried away.
Realizing her strides were too large, she quickly adjusted to smaller, quicker steps.
Fifteen minutes later
Sun Ningning was already inside the carriage.
Despite the murmurs of the chubby-cheeked Xing’er and the more mature, steady Xiaoyue, she brushed them off with casual laughs.
Fortunately, the original host had always been a lively, mischievous sort—the type who caught insects to scare children since childhood.
Sun Ningning believed that as long as she didn’t do anything too outrageous, no one in this world would suspect her.
Hehe.
“Host, my abilities are limited. I can’t see what Bai Ze is doing in his room, only that he arranged to meet a Taoist priest who just entered. Based on the timing, you should be able to run into him at the tavern.”
Sun Ningning leaned back against the soft pillow with her eyes closed, conversing with the System in her mind:
“You can’t spy, you can’t eavesdrop, you can’t predict… let’s not even mention seven, eight, or nine. What exactly can you do?”
The System paused briefly, then retorted vehemently:
“I can eject you from this world when you’re about to die! That’s a lifesaving function!”
Sun Ningning replied with a haughty tone: “My golden finger is immortality!”
Meaning: I can’t die anyway, so I don’t need you to save me.
System: “This System has already reminded you, your golden finger doesn’t work against Bai Ze.”
Sun Ningning let out a cold “hmph” of laughter.
“Look! Xiao Ze’s personality is cold on the outside but warm inside. Before getting familiar, he might indeed get irritated. But do you really think a kind-hearted young man would kill an innocent admirer?”
Sun Ningning continued, “I can already guess—at most, he’d get annoyed by my pestering, scold me in public, and embarrass me. Would I lose a piece of flesh?”
The System fell silent.
Sun Ningning frowned as well.
Lately, this System—which claimed to have her best interests at heart and wanted to help her fulfill her wish quickly to wrap up work—kept hinting whenever Bai Ze was mentioned:
If Bai Ze gets angry, would he kill her?
Sun Ningning refused to believe it.
In the book The Scheming Crown Prince, Please Control Yourself, the male lead was the Crown Prince, the female lead was her own elder sister—the sophisticated Sun Wanwan she’d just seen.
And her Cardboard husband, Xiao Ze, was the tragic second male lead who met a gorgeous, pitiful end.
Sun Ningning had originally bought the book for ten yuan per pound from a street stall to kill time, only to become obsessed with Bai Ze.
For six whole years, she had read every sentence in the book dozens, even hundreds of times.
Since she had transmigrated into this story, everything in the book must be true!
How could the character settings change?
A young man who appeared aloof but was gentle inside, turning into the sinister figure from her dreams—the one who grimly tried to strangle a strange woman to death?
Just because she hugged him?