Jealousy.
A jealousy so raw, so intense, it was utterly foreign to him. Like madly creeping vines, it coiled around his heart, squeezing until he could barely breathe.
She was smiling. She was smiling at another man.
How dare she?!
That woman—just days ago, she had touched every inch of his body in that humiliating way in her chambers. She had breathed into his ear with that sweet, venomous tone, forcing him to suffer that shameful reaction in the stables.
And now, today, she turned and wore that expression for another man!
He felt as if someone had pried open his jaw and forced him to down an entire jar of aged vinegar, ten years sour. Never in his life had he felt such bitterness.
What was he jealous of? That Pei Yuan could get close to that vicious, vain, viper-hearted woman?
It was absolutely ridiculous.
He, Pei Yan—once the proudest crown prince of the Great Qian Dynasty, now trampled into the mud—would never, ever lose his heart to a fickle, withering-hearted schemer like her!
And yet...
She had already touched him.
Since she had treated him like her personal plaything in the manor, how could she turn around and exchange flirtatious glances with Pei Yuan?
Pei Yan’s nails dug deep into his palms, blood seeping through the cracks between his fingers.
But he felt no pain. His dark eyes remained locked onto that bright, shimmering hem of her robe.
At the head of the hall, the Old Emperor—frail with age—had barely managed to sit through half an hour before fatigue showed on his face.
“I am tired,” the Old Emperor said.
Supported by the chief eunuch, he rose to his feet, his murky gaze sweeping over the crowd below.
“Everyone, feel at ease. Tonight is the Yuanxiao Festival—no need for formalities.”
Consort Shu smiled warmly as she stepped forward to take the Old Emperor’s other arm, her voice gentle.
“Allow your servant to accompany Your Majesty back to rest.”
The imperial retinue of the emperor and his consort departed with grandeur.
With that heavy weight lifted from them, the atmosphere in the hall visibly lightened.
The officials, who had been maintaining stiff decorum, began clinking cups with one another. Noble ladies clustered together in small groups, murmuring critiques of the new glazed palace lanterns hanging outside.
Chu Mingzhao let out a long, quiet sigh of relief.
This godforsaken job—she couldn’t take another day of it.
When the Old Emperor had been seated up there, she hadn’t even dared to breathe too loudly, afraid that her role as the villainess might get her hauled off and executed just for stepping with the wrong foot.
She turned to Chancellor Chu and Lady Chu, excusing herself by saying the hall was stuffy, that the fruit wine had gone to her head, and that she wanted to go to the banks of the Taiye Lake to clear her mind in the breeze.
Lady Chu was busy exchanging pleasantries with a few noble wives. Seeing her daughter’s flushed, rosy cheeks and slightly dazed eyes, she casually gave a few words of advice and let her go.
Chu Mingzhao lifted her skirts and hurried through winding corridors out of the hall.
The moment she left, on the men’s side, Pei Yuan downed his last cup of wine, slamming the empty vessel onto the table with careless abandon.
“Gentlemen, enjoy your drinks. I’m stepping out for some air,” he announced.
Without sparing a glance at the frozen smiles of the officials who had been about to toast him, he strode away on long legs, sweeping out of the hall like a gust of wind.
Pei Lin, seated not far away, took in the sight of those two retreating figures—one after the other.
His face, as finely drawn as a masterpiece, still bore that flawlessly warm smile.
But if one looked closely, they would see that the smile never reached his eyes.
“Your Highness?” An official raised his cup toward him, expression flattering.
Pei Lin lifted his white jade cup and drained the last of his wine.
The liquid slipped coolly down his throat and into his stomach, but it could not quench the nameless restlessness burning in his chest.
“Gentlemen, drink at your leisure. I’m feeling the wine—I’ll sober up in the side hall,” Pei Lin said, his voice mild.
No one dared to stop him. With a chorus of respectful farewells, he turned and stepped out of the hall with measured, unhurried steps.
...
By the shores of Taiye Lake, the wind cut like a knife.
Chu Mingzhao pulled her fox-fur cloak tighter, shrinking into the deepest crevice of the rockery. She stomped her feet against the cold, mentally cursing this feudal society a thousand times over.
Before she could react, a tall, dark figure rushed toward her like a whirlwind.
“Imperial court jade liquid wine?” she blurted out reflexively.
“A hundred and eighty a cup!”
“Who dares walk alone down the dark alley?”
“Who dares to kneel—not that way!”
“Above the boundless horizon is my love!”
“Beneath the endless green hills, flowers bloom!”
Pei Yuan sucked in a sharp breath, so excited he nearly lunged forward to hug Chu Mingzhao.
“Soulmate! You have no idea how I’ve been surviving this past month! Acting like a lunatic with this group of psychopaths every day—I almost thought I was actually developing multiple personalities!”
“Calm down first,” Chu Mingzhao said, warily scanning their surroundings. “How did you know I’m also transmigrated?”
“It’s a long story.”
Pei Yuan lowered his voice, his tone brimming with frustration.
“The moment I crossed over, the original owner was sparring with someone on the training ground—and I, who had never even killed a chicken, almost got chopped to death on the spot! After I barely patched together the situation, I realized I’d transmigrated into some trashy novel I’d read a while back!”
Pei Yuan irritably grabbed his high ponytail—combed to perfection moments before—and messed it up completely.
“Me, the Seventh Prince—on the surface, I have glory and military power. But in truth, I’m nothing but a cannon fodder extra!
In the plot, I’m supposed to go all out backing my third brother, antagonizing the male lead, Pei Yan. When that merciless demon rises to power later, I’ll be his first victim.
You know what a human-skin lantern is? He flays my skin off, makes it into a lantern, and hangs it on the city wall to rot! How could I be this unlucky!”
Chu Mingzhao’s back went cold. She silently pulled her cloak tighter.
Two miserable souls adrift in the same boat, meeting by fate.
If Pei Yuan was turned into a human-skin lantern, she—the vicious ex-wife and villainess—had fared no better. In the original novel, she was mutilated into a human swine and marinated in a wine jar for forty-nine straight days.
They were both destined to become specialty handicrafts in Pei Yan’s hands. No use mocking each other.
Chu Mingzhao let out a quiet sigh, then extended a hand from within her fox-fur cloak and patted Pei Yuan’s broad shoulder reassuringly:
“Comrade, you’ve suffered.”
Hearing that long-missed words of comfort, Pei Yuan’s puppy-dog eyes immediately began welling up, the corners tinged red.
“You have no idea how I’ve pushed through this month… Every time I deviate from my character, it feels like my brain gets slammed in a door—the pain is unbearable. And my body uncontrollably forces me through the script!
Two nights ago, I suddenly dreamed that you were also a transmigrator. So I tested you during the banquet.
Just now, according to the script, I was supposed to force Pei Yan to eat that piece of pastry off the ground. But for some reason, the moment I approached you, that coercive force suddenly vanished!”
He stepped closer, his voice frantic.
“My lady, you definitely have some kind of system, don’t you? I’ve read this kind of novel—can you rewrite the plot?!”
Chu Mingzhao was stunned.
So the changes she’d made to the script didn’t just alter the course of events—they could also lift the fate-binding constraints on other characters?
This golden cheat seemed to be a little bigger than she’d thought.
[Translator notes on poetry/cultural references are footnotes in the original HTML but can be removed in text; kept as plain translation for flow]
The song lines here are adapted from famous Chinese songs: "Dark Alley" by Chen Xueran and the folk-pop hit "The Most Dazzling National Style" by Phoenix Legend (inspired by the playful tone of the text, though the original Chinese lines "I love you walking alone through dark alleys / I love the way you refuse to kneel / The vast horizon is my love / At the foot of the rolling green hills, the flowers are in full bloom" are well-known modern memes and song lyrics). For readability and humor, the translation approximates their catchy, meme-like feel.
