Chi Wan paid no mind to Chun Gui’s attitude. She lifted Yu Jiuzhou’s eyelid to take a look.
“Burn some medicinal incense. We can’t use acupuncture again. It won’t do for her to keep sleeping so restlessly.”
Chun Gui froze for a moment, then turned to look at the still-sleeping Zheng Yi, her expression darkening. This girl is a really heavy sleeper!
Yu Jiuzhou needed to calm down. An intense physical reaction triggered by her emotions was out of the question; the effects of the drug still lingered in her system.
An entire bottle of aphrodisiac had been used by her predecessor. Forget a person, even an ox wouldn’t be able to withstand it. Otherwise, Imperial Physician Zheng’s cooling pills would have been enough.
Chun Gui hesitated for a moment before going to wake Zheng Yi. She groggily opened her eyes. “What’s wrong with Her Highness?”
Seeing that she still remembered she was supposed to be watching over the Princess, Chun Gui’s expression softened slightly as she explained the situation.
Zheng Yi quickly said, “We do have the incense the Fuma wants. I’ll go get some.”
Chun Gui waved her hand. “No need. I’ll have someone fetch it.”
After Chun Gui left, Zheng Yi looked Chi Wan up and down, then said, “I had thought the Fuma only knew some ancestral remedies, but it seems you truly understand medicine.”
Fuma Chi Wan was nothing but a profligate. In the past, when the Marquis’s Residence fell into decline, they had still doted on her, even selling off family assets to pay her gambling debts. Everyone in the capital knew the Fuma had two great loves: gambling and wine. She lost every bet and was drunk every day.
Such profligacy wasn’t actually top-tier in the capital. What made her infamous was her infatuation with the princess. Everyone knew she liked the princess, and because of this, whenever she went to pleasure quarters, she would only drink and gamble.
Zheng Yi felt that such an infatuation was a disgrace to Her Highness the Princess. Besides, compared to the princess’s other admirers, Chi Wan would probably rank somewhere outside the capital city. Countless people mocked her for her foolish delusion, a toad lusting after a swan’s flesh. And yet, in the end, she had actually become the Fuma.
Although Chi Wan was good-looking, she was a beast in human form—no good at all.
After this person became the Fuma, the long-declining Marquis of Huai’an’s Residence regained its power. The Marquis of Huai’an’s family had recently been ennobled and were enjoying a great deal of prestige.
Relying on Chi Wan’s status as Fuma, the House of Huai’an had committed many wicked deeds outside, forcing good people into prostitution, annexing commoners’ fields, and beating citizens at will. Zheng Yi didn’t know if the princess was aware of these things, but she was. Chi Wan had even spread malicious rumors, speaking of her private affairs with the princess.
But she had just examined the princess and found her to be a virgin. With a Fuma like this, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for the princess.
If she wasn’t mistaken, Chi Wan was also the one who had drugged the princess. However, after interacting with Chi Wan today, she was beginning to think those rumors might not be true.
Perhaps it was true that you couldn’t judge a book by its cover. After all, hadn’t the reigning Emperor Shengyuan of Great Zhou favored his share of treacherous officials?
Zheng Yi suddenly found herself interested in this scoundrel of a Fuma, which was why she had initiated the conversation.
Chi Wan raised an eyebrow at Zheng Yi. This girl had been pretending to be asleep.
She had thought Zheng Yi was just a seventeen or eighteen-year-old girl, but now it seemed that seventeen or eighteen-year-olds in ancient times were not to be underestimated.
In the modern era, seventeen and eighteen-year-olds were mostly battling the college entrance exams. In ancient times, they could already manage a household, and the geniuses had already passed the imperial examinations and secured official posts.
In short, she couldn’t compare the seventeen and eighteen-year-olds of the modern era with those of ancient times, lest she find herself being played for a fool.
So Chi Wan merely glanced at Zheng Yi and sat back down on the soft couch without a word. She had just transmigrated; the more she said, the more mistakes she would make. It was better to keep quiet.
A short while later, Chun Gui returned, followed by several maids. They began the process of preparing the incense.
Once the calming incense was lit, Yu Jiuzhou fell into a deep sleep again. Only this time, she slept peacefully, the frown that had been creasing her brow finally smoothing out.
Chi Wan lay back down on the soft couch. The heated chamber was too warm, so she only covered her stomach with a corner of the blanket.
Her brain had been running at high speed all day, and after performing acupuncture for so long, her nerves were taut. The moment she stopped thinking, she quickly fell asleep.
In the early morning, Yu Jiuzhou awoke. This time, she was very calm. Having figured out that she had been reborn, her emotions were naturally no longer in turmoil.
She never would have imagined that after immolating herself and being reborn, the first person she would see was the very scoundrel of a Fuma she had carved into a human swine.
In the dead of night, Yu Jiuzhou’s mind had been in turmoil. She had thought this so-called new life was a delusion, and in her daze, she even believed she had entered hell.
Some said that partners would be together even after death. The thought that she had only killed that scoundrel but never formally divorced her meant she might be entangled with that scum even in the afterlife.
If that were the case, how could a new ghost win against an old one? That was why, the moment she saw Chun Gui, she had screamed for her to kill Chi Wan. Even an old ghost had to die again!
Waking again, Yu Jiuzhou looked at the concerned Chun Gui and pinched Xia Qu’s arm. Only then did she know it wasn’t a dream or a hallucination—she had truly been reborn.
When she saw Chi Wan on the soft couch, she drew the dagger from Xia Qu’s waist. She hesitated for a long time before finally plunging it into the couch.
But the woman was sleeping so soundly that she didn’t even stir when the dagger was driven into the couch right beside her ear.
Chi Wan had been terrified. In truth, she had woken up the moment Yu Jiuzhou drew the blade.
She was gambling. Gambling that Yu Jiuzhou wouldn’t act against her. As the Grand Princess, she surely had a clear understanding of the emperor’s intentions and the court’s dynamics. Unless she wanted to be exiled from the capital, far from her imperial father and mother, and sent to a remote fiefdom.
In the novel, Yu Jiuzhou had endured for a long time before cutting off her predecessor’s limbs. Chi Wan felt that the current situation wasn’t as bad as in the novel. At least she hadn’t actually done anything to Yu Jiuzhou, and the princess wasn’t crippled. In that case, it was even less likely she would strike now.
But if, as she suspected, Yu Jiuzhou had been reborn, then the princess already hated her predecessor to the bone. That was all the more reason not to open her eyes.
It was better to keep them closed. If she opened them, the dagger would be plunged straight into her head.
However, she trusted that Yu Jiuzhou wouldn’t be so reckless. Besides, after transmigrating, with her physical fitness and sharp senses, she could still dodge if she felt the other’s killing intent. Opening her eyes, on the other hand, would complicate matters. After weighing the options, it was best to keep her eyes closed for now.
Seeing that Yu Jiuzhou truly hadn’t struck, Chi Wan breathed a sigh of relief. A cold sweat had broken out on her body. She waited a moment longer before cautiously opening her eyes.
The dagger was right before her eyes, less than two centimeters away. Her heart, which had been beating steadily, began to pound. The blade was so close that the slightest movement would likely cause her to touch it.
Chi Wan feigned a terrified expression. “An assassin!”
Xia Qu pulled the dagger out, her tone mocking. “The Fuma is far too timid. How can you be frightened by a single dagger?”
Anyone would be scared with a dagger at their neck.
Chi Wan quickly got up from the couch and looked at Yu Jiuzhou, changing the subject. “Your Highness is awake. After such an ordeal, you should have something to eat, but it must be light. In a quarter of an hour, you can take your medicine.”
Yu Jiuzhou stared at her coldly, her face devoid of emotion, making one’s heart flutter with unease.
At this moment, Yu Jiuzhou’s body must have been in great discomfort. She appeared fine on the surface, but her internal organs had been seared by the poison—her heart, her stomach, her lungs. Even though the poison was neutralized, her body was still severely depleted.
Yu Jiuzhou had no strength right now. The slightest hint of hunger felt like a fire burning in her stomach. If not for the immense suffering she had endured on her escape back to the capital in her past life, which had taught her to withstand extreme pain, she would not look so composed.
In the spring of the twenty-eighth year of Shengyuan—next year, by the current calendar—she had gone to Xuanyang Temple to pray for the nation on behalf of her imperial father. But someone had set fire to the temple, spreading rumors that the Grand Princess was unworthy of praying for the nation and that this was a punishment from the heavens.
Xia Qu had escorted her away from Xuanyang Temple, only for them to be ambushed by assassins. She had suffered a leg injury and had to disguise herself as a beggar. She had made it back only because Xia Qu had pulled her on a wooden plank.
And the culprit who had assassinated her, pursued her, driven her into peril, and nearly taken her life was none other than this scoundrel, Chi Wan.
