TGPSAC – Chapter 20

The scene was incredibly awkward. No one had expected that Her Highness the Princess wanted to kill the Fuma so badly she was talking about it in her dreams.

Chun Gui wanted to cover for the princess, but the intent behind her shout was too obvious. It wasn’t a mumble in her sleep; if it had been an indistinct murmur, she could have glossed over it. But now, what could she possibly say?

“Um, Fuma… Her Highness didn’t mean that.”

Chi Wan waved her hand. “No need to explain. I understand.”

She comforted herself inwardly: the person Yu Jiuzhou wanted to kill was her predecessor, not her.

After a moment of silence, she said, “Move Her Highness to the bedchamber. The heated chamber is too stuffy.”

The heated chamber had only one window, and it was filled with their scents. It was getting too hot, which wasn’t good.

Chun Gui nodded immediately. “Someone, light the stove in the bedchamber.”

“Open the windows even if you light the stove.”

Chi Wan added as a reminder, then sat down on the soft couch. Her body was still in great discomfort, but she could only endure it.

When a Qian Yuan’s scent was provoked by a Kun Ze, if it wasn’t released in time, it could easily damage the body. If she hadn’t used silver needles to seal her own acupuncture points, she definitely would have lost control and done something to Yu Jiuzhou.

Chi Wan suppressed her body’s discomfort and braced herself to follow the others into the bedchamber.

Some lit the charcoal, others burned incense, and someone else placed a sealed foot warmer at Yu Jiuzhou’s feet.

Yu Jiuzhou’s brows were tightly furrowed, as if she were having a nightmare. Chi Wan lightly touched the space between her brows with a fingertip and watched them gently smooth out.

The people around them were busy and didn’t notice her small gesture.

An idea for a medicinal formula suddenly occurred to Chi Wan. It could be made into a plaster and applied to the glands of Qian Yuan and Kun Ze, which would largely prevent their scents from leaking out.

During a Kun Ze’s Rain and Dew Period, they could apply the plaster and take the medicine she prescribed. Even if they couldn’t leave their homes, they wouldn’t have to suffer so intensely, confined to their chambers to wait it out.

Previously, Kun Ze relied on Pacifying Pills and Cooling Pills to get through their Rain and Dew Periods, or they simply had to endure it. After marriage, they relied on a Qian Yuan’s mark. In truth, not everyone could afford such pills. The family of a minor official who lived honestly on their salary, without engaging in business or accepting bribes, certainly couldn’t afford to use them regularly. They had to rely on common medicinal draughts. As the Rain and Dew Period approached, the medicine would be kept simmering in a pot, and they would drink three doses a day until the period ended.

Plasters designed to block the release of scents did exist in this world, but their effects were mediocre, and they required extremely fine medicinal ingredients.

The formula she had just thought of, inspired by her treatment of Yu Jiuzhou, would be much more effective than the experimental medicines she had tried before.

Chi Wan didn’t have a deep understanding of this world’s scents. Only after the recent outburst, when the scent had raged through her own body, did she truly grasp what it was. It was a natural phenomenon, not induced by drugs, and was different from treating an aphrodisiac.

She mulled over the relevant formulas and the names of various medicinal herbs in her mind.

Nearby, Chun Gui, having finished her tasks, was observing Chi Wan’s expression. The princess’s dream-talk had frightened everyone. No one dared to say anything. Her Highness still needed the Fuma’s treatment, which gave them even less room to speak.

Chun Gui was terrified that Chi Wan might get angry and end Her Highness’s life with a single silver needle. So when she saw Chi Wan standing perfectly still, lost in thought, she breathed a sigh of relief. As long as the Fuma didn’t fly into a rage, everything was negotiable.

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Lying on the bed, Yu Jiuzhou dreamed of the humiliation of her past life. She wished she could slice Chi Wan into a thousand pieces. Even if she tortured Chi Wan to death, in the days that followed, the mere thought of that person made her sick to her stomach.

That person was her nightmare, the beginning of all her tragedies. No one could forgive the scum who had caused their downfall. Perhaps seeing Chi Wan so many times in the past two days had brought back memories of those humiliating times.

After Yu Jiuzhou had her gland gouged out and was crippled, her Imperial Father’s attitude toward her grew cold. For a time, she believed his coldness was because of this incident. Only later did she understand it was because she no longer had any use.

Ever since she was ruined, her Imperial Mother had given up on herself, handing over palace affairs to the Noble Consort and refusing to leave her own chambers. Her Imperial Father rarely visited, and her mother sank deeper into depression each day, until she was angered to death upon Prince Bao’an’s ascension to the throne.

The consequences of not having a gland were irreversible. She could not have her own children. To many officials, having no heir meant having no future, and they would not support such a person.

This meant that as soon as she was gone, her power base would crumble. In the end, it was for this reason that her subordinates betrayed her, leading to her final demise.

Even so, she had fought Prince Bao’an to a standstill. To lose in the end simply because she had no heir—she could not accept it.

Without a gland, the daily physical pain was like a severe toothache that could neither be pulled nor cured. Every day she had to endure this agony, as well as the strange looks from others. Even though she was the Grand Princess, those disgusting gazes still fell upon her.

Her mother had lived a life of sorrow, and she had lived a life of humiliation and pain. The culprit behind all these tragedies was Chi Wan. No matter what Chi Wan did, she would not forgive her. She would never forgive her.

At the end of the dream, Yu Jiuzhou saw a sky full of flames. She had immolated herself in the Great Zhou’s ancestral temple as a final act of defiance. In her daze, she couldn’t tell if it was reality or a dream. She thought she was experiencing it all over again as her body grew hotter and hotter, the roasting sensation becoming unbearable.

She snapped her eyes open. Her hazy gaze stared at the bed canopy for a stunned moment before she felt a fingertip lightly touch her forehead, then withdraw. When her vision cleared, she saw it was Chi Wan, smoothing her brow.

Yu Jiuzhou’s eyes turned cold, her gaze stabbing toward Chi Wan like a knife. She tried to shout, “Get away!”

But the words never reached her ears. It was as if she were still dreaming.

Yu Jiuzhou struggled to sit up, but no matter how much she thrashed, her body wouldn’t move. Her mind was perfectly clear, yet she was unable to stir, as if trapped in a nightmare.

She tried to open her mouth to call for Chun Gui, but her jaw wouldn’t obey. She could only struggle with all her might, trying to break free from the nightmare. Some called it being pressed by a ghost, but even against a ghost, she would gain the upper hand. She would never allow herself to lose control of her own body.

Unable to call for Chun Gui, she looked at the face closest to her and shouted with all her hatred, “Chi Wan!”

Then, Yu Jiuzhou startled awake. This time, she was truly awake. Seeing the surprised expressions on the faces of Chi Wan and the many maids, she knew she had just called out those two words aloud.

Yu Jiuzhou: “…”

She had heard herself say those two words. It sounded as if she couldn’t bear to be apart from Chi Wan. It wasn’t filled with the hatred she had intended; in fact, it sounded almost affectionate.

Chi Wan raised an eyebrow. Surely Her Highness the Grand Princess wasn’t that inseparable from her, was she?

“Your Highness, your subject is here.”

Chi Wan’s response made Yu Jiuzhou’s face darken. Her gaze turned into a blade; if looks could kill, Chi Wan would already be cold and dead.

To have called out Chi Wan’s name in such a heart-wrenching, tender way in her sleep—Yu Jiuzhou’s sense of shame exploded. She didn’t know what it meant to have one’s defenses broken, but she knew she could not accept having called Chi Wan’s name in such a tone.

“Get out! All of you, get out!”

Chi Wan helplessly took out a silver needle and swiftly inserted it into one of Yu Jiuzhou’s acupuncture points. “So fierce. Your Highness had better sleep a little longer!”

Her temper was too volatile. If it triggered the scent that had just calmed down, it would be disastrous.

As expected, a woman on her period is not to be trifled with.

Chun Gui and the other maids watched this scene in shock. There was something they wanted to say, but they didn’t know if they should.

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