BERW - Chapter 1
Chapter 1
Half-conscious, Shen Yuyao saw swaying lantern shadows. Someone stood beneath the lantern light, solemn and upright.
The air seemed thick with the aroma of food, yet the surroundings were eerily quiet.
What was going on? Was she dreaming?
Having worked overtime several days in a row, she had collapsed the moment a cold wind hit her on the way home. As a corporate drone, whenever Shen Yuyao thought of her empty rented room while feverish, she could shed a river of bitter tears.
When on earth would she ever get to retire!
Even in a dream, she could not get a good one. What the hell was this? At least the food looked tasty, quite exquisite.
Shen Yuyao swallowed. Her stomach burned; it seemed she had not eaten in ages, starving beyond endurance. Eating in a dream counted as eating, did it not?
Thinking that no one would even order takeout for her, Shen Yuyao shed another river of bitter tears. Sooner or later she was going to quit that useless company, and that insufferably annoying boss!
"Don't think that just because you are the Crown Prince, you can do as you please!"
Just as Shen Yuyao reached out for the food, an angry shout rang out, and in that instant it was as if an invisible barrier shattered. The distance between Shen Yuyao and the "dream world" abruptly closed.
Startled by the sudden shout, Shen Yuyao flinched, goosebumps rising along the pale, delicate back of her hand.
Hmm? A pale, delicate hand?
She remembered that over the summer, her idiot boss had sent her to a construction site for a covert inspection, and she had darkened by two shades, never managing to whiten back even by winter. And even the original her had not had skin this fair!
These slender jade fingers, skin like congealed cream, could not possibly be her body!
The moment Shen Yuyao realized this, her head gave a throb, and in an instant it seemed a dozen years had passed. In her mind surfaced the brief half-life of a young girl who shared her surname and given name.
The Great Zhuang Empire had stood for fifty years since its founding. The current Emperor, Shen Chong, had reigned for exactly twenty years. He was a good emperor, governing Great Zhuang so well that it flourished daily, already showing signs of a golden age.
Rather than the nation's strength, people preferred to gossip about other royal matters, such as how this emperor had far more children than the Late Emperor.
Shen Chong had seven imperial princes and eight princesses. Over the long river of history, a dozen or so children would not rank among the foremost, but Shen Chong was better than other emperors in one respect: he knew when to stop.
Since the eighth princess's birth, ten years had passed with no further issue from the Inner Palace.
At the same time, Shen Chong placed great importance on his legitimate sons. The moment his eldest son was born, he named him Crown Prince. The Crown Prince, Shen Zhuocong, was the prince he most admired and loved. Among his sons, he loved the Crown Prince best; among his daughters, he loved the seventh princess born of the Noble Consort, none other than the Original Owner, Shen Yuyao.
Having absorbed this premise, Shen Yuyao breathed a sigh of relief. Transmigration was not frightening. It was already 2023; if she still made a fuss over transmigration, she would seem not quite modern enough.
But the opening hand after transmigration mattered a great deal. If she had transmigrated into a displaced pauper, she would truly rather have killed herself quickly and reincarnated cleanly.
Shen Yuyao's memory absorption took very little time. To others, she had merely spaced out for a moment. Ordinarily this sort of thing was nothing, but on this occasion it seemed a little strange.
This was a clan banquet.
Everyone sat at separate tables. Within the great hall were the Emperor Shen Chong, the Empress Zheng Wanwan, the Noble Consort Qu Yanyue, the Crown Prince Shen Zhuocong, and a dozen or so named Imperial Consorts; the remaining princes and princesses were all present as well.
Ordinarily, such a clan banquet at the Mid-Autumn reunion would be nothing out of the ordinary.
But this time, because of the Crown Prince's affair, the banquet's mood was suffocating. The Emperor was furious, and everyone sat in their seats with necks drawn in like quails unwilling to face trouble head-on.
Amid that flock of quails, Shen Yuyao, staring blankly and expressionless, even reaching out for food, was like a lighthouse beacon on the sea, conspicuous beyond conspicuousness.
The Empress, frantic with worry, saw Shen Yuyao's movement and, grasping at any straw, spoke directly: "Yuyang is hungry. Why don't we eat first and discuss the rest afterward? It wouldn't do to let the children go hungry over some trivial matter."
At that single sentence, everyone's gaze flew, openly or covertly, toward Shen Yuyao, who still looked utterly bewildered.
Yuyang? Oh right. The Original Owner's enfeoffed title was Princess Yuyang. People generally addressed the Original Owner by her title rather than her name.
Wait a moment. If you are hungry and want to eat, just eat. Why drag me into it? Shen Yuyao pursed her lips. Her head was still somewhat foggy.
Everything was happening too fast; she could not quite react.
So she spoke up directly. "I think going hungry a little while is no great matter. Eldest Imperial Brother's affair is more pressing. The position of Crown Princess has been vacant a long time, and now Eldest Imperial Brother has someone he loves. Isn't that a fine thing?"
We are gathered here today for the Mid-Autumn Festival, and even more because the Crown Prince wants to stir up trouble.
Not that it really counts as trouble. The Crown Prince wanted to give the woman he loved the position of Crown Princess. To Shen Yuyao, there was nothing improper about that.
"Your Highness, Yuyang speaks without thinking and has offended Your Highness and the Crown Prince. Your servant will take Yuyang away to discipline her. We take our leave."
The moment Shen Yuyao's words landed, the Noble Consort Qu, sitting beside her with a proud air, spoke up. Though hers were words of apology, she said them with perfect assurance, not yielding an inch of presence before the Empress, even carrying a hint of enjoying the show.
To the Empress's eyes, this sight was enough to make her vision go black with rage.
Before Shen Yuyao could process what had happened, her own mother had brought her out of the hall. Afterward, people took their leave one after another, and soon there would likely be few left inside.
Standing at the great hall's doors, Shen Yuyao looked back. Inside were the father and son of the Imperial House; the Empress was also on her way out.
In the vast palace, only the Crown Prince stood at the center, his head lifted defiantly as he looked at his father, like a warrior doing battle with fate.
Wow. Truly moving love.
Shen Yuyao offered this praise in her heart, entirely without feeling.
"You have actually improved somewhat today. Enough, let's go quickly. The Crown Prince's joke is not a pretty sight to see. Careful your Father does not spank you."
A hand landed on Shen Yuyao's turned little head and straightened it. Her own mother's face, a beauty that could topple cities and kingdoms, came into view.
Faced with her own mother's words, Shen Yuyao suddenly did not know how to retort.
The Original Owner was nearly of the age for her coming-of-age rite. How could the Emperor possibly still spank her? Besides, now the Crown Prince was charging out in front. Even if the Emperor was furious, he would spank the Crown Prince. Why hit her?
She was not about to serve as a stand-in for the Crown Prince.
"Mother Consort, why exactly is Father angry?"
Seeing that Qu Yanyue was about to board her palanquin, Shen Yuyao hurried after her to ask.
Qu Yanyue was a Noble Consort, and her palanquin was very spacious, so it was not cramped when Shen Yuyao climbed in.
The Original Owner and Qu Yanyue were on excellent terms. Qu Yanyue shifted to make room for her and reached out to gather her precious daughter into her arms.
Shen Yuyao instinctively nestled into Qu Yanyue's embrace. The motion was perfectly smooth, as though she had fully merged with the Original Owner.
"I told you not to keep spacing out, but you would not listen. Did the Crown Prince not say earlier? He wants to marry a palace maid of the Eastern Palace named Qiluo as his Principal Consort."
"A palace maid?" Shen Yuyao was shocked. What was going on, a romance novel shining into reality? A Crown Prince and a little palace maid, a real-life Cinderella?
No, wait. Cinderella was an earl's daughter, whereas a palace maid of the Eastern Palace, if she had originally served in the Inner Palace, was very likely a Descendant of a Convicted Minister; if she had been bought from outside, she might be a girl whose parents had both died or whose family was truly impoverished.
"Yes, a palace maid. If Consort Qin learns of this, neither the outer court nor the Inner Palace will be stable." Qu Yanyue said quietly to Shen Yuyao.
Though she spoke of instability, her tone brimmed with excitement, rather like someone who never thinks a spectacle is too big.
Shen Yuyao remembered. This Crown Prince was no chaste-as-jade paragon of male virtue from a romance novel. Three years earlier, he had already taken Chancellor Qin's granddaughter, Qin Shujun, as his Crown Prince's Senior Consort.
"How strange. Chancellor Qin's daughter cannot be Crown Princess, yet a palace maid is to be made Crown Princess?" Now Shen Yuyao was a little puzzled too. What sort of bizarre feudalistic maneuver was this?
The Crown Prince had left the position of Crown Princess vacant. For whom exactly was he keeping it?
Chancellor Qin had actually agreed back then to let his own granddaughter become the Crown Prince's Senior Consort? Though the Crown Prince's Senior Consort was of the Upper Third Rank, in the end she could only be counted as the Crown Prince's concubine, not his lawful wife.
Shen Yuyao now felt a little like she was reading a vernacular story. Thinking about these things gave her no sense of reality at all; she even felt like cursing whichever brainless, life-inexperienced screenwriter had dreamed up this plot.
"That is why your Father is angry. The Empress was driven out too. It seems this matter will not end easily. If the Crown Prince can come to his senses and abandon this unrealistic notion early, then fine. But if he cannot, and his temper turns stubborn, even if your Father forgives him, the great ministers of the Court of State will not settle down so easily."
Having said this much, Qu Yanyue was nearly laughing aloud. As long as she could watch the Empress become a laughingstock, she felt happy.
Shen Yuyao, for her part, was somewhat worried about the Crown Prince. In her memory, that Crown Prince had treated the Original Owner quite well. The siblings' bond went without saying, even stronger than the Original Owner's with her own full brother, the third prince.
Come to think of it, was Qu Yanyue this happy because she wanted her son, the third prince Shen Qingjin, to contend for the throne?
Having taken over all the Original Owner's memories and feelings, Shen Yuyao quickly blended into this environment.
She had no choice but to blend in. The Inner Palace was about to become unstable, and even as a favored princess she could not keep herself out of it. If she did not start using her head, she could only wait to be schemed against later.
She did not even have to wait for later. Just now at the banquet, if Qu Yanyue had not fished her out in time, she likely would have been schemed against by the Empress.
The Emperor was already seething with rage. If he loved the Crown Prince more than his other children, he would very likely vent his anger on the other children, and the first to suffer would be Shen Yuyao.
Fortunately Qu Yanyue was there, and the Emperor was not the sort whose temper rose and clouded his head; otherwise Shen Yuyao would likely have become the greatest scapegoat.
In truth, if she were a princess with no presence, she would not need to think about so much. After all, if the sky fell, there would be someone taller to hold it up.
But the abundant favor she carried destined her to be, in others' eyes, that taller one.
Night fell. Shen Yuyao returned to Yongkang Hall, where Qu Yanyue lived.
Qu Yanyue sent people to keep watch over the Tinglu Waterside Pavilion, where the banquet had been held, wanting to get first-hand intelligence. Shen Yuyao planned to think carefully through the Original Owner's various circumstances and blend fully into the new environment as soon as possible. She yawned, said she was sleepy, and went back to the Side Hall to sleep.
Then, while washing up, she accidentally used too much strength and poked a hole in the bronze basin. Looking at the leaking basin, she fell silent.
How could the Original Owner's pale, tender fingers have such hard bones?
No, that is not right. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The bronze basin was punctured, so why was her skin not injured in the slightest?
Other people's Overpowered Gift upon transmigration was a system; hers was Bronze Skin and Iron Bones and boundless strength?
Ridiculous. Utterly, wildly ridiculous.
Shen Yuyao could accept that one of her brothers in the new world was Romance-Brained, but she could not quite accept doing a tough man's deeds while wearing the skin of a soft girl.
No, wait. Even a tough man could not, with one finger and a light poke, pierce through the bottom of a bronze basin one or two centimeters thick, could he? Just what breed of monster was she?
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