Quick Transmigration: Saving The Crazy Villainess

Chapter 157: Jiang Ying Yue (64) <3-in-1>

Hai Wang ascended the throne with the court's full support. He did not take Sheng Lingxin as his Empress. In fact, he did not marry anybody in his first two years which probably became the only major dissatisfaction of the retainers toward him.

Most likely due to the dreams she had when she was in a coma, Sheng Lingxin seemed to have a sudden change of heart. However, in this lifetime, it seemed she was destined to always chase but never catch up. The difference was that this time, it was her fault that the person who used to like her so much was now no longer looking at her the way he did before.

Fate managed to straighten her out into realizing she was destined for Hai Wang, but sadly it was already too late. Not even fate would be able to make a prideful male lead accept someone who made him feel like he a joke for so long.

With this said, the female lead would forever remember the memories from her dreams and the pain in her chest... And at the same time, forever remember disliking Hai Wang for a year and liking him for a lifetime.

On whether they would still end up with each other if she put effort for a few years, who knows?  

After Hai Wang became Emperor, which only became possible because someone had to assume responsibilities as soon as possible, the first thing he did was postpone both his official crowning ceremony and paying of respects to the heavens. He prioritized arranging a grand funeral for the previous Emperor. And then he executed the main characters of the rebellion, including the Marshal and the fourth prince, then awarded those he should, and promoted those he should.

People who heard of his deeds began to praise him from dusk to dawn and vice versa. The male lead became very popular to the masses, each household mourned for the passing of the previous, but celebrated the takeover of the crown prince. After all, he was someone who could easily summon rain and bless the land, simply ordained by the heavens. He was even filial and wise. What was there to be dissatisfied about?

The Zhao Empire was definitely destined for greatness under his rule, which made the people excited.

As for whether these all still had anything to do with Chen Wang and his people? Well...

...

Fifteen days later...

...

Jade Forest City was what locals usually called as the central city of the Southern region. Fifty miles on its east side laid a huge rain forest and a fifteen meters wide river had to be crossed to get there. There were huge and tall mountain race terraces on its north. The latter helped ensure that the city would never run out of crops to harvest.

In all of the Zhao Empire, Jade Forest City was not one of the richest economically, but it was definitely one of the places with the best natural scenic wonders. Add to this the fact that it was a place safeguarded by the prince-general's army. It could be said to be a haven for many, a place of both security and carefreeness.

In such a city, a huge event just happened.

Red lanterns and dozen banners with the word Eternal Happiness written on them were hanging up everywhere. The largest estate in the city had those filling it inside out, making it exceptionally alive and full of positive energy.

It was dusk, the night sky was already peeking from the east since the sun was now descending on the opposite side. Yet the area around the estate showed no signs of getting silent. It was the opposite. Laughter and joyful music were still playing and the drums were as loud as ever. Countless people were congregating outside as if there was a festivity.

"There are so many stalls... It's like there's really a festival." Xiao Lu whispered to herself as she looked around and feasted her eyes on the heartwarming and magnificent sight. She held her round fan in front and let its cloud embroidery covered her giggling mouth. Her eyes were twinkling in happiness though. Just like everyone else around.

"There are more people than stalls. In fact, it seems all citizens have guarded outside the new Chen Wang Residence. His Highness is really loved here, ten times more than in the capital." Mao Hong exclaimed then passed a stick of apple candy to her. "This one's delicious. Eat it while it's still hot."

"Oh. Thank you, deputy general." With a smile on her delicate face, Xiao Lu accepted the stick being offered to her.

The man shyly scratched the back of his head due to that cute expression. He felt awkward since he was not the type to buy somebody candies and sweets, but he decided to do something to get close to this betrothed of his, the girl match made to him by Lady Ping'An, now Chen Wang Fei.

It had been ten days since the matchmaking happened and it was when they were still on their way to the borders. Who knew he would end up quite liking the girl?

Now here they were, strolling the streets after watching the wedding rites.

Xiao Lu and the rest were sent away by the shy bride so here she was with Mao Hong, on their first date.

"His Highness should be still busy accepting wines from the male visitors..." He murmured while taking a bite of his own food.

The girl gave him a sideways glance and laughed at his reddening face. She only thought the guy was quite shy and foolish. This must be because he had been surrounded by soldiers since childhood and had less contact with girls. This made the deputy a bit easy to tease though.

She continued strolling the street with the man walking by her side, commenting at his remark, "Could be. But we're just servant and should not gossip about our master's affairs." She then jokingly added, "But if you do it secretly, maybe it's okay to imagine it in your head. We will understand."

'Understand what? Wait, What's to imagine? His Highness getting drunk and being teased by the other guests?'

The man's mouth turned into an O, which rendered the playful girl laughing. Seeing his speechlessness, she added, "Alright. I'm just joking. Deputy is so handsome and cute, please smile more."

Jiang Li's right-hand man fell a bit speechless, thinking,

'Who knows this girl's actually like this... She's cute but very frivolous. It's hard to guess her real personality because all day long, she looks meek and respectful to Lady Ping'An. Does she know her words are easy to misunderstand? What if she's talking to somebody who thinks in advance? Like me. Cough.'

Mao Hong repeatedly cleared his throat then focused on finishing his snacks. His boss said if he wanted a lifelong commitment with someone, he must first make the effort to know her. So here he was, trying his best to get along with Xiao Lu. So even though he was complaining in his head, he still went on with the tour and enjoy the one day vacation granted to them by their masters. He had to endure Xiao Lu's playfulness and teasing though. But well... 

...

Within the manor filled with banners, lanterns, and merrily laughing people...

Unlike what Mao Hong was expecting, Jiang Li was not with the guys and toasting wines with them. He fled from the boisterous hall, not intending to play the fool for others in this precious day.

'Besides being boring and annoyingly noisy, they obviously have bad intentions. Why would I let those people get me dead drunk.' He scoffed at the thought, hoping those people there who tried to swarm him with wine cups end up the ones dying from drunkenness instead.

Even if the newly ascended Emperor was one of them, he left them at the banquet hall and searched for his bride. He left all the work to his clan members and mother. Anyway, if he doesn't want to say, nobody there, not even the male lead would be able to detain him.

"Your Highness?" Jiang Ying Yue, dressed in all red, looked shocked when he appeared at the doorway of the bridal chamber. She was probably wondering why he was already here when the night had yet to come. Usually, grooms would only come to the bridal chamber when it was passed 9 pm, sometimes even midnight, drunk and barely conscious.

The girl was sitting on the bed's edge, but on a stool in front of the table dresser, in her hands was a guqin which appeared quite old. If he remembered correctly, it was something she retrieved from the Marshal's family.

She was no longer wearing her veil or the heavy decorations on her head. She must probably be planning to only wear them again before his estimated time of arrival.

With nothing to obscure her face, he could see that makeup was applied on her. And he laughed out loud because even though she still as stunning as ever, the makeup was just too exaggerated, as if the person who applied it on her wished she would look uglier on her wedding day instead.

Jiang Ying Yue smilingly explained, seemingly not offended by his laughter. "Madam Lu is the one who did my makeup today. She said she'll reluctantly accept me if I let her so I happily accepted the offer. Does His Highness dislike my face now? I know it's not exquisite. But please believe in your heart that Madam Lu wants to wish Your Highness happiness."

He shook his head until his laughter died. "My mother is childish and sometimes narrow-minded, I'll talk to her tomorrow. But for now, which one do you want to do first? Wash your face or eat?"

He included the latter because he knew the troublesome custom in this era and thought it would not be nice to let Jiang Ying Yue starved.

"Your Highness sneaked in food?" she asked in curiosity. To this, Jiang Li's left eyebrow rose. "Those people made sure I'm far from the table of food. So none. Let's just go outside, before leaving, Mao Hong told me there are many stalls right outside the manor."

She thought for a moment then nodded. She had him wait outside while she fixed herself and after a few minutes, she came out with a simple dress on, and a lightweight veil over her face. For some reason today, she didn't want to leave the guqin behind so she brought it with her.

"Let's go."

She didn't ask how they would leave the tightly guarded manor since she knew the man would use the usual way, showing off his accomplishments in qingong.

Not even a minute passed, and they were already at the back alleys. With a turn, they entered the sea of people bathing under the soft glow of the lanterns and lamps and drowning in the happy laughter and smiles.

"It's weird, right? On occasions like this, even though the one getting married is not them, they can easily share happiness." Jiang Li laughingly said at the blushing girl.

She couldn't answer because he pulled her away, not to dive into the bustling streets, but to the direction opposite it.

Jiang Ying Yue blankly stared at her hand that was being held tightly by the man. After a while, she blinked and asked, "Your Highness, I thought you're going to treat me for food. The stalls are there."

"Later."

The girl found him unbelievable that what this illustrious prince meant with later was buying him some buns on the stall they passed by and then continued bringing her to somewhere she doesn't know.

'Maybe our finances are tight?' She mused, remembering she had an agreement before with His Highness to earn a city-worth of dowry. She hadn't fulfilled it yet.

Feeling ashamed, she then started to think of ways to help the estate make more money. Unaware that if Jiang Li discovered what she was thinking, he would definitely laugh at her and remind her that the Emperor had just awarded them with more than ten thousand taels of goal.

"We are here," he said after ten minutes of walking.

It was a lake. And there were many lit up lanterns floating on its still water surface. Quite the sight to feast on, especially since it was reflecting the countless stars above together with the moon. Plus, there were thousands of fireflies flying slowly on top of it, a few gathering around the stand-alone pavilion.

Jiang Ying Yue looked around the place and then gasped. She recalled that one year ago too, they saw something similar. However, even though there were no other people around, it was still more beautiful. The fact that there were only two of them here made it more special... It was not their secret place since it would surely be open for the public on the next day, yet at this moment, she knew the man arranged it exclusively for her.

'I probably saved a country before to gain His Highness' affections,' she unconsciously said to herself. The girl found it hard to calm her racing heart and had to jokingly say to ease the mood, "Your Highness, it is such a lovely surprise, a pity, you did not put a blindfold on me before showing this."

Jiang Li's eyes turned round, but he would never admit that the idea skipped his mind. He looked away from her and replied, "If the intended result shows, then it's all good."

She smiled, not moving her gaze away from him. One of this guy's amazing traits was his ability to hide his emotion. But because he was like this that it was okay to make countless guesses about his current mood.

Was he embarrassed? Or really nonchalant about it? He was a puzzle. But even though he was, at least there was one fact which she was confident about, he was now her partner in life, her husband.

If she didn't clutch tightly on the string instrument, she would probably collapse by now, or cry, from too many emotions. All the sufferings and belittlement she went through for the past years, maybe there was a reason for those. Maybe it was true that when things seemed to be falling apart, they were actually falling into place.

"I brought you to somewhere nice. Won't you at least return the favor with a poem or song?" he asked with a smile when he noticed her state.

Jiang Ying Yue unconsciously ran her fingers through the strings, creating sounds that disturbed the serenity of the place. As if something suddenly surfaced from the back of her mind, she stilled and then looked at Jiang Li. "Your Highness, I just remembered, a few nights ago, I had a very vivid dream where I saw myself holding a strangely white piece of paper. It has several symbols on it, written in very thin fine lines not made through brushes."

The man automatically turned his head to her, his face showed intrigue. She looked down at her guqin and started plucking some strings there. At first, she was frowning because she was not getting some notes right.

He was looking at her action with interest.

She put on a thoughtful expression. "The symbols overlap with the rows of horizontal lines and below, there were many characters similar to the ones you taught me. However, the words don't make sense to me. But I think the words the girl sang correspond to those written there."

Jiang Li's lips curled into a grin. "Do you remember what she wore? And what she sang?"

She nodded. "My memories work fine even though it's a weird dream. I can't describe her attire." She never stopped testing her instrument, and when she seemingly found the correct note, she began playing a melody not from this era's style.

"In another life..." She began, in her face, she looked like somebody who didn't know what she was saying, like those Korean fanatics from his country who kept singing Kpop songs without ever knowing what the lyrics meant.

However, Jiang Li understood what the words meant. If only she looked away from the strings once and glanced at him, she would see shock crossing his face briefly.

"I would be your girl.

We keep all our promises

Be us against the worlds."

The reflection of the moon was seemingly right beside them as they stood next to the waters. As the girl continued playing and singing, he was there standing next to her, almost reaching out a hand to hug her.

"In another life

I would make you stay..."

The man then froze, in his mind, he saw the woman before him in her usual housewife attire, a pair of jeans and an oversized T-shirt, her hair tied in a bun. Na Yu was not a singer, but he taught her a bit how to compose and sing. She easily learned thanks to her enviable brain. He remembered that she did not even take a day to master how to read notes.

So this was how she applied the knowledge acquired from him? Because he passed away first so she wrote a song promising she would go after him in the next life?

"So I don't have to say you were the one that got away."

As if to answer the question he had yet to ask, she sang.

In this lifetime, Jiang Ying Yue had good singing skills for being trained since young, so the melody produced was like a masterpiece, extremely moving.

'It's like she's protesting that I left her early. But doesn't she know I saved her in this life?'

Jiang Li was inwardly complaining, but he felt warm. It was not the lanterns giving off some heat to them who were standing in the open pavilion which was unsheltered from the natural coldness of the wind and the night.

The words were too beautiful but it did not make him want to cry. Instead, pettiness blossomed in his heart. And so as if to take revenge against her who almost made him lose his composure, her made her repeat the song again. After reasoning he didn't get the song but feel like he heard the words somewhere, he made her repeat it again for five more times.

"Done. Your Highness..."

"Another. It is for research purposes."

She glared at him, "Why do I feel like you're simply addicted to listening to unknown language?"

He laughed and without regards to her pouting face, he ordered her to sing for the seventh time. If only he could, he would tell her that he couldn't get enough listening to her promise.

But anyway, because of this song that definitely came from Jiang Ying Yue's past incarnation, he was finally sure of one thing. It doesn't matter if his ever-so-annoying system confirmed it or not.

He finally found someone who could possibly go through all the worlds with him.

...

<END>

NO MORE EXTENSION :P