Blame the Villain – Chapter 77

Villainous Crown Prince (19)

Before going to sleep, Song Xuyi summarized the experiences of the first day.

Overall, on this day, Nie Qianyu’s performance completely exceeded Song Xuyi’s expectations. Song Xuyi did not expect Nie Qianyu to go to such lengths to deal with those ministers, it seems no matter how much she struggles, she is not angry!

However, Song Xuyi did not believe that Nie Qianyu would continue to have her good temper on the first day, there will always be an adjustment period.

After encouraging each other with the system, Song Xuyi decided to work harder on the second day.

So, recalling the appearance of the enchanting concubine on TV, Song Xuyi came down barefoot from the bed and hugged Nie Qianyu from behind: “Your Highness, today my menstrual cramps are killing me, don’t go to court, can you stay with me for a while?”

Song Xuyi spoke in a charming voice, causing goosebumps to rise on her own. She originally thought Nie Qianyu would despise her lack of understanding of the situation, but she did not expect Nie Qianyu to pause for a moment, actually nodded and said “okay,” then carried Song Xuyi back to bed. She then ordered for the morning court to be canceled again and had reports brought to the bedroom to start working in the bedroom.

The female officials who witnessed everything almost had their eyeballs fall out.

Song Xuyi also did not expect that Nie Qianyu would actually accommodate her in this way, making it difficult for her for a while:

Her body has always been good, and her reaction during her menstrual period was not significant. However, now that things have come to this, she could only reluctantly drink a bowl of brown sugar water under Nie Qianyu’s gaze, lying on the couch lazily watching Nie Qianyu work.

Nie Qianyu, who was working seriously, had a different kind of charm on her that seemed omnipotent. Song Xuyi couldn’t help but glance at her a few more times.

Perhaps it was because Nie Qianyu was truly too beautiful, for a moment, Song Xuyi felt that staying by Nie Qianyu’s side peacefully in the passage of time didn’t seem so unbearable…

But it was just a fleeting moment.

Nie Qianyu quickly noticed Song Xuyi’s gaze, looked up, and asked, “What’s wrong?”

“My stomach hurts!” Song Xuyi pretended to be coquettish again, taking advantage of the situation to groan, “Your Highness, can you come over and massage me?”

Song Xuyi clearly heard the female officials around her gasp in cold air.

Song Xuyi pouted coquettishly on the surface, but in her heart, she burst into laughter: now Nie Qianyu would surely be annoyed with her, right?

To her surprise, Nie Qianyu actually put down her pen upon hearing this, took the hot water bag from the maid next to her, and sat beside Song Xuyi…

The eyeballs of the female officials on the side were almost falling out, and Song Xuyi herself was taken aback.

However, Nie Qianyu seemed to not notice the reactions of those around her. She furrowed her brows slightly, carefully massaging Song Xuyi’s abdomen with the hot water bag, softly asking, “Feeling better?”

It must be said that Nie Qianyu’s massage technique was excellent. Song Xuyi almost unconsciously wanted to praise it, but then remembered the mission to “make Nie Qianyu find her annoying.” She quickly swallowed her words, mumbling, “Just so-so!”

However, even so, Nie Qianyu was not annoyed. She raised her eyebrows, massaged Song Xuyi for a while, and then sat back next to the table.

Song Xuyi was deliberately causing trouble, blinked, and not long after, she groaned again, “Your Highness, my stomach hurts again…”

However, this time, Song Xuyi still did not receive the anger she was hoping for.

Nie Qianyu instructed something to the female official next to her, the female official nodded and left. Nie Qianyu then patiently massaged Song Xuyi’s stomach again…

After this kind of teasing two or three times, after lunch, the female official led a physician in.

The physician naturally couldn’t figure out what was wrong with Song Xuyi, so he could only advise her to rest more and prescribed a bitter calming tonic for Song Xuyi to rest.

Song Xuyi did not expect to end up hurting herself, but since things had come to this, Song Xuyi could only reluctantly drink the bitter calming tonic that night. However, adhering to the principle of making Nie Qianyu find her annoying, Song Xuyi pulled Nie Qianyu’s sleeve and insisted that Nie Qianyu feed her the tonic, accidentally spilling it on Nie Qianyu…

However, besides furrowing her brows, Nie Qianyu did not show any annoyance towards Song Xuyi, remaining gentle and kind, not even scolding Song Xuyi.

At that moment, Song Xuyi felt even more guilty for bullying someone.

And the effects of the calming tonic quickly took hold.

During this time, Song Xuyi was busy developing gunpowder, fighting against Wu Country, and engaging in mental battles with Nie Qianyu. She was mentally tense, but thanks to the calming tonic, Song Xuyi finally slept soundly.

In her dream, she was locked in a dark place, with a cold embrace behind her. In a half-conscious state, someone whispered softly in her ear, with cold liquid dripping on her neck: “Xuyi, rest assured, I will definitely survive and find you…”

Immediately after, it seemed like the sound of an iron door opening, and a bright light shining in front of her.

……

Is this her original memory?

She slept this night for an extremely long time, only waking up when she was hungry.

Looking at the faint red glow on the horizon outside the window, Song Xuyi realized that she had slept until the early hours of the next day.

It was still early, and the room was very quiet. Nie Qianyu was not sleeping on the bed, but rather lying face down on a small table full of memorials. It seemed like she had been busy all night…

Following the plan to “make Nie Qianyu dislike her,” Song Xuyi had originally intended to wake Nie Qianyu up.

But looking at the obvious dark circles under Nie Qianyu’s eyes nearby, and remembering Nie Qianyu’s indulgence during the day, Song Xuyi ultimately couldn’t bring herself to act. Suppressing the system in her mind that was shouting “slap her face,” thinking that there was still time in the future, Song Xuyi bit her lower lip and quietly closed the door to go to the kitchen to find something to eat.

However, Song Xuyi was unaware that almost as soon as she closed the door, Nie Qianyu, who was lying on the small table, opened her eyes: Nie Qianyu looked at the eyes outside the door with a smile in her eyes, showing no signs of tiredness.

Song Xuyi found the maid on duty in the small kitchen, as if she already knew that Song Xuyi would be hungry when she woke up. Nie Qianyu had already instructed the maid to warm up food for Song Xuyi on the stove.

Eating the porridge that had been warmed overnight, Song Xuyi’s feeling of guilt reached an unprecedented height. She behaved quietly and properly all morning without causing any trouble.

However, even though Song Xuyi wanted to settle down, there were some things that forced her not to.

In the past day, Song Xuyi’s arrogant behavior due to favoritism had spread throughout the entire palace. After Nie Qianyu set off for the morning court, the Emperor sent someone to ‘discipline’ Song Xuyi. Listening to the words of the female official representing the Emperor who specifically admonished her “not to be arrogant due to favoritism,” that suffocating feeling once again emerged from deep within Song Xuyi’s heart.

She absolutely did not want to live like a bird in a cage!

So when Nie Qianyu returned at noon, Song Xuyi gently and virtuously went to serve soup to Nie Qianyu, then ‘accidentally’ spilled the soup on Nie Qianyu’s body…

However, just like before, Nie Qianyu unconditionally tolerated Song Xuyi, not only not blaming her but also first holding Song Xuyi’s hand to check for any burns…

No matter how Song Xuyi troubled her, Nie Qianyu passed it off with indifference.

For a time, news of the Crown Prince’s deep affection for Song Xuyi, to the point of losing his principles for her, spread throughout the entire country of Wu—

After almost half a month of turmoil, Song Xuyi finally lost her temper with Nie Qianyu.

Has the childhood experience of yielding to adversity been ingrained in her bones, hence why Nie Qianyu unconditionally tolerates her?

However, Nie Qianyu is not at all merciful when dealing with others: knowing that the Emperor had sent a female official to find Song Xuyi, Nie Qianyu directly used the Emperor’s illness as an excuse to send him to a certain manor to be imprisoned; Nie Qianyu also didn’t yield any ground on the battlefield and now has taken over most of the Lishui Country.

Everything seems to follow the original plot’s development, but there are some differences. The Nie Qianyu in front of her didn’t carry out the assassination as described in the plot summary. Instead, she ordered the Wu Country’s army to take the city without causing harm to the civilians as much as possible. She also listened to Song Xuyi’s advice, strictly requiring the soldiers to not engage in pillaging and burning according to the law.

Song Xuyi faintly sensed something in her heart, but she didn’t want to think deeply about it: seeing the territory of the Lishui Country shrinking, it seemed that the Wu Country would soon occupy Lido. Song Xuyi became increasingly anxious, but trapped in the palace of the Wu Country, there was nothing she could do.

In Song Xuyi’s anxious wait, one day, while she was wandering around the Wu Country palace to gather information about the terrain, a maid seemed to accidentally bump into her and quietly handed her a note.

Song Xuyi read the contents of the note while bathing.

The maid claimed to be a spy sent by the Lishui Country, demanding that Song Xuyi must steal Nie Qianyu’s military token within three days and deliver it to a certain location, otherwise they would kill her mother.

Song Xuyi pursed her lips: if this maid was truly from the Lishui Country, then she could not be unaware of Song Xuyi’s true identity. This mission was likely a trap, and Song Xuyi had no intention of following their instructions.

But the note revealed some very useful information for Song Xuyi. The writer of the letter cautioned Song Xuyi to destroy the note as soon as she finished reading it, as Nie Qianyu had some unpredictable means of knowing people’s secret plans.

This could explain why Nie Qianyu was always one step ahead on the battlefield.

Song Xuyi tore up the note, soaked it in water, and patiently waited for the agreed-upon day to arrive.

Sure enough, when they saw that Song Xuyi did not take the bait, those people sent someone to contact Song Xuyi again, but they did not expect Song Xuyi to slip a note into their hands.

Back and forth, the people behind the scenes realized that Song Xuyi was not easy to mess with and gradually gave up on plotting against her. When Song Xuyi revealed her desire to no longer stay in the palace of the Wu Country, they were extremely happy. They even agreed to Song Xuyi’s request and sent a secret letter to Wang Mian.

After receiving Wang Mian’s reply and seeing the unique secret code on the letter, Song Xuyi breathed a sigh of relief and roughly understood the identities of those who contacted her on behalf of her grandfather.

In fact, everything could be attributed to Nie Qianyu being too outstanding.

Several high-ranking officials’ daughters in the court were enamored with Nie Qianyu at first sight, determined to marry him. However, in recent years, Nie Qianyu showed no interest in women, causing these noble ladies to wait eagerly for him to change his mind.

Upon Song Xuyi’s arrival, these noble ladies thought they saw hope and immediately urged their elders to submit proposals to have them enter the palace as concubines. However, Nie Qianyu rejected all proposals.

If Nie Qianyu had not favored any women before, it would have been fine. However, as news of Nie Qianyu’s love for Song Xuyi spread from the palace, how could these noble ladies not feel upset?

The fathers of these noble ladies thought even deeper. The Emperor of the Wu Country was senile, and it was difficult for him to wait for a Crown Prince who could make the Wu Country strong. How could they allow the Crown Prince to indulge in sensual pleasures again? Moreover, since Song Xuyi was from the Lishui Country, these ministers were even more worried that the Crown Prince would be swayed by beauty. After their daughters’ requests, they calculated that their plan would push forward as well.

Therefore, these people understood Nie Qianyu’s methods so clearly…

With the assistance of these individuals, Song Xuyi’s actions were much more efficient, and she quickly made plans with Wang Mian to escape from the Wu Country in disguise.

All of this did not involve verbal communication; everything was done through written exchanges.

After learning about Nie Qianyu’s excellent intelligence-gathering abilities, Wang Mian even began using written communication in his camp. Through this form of communication, the army of the Lishui Country finally won several battles on the front lines…

Because Wang Mian was Song Xuyi’s grandfather after all, Nie Qianyu had always left room and not taken drastic measures, planning to subdue Wang Mian and convince him to surrender. However, she did not expect Wang Mian’s resistance to be so fierce. Nie Qianyu had to expend more energy on the battle and did not notice Song Xuyi’s covert deployments.

Everything was ready, just waiting for the favorable wind, and that wind soon arrived.

Nie Qianyu’s menstrual period came.

Unlike Song Xuyi, who had been well-fed since childhood, Nie Qianyu had been exhausted from a young age. When she first had her menstrual period, she was not properly cared for. Furthermore, she had been consuming poisonous pills to change her voice, leading to the roots of her illness. Not only was her timing for her menstrual period extremely inaccurate, but every time she experienced it, she would suffer unbearable pain.

When she was not by Song Xuyi’s side before, Nie Qianyu had toughed it out. However, now with Song Xuyi by her side, Nie Qianyu did not want to endure it anymore.

Nie Qianyu has actually been secretly using medicine over the years in an attempt to regain her lost memories. The medication had been ineffective in previous years, but during the time spent with Song Xuyi by her side, Nie Qianyu suddenly began to have intermittent flashes of memories. Upon seeing these images, Nie Qianyu felt intense jealousy towards the Nie Qianyu who had been cared for by Song Xuyi, always wishing that Song Xuyi would show more tenderness towards her current self…

When Song Xuyi opened her eyes and saw Nie Qianyu, pale-faced and tightly biting her lip in a curled-up position, she was greatly shocked.

After hearing that Nie Qianyu had endured half a night of pain without wanting to wake her up, and seeing how weak and increasingly beautiful Nie Qianyu appeared due to her suffering, Song Xuyi’s heart trembled strongly.

“Just wait a moment.”

Song Xuyi sighed, pursed her lips, lowered her head, and faced Nie Qianyu’s incredulous eyes. She reached out to comfort Nie Qianyu, then went out and had a palace maid summon the imperial physician, requesting a large quantity of blood-nourishing and calming medicines in her own name.

On this day, Song Xuyi unexpectedly displayed a gentle demeanor.

Nie Qianyu greedily observed every expression of Song Xuyi, feeling as if she were dreaming. She obediently drank the medicine Song Xuyi fed her, watching as Song Xuyi gently covered her own stomach with a hot water bag and softly whispered, “I know you are very capable, but your health is also important. You can’t neglect your body like this in the future. Don’t dwell too much on things, and remember to rest…”

Nie Qianyu curved her lips, held Song Xuyi’s hand, wanting to tell Song Xuyi that with her encouragement in the future, she would definitely take good care of herself. Unexpectedly, as the effects of the medicine rushed in, Nie Qianyu’s head felt heavy and she began to lose consciousness…

In a daze, she realized something and stared at Song Xuyi, only to see the young girl smiling as she tucked up the blankets for herself, her eyes clear: “Sister Qianyu, I actually quite like you, but I don’t want to be a bird in a cage. I have more important things to do, just like you. We both have our own missions…”

After that, Nie Qianyu couldn’t hear what Song Xuyi said.

She found herself immersed in a strange and surreal dream, with all the memories from her childhood to the present flooding into her mind:

She recalled everything between herself and Song Xuyi, understood the “mission” mentioned by Song Xuyi, and realized the reason her subconscious mind was desperately trying to conquer Lishui Country…

When she woke up, it was already a day later.

Song Xuyi had orchestrated everything well, pretending to indulge in pleasures with Nie Qianyu all night, and ordering others not to disturb them. No one noticed Song Xuyi’s absence, and no one knew that she was a woman…

After two days of fruitless searching for Song Xuyi, the subordinates knelt trembling before Nie Qianyu, fearing her anger. However, Nie Qianyu smiled and sent all the troops she had kept as a reserve to the battlefield, even personally leading the troops!

Currently, the military strength of Wu Country is nearly twice that of the Lishui Country. Lishui Country is already at its weakest point, and with the enemy’s forces pressing in, it is only a matter of time before they are completely conquered.

The Emperor of Lishui was terrified, and once again sent an envoy to request for peace.

The envoy originally had little hope, nervously standing at the steps. However, they witnessed the crown prince tear up the peace treaty that was handed to him with a calm and unhurried manner…

“I don’t want to see a peace treaty, I want to see a marriage contract.”

“If you want peace talks, that is also fine. Let your Eldest Princess Song Xuyi come for a marriage alliance…”

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The author has something to say:

Song Xuyi (shrugging, bewildered): So, did I escape from the palace just to end up lonely?

This story is coming to an end. In the next chapter, deceived celestial embraced by mortals*the black-hearted lotus false righteous master.

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LP: Re-translated on April 29, 2024

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