Arc 1: Princess Substitution Arc

Chapter 1.1

I’m not gonna say much since I’m still busy but THIS, I gotta say…..

Xuan Yuan Rui is such a scumbag!

And thank you, Panda for pointing out my mistake! （＊＾Ｕ＾）人（≧Ｖ≦＊）/

天氣漸涼，轉眼就到了飄雪的冬日。

The weather was getting colder and in the twinkling of an eye, it was winter.

Su Wan’s health gradually recovered under the care of Physician Si who sincerely took care of her regardless of the price. She began to frequently appear in a high-profile manner in various banquets held by officials. All the government officials and juniors in the capital felt as if it was their first time recognizing Su Wan. In the winter of silver and white, she always wore a red palace dress. It was simply too dazzling and gorgeous. Though her complexion was still somewhat pale, this paleness served as a foil to her exquisite facial features.

Thanks to the previous owner’s good luck, she possessed such beautiful and charming appearance which let Su Wan feel even more like a stranded fish put back into water. In the past when Su Wan rarely went out, there was only that man named Xuan Yuan Rui. Now, Su Wan gradually exhibited the original owner’s talent and virtue that were overlooked by people. Not much time passed before she became the most popular and accepted figure in the capital.

Though, concerning those rumours of Xuan Yuan Rui, they have already been forcefully suppressed by the people dispatched by the Yue Wangfu. However, it was still secretly the subject of talk of the common people who also took delight in talking about it. A lot of people waited and observed Su Wan’s residence, and also waited to see Xuan Yuan Rui as a joke.

If it was said that the past 20 years of Xuan Yuan Rui’s life was smooth-sailing, then ever since Su Wan left and Ye Zhi Hua became his rightful wife, his life had been full of inconveniences.

Ye Zhi Hua was starting to be afraid of even her own shadow and afterwards, she even constantly had hallucinations.

 “Wangye, please forgive me for speaking bluntly but Wangye, your Eight Characters and Wangfei’s are incompatible and not at all suitable together. If you still want to obstinately continue to be together, making light of being plagued by troubles, the weight of it…….you won’t be able to protect your life a!”

At the words of the Taoist Priest, Xuan Yuan Rui flew into a rage!

If it wasn’t for Ye Zhi Hua’s help and if it was just himself, he fears that he would have been killed off at an earlier time by Xuan Yuan Qing, that wolf cub with a savage heart. How can her Eight Characters with his ne?

When they were getting married, he looked for the people from the Board of Astronomy to agree to the Eight Characters.

Eight Characters, Eight Characters……

Xuan Yuan Rui consoled himself that it was the senior Taoist priest who was mistaken.  However,…..when he thought how he recently had been coming across all those annoying matters lately, Xuan Yuan Rui also felt some hesitation.

What if, what the Taoist priest said was true ne?

Otherwise, how could it be so coincidental that ever since they both got together, he kept encountering inconveniences and Ye Zhi Hua was also plagued by a strange illness?

After worrying over it for a few days, he dispatched people to the Board of Astronomy and Ye fu to secretly investigate. Once he received the fruits of the investigation, he was greatly surprised.

Ye Zhi Hua’s Eight Characters were fake!

The Eight Characters that she gave to the bureau when she married in was actually Ye Zhi Jin’s! As the investigation went deeper, the matter of Ye Zhi Hua changing her Eight Characters with Ye Zhi Jin, and the matter of Ye Zhi Hua using Ye Zhi Jin to be her replacement in her marriage with Xuan Yuan Qing were all, without exception, exposed.

For a moment, Xuan Yuan Rui’s whole person was somewhat confused–

Why did Zhi Hua want to deceive him?

Back then, was it only because she didn’t want to marry Xuan Yuan Qing ne? In this place, where there any other conspiracies?

When it comes to Xuan Yuan Rui, he was also a master at employing schemes and intrigues. Otherwise, how could he still mix around with and rise up among the royal family ne?

With upsetting things coming up one after another, Xuan Yuan Rui’s mind that was muddled with romantic love, started to get clearer and his IQ directly followed. This deep thought made Xuan Yuan Rui’s whole body break out in cold sweat–

If everything from the beginning was a ruse, then how frightening is the black hand behind the scenes of the whole situation?

So, a schemer who loves to imagine excessive imaginations will result in this.

Ye Zhi Hua’s liveliness did not last a day. Originally, Xuan Yuan Rui would still go over to accompany her everyday. His soft and tender words helped her terrified heart feel at ease and calm down but nowadays, because he held some doubt and misgivings towards Ye Zhi Hua, slowly, Xuan Yuan Rui rarely appeared in Ye Zhi Hua’s courtyard.

This kind of change happened quietly. At first, Ye Zhi Hua was still ignorant. After a long time, she finally panicked and was unable to take care of her own tired and sick body. She kept intruding into Xuan Yuan Rui’s study because she wanted to meet him but as a result of their meeting, they naturally parted on bad terms.

It’ll soon be the end of the year, the rulers of various vassal states all needed to return to the capital to report. Xuan Yuan Rui had long heard a rumour, realising that many juniors of the Imperial family were fighting for Su Wan’s attention and that Su Yu Feng will be returning after a month to report back to the royal court. For the sake of calming Su Jia, the selection of a marriage partner was completely in Su Jia’s hands!

Once he thought of how his childhood sweetheart was going to marry and be someone else’s wife, Xuan Yuan Rui’s mood became extremely irritable.

Recently, he had been doing his best to avoid meeting Su Wan but he still caught sight of her a few times from afar.

In his memory, she was always a weak and gentle young girl but now she was bright and enchanting. She said that Physician Si’s medical skills were superb but Xuan Yuan Rui did not expect that Physician Si would lower his principles just for Su Wan. Su Jia’s 100 year old medicine that had been handed down for many years was used to treat Su Wan which let her body gradually recover. Now, Su Wan can already live a life just like any other normal person and can even get married and bear children.

Every time he thought till here, Xuan Yuan Rui was burning with jealousy. The young girl that he treasured for so many years, he had never touched her before and afterwards had to bear the joy of other men. This scene was just a thought but Xuan Yuan Rui felt that he couldn’t accept it!

It can be said that at this moment, Xuan Yuan Rui felt some regret.

However, he did not regret that time when he abandoned Su Wan and banished her to the cold yuan. He only regret letting her leave that night and didn’t try to keep her.

When all’s said and done, according to the situation at the time, Su Wan still had deep feelings for him. As long as Su Wan stayed in Yue Wangfu, Su Jia will stand on his side.

Seeing that the day Generalissimo Su’s return to the capital was getting closer and closer, the forces of various parties were eager to make a move and Xuan Yuan Rui finally couldn’t help but give a call card.

The call card was immediately sent straight to Su Rui’s hands by the steward.

Looking at the large, flamboyant-styled handwriting on the invitation card, Su Rui only laughed with some disdain: “This Xuan Yuan Rui has a really thick face.”

Seeing Su Rui’s bad mood, the manager who was standing beside him immediately meekly asked: “Young Master, should we refuse Yue Wangfu’s people?”

 “No, don’t refuse.”

Su Rui narrowed his eyes. He stopped restraining himself and a suffocating feeling filled the whole room in the blink of an eye: “There are too many unsightly people. Finishing them off all at once is also a good deed.”

The dim yellow candlelight fell on Su Rui’s face. Right now, his eyes were extremely ruthless which made the steward, who was used to seeing his gloomy expression, involuntarily shiver in fear. He knew that right now, the Young Master wanted to start a war in earnest. He was afraid that some people were really going to suffer now….