Chapter 191 - 187: Damn Dog_1
Chunniang boiled three large pots of hot water and used a basketful of plant ash to thoroughly scrub her son clean.
Seeing her son’s body all red and tender, she asked worryingly, “Did I scrub too hard and break the skin?”
“No, I’m off to my master’s place.” Jiang Wu quickly dressed and dashed out of the courtyard.
In the west room, Yingbao was examining a few large transparent leaves before crushing them into a paste using a stone mortar. She mixed in some honey and water from the Pupil Spring, thus creating the Body Strengthening Tea.
After some thought, she added some rose juice to color the concoction red, then poured it into several porcelain bottles.
With the addition of colour, Jiang Wu probably wouldn’t mistake it for honey tea anymore.
Finally, she picked up a lotus-shaped bud, sniffed it and was overwhelmed by an indescribable aroma that was even stronger than the leaves.
After some thought, Yingbao popped the bud into her mouth, chewed it, and swallowed.
A warmth then spread from her chest to her limbs, causing her head to shiver.
Her vision went black, and she collapsed onto the bed, her consciousness seemingly pulled into another space.
It was a space similar to a dreamland or the inside of a glowing object, filled with thick fog. Before her lay a large, glimmering book.
The book then opened slowly.
Before Yingbao could get a good look, the words transformed into streams of light, rushing into her mind and assaulting her memory with a flood of information.
Many faces flashed before her eyes, including her adult younger brother, herself, Chen Tiantian, Chen Zhao, Wen Tian, Wen Jiao, and many others she didn’t recognise.
Among these scenes, she saw herself getting married to an unclearly characterized martial general.
After their wedding, the general was extremely cold to her and seldom returned home, preferring to stay in his own yard when he did.
Later, the emperor died, and his six-year-old son succeeded him, lifting the Empress to the position of Empress Dowager.
Soon after, various vassal kings rebelled. In order to quell the rebellion, the Empress Dowager and her supporters conferred the rank of Duke Chu on the general and allowed him to handle state affairs. Due to his achievements, his rank was raised to the King of Chu, also taking up the role of Secretariat.
A few years passed and peace was restored. The general often frequented the inner court of the Imperial Palace and would often not return home at night.
One Mid-Autumn Festival, the general was invited to the palace for a feast.
Late at night, a group of eunuchs from the palace bearing lanterns arrived at Yingbao’s residence with a pot of wine, ordering her to drink it.
Yingbao, knowing the wine was likely poisoned, struggled and refused, but the eunuchs forced it down her throat. She then died.
Afterwards, Yingbao saw the general never marrying for the rest of his life, without any offspring, conscientiously assisting the young Emperor, and always around the Empress Dowager
Yingbao’s consciousness slowly returned, and she opened her eyes to find herself still in bed.
She could still clearly remember the contents of the book.
“So that’s how it is Qian Gong Tian Jiao,” she said.
Indeed, she was merely a throwaway character exploited by the protagonists.
The novel mainly told the story of the female lead, Chen Tiantian.
It described how her family met with disaster, how her mother Han Yueniang remarried, and temporarily sent her to live with her aunt and uncle.
The female lead, Chen Tiantian, was kind and sweet, often bullied by her cousin Chen Zhao.
Eventually, Tiantian’s real mother managed to find a firm footing in her new family and had Tiantian return to the Prefecture City. It was here that she met and fell in love with the male lead.
Among the narrative were also entangled feelings involving a number of male and female supporting characters who were frequently causing misunderstandings between the male and female leads.
One year, Tiantian was chosen in the selection process and entered the Imperial Palace to serve as a concubine to the ailing prince.
But with her intelligence, beauty, and kindness, she quickly won the prince’s favor and gave birth to his only child.
The plot went on to describe the death of the Emperor, the ascension of the new Emperor, and how he too would soon pass away, leaving only a mother and child.
The Emperor had but one son, the son of Chen Tiantian.
Therefore, with the help of the Xiaoshi clan, her mother’s birth family, the six-year-old son ascended the throne, and Chen Tiantian, as was only natural, became the Empress Dowager
Yingbao rubbed her temples and sat up, infuriated at the plotline in her head, pounding the covers in anger.
Why should she have to suffer the indignation of that lousy man oaf?
She was even killed by that couple in the end.
The ending of the book ridiculously claimed that they had gone through many hardships and finally got together, everyone praising them for their talent and beauty, made for each other.
What a load of rubbish!
And that damn main male character, she’d have to go mad to marry such a man!
What’s the name of that bastard again? Why can’t she remember?
Yingbao tapped her forehead, trying hard to recollect the plot.
But no matter how much she tried, she could not remember who that person was, including what kind of family he had, she had a completely blank impression.
How could this be?
She remembered all the other characters, including the supporting, male and female characters, but couldn’t recollect his household.
Was this an intended pitfall in the book’s setting to catch her off guard?
Hmph! She doesn’t need to remember, and she won’t marry anyone in the future!
But why is the plot different from her previous life?
Is it because she wasn’t taken back by the Chen Family this time, so she was given a different role?
Yingbao died at the age of 21 in her last life, and this time, the plot had arranged for her to also die from poison at 21.
This damn novel really didn’t give her a chance to live.
But she wouldn’t believe it!
She won’t get married in this life, she’s curious to see if she would die at 21 this time around.
“Chunniang! Chunniang!”
Aunty Jiang Yunniang came in from outside, knocking on the window lattice and calling out, “Are you at home?”
Yingbao emotionlessly pushed open the window, “Aunty, mother is not at home.”
Every morning, Chunniang would take Youyou to water and weed in the vegetable garden, or sometimes visit the pepper garden.
When she was not at home, it was Chuchu and her mother who took on the tasks in the fruit and vegetable gardens including picking peppers and drying pepper seeds.
Every now and then, her family could harvest over ten pounds of pepper seeds, the profit wasn’t inferior to golden ears.
Jiang Yunniang studied Yingbao for a moment and suddenly asked, “Yingbao, you are five years old this year, aren’t you?”
Yingbao nodded.
“Five is not young, you can start helping out at home. See what time it is? The sun is high up in the sky and you’re still in bed.” Jiang Yunniang complained. “My Hong Xiao is only six, and she can help at home with washing dishes now·······”
Just as she was speaking, Chunniang came back from outside with a basket of cleaned vegetables. She heard her elder sister speaking ill of Yingbao and was displeased, so she hurriedly asked, “Sister, have you eaten yet?”
Jiang Yunniang turned around, smiling, “I’m back. I ate at mom and dad’s. I was just about to come to talk to you.”
Chunniang: “Oh, we haven’t eaten yet.” With that, she headed towards the kitchen.
Jiang Yunniang also followed, looking around at the kitchen in her third brother’s house and remarked, “Your kitchen is really nice. You even have a sink for washing dishes. Hey? There’s also a bamboo pipe underneath, the dirty water can flow out of the wall. Who thought of this idea? I will let Alang make one when I go back.”
Chunniang didn’t say anything but just cut the cleaned vegetables, mixed some dough, and lit the fire to cook dumplings.
Jiang Yunniang sat down on the stool, gathered her thoughts and asked her sister-in-law, “Chunniang, how did it go with the shop? Have you discussed it with Sanlang?”
“Sanlang and I don’t have any discussions about it. The shop belongs to Baobao. If she lets her first cousin and second cousin help her manage it, it’s a matter of her being kind to her siblings. Sanlang and I shouldn’t interfere with that.”
Chunniang tossed a few stalks of firewood into the stove then fetched some eggs. She planned to add them to the soup once the water was boiling.
Jiang Yunniang’s face darkened, “Chunniang, no disrespect, but you guys are spoiling the kid too much. It’s such a big shop, and you let her, a few years old child, mess with it. What does she know?”