Chapter 21: Sensing Chu Xingchen’s hostility, she had already pretended nothing was wrong, completely changing her usual demeanor.
Zhang Susu’s body originally belonged to Su Yingxue, who had been pampered since childhood—no wonder this body was so delicate that even a slight pull would leave red marks.
“This Palace only remembers that you once saved This Palace, and you were injured because of This Palace. Feeling guilty, I… applied medicine for you,” Su Yingxue bit her lip.
Su Yingxue said softly, “Lie back down. There’s still one wound that hasn’t been treated. After applying the medicine, This Palace will leave!”
“Apply medicine? How could such a trivial matter trouble Your Highness the Eldest Princess?” Chu Xingchen said coldly. “Your Highness may leave the medicine and depart. For a slave to share a room with Your Highness could easily damage Your Highness’s reputation. Please maintain your dignity.”
Hearing this, Su Yingxue saw Chu Xingchen’s handsome face cold as ice, filled with disgust and wariness, and realized this wolf cub wasn’t easy to deal with and wasn’t willing to accept her kindness.
Indeed, the System’s tasks weren’t easy to complete. Trying to erase the psychological shadows the Original Host left in the young Chu Xingchen’s heart and replace them with her current sunny, cheerful, gentle, and caring self would probably be quite difficult.
It seemed Su Yingxue’s path to survival through Chu Xingchen would still be long and challenging.
Though she sensed Chu Xingchen’s hostility, Su Yingxue had already pretended nothing was wrong, instead completely changing her usual approach.
She put down the ointment, smiled brightly, and clapped her hands. Soon, the palace maids waiting outside entered carrying wooden trays filled with brocade clothing, exquisite shoes and socks, undergarments, jade hairpins and pendants, and brocade quilts and cotton blankets, lining them up before him.
“Chu Xingchen, This Palace has said that from now on, you are This Palace’s Younger Brother.” Su Yingxue wasn’t accustomed to him constantly referring to himself as a slave. These past few days, she had learned the whole story from Qiushuang.
The former Su Yingxue, on a snowy winter night with thick snow covering the ground, had forced servants to strip Chu Xingchen naked, pressing his bare upper body into the snow while she flogged him.
Su Yingxue, wearing a warm fox-fur coat, laughed as she whipped his bare back stroke by stroke, then stepped on his scarred back, lashing him until his blood stained the ground red.
Later, that lonely, untamed youth like a wolf, flogged by her day after day throughout the winter, finally one day gritted his teeth and yielded.
Su Yingxue personally watched him, pale and covered in wounds, his lips purple from cold, kneeling in the snow with his upper body bare, shivering uncontrollably while kowtowing to beg her to calm her anger, calling himself her slave.
That day, Su Yingxue left satisfied, smiling.
From then on, Chu Xingchen was her slave.
The youth recalled these unbearable memories, his fists clenched tightly under the covers, even his eyes unable to suppress their fury. Yet his words were: “The Eldest Princess is noble. This slave is unworthy of such honor.”
This outcome was within Su Yingxue’s expectations. She looked at Chu Xingchen with pity and sighed—he was just a young man after all.
“Younger Brother, Elder Sister knows you’re unwilling to accept the atonement I wish to offer now. You suspect This Palace has ulterior motives.” Su Yingxue sighed, then continued softly, “These clothes and brocade quilts were newly made for you by the palace staff.”
“You don’t need to return to your original palace.”
“If Younger Brother dislikes Elder Sister helping you apply medicine, Qiushuang, later go find a clever palace maid to assign to Younger Brother’s window to serve him with applying medicine, washing, bandaging, and meals.”
“Younger Brother, if there is anything unsatisfactory, tell Elder Sister, and Elder Sister will find ways to help you,” Su Yingxue said lightly. “If you dislike Elder Sister being here, Elder Sister will leave now. In the future, if there is anything you need, send someone to notify Elder Sister.”
“Thus, Younger Brother, rest well and recover from your injuries.” Su Yingxue, accompanied by Qiushuang, walked out from under Chu Xingchen’s deep and probing gaze, seemingly without looking back.
After she and the group of palace maids left, Chu Xingchen got up and saw the array of items on the table, his expression turning cold.
He recalled Su Yingxue’s tear-streaked face just moments ago, looking pitiful and delicate—was it truly like that? A wave of annoyance rose in Chu Xingchen’s heart. Could she really be so kind-hearted?
Chu Xingchen felt the fabric of the clothing—it was indeed of the finest quality. He then looked at the cotton and brocade quilts, as well as the jade pendant and hairpin—all truly top-grade, valuable items.
Forget it. Regardless of what schemes Su Yingxue might be plotting, in these days before his great undertaking is accomplished, he would comply with her wishes and behave for a few days. As for the future—what Su Yingxue and the Dasheng Kingdom owed him, Chu Xingchen, and what they owed the Da Qi State—one day, he would rely on his own strength to wash away every past humiliation and reclaim everything that was once lost!
“System, you’ve been dormant for so long, why is there no reaction at all?” Zhang Susu, having been rebuffed by Chu Xingchen, returned to the Main Hall and lay down on the bed without a second thought, reflecting to herself. “This mission is not easy at all. Up to now, I haven’t even met the mission target.”
“System, now just dealing with a Chu Xingchen who hates me to the bone already feels extremely difficult to handle, let alone Mo Yunsheng from the original work, who is as pure and noble as Yuanchai Lilan, and equally intolerant of evil?” Su Yingxue lay down on her brocade couch, murmuring softly.
These past few days, Zhang Susu had been trying hard to recall the interactions between the second male lead and the original host, Su Yingxue, in the original work. Every time, the second male lead was filled with hatred and disgust toward Su Yingxue, this notorious Eldest Princess.
The second male lead, since childhood, was the legitimate son of a wealthy family in the capital, full of talent and dedicated to serving the court. Pure and noble, filled with righteousness, like all censors in the world, he was naturally dissatisfied with Su Yingxue, a notorious, powerful royal relative who abused her authority to bully others.
Moreover, how could the Dasheng Monarch, Su Qinhuai, protect his youngest sister out of personal bias, disregarding heavenly justice and allowing her to tyrannize?
Therefore, in the novel, whether before or after Mo Yunsheng encountered Su Yingxue, he was always filled with extreme disgust toward her.
How exactly should this deadlock be broken?
For the first time, Zhang Susu felt that surviving in the Dasheng Kingdom under the identity of Su Yingxue was truly not easy.
While reading the novel, Zhang Susu understood that the original author, in order to highlight the passionate love between the male and female leads, deliberately portrayed the villainous female antagonist Su Yingxue as obsessive, crazy, malicious, cruel, and brainless. This was to contrast with the female lead Su Liyue, who was as pure and flawless as glazed jade, gentle, kind, innocent, and romantic. After all, with such a malicious female antagonist as a foil, wouldn’t the female lead’s romantic journey be smooth sailing?
But now, even though Zhang Susu had grasped Mo Yunsheng’s preferences and interests, catering to his tastes to create a new, transformed Su Yingxue, the old Su Yingxue had left far too many stains on her reputation. Could she truly change a person’s deeply ingrained first impression?
Zhang Susu gazed at the vast, empty Princess’s Palace, feeling lonely for the first time. How much longer would she have to walk this path? The road ahead seemed endless, and she felt somewhat lost.
Just as Zhang Susu was at a loss, a familiar voice sounded once again.