CH 124

Villainous Fake Eunuch (1)

As Song Xu Yi opened her eyes, she was greeted with the sight of a soft, plush bed.

The room was filled with a delicate aroma of incense, and adorned with exquisite antique objects such as jade and porcelain. The high-quality Shu brocade bedding featured intricate cloud patterns embroidered on the back, giving the room a luxurious and refined ambiance.

As she looked around, Song Xu Yi couldn’t help but wonder if she had been transported back to the ancient world once again.

Suppressing any emotions that may have surfaced, she scanned the room, and caught sight of two palace maids dressed in elegant court attire, fanning themselves with a hint of trepidation.

Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes, recalling the turbulent experience of crossing time and space, the sudden loss of communication with the Lord God, and the unexpected attack that had taken her by surprise.

“Xu Yi, I tried to contact the Lord God again, but unfortunately, there’s still no response,” the system let out a heavy sigh. However, it quickly regained its composure, processing its concerns before relaying the plot summary of the current world to Song Xu Yi.

As expected, she had been transported to the ancient country of He Gou.

The female protagonist, Zhao Qin, was a tea picker who had never received any formal education. One day, she stumbled upon a handsome young man who was injured in the mountains. Although he had lost his memory, he possessed an extraordinary demeanor, exceptional beauty, and an unusual vigilance towards ordinary people.

Under Zhao Qin’s tender care, the young man’s wounds gradually healed, but his memory never returned. Although Zhao Qin wished to send him off to find his family, the young man resorted to various tricks to stay by her side. He even managed to disrupt Zhao Qin’s arranged marriage, which her deceased parents had set up for her.

With his cunning ways and unparalleled looks, the young man successfully won over Zhao Qin’s heart, and they eventually tied the knot as husband and wife.

Initially, Zhao Qin believed that she and the young man would be like the elderly couple in the village, who often quarreled but still had a deep and loving relationship. However, one day while they were chopping wood in the mountains, they encountered a fierce beast, and the young man was injured while protecting Zhao Qin. When he finally regained consciousness, his personality had undergone a drastic change, becoming withdrawn and distant.

Zhao Qin believed that this was due to the young man’s injury and became even more gentle and considerate towards him. But not long after, a group of imposing soldiers arrived at their doorstep, led by a respectful general who knelt before the young man and addressed him as “Third Prince.”

It turned out that the young man was none other than Zheng Lian, the third prince of the country of He Gou.

While Zhao Qin had considered many possibilities regarding the young man’s identity, such as him being the son of an official or a wealthy family, she never imagined that he was actually the prince of the entire country. His status was far beyond what ordinary people could comprehend.

If Zheng Lian were the son of an official or a wealthy family, Zhao Qin was confident that she could accompany him home. However, as a prince, Zheng Lian’s status was incomparable, and Zhao Qin couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed by the thought of being with someone of such high stature.

Zhao Qin dared not stay with Zheng Lian, nor did she want to become a caged bird in the deep palace.

She pretended to agree to return to the capital with the prince but found a chance to escape on the way and fled to the border. It was only then that Zhao Qin discovered she was pregnant.

Zhao Qin gave birth to her child at the border. She thought that she and her child would support each other until they grew old, but when the child was five years old, Zhao Qin met Zheng Lian again, who had come to lead troops to the border.

Amidst the war, the two reunited and went through many hardships. Finally, Zhao Qin understood that status and power were fleeting in the face of life and death, and summoned the courage to stand by Zheng Lian’s side.

At this point, the story should have had a beautiful ending as planned by the Lord God. However, as Song Xu Yi arrived, it was clear that the villain had caused trouble again.

Just as Zheng Lian and Zhao Qin were reconciling and about to return to the capital, shocking news shook the country like a thunderbolt: the eunuch Gu Ruyu, who had exceeded his authority, had secretly colluded with the enemy country. As a result, the enemy had invaded the southwestern territory of the country.

Zheng Lian fought valiantly against the enemy, but was no match for their treachery. He ultimately died on the battlefield, while Zhao Qin unexpectedly showed her resilience. She took over the remaining troops of Zheng Lian and fought bravely until the very end, but could not hold back the enemy’s invasion.

The male and female leads both died, and their child became a homeless dog, hiding and surviving as best they could. This was certainly not the ending that the Lord God had intended, and that’s why Song Xu Yi had arrived in this world.

After gaining an understanding of the world, Song Xu Yi also received the memories of her new body.

She had become accustomed to the high-ranking and easy-to-handle identity assigned to her by the Lord God. The body she now inhabited belonged to a princess of a different surname who was raised by the Empress Dowager.

The original family of this body was a loyal family of high reputation in the Country of He Gou. Fifteen years ago, when foreign enemies invaded, the Song family fought bravely against them, despite being vastly outnumbered. They resisted the powerful invading army and welcomed the rescue of the court. However, the Song family suffered heavy losses in this battle, and only the three-year-old original body was left behind.

The Emperor was grateful for the Song family’s loyalty and, with the help of a face reader who predicted that Song Xu Yi had suffered misfortune in her early years but would have a long-lasting prosperous life and an auspicious appearance that would bring peace to the country, he decided to appoint the original body as an adopted daughter. The Emperor had no daughter of his own, so he summoned the original body into the palace to be raised by the Empress Dowager.

Strangely enough, all the disasters that had plagued the Country of He Gou for years, such as floods, locusts, and foreign invasions, stopped after the original body entered the palace. The Country of He Gou finally had peaceful and quiet days.

With this period of peace, the Country of He Gou, which had been plagued by disasters for years, gradually became prosperous.

Because of the enormous influence of the Song family in the military and the auspicious signs brought to the country by the original body after entering the palace, the emperor was extremely fond of this “lucky charm” adopted daughter, who had never had a biological daughter. He treated her even better than his own son, which objectively nurtured her arrogant and overbearing character.

The original body was accustomed to pretending to be well-behaved in front of the emperor and the empress dowager, but in private, she would trample on those beneath her. The eunuchs and palace maids who served her were extremely afraid of this princess who was deeply favored by the emperor. In the plot synopsis, there was only a brief description of this princess: the death of the male lead Zheng Lian was due to the fact that the original body had secretly joined forces with Gu Ruyu and intentionally gave Zheng Lian the wrong information.

Song Xu Yi looked at the timeline and realized that this was the period when Song Lian had gone to Jiangnan to investigate, triggering local interest groups to pursue him and causing him to lose his memory and meet the female lead Zhao Qin. Now, while the royal family was still searching for Song Lian, everyone except his mother, who was still obsessed with finding him, had already accepted Song Lian’s death.

There were still about seven years before the war that led to Song Lian’s true death.

Seven years was enough time to change some things.

Song Xu Yi breathed a sigh of relief and sat up from the bed.

Upon seeing Song Xu Yi waking up, two palace maids by the side quickly got up to support her, while another group of eunuchs filed in through the door, presenting her with a glass of chilled sour plum juice and various snacks.

Song Xu Yi knew that this was the arrangement set by the original owner, and sometimes she would fly into a rage if the eunuchs came in too slowly.

But Song Xu Yi did not have the same insecure and arrogant sensitivity as the original owner, nor did she intend to give these unfortunate servants a hard time. She waved her hand and let them leave.

The sour plum juice had an extremely refreshing taste, even though she knew drinking too much would harm her body, Song Xu Yi still couldn’t help but finish the entire glass before beginning to consider her future plans.

Upon careful consideration, this world was actually a mess, and it wasn’t entirely due to Gu Ruyu’s actions that they were eventually attacked by the enemy.

The current emperor was once a wise ruler, but in recent years, he has become increasingly paranoid and obsessed with immortality, relying heavily on Taoist alchemists and other practitioners of alternative medicine.

This has led to a nationwide building boom of temples and other religious sites.

As a result of his exceptional alchemy skills, a eunuch named Gu Ruyu has gained the emperor’s favor and now dominates the court. The crown prince has fallen out of favor due to past misbehavior, and the emperor’s second son, Song Lian, who used to help him shoulder the burden of governing, has gone missing.

With the emperor’s health deteriorating, Song Xu Yi realizes that finding Song Lian is the most feasible way to challenge Gu Ruyu’s authority and possibly change the court’s one-sided decision-making.

Although Song Xu Yi has longed to contribute to the defense of the country through military training, the restrictions on women are severe in this era, leaving her with no other viable option.

Even though this may affect the development of the romance between the male and female leads, there is no time to consider such things!

— Song Xu Yi decided to make use of her lucky charm identity and persuade the emperor, who believes in ghosts and gods, to find Gu Ruyu through a dream conveyed by the heavens.

Directly approaching the emperor would seem too deliberate, so Song Xu Yi decided to try an alternative and approached the empress dowager instead.

Since the original body was often adored and flattered by the empress dowager, who had raised her, she was quite beloved by her. Song Xu Yi could even enter the empress dowager’s chambers without prior notice.

“You little monkey, always fooling around and nowhere to be seen. But when you smell food over here, you come running like a puppy…”

Upon seeing Song Xu Yi, the Empress Dowager thought that she had news about the foreign invasion and jokingly scolded her before inviting her to speak.

However, Song Xu Yi, who usually had a bright and charming smile, was clearly absent-minded this time and seemed much quieter than usual.

The Empress Dowager noticed Song Xu Yi’s unusual behavior and furrowed her brow, asking, “Xu Yi, what’s wrong with you today?”

“Grandmother, to be honest, I had a dream during my nap just now,” Song Xu Yi bit her lip as she saw the fish take the bait, not embarrassed at all as she explained the excuse she had already planned out. “I dreamt that my third brother was in the middle of a forest, and a beautiful woman was feeding him medicine…”

“Is this true?”

The Empress Dowager’s face immediately changed upon hearing this, and she stared at Song Xu Yi intently.

“Naturally, it’s true,” Song Xu Yi pretended not to see the suspicion and scrutiny in the Empress Dowager’s eyes, and answered innocently, “It’s strange, I don’t know why I had this dream. In the dream, my third brother seems to have lost his memory, and the woman was feeding him medicine while asking him, ‘Have you remembered who you are yet?'”

The Empress Dowager’s bony hand immediately grabbed Song Xu Yi’s arm, and her sharp nails almost punctured Song Xu Yi’s skin. Although Song Xu Yi’s arm was in pain, the Empress Dowager seemed unaware and pulled her out, saying, “Xu Yi, come with me to see the emperor. Perhaps this is a sign from heaven…”

Having achieved the desired effect, Song Xu Yi obediently followed the Empress Dowager. However, as luck would have it, a bright yellow figure entered the door just as they were leaving, and Song Xu Yi heard the emperor’s laughter: “Mother, what urgent matter do you have that you want to see me?”

Song Xu Yi instinctively looked towards the voice.

The emperor was a middle-aged man with unremarkable looks and deep wrinkles on his face. Perhaps due to his habitual drug use, despite being the son of the empress dowager, the emperor looked almost the same age as her!

The person seemed to be standing respectfully behind the emperor, with a straight spine and an overall appearance of a jade tree in a courtyard. His deep-set brows and eyes, pale face, slightly thin lips, exquisite jawline, and a fragile beauty that made it hard to determine his gender, made people unconsciously look towards him…

Song Xu Yi stole a glance but dared not look again, subconsciously lowering her head.

Even though she knew from her memories that this person was very good-looking, her memory did not do him justice. Confronted with his stunning appearance, Song Xu Yi was still astonished.

But despite his beauty, Song Xu Yi dared not approach this beautiful but dangerous flower—the villain Gu Ruyu.

The Author has something to say:

A new little world has come!

For the time being, Xu Yi doesn’t know that Gu Ruyu is a girl, so “he” is used to refer to Gu Ruyu.