Scent Of Time

Chapter 3

After a few moments of pleasantries, the emperor and Zhong Yelan left. I don’t know if they were discussing state affairs or chatting privately. Zhong Xiwu has not seen the female lead yet, so they still did not turn against each other.

As for me, I listened to the Empress Dowager and Noble Consort Qi with a fake smile. The Empress Dowager ultimately had a problem with me, so she deliberately left me out. Noble Consort Qi didn’t dare oppose her and chat with me.

They talked like no one was around, but I did not feel half embarrassed. Each time I went out to eat with bosses in the company, I tried my best to reduce my presence. Becoming a silent bystander like this, I’m the most skillful.

But I did not sleep well yesterday. My head was still bursting with pain. I silently raised my hand and rubbed my temples. Then I heard the voice of the Empress Dowager come over: “Is this appearance of the Princess Consort Jin having any dissatisfaction with my words?”

My hand lurched, and I met the Empress Dowager’s cold gaze.

I — was just lost in thought and rubbed my head. What did they say?

Fortunately, not waiting for me to answer, the Empress Dowager opened her mouth again, “You say, for a woman, what is important?”

With my head spinning at top speed, thinking about the Empress Dowager’s disposition in the novel, I hesitated for a moment and spoke, “Replying to the Empress Dowager, the ancients said that a woman has four virtues, divided into morality, appearance, speech, and work.”

“You also know that morality ranks first. From now on, you should keep your family in order and be a good assistant to Lan’er.” The Empress Dowager looked at my neutral answer, then lightly satirized.

She looked at me in a bad light and didn’t want to miss any opportunity to lecture me.

“I will not forget.” I narrowed my brows and hung my head, making a respectful appearance.

On the side, Noble Consort Qi saw that the atmosphere was not good and rather colorfully changed the topic, bringing up the newly added goldfish in the imperial pond.

Alas, as the second female lead demon, I come to atone for my sins.

After hearing about the goldfish, the Empress Dowager was interested, so a wave of people went out to watch the fish. I also obediently followed.

I got bored looking at people commenting on the fish in the pond. This harem woman lived a boring life. What is so good to see this goldfish?

Some concubines want to curry favor with the Empress Dowager and move to her side. I just let nature take its course and stood in the corner.

Feeling the Empress Dowager’s gaze, I looked over but did not catch her stare, just as if I was too careful. Looking at the poolside pile of people, I suddenly remembered the plots of many novels about saving people in the water. Fortunately, I learned swimming lessons in modern times.

If the Empress Dowager lost her footing and fell into the water, I could rely on my swimming skills to save her. Then, perhaps she will change her impression of me and even become my backing. In the future, when Zhong Yelan learns the truth, he will not dare to touch me.

But that’s just me thinking about it happily. The Empress Dowager was not stupid. Why would she jump into the water? Besides, I’m afraid no one dares to push her into the water. Before I could laugh out because of my wild imagination, a force raided behind me, and my smile froze.

Plop.

As expected, people should be good-hearted. A crooked heart will have evil consequences, just like at this moment, I got retribution for just thinking about it.

“Oh my god, Princess Consort Jin has fallen into the water! Quickly come–”
Noble Consort Qi’s cries of alarm abruptly ended because she saw me swim back to the shore in a breaststroke style to fend for myself and then rise with the help of the maids.

The place where I fell was close to the shore, so this series of things happened briskly, so fast that even the Empress Dowager was dumbfounded.

“When did you learn this kind of ……” The Empress Dowager opened her mouth with extreme difficulty, seemingly trying to think of words to describe my swimming posture.

It was now early fall, and the weather was not cold, but I shivered a bit because my whole body was wet.

Seeing my wretched appearance, the Empress Dowager collected her questioning and ordered a servant to take me to change clothes.

Although she hated me, it was only verbally. She would not deliberately hang me to suffer, so it seemed this old lady was not like those dirty little minds. Thereby, I silently formulated a route of bashfulness in my heart route.

I followed the two palace maids to a palace. They were efficient in preparing hot water. I casually soak down, drive away the chills on my hands, and change clothes. After all, the Empress Dowager was still waiting for me.

After I wore the outer shirt and sat in front of the mirror to wipe my hair, I saw a woman standing behind me quietly.

This maid is so unruly! I turned back and saw her wearing different clothes from the palace maids. My heart was stunned and suddenly reacted. My eyes were emotionless when I looked at her. The two of us were strangely silent for a long time. Not that I intentionally pretended to be inscrutable. But I really do not know her! What if I say the wrong thing?

Finally, the beauty opened her mouth first: “Younger Sister Qian finally got her wish to be the Princess Consort Jin. I, as an elder sister, am truly happy for you.”

Elder sister?

I instantly remembered that Hua Qian was the only daughter of the Hua Mansion, so Hua Xiang could only pick out a woman from the Hua family side branch and send her to the palace. Perhaps I should call her cousin.

However, this cousin — In the novel, the Hua Mansion is full of important characters. She first utilizes Hua Xiang’s power to help her climb the harem. When she found Hua Xiang’s weakness, she turned her back and betrayed him to show her goodwill to the heroine, Mu Yao.

Of course, she didn’t have a good ending. This kind of wallflower was just a cannon fodder.

“What is the reason for Hua Meiren (*) to stand behind someone so quietly?” I put down the cloth I used to wipe my hair and carelessly spoke.

T/N : status in the harem.

Disdain flashed in Hua Meiren’s eyes when she saw my careless attitude. But she still smiling: “Why is Sister Qian so distant nowadays? I thought that you and I were extremely close.”

Although the Hua Mansion did deserve it, and her rebellion saved the people, this person only did it for her interests. I can’t stand to see past it. Hence, I did not reply, turned around, and picked up a comb to fix my hair.

Seeing the ignored her in the mirror, when her face couldn’t hang on anymore, I opened my mouth, “Since Hua Meiren has already entered the palace, you shouldn’t refer to me as a sister in the future, lest you cause people to laugh.”

Only women in the harem call each other sisters.

Although Hua Meiren’s eyes changed a few times, she still didn’t flare up at me. After all, her old father was no good, just a minor seventh-grade official. She relied on Hua Xiang’s power to climb up in the harem step by step.

“It’s my slip of the tongue. Princess Consort Jin has not seen me for a long time. It was not easy for me to arrange our meeting. A momentary affection led to a slip of the tongue.” She was able to flex and return.

My heart snapped, my grip on the comb tightened, and I turned back to ask her, “Arrangement?”

Hua Meiren’s face flashed with unnaturalness, but she still answered me. “Too many people surrounded Princess Consort Jin. The Empress Dowager also missed you with all her heart. I wanted to say something personal to you, so I arranged this plan.”

“You arranged someone …… to push me into the water?”

“There were already familiar women waiting on the shore, and they would not let Princess Consort Jin get hurt.” Hua Meiren hurriedly explained, “There are too many eyes in the harem. It won’t attract attention if we do it this way.”

As my mind raced, my heart grew colder. Colder than I felt when I fell into the water just now.

She was just a Meiren. How can she cover the sky in the harem?

Remembering that the Empress Dowager seemed to have glanced at me before, could it be that she thought I was deliberately standing on the periphery to act in line with Hua Meiren?

My heart was irritated for a while.

The novel only focuses on describing the male and female leads. As the second female lead, Hua Qian, and cannon fodder, Hua Meiren, the author only mentioned a few sentences of collusion and passing information but didn’t depict the details.

Now that I transmigrated into this novel, I should’ve completed the other scenarios.

My mind turned a hundred times, preparing how to cut off my relationship with this Hua Meiren. One was to cut off Hua Xiang’s vicious henchmen in the harem, and the second was to deal with Hua Meiren, this narrow-minded — wallflower.