It Turned Out I Had Transmigrated into a Book

Fuzhi gently turned the twelve-panel screen of painted court ladies, its rosewood frame inlaid with mother-of-pearl. Behind it stood a moon-gate canopy bed, eight feet square.

Inside the curtains of pale red gauze,

Qiao Shuyi had just awakened and was reclining against the head of the bed.

One hand gathered the dark hair spilling over her chest.

She wore no powder or rouge, yet she had a beauty that could topple kingdoms.

When Fuzhi lifted the curtain and entered, she caught sight of her young mistress with her head bowed and eyes lowered.

A delicate stretch of her neck was exposed, its creamy whiteness dazzling to the eye.

Fuzhi sighed inwardly:

My young mistress truly is a beauty. Her bone structure is exquisitely refined, her features lovely enough to topple a city. There isn't a single thing about her that falls even the slightest bit short.

What a pity-

For all her goddess-like beauty, her temperament is nothing at all like the pretty face she wears.

The gentler she looks, the colder she is inside.

The more affectionate her eyes appear, the more ruthless her methods.

Fuzhi composed herself and said softly:

"Young mistress, shall I help you wash up?"

Qiao Shuyi gave her an indifferent glance. "Where's Zhigui?"

Fuzhi hastily lowered her head and answered:

"Young mistress, you punished Young Master Zhigui yesterday. He's carrying water from the little kitchen to the bathhouse, one bucket at a time, right now. We servants all remembered your orders, and none of us helped him this morning. He's been carrying it back and forth all by himself. But he was up early, so the bathing pool should be full by now."

In other words, if her young mistress wanted to find fault with him, she had one fewer pretext to do so now.

Qiao Shuyi gave a soft "Mm." "Have him come attend to me."

Before long, Zhigui arrived.

His eyes were lowered and his expression was meek, but nothing could conceal that face-

His brows were cut like blades, his eyes like cold stars. Though he stood in a posture of abject submission, an air of innate nobility shone through.

Qiao Shuyi looked at him, the faintest hint of a smile playing at her lips.

Heh.

The reigning emperor, the sovereign above all, was now her, Qiao Shuyi's, male favorite.

How interesting.

Qiao Shuyi had transmigrated into this world as a baby.

She had always thought it was an ordinary transmigration, and that she had merely been fortunate in her birth.

Not until yesterday, when she met Zhigui,

did memories of her former life and the plot of a book come flooding back in an instant.

Only then did she realize she had transmigrated into a book.

The male lead, Zongzheng Heng, was the emperor of Great Zhang. His courtesy name was Zhigui.

She, Qiao Shuyi, was the legitimate daughter of Qiao Nanyu, a prince of Jinzhou who bore a different surname from the imperial family. She was also cannon fodder destined to die young.

Her mother, Liu Jinyu, was the only daughter of the richest man in Jinzhou.

Her father, Qiao Nanyu, guarded Jinzhou and commanded a formidable army, wielding power throughout the region.

All her life, Qiao Shuyi had lived in extravagance and debauchery, spending money like water. A young lady raised amid fine silks and delicacies, she had "pampered and precious" written all over her.

She had once thought that transmigrating into the life of such a young lady was practically a vacation, and that heaven had treated her well.

But now, recalling the plot of the book, she felt a chill run through her entire body.

Why had Qiao Nanyu married Liu Jinyu and lavished affection on their daughter?

For money.

He had soldiers, and soldiers cost money to maintain.

Why maintain an army? Because he intended to rebel.

His power in Jinzhou was great, and a tall tree caught the wind. He had long been a thorn in Zongzheng Heng's side, a splinter in his flesh.

The emperor had traveled to Jinzhou incognito for no other reason than to find evidence of his rebellion.

As it happened,

Qiao Shuyi did not want to marry. Indulged by her parents, she wanted to seize a man from the streets and bring him into the manor.

Once she had ruined her reputation, who would dare marry her?

She was also a sucker for a handsome face and had searched all of Jinzhou for beautiful men. The moment she saw Zhigui, she was utterly dazzled and had him seized and brought straight to the manor.

Zongzheng Heng went along with it and infiltrated the Prince of Jin'an's Manor.

He used her solely to find evidence of Qiao Nanyu's rebellion.

But to save himself, Qiao Nanyu pinned everything on Liu Jinyu.

He coaxed the woman who truly loved him into confessing that the Liu family alone had funded the army, and that how the Liu family's money was spent had nothing to do with him.

Liu Jinyu trusted him and loved him, so, to protect the Qiao family, she confessed.

Qiao Nanyu divorced her.

She thought that, for the sake of their years as husband and wife, he would at least spare their daughter.

But Qiao Nanyu intended to kill Qiao Shuyi and pledge his loyalty to the emperor, proving that he had nothing to do with the rebellion.

What he had not expected was that Liu Jinyu was not dead. Zongzheng Heng had merely imprisoned her.

When she learned of her daughter's tragic death, she divulged every piece of evidence of Qiao Nanyu's rebellion.

At last, Zongzheng Heng had a legitimate reason to rid himself of the threat that had plagued him.

All this about Zongzheng Heng had been passed over in just a few cursory lines in the book.

That was because it was not a novel aimed at men, but a palace-intrigue novel aimed at women.

In the year since Zongzheng Heng had ascended the throne, the Qiao family had hung over his heart like a malignant tumor. He had kept putting off the selection of consorts, leaving his harem empty.

Once the Qiao family fell, the empress dowager and the court officials would no longer let him put it off.

The selection of consorts had to be held.

The female lead, Su Yunyan, was a concubine-born daughter of the vice minister of rites.

By convention, a concubine-born daughter should not have been eligible for the emperor's first selection of consorts.

But she was a girl Zongzheng Heng had known when he was still a nobody, and he had his own way of getting her in.

After she entered the palace, however, Su Yunyan's low status meant he could only neglect her, while Cui Yingshuang, the legitimate daughter of the head of the Department of State Affairs, enjoyed more favor than anyone else in the harem.

Only two years later, when he had gained complete control of the court, did he favor Su Yunyan alone.

And Qiao Shuyi?

She was nothing more than cannon fodder who died early in the book, not even worthy of having her name remembered by readers.

Qiao Shuyi reclined against the head of the bed, her gaze resting lazily on Zhigui, who stood a few paces away.

He kept his eyes lowered, looking meek and obedient.

But beneath his lowered lashes lurked coldness and disdain.

The book had described this part-

Qiao Shuyi was extravagant and debauched, and she had forced him to stay by her side.

Zongzheng Heng loathed the stench of money that clung to her and hated her overbearing temperament, but he endured it during his month at the Qiao manor.

Every time they shared a bed, he drugged her, leaving her dazed and unconscious.

As she thought about it, she suddenly found it a little funny.

She was now Qiao Shuyi, who had transmigrated here.

But on closer thought, was she really so different from the extravagant, debauched Qiao Shuyi in the book?

She was just as extravagant and overbearing.

She had likewise seized a man off the street.

No, perhaps she was even worse.

She had been no paragon of virtue in the modern world.

After coming to ancient times, she had become even more unrestrained.

Still,

when she learned she was cannon fodder, she had considered whether she should spend this month trying to curry favor with the male lead.

All she had to do was humble herself and pretend to be meek. Perhaps that would earn her a chance to live.

But then she thought again: what kind of man was Zongzheng Heng?

Before setting out incognito, he had probably already investigated everyone in the Qiao family from top to bottom.

He had long since made up his mind about what sort of person she, Qiao Shuyi, was.

No matter how well she played the part, he would only grow more wary and more guarded against her.

If currying favor would not work, should she rebel instead?

The thought had barely crossed Qiao Shuyi's mind before she snuffed it out.

What did she have to rebel with?

Lead troops into battle?

She could barely hold a sword steady, let alone command thousands upon thousands of soldiers.

In these sixteen years, all she had learned was to spend money, throw tantrums, and torment people.

She knew nothing else whatsoever.

Even if she started learning now, how could she make soldiers who licked blood from the edges of their blades obey the orders of a sheltered young lady in such a short time?

Besides, Qiao Nanyu's affection was false.

He only wanted to spoil her and make her stupid so he could get money from the Liu family. How could he possibly let her devise plans?

Qiao Shuyi lowered her eyes to her slender, pale fingers, their tips stained with balsam dye as red as blood.

The Qiao family's extermination was a foregone conclusion.

Even if Zongzheng Heng did not obtain evidence of Qiao Nanyu's rebellion through her, his shadow guards would find a lead by other means a month from now.

There was no way out.

But Qiao Shuyi was accustomed to the luxurious life of a local tyrant. She really could not bear to become a prisoner.

Heh. In that case, she would stake everything on one gamble.

This month, she would give the emperor of Great Zhang a memory he would never be able to erase for the rest of his life.