Shen Mianmian admitted that Bai Qingzhou's appearance was impeccable. Even though she preferred the muscular type, she would always be attracted to take a second look whenever she saw a handsome young man like Bai Qingzhou.
But it's impossible for her to develop feelings for Bai Qingzhou.
She kept in mind the fact that she was a transmigrator, and tried her best not to get too involved in the story. If she did, she would lose, and most likely lose the chance to travel out of the story.
After all, that's how it's written in other novels. Once a transmigrated woman or a transmigrated woman falls in love with a man, she usually stays as a native or brings the man to the modern world.
Moreover, she knew perfectly well that the cannon fodder supporting characters were bound to die!
She's already done a great job of protecting herself; she doesn't have the ability to protect another major casualty.
As a cannon fodder character, the most sensible thing for her to do is to stay away from the cannon fodder character, sever ties, and, if necessary, sacrifice the cannon fodder character to ensure her safety.
Chen Mianmian composed herself, her tone slightly cool, "This servant greets Your Highness. Your Highness is not busy today, what brings you here to see me?"
Bai Qingzhou stiffened, and the corners of his delicate lips twitched—busy? When had a good-for-nothing like him ever been associated with the word "busy"?
Before, he would spend every day with her, reading books, listening to her stories, and making novel remarks.
Are you...resenting me?
"What do you resent?"
Beneath her sleeve, Bai Qingzhou's slender fingers unconsciously rubbed together. "I was too impulsive just now, and without thinking much, I went to Mother's to try and get you a concubine's position. After I was driven away, I heard that Mother summoned you to the main courtyard. Were you... were you severely punished?"
Shen Mianmian understood. "This matter?"
Suddenly, an idea struck her—why not take this opportunity to repeat what she had just told the lady to the young master?
If the prince could see the vulgar heart beneath her otherworldly exterior, and thus lose interest and distance himself, wouldn't she be safer?
Thinking of this, Chen Mianmian cleared her throat. "Your Highness, I just confided in Madam. There's no better time than today, so let me confide in you as well."
As he spoke, he secretly glanced towards the corner of the room.
Hanrong is there.
She deliberately left Hanrong behind, hoping that Hanrong would report her every move to Jiang Yinjin, thus indirectly conveying the message—if you're going to mistreat someone, mistreat only the Crown Prince! Let her go!
Bai Qingzhou tucked her fingers together. "Go on."
Subsequently, Shen Mianmian embellished her story about how the "Slim Horse Training Club" tailored its teaching methods to each student, specifically trained her in conversational skills, and how she successfully seduced a sugar daddy before revealing her true colors.
But the prince's already porcelain-white skin became even whiter.
Even Hanrong, who was sitting in the corner, couldn't stand it anymore. She felt that Aunt Shen had made her sound terrible.
Having served her aunt for so long, especially since the prince's wedding, she felt that her aunt was intelligent, witty, and unassuming, without a trace of vulgarity. She couldn't understand why her aunt would say such things about her.
“I’m done,” Shen Mianmian spread her hands. “I’m sorry, I deceived your feelings. But you can’t kick me out of the Marquis’s mansion now. The whole capital knows that you’ve taken a slender woman as a concubine. If you kick me out, the reputation of the Marquis’s mansion will be affected. Just keep me here.”
"you……"
The boy's eyes were red, tears welling up in his eyes, but he stubbornly refused to let them fall, and his voice was trembling uncontrollably.
Hanrong was heartbroken to see this scene. She couldn't understand why Aunt Shen was so heartless.
Bai Qingzhou tilted her head back, forcing her tears to flow back. It took a lot of effort to compose herself and prevent her voice from trembling too embarrassingly. "Why did you tell me? Why didn't you keep pretending? I'm just a useless person. If you kept pretending, I wouldn't have noticed!"
"..." Sleepless.
"You..." Bai Qingzhou was about to say something, but in the end she turned and ran away.
Hanrong was anxious. She turned her head to look at the figure of the prince, and then looked at her aunt.
But then I saw my aunt standing by the table, head down, playing with a brand new pen in her hand.
He acted as if it were none of his business.
Hanrong bit her lip, steeled her resolve, and risked angering her aunt by asking, "Aunt, what are you thinking about?"
She noticed that the other person didn't answer her immediately, continuing to play with their pen. After a long while, they finally looked up and said, "I was thinking about whether I should discuss with the young mistress about hiring a female tutor to teach me calligraphy, but then I thought better of it. It's too much trouble. Let's just start writing. Do you know how to grind ink?"
Hanrong hurriedly replied, "Yes, Auntie, I will."
Chen Mianmian put down her pen, rubbing her hands together eagerly. "Come on, let's get started! You grind the ink, and I'll count how many characters are in the Great Compassion Mantra."
"..."
Hanrong was still in a daze when she saw her aunt actually open the Great Compassion Mantra and start counting the words one by one.
Hanrong sighed softly and began grinding ink.
A short while later,
Chen Mianmian put down the booklet and murmured, "Not bad. There are 415 characters in total. If I write them 999 times, that's 414,585 characters. If I arrange my time reasonably and write 2,000 characters a day, it will take about 207 days. If I work hard and write 3,000 characters a day... No way! There's no need to rush. I'm free anyway, so I'll write slowly."
Hanrong was completely bewildered. "Auntie, you didn't bring an abacus, so how did you calculate it?"
"Huh?" Shen Mianmian didn't even lift her eyelids before starting to make up nonsense. "This is a required course for 'thin horses' like me. We are different from other 'thin horses' who specialize in music, chess, calligraphy, painting, and dance. We specialize in learning some very rare things that outsiders can't learn."
Hanrong suddenly realized, and her eyes filled with admiration. She sincerely said, "This servant has something to say from the bottom of her heart, please don't overthink it, Aunt: outsiders only despise 'skinny horses,' but this servant truly admires them! Skinny horses all have real skills!"
Chen Mianmian nodded, "Yes, otherwise how could it be so attractive? A fine sword is forged through tempering, and the fragrance of plum blossoms comes from bitter cold."
Hanrong's admiration for her aunt arose spontaneously!
A girl from a poor background, through hard work, mastered survival skills. By all accounts, being a "thin horse" (a euphemism for being a prostitute) is an extremely inspiring skill!
Chen Mianmian pulled up a chair, sat down, and picked up her pen to dip it in ink.
Hanrong whispered, "Auntie...this servant...this servant dares to ask for a request..."
"reject."
"……yes."
Shen Mianmian didn't ask Hanrong what her request was, but she could easily guess that Hanrong wanted to learn the "skinny horse" course from her.
Don't be ridiculous, she doesn't know any of those skinny girl tricks.
Should we have her teach Hanrong modern knowledge?
It's not that I'm unwilling to teach, it's that I can't teach!
She was a cannon fodder character, and even though she tried to minimize her presence and reduce her threat to the female lead, the female lead, who had died with resentment, would not easily let go of her hatred.
Hanrong is far away from her and is relatively safe; if she were close, Hanrong would also be dealt with by Jiang Yinjin, so why bother?
In this world, having cannon fodder like Zhuge Liang and Feng Yu is enough; there's no need to drag in more cannon fodder.
Thinking about it, I started writing.
Chen Mianmian didn't plan to start copying directly. The first time was for practice, the purpose of which was to familiarize herself with these characters, especially the traditional characters, before starting to copy the scriptures.
I wrote and wrote until evening.
It got dark.
Hanrong silently lit a lamp, then thought for a moment and lit another one, placing it near her aunt's side, afraid that her aunt would strain her eyes.
Her aunt had just rejected her without any mercy, but she didn't feel resentful. Instead, she felt inexplicably sorry for her aunt.
Hanrong felt deeply remorseful.
She couldn't understand why she felt guilty for being the young mistress's spy, yet she felt sorry for her concubine.
She was still a maidservant of the concubine, but she was bribed by the young mistress.
One hour later.
After finishing her dinner, Chen Mianmian walked around the yard for a while before excitedly running back to prepare to start writing.
Just as I picked up my pen, I faintly heard the servants outside greeting me; it was the young master.
She suddenly felt a headache coming on—why was this guy here again?
Hasn't she acted unfamiliar enough to him? How much more self-deprecating does she need to be?
Those who come,
It was Bai Qingzhou.
Chen Mianmian reluctantly put down her pen and ran to greet him, "This servant greets Your Highness. Are you here to sleep? I'm sorry, this servant can't sleep with Your Highness tonight. This servant has to copy the Great Compassion Mantra for you."
The poor boy's fair face turned blue with anger.
"Sleepless, do you have to be so blunt?"
Chen Mianmian blinked her bright, beautiful eyes, her gaze as innocent as a fairy deer untouched by the mortal world. "Explicit? Is sleeping explicit? They didn't say anything about lovemaking, male-female lovemaking, sexual pleasure, or intimate acts?"
"Shut up!" Bai Qingzhou rubbed his temples, which throbbed with pain from the woman's anger. "I'm here to help you copy the Great Compassion Mantra."
Chen Mianmian was taken aback. "What?"
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