Perhaps it was because the angina made her exceptionally clear-headed that Gan Qiongying recalled the entire plot. She was amazed at how good her memory was; she had only skimmed through the book, yet she could remember so many details and even form vivid images in her mind.
It was as if these stories weren't from a book she was reading, but from her own vivid memories.
Sure enough, her survival instincts kicked in, and her mind became much sharper.
She remembered tonight's plot.
To put it bluntly, isn't it just a small matter?
The female lead and the male lead are deeply in love, and then the wicked female supporting character tries to sabotage them. That's how it goes throughout the whole story.
Tonight's incident was more specific: she saw the female lead, Wen Xueling, and the male lead, Zhong Lizhengzhen, talking by the river. The jealous and twisted "Gan Qiongying" rushed to Wen Xueling's side after Zhong Lizhengzhen temporarily left, pushed her into the water, and attempted to drown her.
Thinking of this, Gan Qiongying pursed her lips. How could she possibly drown? So many people were watching Wen Xueling, which only made the "Princess Duanrong" persona even more vicious.
Gan Qiongying pressed her still slightly aching chest. The plot was obviously not to be disobeyed. Following the bright candlelight of the banquet, she looked at the host, Zhongli Zhengzhen, who was sitting not far away in the main seat.
Damn, she's really good-looking.
With deep-set features, long eyebrows reaching to the temples, bright, sparkling eyes, and fiery red lips.
He was dressed in Jinchuan aristocratic attire, with a string of gemstone earrings on his right ear, and long, jet-black hair, the upper half of which was braided and the lower half of which was loose over his shoulders.
His dark blue robe, featuring flame patterns characteristic of the Jinchuan ethnic group, shimmered in the lamplight, making him appear as if he were draped in flames. It accentuated his broad shoulders and narrow waist, while his long, slender legs, which extended beyond the low table, were encased in thick black boots.
From Gan Qiongying's perspective, the lines stretched from his calves to his muscular thighs, seemingly without end.
He sat there, and even the flower girls dancing on the riverboats paled in comparison; he was wild and fiery, cool and aloof.
He's definitely the type of guy girls would like. Especially a well-behaved girl like Wen Xueling, wouldn't she love a boy like this, a wild wolf?
However, Gan Qiongying looked at Zhongli Zhengzhen with genuine worry.
Her worries weren't even about tonight; she had to push the female lead, Wen Xueling, into the water according to the plot, or she might die of angina.
Instead, she remembered that in the story, Princess Duanrong gave Zhongli Zhengzhen many rare treasures, and even gave him the things bestowed by the emperor in order to please him.
Gan Qiongying thought that if she really had a good talk with Zhong Lizheng, she could tell him that she was so poor that she couldn't even afford to eat.
Will he return it to her?
So many good things, how much money would they be worth if they were converted into cash? How can you use money to pursue a man?
Gan Qiongying stared intently at Zhongli Zhengzhen, as if she were staring at a debtor who owed her 80,000 strings of cash.
After a moment, she lowered her head, looking somewhat listless.
First, after intense pain, she would experience sudden pain from time to time, with her chest pressed against her back.
Secondly, I also feel sorry for the money.
When she lived in the 21st century, her family's circumstances were very ordinary, not even considered working class. Her parents were both laborers, and the university she attended was neither good nor bad. Then she got that kind of illness... which emptied the family's savings.
Before she died, she couldn't even afford medical treatment.
If she really isn't dead, she'll probably have to figure something out herself. She can't just drag her whole family down with her, can she?
However, what made Gan Qiongying have no worries after her death, and she didn't even have to worry about her parents' sadness, was that her illness lasted a long time and she was in a bad mood during her illness, which wore down the reluctance between her and her relatives.
And she also has a younger sister, so her parents won't be lonely.
We've gone off on a tangent.
In short, she loves money and knows just how good it is to be rich.
You could say she loved money more than anything.
After all, expensive chemotherapy drugs and cheap ones have different reactions, and those differences can be life-threatening.
However, if she directly asks Zhongli Zhengzhen for money, it will definitely ruin her character. In the story, Princess Duanrong is deeply in love with Zhongli Zhengzhen, so it is impossible for her to ask him for money.
Tsk.
Gan Qiongying picked up a glass of wine. The wine at the banquet was not strong and had the fragrance of some kind of flower, presumably to prevent the women from being too heavy drinkers.
Gan Qiongying smelled it, then tilted her head back and drank it.
Under the bright lights, she propped herself up on her arm and drank one glass after another. To onlookers, it looked like she was heartbroken and depressed.
Several young ladies from different clans who were not far from Gan Qiongying whispered among themselves, discussing her.
The woman sitting next to Gan Qiongying, separated only by a table, is the female protagonist of this book, Wen Xueling.
She stared at Gan Qiongying in a daze, mainly because Gan Qiongying was dressed in a dark red brocade robe, with fair skin, red lips, and a wicked look in her eyes. She was too charming.
Princess Duanrong's appearance was not the kind of beauty that was admired in this dynasty. The Nanzhao Kingdom valued elegance and grace, and considered those who were well-mannered, gentle, kind, respectful, and frugal to be the best.
Women often prefer to be compared to lotus flowers, autumn chrysanthemums, winter plum blossoms, pear blossoms, etc., as these symbolize elegance, grace, and suitability for home and family.
Although the noble ladies of the clans were all dressed in their finest attire, they mostly competed in terms of the ingenuity of their clothing. For example, the seemingly simple but actually shimmering and dazzling brocade was a piece that almost everyone owned.
No one was as naturally charming as Princess Duanrong, whose attire was like a blooming peony, showing no sign of restraint or inner beauty.
Such a woman is certainly eye-catching, but most men would not marry her.
If Princess Duanrong hadn't been born into royalty, with eyes and brows resembling an emperor and a hidden majesty, who knows who would have doted on her with such a appearance?
But her beauty was undeniable, so apart from those looking at Wen Xueling, everyone else in the room was lingering over Gan Qiongying.
Wen Xueling also looked at Gan Qiongying. Her appearance was completely opposite to Gan Qiongying's. She was the most sought-after elegant and otherworldly, with innocent and carefree eyes and brows, just like the embodiment of a white lotus in the river.
She looked at Gan Qiongying with both curiosity and apprehension.
Gan Qiongying repeatedly verbally abused her and even resorted to various means to persecute her. Her maids were all her father's personal guards, and they were all highly skilled, but they could not retaliate in kind and dared not touch a hair on Princess Duanrong's head.
Wen Xueling sent a letter back to complain, but her father only told her to be more tolerant of Duanrong and avoid seeing her.
Wen Xueling's curiosity, however, was not about Duan Rong, but about what was so special about the man she liked so much but could not have.
Wen Xueling was the apple of the eye of the King of Jingxi, and surprisingly, she did not develop a spoiled nature. Instead, she was gentle, cheerful, and playful from a young age.
Her father petitioned the Emperor to grant her a marriage, and she came to Yindu by imperial decree, precisely to find her ideal husband.
My father said that a beautiful woman deserves a hero, and only the most outstanding man in the world can match a woman like her.
She had been in the capital for so long, and many people had shown her their favor, but Wen Xueling was not moved by anyone, nor had she seen any hero who resembled the one her father described as a match for her.
She had lived a life of luxury since childhood, and there were too many people who fawned over her. All those gold, silver and jade artifacts, piled up in countless quantities, were things that she could easily obtain and didn't care about at all.
She glanced at Duanrong, then became bolder, slowly shifting her gaze to the man at the head of the table.
Seeing him pick up the wine pot directly, tilt his head back and pour wine into his slightly open mouth, the wine that he didn't have time to swallow flowed down his chin and into his clothes, Wen Xueling also subconsciously swallowed.
Then her heart started pounding, because the Jin Chuan hostage suddenly looked at her!
His eyes, sharp as a soaring eagle, instantly caught her gaze.
Wen Xueling suddenly felt as if she had become prey, her body captured by the gaze of an eagle soaring in the sky.
Those eyes were deep and cold, and when they looked at people, they seemed to penetrate their skin and flesh, making people feel hot all over and even feel pain.
Like a rabbit caught in the gaze of an eagle, Wen Xueling hurriedly averted her gaze, her breathing rapid. She dared not look at the person in the first seat again, but she could feel that gaze constantly moving over her. As a result, her face turned red and her breathing became even more rapid.
She took a quick sip of wine but choked. A maid came forward to pat her back and give her water. She complained softly, "The wine is too strong, cough cough..."
The young nobles from various clans who were paying attention to her, as well as the two princes at the table, all looked at her and offered words of concern.
Zhongli Zhengzhen, however, shifted his gaze from Wen Xueling to Princess Duanrong, who was drinking alone not far from him.
strangeness.
She's acting very strangely today.
Zhongli Zhengzhen narrowed his eyes slightly, thinking of how Sanjiu had come to him for help last night, saying that Princess Duanrong was trying to force the prince consort to have sex with her, and that he should quickly think of a way to save her.
Zhongli Zhengzhen found it utterly absurd. Not to mention that everyone in Nanzhao knew that Duanrong was absolutely infatuated with him, which of the people in her backyard hadn't been brought back to the princess's residence out of spite?
Male concubine? It's just to make him angry and bothered.
As for the prince consort... how could she possibly like that face?
However, Sanjiu's urgent words did not seem to be fake. No matter how much Duanrong pestered Zhongli Zhengzhen and even obeyed his every word, she was still the only princess of Nanzhao.
She was sharing a room with her husband in her own residence; what could he, a hostage from Jinchuan, do?
When the prince consort still hadn't left the mansion by the second day, Zhongli Zhengzhen began to get anxious.
The prince consort's status was special; he married Duanrong only to help her, and his purpose was merely to use Duanrong's status for personal gain.
He couldn't really allow the prince consort to be humiliated.
That's how tonight's Huishui River Banquet came about.
But... normally, even if he had specially asked someone to deliver an invitation to her, or even if she had just come by herself, she would always have to hang around in front of him, looking for every opportunity to talk to him, showing that nauseatingly infatuated behavior.
But since taking her seat today, she has only glanced at him for a short while and has been drinking alone ever since.
Did she really sleep with the prince consort last night?
impossible.
How could someone so obsessed with one person change overnight?
This time, it's probably just another trick she used to attract him.
Zhongli Zhengzhen wanted to get up and talk to her several times, or wait for her to look over before raising his cup to signal her, at least to keep her attention so that the prince consort could get away for the time being.
However, Princess Duanrong kept drinking and drinking, and drank two whole jugs by herself.
Finally, I'm starting to feel a little tipsy.
The alcohol content of this liquor is too low; it made her want to go to the toilet immediately after drinking it.
However, she wasn't really drowning her sorrows in alcohol; rather, she planned to use the alcohol to embolden herself and get through the storyline, and incidentally... try to get something from Zhong Lizheng.
She had already come up with a reason, which perfectly suited her lustful nature.
If her heart doesn't hurt, she can gradually get all those good things back.
Hehehehehe.
After finishing her drink, Gan Qiongying propped herself up on her arms and pretended to sleep, but in reality, she was waiting for the next scene to unfold.
Anyway, she can't do anything except for the plot.
She had little interest in the banquet, but to prevent herself from actually falling asleep at the table, she could only scan the people at the banquet.
She was half-drunk and half-awake, unaware that she had only read books and shouldn't know the people in this world, yet she could recognize almost everyone at the banquet.
For example, the young man who is currently courting Wen Xueling is none other than the seventh brother of the current emperor, the Prince Kangguang. This brat is only fourteen years old, is he even fully grown yet? And he's already thinking about marrying the daughter of that tiger, the Prince of Jingxi.
Gan Qiongying chuckled softly, her fingers slowly tracing the rim of the cup.
"Is the princess drunk?" A deep voice sounded above her head. She slowly raised her head and met Zhongli Zhengzhen's face, which was so handsome it was outrageous.
It looks even better up close.
Gan Qiongying was so engrossed in watching him that she divided his facial features into sections, using his high, straight nose as the dividing line.
The section on the left contains the silver she sent.
The second section on the right contains the gold she delivered.
The three areas on her forehead were the jewelry she sent.
The fourth section of her chin was a gift from the emperor that she sent there.
Gan Qiongying moved her lips, her throat filled with the words, "Give me back my money, give me back my money, give me back my money..."
But what can actually be squeezed out is: "Not... drunk."
I clearly remember that you owe me a lot.
Zhongli Zhengzhen slightly curled his lips, lowered his head towards Gan Qiongying, his eyes filled with arrogance, indifference, and a hint of disdain.
He thought Princess Duanrong had really changed a bit.
He had overestimated her; the way she looked at him hadn't diminished at all, but had become even more intense.
Zhongli Zhengzhen felt that things were under his control, so he withdrew his smile and gaze, and said casually, "Then the princess may continue. This pear blossom wine has no aftereffects and will not cause headaches."
"Someone, prepare another pot of hot water for Princess Duanrong."
With that, he strode away from the table without looking to the side.
As the banquet drew to a close, many people left to watch the song and dance performances. Acquaintances gathered in small groups to chat and laugh, while the women huddled together, constantly exclaiming in amazement.
No one dared to chat with Gan Qiongying, and she didn't want to get up and go outside to watch any song, dance, or acrobatics.
Her eyes were fixed on Zhongli Zhengzhen until she watched him leave the waterside pavilion and disappear from sight.
My mind was filled with the jewelry and ornaments he wore, jingling as he moved...
That big jade pendant on her waist looks familiar.
They can't all be mine, can they?
That's so big, it must be very expensive!
Give it back to me!
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