After Transmigrating into a Book, I Was Entangled by the Paranoid Eldest Princess - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Wen Chenqing drew up a short-term study plan for herself (Imperial Examination Edition).

• 7:45 AM (Chenshi, 3rd quarter): Wake up, wash up, exercise, eat breakfast.

• 9:00 AM (Sishi): Begin reviewing the Four Books and Five Classics in order.

• 12:00 PM (Wuzheng): Eat lunch, followed by a midday nap.

• 2:30 PM (Weishi, 2nd quarter): Wake up to begin essay composition training and practice calligraphy with copybooks.

• 5:00 PM (Youshi): Stop writing, eat dinner, followed by a walk.

During study hours, she reserved the time it takes to drink a cup of tea for a break every hour. As the sole master of this small courtyard, she could ensure that the three meals were perfectly timed to her schedule.

In truth, she knew from her memories that people here typically ate only two meals a day, usually around 8:00 AM and 4:00 PM; if they were hungry in between, they would have a small snack. However, Wen Chenqing had maintained the habit of three meals a day for over twenty years. She had considered this while planning and ultimately decided to follow her own habits. The Wen family surely wasn’t so poor that they couldn’t afford to let her eat one extra meal.

However, she planned to revert to the two-meal habit once winter arrived and the days became shorter.

When Ginkgo first saw this plan, she was somewhat confused. But once she realized her mistress was studying with such diligence and sincerity, she immediately discarded the common knowledge she had held for over a decade. The Miss was right—if you don’t eat your fill, how can you have the energy to study!

This plan was only a temporary measure for these few days. Once the results of the prefectural exam were out, Wen Chenqing would need to adjust her schedule based on the outcome.

On this day, Wen Chenqing set down her brush and stared thoughtfully at the copybook she had been tracing on the desk.

Before transmigrating, she had attended a three-year calligraphy interest class during winter and summer breaks in middle school; she was best at the regular script. Later, her studies became busy, and her professional work after university was mostly paperless, so she rarely practiced. When she first put brush to paper here, she almost failed to recognize the characters on the page as her own.

These few days of concentrated practice had slowly allowed her to regain her former touch.

She looked at the two pieces of calligraphy on the desk. The handwriting on the left was delicate and elegant, while the one on the right was balanced and neat, with a certain hidden strength in its angles. It is said that handwriting reveals the person; a casual observer’s first reaction would be that these were written by two different people.

Wen Chenqing mused: If I claim that the shock of recent events caused a drastic change in my personality, which in turn changed my handwriting, that explanation should be reasonable enough, right?

A drop of ink fell from the tip of the brush, ruining the freshly finished page. Wen Chenqing snapped out of it, placed the brush on the ebony brush rest, tucked away the two calligraphies, and walked out of the study.

Outside, Ginkgo was engrossed in a storybook she had bought from the town yesterday. As the personal maid of the Second Miss Wen, she had followed the original host in and out of the academy, so she knew a fair number of characters. Although there were words in the storybook she didn’t recognize, she could still follow the plot by looking at the illustrations.

Wen Chenqing tapped her on the head, reminding her: “It’s getting late. Stop reading, or you’ll ruin your eyes.”

Back in the modern world, Wen Chenqing had been slightly nearsighted. Not wearing glasses didn’t affect her daily life much, and she only put them on when reading case files on her computer or tablet. Since transmigrating, her eyes were bright and clear; she no longer had to experience the hazy feeling of “looking at flowers through a fog.” Everything in the world was perfectly sharp. This “painless laser eye surgery” with zero side effects was perhaps the greatest benefit Wen Chenqing had received from transmigrating.

Those who have never been nearsighted cannot understand the sheer ecstasy of the world suddenly becoming clear. Therefore, she cherished her hard-won vision immensely and paid close attention to the eyes of those around her.

Ginkgo obediently put away the book and followed Wen Chenqing to the kitchen to get their food. Their living habits had changed; Mrs. Chen and the others had followed the old schedule for the first two days, but they were now in sync with her rhythm. Even though Wen Chenqing had been sent away by the Wen family, she was still the master. By the rules of status, her meals were far more lavish than theirs.

Despite this, when Ginkgo first saw the food, her cheeks puffed out and her eyes reddened with indignation on her mistress’s behalf. Wen Chenqing, however, felt she was actually quite lucky. She hadn’t had the chance to interact with the common people of this world, but she imagined most of them struggled just to fill their bellies. She couldn’t finish all the dishes by herself, so she simply had Ginkgo join her.

After finishing dinner, Wen Chenqing planned to go out for a walk as usual. Over the past few days, she had familiarized herself with the nearby roads. The place she lived wasn’t exactly remote; a short walk led to a nearby village. However, further north lay the small hunting ground. Wen Chenqing purposely avoided that direction during her morning runs; she was afraid that if she got too close to the woods, someone with poor eyesight might mistake her for game and shoot her.

Now that the sky was dim, she certainly wouldn’t walk in that direction.

She wandered nearby as usual. While her feet kept moving, she stretched her arms, loosening the muscles and bones that had been sitting all day. Feeling a stiffness in a certain spot on her shoulder blade, she stopped and recalled the stretching exercises from her memory, performing them one by one in sequence.

She was even wondering if her mental stores contained any exercises to fix “office chair butt” (stiffness from sitting too long). In the modern world, her glutes had essentially died from sitting; now that everything was starting fresh, she could bring them back to life.

She spent her time exercising while letting her mind wander through random thoughts to kill time.

Not until the endless black was about to swallow the last sliver of light did the moon hang high in the sky. The village in the evening was relatively quiet, so any movement nearby could be heard clearly.

Wen Chenqing stopped her movements and listened carefully. The faint sound of hoofbeats and voices she thought she heard earlier seemed like an illusion. There was no one else nearby except her; it must have been a hallucination.

But as she resumed her movement, her hand paused while rubbing her hip. She seemed to hear whispering again.

Wen Chenqing’s spine stiffened. It was evening, no one was around, and she wasn’t sure if she was hearing things. Her brain produced some uninvited, vivid associations. She told herself to stick to materialism, but then she remembered that this wasn’t the modern world—she was currently in the “evil feudal era.”

Her breathing slowed. While she warned herself not to get spooked—reminding herself that she was in a “sweet romance” novel without any supernatural elements—her left and right brain fought. Considering her own presence here was already quite un-materialistic, she decided to head back home.

The wind blew, and the weeds by the road made a rustling sound. Wen Chenqing whipped her head around to look at the source of the noise. A nimble white animal darted past, its afterimage like a shooting star—it looked like a cat.

Scaring people in the middle of the night… bad cat.

She breathed a sigh of relief. Releasing the tension in her heart, she prepared to step forward and turn around—

“!”

In moments of extreme terror, a person can lose their voice. Wen Chenqing’s eyes widened, her rationality nearly vanished, and her body recoiled two steps. She stumbled and nearly toppled over.

Quickly steadying herself, she looked at the person who had appeared so suddenly that she had almost stopped breathing. Her brows furrowed, and she was just about to speak when the other person beat her to it.

“You…”

But the person only managed one word before their body went limp, appearing as if they were about to collapse.

Still shaken, Wen Chenqing instinctively reached out to catch her, letting half the woman’s weight lean against her. While cradling the mysterious unconscious woman, Wen Chenqing pondered the situation in a daze. She looked around but saw no one else; it was as if this woman had appeared out of thin air.

Her gaze fell on the woman, whose face was obscured by her hair. Wen Chenqing hesitated. Since it was so late, it was best to take her back first. With uneven steps, the two figures merged into one, moving slowly toward the lit-up villa.

Ginkgo, coming out with a lantern to look for her mistress, saw this scene. She gasped and ran over with small steps: “Miss? What happened?”

Wen Chenqing breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing her. “We’ll talk back at the house. Help me support her first.”

Though confused, Ginkgo did as she was told. With two people, they moved faster.

Back at the villa, Mrs. Chen looked at the two of them and then at the stranger between them, her face filled with the same doubt Ginkgo had shown. After settling the woman on a couch, Wen Chenqing signaled Ginkgo and Mrs. Chen to step aside.

She downed a cup of cold tea and briefly described the encounter. Ginkgo said nothing; she always followed her mistress’s lead. Mrs. Chen thought for a moment, looking like she wanted to speak.

Wen Chenqing sensed her concern and said, “The night is cold and the dew is heavy. If I left her out there alone, it wouldn’t be safe. We’ll wait until she wakes up tomorrow, ask about the situation, and then send her away.”

Mrs. Chen immediately replied, “As you wish, Miss.”

After the arrangement was made, Wen Chenqing walked back to the couch. She was currently living in the west bedroom, as the east room had been converted into a study. However, there was still a small bed in the study. Wen Chenqing asked Mrs. Chen to bring a quilt there, and then she and Ginkgo helped settle the woman in the study.

Leaning down to help remove the woman’s dust-covered boots and tucking her in, Wen Chenqing left an oil lamp lit just in case and prepared to leave. But she quickly turned back. Recalling the icy temperature of the woman’s hand when she accidentally touched it earlier, and her seemingly motionless chest, Wen Chenqing paused and reached out to check her breathing.

“…”

Good, she’s still alive.

Her suspicion dissipated. Wen Chenqing masked the door and left.

While washing up, Wen Chenqing stared at her palm and raised it to sniff. The scent of blood was mixed with a faint fragrance, which was rather strange. She thought of the woman whose half-face had been revealed after the commotion; in the lamplight, her skin appeared exceptionally fair and delicate.

While she couldn’t rule out the “filter” effect of the dim light, these details all suggested that this person was no ordinary commoner. After finishing her wash, Wen Chenqing pushed these thoughts aside. In any case, she would send the person away tomorrow once she woke up, and after that, it would have nothing to do with her.

It was just a chance encounter; there was no need to dwell on it.

Fuqu looked nervously at the tightly shut gate of the three-entry villa not far away.

She wondered what her Master was thinking. Hadn’t they agreed that seeing the “changed” Second Miss Wen was just for a bit of fun and a little scare? Why did she suddenly pretend to faint? This whole play was too absurd.

Yet she didn’t dare rush in and disturb them. Fuqu could only clench her palms to suppress her racing heart as she instructed the people beside her: “The guards must watch the interior at every moment. Not a single detail must be missed.”

“Yes.”

After arranging the guards, Fuqu sighed again. Sigh, this place is so crude. She looked over the three-entry villa critically, her heart aching for the Princess. The Princess had never stayed in such a humble place!

The Princess was truly being wronged tonight.