Transmigrated into the Scum Female Consort - Chapter 117

“Speak here.” Ye Xuejin’s face was neutral, but the rims of her eyes were tinged with a faint red.

Has she been crying?

The thought flashed through Yun Chi’s mind, making her heart feel heavy and localizing an unbearable ache in her chest.

“I came to give you this.”

Yun Chi was holding a stack of books in one arm, making her movements a bit clumsy as she retrieved a piece of paper from the silk pouch in her sleeve. Something surged in the depths of Ye Xuejin’s eyes, only to vanish into silence a moment later.

The Princess reached out slowly, but halfway through, she accelerated her pace, snatched the folded square of paper, and turned to close the door in one fluid motion.

Yun Chi froze. Wait—she hadn’t even said anything yet!

“Yun Chi, take care.”

A low, hoarse voice drifted through the door panel, suppressed and heavy, as if restraining a terrifying storm. Hearing her own name—a name rarely used by the Princess—Yun Chi realized she had been misunderstood again.

“No! I didn’t write a letter of divorce! That’s the formula for manufacturing glass. I checked it carefully; there are no issues. Ye Xuejin, open the door. Listen to me, okay?”

Panic flared in her heart. She knocked again, her movements more urgent than before.

Inside the room, Ye Xuejin leaned against the door, tears trembling on the brink of falling. She unfolded the paper with a daze. It was indeed a formula for glass, not a letter of divorce.

But why isn’t it? Didn’t she want a divorce? Didn’t she want to leave? Why must she continue to tug at my heart strings like this?

She tilted her head back, forcing the tears away, and slowly closed her eyes. In the silence, the door opened once more.

“What do you want to say?” Ye Xuejin’s tone was faint, her face noticeably pale. She looked as she did when they first met—fragile and helpless.

Yun Chi paused. “Let me in first. What I have to say next is very important. I can only say it to you.”

Yun Chi knew now what she had to do. She needed to say more. Much more.

Ye Xuejin nodded and sat at the table, her head lowered and her arms wrapped around herself, hiding her expression. Yun Chi closed the door and sat opposite her. After setting the books on the table, she moved her chair closer until she was right beside the Princess.

“Speak,” Ye Xuejin said with a hint of feigned indifference, though her fingers secretly clenched her robes, creating a mess of wrinkles. Suddenly, she looked up, her neck arched back. Her fingertips trembled slightly from the sheer force of her grip.

“Consort… I find I no longer wish to hear it.”

Her voice was thin and cold, burying all her uncontrollable emotions beneath an icy veneer.

Yun Chi was speechless, her mind a chaotic battlefield with no way to organize her thoughts. Just then, Ye Xuejin stared directly at her. Those beautiful eyes were deeper, colder, and more complex than usual.

“Consort… I find I want to hear it after all.”

Yun Chi’s heart leaped into her throat, dangling like a piece of rootless duckweed. Belatedly, she rose, walked to Ye Xuejin’s side, and half-knelt on the floor. She gently wrapped her arms around the Princess’s waist, resting her head against her side.

“Then where would you like me to start? You ask slowly, and I’ll tell you slowly. How does that sound?”

Ye Xuejin looked down at the top of Yun Chi’s head, her lips pressed into a tight line. Time slipped away in silence. Invisibly, the barriers between them began to fade.

After a long silence, Yun Chi looked up with a small smile. “My legs are getting numb. Can we talk on the bed?”

Ye Xuejin met her gaze for a split second before turning away, her red lips parting slightly. “Fine.”

Yun Chi’s smile brightened instantly. She used her strength to help Ye Xuejin stand, keeping her arm around her waist as they walked toward the inner chamber.

The candle flickered with a pop, burning brighter. Its light reached into the inner room but was partially blocked by a screen, leaving the bed in a soft, dim shadow. As they sat on the edge of the bed, Yun Chi leaned over and grasped Ye Xuejin’s slender ankles.

Ye Xuejin’s instep stiffened instinctively. She wanted to pull away but feared kicking Yun Chi. In her hesitation, her shoes were removed.

Yun Chi held her feet, her movements gentle. “Your feet are freezing. Is your stomach feeling okay?”

Ye Xuejin shifted further onto the bed, her gaze deepening. “It is manageable.”

Yun Chi raised an eyebrow, took off her own shoes, and climbed onto the bed to sit opposite her. She lifted the quilt, loosened her own sash slightly, and tucked Ye Xuejin’s feet against her own body to warm them.

Ye Xuejin seemed to have anticipated this. She struggled to force out the words: “The Consort need not do this.”

But as she spoke, she felt the warmth through her thin cotton socks. It was a cozy heat that seemed to seep straight into her heart. She curled her toes awkwardly, wanting to pull away yet craving the warmth. The emotions in her eyes fluctuated before finally turning into a glistening moisture.

When she spoke again, her voice lacked warmth, tinged with self-deprecation. “Why must the Consort play the part of the pleaser? I am not a three-year-old child.”

Yun Chi smiled, covering the Princess’s feet with her hands, ignoring the barb. “To keep the body at peace, the feet must be warm. You are on your cycle; you mustn’t catch a cold.”

Ye Xuejin bit her lip, silenced. No one knew the complexity of her heart; no one knew how moved she truly was. If this tenderness was only for a moment—a prelude to a final parting—she could not refuse it. If it was meant to last, making it impossible to let go, then she wanted to be selfish for once. Yet, she feared she couldn’t be entirely selfish.

Yun Chi stroked the top of her feet, lost in thought. Ye Xuejin twitched her legs, wanting to say something but holding it back. Her lashes trembled as she lay down and closed her eyes. It tickles a little…

Yun Chi adjusted her posture to make the Princess more comfortable, still cradling her feet against her chest, letting the warmth flow through her inner robe.

“I don’t know how to tell you everything, so why don’t you ask? I’ll explain it bit by bit. It might be a bit messy; my head is a jumble right now.”

Ye Xuejin remained silent for a moment before allowing herself to ask: “Where does the Consort come from? Were you truly a beggar?”

Her voice was airy, but beneath the softness lay an immense amount of trepidation.

Yun Chi spoke slowly. “You might not believe this, but I come from a different world. Think of it as another realm entirely, one that has nothing to do with the Great Shao Dynasty. In that world, I was just an ordinary teacher—what you would call a ‘Master’ or ‘Scholar.'”

She had been a high school literature teacher in the modern era, having only started the job for a few days.

Ye Xuejin’s eyes snapped open, unable to hide her shock. “Why did the Consort come to Great Shao?” She turned onto her side, searching Yun Chi’s eyes, a deep unease surging within her.

Yun Chi shifted her hands to the soles of the Princess’s feet. “I’m not sure of the exact reason. I only know that I went to sleep and woke up in the Ministry of Justice’s prison, having become your Prince Consort.”

Ye Xuejin’s anxiety grew. “Will the Consort go back?”

Yun Chi shook her head honestly. “I don’t know.” She paused. “Coincidentally, I was also named Yun Chi in that world. My appearance and height were exactly the same as they are now. Perhaps there is some connection.”

She didn’t mention that this world was just a novel. To her, Ye Xuejin and everyone else were living, breathing people. She couldn’t bring herself to say that Great Shao was merely a fictional world created by an author. Whether it was “real” or “fictional” no longer mattered.

Ye Xuejin’s shoulders trembled. She endured the tingling sensation on her feet and asked in a muffled voice, “And what of the ‘Immortal’ methods the Consort possesses?”

Yun Chi shook her head again. “I’m not sure. In my world, I was an ordinary person, no different from anyone else. Those abilities only appeared after I arrived here—specifically, on the day I met you.”

She spoke calmly, hiding nothing now, even sharing her suspicions about Zhu Yan’s origins. “…It seems Zhu Yan comes from a world similar to mine, but he doesn’t have these supernatural powers. Still, we shouldn’t be careless; he needs to be watched.”

Ye Xuejin fell silent. Even though she had prepared herself for the fact that Yun Chi was different, the truth was still staggering. The Consort truly was from a different world.

Seeing that she had no more questions and that her feet were finally warm, Yun Chi moved her legs, tucked the quilt in, and got off the bed.

“Consort…” Ye Xuejin called out instinctively, her voice filled with a sudden fear that the person before her might vanish in an instant.

Yun Chi chuckled softly. “Stay under the covers. We finally got some warmth into you. I’m just going to wash my hands.”

Ye Xuejin’s ears burned. She had been touching her feet for so long… she certainly needed to wash her hands.

Yun Chi returned quickly and lay down facing Ye Xuejin. She reached out to touch the corner of the Princess’s eye. “Were you crying earlier?”

Ye Xuejin pursed her lips and said nothing. Sometimes, silence is the clearest answer.

Yun Chi’s finger moved to rub the Princess’s earlobe, her tone full of helpless indulgence. “I know this sounds unbelievable. I wasn’t sure if I should tell you… until I saw you crying outside the door.”

She let the sentence trail off, hiding the depth of her feelings. But the moment she had seen Ye Xuejin’s red-rimmed eyes, all her reservations had vanished. In that moment, Yun Chi realized that it didn’t matter if she told her the truth—what mattered was that her heart ached for her.

It was a dull ache, but it wrapped around her heart like a net.

Ye Xuejin understood the unspoken meaning. Her eyes grew moist again, and her heart felt full. “If it makes the Consort feel burdened, you need not mind me in the future.”

“It’s too late for that,” Yun Chi teased, pinching her earlobe. “Your Highness should have said that much sooner. It’s far too late now.”

“How is it too late?”

Yun Chi didn’t explain. She moved her hand to the side of the Princess’s neck, leaned in, and kissed the corner of her mouth.

How was it too late? She couldn’t quite explain it herself. It was like they say: The moment you start feeling heartache for someone, you start making exceptions. You break every rule you have for them.

That was exactly how she felt.

After the brief kiss, Yun Chi was about to pull away, but the fluttering in her heart was too strong. She pulled the quilt over their heads. It wasn’t enough… She gently captured those tempting lips, drinking her in, yet it still wasn’t enough.