Transmigrated into the Scum Female Consort - Chapter 3

Zeng Laosan’s face turned cold. He raised the whip in his hand. “Princess Consort, you better think clearly: exchange or not?”

A beggar dares to defy him? Truly courting death.

Yun Chi: Cao (a common euphemism for a curse word), a plant.

This person was really fixated on her, but she truly had nothing to exchange.

“I have no silver, nor any valuable items.”

Zeng Laosan laughed. “It seems the Princess Consort prefers to drink a forfeit rather than a toast.”

Seeing him about to lash the whip, Yun Chi quickly shouted, “I really have nothing! Official, you must have heard that I was a beggar before the marriage. I beg the official to show mercy…”

Yun Chi begged. A person under the eaves has no choice but to bow their head. She didn’t want to be beaten again. Her back and arms still hurt. It wasn’t worth arguing with him.

Zeng Laosan, however, didn’t believe her. He snorted and immediately prepared to strike.

Just as the whip was about to fall, someone spoke up.

“We’ll exchange,” Ye Xuejin’s voice was clear and faint.

“Don’t go too far,” Yu Lu immediately spoke up, striding toward them.

Zeng Laosan withdrew his whip and looked at Yun Chi meaningfully. “The Princess Consort truly has good fortune.”

The sarcastic tone caused the atmosphere to become quiet. A complex look, varying in degree, flashed in the eyes of the onlookers.

Who could have anticipated that the former Grand Princess, who was second only to one person and above ten thousand, would have a day like this, where even the supposed title of ‘Princess Consort’ was full of ridicule.

Yu Lu approached, frowning. “What’s going on?”

Ye Xuejin’s voice had been too soft, and he hadn’t heard clearly. The reason he spoke to stop Zeng Laosan was that he saw Ye Xuejin stand up.

Ye Xuejin pursed her lips and took out something the size of a copper coin from her bosom.

“We’ll exchange.”

It was a jade pendant, pure white all over. Even though the light wasn’t very bright, its excellent quality was still apparent.

Yun Chi felt it might be her misconception, but she had the feeling that the head officer seemed relieved when he saw Ye Xuejin take out the item.

Yu Lu’s face did relax a bit, but it wasn’t obvious. “What do you want to exchange for?”

Ye Xuejin said calmly, “Steamed buns.”

Yu Lu looked astonished, frozen for a moment.

Fortunately, Yun Chi reacted quickly. “No! We want to exchange for a bottle of trauma medicine. If we could get a few steamed buns as well, that would be even better.”

Ye Xuejin frowned slightly but didn’t say anything.

Yu Lu looked at Yun Chi in surprise. He held out a bottle of trauma medicine toward Ye Xuejin, but half-way, he redirected his hand and handed it to Yun Chi.

Yun Chi subconsciously took it.

Then, Yu Lu extended his hand toward Ye Xuejin, palm up.

“This item can only be exchanged for one bottle of medicine. Hand it over.”

Ye Xuejin glanced at his face and tossed the jade pendant into his palm.

Yu Lu nodded slightly and looked at Zeng Laosan. “Come with me to distribute the coarse flatbread.”

“Understood, I’ll be right there.” Zeng Laosan followed him. Along the short distance, he secretly eyed Yu Lu several times, his expression pensive.

The prisoners’ dinner was still half a piece of coarse flatbread. As for the officers, they, of course, enjoyed white steamed buns paired with dried meat soup.

Here, Yun Chi sat down next to Ye Xuejin and asked softly, “Can you apply the medicine yourself?”

What was this woman thinking? She actually only asked for steamed buns just now. Trauma medicine is clearly more precious at a time like this.

As for food, the officers would distribute coarse flatbread, and Ye Xuejin still had a corn bun in her bosom. What they needed most right now was medicine.

The rumors said the Grand Princess was peerlessly talented and beautiful. This woman shouldn’t be stupid…

Furthermore, since this woman could take out the jade pendant, she probably had other things hidden on her. She can exchange them slowly later; no rush.

Although Yun Chi didn’t understand the reason for Ye Xuejin’s actions, she wasn’t in a hurry to ask. The most pressing matter was treating Ye Xuejin’s injuries.

After a day of traveling, Ye Xuejin’s clothes were practically stained with patterns of blood. It was clear the wounds hadn’t healed and were constantly seeping.

It made her feel alarmed just looking at it.

Ye Xuejin leaned against the tree trunk and slowly said, “I’m fine.”

Yun Chi couldn’t help but frown. It’s ‘I’m fine’ again. Could this woman be even more tired of life than she was?

Connecting this with Ye Xuejin’s action of asking for steamed buns instead of medicine, Yun Chi instinctively felt she had guessed correctly.

She seriously suspected that the most critical reason Ye Xuejin died so early in the original text was that she had very little will to survive.

Realizing this, Yun Chi tentatively asked, “Why aren’t you eating?”

Ye Xuejin didn’t answer. After a period of silence, she took out the corn bun from her bosom, which had been broken in half, and made to give both halves to Yun Chi.

She couldn’t eat anything. Her body had long been numb from the pain. She probably wouldn’t last much longer, so why waste the medicine and food…

Yun Chi furrowed her brow and pushed away the hand holding the corn bun. She said seriously, “Ye Xuejin, trust me. In half a month at most, your grievances will be cleared. Therefore, you must hold on. I will help you.”

To save her own small life, and to avoid being held accountable and having her life implicated by the female lead later, she had to help this woman.

Just half a month. After half a month, the suffering would end and joy would come.

Her cousin’s original complaint was that the news arrived quickly after the exile period had just exceeded half a month, but unfortunately, Ye Xuejin didn’t wait for it. She had died of resentment a few days earlier, amidst the scummy Princess Consort’s humiliation and beatings.

Ye Xuejin stared fixedly at her for a moment. “Why?”

She meant, Why help me?

Yun Chi understood. She didn’t answer directly. Instead, she threw the question back. “Why did you help me just now?” They were no different from strangers. Ye Xuejin probably couldn’t bear to see her beaten.

Hmm, she’s a kind person.

I am kind too.

Mainly, I have no choice but to be kind. If Ye Xuejin died early, when the female lead, who regarded Ye Xuejin as a sister, sought retribution after the case was overturned, who could speak up for her?

She could almost foresee that without any backing, she would definitely be the scapegoat.

Ye Xuejin was startled for a moment. Why?

She also couldn’t say clearly why she stepped forward. Perhaps it was because this person helped her bring the corn bun, or perhaps it was because of that one sentence: “I will definitely not abandon you on this journey.”

“That jade pendant was a gift I gave to Shushi…”

Shushi normally treasured it like gold and carried it everywhere.

The reason the jade pendant ended up in Ye Xuejin’s hand was because of the corn bun.

She didn’t know how Shushi managed to hide the jade pendant, or how carefully and anxiously she managed to tuck it into the corn bun and entrust Yun Chi to give it to her.

After hearing this, Yun Chi’s first reaction was, “Is that jade pendant the only thing you had left?”

Ye Xuejin nodded.

Yun Chi suddenly felt disheartened. She has nothing left!

Then how are they going to exchange things slowly later? Wait a minute, it’s not like she has nothing left.

A thought struck her. She handed the trauma medicine in her hand to Ye Xuejin. “You treat your wounds first.”

The opportunity for verification has arrived, hasn’t it?

Ye Xuejin didn’t take it. “No need to waste…”

“How can this be called wasting? Trust me, I will help you.” Yun Chi interrupted her. She shoved the small porcelain bottle directly into Ye Xuejin’s hand and wrapped her fingers around hers to secure it.

Ye Xuejin silently withdrew her hand, the porcelain bottle now held tightly.

“Thank you.”

The next instant, as expected, two lines of gleaming large text appeared before Yun Chi’s eyes.

【Sent out one bottle of trauma medicine. Please select a reward: One warm cotton shirt or Ten taels of gold】

Huo! It changed from ten taels of silver to ten taels of gold.

With the experience of the first time, did she even need to think? This warm cotton shirt must be very important.

It seemed the condition for triggering the reward was sending something out through her hands, regardless of who owned the item. As for whether it was limited to only giving things to Ye Xuejin, that needed further verification.

Yun Chi calmly stood up. “I’m going to fetch some water.”

She quickly walked to the riverbank, squatted down with her back to the crowd, and silently thought: Warm cotton shirt.

The large text disappeared. In her hand was a neatly folded cotton shirt, moderately thick, folded squarely to the size of an A4 sheet.

Yun Chi quietly let out a sigh of relief. To be honest, when she said ‘I will help you’ earlier, she lacked confidence.

Now, she finally had some backing.

Helping Ye Xuejin… In a flash of insight, Yun Chi seemed to understand.

No wonder it’s worth ten taels of gold. One must know that besides the worsening injuries, the key reason for Ye Xuejin’s death was contracting a severe cold.

The dew was heavy in late autumn, they were constantly sleeping in the wilderness, and she had no means to keep warm. Ye Xuejin was injured and so weak; it was easy for her to catch a cold.

This warm cotton shirt was indeed very important. She hadn’t chosen wrong.

However, while this cheat was good, it was inconvenient. There was always a risk of being discovered every time she received a reward.

Alas, she’ll take it one step at a time. Having it is better than not having it.

Yun Chi let out a few soft breaths to calm herself down. She tucked the warm cotton shirt into her bosom and walked back with the water skin.

“Ye Xuejin, look! I found a water skin by the river.”

She feigned surprise, raising her voice slightly to announce the water skin publicly.

Whether others believed it or not, this was the story.

It was late at night. The prisoners had walked all day. Those who had never suffered had lost nearly half their lives, and even the physically strong ones were thoroughly exhausted. They merely glanced at the two and didn’t pay any attention.

The officers were gathered around the cooking pot, focused on eating and drinking, and also ignored her.

Only Zeng Laosan looked at Yun Chi, a mocking smile flashing in his eyes. Tonight would be a good time to cause some trouble.

As for Yun Chi, she walked over to Ye Xuejin and handed her the water skin.

“Have some water.”

This woman hadn’t had any water all day. Tsk tsk, how tragic. Beautiful and tragic, but not strong.