Aromatic Flesh
chapter-2

It was bright and sunny outside, and the streets were filled with fireworks as the city celebrated the wedding of Lu ShuYan, the illegitimate third miss of Marquis ZhenBei, and Prince Liu Yi, the nephew of the current emperor.

Gu MingYue blinked nervously in the wedding carriage. One moment she was still fainting from the horrible tips given by the system, the next she was already stuck in the body of Lu ShuYan.

Unsure of her current options, she could only settle down and get used to her new body, and fortunately, moments later, a now-familiar looking message board appear right in from of her, giving her the option to check out this world’s story.

Not knowing what to expect, she took a deep breath before tapping the [Yes] button swiftly, quickly scanning through the information that appeared on the message board, intending to grasp her current situation to her best abilities.

Initially, as the illegitimate third daughter of a Marquis, her chances of marrying a royalty was near to zero, but Prince Liu Yi was known for his grave illness, it was said that there was nothing the imperial doctors could do except to keep him alive with various rare medicines.

Fortunately, as the cannon fodder of this beautiful love story, she was to be married to this sickly prince as a token of great joy¹, and as a bonus, her in-laws had allowed her to take up the role as Main Consort.

Though, the wedding was overly simple and completed hastily, to the point that Lu ShuYan had to undergo the wedding rituals with a cockerel just because her husband was bedridden.

It was so bad that from the day she entered this household to the day she had to give way for her elder sister, not once did she met nor hear from her husband in their short-lived marriage.

The one time that he had finally noticed her, it was to strip her of her position as Main Consort and announced her a lowly mistress because he had fallen for her elder sister, Lu WanQing, the legitimate first born daughter of her family. Still, his command came in the form of a piece of paper, as he did not even show up for her downfall.

Eventually, she spent her entire life there until the day she passed, alone.

“Ahh… Such a miserable life, as expected of a cannon fodder.” Gu MingYue sighed at the fate of Lu ShuYan, and as someone who was, too, a cannon fodder in her previous life, Gu MingYue could relate with her unfortunate life.

But she quickly cheered up, because though an outsider might not know about the real reasoning behind her husband’s issue, she did, and her husband-to-be, was anything but sickly.

In fact, he was a highly skilled martial artist, and his fatal illness was merely a cover for him to assist his cousin, the current crown prince, in secret affairs.

Meanwhile, the plot of the story went like this. On one of his secret missions, he was to enter the prime minister’s living quarters to steal a piece of evidence that would cause the downfall of the crown prince, and unfortunately for him, the place was too heavily guarded, causing him to be gravely injured.

And though he still managed to escape, he could not have gone far if not for Lu WanQing, who was, coincidentally, riding past in her personal carriage. Seeing his chance to escape, he had intruded her carriage and threatened her to keep quiet.

Being a kindhearted lady, she covered for the injured Liu Yi and managed to convince the prime minister’s guards to leave her carriage unchecked, as she could not harbor any bad reputation for having her carriage violated by servants. Her quick wits saved him that night.

And unbeknownst to her, the man that she had saved, had fallen deeply for the gentle and smart lady who had helped him in his neediest time.

Which was why, after this fateful incident, he begun visiting her personal quarters every night, and within days, the two of them had fallen deeply in love with each other, even to the point of sharing wonderful nights together.

Gu MingYue’s face was all crumpled up in disgust as she read on. Such disgraceful beings! She thought in spite, To think that a legitimate daughter of a Marquis would be so shameless!

But her cheeks burned instantly as she remembered her mission, and it finally hit her that she was in no position to judge anyone…

Furthermore, though disgraceful, Lu WanQing was not an evil person, unlike the little white lotus from her own world. She was not aware that the man she had fallen deeply for was her very own brother-in-law, nor would it matter even if she did, such was the way of the hierarchy.

And even after claiming the position of the Main Consort, she had not made a move towards her illegitimate sister, as she probably thought that her little sister was not a threat at all, hence allowing Lu ShuYan to continue living there. Gu MingYue could almost considered her to had lived a long and comfortable life, if you ignore the fact that Lu WanQing had turned a blind eye to the servants’ bullying.

Truly a kindhearted woman², indeed.

That was the entire backstory of this world, and Gu MingYue’s mission here was to capture the heart of Prince Liu Yi, and stabilize her position as his Main Consort, which required him to swear that he would never fall for Lu WanQing.

This might not be as difficult as I had expected… Gu MingYue blushed furiously as she thought about her options.

It was a known fact that Lu WanQing, as the legitimate daughter of a Marquis, was a lady with great beauty and intelligence, and as much fame as she had, Lu ShuYan was the exact opposite.

There was no way the Marchioness would allow the daughter of a mistress to overtake her daughter in fame, which was why she had been raised with a cowardly and uncompetitive nature, who was so easily frightened and uneducated to the point that no one her unattractive personality had fully hidden her actual beauty.

In truth, Lu ShuYan had been born with exceptional beauty, together with her angelic voice, otherwise, the Marquis would never had been able to arrange for her to marry a prince in such a perfunctory way.

Even Gu MingYue herself was confident that Lu ShuYan could rival the beauty of her original body, and now that she’s here, Gu MingYue knew that she would have to use her beauty as an advantage, even though the old her would’ve despised this… But that was during the time when she honestly believed that she needed to be the perfect wife in order to keep her husband’s heart, but experience taught her that this was not the case at all.

Truly, a perfect and poised wife would gain the respect of her husband, and that was all she would receive. Meanwhile, a wife who is perfect in public but a thirsty slut in private, was what all men wished for.

This was what she came to understand, after spending so much time watching how the little white lotus had interacted with the men from their world.

But knowing this was one thing, accepting it was really difficult for her, but she knew that she had no choice. This was her only option left, and in order to save her mother, she could not afford to fail any of her missions, at all.

Fortunately, just like the backstory she had read, Gu MingYue was quickly sent to the wedding room after rushing through the overly simple marriage ritual. The servants merely lead her to the plain and undecorated room with not a single word of blessing, furthermore, she noticed that they had not prepared her wedding bed with red-colored beddings nor had they placed the bowl of dried food³ on her pillow.

Gu MingYue sat on the worn down bed quietly as she waited, but at this point, dizzy from hunger, and in addition to the heavy weight of her marriage crown, she felt as though she might faint any time soon.

She tried wetting her lips with her saliva, only to find out that even her mouth was dry and her throat hurts, probably from being dehydrated for an entire day.

Furthermore, her head hurts from the unending noise of her nanny’s sobs, who had not stopped weeping for her unfortunate fate since the moment they walked into this room.

“Why do you cry?” She asked solemnly, landing her gaze on her nanny, before slowly removing her wedding crown from her head.

“Oh, Princess consort, how could you remove your wedding crown!?” Instantly, her nanny cried out in shock at her actions, before reaching out to grab her wedding crown carefully, intending to place it back onto Gu MingYue’s head.

But there was no way Gu MingYue would allow her to place the burden back in place! Quickly tilting her head slightly to the side, she narrowly avoided the crown, and at the same time, had enough time to observe her reflection on the side of the crown.

Her face was somewhat slim, with striking features and skin as pale as milk, even her nanny, who had raised her from birth, could not help but pause momentarily at her beauty.

And as if she had finally resigned to her life, Gu MingYue bit down hard onto her lips as she pushed away the crown weakly while her eyes dimmed.

“Do not cry, nanny. I’m married to a prince, and by law, my name would be carved into the royalty’s family book. This is truly a wonderful occasion, why do you cry?” Her words ended abruptly in a soft choke, as if she was trying her hardest not to weep herself.

And as expected, her nanny quickly placed the crown on a table nearby and hugged her tightly within her arms, “Oh, my poor miss, with your looks, I’m sure you do well even as one of the emperor’s consort. How could the Marquis destroy your entire life by sending you here to be married to a sickly man? Oh, my poor miss!”

“Hush, nanny. As an illegitimate child, I am very grateful that I was given this chance to marry a prince, and I truly believe that he will live a long and healthy life.” Gu MingYue answered truthfully, but her words sounded as if she was lying to herself, and it only seemed to sadden her nanny further, “My husband must be resting now, how could I bother him with such trivial things…”

Intending to end this conversation quicker, she paused for a second before continuing weakly, “Nanny, can I bother you to lead YaGe and YeYan here, and please find me something to eat…”

Her nanny nodded at her, quickly wiping away her tears. Nothing is more important than her miss, and her precious miss must be starving by now.

Gu MingYue sat idly in front of her dressing table as her two maids brushed her long and silky hair. At this point, she was already exhausted to the brim, and after dismissing her maids, she lied down on her bed tiredly.

Unlike Lu ShuYan, she was someone who naturally had the demeanor of a highborn royalty, and this was not something that would change even if she was currently occupying someone else’s body, as souls do not lie.

For the next few days, she was extremely cautious in her daily life, even resorting to using her tears to prevent her nanny and the two maids from suspecting that she was, in fact, an imposter. And somehow, it had worked!

Gu MingYue had plans to stop with this nonsense crying when the time comes, but that would have to come later. In fact, she was extremely busy right now as her full attention were on the books left in her room.

As a married woman in her previous life, she was not unknown to the ways of the bedroom, even though she had been like a dead fish on her marriage night… She used to think of that as a method to produce children for her husband, and if not for the days she had spent watching the little white lotus as a spirit, never in her life would she had imagined that there were so many ways to pleasure a man in the bedroom.

Gu MingYue grinned bitterly as she picked up one of the books, to think that the old her had been too shy to even touch the books… But after spending so long watching the obscene things the little white lotus did with so many men, no books were capable of throwing her off, especially now, as she had merely blushed slightly as she flipped through the pages.

Her goals were simple. She would complete every single mission available, and she will return to her own world to save her mother.

But in order to do so, she needed more information and knowledge of capturing a man’s heart, and the ways of the bedroom is, in fact, a very crucial part.

Pride and honor? No, she would bury that deeply within her as it would do nothing but hinder her mission.

She would learn, swiftly and fiercely, in hope that one day she could defeat the little white lotus at her own game.

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