Chapter 1: Transmigrated as a Cannon Fodder Noble Consort

Chapter 1: Transmigrated as a Cannon Fodder Noble Consort

“It was Noble Consort Rong who pushed Noble Lady Hui. She pushed Noble Lady Hui, this servant saw it very clearly.”

Listening to the wailing in her ears, Cheng Jin only felt her head buzzing.

What Noble Consort Rong? What Noble Lady Hui? Didn’t she just stay up late reading a novel?

Had she stayed up until she went insane?

Cheng Jin saw the palace maid glance at her, her eyes full of cowardice and guilt, before kowtowing to the man sitting on the throne.

“Your Majesty, if I have spoken even half a lie, may I be struck by lightning and never be reincarnated.”

Following the usual tropes, it was either a prank or she had transmigrated into a book.

Cheng Jin looked at the maid kowtowing incessantly before her and suddenly woke up to the reality.

Wasn’t this plot progression exactly like that trashy transmigration novel she read last night, titled *The Cold-Faced Prince’s Fierce Pampering*?

Well, great. She really had transmigrated into a book.

And she had transmigrated into one of the cannon fodder villains in the story.

That’s right, Chu Chengye, who was currently sitting on the dragon throne, was one of them.

According to the plot, when Qu Wanxin fell into the palace lake, her body was taken over by the soul of a modern-day heroine, kicking off a path of face-slapping and revenge.

Her first target was Noble Consort Rong, who was usually the most arrogant and domineering due to her family’s influence. Qu Wanxin had faked falling into the water and bribed a palace cleaner to frame Cheng Jin.

And Cheng Jin, who was already out of favor, was struggling in her death throes as she was about to be thrown into the Cold Palace.

Perhaps the heroine’s halo in the book was too powerful. Chu Chengye, the book’s greatest villainous tyrant, was bloodthirsty. At the age of eight, he had been sent to a vassal state as a hostage by the late Emperor, enduring humiliation for over a decade.

Legend had it that the vassal state ran red with blood, and it was only after Chu Chengye returned to the Southern Qi Kingdom carrying the head of the vassal leader—a great achievement—that the late Emperor bestowed the title of Prince upon this son whose name he couldn't even remember.

Afterward, Chu Chengye didn't settle for being an idle prince. He first forced the late Emperor to abdicate, then drastically overhauled national policies. Any official who resisted died under his sword without exception.

Yet such a tyrant, who could have achieved hegemony through his own strength, was inexplicably obsessed with the heroine. He fell in love at first sight, left his six palaces empty for her, and believed everything she said, even going so far as to give up his conquests for her.

But he forgot that the Qu Wanxin he kept in the palace was once the childhood sweetheart of the male lead, the Fifth Prince, Chu Huai’an.

Despite holding the script of a tyrant’s exclusive pampering, it was a pity that Chu Chengye was not the male lead; he was the villain. The empire he seized was eventually taken away by the Fifth Prince in collusion with foreign powers.

His corpse was hung above the city gates for forty-nine days, left for the birds to peck at, and later thrown onto a barren mountain to be torn apart by wild beasts, ultimately leaving him without a burial place.

When the Fifth Prince ascended the throne, he granted amnesty to the world, and most of the concubines in the palace were sent home.

Only Cheng Jin, who had only met Chu Chengye twice in the entire book, was declared his favorite concubine and dragged out of the Cold Palace to be buried alive with him.

Cheng Jin: “...”

I won’t say a word until my lawyer arrives.

Although she wouldn’t live long either and was also cannon fodder, when it came to the method of death, Cheng Jin still felt a pang of pity as she looked up at Chu Chengye.

Such a handsome face, what a pity, what a pity.

“Bang!”

Chu Chengye, sitting on the chair, slammed his hand onto the table. The pastries and tea set upon it collided like a landslide, emitting a violent crash.

Everyone in the room knelt on the ground in unison, not daring to even breathe loudly.

The fact that Noble Consort Rong’s father had used his high position to force his daughter into the palace as a Noble Consort was already enough to anger the Emperor. Now, Noble Consort Rong had committed such a vicious act, actually pushing Noble Lady Hui into the lake.

Who in the palace didn’t know that although Qu Wanxin was only a Noble Lady, she was brought back personally by the Emperor? Who else in the harem had such an honor?

Now that Noble Consort Rong had done this, even if she escaped death, she would find it hard to avoid the fate of the Cold Palace.

“Audacious!”

Chu Chengye, hearing the inexplicable voice in his ears, was furious to the extreme and let out a roar at Cheng Jin.

He, the dignified monarch of the Southern Qi Kingdom, the supreme ruler above ten thousand, how could he give up the status, identity, and even the people of the world he had risked his life to seize for a woman?

He even ended up with his corpse being gnawed on by birds and beasts, left without a burial place.

He had only met that woman once. He knew she was his brother’s beloved, and to keep this restless brother in check, it was only natural to keep her in the palace to disgust him.

But the voice clearly belonged to the person in front of him. Chu Chengye looked down at Cheng Jin, yet he didn’t see her mouth move.

Could this woman be using ventriloquism?

Chu Chengye turned to look at the eunuchs beside him and the sobbing palace maid kneeling not far away, but their expressions were normal.

It was evident that only he could hear it.

However, Chu Chengye dared not believe it easily. His narrow, long eyes stared fixedly at Cheng Jin. He parted his thin lips and spoke without any emotion

“Noble Consort Rong, I want to hear it from you.”

Chu Chengye actually just wanted to hear Cheng Jin speak to see if it was the same person as the voice he heard.

After hearing Chu Chengye’s words, Cheng Jin thought he believed the maid and was angry, and that asking her to speak was just a formality.

Cheng Jin lowered her head, her expression as pitiful as could be, as if she really had done it.

But if she weren’t looking down, the smile at the corners of her mouth would be impossible to hide.

“Your Majesty, this concubine knows she was wrong.”

[It’s here, this scene is finally here. I’m coming, Cold Palace. Although the Cold Palace is a bit lonely, at least I don’t have to see Qu Wanxin, the Fifth Prince, or this tyrant in front of me. The less I see them, the less danger I’m in.]

[I have trypophobia; I’m afraid of people with too many schemes.]

Cheng Jin shed a few tears at the right moment and looked up at Chu Chengye sitting on the dragon throne.

He was the villainous tyrant described in the book as devastatingly handsome.

He was still wearing the dragon robes from the morning court, sitting upright. His phoenix eyes seemed to reveal danger at every moment, and his fingertips tapped lightly on the table. Though his face was expressionless, it was chilling.

Chu Chengye was staring at Cheng Jin, his brows furrowed, his thin lips pressed tightly as if he wanted to say something, his eyes filled with doubt and anger.

It really was her.

Seeing Chu Chengye staring at her, Cheng Jin thought he was so angry at his sweetheart’s behalf that he wanted to skin her alive.

[I know you’re very angry, but don’t be angry yet. Is it possible that I didn’t push Qu Wanxin, but that she wanted to commit suicide for love with her sweetheart, the Fifth Prince?]

[I bet if you go now, you can still find her farewell letter on the bridge bank.]

Chu Chengye was startled and was about to summon his eunuch, Wei An, to see if it was true.

Cheng Jin lowered her head, still immersed in her own thoughts.

[What is this tyrant sending someone to do? Is he checking on Qu Wanxin’s situation to convict me?]

[But it doesn’t seem to have anything to do with me. As long as the tyrant gives the order, I can move to the Cold Palace today. Then, during the assassination at the banquet tonight, this tyrant won’t be able to use me as a human shield to block arrows.]

[Instead of caring about a sweetheart whose heart isn’t with you, you should check on the people around you, lest you die prematurely and drag me down with you as a cushion.]

(End of chapter)