The Heroine Fell Deeply For Her [Quick Transmigration] 113

Chapter 113: Taken Home by the Princess

After a bout of rain, the briefly warmed weather turned chilly again.

Rain beat down on the flowers, scattering pink and white petals across the ground. The eaves of the low-slung houses were damp, adding a touch of melancholy to the spring scene.

Within a remote courtyard, a door burst open with a bang, and several figures rushed out, covering their noses and mouths.

They were mostly teenagers, dressed in cross-collared, narrow-sleeved jackets and green skirts, with coarse aprons tied around their waists.

Despite their different faces, they all wore the same hairstyle, adorned with similar hair ornaments.

Pushing open the gate, the palace maids hurried out, flower petals clinging to their shoes.

These petals were usually swept by the person inside the house, but now that she was ill, no one had replaced her.

However, they had no time to worry about the petals on their shoes, exchanging glances, their eyes filled with worry.

The young women gathered together, whispering.

“Let’s report to Steward Tang and have her family take her back to prepare for her funeral… In her condition, even a miracle worker can’t save her.”

“She was coughing constantly a few days ago, but not today. We went to check on her, and she was just lying there, motionless.”

“Could she be… dying? She has a high fever that won’t break, she didn’t even respond when I called her name.”

One of them whispered, “But An Ning is a criminal’s descendant, she has no family left.”

The critically ill woman was named An Ning.

Silence fell over the group.

Was An Ning’s fate to be abandoned in the wilderness, her body left for wild dogs?

They were all palace maids working in the royal menagerie, responsible for cleaning and preparing food for the eunuchs to feed the animals.

There were hundreds of people in the menagerie. The current emperor, young and playful, loved collecting exotic animals, making the menagerie quite large.

Some of the workers were there voluntarily, their families unable to support them, at least here they had food to eat. Others were demoted here for failing to perform their duties in the palace, but their lives weren’t bad. And then there were those like An Ning, descendants of criminals, sent here as punishment.

The first two groups had it easier, with a chance of leaving eventually.

But descendants of criminals had no such hope, confined here for life, performing the most menial tasks.

A palace maid, frowning, paced back and forth on the petal-strewn ground, then turned around: “We can’t leave, if we could ask someone to bring back some medicine, it would be better than waiting for her to die.”

“But those arrogant eunuchs in charge of procurement wouldn’t give us medicine even if we offered them everything we had.”

A younger palace maid in a green dress, who had never witnessed death before, couldn’t bear to watch a living person fade away: “Should we beg Steward Tang to call for an imperial physician?”

“Do you think imperial physicians are easy to summon? They’re for treating nobles.”

An older palace maid shook her head: “Even Steward Tang doesn’t have the authority to summon an imperial physician, only the Chief Eunuch does.”

The young maid’s face fell.

In the end, they couldn’t come up with a solution.

The rain started again, and they quickly ran away, shielding their heads with their hands.

“Hurry, hurry, we can’t get wet!”

The slender figures disappeared in the distance. The rain continued for a while before stopping, the sky clearing as the sun began to set.

Two eunuchs arrived at the small courtyard with a stretcher, carrying the dying An Ning away.

One of them grumbled, “How unlucky, making us carry a corpse.”

A muffled cough came from the blanket, and the eunuch continued to complain, “We can’t let you stay here, you’ll infect the others. It’s the steward’s kindness to give you a quiet place to die.”

“Others would have just thrown you out.”

“If you die, you can’t blame anyone, blame your own bad luck!”

The other eunuch noticed the thin, pale wrist dangling from the stretcher, the bones protruding, making his legs weak: “Her… her hand fell out, is she dead?”

Just then, another muffled cough came from the blanket.

The eunuch breathed a sigh of relief, she wasn’t dead yet.

He didn’t dare go to the mass grave. The Chief Eunuch had sent him there once, and he had nightmares for three days straight, never wanting to go back.

“You’re such a coward, hurry up, we have to report back.”

The two eunuchs carried the stretcher, hurrying down the path.

When the other palace maids returned, preparing to feed An Ning the plain porridge they had requested from the kitchen, they found the room empty, the coughing figure gone.

“Cough, cough, cough!”

Tao Ning was awakened by the dust, every breath like inhaling sand, unbearable even for the deepest sleeper.

Opening her eyes, she saw the desolate moonlight and dust swirling in the air.

Tao Ning muttered, “Where have they brought me…”

The figure in the room sat up abruptly, clutching the blanket, her knuckles white, and spat out a mouthful of blood.

“Cough, cough, cough…”

Tao Ning covered her mouth, coughing uncontrollably, her pale face turning red, the itch in her throat intensifying, her grip tightening, her knuckles turning white.

520 watched anxiously, wishing it could pat her back or offer her a glass of water.

After a while, Tao Ning finally had the energy to look around, giving an objective assessment: “How inconsiderate.”

The room was small, everything visible at a glance, drafty and dilapidated, clearly abandoned for a long time.

She was placed in the middle of the room, facing the wooden door, a few bundles of firewood piled in the corner, covered in cobwebs.

Slightly better than a beggar’s dwelling.

Tao Ning took a moment to recover, then said, “Zero, give me the original host’s information.”

Her voice was hoarse and scratchy, and she couldn’t help but cough again.

520: [Coming right up, loading data.]

The original host’s life was simple, not complicated.

Her name was An Ning, a descendant of criminals, her parents deceased, with no other family.

With her parents convicted, she should have been sent to a brothel, but her father’s colleagues, unable to bear seeing such a young girl suffer that fate, managed to send her to the menagerie.

The work here was hard, but at least she wasn’t subjected to humiliation, and perhaps she could live a peaceful life.

An Ning was only ten years old when she arrived, still a child. This place, just a place of occasional amusement for the nobles, was usually quiet, and no one would bother a child.

As time passed, An Ning seemed to have forgotten her past, growing up healthy and reaching the age of eighteen.

A few days ago, she accidentally offended a noble, and Steward Chen relayed the message that she was punished to clean the rain garden.

She had to clean up all the fallen leaves and petals, even if it was raining heavily, not allowed to leave until every single one was gone.

It had been raining frequently lately, sometimes with strong winds, making it impossible to keep the garden completely clean. This was clearly a difficult task.

An Ning had no choice but to comply.

The palace maids she lived with wanted to help, holding an umbrella for her and cleaning the areas she couldn’t reach.

But the noble sent another message, the eunuch declaring that anyone who helped her would share the same punishment.

Unwilling to implicate them, An Ning sent them away and continued cleaning in the rain.

From morning till sunset, she was finally found by Steward Tang, who quickly sent her back, promising to speak to the noble on her behalf.

An Ning was drenched and shivering, her mind hazy, not hearing Steward Tang’s muttered curse: “Just a sycophant currying favor, what a noble.”

Seeing her pale face and swaying figure, Steward Tang had someone help her back.

In her room, the other palace maids had prepared hot water and ginger soup, waiting for her return.

They had been dozing off, finally welcoming her back, helping her change into dry clothes and making her drink the ginger soup, bustling around until late at night before finally going to sleep.

However, the next day, An Ning developed a fever from the cold, shivering and crying for her mother.

Palace maids had low status and weren’t entitled to medical treatment. They could either spend their meager savings to ask the eunuchs to bring back medicine or wait for death.

There were no doctors in the imperial retreat. If any of the exotic animals fell ill, an imperial physician would be summoned from the palace.

One of the palace maids knew some herbal remedies and managed to concoct a fever-reducing medicine for An Ning.

Fortunately, An Ning had a strong constitution, and her fever subsided that afternoon after taking the medicine. Seeing it was effective, the palace maids asked the kitchen for more, hoping to completely cure her.

But An Ning wasn’t so lucky this time. That night, her fever returned, and nothing seemed to work.

The maid who prepared the medicine was puzzled, insisting it should be effective, otherwise, how could it have lowered her fever the first time?

But there was only one dose, and repeatedly brewing the same herbs would diminish their potency.

Without medicine or a doctor, An Ning could only endure, her coughing echoing until dawn, her roommates listening anxiously, unable to help.

Until today, when the practically condemned An Ning was brought here, only to be replaced by someone else upon waking up.

She had died from the persistent high fever.

Tao Ning rubbed her temples, after going through the original host’s life, and hummed in confusion: “Why isn’t there any?”

520 was puzzled: [Isn’t there any what?]

Tao Ning: “Don’t you think something is missing?”

520, also reviewing the original host’s information, was even more confused: [Missing what?]

Tao Ning: “Someone who ordered the poisoning.”

She pointed at the dark blood on the floor, clearly poisoned: “Normal blood isn’t like this, even coughing up blood wouldn’t produce so much.”

She looked around, unable to find a handkerchief, and wiped the blood from the corner of her lips with her thumb.

Although still uncomfortable, coughing up the congested blood made her feel much better.

520 was stunned: [What? Wasn’t the original host supposed to have died from a fever? How did she die from poisoning?]

The blood on the floor was coughed up by the host, dark and ominous.

Thinking back, 520 was surprised: [Could it be that the palace maid’s medicine was poisoned?]

Tao Ning: “The original host, although quiet, was diligent and well-liked. Her roommates had no reason to poison her.”

520’s imagination ran wild: [Maybe someone liked you, but you didn’t know, and someone else found out, unwilling to accept it, they poisoned you! But they failed to kill you, and now you’re back for revenge!]

Tao Ning: “…”

What dramas has it been watching lately?

It sounded so dramatic and convoluted.

Tao Ning shook her head: “Give it a rest.”

520: [Am I wrong?]

Tao Ning didn’t want to discourage it, simply saying, “We don’t have enough information to accuse anyone yet.”

520 agreed: [You’re right. But the original host really wanted to leave, she couldn’t wait to reincarnate, she didn’t even leave any last requests.]

She must have suffered enough during her illness, with no attachment to this world anymore.

Tao Ning looked around, seeing the desolation. The window was broken, letting in the cold night breeze, no wonder she felt chilly.

Feeling a sharp pain in her backside, she looked down and realized why.

The two eunuchs, afraid of being infected, had just dumped her here and left, only leaving a few of her belongings.

She was lying on the floor with only a thin blanket, no pillow, no wonder she had a headache.

This place was clearly abandoned, more like a place to die than to recover, waiting for her last breath before being disposed of.

Tao Ning couldn’t stand the taste in her mouth or the dust in this room.

She rummaged through the bundle left by the eunuchs and pulled out some clothes.

Not because they were considerate, but because no one wanted a dead person’s clothes, afraid of being infected, so they would be thrown away anyway.

Leaving them together was more convenient.

More convenient for Tao Ning as well.

An Ning’s clothes were no different from the other palace maids’, a cross-collared jacket with narrow sleeves and a dark green skirt.

But she couldn’t afford hair ornaments, only using a wooden hairpin and a ribbon from her skirt hem.

Gathering her long hair and tying it up casually, Tao Ning stepped out into the moonlight, her steps unsteady.

The moon was bright, the sky clear, a full moon illuminating the path.

The puddles on the ground reflected the moonlight, like a layer of ice, cool and refreshing.

Tao Ning walked for a while, realizing this place was truly remote, even the original host had never been here.

According to the map scanned by 520, the kitchen was quite a distance away.

Hesitating between being caught by the patrolling guards and giving up on food, Tao Ning walked towards a lake.

Her priority was to rinse her mouth.

After rinsing, she stood there, staring at the water, wondering if there was a basin in that dilapidated room. It was impossible to live there without cleaning it first.

She walked back, rubbing her aching head.

Tao Ning muttered softly, “Forget it, my head hurts too much, maybe next time…”

She sighed inwardly. With her current low status, she didn’t even know how to find her wife.

Based on previous experience, her wife should be the pillar of fate, the female protagonist of this world, but without seeing her, she couldn’t be certain.

The female protagonist of this world was of noble birth, the esteemed Princess Regent, her status equivalent to a first-rank prince.

Passing by an abandoned rock garden, she sensed something amiss and turned around sharply.

But it was too late. A wooden stick swung from the shadows, hitting the back of her head hard.

The force was so strong that it made a whooshing sound.

This was clearly an attempt to kill her. An Ning was just a cleaning maid, where did she get so many enemies, one after another wanting her dead?

The original host had been ill for days, her stomach empty. No matter how capable Tao Ning was, her physical strength couldn’t keep up. The blow to the back of her head made her vision blur.

Before losing consciousness, Tao Ning tried to stay awake, wanting to see the attacker’s face.

But the attacker was prepared, wearing a demon mask, only their eyes visible.

Before her vision went black, Tao Ning only saw a scar on the back of their hand.

The masked figure crouched down, checking Tao Ning’s breathing.

520, alerted by the warning signal: [!!!]

[What happened? What happened? My console is going crazy.]

[Who are you? Why is my host unconscious?]

[You despicable sneak attacker!]

A cold, mechanical voice announced: [Mission participant Tao Ning’s vital signs are critical, about to log out…]

[Countdown commencing: 10, 9, 8, 7…]

Blood seeped from the wound on the back of her head, her breathing weakening, her face pale.

The masked figure, satisfied, chuckled and stood up, walking away with the stick.

Under the cover of night, they disappeared into the rock garden, nowhere to be found.

520 panicked: [No, no, no! Can’t log out! Must stabilize!]

Red lights flashed on the control panel, making 520’s core tremble.

It wished it had eight arms to operate the controls simultaneously, crying and cursing.

As dawn approached, morning dew dripped onto Tao Ning’s face, and her sleeping form stirred, her eyelashes fluttering as she opened her eyes.

She seemed startled, sitting up abruptly and looking around.

Then she looked down at her hands, clenching them into fists, her face full of confusion.

520 cried, [Host, you’re finally awake! You almost logged out last night! I tried everything to wake you up, but your vital signs were stable, so I could only wait…]

Seeing Tao Ning’s strange expression, 520 asked with concern, [Are you feeling unwell?]

Tao Ning pondered for a moment, then asked, “Who are you? Why are you talking in my head?”

520: [?????????]

What? What did you say???