Princess Strategy - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

In the second year of my marriage to Xie Yunzhan, I suddenly became able to see words in the sky.

[The male lead really is pulling out every trick in the book to keep himself pure for the female lead.]

[What, he’s supposedly bad at that and drinking medicine to recuperate? What a ridiculous excuse. If the male lead is bad at it, then who in this book is good at it?]

[Sometimes I really envy the second female lead’s obliviousness. The male lead won’t even look her in the eye, and she thinks he’s too insecure to look at her.]

I froze for a moment.

Then I immediately thought of Xie Yunzhan.

He and I had never shared a bed.

In the first month after our wedding, he said the Xie Family was upright and austere, and that he did not indulge in women, so he was not yet ready to sleep with me.

In the second month after our wedding, he said he had accidentally injured himself falling off a horse while hunting and needed three months of quiet recuperation.

Half a year into our marriage, he lowered his lashes, his face red to the ears, and told me that when he fell last time, he had accidentally injured the root of the matter.

He still needed some time to recover.

And with that recovery, another half a year passed.

I thought he truly could not perform, and I was afraid that asking too much would upset him, so I never pressed the matter.

I also thought that since we were husband and wife, we ought to be faithful to each other, so I did not seek anyone else.

Every night, I endured the discomfort and wrapped myself tightly in my quilt.

I was a little angry.

If he wanted to keep himself pure, why did he not say so earlier?

He had made me suffer for nothing all this time.

Before those floating comments could finish, I immediately boarded a carriage and rushed into the palace.

I treated my imperial brother like a wishing well.

Clasping my hands together, I closed my eyes and made my wish with utmost sincerity. “I want ten male consorts.”

The floating comments:

[???]

[I was just about to say the second female lead has both beauty and power, so there’s no need to hang herself from one tree, but it turns out she doesn’t need us to remind her at all.]

My imperial brother’s eyes went wide in an instant.

“How many male consorts did you say you wanted?”

I lifted my chin and said with certainty, “Ten.”

He was deeply shaken.

“Do you know how many consorts I can select in a single imperial selection?”

“And you want ten from me at once? Ten men with clean family backgrounds, excellent looks and physiques, pleasant personalities, all right around twenty, pure in both body and heart, and willing to lower themselves for you?”

I felt a little embarrassed. Lowering my head shyly, I said, “The requirements can be relaxed a little.”

He let out a breath.

“In what areas can they be relaxed?”

I said, “They can be a few years younger.”

The floating comments were deeply shaken as well.

[The second female lead really refuses to suffer even the slightest hardship.]

[Can I get a two-episode cameo? I can relax my requirements even further. I only want two eighteen-year-olds.]

My imperial brother: “…”

I covered my face with my sleeve and began to morally blackmail him, sobbing pitifully.

“Have I put you in a difficult position, Imperial Brother?”

“Originally, I would not have needed these male consorts. This all goes back to when I was just born. That year, Mother was sent to the Cold Palace. In her desperation, she only managed to arrange a place for Imperial Brother and did not look after me…”

[Every time the second female lead brings up the past, it sounds like the same essay template I forced onto every college entrance exam prompt…]

[But her brother feels guilty toward her, so this trick really does work every time.]

Because I lacked care and attention as a child, I now had an unusual craving for physical contact with others.

My imperial brother knew this.

He frowned slightly and sighed.

“Very well.”

“I permit it.”