Wagging Tail - Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My fiancé returned from war with a woman in tow.

I watched the two of them come up to me. Song Zheng still had a trace of guilt on his face, while the woman looked at me with such smug superiority it was practically spilling over.

“So you’re Ah Zheng’s fiancée?” she asked with a smile. “I’m-ah!”

Before she could get the rest of that sentence out, my shadow guard kicked her to her knees in front of me.

“Why are you not kneeling before the princess?”

I looked at the original novel’s heroine, who just one second ago had been smiling as she prepared to put me in my place. In the next second, she was already kneeling before me.

She lifted her head, her expression shifting first to shock, then anger, and finally, under my shadow guard’s icy stare, into a grievance she did not dare voice.

“This… commoner greets Your Highness.”

In my heart, I silently applauded my little shadow guard.

Exactly.

This was a feudal monarchy. Even if you were the original novel’s heroine, you still had to kneel when you saw me.

I watched her with great interest. But before I could even open my mouth to tell her to rise, my young general of a fiancé had already gone pale and was helping the heroine up from the ground with a heartbroken look.

“Your Highness, was that really necessary? Yuanqing simply doesn’t know the rules. You could have taught her properly. Why have a shadow guard lay hands on a weak woman like her?”

Well, wasn’t that impressive? He’d managed to imagine a whole story from one sentence.

I sighed and shook my head helplessly, attempting to reason with him.

“First of all, I am a princess.”

“So what if you’re a princess? A princess can’t bully people with her power!” he snapped back quickly, glaring daggers at me.

“Which eye of yours saw me bullying anyone with my power?”

I frowned.

Who are you glaring at? Keep glaring and you won’t be keeping those eyeballs!

“Just tell me this. When she saw a princess, should she have knelt or not?”

“She should have, but-”

“But not only did she refuse to kneel, she even spoke disrespectfully before me.”

How funny. Did he think he was the only one who knew how to cut someone off?

“Yuanqing simply didn’t recognize Your Highness. She was only curious about you!” Song Zheng twisted reason into nonsense with righteous confidence. “But Your Highness had a shadow guard attack her. That was your fault.”

“Ha. What a joke.” I gave a soft scoff and turned to ask the shadow guard behind me, “Did I order you to act?”

“Replying to Your Highness, no,” my little shadow guard answered respectfully.

“See? I didn’t order him to act.” I turned back and spread my hands at him.

“Who in the capital doesn’t know that the shadow guard of Princess Ning’an, Qi Zhiyan, is the most obedient dog under her command?” Song Zheng had his arm wrapped around the original heroine, looking every bit like a warrior charging into battle for love.

“I know Your Highness is treating Yuanqing this way because you’re jealous of her. But Your Highness, I came here today to solemnly tell you that I have already found the love of my life. Please agree to dissolve the engagement between us.”

“What the hell?” I was thoroughly disgusted by him. “I’m jealous of her? Is your brain all right?”

Yet Song Zheng seemed to have developed selective deafness. As he spoke, he even shared a deeply affectionate gaze with Ning Yuanqing in his arms.

“Your Highness, all beings under heaven are equal. The feelings between Yuanqing and me are sincere. I hope Your Highness can understand.”

“Ah Zheng…” Ning Yuanqing was utterly moved.

And I was utterly nauseated.

“Fine. I understand.”

Not only did I understand, I respected it and offered my blessing.

“True love really does come above all, doesn’t it?”

Wasn’t that right? They were so in love their brains had stopped working, and they didn’t even care about their lives anymore.

“Then I shall grant the two of you a joint burial.”

With that, I took out a handkerchief and symbolically dabbed at the nonexistent tears at the corners of my eyes.

“There’s nothing I can do. I don’t want this either, but who asked the two of you to be so deeply in love? I’m very touched.”

“Your Highness?” Song Zheng and Ning Yuanqing were stunned. They couldn’t even keep up their loving stare anymore. Two shocked faces turned toward me.

“How can Your Highness do this? I am merely sincerely in love with Yuanqing. How can Your Highness be so vicious?”

“What was that? I’m vicious?” I was shocked too.

“How can Young General Song say such a thing? Originally, since you cheated during our engagement, I only intended to sentence you to death. But weren’t you the ones who said that you two were true love? I was moved to endure the pain of sentencing you both to death instead.”

“Young General Song, thunder and rain alike are imperial grace.”

After saying this, I gave him a meaningful look.

“Or does Young General Song believe that the dignity of an imperial princess can be trampled underfoot just because you say ‘true love comes above all’?”

Honestly, it was hilarious. I was a princess, you know.

After all the trouble of transmigrating into a book, I had even been born into it as a princess.

If I hesitated for even one more second, wouldn’t that be an insult to my reincarnation skills?

Song Zheng was left speechless by my retort, his expression dark as he fell into who knew what thoughts.

As for Ning Yuanqing, this newly arrived transmigrator was already scared senseless.

Just then, a servant from the Princess Mansion came to report that the people from the General’s Mansion had finally arrived in a hurry.

“Please calm your anger, Her Highness the Princess!”

The man who had come was the Second Master of the Song Family, Song Zheng’s second uncle, and the current Vice Minister of Revenue.

“Ah Zheng’s return from the campaign should have been a joyous occasion. The Song family began preparing the betrothal gifts long ago. We were only waiting for Ah Zheng to return so he could personally come to the Princess Mansion to present them.”

The Second Master of the Song Family first bowed to me with utmost respect before lifting his head, his face piled with smiles as he looked at me.

“That Ning Yuanqing is nothing but a common woman. How could she ever be mentioned in the same breath as Her Highness the Princess, who is of the noblest blood?”

“Ah Zheng was merely muddleheaded for a moment and bewitched by that demoness. I beg Her Highness the Princess to forgive his offense!”

As expected of a civil official who had survived the imperial court, the Second Master of the Song Family managed to shift all the scumbag’s blame onto the mistress with just a few words.

Song Zheng still wanted to speak, but after the Second Master of the Song Family shot him a vicious glare, he didn’t dare make another sound.

As for Ning Yuanqing?

The Song family servants who had rushed over had already clamped a hand over her mouth, and she was currently struggling with all her might.

“Is that so?” I glanced at Song Zheng’s aggrieved face and let out a soft laugh.

“But I rather think the two of them deserve to die equally.”

The mistress might not know she was the mistress, but could the scumbag possibly not know he was cheating?

They were all just excuses.

“Princess…” Hearing this, the Second Master of the Song Family’s expression turned rather ugly as well.

“Forget it.” Seeing that, I kindly gave him a way out.

“No matter what, the engagement between Song Zheng and me was arranged by my imperial father.”

“This time, let us say Song Zheng was muddleheaded for a moment. I can give him one more chance. However, Lord Song, as for what comes next, you should know what to do, shouldn’t you?”

The hint in my words was obvious.

I wanted the original novel’s heroine dead before the plot had even officially begun.

Otherwise, once she gained power in the future, not only would she come wreak havoc on me, even my younger brother, the Crown Prince and the original male lead, would be dragged through all kinds of self-destructive nonsense by her.

Too terrifying. The whole thing was one big old-school, melodramatic Mary Sue romance.

“This lowly official understands.” The Second Master of the Song Family was quick on the uptake and immediately signaled to the servants with his eyes.

And so Ning Yuanqing, who was still struggling, was dragged away just like that.

“Second Uncle!” Song Zheng panicked and actually tried to save Ning Yuanqing right in front of me.

“Yan Man,” I called softly. The hidden guard behind me drifted behind Song Zheng like a gust of wind. With one chop to the back of the neck, Song Zheng immediately collapsed.

“All right, drag him back.” I looked at that pile of aggravation on the ground and silently cursed my bad luck.

Only after all the Song family members had left did I look at the little hidden guard standing behind me. I beckoned to him, signaling for him to lower himself.

“Yan Man, why aren’t you angry at all? He called you a dog.” I deliberately put on an indignant tone.

“This subordinate is one of the princess’s dogs.” He lowered his head and looked at me, his tone respectful, his face still devoid of much expression.

“Is that so?” I reached out. Watching Yan Man obediently rest his chin in my hand, I ordered, “Open your mouth.”

Yan Man, not understanding why, parted his lips slightly. I cupped his chin in my palm, slipped my thumb into his mouth, pressed it against his teeth, and felt around a few times before asking on purpose, “Why don’t I see any canine teeth?”

I thought I saw a trace of amusement surface in Yan Man’s eyes.

The next second, something warm and soft suddenly licked my fingertip.

Under my astonished gaze, he said unhurriedly, “When a puppy is happy, it sticks out its tongue to lick its master and express its affection.”

“Ha.” My interest was piqued, and I raised a brow. “But I’ve heard that when dogs are happy, they also wag their tails.”

“What about you, Yan Man? When will you wag your tail for me?”

The corner of his lips curved faintly. He removed my finger from his mouth, then took out a handkerchief and wiped it clean for me before saying, “This subordinate does not know how.”

“Who says you don’t?” I looked at the smile on his face and sighed silently in my heart.

How could such a good little hidden guard end up dying to save me?

I wouldn’t allow it.

“Yan Man, you’re only allowed to wag your tail for me. Understood?”