What's Wrong with Being a Pair of Cowards? - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

We returned to Lin Manor.

The heroic deeds of Lin Zhao and Shen Zichen spread throughout the capital.

My older sister, for her meritorious service in protecting the emperor, was granted the title of County Princess.

Unfortunately, she was still severely injured and couldn’t get out of bed.

I sneaked outside the door to eavesdrop.

My father and mother tried to persuade her:

“Zhao’er, the Empress already favored you to be the Crown Princess. Why did you decline?”

My older sister was outstanding in both talent and beauty. Father had high hopes for her and had raised her to be the Crown Princess since she was young.

Now that she had earned merit by saving the emperor, the Empress originally intended to request an imperial edict for a marriage grant from His Majesty. But my sister firmly refused, so it was changed to the reward of County Princess instead.

“Father, Mother, I’ve said it before: I would rather die than marry the Crown Prince, and the Lin Family must not support the Crown Prince in the future. Although he is registered under the Empress, my aunt’s name, he is not of Lin blood after all; he can’t be truly domesticated.”

The Crown Prince was born to the former empress, while the current Empress Lin is merely the second empress.

“You may not believe this, but your daughter has been reborn. In my previous life, the Crown Prince ascended the throne and I became the Empress, but he turned out to be an ungrateful wretch who killed our entire family.”

The idea of rebirth was too absurd, and Father obviously didn’t believe it.

“Zhao’er, I’ve noticed you’ve been getting quite close with that kid from the Shen Family lately. You wouldn’t have taken a liking to him and cooked up this excuse to deceive your father, would you?”

My sister shook her head. “How could that be?”

“In my previous life, I never even heard of a person named Shen Zichen in the capital, and among all the top scholars of the previous dynasty, there was no one surnamed Shen. I approached him because I suspected something was off about him.”

“Could he also be a reborn person who knew the exam questions from the previous life?”

“No, I’ve subtly tested him these days. He truly has genuine talent and knowledge; earning the top score wasn’t by trickery.” A flash of admiration passed through my sister’s eyes, followed by a disappointed sigh. “It’s just a pity he’s a concubine’s son; it’s a bit beneath me.”

The subtitles scrolled madly:

[Just scheming against each other like this, and real feelings born from pretense is truly exquisite.]

[Keep being stubborn. I’m waiting for the male and female leads to get their comeuppance later.]

[A powerful couple-so satisfying!]

Well… it seems no one cares whether I live or die.

Over this time, I’ve come to understand the subtitles quite well.

Lin Zhao is the female lead of this world, and Shen Zichen is the male lead. They approached each other with ulterior motives born of self-interest.

Lin Zhao valued Shen Zichen’s abilities and wanted to recruit him to bring down the Crown Prince together.

Shen Zichen, on the other hand, wanted to use Lin Zhao to climb the ranks of the Shen Family and scheme for his own official career.

As they schemed against each other, they gradually gave their true hearts, but because of their opposing stances, they could only love and kill each other.

In the end, love conquered all. The two gave up the prosperity and power of the capital and traveled the world with a great fortune.

In this story, Shen Ziyue would be driven out of the Shen Family by his elder brother who inherited the title, and with no means of making a living, he eventually starved to death on the roadside.

But what about my own ending?

The subtitles have yet to reveal it.