Villain Lady

When she saw their clothes, her brows furrowed. "Wei Family?"

"Yes, the three young ladies from Wei Family come here, Lady Gao," one of the servants there responded out of politeness.

Three young ladies?

Hearing that phrase, Gao Ling felt her blood boil from anger. She knew for sure that Wei Liuying was standing behind her, blending with the soldiers and acted like a little kid who had just joined the army. There was no way she could be with the people from Wei Family on top of the temple.

There was only one explanation.

The Wei Liuying who was with the other Wei Family members were not the real Wei Liuying, but a fake one.

To think that the Wei Family was so desperate that they even arranged someone to take her place. Gao Ling felt that the image of Wei Family as one of the prominent family in Han Shi Kingdom had fallen even deeper and deeper.

"Lady Gao, we should hurry and go up. It'll be late."

"I know."

Shi Lu Wen grasped Gao Ling's hand. She also knew that the one there was not the real Wei Liuying, but there was no way they could say that. From the moment Wei Liuying came to the north, she has already abandoned her previous identity as the concubine daughter of Wei Family.

"Sister Gao, come on."

"Yes."

Wei Liuying saw the two girls' expression and somehow, her grip tightened. This was the first time someone other than her uncle, Xiao Qing, and Shi Yan got angry on her behalf. In the Wei Family, no one ever cared for her and only thought of her as nothing more than tools that they could use.

But here, she was treated as their friends.

"Soldier Ying," Du Min called out when he saw Wei Liuying was in a trance. "We need to hurry."

"Ah yeah, sorry. This is the first time I visit East Temple, so I'm a bit curious," Wei Liuying gave her excuse.

"Be mindful of your action. You're here to protect Lady Gao."

"Yes!"

The journey to the temple didn't take a long time. They quickly met with the Abbot and paid their respect. Since it was already late at night, they were already arranged some rooms so that they could rest for the time being. Even though the people there didn't like Shan Yi's presence, they had no other choice but to prepare more rooms for him too.

"Shan Yi, you absolutely can't enter my room without permission," Shi Lu Wen reminded when they headed to their room.

Shan Yi shrugged. "Fine. But you need to call me to play tomorrow."

"As if!"

They had just walked to the back courtyard when they saw three young ladies walked from the opposite direction. The first young lady was wearing long white robe. She had fair skin and beautiful complexion. Even with her current plain dress, it was not hard to say that she was very beautiful.

The second one was wearing light pink brocade dress. She was wearing a lot of hairpins, yet there was some clear exhaustion on her face. Even though it was covered in makeup, those who were keen enough would be able to see past the layer of powder.

The last one was a bit shorter than the rest. She had small frame and figure, while her face was that of an excellent beauty. There were some traces of tiredness on her face, but it couldn't cover her charm in the slightest bit. 

Wei Xiao Hua, Wei Zilin, and fake Wei Liuying.

Wei Liuying looked in their direction from a distance away, but she didn't try to come close. The one who was tasked to be her fake one was clearly a prostitute from a brothel. She was good at hiding her real feeling and seduce other people with her exceedingly beautiful face. 

'What a good one you prepare here, Xiao Hua.'

Gao Ling looked at the three young ladies with a cold expression. Her maidservant, Hai Yue, immediately stood forward and blocked the three young ladies from getting closer.

"Oh my, we're sorry for intruding your night walk," Wei Xiao Hua said with a lighthearted tone. Her soothing voice was filled with charm as if it was intended to make people grew comfortable with what she said. The smile on her face never disappeared as if a glue stick it to her face. 

Gao Ling stayed still. "It's already late, I won't disturb you three again."

"Isn't it a bit impolite to not introduce yourself?" Wei Zilin asked in an unhappy tone. She had already learned how to mask her expression, but her eyes and attitude often revealed her real feeling.

"Who's the impolite one, you or me?" Gao Ling refuted. She waved her arm. "Besides, what's the use of asking for unimportant person's name? It'll be better for us to not meet with each other again."

Wei Zilin was stunned by Gao Ling's harsh words. She was thinking hard about whether she had ever offended Gao Ling or not, but she couldn't think of anything. After all, she had never met with Gao Ling in the past.

On the other hand, Wei Xiao Hua held an indescribable expression. She looked in Gao Ling's direction and smiled. 

"Indeed. It'll be better for us to not meet again." besides, since you'll die in a few days' time, how can we possibly meet with each other again?

Of course, Wei Xiao Hua never uttered out the second sentence. It was a knowledge that she knew from reading the book and memorizing the key points of the story's progress. At the end of the second volume, Wei Xiao Hua would be meeting with several people who were actually holding important position in Prince Ji Sheng's heart.

They were all Shi Yan's sister, Shi Lu Wen and also Prince Ji Sheng's fiancée, Gao Ling. At the same time, there was also the hidden Strategist Liu in the group.

'But the annoying author never explained much about them. She only said that they're all important people for Prince Ji Sheng. However, most of them have commoners background, which meant that everything they have will be gone once they died. There's no one who had large backing aside from Gao Ling.'

There would be an attack to the temple from a tribe that managed to sneak pass the border by disguising as merchants. The trick that was supposed to be increasing their relationship instead used as method for the tribes to enter the city. Even though they looked a bit different from people here, they could hide their faces with scarf or something like that.

Wei Xiao Hua knew the future events, but in this part, she was only an innocent bystander because she was busy trying to eliminate Wei Zilin. Though, her plan was foiled thanks to the appearance of those people.

'Well, it didn't matter.'

'With the death of Shi Lu Wen, Gao Ling, and the injured Strategist Liu, Prince Ji Sheng would be in utter despair. As for Wei Xiao Hua, she'll be fine because of the men Ji Shu sent to protect her. The fake Wei Liuying will die here while Wei Zilin will be traumatized for life.'

Thinking about her smooth sailing life in the future, Wei Xiao Hua was extremely content. She had been suffering for the past few months trying to make sure that everything was going according to the novel timeline. There was no way she wanted to make another blunder like before.

Even now, she was still not totally sure how much change she had created because of her action that was not in line with the real Wei Xiao Hua.

It was a hassle.

'But the author never detailed the specific of the battles in the novel,' Wei Xiao Hua thought to herself.

'And these characters; Strategist Liu, Shi Lu Wen, and Gao Ling, only appeared for a short period of time in front of Wei Xiao Hua before the news of their death was heard. Well, they're all never a truly important character in the novel too.'

Wei Xiao Hua looked at the group who was following Gao Ling and Shi Lu Wen. The soldiers were mostly adults, but there was one who was fairly smaller than the rest. When she read the book, she recalled Strategist Liu's description.

Small and petite with beautiful appearance. It was as if the young man was actually a young girl.

She hadn't seen the kid's face, but she trusted the book's description because they were all so accurate. In any case, what she recalled from the incident in the temple was the sentence that Strategist Liu uttered when he heard that Gao Ling and Shi Lu Wen had died.

In the incident in the temple later, Wei Xiao Hua was perfectly safe, but those people from Prince Ji Sheng's side suffered a lot. From dozens of people who came here today, only one person who would be alive:

Strategist Liu.

And there was one sentence that Wei Xiao Hua could never forget from the novel. It was used as the chapter title and on that chapter, a lot of readers raged on in the comment section because the author gave so much screen time to the side character. In addition, it was such an emotional part. 

"Why am I still alive?"

Wei Xiao Hua shuddered a bit when she thought about that. She pushed the thought to the back of her mind. Just thinking about it said by someone made her feel the pain and heartache once more. 

She laughed internally.

If only the one here was the real Wei Xiao Hua, she would never feel anything. After all, the transmigrated Wei Xiao Hua in the book was a cold blooded person who knew that if she wanted to achieve anything here, she could never have any feeling.