Kill That Transmigrator Woman - Chapter 29

Chapter 29: Aren’t You Cold

Cui Wanwan sat upright before the carved redwood dressing table. In front of her, an array of gold and silver jewelry dazzled the eyes with its brilliance and beauty.

Miaomiao gently combed her long hair. With deft fingers, she quickly styled it into an elegant updo, dignified and poised, yet still retaining a maiden’s youthful grace.

“Which hairpin does Miss like best?” Miaomiao asked as she held up various ornaments to her head for comparison.
“This servant heard that Miss Wei plans to wear a white dress to the banquet today.”

“I’m attending a palace banquet, not entering a beauty contest with her. What she wears doesn’t influence my choices,” Cui Wanwan replied calmly.

The afternoon sunlight outside the window had grown much brighter and warmer.
As the saying goes, it’s not cold when snow falls, it’s cold when it melts.

She looked up through the lattice window at the view outside. It was still a vast expanse of white, but not as heavy and oppressive as it had been in recent days, lighter now, almost airy.

“Since it’s a palace banquet, and such a festive day like New Year’s, then I’ll dress a bit more brightly. It adds to the cheer,” Cui Wanwan said, reaching out to pick up a plum-red hair ornament with dangling tassels.
“This one.”

Once her hair and accessories were properly arranged, the skillful Miaomiao drew a delicate red floral huadian on Cui Wanwan’s forehead.

It added another touch of brilliance to her already graceful beauty. Though charming and vivid, she didn’t look old-fashioned in the slightest. Her appearance was stunning, yet clearly still that of a youthful girl, skin like congealed cream, radiant and lovely.

In the bronze mirror, the young girl gently lifted her eyelids. Her expression was faint, her gaze serene. The aura around her was one of dignified grace, perfectly befitting her future status as a prince’s consort.

From birth, Cui Wanwan had been trapped within a framework labeled “well-bred lady” and “noble daughter of a great house.” She had to be proficient in the four arts—zither, chess, calligraphy, and painting, and also master palace etiquette and the duties of a prince’s consort, all of it drilled into her with no room for error in the future.

The only thing she had ever truly loved was martial arts.

As a child, Cui Wanwan had secretly read martial-arts storybooks. Even at a young age, she had been captivated by them, and once pestered her father to help her find the finest swords in the land to add to a collection.

Her clear and lively eyes shifted slightly. She loved wielding sabers and swords. She loved qinggong. She loved beautiful long swords.

But daughters of the Cui family were not supposed to focus on such things.

In her father’s words, it was unbecoming, and not in keeping with the image of a prince’s consort.

Looking back now, it all felt like a distant memory.

When the time came, Cui Wanwan draped on a fox-fur cloak and rose to head out.

She and Wei Qingyu had been arranged to ride in the same carriage. Cui Wanwan cast her a subtle sidelong glance without betraying any emotion.

Wei Qingyu’s mental state was truly exceptional. She had already adjusted her mood entirely, her face bore a light makeup, and she had even applied a huadian between her brows.

In contrast to Cui Wanwan’s bright red and exquisite huadian, Wei Qingyu wore a gauzy white dress, with an extremely pale silvery-white huadian adorning her forehead.

Seeing her gaze fall on her, Wei Qingyu gave a slight smile. “Little sister is truly radiant today.”

“Elder sister as well, you look very beautiful,” Cui Wanwan replied with a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

Beautiful indeed. Even as a fellow woman, Cui Wanwan couldn’t help lingering on the sight. That delicate, willowy charm, like wind brushing through willow branches, ethereal and graceful, truly made her stand out in the entire Northern Lin Dynasty. There was hardly a second like her.

But…

Cui Wanwan returned her smile, feigning innocence as she asked, “Although it isn’t snowing today, the snow from the past few days hasn’t melted yet. Dressed like this, elder sister isn’t cold?”

Wei Qingyu’s lofty and aloof smile froze at the corners of her lips.

She knew that in the ancient times, on such important occasions, the noble ladies would all go to great lengths to adorn themselves. When a hundred flowers bloomed in competition, to stand out among them was no easy feat.

So she had chosen to take a different path. Since everyone would aim to be dazzling and glamorous, she would go the opposite way.

In terms of looks, she couldn’t outshine Cui Wanwan. Though Wei Qingyu hated to admit it, this was a fact she couldn’t change.

Unless one day, that hateful face of Cui Wanwan’s could be destroyed.

So she had purposely chosen a white dress, otherworldly and flowing like a celestial maiden. With the skills she had exchanged from the system, she aimed to create an entrance like a goddess descending from the heavens, stunning everyone present.

Among all the vivid colors, her white dress and untouched, ethereal demeanor would surely make her stand out in the crowd.

Of course, to look beautiful, something had to be sacrificed. And as Cui Wanwan rightly pointed out, was she just cold?

That didn’t even begin to cover it.

She was freezing.
Every second, she was trying to suppress the trembling in her jaw and stop her calves from shaking. She clenched her teeth and endured it.

Cui Wanwan, by contrast, wore her fear of the cold openly, bundled in a thick, soft fox-fur cloak, dressed warmly underneath, and even holding a hand warmer.

But Cui Wanwan was a martial artist.

Her physical constitution was naturally stronger than ordinary girls. With solid internal strength protecting her body, it wasn’t just that she could sit comfortably in a winter carriage, she could probably stand in the middle of a snowfield and still not feel cold.

“Not cold,” Wei Qingyu replied, her voice a little chilly.

With no one else around, she didn’t bother to fake warmth or friendliness.

Mostly because she really couldn’t stand Cui Wanwan.

“Oh? Is that so?” Cui Wanwan nodded cheerfully, then suddenly, without warning, raised her hand and opened the carriage window a little.

“What are you doing?” A gust of cold wind swept in, startling Wei Qingyu so much that she shuddered violently, goosebumps rising all over her neck.

“I’m hot,” Cui Wanwan still said with a smiling face. “Elder sister isn’t cold, right? The snowy view outside is truly beautiful, don’t you think?”

At this moment, Cui Wanwan sat in the carriage with a smile as bright as the stars. No matter how one looked at her, she appeared to be a pure, innocent, and radiant young girl, acting coquettishly with her elder sister.

“Close it!” Wei Qingyu’s face darkened.
“If you feel hot, then put down that hand warmer.”

Cui Wanwan ignored her, continuing to fiddle with her fingers and hugging the warmer.

Seeing that she was being ignored, Wei Qingyu’s expression turned colder as she reached out to shut the window herself.

Just as her fingers touched the edge of the window, a force knocked her hand away.

“You dare lay a hand on me?” Wei Qingyu turned her head in disbelief, eyes wide as she stared at Cui Wanwan.

Cui Wanwan’s red lips curved slightly. “I said I’m hot, so the window stays open.”

“You…” Wei Qingyu was so furious she could hardly breathe.
How could she not know that Cui Wanwan was deliberately making things difficult?

She took a deep breath and forced a gentle, kind smile back onto her face, speaking softly and pitifully. “Did elder sister do something wrong to make Wanwan unhappy?”

“Little Sister Wanwan, it’s all my fault! Please don’t be angry, alright?” she suddenly raised her voice.

Clearly, she was trying to make a scene so that Father and Mother in the other carriage would hear it.

Faced with such petty tricks, Cui Wanwan sneered and said, “If Elder Sister feels wronged, by all means, go complain to Father and Mother. You’ve always been good at that sort of thing. But if you provoke me, well, I can’t guarantee what I might do.”

“Don’t forget what Father and Mother said before: during my three years of traveling, I got quite wild. I am their biological daughter, after all. At worst, I’ll just get labeled as the one who bullies her Elder Sister. They’ll use family discipline on me, but with my thick skin and tough flesh, I’m not afraid.”

Wei Qingyu was suddenly reminded of the time, while she was bathing, that Cui Wanwan had barged in and nearly slit her throat.

Even though time had reversed and the Cui Wanwan before her hadn’t done that, her memory of it wiped clean, it didn’t guarantee she wouldn’t go mad again one day and do the same thing…