Jiaojiao is getting married, and the male leads fall for her and fight over her.

Chapter 334 The Female Lead Awakens
Shen Shuyi's entry into the palace went smoothly; having Zhang Fu's face was her passport to enter and leave the palace.

Zhang Fu received Li Yi's order to send the carriage to the Cold Palace first. After the Crown Prince's wife had finished seeing Xia Shi, His Majesty would then appear in front of her at an appropriate time. This way, the Crown Prince would not suspect His Majesty's ulterior motives in wanting to see the Crown Prince's wife.

It was also the first time Shen Shuyi had seen what the Cold Palace looked like. She felt that the palace was just a little old and the living conditions were a little poor, but otherwise it was not much different.

She looked around curiously for a few moments before following the palace maid into the Cold Palace.

Because the new emperor had just ascended the throne, he granted a general amnesty, and the women who had previously been confined to the cold palace were all pardoned and released from the palace.

Xia Nianchu was the Emperor Emeritus's woman, but she was also the only resident in the Cold Palace.

When Shen Shuyi entered, Xia Nianchu was sitting by the window in a daze. The moment she saw Shen Shuyi walk in, a complex sharpness flashed in her eyes.

Shen Shuyi saw it clearly and immediately took a few steps back warily.

Just kidding, she's pregnant, she can't let Xia Nianchu scheme against her.

The palace maid also knew that Shen Shuyi was of noble status, valued not only by Prince Pei but also by His Majesty. She knew that if anything happened to the prince's wife, she would not be able to afford to compensate for it.

She quickly shielded Shen Shuyi behind her and warned, "Xia, if you dare to disrespect the Crown Prince's wife, it won't be as simple as being confined to the cold palace."

Xia Nianchu regained her senses at this moment. She looked at Shen Shuyi, who was being protected by the palace maids, and said in a hoarse voice, "Everything you have should have belonged to me!"

Shen Shuyi was taken aback by his words: "What do you mean by that?"

Did the female lead suddenly awaken after being sent to the cold palace?

"I'm the female lead! They should all love me! I should be the center of attention, the one everyone adores! Why should you, a mere cannon fodder supporting character, steal everything that belongs to me?!" Xia Nianchu cried, tears streaming down her face. "I'm the beloved female lead! How could I be trampled on by a cannon fodder supporting character like you?"

At this moment, Shen Shuyi was certain that Xia Nianchu had indeed awakened, otherwise she wouldn't have said such a thing.

No wonder Xia Nianchu suddenly wanted to see her; it was because she discovered that the world they lived in was a book.

Seeing Shen Shuyi staring at her without saying a word, seemingly unsurprised, Xia Nianchu suddenly had a flash of inspiration. In a fit of rage, she tried to rush over again: "Shen Shuyi, don't you also know that the world we live in is a book?! Don't you know you're a cannon fodder female supporting character who dies young? Don't you know I'm the female lead? Don't you know the Pei brothers are all supposed to fall in love with me? You stole my life, it's you, it's you..."

Her near-madness terrified the palace maids, but Shen Shuyi remained calm.

She watched Xia Nianchu's outburst until Xia Nianchu finished yelling, then she said calmly, "I think your words are biased. Your fate is your own choice. How a person lives is the result of their own choices. This applies to you, and it applies to your second cousin as well. You say you are the female lead, but I think everyone is the protagonist of their own life. You chose to cooperate with your second cousin, you chose to enter the palace, and you chose to drug His Majesty. In the end, you were banished to the Cold Palace. No one forced you. Now that you have ended up like this, who can you blame? You say I stole your life, but back in the Marquis's mansion, we started from the same point. I just did what I had to do. Your inaction is your own fault, so how can you blame me? It was not expected that my cousin, the Crown Prince, would like me, and it was not in my plan that I would marry him."

They say she stole the female lead's life, but she was also being pushed forward step by step by the system.

When Prince Pei wanted to marry her, she clearly chose to run away, but in the end, Prince Pei found her and she finally married Pei Dongzhou.

Xia Nianchu felt that Shen Shuyi was making excuses: "No, you knew from the beginning, right? So you also wanted to drug your cousin, the young master, and you also wanted to get his attention. It's just that your methods are better than mine, so I'm always one step behind you—no, it's that you knew the plot in advance, so you always beat me to it."

Her words reminded Shen Shuyi of something: initially, she had indeed stolen one of the female lead's allies—Sun Wang. She had rescued Sun Wang before the female lead could.

If she hadn't intervened that night, the female lead might have rescued Sun Wang, and Sun Wang would likely have become an ally of the female lead in the end.

But she felt that even without Sun Wang, she would do her best to complete the tasks assigned by the system, because it concerned her life.

"I can only say that you've misunderstood." Shen Shuyi didn't want to get entangled with Xia Nianchu and planned to leave.

Xia Nianchu, however, was not about to let Shen Shuyi go so easily: "You can't leave! I can't let you just leave like this!!"

Shen Shuyi ignored Xia Nianchu, too lazy to deal with her madness. She needed to rest during her pregnancy; what if the young baby was frightened by the female lead?
She didn't see that Xia Nianchu gradually calmed down, but instead quickly left the Cold Palace.

She had barely left the Cold Palace when Li Yi arrived with his imperial entourage. Upon seeing her, Li Yi feigned surprise and said, "What a coincidence, to actually run into Cousin Shen."

Shen Shuyi refused to believe it was a coincidence.

After all, it was Zhang Fu who brought her to the palace. Zhang Fu was Li Yi's confidant. I'm afraid that as soon as she entered the palace, Li Yi would have already learned about her movements.

Li Yi is a very busy man now, how could he easily interfere in Xia Nianchu's affairs? It's not that she's narcissistic, she thinks that Li Yi sent Zhang Fu to pick her up and bring her to the palace because he wanted to see her.

After all, Li Yi is a womanizer, and he had tried to make a move on her before.

She was about to bow to Li Yi when he suddenly stepped forward to help her up, saying, "Cousin Shen, there's no need for such formalities. There's no need for us to stand on ceremony..."

Shen Shuyi withdrew her hand just as Li Yi was about to touch her, and Li Yi only managed to grab air.

Li Yi remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he thought to himself that he had only wanted to hold Shen's hand, so why was Shen so wary of him? Did he look like a bad person?

"I'm worried that my grandmother and mother will be worried, so I want to go home." Shen Shuyi didn't want to stay in the palace for too long, nor did she want to be alone with Li Yi, lest Pei Dongzhou, that jealous man, get angry.

“Dongzhou is still in the palace. How about this, I’ll take Cousin Shen to see Dongzhou, and then Dongzhou can take Cousin Shen out of the palace with him?” Li Yi seemed very easy to talk to.

This made Shen Shuyi interested.

"Then it's settled." As Li Yi spoke, he gave Zhang Fu a wink.

Zhang Fu understood and immediately sent someone to divert Pei Dongzhou away, so that His Majesty would have more time to spend with Pei's wife.

His Majesty is truly strange. He doesn't like any of the many beauties in the harem, but he insists on liking Lady Pei's wife. It's hard to say what's going on.

(End of this chapter)