Transmigrated into a vicious female supporting role, reborn as a hostage to the paranoid male protag

"Your Highness, Prince Chu received a secret letter early this morning, so he left the palace to go to work." Chunfeng dressed Su Yingxue early in the morning. She said softly, "Your Highness, Prince Chu has told you to remember to bring Taxue and Xiahe with you when you go out. After all, the market at the end of the year is still very prosperous, and the streets are crowded with people and traffic. I hope your Highness will be careful."

Su Yingxue heard this and said with a smile, "That's perfect."

It just so happened that she had wanted to go to the market on her own last night, so this finally fulfilled Su Yingxue's wish. She thought that after all, this was her first New Year in another world, so since she was here, she might as well make the best of it. Making the New Year a lively and festive occasion was something that was ingrained in the Chinese people's sentiments about the New Year.

Su Yingxue thought that even if she was going out of the palace to attend the New Year's Fair, her reputation was too bad, so she changed into the ordinary clothes of a noble lady from an ordinary family, and dressed up simply with Taxue and the others, pretending to be ordinary women when going out.

After leaving the palace, the carriage headed for Shuinan Street, the busiest pedestrian street of the New Year's Market. Shuinan Street was the busiest pedestrian street of the entire pre-Grand Festival period. It consisted of five main streets flanked by several dark alleys. The main streets were filled with New Year's Market stalls, acrobatics, and lantern festivals. Furong Tower, at the very center of the five main streets, was the venue for the annual lantern festival.

Su Yingxue had been in this other world for so long, but she had never seen a lantern festival in Dasheng Kyoto. This time, she had received Chunfeng's oral recommendation. She had heard that Furong Tower would hold a lantern festival at the same time as the annual market.

The lanterns at Furong Tower are custom-made by its craftsmen year after year, each of them exquisitely crafted and magnificent. Even the lanterns used for the annual grand imperial banquets are crafted at Furong Tower.

Furonglou is famous in Kyoto for its lanterns and lantern making. Since the previous dynasty, Furonglou has been making lanterns for three generations. Today, nine out of ten families in Kyoto, from the royal family to officials, powerful ministers, and wealthy families, use Furonglou's signature style.

This time, in line with the annual market event, Furong Tower held a lantern festival, invited the most famous actors from the opera troupes in Kyoto, and set up an entire floor for the lantern festival. As long as you can guess the riddles on the lanterns and collect a certain number of riddles, you can choose to win a lantern or exchange it for a reward.

As a result, many students and young men and ladies from aristocratic families, as long as they have a little knowledge, have rushed to join in the fun in Furong Tower. Therefore, Furong Tower is now extremely lively.

Even the entire Shuinan Street was crowded with people, and carriages had to stop in front of two street markets and people had to walk there.

Su Yingxue was wearing a plain dress made of ordinary material. She and Taxue Xiahe mixed in the bustling crowd and followed the flow of the crowd towards Shuinan Street.

"This Shuinan Street is really bustling." Su Yingxue saw the prosperity of Shuinan Street with her own eyes. There were shops lined up one after another, stalls could be found everywhere, and there were crowds of people. The lanterns hung on the shops on both sides were of various kinds and dazzling.

Even in the daytime, it is incredibly beautiful.

It’s hard to imagine that with such wealth and prosperity, wouldn’t these lanterns look even better at night?

Su Yingxue loves the hustle and bustle. If she were in modern times, she would be with her parents, going to shopping malls, supermarkets, and vegetable markets, buying all kinds of New Year's goods in preparation for the New Year.

Every shopping mall will also be decorated with a lot of soft furnishings that are full of the flavor of the New Year, and the shops are also decorated with a festive atmosphere.

Unfortunately, this is in another world.

Although it is not as lively and modern as modern shopping malls, the New Year’s Fair is just as lively.

Su Yingxue, Taxue Xiahe and the other two followed the flow of people, looking at the gouache at this stall and the sugar figures at that stall. It was quite lively.

Suddenly, a sorcerer dressed in Taoist robes, holding a wooden tray filled with talismans, portraits and consecrated objects, started selling his products to everyone he met along the way.

Until, he walked in front of Su Yingxue with the wooden tray. The man was dressed like an immortal. He was nearly forty years old, with gray beard on his temples. He smiled and said to Su Yingxue while holding the wooden tray.

"Young lady, seeing your rosy complexion, you must be a blessed person." The sorcerer said with a smile, "Young lady, when you go to the New Year market, you should buy some consecrated and blessed items to keep with you, so as to pray for good fortune and blessings in the coming year."

"Here I have bracelets and necklaces blessed by Taoist ancestors, as well as exorcism portraits to ward off evil spirits and Taoist peach wood swords." The sorcerer stretched out his hand to show the items on the wooden tray and introduced them to Su Yingxue in a soft voice, fearing that he would miss the buyer's interest.

"Exorcist portrait? What is that?" Su Yingxue followed his introduction and looked at a series of products. She could understand the peach wood sword, the consecrated bracelet and necklace, and the ghost painting. But when she saw the portrait next to it of a person with a green face and fangs, a crooked mouth and monkey cheeks, disheveled hair like Mei Chaofeng, and extremely ugly facial features, she was stunned.

What kind of evil habit is this? How could such an ugly person exist in this world? If I draw it, will anyone buy it?

Su Yingxue was just wondering when the next moment, the sorcerer smiled brightly and recommended something to her, "Miss, you have good taste. The best-selling item here is this exorcism portrait."

"Ordinary people can buy it and stick this portrait at the door. It is more useful than door gods. It can drive away demons and evil spirits, and ward off disasters!" The sorcerer explained with a smile.

"Who is in this portrait?" Su Yingxue was a little confused. Just an ugly monster, could it be said to ward off evil? Su Yingxue didn't believe it. Perhaps the people of Dasheng were more superstitious about these things.

"My, young lady, you look so well-dressed, I never thought you were from out of town!" The sorcerer explained with a smile, "This exorcist portrait is of our most famous Taoist master, Bodhi Patriarch. It is a one-to-one reproduction of the eldest princess's true appearance."

"It's rumored that Her Royal Highness is a perpetrator of all kinds of evil, ugly and vicious. Even those demons and monsters who cling to the human world and cannot enter hell will be frightened away upon seeing Her Royal Highness's true appearance."

"Thus, at the end of each year, it has always been a custom in Dasheng Kyoto to buy a portrait of Her Royal Highness the Princess to exorcise demons and post it on one's doorstep."

"Besides, young lady, I sell the cheapest on the entire Shuinan Street, fifteen cents a piece. You won't get hurt or cheated."

"If you walk a little further, it will be twenty or twenty-five cents per picture!" The sorcerer looked sincere as he picked up the pile of exorcism portraits on the wooden tray and spoke to Su Yingxue gently and sincerely.

Su Yingxue was apprehensive upon hearing this. She knew Su Yingxue's reputation among the people was extremely low, and her reputation was notorious. But she had never imagined that the people of Dasheng would actually use her portrait to ward off evil spirits.

"Twenty wen a piece, an exorcist portrait, fair to all. Thirty wen a piece, a peach wood sword blessed by Bodhi Patriarch, to ward off evil spirits and exorcise demons. Buy two together for forty wen, and they'll keep your home peaceful and blessed!"

As if to confirm the sorcerer's words, Su Yingxue soon saw another sorcerer dressed in the same way walking by not far away, selling the same exorcism portraits.

Su Yingxue looked at the extremely ugly exorcist portrait in front of her, and finally could not convince herself to take out the money to buy the exorcist portrait.

God have mercy on her, Su Yingxue is a pretty girl no matter how you look at her, how could she look as scary as in the exorcist portrait?