Quick Transmigration: The Female Supporting Character's Counterattack, A Guide to Cunning Strat

Seeing that Lin Shuwan had finished reading, Qiqi asked, "Wanwan, which skill should we choose this time?"

Lin Shuwan spoke while pondering: (I'm currently in the Cold Palace, so it's impossible for me to meet Li Shangxun. But even if I leave the Cold Palace, I'll probably be surrounded by scheming and intrigue all day long. Even if I do meet him, we won't have much contact. Is there any skill that would allow me to contact him from a distance?)

[Let me look... I've got it! "Zhuangzi dreaming of a butterfly" seems like something I could do.]

(What are the effects?)

[The operator can enter other people's dreams and manipulate them. There are many adjustable features; let me show you.]

Liu Shuwan carefully studied the specific procedures and pondered for a while.

(Can I project his childhood experiences into my dreams?)

"Yes, it should be possible."

(After entering the dream, will he inhabit the body of his younger self?)

【Yes. 】

(According to the instructions, it should be possible to keep him trapped in his childhood body, where he can see and hear, but his behavior will be based on his childhood personality. Once he stops rejecting me, the settings can be changed.)

Okay, I'll choose this skill. I'll select Li Shangxun as the target. For the background of the first dream, let me think... I'll choose shortly after his nanny died when he was four years old. Done.

Yes, we need to set another rule: for now, he shouldn't be able to see my face clearly.

Why?

(One dream could be a coincidence, but if I dream about the same person multiple times, how could the emperor not become suspicious? What if he finds me beforehand and kills me?)

【Yes. 】

……

As dusk settled, the candles in the other palaces were extinguished, with only a few scattered rooms still emitting faint light.

The Qianqing Palace, the residence of emperors throughout history, is still brightly lit at this moment.

Li Shangxun disliked the dark, and even when he went to bed, he had to light a candle. It was bright and reassuring, but he still found it hard to fall asleep. However, compared to that, the darkness made him feel even worse.

His sleep quality was also poor; he often suffered from insomnia, and even when he did fall asleep, he would frequently wake up, resulting in chronic headaches.

When one is physically unwell, one's behavior becomes much more violent.

But today seemed different. As soon as I lay down on the bed, I was suddenly overcome with drowsiness, and my consciousness gradually blurred...

When he regained consciousness, his vision was very low, as if he had possessed a child who was crying.

From this angle, he could vaguely make out that this was an artificial hill in the Imperial Garden.

He was dreaming, and he knew perfectly well that he was dreaming.

It was amazing; he hadn't had such a peaceful dream in a long time, so peaceful that even the child's soft cries didn't bother him.

"Where am I?" A clear voice rang out; it was a woman.

The possessed child probably didn't want to be discovered, so he tightly covered his mouth. However, he had been crying for too long and was too heartbroken, so he couldn't stop sobbing, and the sound leaked out from between his fingers.

"Is someone here?" She came looking for him. Perhaps it was a dream, because he couldn't see her face clearly. He only knew that she was very thin, and her wrists, which were exposed from her sleeves, were fair and slender, and he could easily break them.

He felt himself trembling—no, it was the child he was possessing who was trembling, looking at her with tension and fear.

"Who are you? Why are you crying here?" She seemed to feel sorry for you, so she squatted down and asked softly.

"Don't you recognize me?" the child asked back.

The voice sounded somewhat familiar to Li Shangxun.

"How would I know if you don't tell me?" the woman replied softly, then added, "My name is Shu Wan. You look about the same age as my younger brother, so you can call me sister. What's your name?"

"I, my name is A-Xun." Little A-Xun seemed not to sense any malice from her and said his name.

Li Shangxun was now certain that this was him before he was five years old—weak, pitiful, and when bullied, he would only foolishly hide and cry. Tears are the most useless thing; how stupid.

"Why is Ah Xun crying here? Did someone bully you?" The woman picked up a handkerchief and gently brushed it across little Ah Xun's eyes, wiping away his tears.

"Fourth Brother and Fifth Brother always beat me, I miss my wet nurse." Touched by the concern shown to him, little A-Xun, who had managed to control his emotions, began to lose control again, tears welling up in his eyes.

Where did they hit you? Can I see?

Li Shangxun could feel Xiao Axun nodding, and then the woman gently lifted his sleeve.

"Hiss." She couldn't help but gasp. There were whip marks and pinch marks, new and old intertwined, a shocking sight.

This was a common occurrence. Back when he was in the princes' quarters, the fourth and fifth princes always took pleasure in bullying him, simply because his mother, despite her high position and power, disliked him and wanted to find a sense of superiority in him.

"How could they do this? Do you have any medicine? I'll apply it for you."

"No." Little A-Xun shook his head.

"I don't... have any either." A tube of ointment suddenly appeared in the woman's hand, and she seemed quite surprised.

"Wow!" Little A-Xun exclaimed, looking at the suddenly appearing ointment with surprise, and asked, "Sister, are you a fairy?"

"No," the woman replied, deftly squeezing out the medicine, lifting his arm, and carefully applying it to both of his arms. After applying it, she gently blew on it.

Li Shangxun could feel the coolness of the ointment and the gentle touch of the woman holding Xiao Axun.

He felt a bit ironic; it seemed that the fourth and fifth brothers had died too easily back then, dying before he came to power, which was why he dreamed about that time.

And then there was this inexplicable woman. Li Shangxun's eyes narrowed, and he exuded a strong aura of hostility. He wanted to break free from her grasp, but he was powerless to do so.

After applying the ointment, the woman placed the remaining ointment in little A-Xun's hand and said, "Here, take the rest. Remember to apply it every day. Your brother treats you like this, don't your parents care?"

"They don't like me at all." Little A-Xun lowered his head sadly.

"Why? You're so cute." The woman patted his head.

"Didn't you see?" Little A-Xun quickly looked up, then immediately looked down again, and whispered, "My eyebrows."

"What happened to your eyebrows? One of them is broken," the woman said calmly.

Little A-Xun lowered his head even further, his eyes filled with sadness.

"But it's still very beautiful," the woman continued.

“Aren’t you afraid? They all say I’m a jinx, that I’ll bring death to anyone who gets close to me.”

Little A-Xun's eyes brightened slightly, but then dimmed again. He said in a low voice, "My wet nurse was very good to me before, but she still died. She was cursed to death by me."

"How can you blame yourself!"

The woman said with heartache, "This has nothing to do with you, nor with your eyebrows. Life and death are unpredictable; you can't impose these unfounded things on yourself."

"Besides, you see, I have dimples, you don't. We just look different, there's nothing strange about it."

"Really?" Little A-Xun looked up at her.

"Of course it's true." The woman nodded.

“Then next time they talk about my eyebrows, I’ll just tell them that,” Little Ah Xun said happily.

……