The Lazy Villainess

Today I wake up to a cool spring morning with the sun's rays shining through my window and the usual sound of Chi Lou knocking on my door to wake me up. Unfortunately, this weather and atmosphere do not match my mood at all.

'Urrrrgh…' I groan, pulling my blanket above my head. 'Five more minutes…'

Chi Lou enters my room and tugs on my blanket. "Milady, please," she begs, "Master and Madame will not be pleased if you be late…"

'Those two can go flip themselves' I think angrily, but get up anyway. Time goes too fast for my liking. Its been almost a year and in two weeks time, my arrival at the Imperial Palace will be announced. Just thinking about it gives me anexiety. When the main character arrives, then the events of the light novel will truly begin.

I give Chi Lou the usual morning hug, and even though she is still startled, I think she has gotten used to my touchy-feely tendencies. She blushes, and I laugh despite my worries.

When I arrive at the hall, a cheery atmosphere greets me and I sit in my now usual spot in between my little brothers Bin and Hui. Mother seems happier and is chatting with the head maid and father is… well father. He is his usual tsundre self and looks stoic as always. Elder brother is at the palace, serving the princes and the Emperor, I presume.

Even though I am normally silent during meals, save for the occasional chats with my younger brothers, today my depressing mood seemed to affect everyone.

Even father now notices my moping. He puts down his chopsticks and says, "Is going to the palace that hard for you? I remember you being really excited about going to the palace when you were younger…"

'It's nothing father,' I reply quietly, 'It's just that there are many dangers that are in the palace…'

"…"

Everyone is quiet now, they had never heard me say more truer words. My words have such an impact, that we dine in silence for the rest of breakfast.

After I am done eating, I head down to the training grounds to train with Chen Zhu for the last few times. After I enter the palace, I won't see him possibly ever. He was a great teacher and I will be missing him. So I give it all I have while sparring with him and manage to bruise him face a little, which leaves him very shocked, ending our session.

This past year, after the courtesan incident, I haven't gone out from inside these walls and have devoted all my time into memorising important people names and families to the point where I could tell someone's entire history by just looking at them.

I have also perfected the art of my 'Ninja Flow' and I plan to use it to escape if I ever get cornered. I also have practiced in secret the etiquette that is taught to the future Empress and Imperial Consorts just so that I can ace my etiquette classes. I found a book about it in father's private library which I have been breaking into on a regular basis.

I also plan to not show off my talents as this could put unnecessary attention on me and might get me killed if I end up in a love triangle. As an office worker in my old life, I have plenty of experience staying in the background, so this should not be hard. Besides most of the attention should go to the heroine, as she is the main attraction in this amus.e.m.e.nt park of a world.

I go down to father's study for my daily visitation. Like always, I sit in silence and just grind ink for him. Occasionally he asks me a question relating to current affairs and asks my opinion on them. I try to answer them in the most ancient way of thinking as possible, as my modern way of thinking would probably get rocks thrown at me.

Surprisingly, the presence of father's two concubines are barely mentioned in the story. I guess they don't make much trouble, which makes me happy. The amount of light novels, mangas and dramas I've seen where the concubine is all annoying, quite frankly amazes me.

After I leave father's study, feeling bored, I take Chi Lou with me to the garden and I try a little gardening which terrifies Chi Lou. She and the gardeners beg me to "Please act like a noble" because "No noble acts like this".

I didn't have time to garden in my previous life and I am dying to try it out. Being the old soul I am, and being used to always doing work, having nothing to do still scares me.

So, ignoring what Chi Lou was telling me to do, I got on my knees and dug a hole while the gardeners stood in a line, feeling terrified. I got a little pot of sunflower seeds that I found in the store room and planted it the way I saw gardeners on tv do it.

My mother however, was walking in the garden the exact moment I was planting my seeds. She spotted me and realised what I was doing and almost fainted.

She was completely white and her maids where holding her to steady her. I hurriedly went over to her and asked, 'What's wrong mother, are you feeling alright?'

She slowly looks at me and sighs very deeply. "When, just when are you going to start acting like a noble?" she says slowly, "If you keep up this behaviour, you are going to bring shame on your father's name. Oh my goodness, what of you end up offending people in high places?!"

'Sure mother, I've already gotten on the bad side of a prince, but whatever...' I wanted to say, but seeing her getting increasingly frantic, I opted to try to comfort her.

When I have finally gotten my mother into her room, I go back to mine and figure and try to remember all the ancient Chinese dramas I watched. If all goes to plan and I do not attract any attention, I think there is a possibility that I will survive.

I calm myself and do my usual yoga and I've been doing this everyday and my body has gotten significantly stronger.

Thank goodness no one outside the manor knows of my previous terrible behaviour. That might have wiped out my chances of survival. But I have to look ahead. After all, I have a family to protect.