Perchance to Dream

24: Slipshod Plans

Wei Wanru didn't recognize Chu Yexuan at first sight. During the Snow Festival, she had only paid attention to the empress dowager, emperor, and empress. Moreover, today Chu Yexuan and Chu Yeguang were both dressed in fine, but civilian robes, with none of the pomp and grandeur of their usual court dress. If they did appear in public, it was either in carriages or riding on horseback, and inevitably the people would bow as they passed so few caught glimpses of their face.

For now, all she felt was that the man was vaguely familiar, but she couldn't fathom how he knew her name at all. "Sir, you are...?"

Chu Yexuan faltered and fumbled for something to say.

--

Fate was a curious thing.

In the original novel, Chu Yexuan was supposed to spend the morning training, cut his hand on an old spear, and ask a random apprentice from the Imperial Physician Courtyard for some ingredients to make his personal ointment. He would end up using the last of the pagoda flowers before going to the medicine markets to buy some more, coincidentally witnessing Wei Wanru and Li Siyan's face-off along the way.

When Mei Yanran first transmigrated into the novel, she'd asked the Goddess of Fates what to do about the butterfly effect---the fact that one little change could end up causing countless ripples in the rest of the novelverse. What if she messed things up and Chu Yexuan never got the throne? Or fell in love with someone other than the female lead? What if Li Siyan actually beat her rival in something and gained a permanent advantage?

'It's impossible to have everything go exactly the same as the novel,' the Goddess of Fates had replied. 'Characters will change based on their interactions with you and the effect you yourself make to their surroundings.'

That was why Mei Yanran had ended up winning the Snow Festival and then attracted the attention of Chu Yeguang.

'There will be enough flexibility in the world for these changes,' the Goddess of Fates had went on, 'But its tenets still hold true. The male lead will still fall in love with the female lead, the crown prince will still be a playboy, the aloof advisor will still keep most of his thoughts and plans to himself. The throne shall seat Chu Yexuan and Wei Wanru, with Chu Yeguang to eat the dust; Ling Fengxiao shall rise to lead them, and strengthen Chu's rule for the rest of their reign.'

'What about the events in between? The plot twists, big reveals, and main conflicts?'

'If it's integral to the plot, the novelverse will find a way to make it happen. The steps leading up to the event might differ, but the results will still lead to the original ending.'

Chu Yexuan and Wei Wanru's first 'meeting' was important to the plot even if they never talked in the original novel. That was because it cemented Wei Wanru's impression in Chu Yexuan's mind, and spurred him to find out more about the lady who'd charmed the capital with her zither playing skills. In this version, he had skipped straight from staring at her in the distance to making eye contact. There was something ironic about the whole thing too---Chu Yexuan had tried his best to lead his brother away from Mei Yanran, but ended up in the very street where she and her servants were hiding, not more than a few stalls away.

"......." said Mei Yanran when she saw the fated lovebirds meet. ...so what's Chu Yeguang doing behind them? He shouldn't be in this part of the story at all!

As far as she knew, the crown prince had never shown interest in Wei Wanru on account of her modest-sized chest---then later, because of her intelligence. It was well known that Chu Yeguang disliked overly clever women because he considered them shrewd and cunning, thus hard to trust. But Mei Yanran soon pushed all that to the back of her mind at the sound of a gruff cry.