Chapter 01
“I don’t accept this!”
“Why can Father drink flower wine, but I can’t!”
Ye Qiong knelt upright in the Cining Palace, her entire bodyâdown to every strand of hairâscreaming with defiance.
“Nonsense! And you think you’re in the right?!” The Dowager Empress slammed her hand on the armrest, fury rushing to her head.
“I… I am in the right…” Ye Qiong said with a wronged expression, deeply convinced she had done nothing wrong.
“The brothel is a place for you, a commandery princess, to be? If word gets out, where will the royal family’s dignity be?!”
“So many court officials go there, so why can’t I? Father is a prince, and he goes often too. Besides, it’s not like I didn’t pay.”
Seeing her stubbornly refuse to admit fault and even act aggrieved, the Dowager Empress’s chest heaved with rage.
She pointed at the door and barked at Chief Eunuch Fu, “Fuhai! Go! Fetch that rebellious son of the Prince Duan for me! Since I can’t control her, let him come see for himselfâthe fine daughter he has raised!”
Chief Eunuch Fu quickly bowed. “Yes, Your Highness, this servant will go at once!”
After Fu left, the Dowager Empress’s gaze fell back on Ye Qiong, filled with bewilderment and heartache.
Ever since the girl was kicked in the head by a donkey half a month ago, comatose for three days, and diagnosed with amnesia upon waking, her temperament had changed completely. Before, she only knew how to fuss over that Young Master Gu and was at most called foolish by outsiders. Now, her actions and conduct were exactly like those of her unreliable father.
In just half a month, this wretch had thoroughly ruined her own reputation.
The more the Dowager Empress thought about it, the angrier and more worried she became. She called out toward the door, “Someone! Go summon Imperial Physician Zhang! Have him examine the commandery princess’s head again! I want to see what exactly is wrong with her mind!”
Before long, Imperial Physician Zhang hurried over with his medical kit.
Despite her extreme reluctance, Ye Qiong dared not act recklessly before the Dowager Empress. She could only stretch out her hand unwillingly.
Imperial Physician Zhang stepped forward promptly to take her pulse. His fingers moved slightly as he closed his eyes to concentrate for a moment. He then lifted her eyelids to examine themâthe entire procedure was quite practiced.
“Your Highness, this servant has completed the diagnosis. The commandery princess’s pulse is steady, and her body is generally well.”
The Dowager Empress frowned. “If she is generally well, then why has she become such a scoundrel?”
“Your Highness, please calm down.” Imperial Physician Zhang hurriedly explained. “The commandery princess suffered a severe head injury, and amnesia is a common consequence. Recovery of memory takes time; it cannot be rushed.”
“That’s not what I asked.” The Dowager Empress cut him off. “I’m asking: before, this wretch was merely foolish. Now that she’s lost her memory, why has she become so reckless and unruly?”
Imperial Physician Zhang was momentarily speechless. He wanted to say like father, like daughter, but could he say that?
After a moment’s deliberation, he said tactfully, “Your Highness, the commandery princess currently has no memory at all; she is like a blank sheet of paper.”
“After waking, the people she has had the most contact with are those from the Prince Duan’s manor. Right now, the manor has only His Highness Prince Duan and the commandery princess as its masters. Everything she sees and hears revolves around His Highness Prince Duan’s words and actions.”
“As the saying goes, ‘what you hear and see day by day rubs off on you; you learn by imitation.’ This change in the commandery princess is likely the influence of His Highness Prince Duan.”
As soon as these words were spoken, the hall fell deathly silent.
The Dowager Empress was stunned for a moment, then her expression turned even uglier.
She slammed the table hard and ground her teeth. “Fine! Just fineâ’learn by imitation’! Once that rebellious son arrives, let’s see how I deal with him!”
No sooner had she spoken than Chief Eunuch Fu led two young eunuchs, half-supporting and half-dragging in the disheveled Prince Duanâhis clothes in disarray, hair mussed, and reeking of alcohol.
Seeing Prince Duan in such a drunken stupor, and recalling Imperial Physician Zhang’s words just nowâ
The Dowager Empress’s pent-up fury ignited instantly. Without even looking at the father-daughter pair kneeling on the ground, she shouted directly, “Someone, come!”
The guards outside the hall immediately entered and knelt, awaiting orders.
“Throw Prince Duan into the Clan Court!”
“Without my order, he is not to set one foot outside the Clan Court!”
The guards dared not delay. They immediately stepped forward to haul away the still-mumbling Prince Duan.
The Dowager Empress’s gaze then turned to Ye Qiong, who was still kneeling on the ground, completely unaware of where she had gone wrongâand her anger surged anew.
“And you!”
“From this day forward, I will send Elderly Matron Chen to the Prince Duan’s manor to personally teach you proper conduct. You are not to be released from confinement until you have corrected all those bad habits of yours!”
Finally, she did not forget to add a threat: “If I hear even once more that you’ve been imitating your scoundrel of a fatherâcausing trouble outside and ruining your reputationâI will have you sent straight to the Clan Court to keep your father company!”
With that, the Dowager Empress flicked her sleeves and shouted sternly, “Take them all away!”
Ye Qiong, now blessed with a disciplinarian matron, was utterly bewildered: ???
Waitâ
Is there no justice in this world?!
Who caused trouble?
Who ruined their reputation?
She still wanted to put up a fight, but before she could even call out “Grandmother,” the palace maids had already pulled her quickly out of the hall.
Stufffed back into the carriage by the maids and matron, and supervised all the way back to the Prince Duan’s manor, Ye Qiong had no time to mourn her impending loss of freedom before she was hit with another piece of bad news.
[Congratulations, Host! You have only 15 days of lifespan left!]
[In 15 days, Host will meet your end by drowning in a latrine!]
The system’s cheerful voice carried a hint of schadenfreude.
Ye Qiong sighed. “Is there no more dignified way to die?”
System: [No, Host. This is already the most dignified option available.]
Ye Qiong felt a bit melancholic. Other transmigrators got all sorts of amazing abilitiesâshe transmigrated into a short-lived wretch.
And on top of that, she was bound to a system that, due to insufficient energy, had not only forgotten what kind of system it was but also issued tasks that were extremely fragmented and incompleteâusually just single keywords, like a location, a person’s name, an object…
To complete tasks and survive, she had to rely entirely on guesswork.
That said, fortunately, she was clever. After half a month of frantic trial-and-error and the sporadic addition of a few extra days of lifespan here and there, she had come to a conclusion.
She perhaps, probably, seemingly, maybe had bound herself to a villain system.
[Host, a new task has been refreshed.]
The damn system’s voice rang out again.
Ye Qiong looked at the light screen, where three large characters were flashing: [Liu Sisi].
“That sounds familiar. Seems like a girl’s name.”
Could it be that she was supposed to off her?
[Host, I think that courtesan lady is called Liu Sisi.]
“Then I have to go to the Spring Breeze Pavilion!”
Ye Qiong opened her door and glanced at the maids and elderly matron stationed outside.
Elderly Matron Chen glared back at her ferociously, holding a discipline ruler.
“Commandery Princess, have you finished copying the Female Admonitions yet?”
Ye Qiong silently withdrew her foot and closed the door.
“See? It’s not that I don’t want to complete the taskâit’s that the matron won’t let me out.”
[How about Host offs her?]
“Are you crazy? She’s the matron who has served the Dowager Empress since childhood!”
No sooner had Ye Qiong spokenâ
The next second, her palm felt heavy.
She looked down.
A sniper rifle had appeared in her hand.
[Host, don’t be scared. We’ve got a sniper.]
Ye Qiong stared fixedly at the sniper rifle in her hand, grinding out each word through clenched teeth.
“Didâyouâgoârummagingâthroughâmyâstorageâspaceâagainâ?!”
System: !!!
Oh no, busted. I’m doomed!
Ye Qiong watched as the system tossed the sniper rifleâwhich it had fished out from who-knows-what dusty corner of her spaceâback inside.
Counting on this useless thing for ideas was worse than counting on herself.
The one (host) and the one (system) went from brainstorming schemes to bickering and pulling each other’s hair out (metaphorically). In the end, without even setting foot outside the manor gates, the both of them obediently hunkered down at the Prince Duan’s manor and followed Elderly Matron Chen’s lessons on proper conduct for two whole days.
Watching her remaining lifespan dwindle day by day, Ye Qiong could no longer sit still.
So, on a dark and windy night, Ye Qiong climbed over the wall and made her escape.
