Can I Uninstall This Dating System!? chapter 1

Chapter 1: The Dating System Issues a Novice Mission: Your Majesty, Please Give Xie…

Blood sprayed from Ying Xi’s chest.

Everything was in chaos. After the Xiongnu breached the city walls, enemy forces stormed the Imperial Palace. The Weiyang Palace was engulfed in flames, turning the world into a dense, suffocating red.

Drip.

Blood drained away rapidly, taking his vital signs with it. Ying Xi’s pupils constricted to their limit.

He looked down at the sharp blade piercing his body. Years of hunching over memorials had left Ying Xi physically frail; even with the instinct to survive, he couldn’t struggle. He was seized by pain and despair.

“Incompetent tyrant.”

Hearing those piercing words, Ying Xi struggled to lift his head.

“I…”

Instinctively, he wanted to prove that he had worked tirelessly, every single moment, to save the Great Qin.

But now, it was all in vain.

Ying Xi looked at the subject who had killed him. The man’s brow and eyes were splattered with drops of blood. With the country ruined and families destroyed, the man wore an expression of equal despair.

Both were the final martyrs of the dynasty.

The world faded completely around Ying Xi. Accompanied by the countless curses of his people, Ying Xi stepped into death.

Tyrant! Incompetent tyrant! You calamity of a ruler who ruined the nation—

Passing through a long stretch of chaos, a white light flashed!

“Your Majesty?”

What? That voice…

The voice was unhurried, the timbre somewhat familiar.

Ying Xi panicked for a moment before his floating body slowly settled onto solid ground.

Ying Xi opened his eyes. He had just experienced the absolute darkness of death, but now he realized he was surrounded by light. The intense glare of the early spring noon sun made his eyes ache. His hand trembled.

His vision focused on what lay before him: a desk piled high with urgent reports from all over the empire.

The Chief Eunuch who had awakened him had beautiful features and deep red lips, stepping back with a numb expression. Yu Jing was following the rule Ying Xi had set: if the Emperor was found napping while handling state affairs, he must be woken immediately.

This was the study of the Weiyang Palace.

A fragile nerve in Ying Xi’s mind snapped.

He lightly supported his forehead, scanning his surroundings discreetly, confirming his suspicion.

But he had clearly died in the turmoil of the nation’s fall. How could he be in Weiyang Palace?

Just as Ying Xi’s mind wandered toward philosophical explanations like Zhuangzi dreaming of the butterfly, someone spoke inside his head. The voice was intermittent.

“Host, Your Majesty, hello there!” It was a crisp, young girl’s voice. “I am the Dating System Assistant. Please call me Tian Tong (Sweet Tub).”

“This System adheres to a design philosophy of high freedom and intense immersion, accompanying you to conquer every subject of the Great Qin.”

“Now, please wait for the novice mission to be distributed.”

Who is that?

The rules of the Great Qin Palace were strict; no palace maid would dare make such a loud noise.

Another strange occurrence. Ying Xi’s brow twitched. The teenage Emperor’s gaze was swift and subtle as he scanned the Weiyang Palace.

But the voice had vanished without a trace.

Ying Xi even thought he was hallucinating. However, he quickly found relief in that thought—since ascending the throne, he had been overworked, often suffering from dizziness and tinnitus.

Thinking of this, Ying Xi coughed several times. Instinctively, he picked up a memorial from the Ministry of War. The scenes from his dream were vivid in his mind; he wanted to see where the Xiongnu had actually reached.

But when he unfolded the memorial, the date clearly read “First Year of Zhongxing.” That was the era name adopted when he first took the throne.

He thought the eunuch had delivered the wrong memorials.

But Chief Eunuch Yu Jing still stood with his hands lowered by his side, expressionless.

Yu Jing was meticulous and possessed higher learning and cultivation than any other eunuch. Such a clumsy mistake was not something he would make.

Ying Xi picked up several other reports from the Ministry of War. Checking the dates first, without exception, they all read “First Year of Zhongxing.” The content reported frequent peasant uprisings in various prefectures.

The Qingniu Army uprising in the north, Li Yilong’s uprising in Yangzhou to the south… these were all events from the beginning of his reign.

Ying Xi’s fingers tightened on the paper, grinding it hard until the edges curled.

This was not a dream. He had been reborn.

Reborn back to the time when he had just ascended the throne.

Ying Xi spread out all the memorials on the table and scanned them rapidly, a sense of suffocation gripping him tighter and tighter!

He had an exceptional memory and had treated every report with seriousness. He clearly recalled that this was a specific day he had lived through before.

In his past life, he had watched helpless as the Great Qin Empire went from decline to total collapse. He had tried desperately to save it, yet it was futile. His future was one of betrayal by all, culminating in his death and the nation’s destruction.

As if to exacerbate his despair, outside the study of Weiyang Palace, a young eunuch kowtowed to deliver a message.

Ying Xi lifted his eyelids and nodded slightly. The young eunuch presented a brocade box to Yu Jing.

Yu Jing received it steadily and opened the box toward Ying Xi. Inside was a new batch of memorials to be reviewed, but the one on top had a glaring, tragic white seal.

Ying Xi’s heart gave a heavy thump. Dead.

“Read it.”

Yu Jing held up the memorial. “The Qingniu Army rebellion has been quelled. However, while supervising the battle, the former Duke of Ying, Xie Ji, died a martyr’s death from exhaustion. His only son, Xie Qianli, is escorting the coffin back to the capital to report the funeral arrangements. The rebel leader’s head is being presented en route. The sixth generation of the Xie family’s loyal martyrs has perished in service to the crown; we beg for the Holy Judgment.”

Duke of Ying, Xie Ji—the commander of the strongest army the court still possessed.

A general star had fallen. Afterward, the Xie family would suspect that Xie Ji’s death was related to the monarch’s suspicion of his meritorious subjects. The Xie family would become thoroughly estranged from the court.

If things followed this trajectory… it meant he would have to repeat everything from his past life. It was like a wound that had just scabbed over being torn open again and again, denied the chance to heal.

Did he have to die a second time after already dying once?

The Emperor’s self-control kept Ying Xi’s face unchanged. He curled the corners of his mouth slightly, an expression of exquisite, bone-deep elegance, yet the turbulence in his heart did not diminish by half.

“Cough… cough cough… cough…” His faint smile triggered a fit of coughing, his stomach churning.

The desk trembled with the Emperor’s coughing. Yu Jing did not approach but stood like a doll, serving tea and placing it by the Emperor’s right hand.

Ying Xi lifted the lid and took a sip with forced composure.

Closing his eyes, he suppressed the discomfort. The steam warmed his nose as he replayed his past life in a fleeting moment.

When Ying Xi put down the teacup, he sighed lightly, his eyes filled with the relief of someone who has seen it all.

In his past life, he had not failed the state, nor had he wronged anyone. He had only tortured himself ruthlessly, yet he still ended up with a legacy of infamy.

Since he had been given a new life… Ying Xi pursed his lips. The teenage Emperor vented his frustration with restraint, elegantly setting down the vermilion brush.

—I quit.

Chief Eunuch Yu Jing was slightly stunned. An expression finally appeared on his numb face. It was only noon; usually, the Emperor would review memorials until midnight.

The Chief Eunuch could hardly believe it. What was wrong with the Emperor?

Yu Jing: “Your Majesty?”

“I am very weary,” Ying Xi stood up, stretching his limbs and waist. “Prepare the carriage for Shanglin Park. And arrange a song and dance performance to lift my spirits.”

Yu Jing went from surprised to dumbfounded. It took him a long while to recover and respond, “This slave will attend to it immediately.”

Shanglin Park.

It had been only two or three days since the start of spring, just after the New Year. The garden was cold; aside from the wax plums, no plants had bloomed. Last year’s snow had not yet melted, leaving only two or three plum branches flowering.

This was a massive garden built for the leisure and hunting of past emperors. Behind Ying Xi was a pavilion for resting. He sat in the open space in front of the pavilion, a long table set before him with several types of pastries and a pot of warm wine.

In the center of the clearing, a dozen women with sleeves like clouds were dancing.

The dancers were in high spirits, their movements a bit exaggerated from overexertion. This was the first time the Emperor had actively asked to watch them dance.

The number of dancers in the Imperial Music Office had already been cut to the absolute minimum.

If the palace didn’t still need to host many diplomatic events, these dancers before him would have been laid off by the Emperor as well. It was said that the money saved would be used to quell the rebellions everywhere.

Rumor had it the Emperor had allocated a severance payment for the dancers.

But the Emperor couldn’t oversee everything. That money had been skimmed layer by layer by subordinates. In the end, the dancers who left received not a single coin.

So, the dancers could not understand the Emperor’s painstaking efforts. Once they left the palace, it was freezing outside. They would either starve and freeze to death or be forced into prostitution to survive.

The dancers feared that the Emperor asking them to dance was a final revelry before expelling them all.

Trembling with fear, yet wanting to entice the Emperor to keep them, one woman—so thin she was skeletal—turned pale and fell during a spin. Not daring to spoil the mood, she quickly stood up and blended back into the formation. Her movements were so fast it was as if the fall had never happened.

Ying Xi waved his hand to summon Yu Jing, instructing the eunuch to have them step down.

The eunuch, unsure of the Sacred Intent, whispered tentatively, “Dismiss them from the palace?”

Ying Xi glanced at the pastries before him. “Give them these to eat. Take good care of them.”

A dark light trembled in Yu Jing’s pupils; his astonishment grew. “This slave obeys the decree.” He went to carry out the order, leaving the dancers bowing in profuse gratitude.

To make such a performance error and not be driven out of the palace meant the Emperor was definitely not here today to dismantle the Imperial Music Office.

The dancers felt as if they had taken a calming pill. Their movements became more liberated, smiles appeared on their faces, blooming like clusters of fresh flowers in Shanglin Park, dazzling the eyes.

Ying Xi felt something fuzzy stirring in his heart.

He smiled slightly, tasting a bit of the joy of being alive.

His change in behavior drew even more attention from the Chief Eunuch. Yu Jing was too clever; knowing his place, he only dared to observe in secret.

Yu Jing actually knew that with the Emperor’s workaholic style, his body would collapse sooner or later, and the empire would inevitably change hands again shortly. Therefore, Yu Jing dared not get too close to the new Emperor or become his confidant.

But now… The Emperor was propping up his cheek, dignifiedly faking a nap. The Emperor had said to wake him if he dozed off while working, but he hadn’t said what to do if he fell asleep while having fun. To wake, or not to wake?

Yu Jing thought about it and decided not to disturb him.

A clear thought surfaced in the Chief Eunuch’s mind: The Emperor won’t die of exhaustion. Perhaps he will reign for a very long time.

Yu Jing’s eyes darted around, his red lips parted, and he reached out to request a blanket from a palace servant, carefully covering the Emperor’s thin shoulders.

Just then—

A screech rang out from the sky, sharp and long. In an instant, it made scalps tingle.

A war hawk swept rapidly over Shanglin Park. The majestic bird flew very low, its talons almost grazing the dancers’ hair buns.

Afraid of being hooked by the raptor’s sharp claws, the dancers screamed, and the formation scattered. The screaming woke Ying Xi, and he opened his eyes.

Amidst the chaos, Ying Xi locked eyes with the bird of prey. The war hawk’s beak dived straight toward his eyes, but intimidated by the Emperor’s majestic glare, the falcon turned mid-air, its wingtip carving a long arc.

Ying Xi suddenly remembered this type of bird with an iron ring on its leg. A messenger hawk—this thing came from the army.

Ying Xi immediately thought of the memorial reporting the death. Xie Ji was dead, and Xie Qianli had returned to the capital.

In his previous life, he and Xie Qianli had parted on bad terms in the Weiyang Palace.

In this life, he had come to Shanglin Park, and Xie Qianli had actually followed him here!

Before the person was seen, the sound arrived.

He heard the uniform footsteps of soldiers, belonging to the only elite troop of its kind in Great Qin.

The symbol of the Duke of Ying’s army was white robes and silver armor. grieving the loss of their commander, every member had white cloth tied around their waists, fluttering like funeral banners in the wind. There weren’t many of them, but each possessed an aura of one fighting against a hundred—a magnificent sight.

The arrival appeared like a forced palace coup, causing the Shanglin Park guards to simultaneously grip the hilts of their sabers.

Ying Xi followed the falcon’s flight path to the end of the flat grounds. Xie Qianli’s slender figure became increasingly distinct in his vision.

Young General Xie’s snow-white armor was crisscrossed with dried bloodstains. His right hand tightly gripped a long spear, veins bulging on the back of his hand. The spearhead was also covered in recklessly splashed blood traces, the tip a cold star radiating a sharp edge.

When the Young General stopped, the spear shaft hit the floor tiles, and the falcon landed on his left shoulder, spreading its wings.

The impact of the spear handle hitting the ground created a resonance that struck everyone’s heart, shaking their lungs. The spear weighed at least a hundred catties.

Xie Qianli was tall, but not exaggeratedly muscular. He was heroically cold and distant, his body filled with power ready to explode at any moment. Now, bolstered by the blood covering him, that power seemed nearly insane.

Ying Xi’s gaze swept over Xie Qianli’s face.

Returning from a long expedition, the bottom of Xie Qianli’s eyes was filled with ferocious bloodshot veins. His lips had completely lost their curve. Every silent detail spoke of the hardships of suppressing the rebellion and the pain of losing his father.

Reliving this life, Ying Xi still held the same sorrow for the death of the Duke of Ying.

But Xie Qianli barging into the palace in armor and brandishing a weapon before the King was something Ying Xi could not tolerate.

Ying Xi said, “Insolence.”

Xie Qianli rotated his wrist, remaining silent for a moment. Finally, he stopped a few steps in front of Ying Xi, the facet of the spearhead reflecting a slice of bright, cold light.

His thin lips trembled lightly. Dull and slow, he kowtowed. Xie Qianli slowly raised his head, his eyes meeting Ying Xi’s.

“My father died on the battlefield, yet Shanglin Park is filled with song and dance.”

“This subject and his father have died ten thousand deaths, all to spoil Your Majesty’s mood.”

The Young General’s voice was extremely hoarse. In his cloudy eyes, Ying Xi read genuine murderous intent. Perhaps because the meeting place had changed from the study in the previous life to Shanglin Park, and he was watching the Imperial Music Office perform, it had ignited Xie Qianli’s rage.

Ying Xi’s throat suddenly tightened.

The teenage Emperor’s gaze fell once again on the long spear in the other’s hand.

Ying Xi felt a lump in his throat. Was he going to end this life prematurely again?

Intuition told him he should eliminate the threat immediately, at any cost!

Ying Xi cast his gaze toward the nearly one hundred guards in Shanglin Park.

But Xie Qianli was too close. Xie Qianli was battle-hardened; serving as the vanguard under Xie Ji, he often charged into enemy formations alone to behead generals and take cities.

Before the guards could kill Xie Qianli, Xie Qianli would likely kill him first. Considering this, Ying Xi hesitated.

Just then, the young girl’s voice from earlier suddenly poured into his mind, startling Ying Xi.

Tian Tong: “Scanning complete. Novice mission issued. Your Majesty, please polish Young General Xie’s spear.”

The system displayed a countdown starting.

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