Chapter 57: Controlled Experiment
Compared to the time spent visiting the common people and suppressing bandits, Sweet System was far less active than before.
Ying Xi had a guess in his heart. Without answering its question, his tone became serious as he interrogated, “Did you tamper with Zhen’s letters?”
Sweet System fell silent for a moment. Its voice was tiny, like a very tired little girl who hadn’t slept well and had done days of homework.
“Your Majesty, I’m too tired,” Sweet System replied.
Their last exchange was at the Luoshan Bandit Stronghold.
Ying Xi ordered Sweet System to release lightning, and the current struck four strong thieves under Dong Gu’s command. At that time, Sweet System’s power was almost exhausted.
After that, Sweet System stopped talking to him, retaining only basic functions.
“I didn’t change them, I just added a few sentences at the end,” Sweet System said softly. “Emotional energy produced by humans is my power source. I need a little power to continue operating.”
The peony is on the verge of withering, spring is gradually fading.
And sending a wild goose letter to the Imperial Tutor, leaving a poem at the end. Literary talent soaring.
“I am a system for transmitting love letters. Polishing and embellishing vocabulary to help communicate feelings is my function. You misused my function, using me to find people and transmit official business.” Sweet System felt aggrieved.
Its aggrieved voice was also faint, seemingly not fully awake.
“I know you definitely wouldn’t be willing, but I really didn’t have the strength to discuss it then. Your Majesty is eloquent; I can’t out-talk you.”
Sending those four letters restored a tiny bit of vitality to Sweet System.
But it knew clearly that the truth could come out at any time; deceiving the host made it ashamed. Sweet System hid until now before daring to poke its head out tentatively. Sure enough, it was blamed by Ying Xi.
“I’m sorry,” Sweet System apologized lowly. “Having been with you for so long, I know you don’t care about having love at all.”
Ying Xi froze slightly.
If Sweet System tried to defend altering the letters, Ying Xi might truly have been angry, because every letter was related to major court affairs. Miscommunication could implicate millions of lives.
However, Sweet System apologized to him, and national power hadn’t suffered a loss.
Ying Xi had no reason to be angry, so he said, “Next time you need energy, tell Zhen. Zhen is not a completely unreasonable person. No need to be sneaky.”
Sweet System was stunned.
Sweet System sighed, and then a stream of power flowed slowly into the Love System. The saturation of that pale gold system interface seemed to deepen a few shades.
Sweet System didn’t know why.
Looking more carefully, Ying Xi was lying on his side, that Danxin Stone Pendant held in his palm, a string of fluffy tassels visible.
It didn’t know that Ying Xi had actually figured out part of the system’s rules.
If Ying Xi cherished this stone pendant and interacted with it, it might be judged by the system as interacting with the person who gave the stone, and Sweet System would collect this energy.
Sure enough, Sweet System felt warmth and began to become lively.
Sweet System raised its voice: “Big Wolf Dog is delicious~”
Sweet System: “This stone carries very clean and pure feelings, bright like after a snowfall.”
The surface of the stone seemed to still hold Xie Qianli’s temperature.
Ying Xi’s eyelashes trembled lightly, his fingertips slowly opening, his gaze landing on the gilded words “Danxin.”
The Emperor changed the subject: “Feeling any better?”
“Much better.”
“Mm.”
The Emperor didn’t let go of the stone, continuing to replenish Sweet System’s energy. He hadn’t realized he had huddled his body into the quilt, like a dragon clutching a pearl.
A heavy drowsiness assailed Ying Xi.
“Do you like General Xie?” Sweet System asked.
Ying Xi thought to himself, It really has recovered. “You think Zhen likes everyone.”
That was true; this was its job.
Since Sweet System had recovered energy, it had to try again: “You accepted his gift and ate with him. He knows now that you aren’t the one who killed his father. Falling in love is surely just going with the flow.”
Ying Xi: “Accepting the gift is acknowledging his loyalty. Eating was to discuss the plan for marching into Jiangnan.”
“As for not killing his father, Zhen hasn’t killed the fathers of hundreds of millions of people. Should Zhen…—Never mind.”
The conversation was disagreeable; the two occupied the extreme ends of the rational and emotional spectrums.
Sweet System might have charged too much energy and had to release it; the topic couldn’t be controlled.
“You two knew each other since childhood!”
“You could play with his eagle and ride his horse!”
“How good must the relationship be between ordinary boys to share these things? I guarantee with my 256GB of BL novel storage capacity, if someone treats a brother like this, he can’t possibly be straight!”
“Your Majesty, your bamboo horse (childhood friend) is definitely bent!”
Sweet System’s voice went from high-pitched to excited.
Because the self-persuasion was powerful and the evidence was logical, Sweet System was once again full of motivation.
Even the matter Ying Xi minded most—that he died at Xie Qianli’s hand in his past life, pierced by the Wandering Dragon Blade—Sweet System could rationalize: “This is love-hate! Love-hate! If you overcome obstacles to fall in love, that is simply bone-deep romance, too thrilling!”
That gradually noisy voice, like a strong wind, swept away Ying Xi’s drowsiness, turning the little dragon playing with ornaments in the quilt into a Tyrannosaurus.
The Tyrannosaurus angrily severed the threads of love, cutting off all fantasies:
“Ju-er received the most orthodox education since childhood. He likes women.”
“When Zhen was a child, I disguised myself as a girl in front of him and interacted with him using a female identity.”
“So he wasn’t sharing with a boy. To him, he was sharing with a girl at the time.”
“!!!”
Sweet System was astounded.
The host was too good at hiding things. Sweet System almost couldn’t digest this massive amount of information hitting it in the face.
Sweet System calculated with difficulty: “That means…”
Sweet System said, “The person who was childhood sweethearts with the Big Wolf Dog was Your Majesty in a female identity. Perhaps the Big Wolf Dog treated you well because you were a frail girl back then?”
Ying Xi didn’t want to answer.
Sure enough, Sweet System instantly turned into a leaking balloon, the motivation it had built up flushing out with a whoosh.
It turned out all the shipping points it had for them before were invalid—Xie Qianli was iron-straight.
Sweet System instantly burst out with countless question marks:
“Then why did Your Majesty pretend to be a girl?”
“How was it discovered? What happened after discovery?”
“Is there a very twisted story inside this???”
“Tell me, tell me.”
“Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”
“…”
When mentioning the reason for disguising as a woman in Fanglan Hall, a fleeting look of fear mixed with melancholy appeared on Ying Xi’s brow.
Ying Xi suppressed the past memories welling up in his heart.
He originally intended to cut off Sweet System’s hope, but who knew the result would poke Sweet System’s hornet’s nest!
He put the Danxin Stone Pendant into the bedside drawer, closed his eyes, and simply refused to mention anything.
After a long while, before drowsiness could sweep over him again, someone lightly pushed open the door of the bedchamber.
He knew those footsteps well; it was Yu Jing. His figure was cast on the surface of the curtains, thin and long: “Your Majesty, an urgent matter. This servant deserves death for disturbing your rest.”
Ying Xi’s heart skipped a beat. He tried to remain calm. “Speak.”
“It is a handwritten letter from the Jiangnan rebel Li Yilong to you.” Yu Jing lifted the bed curtains, holding a bright yellow state letter sealed with wax. “Guard Lang has checked it several times and confirmed there are no mechanisms. This servant feared poison on the letter, so I came to open it before the Holy Driver. I’ll open, you read.”
Ying Xi sat up and nodded.
Then the envelope was torn open. Yu Jing held it up. Ying Xi leaned in. On the paper were two neat, concise large characters: Seeking Peace!
Receiving this letter turned this long night from relaxed and leisurely to completely sleepless.
Ying Xi leaned against the headboard and closed his eyes.
But actually, this anxiety did not conform to Ying Xi’s philosophy of life since rebirth.
The anxiety stemmed from the fact that starting from this event, Ying Xi discovered that important events were heading in a direction completely different from his past life.
In his past life, he never received a letter seeking peace from Li Yilong.
In his past life, he sent troops to engage in a life-and-death standoff with Li Yilong, which then led to the Xiongnu moving south and the fall of the nation.
If he negotiated peace with Li Yilong, it meant the domestic situation would thoroughly move into the next phase.
If the domestic situation went smoothly, he could completely free his hands to deal with the Xiongnu.
An increasingly vigorous excitement emerged in Ying Xi’s chest!
As if he could already see himself changing the fate of his past life, Ying Xi unconsciously gripped the sheets beneath him, his palms sweating slightly.
Logically, this was a good thing.
Hadn’t he been waiting for this day?
Waiting for psychological warfare to prevail, waiting for the four seas to submit… It must be that the Court’s recent actions were too big, efficiency extremely high, and results too significant, making Li Yilong realize he had become a thorn in Great Qin’s eye, so he actively sought peace.
Ying Xi took a deep breath on the dragon bed.
Agree? Disagree?
Ask for conditions.
He suppressed his excitement and regained his rationality, deciding to listen to the other party’s conditions first so he knew what to expect.
He had Yu Jing bring brush and ink, draped a robe over his shoulders, got out of bed, and without pausing to edit, immediately wrote a brief reply to Li Yilong.
The Emperor’s handwritten letter was a Great Qin state credential.
Yu Jing received it solemnly, put it in an envelope, and sealed it with lacquer. He then arranged for manpower to go straight to Jiangnan. Yu Jing felt this letter was heavy.
This was surely a letter carrying achievements that would leave the Emperor’s name in history; how could Yu Jing not be excited too?
Thus, the Grand Eunuch started with a trot, then ran with the letter, personally handing it to the courier responsible for urgent intelligence via fast horse, admonishing him repeatedly.
“This letter carries Great Qin’s national fortune. You must be cautious, must be cautious!”
The courier nodded repeatedly, sealing the letter firmly into a bamboo tube.
The courier left Chang’an overnight.
At this moment, Chang’an was just in the revelry before the night curfew. Once the curfew began, the gates of various districts within Chang’an would be tightly closed.
Holding a token, the courier could pass through all wards freely.
Passing through the flower street along the way, the crowd was still bustling. The courier raised his whip without slowing down. For an eight-hundred-mile urgent dispatch, whoever blocked the way died; obstructing the delivery of mail was a crime equivalent to treason.
The courier was about to hit a young woman.
“Make way! Make way!”
The woman had her back to the courier. Because the Pekinese dog in her arms suddenly jumped down and ran around happily, she ran from the edge of the street to the center.
The woman picked up the Pekinese, only then hearing the sound of hoofbeats approaching. She couldn’t dodge in time; her feet seemed rooted to the spot. In her pupils was only the fierce horse head. Losing color in her face, she screamed: “Aaaaaahhhhh—”
But before her scream stopped, her sleeve was pulled. A huge force took her away from the street center, flinging her fiercely to the other side of the street.
The woman in fine clothes stumbled, then twisted her ankle and fell.
The Pekinese in her arms yelped twice: “Woof woof!” Fortunately, it didn’t fall to the ground and die.
Her eyes lit up; the little Pekinese was caught steadily by a tall man in official robes.
The lights of Pingkang Ward were dazzling, illuminating the man’s scarlet unicorn-patterned robe, making it bright and eye-catching. His brows were heroic, his contours rugged.
The clothes were warm-colored, but his temperament was cold and clean, like biting white snow in the prosperous red dust.
Pingkang Ward was full of delicate guests embracing red and leaning on green (prostitutes); such an official with this temperament was rare.
The woman’s ankle hurt, but her cheeks flushed slightly.
Pei Jiuniang had experienced plenty of romance and had relied on men for a living in Pingkang Ward for many years. Her flower name was known outside; her fragrant banner hung high.
How could she know she would encounter such a sudden disaster when going out to accompany someone for a tea party? And how could she know she would lose her composure in front of such a young man?
Pei Jiuniang suddenly lost her bearings. The feeling of a deer bumping in her heart, which was years late, made her lower her head and brew a smile. Suddenly raising her eyes to say thank you, the person was already gone.
The little Pekinese was obediently by her leg: “Woof!”
Pei Jiuniang frowned, feeling endlessly disappointed.
The little Pekinese was quite spiritual, knowing its owner’s mind well. It wagged its head and tail in the direction Xie Qianli disappeared; it could smell his scent.
“Woof woof, woof!”
Pei Jiuniang hurriedly got up to chase. Her body was delicate, but at this moment she couldn’t care about the foot pain, driven by an impulse and persistence she had never felt before, caused by the man she just encountered.
“Hey, Young Master, this Young Master!”
Xie Qianli’s back was just ahead, upright like a pine or cypress.
Pei Jiuniang smiled radiantly, staggering and calling out coquettishly: “Young Master, stop a moment, this little woman can’t keep up.”
Pei Jiuniang’s voice was clear and sweet; when she spoke, it was like jade beads splashing. Few men didn’t fall for this.
Who knew the other party seemed not to hear at all!
Pei Jiuniang was so angry she almost thought she had taken a fancy to a handsome deaf man today.
Pei Jiuniang wanted to test if he was deaf, raising her voice: “Can Young Master take me home? I’m crippled!”
The person still ignored her.
Pei Jiuniang shook her head.
Forget it, looks like he’s either stupid or completely lacking in romantic feelings. Maybe he came to Pingkang Ward for official business.
Pei Jiuniang regretfully stroked the little Pekinese, muttering behind Xie Qianli, “What a pity, Nujia (Slave family/I) wanted to make you a regular customer. In the future, I’d give you a twenty percent discount at Yulouchun (Jade Tower Spring). Nujia‘s twenty percent discount has never been given even to Prince Yong.”
Chang’an City had many romantic venues.
Xie Qianli had never set foot in one in his life.
He only remembered one, which was Yulouchun, mentioned by Prince Yong at the Flower Viewing Banquet. A place that had entertained Prince Yong should be decent.
Xie Qianli turned around.
He had drunk some wine at the banquet for two with the Emperor, bringing back a chest full of unrest.
He was tortured by his own sense of morality, yet unable to resist the wrong feelings that had sprouted. He was about to go crazy!
Like a walking corpse, he left Shanglin Park and came to Pingkang Ward. For the first time in his life, he had the thought of visiting a flower house (brothel).
But he wandered several times, unable to cross the other constraint of morality. Seeing the night curfew approaching, he hadn’t walked into any building.
Time to make a decision and test it.
At least bend myself back to the right path.
Xie Qianli thought. He was cold and hard as if executing a mission. The improper words that followed became solemn.
He said, “Miss, please take me into the flower house.”
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