When Shi Sheng returned to the System Space, System made sure her expression and actions were normal before cautiously flashing the last world’s information on its screen. It was afraid she’d suddenly act out and insist on returning there.
Name: Shi Sheng
Morality Points: -128,000
Life Points: 25
Contribution Points: 17,000
Mission Rank: C
Mission Points: 91
Hidden Quest: Completed
Hidden Quest Reward: 2,000 Contribution Points
Side Quest: Completed
Side Quest Reward: 1,500 Contribution Points and an item, “Ghost King’s Heart”
Item List: “Queen’s Crown”, “Ghost King’s Heart”
Shi Sheng expressionlessly stared at the information displayed on the screen in front of her. Only after a long while did she speak, “Continue to the next world.”
[……] ‘Host, if you have something bothering you, please say it out loud. Don’t suppress your feelings so much, I’m scared.’
#Is it just me, or does my Host seem like she’s secretly building up towards a big move?#
[Initialising transfer…]
……
“Your Highness, we have entered Chang’An.”
Amidst the rocking sensation, Shi Sheng could faintly hear someone speaking. She slowly opened her eyes.
She was in a carriage again, and beside her sat a pretty young lady dressed as a maidservant. She seemed to be around 13 or 14 years old. The young girl had lifted up the curtain of the carriage and was currently looking outside with curious eyes.
“Your Highness, Chang’An looks so lively.”
“En,” Shi Sheng hummed a reply. She lowered her head to look at what she was wearing.
‘Oh fuck…wedding robes! I’m getting married off?
Since this girl keeps referring to me as Your Highness… I reckon I’m a princess this time; my position is not low at all. Not bad.’
The girl prattled on incessantly next to her.
‘Seems like this girl was rather favoured by this body’s original owner.’
Shi Sheng gave some cursory replies to the girl’s numerous questions before beginning to look over the plot.
This was a Xianxia novel.
The female lead was Yue Yao. She resided in the Heavenly Realm and was in charge of marriage fates. Basically, she was the equivalent of the Moon Elder[1].
But this female lead was always a bit of a klutz—she often mismatched people’s red strings[2]. But those had always been small issues that were easily fixed.
However, during a banquet at the Jade Lake on Mt. Kunlun[3], Yue Yao was greedy and drank too much of the Queen Mother’s jade wine. She returned to her palace in a drunken stupor.
As she was returning, she suddenly thought of the mission the Jade Emperor had given her: to pull some red strings for the Highgod Cang Lan who was undergoing his tribulation.
In her dazed state, she tied more than ten strings to Cang Lan’s, one of which was her own.
By the time she discovered her mistake when she woke up the next day, all the red strings had tangled themselves into a ball—there was no way to untangle them.
Once he had found out about this, the Jade Emperor was infuriated. He threw her into the Mortal Realm and ordered her break apart Cang Lan and his unintended love interests.
As she broke apart these ill-fated relationships, the two of them somehow started falling for each other.
Meanwhile, all the women who’d unfortunately had their red strings mistakenly pulled by Yue Yao ended up with terrible fates.
Yue Yao, on the other hand, followed Highgod Cang Lan back to the Heavenly Realm once he had finished his tribulation. They became a loving couple that was the envy of all.
The original owner of this body was called Qing Guan. She was one of the victims of Yue Yao’s drunken red-string pulling fuck-up. Qing Guan was also a resident of the Heavenly Realm. She had descended to the Mortal Realm to undergo her tribulation at the same time as Cang Lan.
Cang Lan had to overcome a love tribulation, but Qing Guan’s tribulation was a merit accumulation trial that would allow her to become a highgod if she succeeded.
Because of Yue Yao’s careless actions, Qing Guan was forced into falling for Cang Lan. The end result was the destruction of her country and the loss of countless innocent lives. She failed her tribulation.
There was only one chance for a merit tribulation—there were no second chances to become a highgod if one failed.
When she returned to the Heavenly Realm, Qing Guan was filled with pent-up with anger, so she went to find Yue Yao to settle scores.
But Cang Lan thought she was finding trouble with Yue Yao because she still had feelings for him, so he protected Yue Yao without question.
Failing her tribulation had injured her heavily and battling a Highgod just worsened her condition. Adding to the fact that she didn’t recuperate properly, Qing Guan ended up demonising due to the anger stifling her heart. She was locked in the Demon-Sealing Tower for the rest of her life.
She should have been promoted to Highgod and claimed the right to not have to bow to anyone, not even the Jade Emperor. But because of Yue Yao’s stupid mistake, she ended up like this.
Yue Yao had her protagonist halo, so even if she made a mistake, she still had a chance to start afresh.
But Qing Guan? All because of Yue Yao’s mistake, she lost everything.
Qing Guan had two wishes.
One, to be promoted to a Highgod.
Two, to let Yue Yao know that one had to pay the price for one’s mistakes.
Shi Sheng had arrived rather early on in the plot.
Qing Guan hadn’t even met Cang Lan yet.
But…it was clear the female lead had already pulled their red strings together—the reason she was going to Chang’An was for the sake of completing a marriage alliance.
There were three separate states in the Mortal Realm: Chen, Chuyang, and Nanjin. She was the noble princess of Nanjin while Cang Lan was a great general of Chen.
Had it not been for the female lead’s screw up with the red strings, Qing Guan wouldn’t have even been here in the first place.
Shi Sheng rubbed her forehead. ‘Plot’s already advanced this far, so there’s no turning back now…’
Nanjin’s troops were trapped between the other two states—a rather awkward position.
The troops escorting Shi Sheng had living quarters arranged for them by the welcoming party. The wedding was to be held three days hence.
And the groom she would be married to was none other than Cang Lan.
“I heard General Cang Lan is a highly formidable leader! He’s never lost a single battle! And he’s very handsome! Your Highness, don’t you wish to see the Great General soon too?”
This chatty young lady’s name was Bi Xi. She had served at Qing Guan’s side ever since she was young. Hence, her relationship with Qing Guan was very good. Bi Xi had even sacrificed herself for Qing Guan in the end.
“This marriage alliance was Father’s suggestion. I never agreed to it,” Shi Sheng spoke as she began to roughly pull out the gorgeous ornaments in her hair, “Don’t say these kinds of things anymore. I won’t ever like that Cang Lan or whatever his name was, not in a million years.”
“Bleh,” Bi Xi stuck out her tongue. ‘Her Highness was looking forward to it before though…’
“If Your Highness doesn’t like it, I won’t mention it. Your Highness, don’t tug on the ornaments like that, you’ll hurt yourself. Let me help you!”
Qing Guan had a pretty boyish personality, resulting in the Nanjin Emperor often lamenting the fact that she was born a girl. So even if Shi Sheng began pulling out her hair ornaments in a rough fashion, Bi Xi didn’t feel like it was out of character.
Only after Bi Xi had finally taken off all the extravagant ornaments did Shi Sheng feel the strain on her neck ease up.
‘I felt like my neck was going to break from having so many things pressing down on my head…’
“Your Highness, please rest while I prepare your meal. Oh… Your Highness must be exhausted from the long journey—I shall prepare a lighter meal.” Bi Xi curtseyed before backing out of the room.
Shi Sheng took this opportunity to take a look through the plot again. She subconsciously began to look for information about the villain of this novel.
But this person was currently too far from her reach—she’d have to return to the Heavenly Realm first before having a chance to see him.
‘No worries, he won’t run.’ Shi Sheng silently comforted herself.
……
In the evening, a eunuch brought a group of people over to greet Shi Sheng. However, as she was feeling too lazy to deal with them, she refused to see them.
When the eunuch came back and reported this, Cang Lan and the Chen Emperor felt dissatisfied with her attitude. But the arrow was already nocked; there was no way they could turn back now.
“Beloved official, this time you have been wronged,” the elderly Chen Emperor looked at the handsome man in front of him with a guilty expression.
Cang Lan frowned as hints of coldness appeared between his brows. The cold, hard armour he wore made him look even more dashing and imposing.
“It is my(wc) duty to serve Your Majesty.”
A glint of satisfaction flashed in the Chen Emperor’s eyes. “If there is anything you want, you can tell us(z) and we(z) shall fulfil it to the best of our(z) ability.”
“I(wc) have nothing to ask for.”
“Oh, this child,” the Chen Emperor wore the kindly expression of an elder as he spoke, “Then we(z) shall owe you a favour. Should you have anything you wish for in the future, you may tell us(z).”
“Thank you, Your Majesty.”
[1] The fabled matchmaker who may or may not live on the moon (I forget). Yue (月) means moon.
[2] This is a Chinese folklore thing. Everyone has a red string. If your red string is bound to someone else’s by Yue Lao/Moon Elder/月老, or something along those lines, it means the two of you are fated to be together.
[3] This is the residence of the wife of the Jade Emperor, the Queen Mother of the West.
Author’s note:
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Yesterday, the Petty Ghost are Hard to Deal With (29) chapter got swallowed… So those who didn’t see it can go check it out! Aaaah, please, please, pretty please?
*sobbing*