Chapter 25 Part 1

Miss Bai requests an audience?

Xiao Jin was somewhat surprised. This classic web novel trope had actually happened to her as well.

She then glanced at Chu Shao smiling beside her and instantly felt the protagonist’s halo was truly large and round, capable of blessing even a cannon fodder character on the eighteenth tier.

The young attendant in green hadn’t deliberately lowered his voice, so the guests in the hall were now all putting down their wine cups, staring in astonishment at Xiao Jin’s group.

“Miss Bai has never invited anyone to sit upstairs before. Why would this young lady have such fortune?”

Even Lan Qing and Wan Jun found it strange, wondering what on earth was going on today for Miss Bai to have such a whimsical mood.

Sensing the envious gazes cast at her from within the hall, Xiao Jin relied on the fact that her eyes were covered and simply decided to give up trying.

She put on an indifferent expression and pretended not to see.

This kind of fortune was indeed not something ordinary people could envy. After all, not everyone had a yandere by their side, ready to take your life at any moment.

However, the yandere female lead also had her good points. For instance, things that only the protagonist could encounter were now being brushed against by a cannon fodder like her thanks to the halo effect.

But now, she was facing a serious problem…

Through a layer of white silk, Xiao Jin looked up at the tall building hung with warm red lanterns.

Although her vision was half-hidden by the white gauze, Xiao Jin could still clearly realize that this was an ancient, fictional world, and it couldn’t possibly have an elevator installed.

So, how was someone as physically disabled as she was, with legs completely ruined, supposed to go upstairs?

Xiao Jin had already begun to imagine the awkward scene of being carried up by the attendant.

She fell silent, but then suddenly heard a voice from the upper floor: “Bring this young lady via the ‘Cloud Ladder’.”

The voice was extraordinarily clear and melodious, like jade pendants striking each other, giving it an inexplicably elegant and pleasant quality.

Listening carefully, the ending tone was slightly muffled, as if the speaker was suppressing laughter.

Hearing this voice, Xiao Jin could reasonably guess that the speaker was the supporting female character Bai Zheng. After all, at times like this, the one who could speak up was usually a character with status.

Just one of the laws of web novels, tried and true.

But if she remembered correctly, in ancient times, a “Cloud Ladder” was a siege weapon. What was Bai Zheng intending by having her use a Cloud Ladder?

Before Xiao Jin could decipher Bai Zheng’s intent, the entire hall first erupted in an uproar, then the sound of discussion gradually rose, endless.

A man in a green robe was stunned speechless and whispered to the person beside him: “Is it that ‘Cloud Ladder’ I’m thinking of? Miss Bai really had it built for that person…”

The person next to him put down his wine cup and sighed: “I used to think those rumors and gossip were just hearsay. But seeing this now, for Miss Bai to come up with such a solution, it’s clear her feelings for that person run deep indeed.”

Xiao Jin narrowed her eyes. That person? Which person was that?

But she heard the few people closest to her continue: “Indeed. Now Miss Bai has almost become a laughingstock in the capital. If not for that person, she probably would have been the Crown Princess by now.”

“It’s just a pity the Prince has intentions, but the Goddess has no heart.”

A man in splendid attire clicked his tongue and laughed: “Brother, shouldn’t we swap the Prince and the Goddess in that saying?”

The man in green suddenly understood and corrected himself: “True, it should be the Goddess has intentions, but the Prince has no heart.”

Xiao Jin frowned while following the gossip. She felt like every paper-thin character here knew more than she, a connoisseur of the original work, did.

No way. Could the author have secretly written over a hundred chapters of extras after the main story ended?

Xiao Jin suddenly felt a chill run down her spine. She felt the plot development had become a runaway wild horse that she was completely unable to control, and the wild horse had its own ideas—gone, never to return.

Xiao Jin wasn’t allowed to sink into thought for too long. Chu Shao followed the young attendant in green, pushing the wheelchair through the corridor under the guests’ watchful eyes.

And Su Tan walked steadily, following closely behind.

When the wheelchair stopped, Xiao Jin finally understood what a “Cloud Ladder” was.

In the misty world, looking at that wooden elevating mechanism, she felt as if she were seeing the prototype of an elevator.

What could she say? She could only sigh with emotion—ancient web novels were truly broad and profound.

…

The Misty Rain Pavilion had ten floors in total. The higher one went, the more the noise faded away, becoming very quiet and peaceful.

The chamber where Bai Zheng usually spent her days was on the ninth floor. Every few days, she would come with her younger sister Bai Qin to check on the Misty Rain Pavilion and verify the account books.

Today was different.

Bai Zheng was lazily working the abacus, looking at Bai Qin sitting opposite her, feeling somewhat stifled.

It was simply because Bai Qin had always been an unfeeling accounting machine, meticulous when it came to finances. If the accounts weren’t balanced, she would never let it go.

And now it was the beginning of the month—officials had just received their salaries from the previous month and naturally wanted to come to the Misty Rain Pavilion to spend and enjoy themselves. Therefore, the number of accounts was numerous, and they couldn’t be finished in a short time.

Although Bai Zheng was the Head Manager of the Misty Rain Pavilion on the surface, and even the capital’s elite would respectfully call her “Miss Bai” when they met,

she was a young woman in the prime of her youth, yet she spent her days navigating the long corridors and screens of the Misty Rain Pavilion, dealing with money. It was truly dull to the extreme.

The only belief that sustained Bai Zheng and kept her going was to work hard and earn money, to become the Crown Princess of the current dynasty.

What was so good about the Crown Prince? Bai Zheng didn’t think there was anything good about him. She was simply still angry about the past, and so she had been stubborn all these years.

Gradually, she persisted in this stubbornness, holding on until today.

Today, her younger sister was sitting opposite her, settling the accounts. Bai Zheng raised a hand, propped up her chin, and squinted at the Spring Mountain Void rising from the incense burner.

Smoke swirled, and Bai Zheng let out a sigh.

She felt everything had become as ethereal and intangible as this fragrant breeze, turning into a futile effort—drawing water with a bamboo basket.

But having come this far, Bai Zheng knew in her heart that she had no way back. So she could only step out of the chamber to get some air and dispel her melancholy.

Standing beneath the corridor, her silver-red sleeves hung down gracefully.

Bai Zheng’s hands rested on the railing of the ninth floor, idly watching the musicians playing the pipa below. Her mind had long since flown away like a carrier pigeon.

But what brought the pigeon back was, unexpectedly, a flash of snow-white she glimpsed just as she was about to turn back to her room.

It was a white peony blossom forged from brocade, blooming in the hall below, utterly out of place amidst the music and the clinking of cups.

To be precise, this flower should not have appeared in the Misty Rain Pavilion at all.

Bai Zheng looked at that peony, which wasn’t the least bit seductive, and was very curious. How could this young woman wear a snow-white robe embroidered with peonies so meticulously, with a coldness that almost carried a sense of inviolable sanctity?

Although her eyes were covered by a layer of white silk, obscuring her brows, the aura around her reminded Bai Zheng of someone.

At that moment, Bai Qin inside the room had also finished with the ledger.

When Bai Qin looked up, she found Bai Zheng was gone. Frowning slightly, she took the ledger and went out to look for her.

But just as she stepped over the threshold, she saw Bai Zheng leaning on the railing in a daze, her face bearing a rare look of absent-mindedness.

Bai Qin felt puzzled and walked to Bai Zheng’s side, unable to resist asking: “Elder sister, has some earth-shattering event occurred?”

“A great event, indeed a great event.”

Bai Zheng’s voice trembled. She reached out her hand and pointed at the young woman in white sitting in the wheelchair: “Look, doesn’t that person look very much like Prince Yan?”

“…”

After just one glance at that celestial maiden, Bai Qin turned her head and said meaningfully to Bai Zheng: “Elder sister, you are likely ill.”

“And very seriously ill at that.”

…

The capital’s elite all knew that Minister Bai’s eldest daughter, Bai Zheng, suffered from a severe disease. This disease was called lovesickness—one could say she was critically ill, beyond any cure.

It even caused her behavior to become abnormal, making the entire Bai family unable to hold their heads high.

The root of all this had to be traced back to Bai Zheng’s childhood.

Before she contracted the disease of lovesickness, Bai Zheng was originally a clever and bright little girl. At a very young age, she could compose poetry and match couplets. As she grew older, she liked to practice martial arts and got along well with the young masters in the capital.

Bai Zheng was fourteen that year—the year before her coming-of-age ceremony.

That year, Bai Zheng had barged into the ancestral hall, knelt on the floor, and made a tearful vow before the spirit tablets of her ancestors. She swore that she would never, in this life, marry any dog of a man from Qi.

In this life, she only wanted to make a name for herself and become the wealthiest and most powerful woman in the entire capital.

Witnessing Bai Zheng’s deranged behavior, the whole Bai family was terrified.