Chapter Two: Then Why Didn’t You Die?

When women gather to spar with each other, isn’t that precisely when she, the master of contradiction, comes alive? Her spatial realm was on the verge of a significant upgrade! She was absolutely delighted!

“My lady! It’s such a relief that you’re all right! I was so terribly worried!” The young girl, now dressed as a palace maid, had a delicate oval face and eyes like blooming peach blossoms, glimmering with tears as she sobbed beautifully.

Sitting on the sedan chair, Shen Fuyu propped her chin with one hand and looked at the little maid, saying, “Then why didn’t you die?”

“My lady... you’re teasing your servant again.”

“If you can’t even take a joke, how can you possibly serve by my side?” Shen Fuyu chuckled, her mood lifting as she watched the maid’s face turn shades of blue, green, and purple.

The anger points were coming in again—how delightful!

Shen Fuyu remembered this little maid; she had been the original owner’s personal attendant, Leng Xiang. After Shen Fuyu took over the body, she renamed the maid Green Tea.

Yes, the other main maid was called White Lotus.

There was no other reason—she simply named them according to their true natures. Green Tea really was a “green tea”—always stepping on her mistress to flatter herself and skilled at sowing discord. And White Lotus? The name said it all for those in the know.

Right after Shen Fuyu took over the body, she used these two maids daily to acquire small amounts of anger points.

She genuinely wondered how the original owner ever tolerated them. If it weren’t for the anger points, Shen Fuyu would’ve beaten them to death with sticks long ago.

The Crescent Moon Palace had already been swept clean and was adorned festively, though mostly in shades of pink. This was Shen Fuyu’s palace, and today was the day she entered the palace.

Lying on her bed and recalling how she had “angered” the emperor back to life that day, Shen Fuyu still found it unbelievable.

To be honest, her original plan was to infuriate Qin Zhiyi to death.

After all, the higher the person’s rank, the more anger points they yielded. If she could enrage the emperor to death in one move, her upgrade would be guaranteed.

Within her spatial realm, she had spirit medicines that would automatically become available as she leveled up, with unlimited supply. So, on the night of her “chongxi” marriage, Shen Fuyu took a pill that allowed her to glimpse into others’ secrets.

And she accidentally discovered just how “green” Qin Zhiyi was!

So green that a lush prairie grew atop his head!

The one who cuckolded Qin Zhiyi was none other than his empress. The moment Shen Fuyu informed Qin Zhiyi of his betrayal, she could see the empress and a man dressed as a guard engaged in a passionate tryst.

Truly astonishing!

If Qin Zhiyi ever learned of this, he would surely die of rage, wouldn’t he?

In the end, she had miscalculated.

But then, it was really Qin Zhiyi’s own fault. The imperial astrologer had declared him fated to bring misfortune to his wives. After marrying the empress, he left her alone, believing that avoiding her would avert her ill fate.

Superstitions are always misguided. If he had simply ignored the prophecy or not married at all, the empress would have remained faithful, untouched by loneliness and temptation.

As for herself, Shen Fuyu sighed. Who would have thought that even the royal family would resort to “chongxi” marriages to cure illness? Was there any scientific basis for this?

And the “chongxi” couldn’t involve marrying a proper wife, since Qin Zhiyi was said to doom his own. In a twist of fate, Shen Fuyu, an illegitimate daughter of the Shen family, was chosen as a concubine to perform the ritual.

Fortunately, her birth father was a high-ranking official with real power in the Da Xun dynasty, and the Shen family held great status. Her entry into the palace as a concubine meant few dared to provoke her. Still, before Qin Zhiyi’s ascension, the Shen family, under her father’s cautious leadership, never pledged allegiance to any faction. Though they survived as a family, they were now entirely disconnected from the imperial line.

It was all a matter of fate, Shen Fuyu thought. The Shen family had long planned to send a daughter to the palace, and when Qin Zhiyi fell gravely ill, the imperial astrologer predicted that a woman from the main Shen household could bring blessings to the dynasty and the emperor.

Thus, it was a foregone conclusion that a Shen daughter would enter the palace. Yet her father was unwilling to sacrifice his legitimate daughter for a ritual that might fail and bring disaster upon the family. Reluctantly, he sent Shen Fuyu instead.

Shen Fuyu, for her part, didn’t mind; she was more than willing to trade her life for anger points.

After all, she couldn’t die anyway.

With that thought, Shen Fuyu shifted her focus and entered her spatial realm—a small world where peach blossoms bloomed year-round. She was about level thirty-five now. Inside, there was a little house filled to the brim with elixirs and martial arts manuals. Not far from the house lay a small plot of farmland, a spring, and a stream.

The field was just like those in many space novels—filled with rare medicinal herbs seldom seen in the outside world, both poisonous and restorative, growing at lightning speed and of superb quality. The spring, when it first appeared with her upgrade, seemed promising, but contrary to her hopes, it wasn’t a healing spring at all.

When it opened, Shen Fuyu fantasized about becoming more beautiful, healthier, and stronger.

Instead, she was poisoned to death by it.

Later, upon reading the spatial realm’s user guide, she discovered that the spring was actually a poison spring—contact meant instant death, with no traceable cause.

She then used the poisonous water to cultivate her toxic herbs, which became many times more potent.

The stream, however, had only appeared after today’s upgrade. Having learned her lesson, Shen Fuyu consulted the user guide before trying anything. Relieved, she found this was genuine spirit water—beautifying, strengthening, healing even incurable maladies, and purifying the body. She scooped some water in her hands and sipped it. The sweet, clear liquid warmed her entire body, washing away the day’s exhaustion. Spirit water truly was a marvelous thing. With this body, at last, she could begin practicing the martial arts in her collection.

Apart from these features, the realm was filled with peach trees—ones that blossomed and bore fruit simultaneously. Shen Fuyu picked a peach, wiped it clean, and took a bite. It was sweeter than any outside, but otherwise unremarkable.

Still, whenever she was forced to flee for her life, these peaches had been her reliable sustenance.

Slipping out of her water-red bridal attire, Shen Fuyu submerged herself in the stream. Gentle warmth spread through her limbs, and as drowsiness overcame her, she fell asleep by the bank.

In the Tower of Star-Gazing, all palace attendants had been sent outside to stand guard. Only a single lamp was lit within, its faint glow barely illuminating the chamber. The Imperial Astrologer, Rong Xuan, though nearly forty, seemed untouched by time; not a single mark of age marred his features.

The wind howled past the window, and an occasional breeze slipped through the cracks, making the candle flicker. Three copper coins dropped onto the table with a crisp clatter—this was the most common method of divination. Yet with each toss of the coins, Rong Xuan’s brow furrowed deeper.