Naturally, Song Liang didn’t dare assume that a few threatening words would be enough to intimidate the couple. The instant he collapsed, he instructed 3085 to shock him awake if they attempted anything against him. He was confident he could kill them both in a split second.
But no electric shock came. His consciousness drifted in and out through a haze of pain. Dimly, he seemed to hear countless overlapping voices, as though people were speaking to him—or simply calling his name.
He didn’t know how much time passed before all the voices faded. Slowly, he opened his eyes.
Everything was pitch-black. His entire body seemed confined within a tiny space, leaving him unable to move.
He fell silent for a moment. He hadn’t expected the couple to act so quickly.
【Quickly what?】3085’s puzzled, anxious voice suddenly sounded in his mind.
Song Liang paused. 【…I’m not dead?】
3085 was baffled. 【No.】
Song Liang: 【Then why am I in a coffin?】
After a brief silence, 3085 said, 【Try rolling to your left.】
Song Liang rolled left, and light returned at once. Soft lamplight fell across his face as a woman’s frightened cry rang out beside him.
“Ah! Husband, he’s come out again on his own!!!”
“…”
Song Liang was silent for a moment, then spoke hoarsely.
“Don’t be afraid. I’m not a bad person.”
Lying on his back on the floor, he looked up at the terrified woman.
“I’m the emperor.”
She turned and resumed screaming.
“Aaah! Husband, he’s mad too!!! I’m scared!”
Song Liang: “…”
A quarter of an hour later, Song Liang sat upright on the household’s only bed, covered with its only quilt. The woman stood to his left holding water, while the man stood to his right with the last baked flatbreads in the house.
He asked cautiously, “…So you really are the emperor?”
“Of course.”
Song Liang tilted his head, and the woman immediately offered him water. He took a sip, then bit into the flatbread the man held to his mouth. After chewing for a while, he drawled, “If I weren’t the emperor, how would I know so many court secrets? How would I know the late emperor was secretly in love with the current chancellor? Or that the Minister of Rites’ eldest son-in-law is having an affair with the Vice Minister of Justice’s third son?”
“Yes, yes, of course!” The man nodded repeatedly, holding the flatbread in trepidation. “Then that nobleman tonight—the one who brought all those soldiers and looked like an immortal—was the current regent?”
“Yes.”
“He really is the late emperor’s illegitimate son?”
“Correct.”
“You treat him so well, yet he still wants to rebel and kill you?”
“Mm.”
“…”
The couple exchanged shocked looks.
“Then that regent really is a piece of work…”
The woman beside him looked frightened.
“Your Imperial Majesty, will we be beheaded for knowing so much?”
“Ordinarily, yes.”
Song Liang’s expression grew solemn. Watching terror spread across their faces, he continued slowly, “But you saved me. Not only will I spare you, I’ll reward you.”
Their eyes brightened. Overwhelmed by the unexpected favor, they asked, “Re-reward us? With what?”
Song Liang looked at the man. “You. I appoint you a grand general.”
Then he looked at the woman. “You. A general’s lady.”
Her face flushed with excitement.
“A… a general’s lady? I get to be a general’s lady?”
Her husband was so delighted he began to stammer.
“I-I-I get to be a general? Can that really happen?”
“If I say it can, it can.”
Song Liang casually finished his last mouthful of flatbread, glanced at the darkness outside the window, and asked, “Do you have a carriage?”
“…An ox cart,” the man admitted sheepishly.
Song Liang didn’t object. He nodded.
“Take me into town now and find a physician. Bring some water, and have your wife give me a little from time to time. If anyone asks, say I’m your distant younger cousin and I’ve caught a chill. Understood?”
“Yes, understood.”
The man nodded, then suddenly paused.
“Why does my wife have to give you the water?”
The moment he finished speaking, Song Liang shut his eyes and passed out again.
The couple: “…”
Two hours later, at dawn, the drum atop the city gate sounded, and the gates swung open. An ox cart slowly entered Hanshui.
A simple, honest-looking man drove it. A young woman sat in the cart with a young man’s head resting on her lap. His face was deathly pale, his lips bloodless, his eyes tightly shut. A quilt was wrapped snugly around him.
If not for the faint rise and fall of his chest, one might have mistaken him for a corpse.
By the time Song Liang woke again, he was in a clinic. The bitter scent of herbal medicine filled his nose, and quiet conversation drifted from beyond a curtain.
The fracture in his lower leg still hurt fiercely, but there was a faint cooling sensation now, and the pain had eased considerably.
He slowly sat up and discovered that the wounds on his hands, face, and neck had also been treated and bandaged. Instinctively, he glanced at the mirror on the table.
Then he froze.
The person in the mirror was still him, yet something was different. His facial contours were more distinct, sharper. His brow ridge was slightly higher, his eyes keener. Compared with his body in the previous world, this one looked more rugged, its features no longer as soft. Though he still appeared youthful, his handsome looks were already evident.
He asked hoarsely, 【Is this my face?】
3085 said nothing, because it was just as bewildered.
Amid all the chaos of the journey, it had somehow never paid attention to what its host looked like. All its attention had been focused on the people and events he encountered. Who could have guessed his face had changed?
Who the hell had ever heard of that? What host entered an instance with a beauty filter?
It immediately thought of Song Liang’s status as an unauthorized arrival and felt a rush of guilt and panic. Outwardly, however, it remained perfectly composed, its mechanical voice flat.
【Yes.】
“…”
“Why are you suddenly so cold?” Song Liang asked.
3085’s heart lurched.
【Impossible! I’ve always been like this! Don’t make things up!】
“Then why has my face changed?”
【That’s normal. A few minor adjustments.】
“?”
“Are you the abnormal one, or am I? What do you mean, ‘minor adjustments’?”
【Minor adjustments mean minor adjustments. Just consider it a perk. You’re better-looking now—what’s there to complain about? Other people would love that and don’t get it! Why do you have so many questions?】
“…”
Song Liang lazily raised a brow.
“I’m a fake emperor. What do I need to be so good-looking for? Seducing court officials?”
【…】
【Why not? Seduce Xie Yun. Maybe he won’t kill you.】
This was the first time Song Liang had realized how stubbornly his system could bluff. Still, he couldn’t be bothered to expose it. The effects of the mafeisan anesthetic had not yet worn off, leaving his limbs weak.
And outside, daylight had arrived.
【What about daylight?】3085 asked.
“Once it’s light, they’ll realize I never went into the mountains.”
Song Liang slowly pushed himself upright and looked toward the honest-faced man lifting the curtain to enter.
“Because there won’t be any footprints of mine on the mountain path.”
3085 faltered, its voice growing anxious again.
【Then… then what do we do?】
“There’s someone who can save me—and get me back to the palace.”
【…】
After a moment’s silence, an excited voice rang out.
【Cheng Qu!】
Song Liang lifted his brows slightly. “Mm.”
Cheng Qu, Vice Censor-in-Chief. A trusted partisan of the current chancellor, Yin Wei, and a sworn enemy of Regent Xie Yun. He was also the imperial commissioner who brought Li Huai back to the capital in the original novel.
Leave a Reply