Just as Xin Long’s anger was about to explode off the charts, the Underworld director suddenly changed his tone.
“However… we do have other departments.”
He took a sip of tea, waved to the young female ghost beside him, and said, “Xiao Lin, why don’t you explain things to Miss Xin?”
The ghost girl immediately smiled warmly and invited Xin Long to sit down.
“Besides the Reincarnation Department—which you’ve already seen—we also have the Rebirth Department, the Transmigration Department, and the Novel Transmigration Department.
“Novel transmigration lets you enter the world of a novel and experience the protagonist’s love, hatred, and adventures firsthand.
“As for rebirth, it’s exactly what it sounds like—returning to the past to make up for regrets. Of course, there are also people who wish to be reborn in the future.
“The Transmigration Department is our most popular division. It has several branches: Ancient World Transmigration, Otherworld Transmigration, Fantasy Transmigration, Mythological Transmigration… and even Apocalypse Transmigration.”
Xin Long blinked.
“Apocalypse Transmigration?”
“That one’s temporarily closed. There was a bug not long ago—the NPCs disappeared.”
She stared at her in confusion.
“Disappeared?”
“That’s right. Our apocalypse setting is a zombie apocalypse where the whole world is infected with the zombie virus and everyone struggles to survive. But for some reason, the zombies started disappearing one after another. By the time the department realized something was wrong… every zombie on Earth had vanished.
“It was a complete disaster. The entire department got shut down.”
Xin Long fell into thought.
The director smiled kindly.
“So, Miss Xin, have you decided where you’d like to go? At the moment, our Ancient Transmigration Department has an opening. The role is an eighteen-year-old princess—beautiful, too. Think of it as taking a vacation.
“Ancient transmigration is the Underworld’s most popular program. Many remarkable people have gone on to achieve great things in ancient times. Some became emperors, some became empresses. It’s quite fascinating.”
Xin Long still wasn’t ready to give up.
“Are you absolutely sure I can’t be reborn?”
Her livestreaming career had only just begun.
She wasn’t ready to abandon it.
What about her two hundred thousand followers?
The director shook his head.
“Rebirth requires both resentment points and merit points. You don’t have much resentment, and as for merit…”
“To qualify for rebirth, you need over ten thousand merit points. Ordinary people usually only have a few hundred. After all, most people never accomplish enough good deeds to earn more.”
He shot Xiao Lin a look.
She immediately took out her phone.
Click.
She scanned Xin Long’s face.
“Facial recognition successful.”
The system attempted to display her merit points—
Only for the screen to fill with garbled characters.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Unable to identify merit points.
The system sounded an alarm.
The director frowned.
Cold sweat broke out across Xiao Lin’s forehead.
This lousy system was getting worse and worse.
It couldn’t even read an ordinary person’s merit points anymore?
Looking around at the Underworld office’s shoddy equipment, Xin Long couldn’t help suspecting that the director had been cheated by some low-budget contractor.
It seemed there really was no way back.
She sighed.
“Fine. I’ll transmigrate.”
“But if I’m going to ancient times, I should at least get a cheat ability, right?”
The director nodded pleasantly.
“Naturally. Since this mistake was our fault, we’ll do our best to satisfy your requests.”
Xin Long thought for a moment.
“I want a livestreaming system. Even in ancient times, I want to keep doing cooking streams for my fans.”
The director looked genuinely surprised.
It was his first time meeting a food streamer who was this dedicated to both her career and her audience.
After a moment, he said,
“I can give you a personal dimensional space connected directly to your modern apartment. That means whenever you’re bored in ancient times, you can enter the space and continue livestreaming.
“However, there’s one condition—you can’t let people in the modern world discover that you’re living in ancient times. If that creates a system bug, the ability will be revoked.”
Seeing how accommodating he was, Xin Long cautiously pushed a little further.
“Streaming requires the internet. My space will have internet access, right?
“And if it has internet… then I can shop online too?”
The director looked exhausted after explaining so much. He waved his hand.
“You young women do love online shopping. We know that.
“How about this? As long as you don’t buy anything outrageous, we’ll assign a dimensional courier to deliver any packages you order in the modern world directly into your space. You can open them there.”
Xin Long’s eyes lit up.
She could continue her streaming career…
And still shop online.
Wasn’t transmigrating to ancient times basically the same as taking a countryside vacation?
Besides, she was an orphan.
Going to another world wasn’t leaving anyone behind—it was simply a new experience.
And she’d be a princess.
That certainly beat working endless 996 office shifts in the modern world.
At least she’d never have to worry about food or clothing.
Xiao Lin was excellent at reading expressions. The moment she saw Xin Long’s interested look, she immediately held up her phone.
“Miss Xin, please look over here.”
Xin Long turned instinctively.
Click.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Facial recognition successful.
Initializing Ancient World Transmigration…
“Wai—”
Before she could even finish saying “Wait,” everything went black.
Her soul shot out of her body.
After Xin Long disappeared, Xiao Lin let out a long sigh of relief.
After all, this entire incident had been caused by their department’s system malfunction.
If Xin Long filed a complaint, their whole department would be finished.
Just then—
Beep! Beep! Beep!
Merit point inquiry successful.
The system, which had previously displayed nothing but gibberish, suddenly sounded another alert.
Curious, Xiao Lin looked down.
Her eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.
Merit Points: 100,000,000
“…”
The broken system had bugged out again!
Someone needed to repair it immediately.
…
Yonghui Dynasty
Imperial Garden
“Ah Long, help me complete this one final task, and I’ll issue an imperial decree allowing you and Xiao Jinghe to divorce. I’ll bring you back to the palace, and from then on, we siblings will never be separated again.”
“Only Xiao Jinghe remains of the Duke Protector’s male heirs. As long as you help me eliminate this greatest threat, my throne will finally be secure.”
“Ah Long, take this Imperial Jade Seal back to the Duke Dingguo’s residence and hide it beneath Xiao Jinghe’s pillow. Tomorrow I’ll send Rui’an to search the estate.”
“Ah Long, I know I’ve wronged you greatly. Once Xiao Jinghe has been exiled, I swear I’ll never fail you again in this lifetime.”
…
Half-conscious, Xin Long felt herself being held in a stranger’s embrace.
The man kept feeding her one grand promise after another.
Yet she felt like nothing more than a puppet.
She couldn’t move at all.
Something cold the size of a palm was pressed into her hands.
Then she heard a young woman’s soft, delighted voice.
“Don’t worry, Imperial Brother. I won’t fail your trust. I’ll wait for you to bring me back to the palace.”
The woman’s overwhelming joy caused Xin Long’s heartbeat to synchronize with hers.
It pounded faster and faster—
As though it would burst straight out of her chest.
Then darkness swallowed her consciousness once more.
When she slowly opened her eyes again, she found herself inside a luxurious sedan chair.
The jade that had warmed against her body during the journey rolled into her hand as the chair swayed.
Xin Long slowly raised it.
Looking at the so-called “Imperial Jade Seal” the emperor had entrusted to her, she couldn’t help wearing a complicated expression.
The original owner had been so thrilled by the emperor’s empty promises…
That she’d suffered a heart attack and died on the way back to the Duke Dingguo’s residence.
After sorting through the original owner’s memories, Xin Long finally understood everything.
The princess had been born to a forgotten consort.
Her mother died young.
The late emperor had practically forgotten she even existed.
She’d grown up neglected and miserable inside the Cold Palace until she met her imperial brother.
Back then, he wasn’t emperor yet.
He was merely the Crown Prince.
One day, he happened to catch the young princess stealing food from the imperial kitchens and being beaten by eunuchs.
Unlike the other princes, he didn’t mock her.
Instead, he punished the eunuchs who had bullied her.
That single act of kindness became the only warmth in the lonely girl’s life.
From that day onward, she fell hopelessly in love with her half-brother.
The Crown Prince knew perfectly well that his sister’s feelings had crossed the line.
Yet instead of stopping her, he continually encouraged those emotions through subtle hints and ambiguous affection.
The love-starved girl sank deeper and deeper into the forbidden relationship.
When she turned sixteen, following the Crown Prince’s instructions, she drugged Xiao Jinghe during a palace banquet.
The two spent the night together while intoxicated.
As a result, Xiao Jinghe was forced to break off his engagement with his cousin and marry the princess instead.
After their marriage, Xiao Jinghe spent most of his time commanding troops on the northern frontier.
Meanwhile, the original owner frequently sneaked back into the palace to meet privately with her imperial brother.
Poor Xiao Jinghe.
The dignified Duke Dingguo had shed blood for the Yonghui Dynasty.
Every male member of his family had died serving the nation.
He alone remained.
Not only had his wife been cheating on him with the emperor…
Now she was even conspiring with the emperor to destroy his entire family and have them exiled.
After untangling the original owner’s utterly chaotic memories, Xin Long rubbed her aching forehead.
She should have known.
Nothing offered by the Underworld came without a catch.
A princess?
Technically, yes.
But what kind of princess falls in love with her own imperial brother?
From Xin Long’s perspective, that scumbag emperor clearly had ulterior motives.
Once he got rid of Xiao Jinghe…
His next target would surely be the princess who knew all of his secrets.
Did he really intend to bring her back to the palace?
Or would he simply exile her along with Xiao Jinghe’s family?
A man’s promises were nothing but empty lies.
Only the original owner—a hopeless love-struck fool—would have believed them.
“Your Highness, the Grand Princess.”
“We’ve arrived at the Duke Dingguo’s residence.”