Jiang Fei suddenly had a foreboding feeling. “I didn’t do anything! I was just maintaining daily communication to build rapport with him.”
“Wei Mingzhen’s current favorability toward you: -3000.”
Jiang Fei nearly fell off the bed, asking in disbelief, “How… how much?”
“It increased. -3001.”
“How is this possible?!”
The system also expressed shock: “I remember his favorability was 20 when I last connected with you. What exactly did you do to make it drop to -3000?”
Jiang Fei frantically ruffled her hair.
Aside from that moment when he wanted to kill her, wasn’t everything else quite good? When they parted later, ‘Wei Mingzhen’ even said he would see her off.
It made no sense, absolutely no sense. Where did things go wrong?
With her freshly tousled bird’s nest hairstyle, Jiang Fei still wanted to struggle a bit. “With -3001 favorability, can he still marry me?”
The system corrected: “It’s -3002 now.”
Jiang Fei collapsed back onto the bed, feeling life wasn’t worth living.
Thirty years of hard work, all gone in an instant.
She suddenly remembered her analysis before falling asleep and sat up again. “Then can you check Pei Jing’s favorability toward Wei Mingzhen?”
The system: “…”
Such a perverted request.
So far, she had hosted over ten thousand hosts, but no one had ever made such a perverted request—asking her to check the male supporting character’s favorability toward the second male lead.
“Can’t check. They’re not in a romantic relationship. We don’t track such brain-dead things.”
“We should respect choices. What if…?”
Having been born in Chongqing and raised in Sichuan in modern times, Jiang Fei was a genuine Sichuan-Chongqing local. Such things weren’t uncommon to her.
The system said helplessly: “No ‘what ifs.’ However, I can check Pei Jing’s favorability toward you.”
Jiang Fei wasn’t concerned about this. She didn’t need to win over Pei Jing, nor did she want him to like her. Even if his favorability dropped to negative ten thousand, she wouldn’t care.
But something was better than nothing.
“How much?”
The system paused again.
Every time it paused, Jiang Fei felt like the executioner’s blade was about to fall. She asked tremulously, “It couldn’t be one hundred thousand, could it? Or one million? Does he want to kill me immediately?”
The system’s voice trembled even more than hers: “What did you do this time?”
Jiang Fei said with a mournful face, “Just tell me directly. Let me give up hope.”
The system: “12.”
Jiang Fei breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh, that’s not too bad, that’s not too bad.”
The system added expressionlessly, “Not too bad? It was 0 when I last went offline. That means in just a few days, you made Pei Jing’s favorability toward you increase by 12. At this rate, you’ll become Zhaoning Wang’s consort next month, making him vow to marry no one but you. Congratulations, host.”
Jiang Fei’s jaw dropped and didn’t close for a long time. She reached up and manually lifted it back into place, asking, “Are you sure your system isn’t malfunctioning?”
The system: “My system will malfunction only when you develop Alzheimer’s.”
Jiang Fei suddenly felt the world’s deep-seated malice toward her.
Pei Jing’s favorability toward her kept increasing, meaning he would no longer kill her entire family. Wei Mingzhen’s favorability kept decreasing, meaning he would never marry her.
She had already strayed ten thousand miles off course in completing her mission.
A small part of her heart felt like it had died.
“Can I give up then?”
The system: “Are you sure you want to give up?”
A glimmer of hope ignited in Jiang Fei’s heart. “Is there a consolation prize for giving up? Like, you don’t have to give me an extremely wealthy family in the modern world—an ordinary one would do. I can rely on my own efforts.”
The system wore an expression that clearly said, “You’re dreaming.” “No. Giving up means immediate deletion.”
Jiang Fei: “…”
Heartless!
For a moment, all was silent.
Jiang Fei took a deep breath and forced herself to sit up. “There’s still one more way. What if I treat ‘Pei Jing’ the way I treat ‘Wei Mingzhen,’ and treat ‘Wei Mingzhen’ the way I treat ‘Pei Jing’? If I just reverse them, then increase becomes decrease and decrease becomes increase, right?”
The system pondered for a moment before analyzing, “I think this method should work.”
Jiang Fei nodded, her lifeless heart gradually reviving.
She slapped her thigh, filled with fighting spirit. “Good! Then that’s what we’ll do! Starting tomorrow, I’ll be as cold as ice to ‘Pei Jing’ and as passionate as fire to ‘Wei Mingzhen’!”
The system reminded her gloomily, “Just don’t overplay your hand.”
…
Early the next morning, Jiang Fei dug out the Admonitions for Women.
Fortunately, the Admonitions for Women wasn’t very long—just over two thousand characters. Ten copies would amount to a little over twenty thousand characters.
Jiang Fei had survived brutal exams before; back then, she’d worn out a pen refill in a single day. A mere ten copies of the Admonitions for Women would only take two or three days.
But when she actually picked up the brush, she ran into trouble.
She had never practiced calligraphy, and on top of that, it was in traditional characters—she couldn’t even recognize all of them.
Her own chicken-scratch handwriting was barely legible, but with a brush and traditional characters, each character took up two lines, some long and some short.
Jiu Tao kept her company. Although she was illiterate, she could tell the characters were wild and not very pleasing to the eye, but there was nothing she could do to help.
Yun Xiang knocked gently on the door with a tray of tea and snacks. “Miss, may I come in?”
Jiang Fei had kept her waiting long enough. She still had use for Yun Xiang, so without looking up, she let her in.
Yun Xiang set the tray on the table and peeked at the writing. Delighted, she said, “Miss, your handwriting has improved.”
Both Jiu Tao and Jiang Fei turned to look at her, their expressions saying, “How can you say that with a straight face?”
Yun Xiang remained unruffled. “This servant isn’t flattering you. Before, each of your characters used to take up three lines.”
Jiang Fei: “…”
“Bring out my old handwriting for me to admire?”
Yun Xiang pulled a handwritten copy from the bookshelf. Jiang Fei opened it, took one look, and immediately closed it.
In four words: a complete disaster!
How could she have forgotten? The original Jiang Rufei was uneducated and lazy, which was why, right after transmigrating, she had been certain the letter to Zhao Xingbang wasn’t written by her own hand.
With Jiang Rufei’s terrible handwriting, forget seducing a man—Zhao Xingbang probably wouldn’t even be able to decipher what was written, let alone arrange a secret rendezvous.
Yun Xiang had been neglected for several days. She had lost her usefulness to the Third Miss, and without a patron in the household, life would be very difficult.
Today, she had finally found an opportunity and wasn’t about to let it slip away.
“Let this servant copy it for you, Miss.”
Jiang Fei looked up. “What if we’re discovered?”
“We won’t be discovered.” Yun Xiang had already spread out the paper. “Just like before, you copy the first two pages, and I’ll handle the rest.”
So that’s how it was.
Jiang Fei rubbed her sore wrist and took the chance to relax.
The next day, a maid from Yao Shi’s household arrived at Fusui Garden. Jiang Fei recognized her as the one who had struggled the most to suppress her laughter on the day she was punished with kneeling.
Unlike the imperious Nanny Wang, this maid simply delivered an oral message to Jiang Rufei: Miss Liu had sent an invitation for her to attend a flower-viewing banquet the day after tomorrow.
“Who is Miss Liu?” Jiang Fei had no recollection of this name.