After hearing what Jiang Wei said, Shen Ying finally realized that her repeated inaccurate throws with the teacup-weighted silk sash had struck the ceiling beam, making a noise that alerted Jiang Wei next door.
Uneasy about the noise, Jiang Wei had come over to check, only to witness Shen Ying hanging herself. Before she could call for help, Shen Ying had already fallen down on her own.
Shen Ying covered her face with her hands, screaming inwardly: *Just let me die!*
Living in this place was truly too painful.
She was so hot, and so thirsty!
She had never experienced temperatures this high in the summer before.
Looking at Shen Ying’s state, Jiang Wei was momentarily at a loss for words. Fearing that Shen Ying might attempt suicide again, she could only comfort her, “There is no obstacle that cannot be overcome. Now that we have entered the palace, we belong to His Majesty. His Majesty’s temper is unpredictable; if you die like this, it might involve others.”
Shen Ying did not reply. The moment she was hanging up there, regret had already surfaced in her heart. She did not have the courage to hang herself a second time.
“Can I really not go back?” Shen Ying asked, looking at Golden Bean.
Golden Bean lay there motionless, looking as if it were dead.
Hearing Shen Ying’s question, Golden Bean raised its head slightly and sighed, “Only when the host completes the mission will I have the power to send you home.”
Shen Ying said nothing. Jiang Wei looked at her, equally unsure of what to say. Fearing she might attempt suicide again, Jiang Wei did not leave after all.
After a long while, Shen Ying raised her head to look at Jiang Wei and said with some embarrassment, “I want to drink water. Do you have any water over at your place?”
Jiang Wei nodded. Since the emperor was a strange man, he had ordered that palace maids should not attend to these *Cai Nv* at night. Although everyone complained about it, no one dared to criticize it openly.
If the emperor overheard, who knew what the consequences would be?
Shen Ying felt that this was similar to how she treated her assistants back home—they were responsible for keeping her company during meals and outings, though she would never be like those tyrannical bosses who called to wake people up in the middle of the night.
Those assistants had always praised her for being a good boss.
Shen Ying went to Jiang Wei’s room and drank some water, yet her heart remained somewhat melancholy.
“Do you want to drink more?”
“No need, thank you.” She couldn’t drink up all of the other person’s water, even though she indeed still wanted to drink more.
Jiang Wei noticed this and poured her another cup. After drinking another cup of water, Shen Ying felt much better.
She temporarily didn’t want to seek death anymore. Ending one’s life with a white silk sash wasn’t as simple as she had imagined—it was quite different from what was shown on television.
Golden Bean rolled its eyes in the system space. *What does a white silk sash look like, and what does this silk sash look like? The host truly has no idea.*
Forget it, it still relied on this host to complete the mission. Everything depended on her this time.
Even though it wanted to urge the host to complete the mission as soon as possible, Golden Bean was aware of Shen Ying’s current situation and could only take things slowly.
Looking at the black progress bar, and then at its own pitiful green progress bar, Golden Bean sprawled back down. It refrained from moving as much as possible now, saving every bit of energy it could for itself.
Golden Bean closed its eyes and inhaled slightly, sensing a tiny bit of energy. Looking closely, it had indeed increased by a tiny fraction.
It glanced at Jiang Wei, let out a sigh, and sprawled back down again.
After comforting Shen Ying for a while and seeing that she had opened her mind and would not seek death again, Jiang Wei left.
Once the person left, Golden Bean could no longer suppress itself and spoke up.
“Host, do you know who that person was just now?”
“She is Jiang Wei.”
Having the original host’s memories, she naturally knew this neighbor.
Golden Bean let out a sigh; the host was speaking pure nonsense.
“She is the female lead of this world.”
“Ah?” Shen Ying failed to react.
Golden Bean added, “Actually, the tyrant was not a tyrant at the beginning. According to the original novel’s plot, when the tyrant was still the crown prince, his wife, the crown princess, died. After the crown prince’s father bestowed the marriage, the female lead Jiang Wei entered the Eastern Palace and became the second crown princess. After spending time together, they developed feelings for each other.”
Shen Ying propped up her chin with her hands and sprawled on the table, “In other words, the tyrant was originally the male lead?”
“Correct.”
Speaking up to this point, Golden Bean let out a melancholy sigh, “Unfortunately, the original plot diverged. After the tyrant’s wife died, he refused to let the female lead Jiang Wei enter the Eastern Palace to become the new crown princess. To that end, he did not hesitate to defy the imperial decree, angering the old emperor half to death. This led to the inability to proceed with the subsequent plot.”
To be precise, the tyrant’s action had directly thrown all the plotlines into disarray. Golden Bean sighed. Although the host approaching the female lead could bring it a tiny bit of energy, the target of this mission was ultimately the tyrant, and the energy the female lead could provide was limited.
Otherwise, Golden Bean would have long urged Shen Ying to get closer to Jiang Wei to absorb more energy.
Shen Ying treated everything Golden Bean said as a story to listen to. Especially since it was rare for Golden Bean to speak so much without being in that listless, half-dead state, she excitedly pursued further, “And then?”
Golden Bean rolled its eyes at Shen Ying, “And then the male lead was replaced, of course.”
Shen Ying was not stupid either and immediately pointed out the flaw in it, “Wait, since the male lead was replaced, why did the female lead still enter the palace to become the emperor’s concubine?”
This time, Golden Bean’s sigh was even longer, “Because of the tyrant! It was still because of him. He disrupted the plot, forcing this mini-world to replace him as the male lead and select a new one.”
“What happened afterward?”
Shen Ying heard the sound of Golden Bean grinding its teeth, “That foolish new male lead plotted a rebellion to overthrow the tyrant. But he was far too foolish and acted too ostentatiously. After being discovered by the tyrant, he was executed.”
“Can the male lead be replaced again?” Shen Ying asked curiously.
“Of course. Jiang Wei is the female lead; only the person she selects can be the male lead,” Golden Bean said.
The new male lead was chosen by Jiang Wei. The two had never met face-to-face; Jiang Wei had only looked at him from a distance, felt satisfied, and her family had prepared to discuss marriage.
Who knew he would be executed for rebellion before it could happen?
Truly, male leads come and go, but the female lead remains eternal.
Shen Ying opened the window to let the cool breeze blow in for a while, finally feeling less flustered by the heat.
She pondered for a moment and said, “So, now the plot has been corrected back, and the tyrant has become the male lead again?”
She thought this way entirely because the female lead had entered the palace again. Aside from the six-year-old little crown prince, the tyrant was the only adult male in the palace.
Unexpectedly, Golden Bean shook its head with a solemn face, “No, having the tyrant as the male lead is too much trouble, and the risk factor is quite high. Besides, the tyrant won’t cooperate. If Jiang Wei really doesn’t marry, this world is equivalent to having no male lead.”
The current situation was somewhat awkward. Although Jiang Wei, the female lead, had entered the palace, she had not chosen any man. At present, the mini-world was in a state of having only a female lead and no male lead.
As the administrator of the mini-world, Golden Bean could not care less about the female lead’s situation at the moment.
Its main focus of attention was the tyrant; he was the number one dangerous figure in this mini-world.
Shen Ying nodded and let out a yawn, no longer wanting to listen to Golden Bean drag on. She lay down on the bed and fell into a deep sleep.
After going through all that fuss, she was extremely sleepy now.
When she woke up, the sky was already bright. The palace maid attending to her, Xuerong, was already waiting outside.
There was no master in the inner palace, only this group of *Cai Nv* holding the same rank, so there was no such thing as paying respects to anyone. The emperor would not summon them either, so naturally they could sleep whenever they wanted or rise whenever they wished.
Thinking of this, Shen Ying still felt a bit grateful to the tyrant. He did well in this aspect; to make her kneel to others, just the thought of it felt awkward in her heart.
From childhood to adulthood, she had never knelt before anyone. Transporting her here all of a sudden and making her kneel to people was indeed something Shen Ying could not bring herself to do.
Perhaps because the tyrant was difficult to approach, after trying a few times, several *Cai Nv* found that things were not developing as they had expected, and none had succeeded in making the emperor look at them differently. Gradually, they lost interest.
Those who had previously competed fiercely for favor were now gathered together chatting. Some gathered to play pai gow, while others gathered to play leaf cards.
Some read books and did embroidery; if they didn’t find something to do, they were afraid they would go mad from boredom.
The tyrant did not restrict their freedom of movement. Except for a few places that were off-limits, they could wander around wherever else they pleased.
Shen Ying felt bored staying in the courtyard. Although she had some memories, she did not know how to play pai gow, nor did she know leaf cards.
Sitting there, she inevitably faced questions from others about how the injury on her neck had come about.
Shen Ying touched her neck and sighed, “Last night, having nothing better to do out of boredom, I was swinging in my room for fun.”
Everyone frowned. Could it be that she used her neck to swing?
Fortunately, the others did not say much further.
Jiang Wei, however, took a look. It had been red marks yesterday, but now it had turned into bruises. Or perhaps the lighting had been poor yesterday and she hadn’t seen clearly, but it looked quite severe now.
“Go to the Pharmacy Department to get some ointment to rub on it.”
Shen Ying nodded haphazardly; she didn’t even know where the Pharmacy Department was. Thinking that staying here was boring anyway, she decided to go to that whatever place to get some medicine.
After she went out, the palace maid behind her followed out as well.
Shen Ying didn’t feel that having someone follow behind her was anything uncomfortable. She used to have assistants by her side as well. Although items she took a liking to would be delivered to her door, sometimes when it was inconvenient, she would let the assistant carry them; she wouldn’t hold them herself.
Sometimes when she made appointments with her close friends to go shopping, a whole group of assistants could be following behind them.
Now there was only one, making her feel a bit disappointed.
“That…” Shen Ying got stuck; she didn’t know the other person’s name.
“This servant is Xuerong,” the palace maid immediately introduced herself.
Shen Ying felt the palace maid was quite sensible and wanted to give her a pay raise, so she asked about Xuerong’s wage.
Only, right now it didn’t seem to be called a wage; what was it called again?
Shen Ying got stuck again, continuously poking Golden Bean in her mind, asking it to give a hint.
“Official salary or monthly allowance, either works,” Golden Bean said, rolling its eyes.
“How much is your monthly allowance?”
“In reply to Lady, this servant’s monthly allowance is two taels of silver.”
Shen Ying didn’t know exactly how much two taels of silver was worth. Just as she was about to wave her hand generously to give Xuerong a pay raise, Golden Bean continued to roll its eyes, “Host, aren’t you going to ask how much your own salary is?”
“I am already the emperor’s woman. Although it’s only in name, isn’t the emperor very rich?” Shen Ying took it for granted.
Golden Bean couldn’t hold back another roll of its eyes, only feeling that the host was truly naive, “Heh, the emperor’s imperial concubines also receive monthly allowances. You hold the lowest rank, receiving only three strings of cash a month.”
“Three strings of cash, how much is that?”
Golden Bean helped her calculate, “One string of cash is five thousand, so three strings is fifteen thousand.”
“So little?” Shen Ying frowned.
“Even a palace maid’s monthly allowance is higher than yours,” Golden Bean mocked.
Only fifteen thousand; she spent more than fifteen thousand in a single day. What could this tiny amount of money possibly be enough for?