Chapter 16

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The room was enveloped in complete silence, broken only by the teapot on the stove softly bubbling away in a steady, rhythmic pattern. To Li Shuyao, the sound strangely resembled her own “offline countdown.”

Her hands concealed beneath the table, Li Shuyao twisted the hem of her garment once again. Her mind was a tangled mess—at times resigned and helpless, at others sorrowful and self-pitying.

Sometimes she pondered, “Maybe I should just go offline like this. If I die, perhaps I can return home.” Then doubt crept in, “But what if I can’t go back? Wouldn’t dying be in vain?”

Her thoughts oscillated endlessly, ultimately distilling into a harsh struggle between life and death.

After a long while, she blinked in confusion. Her round, dark eyes, like black grapes, suddenly lost all their sparkle. Her crimson lips pressed tightly together, her cheeks puffed out, round and tender.

She looked like a little pufferfish holding its breath to the point of suffocation.

Across from her, the emperor’s black eyes, sharp as a hawk’s, reflected all of Li Shuyao’s reactions unblinkingly. Yet, for some reason, his gaze drifted to her soft, pinchable cheeks, and he momentarily seemed lost in thought.

At last, Li Shuyao managed to pull a thread from the chaotic tangle in her mind, deciding not to worry about the emperor’s intent for the moment, and resolved to answer the questions first.

Her eyes regained their light slowly.

She spoke softly and deliberately, still pondering her words: “To answer Your Majesty, I met Lady Guo Luoluo ninety-four days ago. At that time, she had just entered the palace and was assigned to the maid’s quarters. The nanny there treated her kindly, which caused some to be unhappy.”

“When on duty, they deliberately excluded her, refusing to speak to her; off duty, they would not play with her either.”

“One day, when she was to deliver fabric to the embroidery room, someone maliciously showed her a very long route. If she followed that path, it would take over an hour to get there, and nearly three hours for the round trip.”

“I couldn’t bear to watch, and since I was off duty resting, I took her by a shortcut. It took less than an hour to deliver the fabric and return.”

“When we got back, she praised me for being clever and kind-hearted, said I was a good person, and wanted to be friends with me. That’s how I came to know Lady Guo Luoluo.”

“Um… what was the next question? Oh, yes, Your Majesty, I was indeed supposed to be on duty that day, but Qingyao—no, Lady Guo Luoluo said her mother was ill…”

“So I really had no other thoughts at that time. Later, when I learned that Your Majesty had appointed her as an official lady, I was a little hurt—not because of resentment, but more out of fear. Fear that perhaps Lady Guo Luoluo had arranged all this deliberately… and that after becoming an official lady, she might no longer associate with me.”

Being encouraged to quarrel with the emperor’s personally appointed official lady was a grave offense, a clear case of “insubordination.”

Qingyao had repeatedly warned her to keep this matter strictly secret, especially from the emperor.

Qingyao kept the matter tightly under wraps, and naturally, Nanny Jiya would never expose it either; otherwise, she would be deemed negligent in her duties, and her position as head nanny would be lost.

As for Wu Yalianchu… she never had the chance to speak ill before the emperor in the first place.

Thus, with a nervous heart, Li Shuyao lightly adorned her words.

Yet these words were not entirely false. After crossing over, while reviewing the original owner’s memories, she truly felt the intense fear and anxiety that had gripped her.

The resentment and delusions came later, after hearing Wu Yalianchu’s words.

She thought, if Qingyao could, why couldn’t she?

If they both became official ladies, perhaps the gap between them wouldn’t be so wide.

That was the honest truth.

Having answered one question, the next was an easy one.

Li Shuyao exhaled slightly, her puffed cheeks retreating a little.

Opposite her, the emperor quietly shifted his gaze, focusing on her answers.

“Why did you go to find Lady Guo Luoluo today?” he asked.

Li Shuyao hesitated, then said, “Because I slept in this morning, and when I woke up, the small kitchen had no food left! To avoid delaying my afternoon tea room duty, I shamelessly went to Lady Guo Luoluo and asked her for some food…”

She began with a reckless courage, speaking with unusual confidence.

But as she spoke, she realized that confidence was somewhat misplaced, and her courage deflated quickly.

When she reached the word “food,” she suddenly felt somewhat ashamed.

“Pfft…” The emperor across from her unexpectedly laughed.

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Li Shuyao’s mood instantly plummeted to rock bottom.

She lowered her head, clutching her garment tightly in clenched fists. “After eating, I played with Lady Guo Luoluo for a while, playing ‘Pat-a-cake’ and ‘Two-eight two-five six’—all folk rhymes from Jiangnan, the kind only children know. And it’s not just reciting dryly; usually, you play games while reciting. It’s not a secret code or riddle, I beg Your Majesty to understand!”

—Even at her lowest ebb, she still worried about answering questions properly.

Meanwhile, the emperor’s attention had shifted away from her answers.

He tapped the table thoughtfully before asking another question, “How old are you this year?”

Li Shuyao looked puzzled. Then she thought for a moment and replied, “Seventeen, Your Majesty.”

“Seventeen and still playing children’s games?”

Li Shuyao puffed out her cheeks again, this time in anger rather than fear.

After a moment, her voice muffled, she said, “Is that… not allowed?”

The emperor sighed helplessly and shook his head with a smile, realizing he must have overthought things.

His stern expression softened quickly, his gaze losing its sharpness. A faint smile curved his lips as he nodded to Li Shuyao and asked, “Where is my tea?”

Ah, yes.

She had been so focused on answering questions that she nearly forgot.

Li Shuyao quickly released her grip on her garment, grabbed the still bubbling teapot on the stove, poured the third cup of tea swiftly, skimmed off the foam, covered the pot, and with trembling fingertips set the cup on the table before the emperor.

At the same time, she warned, “The tea is still a bit hot, please be careful when drinking.”

Then she added, “Or, would Your Majesty like me to fan it?”

“What fan?” The emperor glanced at her, then at the bamboo fan by the stove.

To his surprise, Li Shuyao eagerly produced a folding fan barely the size of an adult’s palm from her sleeve.

With a swift motion, she opened it, her lively eyes sparkling, lips smiling. “This one. Lady Guo Luoluo gave it to me. If I fan Your Majesty’s tea with this, it also represents Lady Guo Luoluo’s concern for you.”

The emperor looked at the tiny fan. Despite his usual composure, he was at a loss for words.

He silently pushed the tea cup forward and watched as the young girl happily lifted the lid and began fanning the tea with utmost seriousness.

Not once did her gaze meet his.

It was as if the cup of tea before her was her entire world. And the exalted emperor? What was he to her…?

...

After cooling the tea, Li Shuyao carefully folded the fan away, feigning modesty as she nudged the tea toward the emperor, signaling, “Here, please drink.”

This was the very first cup of tea brewed by Li Shuyao, a graduate from a prestigious 21st-century university, since starting her new life.

Even her real parents had never tasted it.

If circumstances had allowed, she would have taken a photo to share online…

Just as she thought this, the emperor lifted the cup, took a sip, and drained more than half the tea in one gulp.

Li Shuyao blinked in surprise.

So thirsty?

No wonder he came personally to the tea room.

She was just considering whether to brew another cup.

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Then the emperor set the cup down with a “thud” on the table, his expression turning serious. He rose, cast a deep look at her, then turned and left directly.

Li Shuyao was momentarily stunned. Suddenly she remembered, as a palace maid, she should have stood to bow him out.

But when she got up from the bench, the tall figure in bright yellow had long since left the tea room; not even the hem of his robe was visible. Outside, she heard Liang Jiugong’s slightly ingratiating voice, “The emperor has come out? He’s returning to the Imperial Study…”

Footsteps gradually faded away and vanished.

Li Shuyao blinked.

After a moment—

Hooray!

She’d saved herself a bow!

She sat back down with a pleased smile.

*

That night, after her shift ended, it was already deep into the night. She had the whole next day off.

Perhaps because she had met a famous historical figure, excitement kept her from sleeping well.

The next morning, she got up early, tidied herself, and dashed to the residence of Guo Luoluo Qingyao in the rear quarters. The two of them drowsily shared breakfast and played games together.

Li Shuyao then told her about seeing the emperor the previous day.

Guo Luoluo Qingyao looked surprised. “You mean the emperor personally came to the tea room to find you and asked all those questions?”

Li Shuyao nodded proudly. “Yes! Luckily, I was clever and answered every question perfectly, airtight.”

“Not a single suspicion from the emperor!”

Guo Luoluo Qingyao smiled, her eyes bright and clear. She pinched Li Shuyao’s cheek gently. “You really are too clever!”

“Isn’t that right?” Li Shuyao smugly put her hands on her hips.

Qingyao pondered for a moment, then asked, “But why would the emperor seek you out? That’s not like him.”

Li Shuyao shook her head. “He asked what games we were playing, probably because he passed by yesterday but didn’t come in.”

“Then, hearing the games sounded odd, he came to ask me, and incidentally to have some tea.”

Qingyao glanced at her and shook her head, her expression thoughtful. “But I feel it’s not so simple.”

A bold and strange thought slowly crawled up from the depths of her heart.

Could it be that the emperor has taken a liking to Shuyao?

...

Seeing Qingyao troubled, Li Shuyao quickly leaned in, resting her chin on her friend’s shoulder, hugging her and gently shaking her. She whispered a guess, “Actually, I think he was just terribly thirsty and came to drink tea.”

“But, well, the mighty emperor of the Great Qing asking a palace maid for water because of thirst—too undignified. So he deliberately asked strange questions to make it seem legitimate.”

That was the conclusion she had arrived at after a restless night of pondering.

At first, she thought it impossible; after all, he was the famous Emperor Kangxi of history.

But… she hadn’t come into real history, but a fictional palace intrigue novel. The portrayal of Kangxi depended entirely on the author’s imagination.

So she reviewed the original story several times and reluctantly reached this conclusion.

It had to be just like that!