“Her Highness.”
When she heard Gu Chengyin’s voice, the composure Luo Zhao had been maintaining finally began to crack.
Her fingers tightened slightly on the memorial.
Her gaze remained fixed on the paper, but the ink characters had become nothing but blurry smudges in her eyes.
Her attention was not on the memorial at all—it had been lost the moment Gu Chengyin crossed the threshold.
Because Luo Zhao was feeling unsettled now.
After all, she was not in a hypnotic state this time.
In the past, it was always her conscious puppet who dealt with Gu Chengyin, sparing her from having to face him directly.
No need to think about how to speak to him, no need to worry about her expression or tone.
No need to confront this man, wide awake and in broad daylight, as she was now.
Luo Zhao’s feelings for Gu Chengyin had become far too complicated.
So complicated that it couldn’t be put into a few simple words.
But one thing was certain: Gu Chengyin should have been hers.
And now, he had been taken away by her Little Aunt.
Luo Zhao’s fingers tightened again.
She didn’t know how to face Gu Chengyin.
Should she call him Junior Preceptor Gu like before? Or should she call him Uncle?
Or should she pretend she knew nothing at all?
In the end, Luo Zhao chose the safest option.
She stiffened her face.
She pulled her chin taut, pressed her lips into a thin line, and lowered her brows.
She tried her best to look like she was seriously pondering state affairs.
Then, stiffly, she forced out a single sound from her throat:
“Mm.”
Just one word.
She didn’t lift her head, didn’t look at Gu Chengyin, her gaze fixed stubbornly on the memorial in her hands.
Even though she hadn’t read a single word, her posture was flawless.
Gu Chengyin didn’t comment on her refusal to look up, nor did he seem awkward.
He simply stood there, waiting quietly.
He knew Luo Zhao was pretending, and he knew she knew that he knew she was pretending.
But neither of them called it out.
“Is Cui Zhenji’s resignation memorial in your hands?”
Straight to the point, cutting through the pretense.
Gu Chengyin understood that given Luo Zhao’s state, it was better to talk business.
Official matters were their comfort zone—the only thing that could make Luo Zhao momentarily set aside her tangled emotions and return to the safe framework of heir and preceptor.
Luo Zhao blinked.
Indeed, when the topic turned to business, her breathing even eased a little.
She casually picked up a memorial from the table, quick and deliberate.
She gestured toward Gu Chengyin and asked:
“Are you referring to this?”
Gu Chengyin glanced at the memorial in her hand.
It was an ordinary regional report, completely unrelated to Cui Zhenji.
But its format and color were indeed similar to those from the Ministry of Personnel, easy to mix up if one wasn’t paying close attention.
Luo Zhao hadn’t mixed them up.
She had done it on purpose.
Gu Chengyin nodded without correcting her.
He knew Luo Zhao was fully aware which memorial was Cui Zhenji’s resignation.
The one she had been flipping through just now was the real one; this was just a random grab to fob him off.
Not handing it over directly meant she had reservations about the topic and needed to test his stance first.
“Her Highness.”
Gu Chengyin’s voice was unhurried:
“According to protocol, this memorial should now be submitted to the Grand Secretariat.”
His meaning was clear: this memorial shouldn’t still be with the Ministry of Personnel—it should be with the Grand Secretariat. The ministry was merely a relay point; after receiving and registering it, they were supposed to pass it upward.
Holding onto it was a breach of the rules.
Luo Zhao understood exactly what he was implying.
She put down the random memorial she had grabbed, placing it far away from Cui Zhenji’s, as if drawing a clear line.
Then she lifted her head and, for the first time, met Gu Chengyin’s eyes directly.
Her gaze was complicated.
It carried the solemnity of an heir addressing a minister, the respect of a student toward a preceptor, and a trace of deep-concealed grievance.
“Rest assured, Junior Preceptor Gu.”
Luo Zhao’s voice was steadier than she had expected, which gave her a bit more confidence:
“These memorials will all be submitted to the Grand Secretariat shortly—not one will be left out.”
She emphasized her last words deliberately.
Meaning: I won’t suppress Cui Zhenji’s resignation memorial. Don’t worry that I would make such a low-level mistake.
Hearing her confirmation, Gu Chengyin nodded.
It seemed Luo Zhao wasn’t that foolish.
She knew that the Ministry of Personnel couldn’t hold back this resignation memorial.
More precisely, she knew that she, Luo Zhao, could not suppress it.
Cui Zhenji’s resignation was a step of retreat orchestrated by Cui Shifan. If the Ministry of Personnel held onto the memorial, it would signal to Cui Shifan that his retreat was unacceptable.
How would Cui Shifan react?
Either he would withdraw his resignation and grit his teeth to carry on, or he would take the matter directly before the Emperor, accusing the heir of meddling in state affairs.
Either outcome would do Luo Zhao no good.
That she could see this layer meant her political intuition was indeed improving.
“But Junior Preceptor Gu…”
Luo Zhao’s voice rang out again.
Gu Chengyin looked at her.
Luo Zhao did not look away. She held his gaze.
Her face was still stiff, but beneath the stiffness, something was beginning to loosen.
“Even if the Grand Secretariat approves it, in the end, Imperial Father’s endorsement is needed.”
She said this softly, but the weight behind the words was heavy.
The Second Prince was just the first hurdle.
Members of the princes’ faction would obstruct it, doing everything in their power to prevent Gu Chengyin from becoming Minister of Rites.
But even if Gu Chengyin could manage the princes’ faction—
What about Emperor Luo?
Luo Zhao knew her Imperial Father too well.
The man who had sat on the dragon throne for so many years excelled at one thing above all: balance.
Only when all factions checked each other could the court remain stable.
If Gu Chengyin became Minister of Rites, it would tip that balance.
Given Emperor Luo’s nature, he would never allow any side to grow too powerful.
So even if Cui Shifan yielded and the princes’ faction stopped their interference, even if the memorial successfully reached the desk of the warm chamber—
Emperor Luo was still the greatest unknown.
Luo Zhao looked at Gu Chengyin, hoping to see difficulty or gravity on his face.
But she saw nothing of the sort.
Gu Chengyin’s expression never changed from beginning to end.
Calm, composed, even carrying a hint of nonchalance.
He showed no sign of distress.
On the contrary, there was something new in the way he looked at Luo Zhao.
It was like the patience of someone watching a child who had yet to figure something out for herself.
Then Gu Chengyin spoke:
“Her Highness, considering the relationship between us in terms of status—”
“You ought to call me Uncle now.”
Luo Zhao’s expression froze.
Her mouth opened, closed, then opened again.
The stiff, princely composure she had maintained so carefully now bore a momentary blankness.
Like the stunned confusion of someone hit by completely unexpected words.
Uncle.
When she heard those three syllables, they stung her ears unbearably.
But Gu Chengyin gave her no time to process.
He continued, his tone still unhurried:
“As for His Majesty—if he insists on making things difficult for his brother-in-law…”
A hint of smug confidence crept into Gu Chengyin’s voice:
“Then I will have no choice but to get Little Aunt to come over and ‘reason’ with him.”
【Prologue: The Beginning of It All – Use holy water to heal the saintess tainted by demonic energy, then converse with her.】 Shen Nian stared at his older sister sipping yogurt, lost in thought. So you’re telling me my sister is the saintess, and yogurt is the holy water? 【Main Quest 1: Brave Youth, Become an Adventurer! Reward: Rookie Adventurer Title.】 【Side Quest 1: Find the Adorable Kitty! Reward: 1000 Gold Coins.】 Shen Nian: "Wait, I’m a high school senior here—did some guy who got isekai’d accidentally bind his system to me?" Hold on, completing quests gives gold rewards? Titles even boost stats? Is this for real? (A lighthearted, absurd campus comedy—not a revenge power fantasy.)
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
