Volume 3, Chapter 344 – Have You Come to Arrest Me?

Absolutely maddening.

She wanted to curse at something.

Puffed up with frustration like a blowfish.

The Human Empress?

Ha.

Lu Zhuxin pressed her fingers against her temple, slowly tilting her head back to look up at the cloudless sky overhead.

Not a cloud in sight. And yet her heart felt like it had been swallowed by fog.

Qu Qingtang Number Two.

She had never laid eyes on the woman, but Lu Zhuxin had already filed her away under that label in her mind.

Also a Venerable Saint. Also occupying an exalted position. Also possessing overwhelming combat power.

Also someone that Lu Zhuxin, an Eighth Realm Fox Monarch, had absolutely no business provoking.

The one difference: she wasn’t a sword cultivator.

Not a sword cultivator meant she couldn’t imprint a mark on a fox demon. Couldn’t cause a fox demon to form a Spirit Fetus.

Small mercies.

Thank goodness that when she had been writing the setting, she had only specified that human sword cultivators were Alphas and fox demons were Omegas. Other races hadn’t been singled out, so they still operated under the normal two-gender framework of the world.

The thought brought a wave of bitter self-mockery washing over her.

Ha.

How ridiculous. That I would actually find something to be grateful for, of all things, at a time like this.

Lu Zhuxin pressed her palm to her forehead and couldn’t help rolling her eyes at herself.

Just knowing there was a Qu Qingtang Number Two lurking somewhere in the shadows, watching her with predatory patience, made her feel numb all over.

Numb and ready to bolt.

But the Chi Xiyan storyline was more than halfway done. Running now would mean throwing away everything she had built.

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“Ahh.” Lu Zhuxin let out a long, mournful sigh directed at the system in her head.

In that moment, she felt as though she had aged a decade and a half.

[What’s wrong, Host.]

[You seem very tired.]

“Tired in my soul,” Lu Zhuxin said. “I want to lie flat and give up.”

“If I’m the author of this novel, why do I have to exhaust myself winning all of them over?”

[Then what would Host prefer?]

Lu Zhuxin said irritably, “She’s the Empress, isn’t she? Why not just have her issue an imperial decree and take me into the palace.”

“Let me go be her consort in peace and comfort.”

“Everyone wins.”

[???]

System 03 fired off a string of question marks inside Lu Zhuxin’s head.

Was that even allowed?

Was this really something Lu Zhuxin would say?

[Host, in all of 03’s existence, 03 has never received a request like this.]

[Are you joking with 03?]

“Of course,” Lu Zhuxin said, waving a hand.

Of course it was impossible.

A Human Empress, high and untouchable above all others, would never have any dealings with a minor daughter of a merchant family. If an imperial decree like that appeared out of nowhere, it would be so suspicious it might as well come with a neon sign saying something’s wrong. And if that happened, the last thing she’d do was stick around to be hauled into the palace as a consort.

Lu Zhuxin gave a cold little laugh.

[…]

[Host, you’re…]

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The system seemed to struggle for a moment before it managed to put words together.

[You’re dreaming.]

[Having the Empress throw herself at you is a privilege reserved for the Male Lead.]

[Your role in this small world is a throwaway cannon fodder villain.]

[Please pursue the storyline in a manner consistent with internal logic.]

[The system’s function is to assist. It does not have the authority to help Host cheat.]

“Mm…” Lu Zhuxin curled her lip.

What kind of ‘assist’ function. More like an informant working against her.

But it didn’t matter. She had gotten the answer she actually wanted.

System 03 could observe her and everything around her, but it could not read her innermost thoughts, and it could not touch her dreams.

The information she and 03 each had on the other was not equal.

Whether or not the Human Empress really was that supposedly dead Qu Qingtang, she was undeniably a dangerous figure.

The pheromone detection stone from before might very well have been her doing too.

“I need to wrap up the Chi Xiyan storyline as fast as possible and then get out of here.”

Lu Zhuxin muttered to herself, a sense of urgency rising in her chest.

“Chi Xiyan, Chi Xiyan… where have you gone off to?”

“You heartless woman. Have you really just left your adorable little sister sitting here all on her own?”

“If you don’t come back soon, your adorable little sister is going to be whisked away by someone.”

Lu Zhuxin did not end up waiting for Chi Xiyan.

Instead, a different woman arrived.

“Little Sister Muxue~~”

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Wei Qingyu appeared in Lu Zhuxin’s courtyard, smiling warmly, a small bag of snacks dangling from one hand.

She wasn’t wearing the sharp, commanding uniform Lu Zhuxin had always seen her in before. She had changed into a simple set of casual clothes instead.

The intimidating air she usually carried was gone. She looked almost approachable. Friendly, even.

Lu Zhuxin stared at her with a perfectly blank expression.

This woman had walked into her courtyard without anyone even coming to announce her.

Watching Wei Qingyu put on the manner of a warm, amiable older sister from next door, Lu Zhuxin knew: trouble had arrived.

At least Bu Lianshuang was still locked up in the abandoned wing. Otherwise this would be getting a great deal more complicated.

“Senior Sister Wei,” Lu Zhuxin said, her voice soft and light.

Neither impolite nor warm. She showed no particular enthusiasm for Wei Qingyu’s visit.

A sixteen-year-old girl, the age that should be the most carefree and bright, and yet something heavy and subdued lingered between her brows.

Wei Qingyu studied her carefully.

The last time she had seen this girl, she hadn’t looked like this.

Young as she was, she seemed to be carrying no small weight of worry.

Though, given everything she had been through recently, perhaps that was only natural.

Wei Qingyu smiled and walked over to Lu Zhuxin’s side, snacks still in hand.

“Little Sister Muxue, something on your mind?”

Lu Zhuxin very much wanted to roll her eyes at this woman.

Asking a question she already knew the answer to.

She glanced slightly to the side, her small hand fidgeting with her own sleeve without quite meaning to. She asked in return, “Senior Sister Wei, did you come looking for me because something important has come up?”

Wei Qingyu caught the small movement.

This girl was nervous?

Wei Qingyu’s gaze narrowed almost imperceptibly.

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Chi Muxue was not Chi Xiyan.

A girl who had grown up in a farming household from a young age didn’t have that depth of composure. Even if her expression could be controlled, her emotions had a way of leaking out in other places.

Like small, telling habits of movement.

It fit her background, certainly.

But what exactly was she nervous about?

Wei Qingyu kept smiling as she moved to stand beside Lu Zhuxin.

“I haven’t had a proper chance to sit down and talk with Little Sister Muxue since we parted ways at the inn that time. I’m here at the Chi estate today, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to come check in on you.”

This woman really could spin a story.

Lu Zhuxin complained silently.

Senior Brother Lu had died at the hands of a demon wolf. The entire Demon Suppression Bureau had to be scrambling right now. How would Wei Qingyu, Inspector of the Demon Suppression Bureau, have the leisure to come out of nowhere for a chat with an obscure young lady from a merchant family?

She’s clearly here for me specifically.

Which also meant that the person who had gone digging up Yu Lizhi’s mother’s grave last night was probably Wei Qingyu.

Whether that, too, had been the Human Empress’s directive, she didn’t know.

Digging up someone’s dead mother’s grave in the dead of night. Absolutely no class.

Lu Zhuxin sneered inwardly.

Wei Qingyu was the Human Empress’s person. She needed to tread carefully.

But she didn’t like letting someone else hold the reins of a conversation.

Wei Qingyu was an Inspector of the Demon Suppression Bureau. Capturing and interrogating suspects was routine business for the Bureau’s office. If she just let Wei Qingyu lead the whole time, there was no telling which question might be the one that pulled a crack out of her.

Lu Zhuxin had no intention of underestimating someone whose profession was getting people to talk.

She lowered her gaze slightly, her demeanor carrying a quiet, downcast weight.

“Senior Sister Wei,” she said. “Have you come to arrest me?”