The Empress and Her Servants (5)
That night, Jian Tanxi sat on the edge of the bed, propping her head up with her hand to sleep.
She saw that maids in TV dramas slept like this, so they could wake up at any time during the night to take care of the mistress.
Fortunately, Xu Yunhong wouldn't deliberately torment her at night. After Xu Yunhong went to bed, she just slept on her own, and even if she couldn't sleep, she would silently stare at the ceiling without speaking to Jian Tanxi.
In the middle of the night, they both fell asleep.
However, in her dazed state, Jian Tanxi suddenly felt something wrapped around her wrists and ankles.
She opened her eyes and discovered that the things wrapped around her hands and feet were snakes!
The room was swarming with snakes, each one looking venomous, and there were snakes on the bed as well.
Xu Yunhong was still asleep, so Jian Tanxi decided not to disturb her.
Jian Tanxi pondered how to deal with the snakes. She first used the interstellar triangular pyramid to drive away some of them, and then took out her own prop—a handful of fine sand—and sprinkled it on the snakes.
These fine sands can cause pain; snakes hit by the sand feel pain and retreat.
However, there were still dozens of snakes in the room.
Next, Jian Tanxi took out the psychedelic wisteria flower and waved it in front of the snakes.
The psychedelic wisteria flowers slowed down the snakes' reactions and their movement.
Jian Tanxi took out a lightning ball and unleashed lightning upon the snake swarm.
The snakes either died or fled, and finally all left the room.
Jian Tanxi rushed forward to check on Xu Yunhong's condition, only to find that Xu Yunhong had been bitten to death by a poisonous snake.
Jian Tanxi quickly fed Xu Yunhong a resurrection pill, which brought Xu Yunhong back to life.
Xu Yunhong asked, "What happened... I just felt a sharp pain in my hand, and then I lost consciousness..."
"Your Majesty, a snake got into your room and bit you to death. I chased the snakes away and used a resurrection pill to bring you back to life."
"So that's how it is."
Xu Yunhong wanted to thank her, but swallowed the words back. If she thanked Jian Tanxi, Jian Tanxi might be punished.
In the other people's rooms, many snakes also entered, and everyone used their special abilities to deal with them.
Qin Man's room.
Qin Man lives alone. After discovering that there were many snakes in her room, she only panicked for a few seconds before activating her "Unyielding" superpower, turning all the bent snakes straight.
The snakes suddenly found themselves unable to bend and were at a loss for what to do. Qin Man seized the opportunity to stun or kill the snakes with her lightning ball. Apart from the dead snakes, the others, out of fear, retreated from Qin Man's house.
Suddenly, Jian Tanxi was hit on the head by a huge rock, and blood flowed freely.
The mechanical voice said that Jian Tanxi failed to protect Qin Man, making Qin Man drive away the snake herself, which was Jian Tanxi's dereliction of duty, so he should be punished.
The head injury was too severe, so Jian Tanxi had to use her healing ability to heal it.
If danger looms every night from now on, Jian Tanxi will only be able to protect one of the ladies. The other will have to rely on herself to escape.
In this way, no matter who Jian Tanxi is protecting, she will be punished for failing to protect the other.
Jian Tanxi felt that this game had too many pitfalls.
I don't know if my healing pills, health pills, and healing abilities are enough.
Now that she had recovered and was temporarily fine, Jian Tanxi told Xu Yunhong to go to sleep first, and she would go visit Qu Chen herself.
Qu Chen was lying in bed, still unconscious, but his breathing was still okay, so he shouldn't die for the time being.
Jian Tanxi couldn't heal him, otherwise he would have to continue caring for Qin Man as a servant. Given Qu Chen's current cognitive abilities, he would probably be covered in wounds within minutes.
Jian Tanxi could only pat Qu Chen's head before leaving.
When she went into the courtyard, she found Qin Man standing by the window, looking at Qu Chen's room. However, Qin Man didn't dare to come out, nor could she.
Jian Tanxi nodded to her, meaning that Qu Chen was fine and there was no need to worry.
Qin Man didn't respond, only her eyes showed a slight sense of relief. Jian Tanxi noticed the change in Qin Man's eyes and sensed her helplessness, but there was nothing Jian Tanxi could do.
In the latter half of the night, Jian Tanxi continued to stay in Xu Yunhong's room.
The next morning, Jian Tanxi woke up, went to the imperial kitchen to prepare breakfast, and then rode the magic carpet to deliver the breakfast to the palaces of the four empresses.
The last thing she delivered to Qin Man was breakfast.
When Jian Tanxi arrived at Qin Man's room, she found that Qin Man was already awake, but was lying in bed and hadn't gotten up.
Jian Tanxi asked, "Your Majesty, would you like me to help you get up? Breakfast is ready."
Qin Man said, "No need. I don't know why, but I feel a bit listless and don't want to get out of bed."
"Then I will come to see you again in a while."
Jian Tanxi went to Xu Yunhong's room and found that Xu Yunhong was also lying on the bed, looking listless, similar to Qin Man.
Jian Tanxi felt that this might not be a coincidence.
Could it be that a snake disturbed their sleep last night, causing them to be listless?
However, Jian Tanxi, who was also disturbed by snakes, felt perfectly normal and did not show any signs of lethargy.
A guess arose in Jian Tanxi's mind: perhaps this was a symptom common to all the empresses. With each passing day, the empresses would become weaker and weaker; this was the disadvantage of their status as empresses.
Otherwise, it would be too much of a bargain for the Empress to treat the servants however she wanted. This identity must have hidden pitfalls, and the gradual decline in strength is one of them.
To verify her guess, she visited the other two concubines, Ouyang Ling and Cassia, and found that they were also unable to get out of bed.
Professor Pan and Zhong Xiaoying, who were also servants, were perfectly normal.
Therefore, Jian Tanxi's guess is most likely true.
She told the four ladies her suspicions, and they were all a little worried.
They were terrified that they would die on the tenth day.
Jian Tanxi could only comfort them, saying that it wouldn't happen, at most they would just be a little weak.
In fact, no one can say for sure what will happen on the tenth day.
Jian Tanxi felt that being a servant was at most tiring, but being a concubine might be very dangerous.
On this day, Jian Tanxi, as usual, ran back and forth between Qin Man's room and Xu Yunhong's room, taking care of the two of them.
Cooking was basically handled by Jian Tanxi and Professor Pan.
If there are any errands that need to be run, Jian Tanxi will do them, because she has a magic carpet.
The eight players were separated into four different residences, which was very inconvenient, as they had to discuss things separately.
Fortunately, the four residences are not far apart, so Jian Tanxi can still manage to keep up.
That night, a wild boar entered Xu Yunhong's room.
Jian Tanxi fought it with an interstellar triangular pyramid, but the wild boar weighed several hundred kilograms, and Jian Tanxi was initially at a disadvantage.
Xu Yunhong instinctively wanted to help, but then remembered the rule that the Empress couldn't do any work, so she held back.
She said "Jian Tanxi, keep going!" from the side, and was struck by lightning. A mechanical voice said that Your Majesty should not pay too much attention to the safety of servants, and that Xu Yunhong had violated the rules.
Xu Yunhong was scorched and battered, and silently gave the mechanical voice the middle finger.
Although the room was spacious, it wasn't enough to fight a wild boar. The boar destroyed a lot of furniture, and Jian Tanxi was punished by the system, being hit by stones or cut on the skin by knives from time to time.
As a servant, she had an obligation to keep the room clean and tidy, so it was definitely her fault if the furniture was damaged.
Jian Tanxi also wanted to give the middle finger, but she didn't have a free hand.
In the moment of crisis, Jian Tanxi discovered a black tiger carved on a certain floor tile.
So she used her "two-dimensional grabbing" ability to pull the tiger out and help in the battle.
When the wild boar saw the tiger, it instinctively felt it couldn't defeat it, so it ran away as fast as it could.
Jian Tanxi did not relax; she felt that there should also be wild boars in the rooms of the other concubines.
So she hurried to Qin Man's room.
She wanted to ride the magic carpet with the tiger, but the magic carpet couldn't carry the tiger.
The tiger lowered its body, gesturing for Jian Tanxi to sit on it. Since the tiger was summoned by Jian Tanxi, it wouldn't harm her; on the contrary, it would help her.
So Jian Tanxi rode the tiger to Qin Man's house.
There were indeed wild boars inside, but Qin Man did not attack them. Instead, she used her invisibility ability to hide herself.
In this way, the wild boars couldn't see her, ensuring her safety without violating the rules of the game.
When Jian Tanxi arrived, Qin Man's invisibility had just expired.
Jian Tanxi sent the black tiger in to drive away the wild boar, and the wild boar immediately ran away.
Once Jian Tanxi confirmed that Qin Man was alright, she took Black Tiger to the other two ladies' rooms to help drive away the wild boars.
However, Professor Pan and Zhong Xiaoying had already used their special abilities and tools to drive away the wild boars, so they didn't need any more help.
Just as the time for 2D capture was up, the black tiger returned to the floor tiles.
On the third day, the ladies were indeed weaker than the day before, while the servants remained unchanged.
This shows that the empresses' life force is indeed being continuously drained.
A gloomy atmosphere hung over everyone's hearts.
But life had to go on, and the servants comforted their mistress, saying there wouldn't be any major problems.
The ladies didn't say anything, but they all looked worried, clearly not optimistic about the future.
While Jian Tanxi was cleaning the courtyard, she suddenly smelled a foul odor.
She searched for the source of the stench and found it in a flowerbed. The soil in the flowerbed looked like it had been disturbed recently, and something must have been buried inside.
As a servant, it was Jian Tanxi's responsibility to ensure the palace was free of unpleasant odors. Therefore, Jian Tanxi decided to dig up the soil to see what was inside and, incidentally, remove the stench.
So she used an interstellar triangular pyramid to dig the soil.
Unexpectedly, after digging it open, they found several corpses inside.
These corpses must have been dead for only a few days; they were all dressed in servant's clothes, just like Jian Tanxi's. Moreover, they all had numerous wounds, large and small, on their bodies.
It seems they were "servants" who died in the previous rounds or several rounds and were buried here. The bodies hadn't decomposed when they were first buried, so there was no stench.
The stench only started to waft out today as the body gradually decomposed.
Jian Tanxi instinctively felt nauseous, and a sense of shared sorrow arose in her heart.
However, she had no time for grief; she had to deal with the rotting corpse as soon as possible. Otherwise, she would be punished by the system.
So she found a handcart, put the body on it, and transported it to a relatively remote abandoned palace.
As she laid the bodies down, Jian Tanxi kept muttering, "Don't blame me, I had no choice... Besides, I don't have time to bury you properly, I have to go back to serve my mistress..."
Jian Tanxi bowed three times to the corpses, and then hurriedly returned to Xu Yunhong's place.
Xu Yunhong asked her what was wrong, and Jian Tanxi told her the truth.
Xu Yunhong murmured, "This game is too cruel... There really are empresses who would torture their own servants to death, what kind of grudge is that..."
Jian Tanxi said, "There's no need for a great grudge. Just put the Empress and the servants in opposing positions, and the two groups will naturally start fighting amongst themselves. Besides, the props on the servants might be exactly what the Empress needs."
Xu Yunhong felt a pang of pity and said, "Jian Tanxi, don't worry, I definitely won't do that to you... The players in the previous rounds were terrifying..."
"Yes, Your Highness."
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