Chapter 278 The Diligent Emperor Used as Cannon Fodder (Part 3) "The Immortal Lord..."
“The Immortal Lord said before that this evil thing would follow women who are easy to get close to me, but I only leave the palace a few times a year, and even when I do leave the palace, I don’t come into contact with other women.”
Murong Yu hesitated for a while before tentatively asking, "Could it be that the other person is a female relative of a minister who has come to the banquet?"
Those who might attend the banquet at the palace were all ladies with official titles, either the mothers or wives of ministers.
They were either women from the imperial family, such as the emperor's own sister or cousin, sister-in-law or cousin-in-law, or niece or cousin-in-law.
Just imagining how these people were flirting with him, the emperor shuddered, startled by his own wild imagination. "No way."
Lin You corrected him, "I never said that the carrier of an evil object must be a woman."
After all, when she first drew this thing as her cheat code, the target of the mission was also a man. Who says that the subsystem must be bound to a woman?
Murong Yu, who was already shocked by his own imagination, almost had his entire worldview shattered after hearing this. He was stunned for a long time before he could accept this terrifying premise.
For the first time, Murong Yu felt fortunate about Lin You's appearance. "Immortal Lord, you certainly won't let that evil creature succeed, right!"
Compared to this, what Nangong Rou did seemed less unacceptable.
Just as Murong Yu was filled with apprehension, a man in the Hanlin Academy slowly arranged a stack of books on the bookshelf and then leisurely wiped away the dust.
In his mind, Subsystem 2 kept chattering away:
[Look at you, you don't do your tasks and you're not ambitious. Now you're being ostracized by the old guard at the Hanlin Academy, and all you can do is sort through these ancient books that no one has read in eight hundred years. Nobody talks to you, and nobody even notifies you when people from above come. How long do you plan to endure this?]
Li Tianle leisurely slacked off while asking, "What's wrong with this? There's no boss watching you, so you can slack off as much as you want. You can read novels all day at work and no one will care. The salary is stable, and you get subsidies and vacation time. You don't have to clock in."
I don't need to deal with messy colleagues, I don't need to handle inspections from above, there are no social obligations, and I don't have to work overtime. Why should I strive for advancement and make myself uncomfortable? Am I crazy to want to suffer without effort?!
When Subsystem 2 first started following him, it was quite frustrating every day, but now it's been worn down and has lost its temper. This guy only does daily tasks and doesn't take on missions, so it hasn't earned a single bit of energy and has been losing money!
It was originally a task to instruct this guy to use the information he found to please his superiors, achieve some results, and then get promoted so he could get closer to the emperor and begin the formal task of getting close to him and vying for his favor.
Who would have thought that I would end up with such an unambitious person who only wants to slack off at work and go fishing after get off work, and even took a part-time job as a tutor. His only life goal is to buy a house and a car, which makes me feel utterly hopeless.
"Think about it, with this system around, getting promoted will be a piece of cake. Once you're promoted, won't you have power, influence, and money?"
Li Tianle dawdled for half an hour before declaring that he had finished his work for the day. Satisfied, he picked up a book and sat down at his desk to read.
Although the ancient traditional characters and classical Chinese may seem a bit difficult to understand, once you get used to them, they are quite interesting, especially the books that are included in the Hanlin Academy Library, each of which has its own unique features.
What makes Li Tianle even happier is that there are so many books that they fill several rooms, and new books are added every year. Even if he spends his whole life slacking off, he won't have to worry about not having any books to read.
Seeing that he ignored her, Subsystem 2 couldn't help but start urging her again. Annoyed by his nagging, Li Tianle finally looked up from his book and retorted:
"What's the difference between getting promoted, having more work, more social engagements, having to be on edge every day to avoid offending people, and having to kowtow to the emperor?"
It might be a little more than my current salary, but I can easily make up that difference by tutoring for two hours. Why would I bother getting promoted?
This isn't modern times. If you were to accidentally be drawn into factions and get involved in political infighting, your life could be in danger. Even if you were incredibly lucky and managed to rise to power through merit, there's still the saying "the rabbit is killed after the hunt." I don't have any serious illness.
The system was speechless for a while before it regained its ability to communicate and then decided to ignore him for three days.
Others might feel anxious and uneasy, but for Li Tianle, passive-aggressive behavior? It simply doesn't exist.
With his combination of being a homebody, social anxiety, and face blindness, Li Tianle's favorite thing is to be ignored.
Although the Hanlin Academy excluded him from organizing the library, they still maintained a respectable facade. For example, the library had Li Tianle's office desk, as well as free writing brushes, ink, paper, and inkstones.
As a corporate slave, Li Tianle's favorite things in life are slacking off and taking advantage of the company's resources.
When he comes across a book he likes, he copies it down to keep. This takes up his work time, and he uses materials provided by the company. The books that he copies down and binds into volumes are Li Tianle's spoils.
As soon as it was time to leave work, Li Tianle happily went home, carrying his books and water bottle.
His colleagues and superiors, who had always ostracized him, felt a strange sense of frustration seeing him like that. How could this guy be so carefree?!
Ever since Murong Yu learned that another evil entity might be able to seduce her, she has maintained a certain level of vigilance towards everyone around her.
He continued to observe every woman who approached him, after all, the possibility of a man was just that—a possibility. Women were also a possibility, and even eunuchs were a possibility.
Murong Yu was suspicious but pretended to be normal. He was quite tired. Now, he didn't need to be wary of Nangong Rou, because this thing was already within Lin You's surveillance range and was an open pawn.
In order to deplete the subsystem's energy, Murong Yu would occasionally move closer to her, have the imperial kitchen send her some things, and stimulate the subsystem to use its energy to gather intelligence and issue missions.
Although the energy consumption is not much, it is safe and sustainable. With enough time, the subsystem's energy will eventually be depleted without any replenishment.
However, the most important thing is to prevent the subsystem from replenishing its energy. Lin You was originally wary of the subsystem taking action again, but who knew that because of the previous electric shock punishment, Nangong Rou actually started to give up.
[Ding! Prepare a delicious dessert for the emperor to taste and receive his praise. Successfully completing the task will reward you with "Ice Skin and Jade Bones". Host, do you wish to accept the task?]
"I won't take it. All I can cook is instant noodles, and at most I can put a fried egg in them." Nangong Rou calmly did her daily tasks to accumulate points, without even glancing at the main quest.
[Ding! Play a tune for the emperor on his journey and receive a compliment. Successfully completing the task will reward you with "Eyes That Wink". Host, do you wish to accept the task?]
"No way. I can't even fluff cotton, let alone play the zither." Nangong Rou took a bite of the eight-treasure duck sent by the imperial kitchen, and to be honest, the taste was absolutely authentic.
As for the skill books that can be bought in the mall, such as those for playing the zither, chess, calligraphy, painting, and making cakes and pastries, which can be learned by simply patting your hand?
That book costs 200 points. It's harder for her to accumulate points than for a henpecked husband to save up his secret stash of money. She's not stupid, and she doesn't have to pay for her own work!
The subsystem earnestly advised:
Look at this "Ice Skin Jade Bone" cheat; it costs 3,000 in the store, but you only need 200 points to have a very good chance of getting it.
It is a woman's nature to love beauty. Even if she doesn't try to seduce men, she still hopes to be stunningly beautiful. Nangong Rou felt a shameful stirring in her heart.
"Ice-like skin and jade-like bones"—it sounds like a really good skincare product. Which woman hasn't spent time and effort on her face?
Seeing that she was interested, the subsystem was about to press on when it saw that Nangong Rou had already started calculating the rewards from her daily tasks.
"Ten tasks a day can earn you 80-120 points, which will only take a little over three months to accumulate. It's not difficult."
Seeing that she had even written a countdown board to show her anticipation, even a subsystem without a physical body felt like a mouthful of blood was stuck in her throat.
It was just one electric shock, and they even reduced its power by half. Other systems' hosts were all shocked until they foamed at the mouth and rolled their eyes, and then worked even harder to complete their tasks.
How did it end up with someone who only likes to fleece customers and doesn't do any work?!
The subsystem originally wanted to keep things at odds with her, since the emperor had already discovered her abnormal behavior and would take action against her sooner or later, at which point she would be begging to do the mission.
Who knew that Emperor Murong Yu had an unusual way of thinking? Although he wasn't close to Nangong Rou, he didn't mistreat her either, and would occasionally come over to see her for the first time. This led to the palace servants being quite polite to Nangong Rou.
After Nangong Rou's life became smooth, she became even less interested in doing tasks. Anyway, there weren't many items in the mall, and she could eventually get them all back if she kept trying.
The subsystem, grinding its teeth in anger, threatened her with feigned seriousness.
The emperor already knows what you did before. He's definitely doing this to lower your guard. When the time is right, he'll find a way to deal with you.
For modern people, especially modern working people, the most basic skill is to be able to see through PUA from all sides, whether it is from bosses, colleagues, or the system that follows them now.
Nangong Rou ignored the system's chatter, but the matter from back then did need to be dealt with.
After she transmigrated here, she only accepted two main quests related to the emperor.
One was dancing among flowers, but the most problematic thing was the bewitching incense she wore at the time. The emperor was not bewitched; he simply watched her dance and then left.
The second was to get the emperor to talk to her. Although she acted like she was sick, muttering to herself to a crooked tree for a long time, the emperor watched her and laughed at her for a long time.
In summary, she didn't do anything particularly reckless, but she still needed to find out if she had done anything taboo.
Murong Yu had already arranged for someone to be by Nangong Rou's side. After hearing about the evil spirit's threat from Lin You, that afternoon, the little palace maid who had been serving Nangong Rou started a caring conversation with her.
"Why is Your Highness so quiet today? You've even missed out on a couple of snacks. Are you feeling unwell? Should we summon the imperial physician to take a look?"
Chunyu's voice was gentle but tinged with anxiety, as if she wanted to share her master's burdens.
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