I've Decided To Be This Tyrant's Dark Moonlight - Chapter 35

In a crestfallen mood, Wei Ying tucked a few storybooks into her arms and, upon returning to the Jade Dew Palace, locked herself in her room, determined to study them thoroughly.

The writing of “One-Year Tumbleweed” was exceptional, with delicate prose and a poignant, heart-wrenching plot.

Initially, Wei Ying opened the book with a “just a peek” attitude, but she quickly became engrossed. However, she was frustrated that the story was too chaste and pure, lacking the thrilling eroticism of “Palace of Passion.”

Palace Intrigue System: …I can’t believe you’re even reading your own story! And with such gusto, too.

Wei Ying adjusted the candle flame, her face so close to the pages she was practically nose-to-paper, struggling to make out each tiny character. Her persistent spirit even made the Palace Intrigue System look on in solemn admiration. It wasn’t until her eyes ached so much she couldn’t see a single word that she regretfully put the book down, tucked it away, and sat blankly on the couch, staring at the lantern swaying in the wind.

A deep silence settled. Outside, the wind rustled.

Palace Intrigue System: Host, host? Why aren’t you talking?

Wei Ying lazily raised an eyebrow, placing her index finger on her lips: “Shhh.”

The Palace Intrigue System fell silent.

But after just a few minutes, it couldn’t help but ask again: Host, are you okay?

Whenever the host fell silent, the system panicked. The Palace Intrigue System was very anxious now, afraid she would cause some new trouble.

Wei Ying smiled faintly: “Little Chick, are you a ten-dollar megaphone, just ‘blablablablabla’ for no reason?”

The Palace Intrigue System’s voice sounded wounded: “I’m just worried about you!”

Wei Ying really wanted to rub its system head, silently stroking it and praising it: “Good system!”

The Palace Intrigue System held a grudge: “I am not a ten-dollar megaphone, I am very expensive!”

It was the latest version of AI, created at a great cost by the company. To some extent, it had already begun to possess human-like thought processes and emotions. It was very advanced.

After hearing the Palace Intrigue System’s proud self-introduction, Wei Ying was silent for a few minutes, then smiled with paternal affection, “I know, you’re a fancy little megaphone.”

The Palace Intrigue System was very unhappy with this new nickname: “Hmph, I’m not talking to you.”

Wei Ying: “A tsundere fancy little megaphone.”

Palace Intrigue System: …Hmph, you dog host, ptooey!

It was late at night, the twilight was heavy, and footsteps faded outside the palace. The sparse human voices were buried by the desolate, cold autumn night.

The young woman sat before the lamp, wrapped her cloak around herself, picked up the prepared lantern, and fumbled her way out of the room. Not far ahead was a low table. As if she hadn’t seen it, she walked straight toward it and was about to trip—

“Host, be careful! Don’t walk straight, you need to go around that.” The Palace Intrigue System finally couldn’t hold back.

The corner of Wei Ying’s mouth lifted, “You’re talking to me now?”

The Palace Intrigue System pondered for a long time, realizing it had been tricked again. It silently cursed the host for being such a dog, but still haughtily hummed, acting as a fancy, silent little megaphone.

Wei Ying: “Little megaphone? Little megaphone, little megaphone?”

Palace Intrigue System: “Don’t talk to me, you’ve broken me!”

As soon as it said that, it saw its host’s face flush with a strange blush, and she covered her mouth, giggling.

Palace Intrigue System: Host, what are you laughing about?

Wei Ying: Hehehehehe.

The Palace Intrigue System didn’t understand why she was smiling, but it felt it couldn’t be a good thing.

Wei Ying: Hehehehehe, you’re broken~ Well, get some good rest.

The imperial palace was desolate and cold on an autumn night. The moon hung like a hook on the branches, illuminating the deep palace and its thousand chilly steps.

Wei Ying passed under a sycamore tree, the wind gently lifting the stray strands of hair by her temples. She covered her mouth and coughed lightly a couple of times, her breath a little ragged from the coughing, her eyes blurry, and her cheeks slightly flushed. She looked up and softly asked the system, “Little Chick, do I look like a delicate, weak bindweed?”

The Palace Intrigue System had an extremely strong recovery ability and quickly emerged from its “broken” state, achieving perfect self-repair: Huh?

Wei Ying: Why, after reading the story, do I feel so weak and pitiful, so lonely and helpless, so small and pathetic?

Palace Intrigue System: …You might have some misunderstandings about yourself.

Wei Ying clasped her hands to her chest and said with great feeling, “In a while, the pure and flawless me will be tormented in both body and heart, then be corrupted by the great dye vat of the imperial palace, lose my sense of self, and finally freeze to death in the desolate north wind, with cold snowflakes covering my body. Alas, my pure nature came and will return, I will leave my integrity in this world.”

As she spoke, she shed two miserable tears for her pitiful fate and sadly said, “I am truly too tragic.”

Palace Intrigue System: …Which storybook did you just read?

Wei Ying: “New Snow Buries the Crying Oriole.”

Palace Intrigue System: Stop reading, you’ll go crazy.

Just as Wei Ying was still immersed and unable to extricate herself from the angsty love story, she suddenly heard a sharp, wailing cry from nearby—

“A ghost! AAAAAAH!”

She turned her head. The familiar crying voice of the little eunuch echoed from ahead: “I was wrong, ghost lady, I was really wrong. I shouldn’t have disobeyed Lady Ying and come out to pee in the middle of the night. Wuwuwu, please spare me.”

The little eunuch scrambled away, crying and shouting.

The autumn wind blew, causing leaves to spin in the air.

Wei Ying stood among the swirling leaves, staring in the direction he ran off, silent for a long time.

She, with her angsty bindweed script, should have been the most beautiful, pitiful, and harmless white lotus ghost even if she became one! The little eunuch’s shout completely broke her immersion.

Palace Intrigue System: “Are you sober now?”

Wei Ying: “…How could anyone be afraid of Yingying? Yingying is so cute q^q.”

Palace Intrigue System: Host, I beg you, please stop your supernatural powers!”

Wei Ying pouted, her hands tucked into her sleeves, and she walked toward the direction of the Cold Palace. She guessed that Little Liu would come looking for her again tomorrow. Scaring people at night and curing ghosts during the day, she successfully captured the hearts of a group of palace servants, achieving sustainable development of her points. Life was truly so full and busy.

Palace Intrigue System: “You really know how to comfort yourself.”

Where did her host get this “bindweed” script from? It had already connected to the internet and searched for a bunch of scripts that suited her. Things like “Deep Palace Ghost Stories,” “Ringu,” “The Night Is Quiet…” She was practically the Kayako of the Cold Palace, a walking human weapon of destruction.

Wei Ying tried to save face: “Even if it’s a ghost story, I’m the most beautiful child in the ghost world!”

The Palace Intrigue System was very supportive: “Of course, after all, they can only scare people to death after they die. You can already do it while you’re still alive!”

Wei Ying: …Megaphone, blablablablabla.

The Palace Intrigue System fell silent again.

This dog host!

Half an hour later, Wei Ying expertly pushed open the door of the true ghost’s home. Her familiar manner was like the little palace maid in “Palace of Passion” who snuck into a concubine’s bed at night.

This time, before she could even speak, she smelled a strange odor.

Wei Ying stood downwind, sniffing like a little dog. A faint scent of burning paper money drifted on the wind.

She frowned slightly. Why was someone burning paper money?

Footsteps approached from in front of her, and a blurry figure appeared in her dim vision.

Wei Ying went up and gave a bear hug, taking a long breath of good luck: “I’ve come to see you!”

The “ghost” didn’t speak.

Wei Ying tilted her little head, looking at her, her eyes sparkling, “Why aren’t you talking?”

The “ghost” remained silent, only clasping her hand and leading her through the withered branches and dead leaves, toward the abandoned, desolate flower garden.

They walked side by side, their steps crunching on the dry leaves and broken branches.

Wei Ying seized this opportunity to quickly summon the system for a ten-pull. The blind box opened a tiny slit, from which a glimmer of… green light?

She froze, then opened another blind box, praying in her heart: “Purple luck from the east, golden legend, good fortune bless me!”

And then another green light.

Lush and verdant green.

Wei Ying’s heart felt a chill. Compared to her previous pulls of gray cards, her luck seemed a little better, but these blind boxes had a guaranteed green card! If they didn’t have a guarantee, she would probably have gotten two gray cards.

She took a deep breath, praying again in her heart: “Good fortune bless me, good fortune bless me! Purple luck from the east!”

The blind box slowly opened, and no green light emerged from the slit.

Wei Ying’s heart said “Oh yeah!” It wasn’t a green card this time. At worst, it would be a purple card… right?

She stared at the empty blind box, a little dazed: “Little megaphone, did you secretly hide my gold card?”

System: “No.”

Wei Ying’s eyes lit up: “I get it! It’s an invisible card that lets me turn invisible for an hour!”

Palace Intrigue System: “No.”

Wei Ying: “Then tell me what’s inside. Is it the Sixth Gourd Baby from the Gourd Brothers?”

Palace Intrigue System: “Hehehehe, host, you’re so funny. I only said the blind boxes have a green card guarantee, but I never said you wouldn’t get an empty box.” It comforted Wei Ying: “You managed to hit a one-in-a-thousand probability. In a way, that’s pretty lucky.”

Wei Ying’s mindset crumbled. She stopped, pulling her hand away from the “ghost”: “You are not her.”

Her lucky charm couldn’t be so heartless, letting her be beaten down by life!

That person laughed softly, her voice as clear and cold as falling snow, and slowly asked, “How did you figure it out?”

Wei Ying’s eyes widened, “Em… Empress?”

Empress: “Yes, it’s me. How did you know I wasn’t her?”

Wei Ying sniffled, tears streaming in the cold wind, and said with great sorrow, “Because of the Sixth Gourd Baby.”

Yue Qinghui: ?

But she chose to ignore Wei Ying’s strange words and gently wiped a tear from the corner of the young woman’s eye, asking, “Why are you here so late at night?”

Wei Ying felt a little overwhelmed. After all, she and the Empress were only in a professional relationship, why all the tear-wiping and hand-holding?

It made her little heart pound and dance the square dance in her chest—phew, good thing she discovered it in time and didn’t pull all the blind boxes at once.

Goodness, the Empress was even unluckier than she was. Who could compete with that?

“Why are you here, Your Majesty?” Wei Ying frowned: “I smell something burnt.”

Yue Qinghui’s eyes flickered. She led her to a corner of the flower garden. A ceremonial table was set up there with a few plates of wine and pastries. A pair of chopsticks stood straight up in a bowl of rice, and a stick of incense burned beside it. Under the table, there was a brass basin with the remains of burnt paper money.

“Today is the Lesser Yuan Festival. In my hometown, it’s a day to honor friends and comfort lonely souls, so I came to pay respects to a former friend.” She handed Wei Ying a handful of paper money: “You can burn some too.”

Wei Ying was forced to burn paper in the cold wind, her eyes falling on the scattered lantern lights. She suddenly thought of something and was startled, looking up at the Empress. In her eyes, the Empress was just a blurry figure, and at a glance, she looked a bit like a female ghost.

Wei Ying: “Your Majesty, may I be so bold as to ask if your deceased friend’s name had the character ‘Yun’?”

Yue Qinghui was slightly taken aback, then said, “It did.”

Wei Ying gasped and didn’t speak for a long time.

“What’s wrong?”

Wei Ying started burning the paper with a serious, sad expression: “I think your friend may have become a half-immortal, one who manages luck. You should come and burn more paper money, Your Majesty, to turn your luck around.”

She had thought the ghost girl was a concubine from the deep palace, and had even suspected the Empress, but she never thought she was a real ghost… Wei Ying’s heart was very conflicted. A thousand emotions surged through her, finally turning into a long sigh—

“My lucky charm is already gone!”

Her lucky charm worked so hard to turn her luck around, and she only gave her a simple ceremonial table. It was simply heartless.

Wei Ying felt a rare pang of conscience. She decided that after she returned, she would upgrade the ceremonial table for her lucky star to a luxurious version and change the three sticks of incense daily to five, to comfort the soul of Miss Yun in heaven.

Yue Qinghui’s eyes held a hesitant look: “Can you help me with a favor?”

When the Empress asked, you had to help even if you couldn’t. So Wei Ying said, “Of course I can. A woman can’t say ‘can’t’!”

A faint smile appeared in Yue Qinghui’s eyes. She looked at the young woman for a long time. “Then, please, play a tune on the erhu for me.”

Wei Ying was stunned: “Huh?”

Yue Qinghui expertly returned to her room, fumbled around for a while, and pulled an erhu out from under the bed.

Wei Ying watched her from behind, thinking, ‘Wow, the Empress is so skilled, she’s as skilled as the palace maid in “Palace of Passion” who snuck into a concubine’s bed.’ Following this train of thought, her ideas became more and more dangerous, and she seemed to understand why Miss Yun had died here.

“System, do you think this Miss Yun and the Empress had that special relationship!”

And that’s why she was silenced.

And the ghost of Miss Yun was waiting here just to meet with the Empress on the Lesser Yuan Festival every year.

Wei Ying was about to be moved to tears just by thinking about it. What a beautiful and tragic love story!

Palace Intrigue System: “…They did have a special relationship, but—”

But it was completely different from what she was imagining!

Wei Ying was so surprised she bit her little handkerchief, her eyes sparkling with tears of emotion. Even the system believed this tragic love story. She never expected that such a story of “human and ghost, love without end” would be happening right beside her.

It was too touching.

So when Yue Qinghui turned around, she was surprised to see a faint watery sheen in the young woman’s eyes, as if she was about to cry from sadness.

“What’s wrong?” She frowned, confused: “What happened?”

Wei Ying clasped her hands together and said seriously, “Your Majesty, your ‘friend’ has already turned into a lucky star to protect you. Please don’t be sad or cry. She will always be with you. Amitabha.”

Yue Qinghui was caught off guard by the sudden sermon. After a moment, she gave a stiff nod: “Thank you.”

Wei Ying: “You’re welcome. It’s my duty to protect every wounded soul in the deep palace!”

Now she expanded the scope of this sentence, silently adding in her heart: “Whether human or ghost.”

Yue Qinghui: “…Then you’re truly working hard.”

The young woman smiled, her cheeks flushed with a faint pink, and said sincerely, “It’s alright. With great power comes great responsibility. The capable should work harder.”

Yue Qinghui: “With so many women in the deep palace, be careful not to wear yourself out.”

Wei Ying’s heart fluttered. She thought, ‘Ah, the Empress, who just lost her lover, is still so considerate! What kind of divine big sister is this? She feels so much pity for her.’

She held the Empress’s cold little hand, trying to warm her with her interesting soul: “It’s alright, I’m not tired at all!”

The Palace Intrigue System couldn’t help but think: ‘…Not only is she not tired, she’s also enjoying it very much.’

Returning to the ceremonial table, Wei Ying held the erhu and asked the Empress what she wanted to hear.

The Empress told her to play whatever she liked.

So Wei Ying thought for a moment and chose the sad “The Moon Reflected in the Second Spring.” The mournful tune echoed once again in the abandoned palace garden. With the red lanterns swaying in the wind, it looked even more like a ghost haunting.

While playing the erhu, Wei Ying heard several screams from outside. They must have been palace servants who were scared as they passed by. She paused for a moment, then continued to play with a calm and composed expression—

After all, they had to get used to it.

To improve the psychological resilience of the entire imperial palace, she was truly working herself to the bone in the shadows.

After the song was finished, the Empress was silent for a long time.

Wei Ying looked up: “Your Majesty?”

Yue Qinghui looked at her, her eyes filled with remembrance. After a while, she said, “Have you heard the story of the Kun and the mayfly?”

Wei Ying sat on the small stool, slightly stunned. She remembered the story of the bird and the fish that the dog Emperor had told, and thought, ‘Why do they all have so many stories! Only I, besides having an interesting soul, a beautiful skin, and a few boxes of gold in the Jade Dew Palace, have nothing!’

She coughed weakly, thinking, ‘I’m so pitiful, I don’t have a single story.’

Yue Qinghui heard her cough and led her back into the room, where she brewed a pot of clear tea. The faint aroma of the tea filled the air.

“Have some tea first.” The Empress, with her elegant and noble demeanor, personally made and handed the young woman a cup of tea: “To warm you up.”

Wei Ying held the hot tea with both hands, blew on it twice, and took a small sip.

Yue Qinghui sat upright and began to slowly tell her story: “You’ve heard of ‘Free and Easy Wandering,’ right? In the Northern Sea, there is a fish called the Kun. It can flap its wings and turn into a Peng. The Peng lives forever, flying from the Northern Sea to the Southern Sea, in an instant from north to south, soaring through the heavens. How carefree it is. And the mayfly’s life is fleeting, it lives for a morning and dies in the evening.”

White steam rose from the tea, and the tea leaves floated in the hot water.

She stared at the tea leaves in the water and said softly, “Their fate is that one must spend its entire life looking up, watching the Peng fly over in the sky, its wings shining brightly in the sun, and then watching it fly away to a true distant place… a world the mayfly can never reach.”

Yue Qinghui took a sip of tea. The tea was sweet, but the smile on her lips was bitter. “This is their fate.”

She looked at Wei Ying. The young woman was focused on drinking her tea and didn’t speak, so she couldn’t help but ask, “What do you think?”

Wei Ying looked up, her eyes sparkling: “I also heard a story about a bird and a fish from His Majesty. I’m so envious that you all have so many stories!”

Yue Qinghui: “…And then?”

Wei Ying blinked, hesitating: “And then, you have so many birds in your lives!”

Yue Qinghui pursed her lips and said with difficulty, “We’re talking about… the same bird.”

Wei Ying nodded: “You both like to look up at the sky at a forty-five-degree angle, so you can see the same bird.”

The tea in Yue Qinghui’s mouth became more and more bitter, so much so that she couldn’t help but furrow her brows. “The bird is just a metaphor.”

Wei Ying was like a child suddenly pushed into an exam. She scratched her head and thought for a long time, then clapped her hands: “I get it!”

Yue Qinghui looked at her with anticipation.

Wei Ying said with certainty: “This is a scumbag bird!”

Yue Qinghui took a deep breath, finished the tea in her cup, and rubbed her temples. “It’s late. You’re not well, so you should go back and rest first.”

Wei Ying: “Okay!”

She wouldn’t disturb the Empress and the ghost sister’s “human and ghost, love without end” drama anymore!

The Empress was really gentle and considerate, even in the way she told her to leave. If the ghost sister were here, she would have directly grabbed her by the collar and pushed her out.

She was so domineering and unreasonable, but Wei Ying kind of liked that and always wanted to tease the ghost.

Yue Qinghui accidentally caught a glimpse of the corner of a storybook: “What are you holding?”

Wei Ying held the book and hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to hand it over honestly, using the book to wash away the Empress’s sadness of being separated from her lover and to soothe her wounded soul. She took out the book and handed it to the Empress, happily waving her hand: “This one is very good, Your Majesty. I’ll get going, bye!”

Yue Qinghui stared at the title New Snow Buries the Crying Oriole, her hands trembling slightly as she flipped through the pages.

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