After the system set its sights on the dragon throne, the princess started courting death every day.

She became angry when she talked about these things. She admitted that General Anwu was handsome, but her own princess was no less so. She had a delicate and fair face, affectionate eyes, and a gentle and warm smile.

Countless fine men in the capital praised the princess's beauty, but General Anwu, who had never even seen her, blurted out, "I am truly unworthy of the princess."

Listen to that! What woman wouldn't be angry hearing such veiled and overt mockery?

Xiang An was both amused and exasperated: "It's all in the past. I was just asking casually. I don't care whether you refuse or not."

As soon as she finished speaking, her temples stopped hurting, indicating that the original owner of this body shared her opinion.

To be fair, the two of them had neither been betrothed by their parents nor arranged by a matchmaker, and they had never even met. How could they take their casual words seriously?

The original owner was angry and upset because she was rejected and lost face as a young woman, and said those hurtful things in a moment of embarrassment.

It's easy to imagine that a little princess who was pampered by the emperor growing up would not be able to accept being rejected.

Even a casual joke is not acceptable.

Even after calming down, they stubbornly refuse to admit that they've gotten over their anger.

Seeing that Xiang An really didn't care, Xiao Ru puffed out her cheeks and stopped mentioning it.

After finishing a plate of pastries, it was time for the banquet to end. In the crowd, Changfu came with a smile: "Princess, this servant will escort you back."

Xiang An pretended to be drunk, shook her head, and said in a coquettish tone, "You take me back to my residence. There's no one to serve Father Emperor anymore."

Changfu's smile deepened: "Princess, your filial piety is commendable, but I was specially ordered by His Majesty to escort you back to your residence. Tonight, you drank quite a bit of wine, and His Majesty is very worried and truly at ease. Please allow me to put your mind at ease."

Leaning against Xiao Ru, the drunkenness that had been suppressed at the banquet surged up again. Rubbing the corners of her eyes, she reluctantly accepted the situation, saying, "Thank you for your trouble, Father-in-law."

She had to give the emperor some face, as he was the emperor's most favored servant.

As we stumbled out of the palace, we happened to overhear several ladies discussing the banquet by the roadside:

"I heard that the third prince of Yan Kingdom fell in love at first sight with Ren Xueqing, the eldest daughter of the prime minister, in the imperial garden, and the emperor has already issued an edict to marry them."

"really?"

"How could that be fake? I heard that the Emperor has already recognized Xueqing as his goddaughter and will soon be preparing her dowry for a marriage alliance with another country."

"Marrying so far away! Without your family to support you, life will be tough!"

"Who can argue with that? But there's nothing we can do. If she refuses to marry into the Yan Kingdom, who in the capital would dare to marry a woman who has offended the emperor as their mistress?"

As Changfu helped her onto the carriage, the wheels turned, and the hushed conversations of the ladies by the roadside gradually faded away.

The moment Xiang An stepped into the princess's residence, a system notification sounded: [Ding! The system has sent the residual consciousness of the original owner, who died from poisoning, into the cycle of reincarnation. Please complete the mission as soon as possible and return to the modern world.]

Residual consciousness of the original owner? Poisoning?

Xiang An paused, remembering the headache she had experienced at the banquet, and asked, "Who poisoned me?"

【do not know. 】

"Was the poisoner at the banquet?"

【do not know. 】

"You're completely useless," Xiang An said disdainfully. "You know nothing, how am I supposed to find the mastermind behind the poisoning of the original body? If I go out in the original body's body, and the mastermind finds out that the person they were supposed to poison didn't die, they'll definitely try again."

"At that point, I'll be in the open while he's in the shadows. I won't even know when he strikes, and I'll just be waiting to die. In such a predicament, how do you expect me to complete the mission?"

"I think it's better to give up on the mission now and live a peaceful and happy life than to work hard only to end up with nothing."

[Are you sure, host?] As expected, the system remained remarkably calm: [Once you choose this path, it means you are choosing to abandon the mission and forgo returning to your original world.]

Xiang An knew that the system was both a reminder and a threat.

But what good does knowing mean? She said it on purpose, just to ask, "So how can I complete the task quickly?"

This is a question you, host, should be thinking about.

"Everything is my fault, you know nothing, you don't help at all, so why did you bring me here in the first place?! And now you won't let me leave? Are you crazy?! Don't you know this is kidnapping?! It's human trafficking?! It's illegal?!"

Xiang An's long-suppressed anger finally reached its breaking point and erupted completely.

The system originates from the Heavenly Dao, and its existence is to serve the Heavenly Dao. The Heavenly Dao treats all people fairly, justly, and equally; it will not allow the system to bring an insignificant person into an unknown world without reason.

"...I don't care about you or your so-called Heavenly Way, I want to go back. I don't agree to stay here. I want to go home!"

The system's tone remained unchanged: "[The host can return to their original world upon completing the mission.]"

"You're insane! You're insane! You really are insane! You're even more insane than an insane person!"

Please remain calm, host. The Heavenly Way has its own rules, and it never makes mistakes.

"What rules?" Xiang An blurted out.

[Heh, if the host has time to use the system, he'd better hurry up and complete the task as soon as possible, otherwise the consequences are something the host doesn't want to know.]

It discovered it! It discovered she was trying to get information out of her!

This is a system with extremely high intelligence; we cannot continue to test it.

Having been exposed, Xiang An stopped asking about the rules, forced himself to remain calm, and coldly snorted: "Consequences? The worst that can happen is death?"

[More terrifying than death, the system guarantees the host will definitely regret it.]

Despite the completely flat tone of his voice, Xiang An's heart was inexplicably pounding, and she inexplicably didn't want to bear the consequences.

Even though she didn't know what this vague and uncertain "after" actually meant.

After a moment of silence, Xiang An spoke: "The current emperor is so incompetent and tyrannical that he is intolerable to heaven and earth, so your system needs to find me to become the empress?"

You don't need to know anything, just complete the task.

The system remained calm and was simply issuing a notification.

Having failed to glean any information, Xiang An immediately became dejected.

Xiao Ru asked in confusion, "Is the princess troubled?"

She couldn't understand why the princess, who was perfectly fine before getting off the carriage, became so listless after entering the princess's residence.

Xiang An emerged from his emotional state and said, "Go and secretly find some secret aphrodisiacs for the bedroom."

It's almost as if they're explicitly saying "aphrodisiac".

She could talk about poisoning the emperor, but she could never actually do it.

Putting aside the fact that I can't cross my own moral bottom line, the emperor hasn't done anything heinous so far.

Although the emperor in the original owner's memories wasn't particularly close to her emotionally, he was the ruler of the world, and all the people were his children. The emperor provided the original owner with good food and drink, feeding her with delicacies and fine silks, which was already very good.

Why should he be killed for no reason now, just because of some stupid task from the system?

Forgive her, a peaceful modernist successor with impeccable credentials, for not being able to do this; it's too immoral.

This is why, as soon as she transmigrated, before the system could finish speaking and before she had any memories of the original owner, she immediately attacked the emperor.

The more you know, the more likely you are to be soft-hearted, the more you hesitate and worry about this and that, and the less likely you are to take action.

Do it all at once, second time tired, third time exhausted.