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

I paced around the yard twice, but didn't find anything strange. I was just about to turn over some of the plants.

Just then, footsteps suddenly sounded outside the winding corridor. The footsteps slowed down abruptly as they reached the moon gate, and then faint sounds of "ouch, ouch" could be heard.

Before long, a dozen eunuchs and maids carried Xiang Xin in, his face contorted in pain. Such a grand spectacle stunned Xiang An for a few seconds before he immediately adopted a dramatic act, wailing and wailing as he rushed towards them: "My poor brother! What happened to you! Which imperial physician treated you? Why aren't you better yet!"

As he spoke, he slapped Xiang Xin's buttocks hard. The sound of the slaps made the eunuchs and palace maids change color, and Xiang Xin gasped, his face contorted with pain. After all, he had received more than a dozen more lashes than Xiang An for some reason and was not fully recovered yet.

"Towards!! An!!"

The way he clenched his teeth and spoke each word so forcefully that you could almost hear his back teeth grinding.

Xiang An pretended not to know and slapped him a few more times: "I know you are touched that I came to visit you, but don't be touched yet. This is what I should do as your sister. Just give me a few boxes of gold and silver jewelry."

"Are they all dead?! Pull them apart!!" Unable to bear it any longer, Xiang Xin finally roared.

The eunuchs and palace maids, who were shocked by Xiang An's antics, reacted quickly and rushed forward to pull him away.

Xiang An readily released Xiang Xin, clutching his handkerchief and covering his mouth pitifully, saying, "Brother, what's wrong? Why are you in so much pain? Did I bump into you? I'm sorry, it's all my fault for not paying attention." No way, I'm hitting you, you pervert!

"Xiang An, stop pretending to be stupid!" Rescued, Xiang Xinru, her mouth burning hot, immediately spat it out. "Guards! Throw her out of the mansion!"

"Yes." "Please, Your Highness." "Please forgive me, Your Highness."

One by one, they were all very polite to Xiang An, which almost made Xiang Xin furious. He said he would beat them out of the mansion. Did these people even understand what beating meant?

Seeing that the volcano was about to erupt, Xiang An hurriedly dismissed the maids and eunuchs. She had not yet finished what she needed to do today, and she could not let Xiang Xin really kick her out of the mansion.

"Brother, don't be angry. I thought you were all healed like me and were just joking with me, so I played along."

"Get lost!" Xiang Xin crossed his arms, turned his head away, and refused to look at her, his anger simmering inside him, unable to be released.

"Alright, looks like I misjudged you. I thought you wanted revenge like me, but it turns out you don't." Xiang An said as he backed away. "In that case, I won't disturb your meditation any longer—Xiang Xin! Let go! You're going to strangle me!"

Standing behind her, Xiang Xin propped himself up with one hand on his hip and stuck out his buttocks, while grabbing Xiang An by the back of her collar with the other. He stood firmly in place, his legs trembling, and whispered through gritted teeth in her ear, "Xiang Xiao Jiu, you've got some nerve. Revenge? Who do you want revenge against? Father? Do you want to die?"

"I think you're too bold. Did I say it was Father Emperor? But if it were Father Emperor, I believe you wouldn't be afraid, would you? -- Uh, cough cough!!" The collar was pulled back a few more times, and the neck was squeezed. Unperturbed, Xiang An inserted his fingers along the gap between the skin and the clothes and pulled forward with force, and the collar that had been grabbed was freed from Xiang Xin's control.

A rush of fresh air filled my nostrils. I tried to calm myself and turned around, saying, "We're like siblings, we're on the same wavelength. Don't pretend to be stupid in front of me." Siblings my ass, on the same wavelength my ass. This kid wasn't being discreet at all last game.

Xiang Xin gave a low hum through her nose, but didn't say anything.

"Father, I won't touch him, but I absolutely must touch Wei Wenrun. Are you going to do it or not?"

"A life for a life, that's only right. Xiang Xiao Jiu, Wei Wenrun only punished you with a few strokes of the cane, and you want to take revenge on him? That's too petty. Do you know that three days ago, Wei Wenrun was punished with ten strokes of the cane for disrespecting the emperor? But why he was punished? Your father has already taken care of that for you."

"It's only natural? Solve it?" Xiang An couldn't help but laugh.

It's truly remarkable that a pervert would utter such righteous words.

However, she needed to be more rational and kind. After sorting out her thoughts, she said to An, "My reason for wanting to take action against Wei Wenrun is very simple. First, was He Tao killed by me? No. She died by running into a wall on her own. The cause of her death, whether direct or indirect, has nothing to do with me."

“I conducted an on-site inspection and found the same footprint lingering in the mud next to it, and another identical mud print on the wall, proving that someone had climbed over this wall.”

"Later, several old beggars at the intersection also confirmed this. They saw He Tao's husband wait outside the wall for a long time, and then he used a large stone by the roadside to leap onto the wall. I found out that just an hour earlier, a servant from the Wei family had found her husband and given him fifty taels of silver. After that, he went straight to the backyard of my princess's mansion without stopping."

"You say I'm vindictive, but after I learned of this, I didn't even bother to confront her husband. Logically speaking, He Tao's death by hitting her head against the wall is inextricably linked to her husband. If I were truly the person you described, I would have already taken action against the court officials. What's wrong with silently killing an ordinary citizen?"

"Second, He Tao is not the wet nurse from the Wei family six years ago. She wasn't even married six years ago. Third, what does Wei Wenrun being beaten for misbehaving in front of the palace have to do with me? Which court official isn't beaten? Does that mean that every time a court official is punished for misbehavior, it's because my father beats them on my behalf?"

As soon as the words were spoken, the courtyard seemed to freeze for a moment. The two looked at each other across the distance. In this courtyard, which was separated from the sweltering summer, on this afternoon when the cicadas were chirping loudly, there was no kinship, only an undercurrent of turmoil beneath the extreme silence.

Xiang An could feel Xiang Xin staring at her with an extremely peculiar and sharp gaze, as sharp as an ice spike that had never thawed in ten thousand years, as if it wanted to pierce through her flesh, bones and blood and reach the depths of her soul, to thoroughly investigate whether the person in front of her was really herself.

Has his personality changed so drastically that he's been exposed? Is he now suspected of not being the original person?

But, so what?

It was expected.

Sometimes she felt fortunate that the system hadn't given her all of the original owner's memories at once, allowing her some space to be herself. Other times, she felt frustrated because she didn't have the original owner's memories and needed to see that person or thing to recall a particular memory.

But after she transmigrated and learned about the mission, no matter how much of the original owner's memories she had, she had already set a limit for herself in imitating the original owner: as long as she wasn't burned to death as a monster. Everything else, she was herself, and the original owner was the original owner.

Whether she does good or bad, she will bear the consequences herself; the good things that the original owner did belong to the original owner.

In the future, when others mention the evil deeds she committed, they might say, "How could she have become such an ambitious, power-hungry, and aggressive woman, when she was once such a noble and dazzling woman, full of poetry and literature and overflowing with talent?"

Her palms were damp, and her fingertips unconsciously gripped them. She asked An before he could, "Brother, would you like to lend your sister a hand?"