The silence in the courtyard was so sharp it could have cut glass. Every servant held their breath, eyes fixed on the steaming tea that had splattered against the hem of Crown Prince Jianyu's golden robe.
Li Mei wanted, with an intensity she had never felt before, to dig a hole in that stone and climb inside. Her brain pumped out a thousand frantic apologies, each one louder than the last; her hands trembled as if the cold had seeped into her bones. Of course, at the absolute worst possible second, the System chimed like a smug, unhelpful narrator.
[Critical Failure! Survival -15%. Execution Probability: 45%.][Optional Quest: Attempt groveling. Suggested dialogue: 'Forgive this lowly maid's worthless life, Your Highness!']
Her lips twitched at the word suggested. Suggested dialogue? Am I a dating sim NPC with pre-written lines? Good to know. Thanks.
Crown Prince Jianyu's gaze rose slowly, the motion deliberate and dangerous. His eyes were hawk-sharp and cold, like winter light striking steel. When he spoke, his voice was low and smooth, and it sliced through the courtyard's tension.
"Name."
Her tongue felt like lead. Air seemed to thicken in her throat. "M… Meiyun, Your Highness," she managed.
The pause after her answer stretched on. Jianyu's stare crawled over her like a slow inspection, measuring, cataloguing. For a beat Li Mei was sure her sentence had been her last. Then he flicked his sleeve with a faint, irritated motion and stepped past without another word.
The courtyard released a collective exhale that sounded like prisoners who had been spared. Bao'er yanked Li Mei's arm so violently she nearly toppled.
"Are you insane? You almost died! If His Highness had been in a worse mood—"
"I am insane," Li Mei muttered under her breath, because honesty felt safer than pretending. "Completely clinically insane. Someone get me a therapist. Or a shovel."
The System gave its victory ding.
[Update: Survived First Encounter. Reward: +1 Luck.]
Li Mei stared at the air. "Great," she whispered. "Just one? Can I exchange it for immunity from decapitation?"
The System, as per established protocol, ignored her entirely.
That night the mattress felt like a plank and sleep came in snatches. Every time she blinked, Jianyu's eyes haunted her—not in any romantic, fluttery way, but like the remembered glare of a predator who had decided she might be interesting prey. She curled under the thin blanket and talked to herself, because talking to the System was a losing argument.
"Okay, Mei. Rule number one: avoid the Crown Prince. Rule number two: survive. Rule number three: find instant noodles, somehow."
The System responded, patient and cruel.
[Correction: Rule number three is invalid. Instant noodles not available in fourteenth-century dynasties.]
Li Mei flopped her face into the pillow and felt unfairly betrayed by history itself. "I hate you," she whispered at the ceiling.
Her dreams were ridiculous and panicked and full of royal gazes and flying teacups. Dawn arrived too soon, bringing sunlight and the rough knock of reality: she was summoned.
Bao'er brought the message with a face for portents.
"The Empress wants to see you," she blurted.
Li Mei nearly fainted. "Me? Why me? Did I anger someone again?" She tried to make her voice sound blasé and failed spectacularly.
Bao'er gaped. "You exist. Apparently that's enough."
The walk to the Phoenix Hall felt longer than any stretch of her previous life. Red lacquered wood shimmered in the morning light. Golden dragons coiled along pillars like watchful serpents. Lotus-shaped lanterns swung on silk cords, scenting the corridor with incense that made Li Mei's head swim. She followed a senior maid, clutching her sleeves until her knuckles went white, reciting ritual motions in her head like a charm.
When they reached the Phoenix Hall, Li Mei saw the Empress for the first time.
Celestia sat on a raised dais, her robes a cascade of crimson and gold silk. Silver light seemed to cling to her like a halo, but it was a cold, silver light. Her eyes were pale and sharp, framed by long dark lashes. The Empress's beauty was not the soft sort that comforted; it was the kind that warned—like a blade hidden beneath satin.
Li Mei's throat tightened. She had watched these scenes in dramas, thought she knew the choreography. Bow. Kowtow. Count the steps. Keep hands folded properly in front. Do not breathe wrong.
"Bow," the senior maid hissed.
Li Mei pressed her forehead to the polished floor and tried to recall whether it was three kowtows or nine, which palm rested where, which cheek to kiss the floor with—all the tiny rules that, when broken, could mean losing your head instead of your pride. The System, predictably, piped up.
[Warning: Improper etiquette reduces survival chance.]
She muttered into the wood, "Shut up."
A voice like honey laced with frost made her start.
"What was that?"
Mortified, Li Mei jerked her head up. The Empress's expression was a knife wrapped in silk.
"N-nothing, Your Majesty! This lowly maid is honored to—uh—lick the floor—no! Serve at your feet—WAIT—"
The awkwardness exploded around her like a gust. Gasps rippled through the hall. Li Mei clapped a hand over her mouth, hot and humiliated. Please, kill me now was the private chant she could not say aloud.
But then, impossibly, the Empress smiled. It was a small, almost amused curve that did not reach the cold light in her eyes. The smile made Li Mei's blood run cold and, against every instinct screaming at her to crawl away, it tugged a thread of curiosity inside her.
"Rise."
Her legs betrayed her and shook as she stood. Celestia watched her with an intensity that felt almost intimate.
"You are the one who caught His Highness's attention yesterday, are you not?" Empress Celestia asked, each syllable measured.
Li Mei realized, with a sinking feeling, that "caught his attention" was a euphemism for making a spectacle. "Yes, Your Majesty," she answered, voice small.
Celestia tilted her head. The pale eyes narrowed like a hunter sizing up a newcomer. "Interesting. Tell me, Meiyun—do you believe in fate?"
Li Mei almost said I believe in Netflix and Wi-Fi, which would have been a tragic historical non sequitur, so instead she squeaked, "…Sometimes?"
A soft chuckle passed through the Empress, but it did not touch her eyes. "Sometimes. A clever answer."
Celestia rose from the dais and the silk of her skirts trailed like spilled wine. She walked around Li Mei, studying her as if looking for a thread to pull.
[Special Event: First Encounter with Empress Celestia.][Quest: Survive Conversation. Reward: Unknown.][Failure: Do not ask.]
The Empress reached out and brushed a stray lock of hair from Li Mei's cheek. Her fingers were cool as the inside of a tomb. Li Mei felt her heart slam against her ribs like a trapped bird.
"This palace," Celestia murmured, words soft and precise, "is a garden. Beautiful, yet filled with thorns. Do you know what happens to careless hands that touch without caution?"
Li Mei swallowed until the taste of her panic was bitter. "They… bleed?"
The Empress's smile widened, and somewhere in the widening the world got sharper. "Exactly."
Even as fear constricted her, Li Mei noticed something contradictory and dangerous: the Empress's presence pulled at her. It was magnetic and hungry and impossible to ignore.
Leaning so close Li Mei felt the warmth of her breath, Celestia whispered, "Do not let anyone mistake you for a weed, little maid. Weeds are plucked and burned."
Li Mei shivered in a way that had nothing to do with the morning chill. "…Noted," she whispered, which felt embarrassingly inadequate and strangely honest.
Celestia stepped back, her face unreadable. She gestured to the waiting maids. "This one will serve tea in my hall from now on."
Li Mei's jaw dropped so far she worried it would dislocate. "What?" The single word came out more like a squeak of disbelief.
Gasps filled the hall; even the senior maid looked stunned. A lowly maid being chosen to serve the Empress directly was unheard of, and rumor would bloom faster than any wildflower.
Celestia's eyes locked on Li Mei's with a cool, measured intensity. "You intrigue me, Meiyun. Do not disappoint me."
The audience ended as formally as it had begun. When she was dismissed, Li Mei stumbled out of the hall as if someone had shoved her. Bao'er clutched her arm in a half-scream, half-hug.
"WHAT did you do in there?!" Bao'er hissed.
Li Mei pressed her palms to her face and felt the dampness of sweat, embarrassment, and something that might be fear or excitement. "I think I got adopted by a tiger," she managed.
[Quest Completed: Survive Conversation.][Reward: +5 Favorability with Empress Celestia.][Hidden Status Unlocked: Marked by the Phoenix.]
The System dinged with the kind of ominous cheer that made her skin prickle. "Marked by the Phoenix," it repeated almost smugly. Li Mei froze. "Wait, what does that even mean?"
The System gave no further explanation, only a silence that felt louder than any voice.
That night Li Mei lay staring at the wooden ceiling and counted the reasons she wanted to curl up and disappear. Two truths settled into her like stones.
One: Crown Prince Jianyu had nearly executed her.Two: Empress Celestia had claimed her.
Both facts were equally terrifying.
She pulled the blanket over her head and whispered at the darkness, "Why couldn't I just die from noodles and stay dead?"
The System answered with its usual caustic calm.
[Answer: Because fate is bored, and you are entertaining.]
Li Mei scrunched into a ball. "…I hate you."
Even so, she could not shake the image of the Empress's smile. It had been terrifying, yes, but it had also made something inside her click, like the moment a lock within a chest turns and reveals a hidden room. That single small smile replayed in her mind until sleep claimed her in the early hours.