28 The Buff of the Frail and Beautiful First Love

Because Pan Yulian’s status was low, she had few palace servants at her disposal; besides Tingmei, there was only one maid for rough chores and two young eunuchs.

Having just entered the palace, Pan Yulian needed to take her medicinal decoction, and Tingmei did not trust anyone else to handle it. Thus, after sending away the palace servants who had been drifting in and out to "watch the monkey show," she went straight to brew the medicine for Pan Yulian without pause.

The inner chamber was exceptionally quiet.

With the powder-blue curtains drawn, Pan Yulian lay on the couch, gazing up at the game interface suspended in the void.

[ "Pop!" ]

A small firework bloomed on the screen.

[ Congratulations, Mistress, on successfully entering the palace. ]
[ Your status information has been updated— ]
[ ★ Lingyun Pavilion: Great Jin Dynasty Imperial Concubine — Baolin (Eighth Rank) ]
[ ★ VIP Level: Level 1 (Unlock by topping up 30 yuan; top up 180 yuan to unlock the next level. Currently topped up: 50 yuan.) ]
[ ★ Palace Intrigue Partners: Tingmei, Di Huaizhen, Yan Song, Lv Lushan. (Click to view partner profiles; page sorting is based on the order of character activation.) ]
[ ★ Palace Intrigue Mode: Level 1 "Spread Rumors" mode enabled. (The "Frame and Incriminate" mode unlocks at VIP Level 3.) ]
[ ★ Cloud Garment Pavilion: Enabled. ]
[ Equipped Apparel — "Powder and Fragrance," "Spring Banquet of the Beauty," "Begonia Divine Body (Pastel Limited Edition)." ]
[ Unequipped Apparel — "Rain-Flower Hibiscus Earring Fragments *7," "Jade Nostalgia Finery Fragments *11," "Coquettish Oriole Headpiece Fragments *3"... (Cannot be equipped until the set is completed.) ]
[ Remaining Gacha Draws: 0. ]
[ ★ Gathering of Sages Pavilion: Enabled. ]
[ Various character fragments. ]
[ Remaining Gacha Draws: 0. ]
[ ★ Mall has been activated. (Please visit the mall details page to purchase items.) ]
[ ★ Warehouse has been opened. ]
[ ★ Dreamy Home City has been unlocked. ]

[ Mistress's rank is quite low, and palace intrigue is perilous. Mistress must avoid arrogance and impatience, strive for self-improvement, and keep working hard! ]

Pan Yulian looked at the system’s final comment.

In the past, when the system was coaxing her to top up, it had been very polite. The previous messages were filled with "Please" and soft, cajoling tones. Now that she had entered the palace, it had changed its tune?

Hmm...

The "not working hard" Pan Yulian had no intention of feeling ashamed or reflecting on herself.

Back when the three of them were bickering in the Pan household, they had self-taught the essence of arguing: upholding the core philosophy of "arguing not for right or wrong, but to disgust the other person," while resolutely avoiding internal friction—they were adept at finding faults in others and shifting blame with practiced ease.

Naturally, such behavior, which had nothing to do with truth, goodness, or beauty, was the dedicated skill set of villains, vicious female supporting characters, and cannon fodder destined for doom. Pan Yulian knew her character was rotten to the core, but she had no desire to repent, nor did she want to change.

She poked at the screen in the void: "Let's be reasonable, System. Is this world's situation really a problem of me 'not working hard'?"

"If you ask me, if you could just be a little more helpful and have me reincarnated as the Emperor, we two would have been living in luxury long ago. Would I still be here haggling over pennies, or bowing down for a mere 'five taels of silver'?"

"By the way, now that I've entered the palace, didn't you send a gift pack to celebrate? Is setting off a few fireworks really that stingy?"

The system: ...

The air was deathly quiet. Pan Yulian, having received no reply, was not surprised. She opened her warehouse and checked her vouchers; she had thirty-four left in total.

Including the 7,200 taels of silver she had scraped together from the Pan household—yes, Pan Yulian's wealth had grown significantly. Before entering the palace, she had received 2,000 taels from her maternal grandfather, the Lin family; 500 taels from Pan Ze, who was studying in Hangzhou; and even her married eldest sister, Pan Yunruo, had sent 300 taels... The reputation of "Pan the Money-Grubber" had truly taken deep root in people's hearts.

Pan Yulian had no intention of topping up for the time being. The system was indeed a greedy one, but its prices were worth the value. With no imminent disaster, Pan Yulian decided to save her resources, focusing on quality over quantity.

Aside from the vouchers, all that remained in the warehouse were the "Dreamy Furniture" items she couldn't use outside the palace. Two rare items and one furniture "Ten-Pull" gift pack.

Pan Yulian tapped them, and a prompt quickly popped up: [ Mistress, your current residence is the side hall of Linhua Palace. Would you like to bind the furniture to this location? (Note: When Mistress moves to a new palace, you may use Silver Leaves to transfer the furniture binding.) ]

I have to say, the system was quite thoughtful. The screen displayed the layout of the side hall where she currently resided, allowing her to simply drag and drop the furniture onto the virtual map.

The Great Jin Dynasty's Inner Palace was divided into the Eastern and Western Palaces. The Western Sixteen Palaces, where the consorts lived, were quite large, each consisting of a main hall, side halls, annex halls, and auxiliary rooms, with the rest being corner rooms and small storage chambers.

It wasn't that Pan Yulian was belittling herself, but it was an obvious fact that her rank was low. Ordinarily, someone like her would be squeezed into an auxiliary room, but she was currently living in a side hall.

Using the map, Pan Yulian carefully examined her quarters—the shape of this hall was somewhat strange.

Well, it would be more accurate to say it was somewhat deformed. The edges and corners of the room were uneven, with protrusions here and indentations there—hardly fitting the aesthetic standards of the nobility, who preferred square, symmetrical spaces that gathered wealth and energy.

Looking at it this way... this seemed like an irregularly shaped room built specifically to balance the symmetry of the main palace and suppress the feng shui.

Having figured this out, Pan Yulian felt quite relieved. People in the palace were most superstitious about these things, but did Pan Yulian care?

Thinking of her past life, where landlords would use every possible method to partition tiny, bizarre living spaces, what was a little "irregular" room compared to that?

Not having to squeeze into an auxiliary room—how delightful.

Pan Yulian opened the furniture list:
Sandalwood Ruyi Ornament (Rare, increases comfort)
Cloud-Linked Octagonal Palace Lantern (Rare, increases coziness)
Lacquer-Wood Round Stool (Common, slightly increases area cleanliness)
...

After placing these items one by one, Pan Yulian turned to look around the empty-looking chamber. Whether it was a psychological effect or not, the room suddenly appeared much brighter and warmer.

Having exhausted her items, Pan Yulian was lying back down in satisfaction when Tingmei arrived with the medicinal soup, followed by a small tail.

The medicine needed to cool, so Pan Yulian first looked at the few servants kneeling before her.

The standard procedure for new entrants to the palace should have been:
Entering the palace with the guiding eunuch.
Upon reaching their residence, meeting the servants who would serve them.
After resting briefly, going to pay respects to the head consort and receiving instructions...

But Pan Yulian, who believed in "getting injured early," had disrupted this process without the slightest hesitation. The Linhua Palace had been too chaotic all morning for her to fit in, and the others had not dared to disturb her rest, so it was only now that they dared to follow Tingmei in.

"Servant Cuiyun pays respects to Mistress."
"Servants Guifu and Guxi pay respects to Mistress."

There were only these three. Actually, Guxi, who was responsible for cleaning the side hall courtyard and the front corridors, was a mobile worker, so he only counted as half.

Because Consort Wen was a stickler for rules, the servants of Linhua Palace appeared humble and submissive. To the naked eye, there were no obvious issues. Pan Yulian gave them their rewards and handed all the servants over to Tingmei.

Tingmei was a veteran of the palace, and in the eyes of others, there was the bond of her having served Pan Yulian during the selection process... The three of them appeared to have no objections.

After receiving their rewards, the servants withdrew. Tingmei stayed behind to serve Pan Yulian her medicine. During this gap, Pan Yulian asked about the consorts she needed to be wary of.

Tingmei thought for a moment and said earnestly, "If you speak of the consorts in this palace... besides the Empress, there is Consort Zhao."

"Zhao," this title had always been somewhat significant.

"Graceful and beautiful in appearance, gentle in virtue and wisdom..." It suggested that the Emperor's favor for her was plain for all to see.

*Whoosh.*

It was as if she had caught the scent of sweet gossip. Pan Yulian, who loved nothing more than rumors, became interested and excitedly urged Tingmei, "Tell me more."

"Consort Zhao was originally the eldest daughter of Grand Scholar Xu and a famous talented woman in the capital. She was gentle, elegant, and possessed excellent character... Rumor has it that when His Majesty was still the Prince of Tian, he fell in love with this Miss Xu at first sight."

"However, it was unfortunate that the Second Prince also favored this Miss Xu."

Speaking of this, Tingmei lowered her voice and whispered, "During the selection, the Late Emperor betrothed this Miss Xu to the Second Prince."

"The Imperial Observatory had chosen an auspicious date and set the wedding day, but before Miss Xu could even cross the threshold, the Second Prince suddenly fell ill and passed away..."

Passed away!?

The Second Prince was young; to pass away at such a time made it hard not to suspect foul play...

Indeed, one cannot judge a book by its cover. Who would have thought the Emperor, that old fox, was so reckless when he was young?

Pan Yulian warned herself: anyone who could fight their way through a succession struggle to become Emperor, no matter how abstract they looked, was no fool on the inside.

"After the Second Prince passed, Miss Xu's marriage was delayed... It wasn't until His Majesty ascended the throne that he immediately betrothed Miss Xu to enter the palace, even granting her the rank of Consort."

*Tsk, tsk, tsk.* So she was the "white moonlight" he had snatched away. The new Emperor snatching his older brother's beloved wife—a sister-in-law becoming a favorite consort—truly bold indeed.

"Since entering the palace, Consort Zhao's health has been poor, so she often recuperates in Qionghua Palace. If Consort Zhao is feeling unwell, His Majesty will personally go to Qionghua Palace..."

This... this woman even had the "sickly, beautiful white moonlight" buff!!!

Pan Yulian stood in awe: "Don't mess with her; she is truly untouchable."