Surviving in the General's Mansion - Chapter 9: Identity

Chapter 9: Identity

A full week had passed since Xia Heng transmigrated to Huaxia Kingdom. During that week, Cang Chuli had worked everyone in Xia Heng’s courtyard like hired hands.

After Chuqing realized she had misunderstood her mistress, she finally managed to calm down and let it go.

Her mistress’s thoughts? Please. She had no desire to understand them whatsoever.

Ever since Xia Heng had been startled awake by assassins in the middle of the night and witnessed Cang Chuli kill three men in black in a row, she had never been summoned to serve him again.

Instead, Qiulin, Zhao Siyan, and Zhao Die, who shared the same courtyard with her, went over to serve him every day.

Xia Heng had no objections to this. After all, the public kitchen hadn’t stopped feeding her because of it.

In fact, over the past few days, after getting permission from her three roommates in the courtyard, she had even opened up a small patch of land behind her room.

It was less than two square meters.

She planted some vegetables there… The seeds had come from Chef Xiang at the public kitchen.

Chef Xiang was from the north. His stir-fried dishes were only average, but his noodle dishes were absolute masterpieces.

One noon, after tasting a bowl of oil-splashed noodles so good it nearly blew her mind, Xia Heng shamelessly asked for extra noodles three times in a row. From then on, the way Chef Xiang looked at her changed from critical to indulgently affectionate.

Every time he served her food, his hand would “slip” and give her a little extra, as if he were afraid the poor child might go hungry.

After going back and forth like this, she had at least become a familiar face to Chef Xiang.

When she learned that aside from cooking, the old man’s greatest hobby was tending his little plot of land, Xia Heng immediately expressed that she wanted to give it a try too.

After all, farming and infrastructure were instincts carved into the bones of every Huaxia person.

Once she finished watering her little vegetable garden, Xia Heng returned to her room and shut the doors and windows.

She silently recited, “Check in,” and opened the Check-in System.

It had been exactly one week since she arrived in this world, and she currently had 55 points.

Five of those points came from the make-up check-in on her first day, though that had been counted toward last week.

Thirty points came from checking in over the past six days. The remaining 20 points had been earned when she chatted separately with Chuqing and Chef Xiang.

It seemed that gaining people’s favor was also one way to farm points.

“Congratulations. You have completed today’s check-in and obtained 10 points!”

“Congratulations. You have checked in for 7 consecutive days and received one lottery draw. Would you like to draw now?”

Oh? Completing a full week of check-ins came with a lottery draw?

Xia Heng hurriedly selected “yes.”

“Congratulations. Lottery reward obtained: spring-loaded dagger x1. Your reward has been issued. Please check your inventory!”

Xia Heng glanced at the total points displayed in the upper right corner. It had gone from 55 to 65. Then she felt around in her hand for the brand-new weapon that had just arrived, practically still warm.

Looks like weekend check-in points were doubled! And this lottery was pretty great too.

She had been planning to buy a weapon for self-defense anyway. If she bought this dagger in the shop, it would cost at least 15 points.

Excited, Xia Heng opened the shop again and switched to the weapons page.

Huh! A bulletproof vest! Good stuff! There was even an arm crossbow!

Then she looked at the prices-a bulletproof vest cost 100 points, and an arm crossbow cost 35 points.

Mm! For now, she could only afford the arm crossbow, but she could wait a little longer and save up more points before buying anything.

She stored the folding knife in her space. Alongside her pouch of silver, it occupied two slots, making up her most important possessions at the moment.

When she reopened the window, Xia Heng saw a rolled-up note sitting on the sill.

Nervously, Xia Heng looked left and right before unfolding it. Written on it were the words:

“At midnight, meet at the Purple Bamboo Grove.”

She had almost forgotten… She was still a spy…

Xia Heng unconsciously bit her thumb. The original host should have made her move the first day she saw Cang Chuli, and then been cut down by him.

But now, she wasn’t dead. She had successfully survived in the General’s Mansion for an entire week. Did this mean the original host’s father-or the Left Prime Minister behind him-had assigned her a new mission?

She had finally managed to keep herself alive, and now she had to start courting death!????

Xia Heng, who had not yet fully pulled herself together, instantly felt herself wilt again.

Sigh. She had to preserve her life on this side too. Maybe she should find a chance to confess everything to Cang Chuli?

But would that affect the plot?

Then again, she had already lived until now. Didn’t that count as affecting the plot?

There was no use thinking so much right now. The real question was, where was the Purple Bamboo Grove…?

Chuqing didn’t seem to have ever taken her there, right?

Although she had already been at the General’s Mansion for a week, aside from the places Chuqing and Cang Chuli had taken her, her movements had basically been limited to the main courtyard, the public kitchen, and her own residence.

In the past two days, ever since Cang Chuli had stopped summoning her to serve him, she had gone all-in on lying flat.

Every day, she simply shuttled back and forth between the public kitchen and her room…

After thinking for ages and still failing to figure out where it was, Xia Heng could only dryly head out to ask someone for directions.
“Purple Bamboo Grove? What are you going there for?”

Chuqing asked while slurping up her noodle soup.

When Xia Heng first met her, she had only thought the girl had a round little face, an adorable smile, and a soft, gentle way of speaking.

Who could have guessed that in private, she was also the kind of female martial artist who could put away two big bowls of noodles…

During one meal, Xia Heng had accidentally knocked the neighboring table’s bowl to the floor.

The moment Chuqing caught it with her foot, Xia Heng understood… the only true weakling here was herself…

“I’m going to dig up some bamboo shoots. It’s gotten cold these past two days, so I was thinking I’d make us some stir-fried pork with bamboo shoots!”

That was right. The second Xia Heng saw the place, all she could think of was bamboo shoots. Having to meet an undercover contact did not, in any way, interfere with her need to eat.

“The Purple Bamboo Grove was planted under the general’s orders, but the general doesn’t really go look at it… It’s gotten pretty overgrown lately too.

All right, I’ll take you!”

In the end, the temptation of good food defeated the rules…

After Chuqing finished her noodles, she led Xia Heng down a shortcut to the Purple Bamboo Grove.

“This is it!”

Xia Heng stared at the vast bamboo forest that stretched as far as the eye could see and fell into speechless silence.

So… the Purple Bamboo Grove really was a grove…

Why? Who planted an entire forest for no reason?!

Guys, does anyone understand this???

==========

Midnight.

Xia Heng put on her thin padded jacket and, once the neighbors on both sides had fallen asleep, quietly slipped out the door.

A late-autumn night was not easy to endure. Trembling all the way, Xia Heng dodged two patrols of guards and arrived at the Purple Bamboo Grove.

The time it took an incense stick to burn passed.

Xia Heng started bouncing her leg.

One hour passed.

Xia Heng began pacing back and forth.

Two hours passed.

“Achoo~”

Xia Heng sneezed, then stalked back while cursing under her breath.

“Are they messing with me? Did the note get sent to the wrong person? I’ve been waiting for two hours! They’re still not here. Do they not want people to sleep?!”

Back in her bedroom, Xia Heng took off her padded jacket while pondering why the person who had passed her the note would trick her.

Before she could come up with any reason, she felt a faint pain begin to spread through her stomach.

At first, she figured lying down in bed for a while should let it pass.

But after a long while, not only did the pain fail to ease, it showed signs of getting worse.

Pressing a fist against her stomach, Xia Heng could not help wondering what on earth she had eaten that she should not have.

Or had she caught a chill from standing in the cold wind at the Purple Bamboo Grove just now?

“I’m so done. What kind of teammate is this?!”

She cursed inwardly. After thinking for ages and getting nowhere, the pain continued to build.

Xia Heng had no choice but to open the medical section of the shop.

After looking through it for a long time, she spent 15 points to exchange for some stomach medicine and swallowed it. The instructions said it would take effect in five minutes.

Ten minutes later, Xia Heng lay sprawled on the bed, cold sweat breaking out all over her as she opened the shop again.

The stomach medicine had no effect, so it probably was not food poisoning. The location of the pain definitely was not her appendix.

Then there was one other possibility-poison.

In the shop, a low-grade antidote cost 15 points, a mid-grade antidote cost 30 points, and a high-grade antidote cost 50 points.

Xia Heng gritted her teeth and spent 30 points on a bottle of mid-grade antidote. Looking at the green, bubbling liquid inside the bottle, she thought, You’re the one!

Without hesitating further, she poured it straight into her mouth.

The cool liquid slid down her throat and into her stomach. Almost instantly, the pain in Xia Heng’s abdomen began to slowly lessen. In less than five minutes, she could no longer feel anything at all.

Xia Heng stared blankly at the bottle in her hand. So it really was poison…

Who had poisoned her…? Cang Chuli probably considered poisoning beneath him. After all, he was already extremely handy with a blade…

Then it had to be someone from the Left Prime Minister’s side… If it really was the Left Prime Minister’s people, there was not much she could do about it…

Unfortunately, the original novel had not written much about a cannon fodder character like her.

A cannon fodder character who basically died the moment she appeared. No one cared whether she had been poisoned or not.

She had stood in the cold wind for two hours, then suffered through the agony of poisoning. She had finally cured the poison, only to spend 45 points in the process. Now she only had 20 points left. Xia Heng flopped backward, her heart aching so badly it practically spasmed.

Sigh. People survived. Points could be earned back. There would be more in the future! She could not think too hard about it. She absolutely could not think too hard about it!

Shoving these matters aside, Xia Heng closed her eyes and quickly drifted off to sleep.

Completely unaware that,

At that very moment, at the main entrance of the Purple Bamboo Grove, a man in a blue jacket was rubbing his nose while mentally sending his regards to her entire family…