The Cold Palace Maid's Path to Empress - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The young maid was named Luo Fei. She said she was a transmigrator.

She came from another world.

A world where not only could everyone eat their fill, but everyone was equal. Back there, she had been a police officer.

What was that?

Luo Fei told me, “Basically… a martial arts master.”

My eyes lit up. “Then you can definitely help me! We’re a match made in heaven!”

Later, I discovered that martial arts were not the only thing she knew. I discovered that martial arts were not the only thing she knew.

“I can leave through the rooftops of the imperial palace and help you gather information.”

That could not have been better.

Ah Fei’s skills were indeed exceptional. The first time she slipped out of the Cold Palace late at night, she brought back two chicken drumsticks for me.

The two of us lit a fire in the Cold Palace and roasted the drumsticks. She asked me, “How are we going to get out of the Cold Palace?”

I raised my head and looked at the gray, square patch of sky framed by the Cold Palace walls. “Have you ever seen a bear? Bears hibernate when it’s coldest.”

“The first thing we have to do is lie low.”

That was what my mother taught me.

I told Ah Fei, “Next time you go out, can you get me some books?”

I knew too little about the imperial court. I had to learn more.

Who knew where Ah Fei found them, but she brought me back a huge pile of books.

The two of us huddled together and read.

She read military treatises. I read histories.

At night, we sorted and categorized the information we had gathered.

The most important information we obtained was as follows:

1. The emperor was obsessed with Daoist cultivation and alchemy. Whatever the State Preceptor said, he believed.

2. The emperor now had three sons left: Crown Prince Li Cheng, Second Prince Li Jing, and Fifth Prince Li Xi.

3. Crown Prince Li Cheng was addicted to women, and his health had always been poor.

4. The Crown Prince was born of the First Empress. The emperor and his first wife had been deeply in love. Fifth Prince Li Xi was born of the Empress, the current one.

5. The Crown Prince was the rightful heir apparent and had the support of all the civil officials in court.

6. The Empress came from a family of military generals, and the Fifth Prince secretly possessed the backing of military factions.

Ah Fei looked at the power map I had drawn and snapped her fingers.

“Hell-mode start.”

She was always coming out with strange new words. I was used to it by now.

Gradually, I began to understand what those words meant.

I asked her, “Does that System of yours know what will happen in the future?”

Ah Fei shook her head. “It says if I want to know, I have to exchange points for it.”

“How many points do you have now? How many would it cost to exchange for that information?”

She gave me two numbers with a massive gap between them.

I nearly fell over.

“Where did all your points go?! You prodigal child!”

How could she only have single digits left?

She glared at me. “Didn’t I use them to exchange for an Adam’s apple for you?”

Oh? Oh.

I touched the thing that had grown on my throat.

Originally, she had asked me if I wanted to exchange for a male body.

But after thinking it over for a moment, I shook my head and refused.

“I like having a woman’s identity. I like being a woman, too.”

Even though, according to Ah Fei, this was an “extremely patriarchal” world.

Still, to pull off the deception, I had to grow an Adam’s apple.

Ah Fei comforted me. “It can be removed.”

When?

“When you ascend the throne.”

The urgent matter at hand was getting out of the Cold Palace first.