Luo Tiantian pouted.
‘Anyway, it’s just a game, just game data…’
‘It seems I need to practice how to smile. I need the kind of smile that could bring down a nation — the kind that would make a foolish ruler light the signal towers just to see it once.’
Suddenly, his phone vibrated. It was a call from a local number.
“Hello?” Luo Tiantian answered.
“Hello, is this Luo? I’m calling from the Haoweidao Fast Food Restaurant,” a middle-aged woman’s voice came from the other end. “You applied for a delivery driver position before, right? Can you come for a trial shift this afternoon? At 2:00 PM.”
Luo Tiantian’s eyes lit up, and he hurried to respond, “Yes, I can! I’ll be there! Thank you, Boss!”
Hanging up the phone, he let out a long sigh of relief.
This was great; he finally had a way to earn money again.
He checked the time; it was already 12:30 PM.
He needed to eat quickly and then head to work as a delivery driver.
It wasn’t that crowdsourced delivery was bad, but health insurance was vital. Anyone who had suffered from a major illness understood exactly how important health insurance was.
At 2:00 PM, he officially started work.
The shop owner gave Luo Tiantian a skeptical look, seemingly questioning who he was, but eventually handed him the equipment.
Luo Tiantian was essentially a dedicated Meituan driver for this specific shop. However, since it was a full-time position for a chain restaurant, he could get social security and health insurance once he passed his one-month probation. It was a very good shop.
“The first order is… Sako Toyokawa’s group-buy meal?”
Luo Tiantian felt a bit strange. What kind of name was that? Was she Japanese?
Over the next hour, Luo Tiantian efficiently delivered twenty-seven orders. All the customers were nearby, with seven or eight of them at the same location.
Just as Luo Tiantian was about to take a break, his phone rang.
“Wait, my group-buy meal was stolen!!”
A young girl’s frantic, angry voice came from the other end, followed immediately by the “beep-beep-beep” of a busy signal.
Before Luo Tiantian could explain or ask for details, the call was unilaterally disconnected.
The phone vibrated repeatedly.
A notification popped up from the delivery platform: **[You have a new negative review]**.
He clicked it open. It was from the Sako Toyokawa order. The reason listed was: “The delivery driver is suspected of stealing or eating the food; terrible attitude.”
Luo Tiantian felt bewildered and aggrieved.
He clearly remembered placing the order with the Sako Toyokawa label right next to the designated doormat and even took a photo…
Immediately after, the owner called.
“Luo, a customer just filed a complaint…” The owner’s tone was relatively calm but laced with helplessness. “They said when the food arrived, the bag was open and one main course was missing. Although it’s hard to say what happened — maybe someone messed with it on the way — sigh, just pay more attention next time. Try not to let the food out of your sight and double-check everything at the customer’s door.”
Luo Tiantian quickly explained, “Boss, I really didn’t touch it. The bag was perfectly fine when I delivered it…”
“I know, I know. It’s common for newcomers to run into this sort of thing,” the owner interrupted him. “But the customer complained, and it affects the shop’s rating. According to the rules, I’m docking twenty from your trial pay today. Consider it a lesson learned. Be careful in the future.”
The call ended.
Luo Tiantian stood where he was, feeling a chill run through his body.
Docking twenty… After running around all day, his already meager trial-period wages had shrunk before he even received them.
He felt stifled and angry.
Ultimately, Luo Tiantian just silently bit his lower lip, returned to the shop, and handed back all the equipment to the owner.
He quit on the spot.
To be docked money for no reason over such a mess was too much.
Reality was just like that. Without money or power, even a defense sounded hollow.
He wanted money more than ever now. He wanted it desperately.
Money could solve hunger, pay the rent, and ensure he didn’t have to swallow his pride over twenty dollars. It could give him at least a little bit of confidence to say no.
Luo Tiantian returned home and, without any further hesitation, put on the helmet.
He didn’t care about gender anymore. Whether he was a man or a woman, without money, he was nothing.
—
This time, after the dizzying sensation of logging in passed, he found himself in a dim space. Clutter was piled up all around, and the air was thick with the scent of firewood and hay.
**[You have entered a special area: Abandoned Woodhouse West of the Cold Palace]**
A woodhouse?
Just as Luo Tiantian was wondering about his surroundings, a suppressed, weak cough came from a corner.
“Si’er… is that you?” a raspy, tired female voice asked.
Luo Tiantian looked toward the sound. In the shadow of a woodpile, an old woman in tattered clothes with graying hair lay curled up.
The woman was emaciated and haggard, but even so, one could see a faint resemblance between her features and Bao Si’s body. This was especially true of her eyes, which were currently staring at Luo Tiantian, shimmering with tears.
Seeing her, the woman struggled to sit up, her voice hoarse and trembling. “Si’er… you… how did you find this place? Did Your Majesty…”
A surge of memory that didn’t belong to Luo Tiantian, but belonged to the character Bao Si, flooded his mind along with a soft system prompt.
**[Character Background Supplement: Bao Si, the daughter offered by the State of Bao]**
In the third year of King You’s reign, the royal army attacked the State of Bao. The State of Bao was defeated and sued for peace, offering the most beautiful woman in the land — a daughter of the Si clan — to ensure their survival. At that time, the girl had just reached fifteen. She tearfully bid farewell to her homeland and donned her bridal robes, serving as nothing more than a tribute. Her mother followed her, but fell gravely ill during the journey and was abandoned in a woodhouse west of the Cold Palace to fend for herself.
**[This memory fragment is now partially unlocked due to the scene trigger]**
Deafening war drums and the sounds of slaughter, the acrid scent of a scorched homeland, the defeat of her nation, being forced into bridal robes and taken away, the scalding tears of her foster mother as she rushed forward, and the long, bumpy journey in a prisoner carriage…
Finally, upon arriving at Haojing, she saw her mother being dragged away by several palace attendants like a sack of garbage. At that moment, her mother’s eyes had been fixed on her, filled with worry and reluctance.
Luo Tiantian stood frozen. Her chest suddenly throbbed with a pain so intense she could hardly breathe.
That massive wave of grief, humiliation, and helplessness was so real, as if it had just happened to her.
“Si’er…” The old woman coughed again, her voice weak. “How have you been? Has Your Majesty… treated you well?”
Luo Tiantian opened her mouth, but the words ‘I’m not your Si’er’ got stuck in her throat.
The feeling of role-playing had never been this profound. She could even feel this body’s natural instinct to rush over and weep upon seeing the foster mother’s tragic state.
She eventually gave in to that powerful impulse. She stepped forward quickly, knelt beside the old woman, and grasped those withered, cold hands.
They felt rough and skeletal, covered in thick calluses, as if she were holding dry wood.
“Mother…”
Luo Tiantian blurted out the word, her voice instantly choking up. “I’m fine. Why are you… why are you here?”
She looked around at the cold, filthy environment. Her heart ached. Was this the game’s backstory?
“Silly child, this is the Cold Palace, a place for palace folk who have made mistakes or lost favor… I am just a sick old woman and a criminal of a fallen state. To have a place that shields me from the wind and rain is already a divine mercy.”
The old woman squeezed her hand back, though her strength was fading. “Don’t worry about me. Go back quickly! If anyone finds out you came here privately, it will implicate you! Your Majesty, he…”
Fear flashed in her eyes.
**[System Notification: Triggered hidden plot, Visiting Mother in the Cold Palace]**
**[Plot Quest: Comfort the mother of Bao Si and find a way to improve her living conditions (provide at least food and medicine)]**
[Quest Rewards]
Assistance Points x5
Game Coins x20
Special Item: Old Sachet