Chapter 5: Twenty Dollars

Luo Tiantian bit her lower lip.

Even the game was forcing her to make a choice. Should she follow her “Evil Consort” persona, ignoring her biological mother to protect herself, or should she follow the emotional instincts provided by this body and its memories?

She looked at the elderly woman’s haggard yet caring face. That gaze overlapped with the blurred image in her own memory of her real mother.

‘Go to hell with the Evil Consort persona.’

She had hardly ever felt a mother’s love. Now, she could not simply stand by and watch a “mother” in such a state, even if this was just a carefully designed virtual plot.

“Mother, don’t worry about me. I… I’ll find a way to get some food and medicine,” Luo Tiantian said, firmly grasping the elderly woman’s rough palm.

The hand felt like it was filled with deep ravines, holding within them the hardships of a life of blood and toil.

The old woman grew anxious and started to cough again. Luo Tiantian gently patted her back.

“Si’er, you mustn’t! It’s too dangerous! In the royal palace, one wrong step leads to an eternal abyss. I am already a person with one foot in the grave; it is not worth your risk!”

**[King You has appeared]**

King You was coming? Here?

Footsteps echoed from outside, growing closer.

Si’s Mother’s face turned pale instantly. She hurriedly pulled at Luo Tiantian. “Hurry… go through that hole in the back.”

Luo Tiantian shook her head stubbornly. “No…”

The creaking wooden door of the woodshed was pushed open.

Silhouetted against the dim, yellow light from outside, a tall figure in red stood there. Who else could it be but King You?

She seemed somewhat surprised to see such a scene. Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the beautiful Consort Bao Si kneeling on the dirty straw, then shifted her gaze to the emaciated, sickly old woman huddled in the shadows.

Shen Xixi’s appearance here was no accident.

Not long ago, after she had casually topped up another 88,000, the system popped up a hidden side-quest selection interface:

**[Detection: SSVIP player resource investment has reached the threshold. Unlocking depth plot selection rights. Please select a hidden chapter of interest to explore:]**

**[Chapter One: Grievance of the Queen: Secrets of the Deep Palace (Involving Queen Shen and her underlying factional conflicts)]**

**[Chapter Two: Bao Si’s Mother: Dusty Past (Involving Bao Si’s background and emotional ties)]**

The Queen? Shen Xixi thought back to Queen Shen, who had only been mentioned once in the beginner’s guide and hadn’t even shown her face. She had little interest.

According to the bit of historical plot she knew, King You would eventually depose the Queen to install Bao Si. Rather than exploring a Queen who was destined to lose her position, she would rather see what story lay behind this Bao Si, who felt incredibly real to her.

‘Bao Si’s Mother sounds more interesting.’ She chose the second option.

After confirming her choice, the coordinates for this abandoned woodshed on the west side of the Cold Palace lit up on the map, accompanied by a brief description:

**[Bao Si’s mother followed Bao Si into Zhou. She fell seriously ill on the way and was abandoned. She barely survives near the Cold Palace, praying day and night for her daughter, wishing only to see her one last time.]**

And so, she had come looking for it.

What she saw upon pushing open the door was this touching scene of mother and daughter reuniting.

Shen Xixi took a few steps forward, looking down from her height at Luo Tiantian’s beautiful face, which was filled with tension and worry—a face that instinctively made one want to protect her. She glanced at the elderly woman, who was so terrified she nearly fainted.

“Who is she?”

Luo Tiantian’s lips trembled. Should she directly admit she was her mother?

According to palace rules, privately visiting a criminal was a grave offense, especially if it involved relatives who could implicate oneself.

Si’s Mother suddenly drew strength from somewhere. She broke free from Luo Tiantian’s hand, struggled to crawl forward half a step, and pressed her forehead to the ground. Her voice was hoarse.

“Your Majesty, please quell your anger! This old servant… I am just a dying wretch in the Cold Palace. I have… I have no connection to this noble lady! The lady lost her way and happened upon this place by chance. She showed me kindness… I beg Your Majesty to see clearly; everything is this old servant’s fault!”

She kowtowed, her thin back trembling violently as she took all the responsibility upon herself, desperately trying to exonerate her daughter.

“Cough, cough… cough, cough, cough!”

The violent movement agitated her illness. Si’s Mother looked as if she were about to cough up her internal organs, her frail body curling into a ball.

Luo Tiantian could no longer hold back. She rushed over to support her, tears streaming uncontrollably.

“Mother! Don’t be like this, I beg you, don’t…” She frantically patted her mother’s back, her heart aching as she felt the jagged bones beneath her touch.

Si’s Mother finally managed to stop coughing. She looked up, her clouded, tearful eyes looking past Luo Tiantian’s shoulder toward the silent red figure at the door, filled with humble pleading.

“Your Majesty, regardless of the crime, it is all this old servant’s fault… I deserve to die. I shouldn’t have lived on here to offend the eyes of a noble lady and disturb the peace of the palace. I… I just… I just couldn’t let go…”

Si’s Mother’s hand trembled as she reached out to touch Luo Tiantian’s cheek, but she stopped halfway. Her gaze was filled with endless maternal love and sorrow.

She was a woman born into a poor family.

At twelve years old, she was noticed by a high official in the city and forcibly taken home to be a concubine.

She began having children at the age of sixteen, but they all died young. The official considered her unlucky and threw her out to the poor of the city.

After being sold to several other households, someone finally wanted her.

At thirty-four, she gave birth to Bao Si.

She had never been treated like a real human being her entire life. In her childhood, she was a liability to her family; in her youth, she was a toy to be seized; and later, she was an unlucky person who couldn’t produce healthy children.

Si’s Mother didn’t want Bao Si to die young like her previous children. She knelt before a temple and prayed for three days and three nights. Perhaps the heavens finally opened their eyes, for the baby girl survived and grew more lovely and delicate with each passing day.

She poured all her love and hope into this child.

She watched her learn to walk, heard her call her “Mama” in a baby voice, saved little eggs for her from their poverty, and set aside mouthfuls of fine grain. Though life was bitter, looking into her daughter’s clear eyes made her feel like a human being.

But the flames of war eventually destroyed this meager happiness.

The Bao Kingdom was defeated and needed to offer up its most beautiful woman.

Her Si’er, who had only recently reached coming-of-age, was breathtakingly beautiful and thus became the most conspicuous tribute.

She had cried and begged, tearing at the soldiers who came to take her daughter, only to receive kicks, punches, and a threat: “If you keep making trouble, we’ll cut you down along with this old hag.”

She could only follow the prisoner’s carriage, stumbling all the way, watching her daughter weep silently in the cage.

Her daughter told her to go back, but she only shook her head. She was afraid—afraid that this parting would be final, afraid that her Si’er would be all alone in that man-eating royal palace.

When they finally reached Haojing, she had exhausted her last bit of strength and collapsed by the roadside.

When she was thrown into this abandoned woodshed like trash, she didn’t think about how she would die. She thought about how her Si’er was doing. Was she being bullied? Was she afraid?

Every day, she used all her strength to whisper to the walls, praying to every deity she knew and didn’t know. She didn’t ask for her own life; she only prayed that her daughter would be safe and suffer less. If she could see Si’er one last time from afar before she died and know she was doing well, she could close her eyes in peace.

And now, her daughter had actually appeared before her. Dressed in magnificent red silk, she was as beautiful as a celestial maiden, yet she was kneeling in this filthy place, holding her hand and crying.

It was enough, truly enough. To see her daughter alive and still thinking of her, she could die without regrets. She must not let her daughter take risks for her sake; she must not become her daughter’s burden.

“Your Majesty…”

Si’s Mother pressed her forehead heavily against the cold floor once more. “I know I am lowly and filthy, unworthy of offending the eyes of Your Majesty and the noble lady. I will end my own life now. I only… I only beg Your Majesty to be merciful and forgive the lady’s unintentional mistake of wandering here. The lady is of noble blood and has absolutely no connection to me…”

As she spoke, she somehow produced a shard of stone with a sharp edge and tremblingly moved it toward her own throat!

“No—!!!”

Luo Tiantian was scared out of her wits. She lunged forward and grabbed her mother’s wrist with all her might. The stone was sharp and sliced a bloody gash into her palm, but she didn’t even notice. She just shook her head desperately, tears falling like rain.

“Mother! No! Please don’t! If you die, what will I do?!”

She screamed those words, sobbing.

Luo Tiantian didn’t know why she was acting this way. It was just that the images in her mind, the memories of Bao Si, made her heart ache so much.

She had no father or mother; her only two relatives had passed away. Her life was full of obstacles, and she suffered from a serious illness. For her, human warmth was often overshadowed by cold reality.

Even today, twenty dollars had been deducted from her pay.

Twenty dollars.

Was it a lot?

Luo Tiantian really wanted to cry.