From He Yuan’s perspective, Song Tianyang burst into her art studio, and after getting her permission, like a playful puppy, eagerly flipped through every painting and calligraphy practice, stamping each one with a little dog seal—
Her brushwork was so poor that calling it “puppy scratch” would still offend the dog lovers’ association.
After happily signing her name on He Yuan’s works, Song Tianyang plopped down onto a chair and started playing with her smartphone, looking thoroughly engrossed.
He Yuan stood by, waiting like a prisoner awaiting her sentence, torn between wanting Song Tianyang—the “judge” to pay attention to her and fearing she actually would. She stood awkwardly beside her, resembling a solitary crane.
After a while, Song Tianyang finally looked up. “Which room is mine?”
He Yuan led her up to the fourth floor.
Just as He Yuan reached the fourth floor and was about to leave, Song Tianyang grabbed her arm. “You still haven’t told me which room is mine.”
“This whole floor is yours.”
“…”
Song Tianyang scratched her cheek.
Seeing her hesitation, He Yuan kindly asked, “Do you want me to stay here with you?”
After getting her approval, He Yuan took her on a tour around the fourth floor.
Since she didn’t know Song Tianyang’s preferences, the layout remained exactly as originally designed. All the equipment, whether expected or unexpected, was fully stocked and thoughtfully arranged—Song Tianyang could move in immediately without missing a thing.
Emperor System: 【Territory expansion confirmed——】
Song Tianyang measured her new territory on foot.
Previously, her territory was tiny, limited to a bed in the Female Dormitory. Now, it had expanded to encompass an entire floor.
Emperor System: 【Detected Your Majesty’s territory exceeds 100 square meters. Prosperity evaluation and relevant governance skills activated.】
Song Tianyang’s eyes fell on the virtual holographic display.
All the territory she measured by foot was projected in 3D models hovering midair.
The prosperity level of the fourth floor in the He Residence was 70.
The prosperity level of Bed No. 1 in the Female Dormitory was 30.
As ruler, Song Tianyang could improve prosperity by upgrading facilities or building wonders—70 was roughly the ceiling for a normal residential area. To raise it further would require major construction and competing to erect wonders.
Song Tianyang mused: 【How do I build a wonder on the lower bunk in the Female Dormitory? Should I carry Zhang Erbao over there and have him leave a “big” gift?】
The system left it to the emperor to explore.
【All living beings within the territory are regarded as subjects. Consuming Imperial Authority allows Your Majesty to issue commands to subjects with a chance of immediate success.】
Upon this notification, Song Tianyang noticed that there were 32 subjects inside the Female Dormitory, which only had a prosperity level of 30.
No.
Absolutely not right…
Why did her territory contain 32 cockroaches?!
Under the 3D modeling, every cockroach under her bed was clearly visible.
When her attention focused on the cockroaches, the virtual screen immediately showed their origin before migrating to Emperor Tianyang’s territory—Chen Xiaolu from the next dorm room was messy and liked to stash snacks under her bed. The two rooms shared a wall, and since no one lived there last month, the starving cockroaches had struggled through small holes in the wall to relocate here.
Emperor System: 【Intimidated by Your Majesty’s Imperial Authority, they have never been granted an audience.】
Song Tianyang: “…”
She had no choice but to consume 20 Imperial Authority to expel these 32 illegal immigrants.
Though the fourth floor of the He Residence was vacant awaiting the Real Daughter’s arrival, it was cleaned daily with no chance given to cockroaches.
“When you were in the private room, you told Tao Sheng I was your sister.”
Snapping out of her cockroach eviction, Song Tianyang looked at He Yuan. “What? Are you trying to say you never really considered me your sister?”
She had read plenty of lines like this on Yang Shizi Novel Network.
Under the cold lighting, He Yuan hesitated, clutching the hem of her skirt:
“Can I call you sister from now on?”
Gu Shangyang had abandoned her, and He Jianshen hadn’t insisted on bringing her along on this family trip, sowing this hidden danger. When a brother was unreliable, the clinging vine naturally sought something to attach to, anything rather than having no branch to hold.
Song Tianyang had only casually lent a hand, but this beautiful clinging vine immediately wrapped tightly around her arm.
“Ah?”
“Sister.”
He Yuan hooked her arm and swung it. “Brother will definitely have to deal with you later. With me as your informant by his side, isn’t that better?”
The fake daughter’s palm-sized round face bore a pair of gentle apricot eyes half-lowered. Up close, she resembled a well-behaved porcelain doll.
She was skilled at flattery, showing her usefulness as naturally as breathing.
Raised under He Madam’s influence, He Yuan had been treated as an expensive commodity. She was cold and aloof to outsiders, revealing her delicate and obedient side only to those stronger than herself, those she needed to latch onto.
Put bluntly, she was a high-class green tea.
And it felt pretty good when the green tea was selling cuteness to herself…
Song Tianyang faced the beauty trap for the first time and wasn’t fully prepared.
But she still had basic judgment:
“You’ve been siblings for so many years. Why help me and not him? That doesn’t make sense.”
All because of one life-saving favor?
He Yuan looked at her silently.
Just as Song Tianyang expected a lengthy essay brewing, she said, “Because I think you’re better than my brother. I want to be with you.”
“…Cough.”
Song Tianyang raised a hand to cover her mouth, which was twitching upwards wildly.
The most straightforward insult brought the purest satisfaction.
Her reason told her that, given their education backgrounds, she wasn’t necessarily much stronger than He Jianshen. Whether she was better at business remained to be seen.
But what He Yuan said sounded nice.
In the Song Dynasty, she would be the type to propose the Taishan Fengshan ceremony to Emperor Zhenzong—a Wang Qinruo of sorts.
Only horses know the joy of being flattered.
【He Yuan requests to join your faction】
【Accept】【Reject】
By the time Song Tianyang suppressed her smirk, she had already accepted the defection request.
Having only met He Yuan once before, she now realized this person had a good eye!
Of course, Song Tianyang didn’t completely trust her.
But she wasn’t without reason.
Song Tianyang had no plans to give up the He family inheritance and would inevitably have to interact within this social class. No matter how loyal Chi Zhiqing was, he was a man. There would always be occasions where a woman couldn’t go, and having He Yuan on her side could be useful.
If clinging vines needed to attach to a strong person to survive,
then why couldn’t that strong person be her?
Just then, a line of text slowly appeared before her—
Tianyang’s Daily Record: 【In the Emperor’s chamber, encountering the young sister of the Shenwang Mansion, Miss He knelt to the left, tearfully pleading, “I have long regarded the Shenwang as a mere firefly beneath the sun! Now that I meet the True Dragon, I know the vastness of the sea!” Hearing this, the Emperor’s expression cleared slightly. Miss He kowtowed again, adding, “If Your Majesty allows me to serve faithfully as a dog or horse, I shall surely offer brilliant strategies to achieve great deeds!” Her flattery was copious, and now observing the Emperor’s pleased demeanor, the realm is imperiled.】
Song Tianyang: “…”
How did they paint me as such a fool?
She truly wanted to summon Grandfather’s Private Detective and have the History Officer’s records pulled out to punish them nine generations deep.
“Sister?”
He Yuan tentatively called out to her.
Song Tianyang pondered for a moment. “What do you want from me? Gu Shangyang?”
Hearing her ex-fiancé’s name, a shadow briefly flickered across He Yuan’s eyes. “I no longer covet what belongs to you. I only want to stay in the He family.”
“On the contrary,”
Song Tianyang said, “What if I told you I need you to keep trying to win over Gu Shangyang?”
He Yuan immediately understood.
Her sister wanted her to continue acting as a spy near He Jianshen.
Before she could overthink it, Song Tianyang added, “But only on the surface! If you like him, go ahead and sleep with him—it won’t affect anything. If you don’t like him, don’t sacrifice your body just because of me.”
Gu Shangyang was still her nominal fiancé, still occupying a place in her harem list.
But men were like clothes, sisters like limbs.
Wearing gloves as socks or socks on the left hand—what’s the harm?
“I don’t like him. I just like the life he can bring me,” He Yuan took her hand and pressed her face into her palm. “Since I can have you as sister, from now on, I’ll only like you.”
Song Tianyang: “You really need to take some Zhongyao for your health.”
“My regular family doctor only prescribes Western medicine, but if it’s your wish, I’ll switch to Chinese medicine when I get sick.”
He Yuan smiled and accepted her unreasonable demand.
She still wore that white dress, dirtied in the chaos, but her face no longer showed the previous dullness and confusion; instead, she appeared somewhat at ease, like a fish in water.
Song Tianyang: “Are you really going to listen to your sister?”
He Yuan nodded.
Song Tianyang: “Then help your sister finish the thesis.”
He Yuan: “Of course. Sister, let’s exchange contact info.”
Song Tianyang took a shallow breath.
The dose of scheming was strong.
While Chi Zhiqing was painstakingly trying to bring the young emperor onto the right path, He Yuan was already worrying about the emperor’s troubles before they arose.
…
The next morning, Song Tianyang had only breakfast before returning to the school dormitory.
She was still uneasy about the bed’s underside she saw in the system yesterday and decided to check it herself.
As soon as she opened the door, a strong smell of insecticide hit her.
She saw her and her roommate’s bedding had been washed and hung out to dry on the balcony.
“Song! Tian! Yang!”
Hearing the door open, Xu Yuning jumped down from the upper bunk, her eyes rimmed with red from lack of sleep. “Do you know how scary it was when over thirty cockroaches crawled out from under your bed last night?!”
“…”
Song Tianyang averted her gaze. “Uh, I didn’t know.”
Her roommate had spent half the night killing bugs, then had to wash and hang out their clothes and bedding to avoid skin irritation or allergic reactions. After all that, it was dawn, and there was no more sleeping for her. Song Tianyang felt guilty and silently endured the verbal barrage.
Xu Yuning’s anger hadn’t cooled. “Are you planning to move out too?”
“I’ll move out after you do.”
“Hmph.”
Song Tianyang was still trying to appease her roommate when her phone rang.
Seeing it was Chi Zhiqing, she answered.
Before she could speak, Chi Zhiqing’s voice came from the phone: “Your Majesty, are you awake?”
She and her roommate exchanged looks.
Song Tianyang calmed herself. “I’m up early. I’m in the dorm now. I’ll come out later.”
“Good.”
After the call ended, her roommate looked at her thoughtfully:
“So you didn’t come back for days because you’re dating some ancient style gentleman? He calls you ‘Your Majesty’? When people date, they tattoo each other’s names on their bodies. Are you going to have him ink ‘Loyalty and Patriotism’ on his back?”
Song Tianyang spent every day reviewing memorials on Douyin, and her roommate was the first to suffer.
Song Tianyang: “He’s not my boyfriend. He’s my loyal subject.”
Xu Yuning stopped responding.
Meanwhile, the dorm next door saw Song Tianyang return and asked where she had been all these days, since she hadn’t appeared in the study room or library.
Xu Yuning replied, “She went out all night playing Three Kingdoms Kill and even started an online romance with a loyal subject there.”
Song Tianyang was speechless.
Her roommate both exterminated bugs and washed bedding for her—she deserved a little storytelling.
Just as Song Tianyang was about to go out shopping for a birthday party dress, she received a notification from the system offering a mysterious grand gift pack to claim.