“So, Your Highness, you should also consider selecting a strong and loyal Knight.”
Mei Yin didn’t know that Jiang Zhuozhuo was already contemplating a matter of utmost importance to the development of the territory (and one that could utterly exhaust them both).
Seeing that Jiang Zhuozhuo had understood the significance of receiving the Blessing of the Mother Goddess, she decided to tell her the most urgent matter.
Jiang Zhuozhuo hadn’t expected Mei Yin to be waiting for her here and said in disbelief, “But I’m a Phoenix, right? Does the Phoenix Tribe also have to follow these three rules?”
Mei Yin replied, “Normally, no. The Phoenix Tribe is naturally favored by the Mother Goddess. However, our respected Her Majesty the Empress set a precedent: if a lord does not produce an heir upon receiving the Blessing of the Mother Goddess for the first time, the territory granted to that lord will be revoked.”
In other words, if Jiang Zhuozhuo did not have an heir by her first ‘century mark,’ their territory would be reclaimed by the Empire.
Her Majesty the Empress places great importance on offspring.
Not long ago, a princess tried to reduce her competitors through underhanded means regarding this matter, which infuriated the Empress enough to revoke her territory.
The Seventh Princess, who was the victim of this scheme, was pitiful, but also naïve enough to be deceived.
After pleas from the sages, the Empress spared her from total deprivation but relocated her territory from a prosperous region to a remote one specifically, the neighboring Hongye Province.
This was the first time Jiang Zhuozhuo had heard such royal secrets and was very surprised by her elder sister’s fate.
Could there also be a “honey trap” scheme here?!
She wanted to ask her sister exactly how she was deceived but felt it was improper to pry so eagerly into family gossip, so she filed it away in her mind for now.
Jiang Zhuozhuo said, “But I’m still so young! Do I really have to think about this already?”
She felt she was far from her ‘century mark’ and didn’t need to rush into finding someone to hatch her little birds!
When Jiang Zhuozhuo said she was young, she truly meant it after all, by her Earth age, she hadn’t even reached the legal marriage age. Here, she was even younger; she had only recently transformed, and who gets married right after transformation?
Mei Yin said, “Your Highness, have you forgotten? Phoenix Tribe hatchlings stay inside their eggs for many years. The Eighth Princess remained in her shell for nearly ninety years. If you count from the time of breaking the shell, your time is limited.”
It was precisely because the Eighth Princess stayed in her shell for so long, and Jiang Zhuozhuo, the Ninth Princess, took a long time to transform after hatching, that the Empress was so furious about her daughters sabotaging each other’s offspring.
The appearance of these two abnormal children signaled that the Empress’s fertility was waning and that she could no longer personally continue the Phoenix Tribe’s bloodline.
If a suitable heir was not chosen, the peace and stability she had maintained for nearly a thousand years would be destroyed.
An heir is not judged solely by their own qualities but also by the health and intelligence of their offspring.
Therefore, the Empress demands her daughters bear children before their first ‘century mark.’
According to her own experience, selecting the best male at the optimal age for conception increases the likelihood of producing outstanding offspring.
The later it gets, the more likely ‘bad seeds’ will appear. At least the Empress was dissatisfied with each of her last few daughters from every angle.
After Mei Yin’s detailed explanation, Jiang Zhuozhuo folded herself flat again like a little bird pancake.
Being the Empress is so hard there are so many things to consider!
She has to balance the relationships among her daughters and select the most suitable heir!
Fortunately, she didn’t have to be the Empress herself!
Still, the idea of having bird babies was a bit hard for Jiang Zhuozhuo to imagine.
She was the type to be clingy when close to someone, but the problem was… she rarely got close to anyone.
Mei Yin was the first person she’d met here, and since Mei Yin treated her so well, she had already taken her as her best friend.
For someone like her, one best friend is enough!
So she had no plans to develop other intimate relationships.
Forget it, it wasn’t important!
Even if it took ninety years to hatch an egg, that still left nine full years to waste, right?
No rush!
The true master procrastinator waits until the last possible moment to act =v=
Jiang Zhuozhuo made a little summary after class: the most important physiological knowledge she learned was that the Phoenix Tribe lays only one egg every hundred years.
She only needed to pay attention after mating to see if anything happened. At other times, ovulation wouldn’t occur unnecessarily, so… monthly periods simply don’t exist!!!
Is there really such a wonderful thing in the world?!
The little bird was ecstatic!
Even though she didn’t suffer from menstrual pain, those days still made her feel listless and unmotivated.
Now, all those troubles were gone!
Mei Yin watched the little round bird in front of her suddenly perk up again, completely clueless about what this little round bird was thinking every day 🙂
Thinking that she had already mentioned the Seventh Princess’s situation to Jiang Zhuozhuo, Mei Yin smiled and shifted the topic: “By the way, there’s something Your Highness must handle personally.”
Jiang Zhuozhuo asked, “What is it?”
Mei Yin said, “As I mentioned earlier, the Seventh Princess is currently in our neighboring Hongye Province, and some crops you want are specialties there.”
“Since we’re going to trade with them, it would be best for Your Highness, as her younger sister, to personally write her a letter and include a gift you are, after all, connected by blood.”
Mei Yin’s meaning was clear: even if the feelings weren’t strong, at least keep up appearances.
Jiang Zhuozhuo had been wondering about her sister’s fate, so she took this chance to voice her lingering doubts.
Mei Yin thought for a moment and didn’t hide it: “The male bird married to her was sent by the Sixth Princess. He drugged her food so she couldn’t conceive.”
“Unfortunately, something went wrong, and the Seventh Princess still gave birth to their ‘fruit of love.’ So…”
“He killed their child just as the hatchling was about to break free from the shell.”
Hiss!
Jiang Zhuozhuo was stunned speechless.
To have a male bird lurking for so many years just to prevent her sister from having children—what kind of twisted mind was that?
No wonder the Empress was so furious that she took away the Sixth Princess’s territory. She hadn’t even touched the throne yet, but already she was this ruthless. If she became Empress, she’d probably kill all her sisters.
Just thinking about it sent chills down Jiang Zhuozhuo’s spine.
She hadn’t even realized her small goal of eating fries on time, let alone her grand plan of holding a comic convention in another world. She definitely didn’t want to get involved in this bloody power struggle!
Anyone who found out their husband of many years was loyal to another and killed their long-awaited child on that person’s orders… would surely go mad.
Jiang Zhuozhuo felt sympathy for her sister’s double heartbreak in love and career, so she didn’t mind writing her a letter.
As for the gift…
She decided to send a package of fragrant Braised Meat. If frozen and sent over, it could be heated and eaten right away!
Based on feedback from the Knights after eating it repeatedly, Braised Meat not only boosts strength but also greatly enhances alertness and explosive power.
Clearly, even those who don’t train feel much better after eating it!
Jiang Zhuozhuo didn’t write much comforting words but turned the private letter into a… “Braised Meat Heating Instructions”!
This was super delicious Braised Meat there was no way the wrong heating method could be allowed to ruin the flavor.
Such waste!!!
Mei Yin, watching Jiang Zhuozhuo write the letter, was utterly baffled: ????
It seemed like Mei Yin would still need to write a separate letter herself to directly coordinate trade with the Seventh Princess’s Vice-Captain.
In Hongye Province, the Seventh Princess Synthia was locked away in her room, the curtains drawn tight so no light could enter.
“Your Highness, you should eat something,” her Vice-Captain sighed softly outside the door.
To make up for the hole caused by the previous scheme, heavy taxes had been imposed on the territory, so Synthia’s arrival was not welcomed by the people.
The harsh words she heard after arriving made Synthia even less willing to leave her room, and her appetite worsened day by day.
They were all very worried about Synthia.
They wanted to persuade her to find another male bird to bear offspring and quickly forget that treacherous, unfaithful one, but didn’t know how to broach the subject.
Matters of the heart are never easily mended by a few words from others.
Just then, a Knight came by and whispered a few words to the Vice-Captain, who looked slightly surprised. Then she called out through the thick door, “Your Highness, the Ninth Princess has sent someone to purchase some Hongye Province specialties, along with a gift and a handwritten letter. Would you like to see it?”
Synthia was a bit puzzled.
Her ninth younger sister? That was just a little round bird who hadn’t successfully transformed into human form yet, right?
When did she learn to write letters?
Their Mother Empress had always been uneasy about this younger sister’s failure to transform.
Even though Synthia was crushed by the double betrayal from her sister and lover and had fallen into despair, curiosity still stirred within her.
She wiped away the tears that hadn’t stopped since arriving in Hongye Province and said to her Vice-Captain, “Bring it in.”
When she took the thin letter, she was surprised by the beautiful handwriting on the envelope.
For the Phoenix Tribe, learning new things was extremely easy this only proved that her sister’s spiritual perception had truly opened.
Synthia blankly opened the letter, expecting the usual useless words of comfort her Vice-Captain might say.
Instead, aside from the first two greetings, the entire letter was about… how to heat Braised Meat without losing its flavor?!
By the time she reached the end, Synthia couldn’t believe her eyes.
I’m so heartbroken, and you still tell me that if I don’t like the gift, I can send it back?!
What kind of poverty does Woye Province suffer from to send such a small gift and then ask for it back?
Synthia stood up, furious, and pushed the frozen Braised Meat toward her Vice-Captain: “I want to eat this. Go have someone heat it up and bring it here! Oh, and steam it with water you can’t use direct high heat.”
At this moment, the recently heartbroken, career-shattered, and childless Synthia had only one thought.
I want to see just how good this Braised Meat really tastes 🙂
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