Five years after Fu Tang and her best friend transmigrated to ancient times, the System told them they could go home.
That day, Fu Tang was in the Cold Palace when she sent her friend a letter.
[You die first. I'll die the next day, or it'll look too obvious.]
-
On the first day after her friend left, a sky screen suddenly appeared over Da Zhao.
Everyone lamented that the Princess Consort of Prince Qi's household, who had just died, hadn't actually died at all. She had gone to another world, and they said she was a celestial maiden who had come to the human world to undergo a trial.
"Do they really eat this well every day over there?"
"Women over there can go to school just like men?"
"Shameless! How can they dress so indecently and behave so wantonly?"
"The sensory link is on! I can smell everything, this is so satisfying. What will the celestial maiden eat next time?"
"..."
For a time, the court and all the people of the kingdom watched the sky screen every day over their tea and meals.
They heard her friend say, "So Da Zhao fell in the fifth year of Yuanjing..."
Prince Qi saw his friend go to the movies with another man and even kiss him, and he was so furious he nearly went mad.
The young heir, who had once thought his friend was crazy, saw her surrounded by children who called her pretty. Jealous, he smashed things and cried, "But she's a useless good-for-nothing!"
Her friend appeared on a history variety show. When the host asked what she thought of Emperor Shengjing, she said scornfully, "A scumbag and a foolish ruler!"
The emperor of Da Zhao, seated in the Golden Throne Hall, turned dark with anger again and again.
The officials dared not make a sound.
-
Fu Tang had been locked in the Cold Palace for over half a year when the damn emperor brought her out. He knew his country was about to fall and wanted her to save it.
In the past, everyone in Da Zhao had called Fu Tang a wicked consort. They said she must have used witchcraft to rise from palace maid to Noble Consort in a matter of months, and that she should be executed.
Now these same people fawned over her just as they had when she was favored.
The day she left the Cold Palace, the sunlight was a little harsh. She looked at the frostbitten palm of her hand and gave a cold smile. "At last, I have nothing left to lose."
Back when her friend was in the ancient world, the damn emperor had used her friend's life to threaten Fu Tang. Even after losing his favor, he expected her to keep making gunpowder, smelting iron into weapons, producing soap, and building irrigation works...
But it was a long time before she learned that her friend had been miserable in Prince Qi's household, tortured until there was barely anything left of her.
The System had only given them one chance to return.
She had tricked her friend into leaving first. Now she could never go home, and she had nothing left to lose. She would make everyone here who had ever bullied her pay.
Theme: Freedom is in your own hands.
