The Treacherous Concubine’s Guide To Whitewashing

Chapter 16, Pt 2 - Shortcut

After a few turns down the winding corridor, Yuan Luo turned her head and looked behind her. She was no longer within sight range of Gu Yi and the fire at his feet.

She completely relaxed and returned toward Zichen Palace as quickly as possible.

Once she left the winding corridor, a dark shadow suddenly swooped down. Before Yuan Luo even had time to cry out in fear, she felt her body lose balance unexpectedly. At the same time, a hand covered her mouth and dragged her bodily to the water's edge.

Yuan Luo screamed as she was thrown into the lake.

The nightmare from her original crossing over reappeared for a split second again. A pair of big hands clutched at her throat Her whole body was ice-cold and the pain of suffocation rushed at her. She thrashed desperately in the water.

Was it Gu Yi? That bastard! Sure enough, he still was going to kill her!

Just as she was about to suffocate and die, she heard a faint, crisp sound, as if there were swords and soldiers fighting. Immediately another hand reach into the water. Yuan Luo’s body felt lighter as she was pulled from the water.

Breathing in a gulping breath, Yuan Luo lay limply against someone’s shoulder.

After a while she recovered a little. Looking up, she saw Gu Yi’s familiar face. His appearance was solemn. "Empress, how are you?"

Yuan Luo shivered and her teeth rattled uncontrollably. Her entire body was drenched. Every time a cold wind blew, she was practically frozen stiff.

Gu Yi hesitated slightly, before lifting Yuan Luo into his arms. Under the guidance of Yuan Luo's trembling voice, he quickly rushed into the palace sleeping hall.

He entered the once closed room and shut the door against the cold wind. Gu Yi put the person in his arms on the bed and then brought a warming stove from the main palace hall to her bedside.

Yuan Luo, wrapped in a quilt, pointed a finger toward the closet. Gu Yi went over to open it and his senses were overcome by a light floral fragrance. The closet was full of dazzling, colorful clothing and ornaments, all fit attire for a palace imperial concubine.

Gu Yi had never seen this type of battle gear before and he didn’t dare to examine them closely. With both hands, he grabbed more than a dozen pieces of clothing indiscriminately and threw them carelessly onto the bed.

Then he ran out in a hurry.

Yuan Luo looked at the dozen or so clothes piled on her bed. Damn, these were all outer skirts!

Forget it, she didn’t want to care too much about it. Yuan Luo quickly peeled off her soaked clothing and then changed into a snow, blue-green long skirt. Fortunately, not only her appearance, but Li Jie Yu's figure seemed also to be very similar to her own.

Wrapped in bedding and huddled next to the stove, she warmed herself for a long time. Eventually, color returned to her cheeks and feeling returned to her limbs. Raising a hand, she touched the make-up on her face. Unexpectedly, it was still intact. The Division of Intelligence’s make-up technology was amazingly good.

Making up her mind, she shouted to the outer hall, "Imperial Guard Gu!"

Gu Yi responded, indicating that he was still there, but didn't enter the room.

Yuan Luo asked, "What exactly happened just a bit ago?"

Considering that it was Gu Yi who had fished her out of the water, it was obvious that he was not the attempted killer. Recalling the brief sound of weapon fighting, she could probably accurately guess who it was.

Gu Yi’s next words verified this speculation.

"Your servant was about to leave when I heard the Empress screaming. Uncertain of the circumstances, I rushed toward your voice only to see someone push the Empress into the water."

"The minister was about to leave, when I heard the empress screaming from the front, he rushed in doubt and saw someone pushing the empress into the water."

"Did you see clearly who it was?"

"I clearly saw someone of a medium stature dressed in the coarse clothing of a court eunuch. After a brief fight, he took the opportunity and escaped into the forest."

Yuan Luo grit her teeth.  She absolutely hadn’t expected that Sikong Yan, that bastard, was this vicious and merciless. Li Jie Yu had just recently set a fire for him as a distraction and yet he turned around and attempted to kill her.

Gu Yi frowned and asked, "Who did the Empress offend? Was it the person from Zichen Palace?"

Hey, what’s with this attitude? Is it possible he thinks all the pots in this palace belong to the treacherous concubine?

Yuan Luo suddenly became very angry, but the expression on her face was inexplicably dejected. "It wasn't the imperial concubine's doing I'm afraid it was the East China Sea king who wanted to silence me."


Gu Yi was astonished. "I heard that when the Empress had entered the palace, it was through the East China Sea king’s recommendation."

Yuan Luo stated miserably, "The East China Sea king ordered me to set fire to Chongwen Pavilion so he could seize the opportunity to leave the Capital. I followed his orders. After the incident, I was on edge every day in fear that someone from the Division of Punishment would visit. I didn’t expect that one of the prince’s assassins would come first."

"Presumably since my appearance is completely ruined, in the eyes of the prince I have no more value."

"Now with the general’s help, I was able to escape calamity, but I don’t know how many more days I’ll be able to survive in the future."

Seeing the frail young girl who was trembling with her arms wrapped around herself, Gu Yi couldn’t help feeling a little sympathetic.

Speaking of this palace’s imperial concubine, she was, in fact, merely a pitiful person left in a remote corner being exploited and harmed.

"You don’t need to worry, Empress. That person was injured by my sword and in all likelihood he shouldn’t return in a very short time. When I patrol in the future, I’ll pay more attention to Yuxiu Palace. In case the Empress has any difficulty, you may call on me. "

Having said this, Gu Yi in fact felt very powerless. Within this palace, the East China Sea king was considered to be a colossus. He feared that only the imperial power of the Emperor could possibly resist the East China Sea king.

"Thank you so much." Yuan Luo nodded happily.

When Gu Yi had fished her out of the water and put her on the bed in the palace, she had clearly heard a +6 favorability beep.

With this incident, she had discovered a shortcut to positive favorability. It turned out that she could even change her identity! This simply had to be a system bug. It’s important to consider that individually the higher favorability goes the more difficult it is to acquire those points. From 0 to 20 could be seen as primary good will. With a friendly attitude and polite speech, you could achieve this value by simply meeting a strange on the road asking for directions. 20 to 40 is a little more difficult. It might make people feel like another person could be a friend worth associating with or they might be someone of the opposite sex who finds that person worth admiring.

From 40 to 60 is the time when the two people would be in a heart-to-heart relationship period and the subsequent 60 to 80 would be the same, but more deeply emotional. Many loving married couples or lifelong friends would fall in these values.

And then there is the 80 to 100 range. This is the genuine life-and-death relationship. Like the gangster who ends up catching a murderer because he wanted to shield another from a knife and die for them. Yuan Luo was confident that she didn’t have the kind of charm that would make other people willing to die for her. Especially trying to make an enemy willing to die for her. That would be too difficult.

Now she had discovered a shortcut. If one persona won’t do, then she could change to a different one. She could use three, four, five or six persona, each with dozens of favorability points. Wouldn’t that add up to the score she needed?

Yuan Luo instantly thought of a kind-hearted grandmother of the deep palace, caring for the bitter little imperial guard. Every day she could send steamed buns and roast meat to give him warmth. Or there was a cold palace sweeping girl who could admire the lonely teenager, using laughter to solve the hatred.  Or a victimized little widow outside the palace, who could encourage the orphan of the martyr, Gu Liang Yong.  Study hard to make progress every day... There could be seven or eight different versions without having to use her own life.

Thinking about it later, Yuan Luo was grinning from ear to ear. In this regard, it was much easier to calculate favorability than with the awkward Empress Wei.