Redemption Successful

Chacha: [Ding! Thank you, host, for providing major gossip about Crown Prince Xiao Yanchen. Gossip consumed successfully. Points +1. The points shop has been unlocked. Would you like to redeem the beginner's gift pack?]

Shen Anxin was still shaken, but she perked up at once. [That works too?]

She was the one who had shared the gossip, not Chacha.

Chacha: [As long as gossip consumption is detected.]

The system was naturally all-knowing. Even if Shen Anxin hadn't said anything, it could have found out, but her sharing it of her own accord for it to consume still counted as gossip consumption.

Everyone was still caught up in the major gossip they had just heard. At this, they craned their necks in curious anticipation of the rumored miraculous buff power.

Xiao Yanchen: I suppose I unintentionally did Shen Anxin a small favor.

Chacha: [Redeem it?]

Shen Anxin: [Of course!]

Chacha: [Beginner's gift pack redeemed successfully. Congratulations, host, on successfully equipping the Defense and Damage Reflection Buff. Effect: permanent. Points -1. Current points: 0.]

Shen Anxin only felt her whole body relax, and then she felt nothing.

The others couldn't see anything at all.

Shen Anxin: [It worked?]

Chacha: [It worked.]

Shen Anxin: [How do I verify it? I don't feel anything.]

Chacha: [It only takes effect when someone intends to harm the host. Rest assured, host: anything produced by the system is guaranteed to be top quality.]

Shen Anxin felt safe in an instant. [I'll trust you this once. Now I'll browse your shop and see how many good things you have.]

A transparent blue window had popped up before Shen Anxin's eyes. It was the system's points shop, and the dazzling array of goods nearly made her jump for joy.

Everyone grew even more curious. With such immortal methods, could she redeem an... immortality pill?

Shen Anxin: [Chacha, don't you think something's strange?]

Chacha: [What?]

Shen Anxin: [It seems... it seems awfully quiet... Aren't we at the morning court session? How come nobody's been talking?]

Everyone: You only just noticed?!

Shen Anxin was just about to raise her eyes for a surreptitious look when Emperor Hongyao, seated at the head of the hall, called an official forward and asked him about state affairs. The morning court session finally began to take proper shape.

Seeing nothing amiss, Shen Anxin continued browsing the shop.

Everyone else divided their attention, working while eavesdropping on Shen Anxin and Chacha's conversation.

Shen Anxin: [Household and hygiene supplies, cola, fried chicken! All kinds of snacks! Oh my god! They have everything! Chacha, you're my savior! Listen to me thank you, because of you~]

Everyone: She's actually singing? Is she really that happy? Supplies and food? The Marquis of Shuoping's residence shouldn't have a poor standard of living.

Xiao Yanchen: They must be... different. It seems she isn't very satisfied with her current standard of living, at least not compared with her previous life.

Shen Anxin: [There are basic medicines too. Compared with the medicines we have now, they're an attack from a higher dimension... Holy shit, there are also strength pills, beauty pills, Dream-Entering Pills, truth pills, and All-Ailments-Curing Pills?! Aaaah, Chacha, why didn't you come sooner? If I'd known about these earlier, I wouldn't have let Dad and Shen Anlan risk leaving Great Qi to seek treatment, and I wouldn't have had to come to morning court with my heart in my throat!]

Everyone was shocked. Leaving the others aside, does "cure-all" mean what we think it means?!

Chacha: [Host, I couldn't control that either. Also, I must remind you to read the product descriptions carefully. Some products can't be used on other people.]

Shen Anxin: [Let me see. This one can!]

Chacha: [Provided the host has enough points to redeem it.]

Shen Anxin: [All-Ailments-Curing Pill, ten points. Easy, that's only ten pieces of gossip.]

Chacha: [Host, gossip of different quality earns different points. That last one was medium quality.]

Shen Anxin: [You're not going to trick me with that slash-the-price scheme from a certain shopping app, are you?]

Chacha: [Don't worry, host. Even the worst starts at 0.1 points. The more explosive and little-known the gossip, the more prestigious the people involved, and the more significant its implications, the more points it earns.]

Shen Anxin breathed a sigh of relief. Getting to enjoy gossip and redeem things as well was practically getting everything for free. She'd be ungrateful to complain.

[Pretty good, pretty good. With all these civil and military officials and imperial relatives, any bit of gossip is probably worth a lot. Hehehe.]

Everyone: ...Why did this feel so much like being marked as a flock of fat sheep...?

Shen Anxin: [Too bad I can't contact them, or I could just tell them to come back. Huh? Chacha, is there anything that would let me communicate with them immediately?]

Everyone was startled. If the Marquis of Shuoping and his son have already traveled south into Southern Xia, they're a thousand li away. Even a letter sent by courier station would take at least half a month.

Chacha: [You can use Dream-Entering Pills to enter their dreams and tell them. But to make humans believe a dream, you'd need many Dream-Entering Pills. Only repeated dreams would alert them.]

Shen Anxin looked at the Dream-Entering Pills in the shop. They were single-use consumables that cost two points each, so they weren't expensive.

Shen Anxin: [Is there a more efficient way?]

Chacha: [If you want a more efficient way, host, you can use a Dream-Entering Pill to inform them first, then use the item transfer service to transfer an All-Ailments-Curing Pill directly to your brother.]

Shen Anxin: [Item transfer service? Spatial transfer? You can do that too?]

Everyone: Uh... Is it what we're imagining? An item appearing out of thin air a thousand li away?

Chacha: [Yes. The points consumed by each use of the item transfer service depend on the item's size. An All-Ailments-Curing Pill is very small, so it only costs twenty points.]

Shen Anxin: [So that's twenty pieces of medium-quality gossip? What the heck? Never mind that shipping isn't free, the delivery fee costs more than the item itself?!]

Chacha: [The more high-tech a product is, the more expensive it is. Host, instead of complaining that the item transfer service is expensive, you should reflect on yourself first. Have you been actively consuming gossip?]

Shen Anxin: [...No matter how active I am, it still takes time. I'm afraid Dad can't wait that long.]

The last time a physician had examined him at the marquis's residence, he had said that if his condition continued to worsen, with him slipping in and out of consciousness, Dad had at most three years left to live.

Before leaving, Shen Anlan had assured her that the people of Divine Physician Valley could certainly prolong Dad's life and that she could wait at home without worry. Even if they couldn't cure him in the end, he would bring Dad back.

Although she hadn't yet developed particularly deep feelings for these family members, Shen Anxin still hoped Dad would get better.

Shen Anxin: [Right, Chacha, can't you consume gossip? Can you help me check on Dad...]

Chacha: [Have you forgotten, host? The subject of the gossip must be within a hundred meters of you.]

Shen Anxin: [Then look at it from my position.]

Chacha: [The system can only search for gossip that originally occurred and future gossip from the original timeline. Host, you should understand that I can't see your future. I can't search for any future that has been changed.]

Everyone: I don't understand. I really don't understand. What are they talking about?

Shen Anxin thought about it and understood. After all, the future would change with the butterfly effect. If Chacha could even look that up, it wouldn't be a system, but the Heavenly Dao.

In any case, Dream-Entering Pills could only be used when people slept at night, and she didn't have the points to redeem anything else yet. She would get a general idea of what was in the shop first, then consume gossip. Once she had enough points, she could choose whichever plan she wanted.

Shen Anxin: [All right, I'll look at more products... Perfect accuracy, master horsemanship, all kinds of skills? Then there are books, books, books, diagrams, diagrams, diagrams, seeds, secret recipes... weapons... aircraft carriers, spaceships?! They even have those? With that many points, I'm afraid I couldn't redeem them in a lifetime!]

Everyone: Now we understand even less.

Shen Anxin: [...A storage space! There's even a storage space?! Aaaah, I want one! One cubic meter, a hundred points? Boohoo, so expensive!]

Everyone: A space? An empty room? Why is she so excited?

Xiao Yanchen: It really sounds like something she personally wants.

Shen Anxin: [I'll add it to the shopping cart for now. I can save up enough eventually. Huh? Chacha, are there cultivation techniques here? The kind that let you live forever and ascend to immortality?]

Shen Anxin asked the question in her mind almost jokingly.

But this time, never mind Emperor Hongyao-even the minister making his report involuntarily fell silent.

It was as if even the air in the hall had gone still.

Xiao Yanchen frowned slightly and moved without thinking.

Shen Anxin only felt a figure suddenly move in front of her. She glanced up and saw it was the crown prince. She thought nothing of it, assuming he was tired from standing so long and had moved to change his posture. He happened to block the light for her and make her less noticeable.

Chacha: [What are you thinking, host? Humans in your dimension must experience birth, aging, sickness, and death.]

Shen Anxin: [Sigh, I knew it. Nothing in the world is that good. Otherwise, the history of my previous life would have to change.]

Everyone let out a breath, unsure whether they were disappointed or relieved.

Shen Anxin saw that there were many more buffs further down in the shop. Only when she took a closer look at their prices did she realize how generous the beginner's benefit was.

Permanent buffs like that started at a thousand points.

Single-use buffs, on the other hand, were fairly cheap.

Shen Anxin: [Single-use buffs that can be used on other people. If I want to mess with someone someday, I could slap a one-day bad luck buff on them, and then, hehehe.]

Everyone shuddered. There's something like that too?

Chacha: [Host, that sort of thing does very little harm. At most, it causes a few minor injuries and aches, so it's not worth the points. I recommend poisons and hidden weapons instead.]

Everyone: *!!!!!*

Shen Anxin: [Please don't incite crime. I'm a good child who obeys the law.]

Everyone: Are you?!!!

Shen Anxin: [A buff that makes them get food stuck in their teeth even when drinking cold water, fall into the latrine when they go to the toilet, and get so drunk on one drop of wine that they strip-dance in the street suits me better.]

The ministers: A scholar may be killed but not humiliated, aaaah! We must never offend this little girl in the future. We can't afford to provoke her, we can't afford to provoke her~!

Alarm bells rang in the minds of Emperor Hongyao and the princes at the same time.

Xiao Yanchen: Right now, it seems I might be the one she has the biggest problem with? She wouldn't secretly mess with me, would she? I'll have to make my guards keep a closer eye on me from now on.

After finishing her tour of the shop, Shen Anxin immediately prepared to consume gossip and save up points.

Shen Anxin: [Come on, Chacha, let's eat some gossip!]

The ministers' hearts tightened.

Chacha: [I've already started searching for the gossip about the emperor from earlier. Would you like to hear it, host?]

Shen Anxin: [Yes, yes, yes! Let's start with some major gossip about the emperor to whet my appetite.]

The ministers: Of all the pots, you had to lift the one that wouldn't boil! Couldn't you pick someone else? What if we really hear something we shouldn't?! What do we do?!

Everyone was actually both curious and afraid. They wanted to listen, but their lives came first.

They thought that perhaps Emperor Hongyao would consider it taboo and dismiss court early.

But Emperor Hongyao showed no intention of stopping her. After all, this would be the first real test of the gossip system's abilities.

Besides, as far as he knew, he had no secrets he couldn't tell anyone.