Birdsong drifted in through the window, but Wenren Shuang, lying on her carved wooden bed, angrily summoned her personal maid, Chunbi.
"What a racket! Hurry up and chase those birds away from the window!"
Her voice was irritable, but any large movement sent her sucking in sharp breaths of pain.
Chunbi hurriedly agreed, then rushed out, afraid Wenren Shuang would throw something at her.
Once again, Wenren Shuang was alone in the room. With the grating noise finally gone, she lay on the bed and stared fixedly at its canopy.
I transmigrated into this novel to live a better life, not to experience a roller coaster of soaring highs and crashing lows!
Wenren Chun never managed to meet Yun Jian yesterday. Wenren Luoshui must have been behind it!
I refuse to believe that, with my protagonist's halo, I can't beat a cannon-fodder supporting character who knows the plot!
As she thought this, another plot point from the original novel suddenly came to mind, and she sat up despite the pain.
If she remembered correctly, the original novel had hinted that General Zhu's wife and daughter were both spies from another country.
Remembering this, Wenren Shuang felt she could use it to threaten General Zhu and bring him over to her side.
At that thought, even her injuries seemed to stop hurting.
After arriving at the Zhu residence, Wenren Shuang saw Madam Zhu and Miss Zhu being led away under guard by constables.
Her eyes widened in disbelief!
Why?!
Could Wenren Luoshui have tipped someone off again?
She bit her lower lip hard, standing off to one side like a child who could not find her way home.
The carriage swayed as it traveled down the road, and I sat inside, half asleep.
The driver steered the carriage toward Vermilion Bird Street.
As soon as I stepped out of the carriage, I saw two women of differing appearances standing outside her mystery-box shop.
"Greetings, Eldest Princess, Seventh Princess."
Wenren Luoshui calmly bowed to the Eldest Princess, who wore a hibiscus-colored dress and had a cool, aloof air, and the Seventh Princess, who wore a red dress.
The Eldest Princess, Lang Yuqiao, helped her straighten up, since I often followed my father into the palace to fleece the emperor.
Several princes and princesses in the palace were quite familiar with her, too.
The emperor had sent the Eldest Princess to deal with the floods in the south some time ago. To think she had come straight here as soon as she returned today.
"Little sister Luoshui, we haven't seen each other for a while, and now you're treating me like a stranger."
The Eldest Princess gently rubbed Wenren Luoshui's head.
[Cuddles with the Eldest Princess~ I love cuddling beautiful big sisters the most~]
After returning, the Eldest Princess had gone to pay her respects at her mother's palace, where she happened to run into Xiao Qi begging their mother to let her leave the palace to play.
Xiao Qi told her that they had recently become able to hear Luoshui's thoughts.
At first, the Eldest Princess had thought Xiao Qi was joking. Now that she had met Luoshui and could hear her voice even though her lips clearly had not moved, she finally believed what Xiao Qi had said.
Wenren Luoshui led the Eldest Princess and the Seventh Princess into the shop, and the servants brought us tea.
"Oh, Eldest Princess, I have an idea for making money. Would you like to hear it?"
[Hmph! I'm going to get the Li Kingdom's economy booming! The day the Imperial Treasury's purse bulges with money will be the day Wakoku is wiped out!]
[Money loves me! I love money! Money comes pouring in from every direction.]
Wenren Luoshui's thoughts streamed continuously into the Eldest Princess's and the Seventh Princess's ears. The straightforward Seventh Princess nearly laughed at that last bit.
The Eldest Princess nodded, motioning for Wenren Luoshui to explain her idea.
The Li Kingdom already had papermaking techniques, but paper was generally something only nobles could afford.
So she wanted to open paper mills in the Li Kingdom and drive down the price of paper.
After all, in modern life, could anyone bear going a whole day without using paper?
Once the domestic paper industry got going, they could sell paper to the surrounding countries. Wouldn't money come pouring in by the fistful then?
The Eldest Princess listened to my plan and examined the papermaking method Wenren Luoshui had redeemed from the system.
She could no longer maintain her cool, aloof image and laughed as though she were having a fit.
"Luoshui, you truly are a fairy sent by heaven to help our Li Kingdom."
Although the Seventh Princess had not understood much of it, she knew that if this plan succeeded, her father, mother, and sister would no longer scold her for wasting paper.
She hugged Wenren Luoshui's arm, gazing at her with shining eyes.
"Oh, Eldest Princess, you could visit Minister Yun's residence and meet his youngest daughter. She has some excellent ideas about farming and animal husbandry."
[During the apocalypse, Yun Jian was the big shot who led a team to develop waterless cultivation technology! Having her improve ancient farming and animal husbandry methods would be a piece of cake.]
Under her gaze, the Eldest Princess nodded solemnly.
With Luoshui and Minister Yun's youngest daughter around, the Li Kingdom would surely grow stronger and stronger!
Business at Wenren Luoshui's mystery-box shop was very good. In just one week, sales shot up.
When the emperor saw the share of the profits Wenren Luoshui had sent to the palace, he could barely tear his eyes away from the silver.
The day after the Eldest Princess returned to the capital, she presented the improved papermaking technique to the emperor.
After all, the emperor had always favored the Eldest Princess as his successor, but Grand Commandant Chu had previously kept pushing him to appoint the Second Prince as crown prince.
And so the matter had remained unresolved.
This sort of gilding of the lily could only benefit Wenren Luoshui, not harm her. Whatever the court officials thought, once word spread outside, all anyone would know was that the Eldest Princess had obtained an improved papermaking technique from a reclusive master and brought it back to the capital to present to the reigning emperor.
Aside from that, the Eldest Princess followed Wenren Luoshui's recommendation and went to meet Yun Jian. Discovering that she truly was a rare talent, she recommended her to the emperor as well.
Yun Jian was now also a female official, but she was different from Wenren Luoshui. Wenren Luoshui's post was a sinecure, while Yun Jian had been assigned directly to the Ministry of Revenue. Though she was not the minister, her rank was by no means low.
[System, why does your daily meeting with the main system happen at exactly the same time as my court session? Can't you move your meetings to the evening?]
Standing among the officials attending court, Wenren Luoshui could not help calling up the system to complain.
The person standing beside her was now her best friend, Yun Jian, who had been pondering how to develop high-yield rice in ancient times without any laboratory equipment.
Suddenly hearing her best friend's voice, she turned to look at Wenren Luoshui.
[Wenren Luoshui: What are you looking at?]
[Yun Jian: Was that you talking just now?]
[Wenren Luoshui: Who else? You?]
[Yun Jian: You can hear me?]
The two of them suddenly discovered something: they could actually communicate without moving their mouths, using nothing but brainwaves!!!!
Their bond as best friends across two lifetimes really did live up to its name!
This ability was ridiculously awesome!
The ministers who could hear their thoughts: We can hear both your thoughts, you know~
Did that mean their bond was even stronger?
In truth, every civil and military official at court could see how much the emperor doted on the Eldest Princess.
And so, with a grand wave of his hand, the emperor put the Eldest Princess in charge of opening the paper mill.
The Eldest Princess accepted without arrogance or impatience. Her expression remained composed, showing none of the smug self-satisfaction that might have followed being entrusted with an important task by the emperor.