[This head is for you. So fun, so fun!]
[Poor Imperial Consort Dowager Ling. She was the first person to give me something to eat.]
She tapped her two chubby index fingers together, head lowered, agonizing over whether to save her with the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy she had absorbed in the Imperial Palace.
If she saved her, she would lose the ability to speak again and have to wait to grow up slowly.
She would not be able to crawl so fast, either.
Ugh.
What a tough choice.
If only she had drunk more milk and grown up faster.
Her plump little face was still torn over whether to save her.
Xia Siheng, meanwhile, was nearly scared out of his skin by the scene.
Th-this...
A ghost even Master Yuantong could not subdue was being ridden around by his daughter!
Especially when he saw the ghost woman's body crawl in behind Xia Wanwan to look for her head, his scalp practically crawled.
In over twenty years of life, he had never seen anything so horrifying.
Xia Siheng felt that not dying of fright was already quite an achievement.
"Thank you, Wanwan. I appreciate the thought."
"Mother's life isn't in danger for now. Could you let me ask her a few questions?"
Since Villain Uncle had spoken, Xia Wanwan naturally could not refuse. She slapped the ghost woman's head and demanded fiercely in her babyish voice, "Tawk... tawk!"
Before the ghost woman could speak, she slapped her again with her little hand. "Tawk...!"
"Then bloody ask me something!"
The ghost woman glared at Xia Siheng with blood-red eyes, because she did not dare glare at Xia Wanwan.
This tiny little baby was ferocious!
She had been a ghost for over a decade and had gained some cultivation, yet a mere infant was bullying her!
Boo-hoo, she really was too miserable.
"Why are you haunting my mother?" Xia Siheng looked down at her, his eyes slightly narrowed.
"Hmph, you think I want to haunt her? You think I'd give up a perfectly good chance at reincarnation just to haunt her? Don't you know better than I do how the Late Emperor's Consort Man died ten years ago?"
Although her head lay sideways on the floor, her tone was eerie and haughty.
Her body was still whimpering as it searched for her head.
Xia Siheng stiffened slightly. Consort Man-that name sounded so familiar. "You're Consort Man?"
He did not recognize her at all.
"I'm Xiao Ju, Consort Man's personal palace maid. Consort Ling reported her. After Consort Man was executed, she came to me in a dream and asked me to avenge her. I was exposed while poisoning Consort Ling, and the Late Emperor had my legs broken. I died. I spent so many nights drifting all the way here, just to avenge Consort Man."
"Consort Man treated me like her own sister. I'll avenge her! I'll take Consort Ling's legs to fulfill a dream of my own!"
As she spoke, the ghost woman began sobbing, two trails of bloody tears running down her face.
Xia Siheng's face turned livid. "Do you even know what Consort Man did? Yet you helped her!"
"I don't, but she said she died an unjust death. It was all because Consort Ling reported her, boo-hoo..." the ghost woman sobbed.
"She thought Imperial Father couldn't satisfy her and tried to climb into my bed!" Xia Siheng practically ground the words out through his teeth. Seeing that the little one had gone off to ride the ghost woman's body and was not looking their way, he lowered his voice.
He had only been twelve then. The first time he found a naked woman beneath his covers, he was so frightened that he did not even dare return to the Imperial Bedchamber.
From that day on, he had lost all interest in women.
The ghost woman said, "Huh?"
"I refused her, so she went to seduce my second elder brother. He was young and hot-blooded, and she succeeded. Later, they even did it in Imperial Father's Imperial Bedchamber... Tell me, how could Imperial Father not execute her? Would anyone let you know a scandalous secret like that?"
The ghost woman fell silent.
Clearly, she did not believe her dear friend could be so wanton.
Just then, Consort Ling slowly woke and coughed weakly a few times. "Consort Man also got involved with that guard you liked. She made you wash the dudou she wore afterward."
"The Late Emperor executed her because, when they were caught, her red mandarin-duck dudou was still hanging from that guard's belt."
The ghost woman was thunderstruck!
She believed it.
Because she really had washed that red mandarin-duck dudou.
Indignation seethed in her heart.
Damn you! I treated you like a sister, and you slept with my man!
I won't stand for it. Absolutely not!
"That bitch! No wonder she never told me what her crime was. She'd been sleeping with all those men!"
She'd been feasting so well and never even told me!
She was furious.
The ghost woman let out an eerie wail. "I'm going to expose her! Her soul is in the hands of a Taoist from the Nanmei Kingdom. She even said that if I took Consort Ling's life tonight, that Taoist could send me to be reborn into a wealthy family!"
"What's that Taoist's name?" Xia Siheng asked.
"I don't know. I only remember that he likes braiding his beard!"
As she spoke, the ghost woman looked toward her own body again.
"Little ancestor, could you give me my body back? I'm going back to fight that bitch!"
Xia Wanwan paused briefly, then crawled off the ghost woman's body.
She had been enjoying the juicy gossip all along, merely pretending not to understand so they would not stop serving it up.
"I... I hewp..."
[I'll help you put your head back on.]
She babbled, hoping the ghost woman would understand what she meant.
Although the ghost woman did not understand, the baby had already crawled over on her hands and knees.
She struggled to pick up the ghost woman's head, then pressed it onto her prone body.
"D-done..." Xia Wanwan tilted her head to inspect the ghost woman, satisfaction shining in her round eyes.
"Done? Little ancestor, are you sure?"
The ghost woman floated up, lowered her head to look at her own back, and sank into contemplation.
Shit.
Her head was on backward.
No wonder something had felt wrong just now. Her chest should not have been that flat.
Xia Wanwan glared at her. "Done..."
The ghost woman did not dare say anything. She merely twisted her head in silence, turning it a full hundred and eighty degrees with a crack.
She gave Xia Wanwan a sheepish look, then silently drifted away.
[Oh, I really want to watch those two ghost women tear into each other...]
[Do you think they'll pull each other's hair when they fight?]
[But that Taoist from the Nanmei Kingdom is no good. He wants to help the Former Dynasty Rebels stage a rebellion. If only I could tell Villain Uncle.]
Xia Wanwan looked up at Xia Siheng, her glistening eyes filled with admiration.
Ah, the ultimate villain of the whole story.
Xia Siheng committed this to memory.
He picked Xia Wanwan up again and asked Consort Ling, "Mother, she left you paralyzed for years. Are you just going to let her go?"
Consort Ling smiled faintly. "She's a pitiful soul. She was used and even lost her life. Why should we torment her soul as well?"
Her soul was all she had left.
Even that soul was incomplete.
Xia Wanwan looked at Consort Ling, then at Xia Siheng.
[I dripped a drop of milk on her just now. Once she meets that Taoist, I'll be able to find him next time by following the smell of milk.]
[She's pitiful too, but Auntie Imperial Consort Dowager Ling, whom she hurt, is even more pitiful. I'm taking Auntie Imperial Consort Dowager Ling's side.]
[We don't have to do anything. Her time in the mortal world is up. Once dawn breaks, her soul will scatter and perish!]
Xia Siheng let out a small breath of relief.
Just as he would expect of his daughter. They thought exactly alike.
A trace of tenderness softened his sharp features. He lifted Xia Wanwan and kissed her soft little cheek.
"Wanwan, you're a treasure bestowed upon the Great Xia Dynasty by heaven."
"Do you want to be a commandery princess? Hmm? Say something. Just call me Daddy, and I'll make you a commandery princess!"
Xia Wanwan stared at him with a blank little face.
[If calling you Daddy makes me a commandery princess, I might as well call the emperor Daddy.]
[Then I could be a princess.]
Xia Siheng's expression was cold, as though he was considering something.
So Wanwan wanted to be a princess!
Before you continue