An Ear to the Ground

The old lady shuddered at the thought of the consequences.

"I will look into it," she promised.

She looked at Xu Xi, her expression serious. "However, until the matter is clarified, you cannot mention these words to anyone today."

"Of course," Xu Xi said. "I had my suspicions about this as early as when the Second Madam insisted on recognizing Xu Xue as her daughter. I'm only telling you now, which shows I'm tight-lipped. You can rest assured."

"..." The old lady didn't know what expression to use when facing Xu Xi.

"Furthermore, you want to hold a banquet to celebrate Zhao Ruyu and me being admitted to the academy, and to introduce me to the guests, that's fine. But if it turns out later that my background is suspicious, how will you explain it to people? So I advise you to reconsider this banquet. It's not too late to hold the banquet after you've found out my background."

The old lady was in a state of confusion. "I will consider this matter carefully."

After leaving the old lady's place, Xu Xi mentally called out to the system: "Idiot, come out for a second."

"What?" the system asked in a muffled voice, not arguing with Xu Xi about the "idiot" label. It was clearly still angry about Xu Xi's "salted fish theory" and didn't want to say another word.

"Can you find out the truth about my background?" Xu Xi asked.

"No." The system refused decisively.

"Oh, never mind then." Xu Xi was equally decisive, then turned to Qingfeng, "Go see if Matron Yuan and Yicui have returned. If they have, go eat and ask them to come out and keep me company. I want to walk around the Marquis's residence and familiarize myself with the surroundings."

"Yes, please wait a moment, miss." Qingfeng jogged into the Tea Tasting Residence, leaving Xu Xi standing alone at the courtyard gate.

A short while later, Matron Yuan and Yicui came out. The three of them strolled around the Marquis's residence. Of course, to avoid trouble, Xu Xi did not approach the buildings where the three main branches of the family lived, and instructed Matron Yuan, who was leading the way, to deliberately avoid these places and only walk in quiet areas.

After walking for the time it takes to eat a meal, she returned to the Tea Tasting Residence, took a bath with Yicui's help, and then lay down to sleep.

The moment she lay down, the system, which had been silent until now, finally couldn't help but ask, "Host, why are you asleep already? You haven't practiced your calligraphy for today."

In the past, Xu Xi would practice calligraphy whenever she had free time. She would practice more when she had time and less when she didn't, and she never missed a day. But today, she didn't practice a single character and didn't earn a single point, which made the system very uncomfortable.

"Oh, didn't I say I wanted to be a lazy bum?" Xu Xi yawned lazily. "Being a lazy bum is actually quite comfortable. No wonder so many people want to be lazy bums. Sigh, just thinking about not having to work hard anymore makes me so happy."

She pointed to her fingers and said to the system, "Look, I'm a young lady of the Marquis's mansion now, with no worries about food or clothing. The old lady and the first lady have also agreed that I can decide my own marriage, and I won't marry a scumbag. When I reach a certain age, I'll carefully choose a family to marry into, and I can continue to live a life of comfort and ease. As long as I'm easygoing and don't crave a long-term meal ticket relationship, life couldn't be more enjoyable. If I get really bored, I can even ask his concubine to play mahjong with me."

"..." I'm so annoyed.

Even though the system knew that Xu Xi was saying and doing this on purpose, there was nothing it could do.

For it, points are energy. Without points, it can never be repaired and will remain mentally disabled. And the only one who can earn points for it is Xu Xi.

Ugh, I accidentally got bound to a rogue host. What a miserable system! There's no one more miserable than this.

Thinking of this, it said sullenly, "If you want to investigate your background, you have to use points."

Xu Xi immediately perked up.

Ever since the system disappeared for half a day to investigate that calligrapher, she'd been eyeing that function of hers. It was a complete treasure trove of information, and all done discreetly. With a function like that, what in the world wouldn't she know?

However, she also knew that in her relationship with the system, it was always a tale of two opposing forces. Although the system was somewhat dim-witted, it could also be incredibly cunning at times. Once it knew that she needed its help, it would definitely put on airs to make her obey its every whim. But that was impossible, absolutely impossible.

Therefore, she had originally been thinking about how to coax it into doing work for her for free.

Today, Lady Wei really annoyed me. It's like a fly buzzing around your head all day long; it can't bite you, but it's still annoying. Xu Xi wanted to get things done quickly and resolve this matter, which is why she was in a hurry and didn't have the patience to coax the system anymore.

However, the system is trying every means to get her to earn more points. She can fool it once or twice, but if she does it again, it will definitely realize that it's been working for her for free, and then it will have to pay the price.

Instead of doing that, it's better to agree on a price from the beginning.

She pretended not to care, half-opening her eyes groggily, and asked, "How many points?"

"Fifty thousand."

Xu Xi was almost startled awake by the system.

"How much did you say?" she asked, her eyes widening.

The system probably realized it had overcharged, and its tone betrayed a hint of guilt. "Fifty thousand."

"Then you should just wash up and go to bed," Xu Xi said irritably.

"This is difficult. Think about it, it's been fourteen years. Everyone who knew about this is either dead or scattered. I don't know how much effort it would take me to investigate this. Fifty thousand points, I really didn't charge you more than that. You just need to improve your calligraphy level and practice a few more pieces." The system patiently tried to persuade her.

"Ha, who are you trying to fool?" Xu Xi sneered. "If I want to exchange for Agility Pill, you at least have to buy it from the store and sell it to me to cover your costs. This kind of gossiping is a risk-free business. I won't give you a single point, but you'll still wander around listening to gossip when you're bored. You dare to ask me for 50,000 for such a simple favor that doesn't cost you any energy? You're heartless! We're breaking up!"

She closed her eyes and ignored the system.

The system was incredibly frustrated, but it really couldn't do anything about Xu Xi.

"Then how about..." it said, sounding aggrieved, "Thirty thousand?"

Seeing that Xu Xi remained silent, it added, "It really can't be any less."

"Don't ask for exorbitant prices like 30,000 or 50,000." Xu Xi opened her eyes. "There are rules to doing business. Look outside, whether it's a small vendor or a big merchant, everything they sell has a price. You can't just shout out whatever you want."

"Then you tell me."

"Let's determine the score by scope. For example, if I want to know about things happening in this manor, I'll get 50 points for a piece of information; within a ten-mile radius of the manor, I'll get 100 points for a piece of information; for the entire capital, I'll get 150 points. If it's nationwide, I'll get 300 points. What do you think?"