When Tian Xi opened her eyes, she was in an elaborately designed room that resembled one from those ancient Chinese dramas she had often binged back in her original world when she had absolutely nothing left to do.
It wasn't overly gaudy, but she could tell that the vases and the gold and jade statues placed aesthetically around the room were worth their fair share of money.
Looking down at her own petite body, Tian Xi found to her horror that she was extremely petite. Like, her hands were no longer those of an adult's but those of a little girl's. And, although her chest was considerably large for her assumed age, they were still quite small as opposed to what she was used to and clearly still developing.
She currently wore what seemed like inner robes, that were an extremely light lavender in color. The plain, soft and silky texture gave it away, though there were some intricate gold embroidery of flowers and butterflies along the hems of her sleeves and the bottom of her dress.
Her extremely long and straight black hair, parted right in the middle of her forehead and currently free of all accessories, draped all over the bed as she sat checking and feeling herself out.
Turning to the sad excuse of a bronze mirror on the floor that was way too blurry to even qualify as such, she could still barely make out her delicate features--long dark lashes that fanned her large dark pupils that she couldn't tell exactly what color they were due to the discoloration of the mirror. She had a small, cute button nose with a complimentary small and cute pair of plump lips that she also couldn't tell what color they were exactly, again due to the poor quality of the bronze sheet.
Her skin was very light and flawless, apparently the original must have not stepped outside too much and even worse was that there was not even an ounce of muscle on her body.
She was extremely weak, and Tian Xi could feel how sluggish her movements were.
Hopefully, she inwardly panicked, hopefully, this body isn't as young as it looks and feels...
'001, the mission details,' she ordered.
[Roger, host!]
This was a level 3 world.
She was currently in a world that had a large continent with four kingdoms and the setting was similar to ancient China, but not.
The northern Li and southern Huo kingdoms were known for their powerful armies.
Zhao was a trade kingdom in the west, while the eastern Shi was an artistic, literal, and scholarly kingdom.
Each kingdom had one Emperor who reigned above all.
The plot was set in the militaristic northern kingdom of Li. The Li Emperor had only two concubines, and his Empress gave birth to two of his most beloved children, the First Prince and the Second Princess. The male lead, Li Hao the Third Prince, was one of the concubine's only son, while the Fourth Prince was the other's.
The Emperor only favored his first two children and while he didn't neglect the other two, there was a clear bias. He only took up the two concubines because the pestering ministers refused to let him off lest they resigned.
Regardless of having taken in other women into his small harem and actually having children with them, his heart belonged entirely to the Empress. Similarly, the Empress lived up to her status as the mother of the nation as she was magnanimous and virtuous, forgiving her Imperial Husband for being unable to be completely hers. She had his heart and children. To her, these three were all she needed to be happy.
The First Prince was the Crown Prince, but he didn't care much for the throne. However, as he had a sense of responsibility to his kingdom, he didn't deny the position as Crown Prince.
The Second Princess was known to be a pampered by both her Imperial parents as well as her Imperial brother. She was a sheltered young miss with peerless beauty that could destroy nations, skilled in the four arts of the qin, calligraphy, chess, and painting.
On the contrary, the male lead was very ambitious. He saw how his concubine mother was neglected by his Imperial Father, and also envied the way his older siblings were doted on by the Emperor. He wanted to take those four arrogant Imperial relatives of his down a notch.
His concubine mother loved the Emperor so much that she had pleaded to her father, the Left Prime Minister, for days until he finally acquiesced and forced the Emperor to marry her in as a concubine.
The Fourth Prince was just a toddler. He was doted on by his birth mother, who was the Right Prime Minister's daughter to balance out the powers between both ministers.
At the time of the start of the mission plot, the Crown Prince was 16, The Second Princess and the male lead were 15, and female lead was 13.
Another noteworthy character that could be considered the second male lead was Long Zheng, one of the two generals of Li. These two families did not get along due to old rivalries.
The Long family of generals had always wanted the throne, because it was initially supposed to go to the Long family but the first Li Emperor had pulled a small trick and took the throne for himself--establishing the Li dynasty.
While Long Zheng's deceased father wanted the throne, Long Zheng who was 14 at the time of the plot, wanted much more. He wanted the continent, thus was always at the borders honing his skills against the southern Huo kingdom.
In all honesty, the Li Emperor would have loved to step down to live carefreely with his Empress and two children. So, despite the young general's ambition, the Emperor treated Long Zheng really favorably, even more than he did the Third and Fourth Princes.
Also, there was an engagement between Li Feifei, his only daughter, and Long Zheng. But Long Zheng left home with his father, who later died due to an old illness, when he was four to the border. His mother had died giving birth to him.
Li Feifei didn't care much, as long as Long Zheng properly respected her as his future wife and with her status as a princess.
General Bai, the rival general, hated how preferential the Emperor was to Long Zheng. He didn't care that Long Zheng was only a teenager either. He had one wife and one concubine. But he favored the concubine who resembled Long Zheng's deceased mother because Long Zheng's mother was his crush who was "stolen" by Long Zheng's father. The concubine gave birth to three children--two daughters and one son--while the first wife only had the Fourth Miss, Bai Ping.
In her grief, the wife suddenly left and disappeared never to be seen again, leaving Bai Ping all by herself to fend against her evil step sisters and perverted step brother. She ended up dying due to being pushed into the lake in the garden behind the manor by her two sisters out of jealousy for her beauty, and that was when the female lead transmigrated and took over her body.
The female lead was an assassin from the 21st century who was both skilled in the art of killing and medicine with her godly acupuncture skills that was unrivaled at the historical time period of the Four Kingdoms.
In his quest for the throne, Li Hao, the male lead, wanted both generals on his side. As Long Zheng was currently at the border, he hoped to rope in General Bai first.
It proved to be easier than one would think as General Bai was already dissatisfied with how favored General Long was by the current Emperor. And thus, this dissatisfaction turned into hatred towards the Emperor himself for not noticing his own efforts in comparison to the young boy who was, in his opinion, still wet behind the ears.
Since he had gotten close to her father, Li Hao happened to catch the scene when the female lead got justice for the original body by ruthlessly beating up her eldest sister and her closest personal maidservant in her own dilapidated courtyard.
Impressed, he walked out from his hiding spot whilst applauding her for not taking things lying down as the rumors had stated her to be timid, ugly, and useless when in fact she was anything but.
As he was but a child in her eyes, the female lead who had died at the ripe age of 24 in her original world, paid no mind to Li Hao in the beginning as she continued adjusting to her new life and attempting to avenge the original body by making her father regret choosing her sisters and their mother over her and her own mother.
Since she hadn't decided to kill them until they'd overstepped her bottom line, Li Hao didn't mind her playing around with the General's house and thus put his focus instead on General Long at the southern border--not forgetting to flirt with the female lead when he had the chance.
Eventually, after playing the hero who saved the beauty on more than one occasion, the female lead started trusting the male lead enough to consider him a close friend.
Their relationship only escalated to the next level when she fell for a trap laid by her jealous sisters who had found out about her closeness with the handsome Third Prince and drugged her. In the end, the male lead found her and helped her out.
Not long after, Long Zheng was finally called back from the border by the Emperor. The Emperor wanted to push the marriage forward because his daughter was finally of marriageable age, and even though Long Zheng was only 14 he was considered a man and his merits more than qualified him as a man amongst men as well.
Unfortunately, Long Zheng didn't have much of an impression of the peerless beauty that was the pampered Second Princess of Li. He wanted someone who could become his equal as his ultimate goal was to conquer the four kingdoms not just the puny Li kingdom.
Thus, when he saw the female lead fending off against assassins sent to kill her due to her relationship with the Third Prince, he was instantly intrigued by the strong woman.
As he'd set his eyes on a potential wife already, and he didn't really intend to keep up a friendly relationship with the Li royal family anyway, he abruptly broke off the engagement he had with Li Feifei, enraging the Emperor and Li Feifei.
Li Feifei didn't care about the man, but her reputation was ruined because of his actions!
The First Prince was also angered as he doted very much on his only sister and sibling from the same mother.
The trio demanded compensation, but Long Zheng, as arrogant as he was, refused and was declared ungrateful; a white-eyed wolf as the Emperor had always treated him well.
In the end, the royal family had to swallow this insult because General Long was too powerful to mess with and they weren't so petty as to stoop down low enough just to target the female lead.
Unfortunately, some other women had gotten wind of the royal family having been slighted and acted against the female lead by sending assassins who actually managed to do some damage, pinning the blame on the wronged Second Princess and without even confirming if she was truly the one behind the act General Long sent his own men to capture her and torture her, eventually killing her off.
By this time, he had found out the female lead's relationship with the male lead, but didn't mind as he would snatch her back when he took over the four kingdoms. He had planned to temporarily help out the male lead until they took over Li, then he would easily send in his troops stationed outside of the kingdom to overthrow the treasonous Third Prince enacting justice for the then-previous Emperor who was killed by his own son.
The Emperor and empress fell ill at the news of their daughter's death and it got worse when they saw the state of her corpse, while the Crown Prince went mad. At this crucial time of weakness, the Third Prince acted and got rid of the First Prince who had always been very alert, cautious, and capable prior to the death of his beloved little sister.
The death of their son only further deteriorated the Imperial couple's health and they had no more hope nor will to live.
Before the Emperor could write his edict stating that he would step down and give his throne to his hateful Third Son, who he eventually guessed was behind everything, he and his wife were mercilessly slain by him. The Emperor had never intended to act against the male lead for vengeance because it wouldn't bring back his daughter and son and Li Hao was also his son. Unfortunately, Li Hao was paranoid and no longer cared for his Imperial father's affections.
As for Long Zheng, since he wasn't the male lead and General Bai had always wanted to get rid of him, the older man had hinted at the boy's ambition on numerous accounts, raising the male lead's caution towards the young yet capable general.
Actually, General Bai was just throwing muddy water at Long Zheng, but he ended up being correct and Li Hao found every action taken by Long Zheng to be suspicious.
At first, he thought it would be okay to keep General Long around because of his strength and his own troops in the capital could rival the General's due to his male lead halo. But that outlook changed the moment he found out about Long Zheng's impure motives towards his fiancée, the female lead.
In the end, he convinced Bai Ping to act as a beauty trap to kill off Long Zheng, which she did as the smitten female lead she was.
The male lead successfully ruled over Li kingdom at the age of 15, taking in his four-months pregnant 13-year old empress, never taking in other women due to his own experience of having a concubine mother.
To the citizens, the new Emperor was known to be romantic and loyal to his empress that all women were envious of, as well as competent as the kingdom didn't suffer any misfortune for the next hundred years.
Currently, Tian Xi was in the body of the Second Princess who was literally reduced to a side character from the very beginning despite her position and proclaimed talent.
Tian Xi sighed at how the female lead and male lead always got everything so easily. Then again, when one thought about it, the male lead didn't accomplish much as opposed to what Long Zheng could and would have if he had lived long enough to do so.
Thinking more, it was totally unreasonable that Long Zheng was so easily disposed of even if he had been "in love" with the female lead. One would assume he prioritized his goal over a woman but alas, he was still a man--err, boy. He was only 14.
And speaking of age, Tian Xi groaned as she fell back onto the soft mattress underneath her bosom.
Baby, mommy is sorry. Mommy is way too young to safely give birth to you...
She couldn't help the single distressed tear that fell from her eye, '001, just give me the mission...'
There was only this to distract her from her sorrow.
Sure enough, three luck was still shit. In fact, she felt that it was worse than two luck.
[Got it.]
[Main Mission: Reign over the Four Kingdoms as the Empress. Reward: 5000 points]
[Side Mission 1: Ensure the survival of your Imperial Father, Imperial Mother, and Imperial Brother. Reward: 9000 points]
'En,' she expected as much from just hearing the mission details that the main and side missions would be something like this.
First things first, even if she couldn't get pregnant before she turned 18 if she wanted to live a long and healthy life with her baby, Tian Xi still thought it best to meet up with her devil.
And, even if she didn't mind being 15 and pregnant, she knew that he cared about her too much to do that to her which made her heart feel warm yet at the same time even more distressed because that would mean their baby would have to wait for three more years ah!