Yanghua met up with Tangtang, and they approached General Zhang's courtyard. Yanghua was notified that the general was in his study, so they moved away from the sitting room that she initially met the General in just a few days ago. Sliding doors whooshed open and Yanghua weakly walked into General Zhang's study. General Zhang sat in a cherry red yoke back chair, racing a game of Go. Yanghua quickly bowed to General Zhang, and waited for the same gravelly voice to give her permission to stand. "Rise, daughter. Now, why are you here again? I am a very busy general, I do not have time for any trivial ideas or issues that you have. Your mother or the head servant can easily solve any issues that you have." General Zhang chided, clearly annoyed at Yanghua's mere presence. Yanghua internally gritted her teeth as she tried to smoothen her expression to neutrality.
"Father, I apologize for disturbing you. I came today as I--" Yanghua coughed, making it a point to hack enough to really play the part of being sickly. "I came today to voice a concern about the journey I will be embarking to the capital." Yanghua said, trailing off. "Go on," General Zhang said stroking his beard. "I was reminded by Mother that older brother would be going to the capital. However, she forbade me from using the Zhang family's personal carriage. Of course, someone as lowly and common I would not dare to ride in the Zhang family's personal carriage." Yanghua said pitifully, tears welling up in her eyes, threatening to fall. Great, now for the hook, line, and sinker, Yanghua thought. "However, I was given the task of funding and hiring a carriage mere days before older brother leaves for the capital. I do not want to bring shame to the Zhang Family's name, as it would be unsightly that the Zhang Family's only daughter arrived to the emperor's palace riding wildly on a horse, or worst that I do not show up at all, angering the emperor and bringing humiliation to the Zhang Family namesake." Yanghua said, carefully letting a tear run down her cheek. She peeked up through her eyelashes to gauge General Zhang's expression, and she felt the weight lift off her shoulders. General Zhang's eyes narrowed, and he spat, "Who said that a member of the Zhang family would be riding a horse to the capital, much less a woman riding a horse? Ridiculous! Was this your idea you lowly thing?!"
Yanghua's face quickly hardened, and instead she lowered her head further and forced herself to squeeze out a few more crocodile tears. She took a deep breath and continued "Mother asked me to journey to the capital alone, with no further instructions. She forbade me from traveling with older brother in the family carriage, and suggested that I ride to the capital alone on a horse, considering my childhood hobby of riding horses." Yanghua could feel the anger radiating off of General Zhang and she could not bring herself to look at him due to the immense pressure he was exuding. Internally she cheered as she sneaked in a white lie about that green tea step-mother, hopefully the wretched couple would argue tonight, and this will help me convince the General, killing two birds with one stone, Yanghua thought giddily. "I will not allow the Zhang Family name to be disgraced in this way, you come here." General Zhang roughly called out for a servant to enter the room. He whispered a couple things into the servants ear and they scrambled out of the room to fulfill his order.
General Zhang cleared his throat and said "Despite your lowly origins, you still sport the Zhang family name. I cannot permit that the nobles in the capital to perceive the Zhang Family as so poor that they could not afford to send two of its children to the capital." Yanghua opened up the system homepage as she stared at her feet. The main mission for "Go meet General Zhang and convince him to provide better accommodations to your journey to the emperor's palace" was now 1/1, and Yanghua saw her 150 NALA coins shoot up to a satisfying yet measly 300 NALA coins.
The previous servant quickly rushed back into General Zhang's study and presented the General with a small, locked box. He undid the lock and beckoned Yanghua closer. General Zhang pulled out a jade pendent attached to a blue tassel and handed it to Yanghua. General Zhang said, "Here, use the Zhang family's pendant wisely. With it you should be able to hire a carriage and an entourage easily. Do not spare a single expense. The Zhang family cannot afford to lose face in such a shameful way. Be quick, and return this to me before you leave for the capital. I do not need to remind you to not embarrass your older brother in the capital, be mindful of the Zhang family's reputation." After saying his part, he dismissed Yanghua, as if he couldn't wait to get her out of his sight.
Yanghua booked it out of the General's study and hurried back to her cottage with Tangtang. In a daze, she entered her room and sat down in one of her rattan chairs. There's no way it was that easy for me to get permission to rent out a carriage, Yanghua thought bewildered that is was that easy for her to convince General Zhang. I must have some crazy main character buff, Yanghua thought wistfully. She admired the clear and smooth jade pendant. Yanghua momentarily thought about the possibility that she could sell off the pendant and run away, but she quickly shook off the idea. She still had to "screw over the male lead" and being in the imperial palace was the quickest way to be in a close vicinity to the male lead.
Yanghua opened up her system again to see if she could buy anything from the NALA shop when she was greeted with 700 NALA coins. Huh? Wait, what am I looking at, Yanghua thought to herself, her eyes bulging out of her skull. There must be a glitch in the NALA system because Yanghua literally just saw that the balance for her NALA coins was 300. She quickly looked for the notifications in the interface, and saw that she gained 400 NALA coins randomly from a hidden mission. That was almost four times the amount she earned from one main mission!