Chapter 99

Li Yixin tossed and turned in bed late into the night. After hearing from Tang Mingxi that the Ye Zheng extra also featured Zhao Mei’s form making a return, her heart as a former Zhao Mei stan was filled with tangled emotions. The phone beneath her blanket lit up and dimmed repeatedly. In the end, Li Yixin decided to take a look. Otherwise, she definitely wouldn’t be able to sleep.

Ye Zheng’s solo extra, “A Day in the Life of the Saintess,” was rendered in a Q-version four-panel style distinct from the main storyline.

The first page of four panels depicted the fourteen-year-old Ye Zheng, who had just become the Saintess, sitting before a mirror and combing her hair. It showcased four hairstyles Ye Zheng had once worn.

The first hairstyle consisted of braids coiled atop her head, with no bangs. Her eyes were large and luminous, giving her a trace more innocence than the seventeen-year-old Saintess in the main manga.

The second hairstyle was loose hair. At fourteen, the Saintess’s hair hadn’t yet grown long, reaching only to her chest. She still had no bangs. The stray strands were neatly tucked behind her ears. Her face was smooth and rounded like a polished egg, and her smile was as standard as an ID photograph.

The third hairstyle was one of Ye Zheng’s common looks in the main storyline: black hair braided and draped down her back, with the familiar bangs that readers recognized. A text box beside it specifically explained why Ye Zheng had suddenly grown bangs.

【Ye Zheng discovered that leaving hair in front helped conceal the emotions in her eyes. When she lowered her head while standing at a lower position, the adults looking down at her couldn’t clearly see her expression. When someone asked, “Are you angry?” Ye Zheng could lift her head with a smile and slyly deny it, saying, “No.”】

The fourth hairstyle was the one readers were even more familiar with: Zhao Mei’s short black hair. Ye Zheng hadn’t yet changed to green eyes. In the mirror, the black-haired youth with black pupils smiled. It was gentle, yet carried a peculiar trace of slyness.

【Do not ask how such long hair could be hidden so easily. The Saintess always has her methods.】

Li Yixin stared at this page and gradually overlapped the images of Zhao Mei and Ye Zheng in her mind. So Zhao Mei, or rather Ye Zheng now, had been deliberate even about her hairstyles. Especially the explanation for the bangs, which was inexplicably a little amusing.

The second page of four panels depicted Ye Zheng inside the church. In the first panel, Ye Zheng knelt in prayer before the divine statue. The narration stated that at this time, she had to kneel for three hours. It was the Saintess’s duty.

【There’s a cheating tool hidden beneath the long skirt, but kneeling for three hours is still extremely grueling!】

Li Yixin frowned beneath the blanket. Kneeling for three hours was far too torturous. Ye Zheng was still a minor. How could the church treat a minor this way!

In the second panel, Ye Zheng sat on a chair healing the wounded arm of a knight-like man. In the third panel, while Ye Zheng was providing treatment, she received a summons from the Pope. She showed a slightly apologetic expression toward the injured person before her. In the fourth panel, Ye Zheng rose from the chair to go see the Pope. The injured man standing before her wore a shocked expression, because he’d just realized that when the Saintess stood up, she was actually taller than him.

Li Yixin was startled. So Ye Zheng was that tall? Upon reflection, in the manga, Zhao Mei was indeed only slightly shorter than Pei Xi, and Pei Xi stood over 1.8 meters tall. It was just that her face was too deceptive, leaving readers with no concrete sense of her height.

The charming little extra left Li Yixin craving more. In the main storyline, both Ye Zheng and Zhao Mei had very limited screen time. Yet each appearance left a profound impression, creating the illusion that she’d appeared frequently.

These two pages of four-panel manga were finished in barely a minute. After reading them, Li Yixin felt an overwhelming sense of emptiness. Ye Zheng’s goals and true personality had always been the subject of heated forum debates, yet this small extra made it impossible to dislike her.

Beneath a well-behaved, gentle, and kind exterior surged a rebellious spirit brimming with self-assertion. Li Yixin suddenly felt her chest begin to pound. The barriers dissolved. This heartbeat felt strange yet familiar. It wasn’t the kind she experienced toward a liked member of the opposite sex. She couldn’t describe it for the moment, only that her heart felt soft and warm.

Forum Trending Post

【1L: That’s it for the Ye Zheng extra?】

【2L: And just like that, I’m conquered~】

【3L: No need to click to know it’s bait, hahaha.】

【4L: This extra turned this dream girl into a mom fan. I could swallow the fourteen-year-old little Zheng in one bite!】

【5L: I’ve been a Ye Zheng mom for so long, and only now do I learn my daughter is 175 cm tall. How could the official team tuck such an important setting into a corner!】

【6L: Some things look small but are actually huge and adorable…】

【7L: It made me feel so bad. The church really is awful. My treasure clearly wasn’t happy living there, wuwuwu.】

【8L: More Ye Zheng extras, please. Old Uncle, you’d better recognize who the real traffic top of this manga is.】

【9L: As expected, Zhengzheng has been white-cut-black since childhood. She appears to be a great and upright Saintess, but in truth she’s a rebellious little ghost girl. So delicious.】

【10L: Since they’ve even released a four-panel extra, does that mean tomorrow they’ll drop a hundred chapters of Ye Zheng’s side story? @Old Uncle】

【11L: Stop @ing. This extra wasn’t even drawn by Old Uncle. They just had an assistant rush it out for you all. That’s the treatment side character stans get.】

【12L: What, it wasn’t drawn by Old Uncle? I like it even more!】

【13L: I knew the art style was different. The narration is also super cute. It couldn’t have been drawn by a neurotic middle-aged balding man. It must be the assistant sister.】

【14L: Great, it’s the assistant sister. We Ye Zheng fans are saved!】

【15L: Old Uncle’s art style is only good for drawing meat-selling men. Yes, 11L, I’m talking about your fave. (attached image: disheveled Sykes)】

…

Li Yixin only fell asleep in contentment after finishing the entire forum thread. In the past, when Ye Zheng stans and Zhao Mei stans fought, the Ye Zheng moms were notoriously sharp-tongued and had even left her with a bit of psychological shadow. Now, viewing it from a non-rival perspective, she realized everyone was actually quite entertaining. Their sharpness felt oddly reassuring.

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“Hm, my extra?”

Ye Zheng glanced at it. They’d even drawn the hairstyles she’d worn at fourteen. Her curiosity about how this world connected to the system and the readers deepened further.

“I even tried twin braids once. The effect was somewhat childish, so I only wore that hairstyle once and never again.”

Ye Zheng smiled. It was just as well that they hadn’t drawn the twin braids. They made her look less than particularly clever.

Come to think of it, why had she kept her hair so long? After becoming the Saintess, she’d been endlessly busy. Before she’d even noticed, her hair had grown to her waist. She’d considered cutting it several times, yet each time she’d inexplicably forgotten or been interrupted. It was only after the system’s arrival that it reminded her this world was governed by a will even higher than the gods.

“Thank you, system.”

『I’m only here to do my job. You suddenly being so serious makes me a little uncomfortable.』

The system sounded faintly embarrassed. It was far more accustomed to Ye Zheng speaking to it in that gentle, smiling tone laced with irony, or quietly plotting against it.

『The one who truly decided all of this wasn’t me. The one who chose you wasn’t me either. I’m merely here to execute it.』

Ye Zheng said nothing further. Before coming into contact with the “one who decided everything,” her vigilance was no less than when she faced Wen Jian.

The one who had chosen her and granted her the opportunity to alter her fate might not have done so out of goodwill.

“Ye Zheng, I don’t want to stay there anymore. Are you willing to let your brother work in such a terrifying place!”

The door was suddenly pounded with loud knocks. From outside came Ye Di’s voice, trembling on the verge of collapse.

Ye Zheng had been resting in her room. She’d changed into her nightclothes and was about to sleep. Ye Di’s disturbance made her frown in irritation.

The moment she opened the door, Ye Di’s tear-streaked face appeared behind it. He truly looked aggrieved.

“Ye Zheng, I don’t want to stay at the hunting grounds anymore. Say something to His Highness the Crown Prince. That place isn’t fit for humans at all!”

Ye Zheng suppressed the corners of her mouth, trying not to let her smile show too clearly. “Working by the Crown Prince’s side wasn’t that the shared wish of you and Father?”

Since they’d always hoped she would help them rise in status, she would grant them the opportunity.

“I’ve been to the hunting grounds as well. Although dozens of monsters are kept there, they’re well managed. They won’t suddenly break out and devour you. Besides, His Highness the Crown Prince has always valued that place.”

Ye Di couldn’t endure Ye Zheng’s tone, which sounded as though she were soothing a child. He shot back, “What dozens of monsters? There are at least a hundred there now! Just this past week, three people responsible for feeding the monsters were accidentally eaten. If one day they lose control and escape…”

As Ye Zheng listened to Ye Di’s endless complaints, her perfunctory attitude gradually faded.

She had arranged for Ye Di to work at Sykes’s hunting grounds, overseeing the guards, precisely because she intended to use him to gather information.

Ye Di was too foolish. So foolish that even Sykes would feel at ease and hardly guard against him. Perhaps he might bring her an unexpected surprise. And now it had arrived.

“A hundred? How could that be? Raising so many within the imperial palace is far too dangerous. Even His Highness Sykes wouldn’t be so reckless.”

Ye Di grabbed a fistful of his hair in frustration. His voice sounded both aggrieved and indignant as he defended himself. “I heard the feeders saying it. They all want to resign. If it weren’t for the generous salary, who would risk their lives? I’m not short of money!”

Ye Zheng’s brow lifted almost imperceptibly. She offered a few words of comfort, skillfully painting a grand vision to placate Ye Di. Soon, the bedroom doorway fell silent once more.

“Raising so many monsters in the hunting grounds beneath the imperial palace. Either our Crown Prince is still in a rebellious phase of youth, or he has some extraordinary scheme…”

Ye Zheng gazed into the pitch-black corridor beyond and closed the door.

Her drowsiness had vanished with the disturbance. She simply sat at her desk, picked up a pen, and after brief contemplation, wrote a paragraph on the letter paper.

The words she’d used to mislead Sykes hadn’t been entirely false. The church’s special charitable activities in the Western District could be traced back more than a century.

What if the dragon bone human experiments in the Western District weren’t Wen Jian’s personal undertaking, but rather a long-standing tradition of the church?

At that thought, even Ye Zheng felt a chill run through her. She rubbed her cold arms and draped a coat over her shoulders.

Perhaps in the Western District, Sykes truly might uncover the origins of his own past.

In any case, the Western District was a crucial plot point. She had to prepare thoroughly.

Ye Zheng added a few more lines to the letter. The tip of her pen paused. She tried sketching a small pattern on the paper to show sincerity, then abruptly scribbled it out.

She sealed the letter and placed it on the desk. Someone would come to retrieve it tomorrow.

✧✧✧✧✧

The envelope was taken away the next morning. That very evening, Ye Zheng received a reply.

『Do you think I’m your dog? You tell me to go somewhere and I go? Keep dreaming!』

The handwriting was neat and elegant, forming a stark contrast to the irritable tone of the message.

It was obvious Sela hadn’t written it herself. One of her believers must have penned it on her behalf.

In the center of the page was a suspicious black scribble, as if something had originally been drawn there and then viciously smeared over.

Ye Zheng examined it closely. It appeared to have been a small dog.

This was Sela’s genuine handwriting.

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Authors Note

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Sela, who can’t write, got so angry that she drew a picture. Then she realized the drawing failed to convey her protest and instead made her look as though she truly wanted to be a dog, so she furiously scribbled it out.