Chapter 6

1.6 – Can't die before the general goes out to battle

When Xue Ling woke up again, it was to the sound of Xiao Qing's intermittent crying in his ear. He coughed a few times, his chest aching something fierce, but still laughingly said, "As a man, what kind of skill is crying and wailing?"

Xiao Qing saw that he had woken up and stopped his tears, but his voice was still choked up. He reached out to prop up Xue Ling. "Gongzi, you're finally awake."

Xue Ling coughed again, looked at his surroundings, and asked, "Where is this? How long did I faint for?"

"Gongzi has been in a coma for three days and nights. If you hadn't woken up soon, Xiao Qing would have followed you." Small tears were still flowing from his eyes. At this moment, these days of fear have all turned into grievance. Since gongzi's last serious illness, he had never experienced such a feeling of great panic.

Xue Ling was amused, "Saying it like this, it's as if your family's gongzi will pass away at any moment."

Xiao Qing was red-eyed and did not speak. In fact, according to the imperial doctor from the palace, gongzi's remaining life was indeed not long. He also thought that his gongzi would not wake up this time, and was really determined to go with him. "Here is the general's palace. Right, now that gongzi is awake, the general should be informed."

Xue Ling was somewhat surprised. Although he ultimately chose to faint in the arms of the general, he did not expect to be brought back by the other party. He waved his hand and said, "This is the general's palace. It's redundant for you to inform him of what happens here."

Xiao Qing's face was full of confusion, and then he saw the black garbed general walk in, expression stiff.

Xiao Qing quickly wiped the tears off his face. "Gongzi just woke up, I'll go to the kitchen to prepare some food for you."

Xue Ling nodded, dismissing him, then carefully looked over the general.

Although he had always known that this lord gong was intensely handsome and dazzling, the feeling that the enemy was strong while he was weak was not very good. Xue Ling wanted to exert his own momentum properly and not be overwhelmed by the other side, but his body was too weak, and it was of no use.

Perhaps because it was tossed around upon their first meeting, the system had a psychological shadow and disappeared after seeing the general. Xue Ling and the other party looked at each other silently for a moment before Xue Ling slowly unfolded a simple and innocent smile. "Thanking Lord General for his care these past few days."

Cong Hui calmly asked, "Why didn't you come to me before?"

Xue Ling was taken aback, his brain turning. Only then did he understand what this great god meant with his concise words. "When all is said and done, first impressions are the strongest, it was not certain if I could win others' trust."

The Lord General's expression turned bad all of a sudden. "It was I that recognized a person wrongly."

Xue Ling smiled and waved his hand, as if he totally did not care about the matter. "It is I who judged a person wrongly. I did not expect to add these troubles to the general." He moved slightly, felt that there should be no problems, and prepared to get up. "It's not good to bother your excellency so much. I'd better take my leave."

"His Majesty permits you to first stay at my residence." Cong Hui stopped his movements, adding, "You should be clear about the status of your own body."

Xue Ling's look changed slightly. In order to allow him to walk and move around freely for a while, the system directly extracted this body's future life value in order to improve his physique, which led to his body getting even worse after being rejected from the world's consciousness. The time for his death was immediately brought forward.

Xue Ling felt a bit out of sorts. "Indeed, this one's (敬和) body has not been well from an early age. For me to have been able to be so lively recently, it seems even the heavens were unwilling to let me die so wronged."

Cong Hui seemed to have some taboos about him bringing up the word death, wrinkling his brows and saying, "The imperial doctor said that you had an old disease in your body. That day when you were in the palace, your heart and soul were exhausted, which damaged your body even more. You need to properly take care of yourself. His Majesty has given you permission not to take up a role as an official. You only need to recuperate well in my residence."

Xue Ling frowned. With such an article, the emperor could not possibly not make him an official. There must be something hidden behind it.

"His Majesty's intention is that you can write more articles with your opinions while recuperating. He appreciates your articles and thinks your proposal is very good. It's just that your body's state does not allow for you to overwork, so you don't need to go to court." Upon seeing his frown, Cong Hui sighed in his heart and explained it like this.

Xue Ling nodded and understood. "His Majesty wishes I could pen down more of my ideas while I can still write."

"His Majesty is well intentioned." Cong Hui's face was tight.

Xue Ling laughed, saying with amusement, "Then, thanking His Majesty for making decisions for me this time, writing is just writing. What did the imperial doctor say about my body? How much longer can I drag out this last breath of life?"

Cong Hui's gaze was gloomy and dark, but he could not see from the other's eyes even half a point of fear. The other party was obviously not very concerned about how long he could live for; perhaps for him now, it didn't matter whether he lived or not? "Two or three years is possible as long as you properly convalesce."

Xue Ling made an 'oh' sound and wrinkled his brows. "For the sake of me dragging this sick body to serve His Majesty, I wonder if His Majesty can show me grace and look into my innocent and wronged parents, restoring my family name?"

"I've already told people to look into it. It won't be long before news arrives." Looking at his open and clear expression as he spoke, Cong Hui saw the words that went unsaid, that it was his dying wish, and he hoped that it did not become his unfulfilled will. He was asking the general to help. "Before that, you should have a good rest here."

The Lord General turned around and left. Xue Ling waited until there was no more sounds before pulling the system out of the shadows. "What's the problem? Clearly the shou has already been free to go die (狗带). Why is the fate of the gong still unchanged?"

The system gracefully stepped onto the quilt covering Xue Ling, found a comfortable position and settled down before finally speaking unhurriedly, "Changing a person's fate is divided into two ways. Previously, host Duan Xuyang's plagiarism in front of the emperor destroyed his career and made him no longer have any possibility of redemption. Cong Hui also witnessed everything, conveniently ruining their love. The originally happy and blessed with both career and love shou has lost it all, so his luck is very easy to extract. Although you have destroyed the love between the gong and shou, you haven't changed his career and future, so you can't leave the world for the time being."

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Xue Ling tsked, a bit unhappy, "So troublesome."

"This is the first world, it can be deemed necessary to make the host aware of the rules."

"Will taking out his luck kill the gong, or change his originally successful life?"

"How can that be possible? He is the protagonist of the world. If he is not a multi-faceted evildoer that deserves to be punished, he will still be the pride of heaven even if he loses his luck. Moreover, the Ten Directions World is not somebody that forcibly plunders. The gong's luck can be drawn away when he dies."

"So it can also be like this." Xue Ling thought about it and found that there were many loopholes in this set of rules. Looking at it, the meaning of the Ten Directions World was very obvious. There were some people that could not afford to carry the title of 'God's Favoured one', and there were people whose life trajectory have been affected by these 'God's Favoured One' or 'King of Luck'. What he has to do was bring the plot that had been dragged into deviation by the protagonists back into place.

Where did these all these world-changing phoenixes, praised by the people heroic youths, come from? A protagonist's success was always piled up on top of a pile of cannon fodder corpses, some guilty and deserving, some particularly innocent. What he had to do, approximately, was to help those innocents happily do some face slapping.

"That's right." The system remembered one point. "This world is a trial world, so the content is relatively simple and the host's requirements are relatively small. However, you can't be like this in the next official world."

"What did I do…"

"The speed of progression was too fast, the OOC was too serious, and in this case, it's impossible to live until this cannon fodder's original age. Look, you can't even help the cannon fodder die a natural death." The system counted out its own host's faults. "But it's understandable, this is your first time doing such a job. Next time, just remember not to be too impatient."

Xue Ling rolled his eyes. "It's necessary to live until the end of their natural lives?"

"Yes. Rest assured, the world here is not matched up to the events of your own world. Regardless of how long you stay in these worlds, in your own world, it's only a matter of three or two days."

Xue Ling's lips twitched. If he really followed this route, how long would it take for him to collect his nine tails?!

His heart was so depressed.

"Regardless, we should first change the future of the general." Things that would come later, he could worry about when he went to another world. Right now, there was a problem in front of him, waiting for him to solve it. "How can we change his future?"

"Uh… According to the settings, as long as he does not marry a wife and have children, living a blissful and fulfilled life, it will be fine."

Xue Ling was silent for a moment, "Your master is truly cruel."

The system had no choice but to say, "Every world has different requirements, there's no other way. Happiness and bliss is not a big requirement. As long as you accomplish the first point, we can leave the world smoothly."

Xue Ling 'haha' laughed out loud. His meaning was, he only had this little bit of time, how could he see the other party not marry and have children? What kind of relationship did they currently have?

The system expressed that there was no other way; it couldn't concern itself too much about this..

Xue Ling thought painfully for a while as Xiao Qing came in with food. So, he decisively abandoned such a troublesome matter and ate instead.

In the days that followed, everything seemed to return to normal.

Xue Ling nurtured himself in the General's Palace, and lived every day without leaving home. He lived like a shut-in, only venturing out as far as the courtyard to bask in the sun. The general would come to see him every day, and as the two of them sometimes talked aimlessly, Xue Ling found that this protagonist gong was indeed the author's favorite; he was really proficient in everything. If it was the original body's owner, he absolutely would have worshiped the other with stars in his eyes every day.

Shortly after, Duan family's investigation into his parents results arrived. Xue Ling knew that it was the quiet before the storm, but was unclear about whether or not it was the inertia of the plot. However, the Lord General did find some clues. And the big official involved in this matter was the one who presumably attempted to usurp the throne in the near future.

Xue Ling did not want to be involved in this matter, so he just acted like a quiet and beautiful man, writing articles every day, giving the emperor some of the original body's owner and his own ideas, and making it so that every time the emperor saw his article, could only loudly exclaim 'genius', and lament that unfortunately, his remaining life was not long.

Rewards and valuable medicinal herbs were constantly sent to the general's palace. Xue Ling was lazily sunning in the yard. He had no idea what commotions were happening outside.

If one had to describe it, it was probably a big scandal that has stormed the whole city.

That morning when Cong Hui came to eat breakfast with him, he looked the same as usual, he didn't mention anything. In the afternoon, there was a rumor outside that the Left-wing ministers had rebelled.

The soldiers of the General's Palace were firmly guarding the General's Palace, Cong Hui's secret guards surrounded Xue Ling's house, fearing that something might happen to this big entity.

Xue Ling received the news, and supplied the other with one or two strategies before returning to his room and taking a nap. He was completely unworried about what kind of disturbance the coup would cause; calmer than even the oldtimers in Beijing who heard the news.

The guards had no idea what this man was thinking. After looking at each other, they could only comfort themselves that everything would be fine as long as he obediently stayed at the General's Palace.

If anything happened to him, the general would probably go mad.