"Wait, wait a minute..."
Looking at the overwhelming and densely packed crowd, but all with Luo Nanchen's face. However, their expressions were extremely stiff and out of place, looking like a group of zombies.
Luo Nanchen's reputation had been unjustly damaged.
Lin Qiao felt a bit palpitating. She was sure that even though these people had the same face as Luo Nanchen, none of them was the real Luo Nanchen.
If these people really pounced on her later, they might tear her to pieces on the spot.
Lin Qiao quickly grabbed Meng Erliu who was about to turn around and leave. "I think I've sort of figured it out. You're right. It's right to follow you. What's Luo Nanchen... My lord, I'm defecting."
"...Defecting?" Meng Erliu smiled, looked down at Lin Qiao with a contemptuous look in his eyes. "Empress Dowager, do you think I'll believe such a trick that can only deceive kids?"
"My lord, we're from the same place. We have the same beliefs, the same culture, and the same goal. Oh yes, I have some intelligence to report." Lin Qiao quickly showed her loyalty.
Meng Erliu rolled his eyes, raised one corner of his mouth, smiling playfully. "Fine, let me see what else you can come up with."
He waved his hand, and those "Luo Nanchens" all stopped. The overwhelming sense of oppression as they charged towards Lin Qiao was reduced a lot. After they stopped, their faces all returned to their original appearance.
Their faces were covered with rotten sores and swellings, which was shocking. One couldn't even tell what their original looks were. They should be those people from under the lava.
However, it seemed to be just burn marks, not decay.
It was precisely like this that it seemed even more cruel.
They had to live, like puppets, enduring the burning pain without being able to cry or shout, and there was no end to it.
Lin Qiao secretly let out a sigh of relief in her heart and wiped the cold sweat from her palm on her clothes.
Only by knowing Meng Erliu's purpose could she figure out what he wanted to do next. Only by grasping Meng Erliu's psychological needs could she turn the situation around and turn passive into active.
She couldn't be led around by Meng Erliu.
Lin Qiao asked carefully, pretending to be innocent. "My lord, what are they for?"
Meng Erliu said, "You'd better be honest and tell me your intelligence. Otherwise, regardless of what they're for, you should know what will happen to you next."
"Got it, got it. I'm extremely loyal to you, my lord." Lin Qiao laughed. "My intelligence is that Luo Nanchen once said that outside the city of Jiangnan, there's an ancient tree that's been around for a thousand years. There's a well under the tree. When there's an abnormal celestial phenomenon, one might be able to travel through time. This was the main reason I went south with Luo Nanchen in the first place."
The ability to travel back had always been Lin Qiao's biggest concern.
In the palace, Lin Qiao had been solely focused on avoiding Luo Nanchen. But later, Luo Nanchen found a breakthrough with Zou Lvrui and grabbed Lin Qiao's weakness, so Lin Qiao had obediently gone south with him.
But who could have thought that Lin Qiao's willpower was so weak that she was captured by Luo Nanchen halfway.
...It couldn't be blamed on Lin Qiao's willpower. No one could resist the charm of the male protagonist of a pleasure - seeking novel.
But this ancient well that was said to be able to travel through time had always been deeply buried in Lin Qiao's heart. Now, by revealing this as intelligence, if she was lucky, she might be able to trick out Meng Erliu's real purpose for building this cave.
Meng Erliu was silent for a moment, stroking his chin. "Who told you that I want to travel back?"
"...Don't want to go back? Then, then, then—" Then this intelligence would be useless, and Meng Erliu would have no reason to keep her. Lin Qiao quickly added, "My lord, you have to tell me your great cause so that I can provide useful information."
"My great cause, I've told you from the very beginning, Empress Dowager."
...From the very beginning?
Could it be that he wanted to drive Luo Nanchen off the throne and become the emperor himself?
Was it the thing that Meng Erliu had been coming to her palace to discuss five years ago?
Come on, this was the world of "Your Majesty, Don't Run; The Harem Spans the World". Luo Nanchen was the emperor and the proper male protagonist. Trying to seize his throne was just asking for trouble.
Wasn't that just throwing himself at the muzzle of the original plot?
Meng Erliu burst into laughter, rose into the air, and sat on the throne in the high - place. "Lin Qiao, are you regretting now? You didn't want your original partner and even disliked him. Now, you're my servant. You deserve it."
She deserved it. She really did. She should have defected to Luo Nanchen more thoroughly back then and reported Meng Erliu completely so that Luo Nanchen could get rid of him.
Back then, out of consideration that they were from the same place and were colleagues, she hadn't exposed Meng Erliu to Luo Nanchen.
As a result, by keeping this scourge, who knew how many people he had harmed now.
It was really sinful.
"Also, Lin Qiao, since you're already in this situation, I'll tell you one more thing." Meng Erliu suddenly seemed to remember something and laughed even more wantonly. "Actually, I don't have a system at all. All that talk about completing tasks in the palace was just to deceive you."
Lin Qiao: "???"
Meng Erliu said, "Originally, I wanted to follow the original plot and get the help of the Empress Dowager. But unexpectedly, I tricked out someone with a system. Naturally, I had to play along with the plan and take a good look at what this system was all about. Oh, right, it also gave me a reason to go to Changle Palace every day. After all... it was our secret that couldn't be told."
His ferocious appearance was just like that of a patient in a mental asylum.
Meng Erliu didn't have a system and didn't need to complete any tasks at all.
...No, then why was it only she who had a system?
Zou Lvrui was the author, and she didn't have a system. Meng Erliu was a reader, and he didn't have a system either. Only she had one... Then what kind of character was she supposed to be?
Right, she still had a system...
She had been so nervous that she had forgotten about this.
"12345, are you there? Help me. I'm going to die—"
[No. 12345 is on standby and ready to serve you at any time.]
[The plot has deviated from the original track, and the system cannot intervene.]
Lin Qiao: "..."
This was so unfair. Why hadn't there been such a requirement before?
Damn it.
Meng Erliu said impatiently, "What? Empress Dowager, are you hesitating? Are you not going to defect?"
Hearing Meng Erliu's cold and impatient voice, Lin Qiao was stunned for a moment. She decided to reveal a shocking secret first to preserve her value in Meng Erliu's eyes so that she wouldn't die before Luo Nanchen found her.
She took a deep breath. "I have another important piece of intelligence."
"I know where the author of the original novel is."