RWWAI 10

Chapter 10: Oh No, Oh No, It Went Off the Rails

I hurriedly said:

"What are you panicking for? Even though you can't use Qi Lu's abilities, doesn't your system answer you?"

Luo Fan's mouth drooped as he casually picked up a stack of official documents from the desk and said:

"I tried!"

Then, as if to prove something, he pointed at the empty void and wailed in a complete mental breakdown:

"It only answers me with the word 'Official Documents'!"

I couldn't help bursting into laughter. It seemed he was referring to the bullet comments, only I couldn't see them.

To avoid sounding too impolite, I swallowed my giggles and suggested:

"You can't ask it 'What is this?'; you have to ask 'What does it say?'!"

"I already asked! Do you take me for an idiot?"

Luo Fan barked angrily, his eyes welling up with tears.

"Then what did the system reply with?"

I asked.

Luo Fan cried out:

"Chinese!"

I burst out laughing all over again.

It appeared the system had zero intention of giving a proper answer.

Wiping the tears from my eyes, I picked up one of the official documents to inspect it. Then, struggling to suppress my amusement, I said:

"Alright, calm down, I'll read it for you!"

With that, I helped him break down and explain the documents one by one.

Not only that, but drawing upon Liang Jingjing's vague, surface-level understanding of political affairs from her past life, I casually offered some basic suggestions. Naturally, they were just broad judgments—such as which city had fallen in the past or where a flood had occurred—major events that any ordinary woman would know about. I couldn't help with anything beyond that.

Yet I couldn't help feeling a growing sense of bewilderment.

Because I noticed that aside from giving him those initial "prior context" notes at the very beginning, Luo Fan's system never once provided any further hints related to the past-life plotline.

In contrast, look at me: the system would fill me in on past-life details whenever it felt like it—like how Qin Miaomiao hadn't actually knelt during the tea ceremony, a detail the bullet comments only tipped me off about later.

Looking at it this way, when Luo Fan failed to stop her from kneeling and serving tea, he genuinely had no idea it was coming.

After finally hammering through the documents that had piled up over several days, I voiced the doubt lingering in my heart:

"Why are both of us transmigrated, yet your system and mine are so completely different?"

With a tragic expression on his face, Luo Fan replied:

"I'd like to know that too."

Gazing at him earnestly, I pointed out:

"Judging by how things are going, although you can ask your system questions, your system is remarkably good at dodging the important stuff and taking the easy way out."

Luo Fan closed his eyes and nodded helplessly.

I continued:

"By comparison, whether we're talking hardware (personal abilities) or software (the system), I've got it much better than you. Why is that? Is it because your mission is simpler?"

Luo Fan retorted indignantly:

"Isn't your mission just flirting with that doctor?"

I immediately shot back:

"Isn't that because I'm trapped here by your mission? If I could get a divorce, why would I bother just flirting with a single doctor?"

Perhaps because my argument was airtight, Luo Fan was left entirely speechless. He could only turn his head away like a neglected, sulking bulldog and nurse his frustration.

All in all, for the next several days, Luo Fan relied entirely on Liang Jingjing's "reading comprehension" to make sense of the official documents, before putting on a show of authority in the commandant's front hall to "conduct official business".

Luckily, a commandant didn't actually have to write things down himself; as long as he gave verbal instructions, subordinates would naturally write them down for him, otherwise he wouldn't have lasted this long.

Little did I know, precisely because I kept brazenly barging into his study during the day, and Luo Fan kept sneaking over to take refuge on my bedroom floor at night, the story of Qi Lu, Qin Miaomiao, and Liang Jingjing was quietly going completely off the rails.

At first, I hadn't noticed a thing.

It was only one day, on a whim, when I tried to flirt with Doctor Zhou a little bit, that his reaction made me abruptly realize something was terribly wrong.

The catalyst started when I casually asked about his relationship with his wife, just to probe the waters.

True to form, Doctor Zhou was scared out of his wits and dropped straight to his knees:

"M-Madam, spare my life! This humble one has truly kept his mouth zipped tight these past few days, and hasn't even sent a single family letter outside! My wife and children back home know nothing about this, absolutely nothing! I beg Madam to show mercy! If Madam truly wants to... to silence me, just take my life alone! I only beg Madam to spare my family and show mercy to them!"

I let out a snort and was just about to explain when I heard Doctor Zhou continue:

"Having been in the estate for many days, this humble one knows nothing whatsoever about Madam's pulse; nor have I ever inquired about things in the estate that are none of my business. I only pray Madam will show kindness and let my family go. Once the little young master is safely brought into this world, this humble one will naturally finish things himself, leaving behind zero loose ends, and certainly never causing any trouble for the commandant's estate."

I froze for a moment, because his remark—“this humble one knows nothing whatsoever about Madam's pulse”—felt jarringly out of place.

"I only pray Madam... let the disaster stop with me alone."

Doctor Zhou was still trembling as he pleaded.

Even to me, being scared to this degree had long crossed the line into absurdity.

So I pulled him up, led him aside, and asked earnestly:

"Nobody is trying to take your life, and nobody is trying to harm your family. Let me ask you this: what on earth do you think the commandant brought you into this estate for?"

Doctor Zhou's answer left me completely and utterly dumbfounded.

Because not only did he assume I wanted to steal Qin Miaomiao's child, but he also assumed that once Qin Miaomiao gave birth, she was a dead woman walking.

In the eyes of outsiders, Qi Lu and Liang Jingjing were childhood sweethearts, so their relationship must undoubtedly be deeply affectionate.

Even though Qi Lu had spent three long years guarding the Xiazi Pass and brought back a concubine upon his return, Doctor Zhou had witnessed with his own eyes these past few days how Qi Lu practically glued himself to me day and night while completely ignoring Qin Miaomiao—whereas I was the one showing abnormal, obsessive concern over her unborn child.

Clearly, Qi Lu showing affection to Qin Miaomiao was nothing more than a smokescreen.

If Qin Miaomiao were truly just some mistress picked up from the battlefield, no matter how magnanimous a legal wife might be, she would never stoop to claiming another woman's child as her own to raise.

Therefore, all of this pointed to a single, horrifying possibility—that I, Liang Jingjing, was completely barren.

And Qi Lu, deeply devoted and in love with me, wanted to spare me from the social stigma of dying childless, so he casually dragged some poor, war-widowed pregnant woman back from the Xiazi Pass to "pull a baby out of thin air."

Since he felt nothing for her, once the child landed safely on the ground, there would naturally be no reason to keep Qin Miaomiao around any longer.

After all, dead men tell no tales.

Doctor Zhou even suspected we were going to make him poison Qin Miaomiao and then force him to commit suicide afterward.

I forced out a couple of dry, humorless laughs.

Because this plotline had already veered so wildly off course that there was simply no reeling it back in.

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