Daylight moved through carved lattice and embroidered curtains like a slow, considerate hand. Long Yue woke often, because newborns have their own calendars, and because palace life was a noisy machine. He had realized something crucial: the system could be used like a cheat sheet, but only if he paid attention.
SYSTEM: Infant Charisma I active. Passive: smiles interpreted as auspicious by servants +10. Active: mimicry — copy caregiver facial expression (cooldown: 2 hours).
He tried it experimentally. When the wet nurse, a woman named Aunty Lin, approached with a wooden spoon and a respectful smile, he tilted his face and matched her eyes. The system fed him subtle feedback: mirrored = success. Aunty Lin cooed; a diminutive knight of a man — Bodyguard Shen — grunted softly and looked relieved.
[Aunty Lin:] "He has your eyes, Your Majesty."
[Empress Wu:] "Eyes like a scholar's hunger."
Long Yue, who had been a mediocre spreadsheet jockey before, felt a strange thrill at being likened to hunger. The system gave a small ping of satisfaction.
SYSTEM: Hint: exploit proximity bonuses. Action recommended: place yourself near influence nodes (Empress, senior ministers) during waking hours.
Influence nodes. The system spoke the language of power as if it were a credit card reward program. The Empress, the ministers, and even the midwife were all nodes. Long Yue intended to exploit them with surgical politeness and the occasional well-timed spit-up.
[MC / Long Yue:] (thought) "Okay, goal one: survive. Goal two: learn the names of people who could kill or crown me. Goal three: get dumplings."
He sounded ridiculous even inside his head. The system appended a gentle correction.
SYSTEM: Secondary goal: cultural acclimation. Tertiary goal: gather allies. Quaternary: obtain dumplings only if allies secured.
Aunty Lin hummed a nursery rhyme. The words were old wood, hollow at first, but the cadence soothed a part of Long Yue that remembered lullabies from the other life. He felt a warmth for Aunty Lin that wasn't purely utility. Humans, even system users, occasionally kept people because they liked them.
A messenger slipped into the nursery — a thin boy with a folded paper. He bowed so low his forehead nearly kissed the floor.
[Messenger:] "Your Majesty, a petition from Minister Li. He requests an audience concerning household revenue."
The Empress's gaze tightened. Money was always a quiet battlefield.
[Empress Wu:] "Let him come. The child remains under watch."
When Minister Li arrived, he spoke in the clipped, precise tone of someone accustomed to trimming hedges with taxes. He gave the child a long look — hawk-eyed, measuring.
[Minister Li:] "A healthy prince is a blessing to the realm, Your Majesty. May he live long."
[MC / Long Yue:] (thought, dry) "Thanks. I'll try not to die for seventy years."
SYSTEM: Wit recognized. Social hazard: sarcasm may be misinterpreted by historical figures. Recommendation: internalize humor until adulthood. Passive buff: mental resilience +5.
Minister Li's smile did not reach his eyes. Long Yue's system parsed the expression and noted a cluster of probable motives: consolidation of influence, skepticism of new heirs, and the habit of cataloging favorites for later manipulation.
SYSTEM: Opportunity: plant small favor. Action: emit infant smile towards Minister Li while Empress watches. Expected result: reduce suspicion by 6%.
Long Yue obeyed with the same eagerness that, in a past life, had driven him to finish a complicated ramen bowl against better sense. He smiled — big, wet, chaotic — and the Empress's stern face softened. Minister Li gave a small, surprised exhale, cataloging the event as useful data rather than decisive judgment.
[Empress Wu:] "He will be schooled. Arrange tutors. And guard the nursery."
[Bodyguard Shen:] "As you command."
SYSTEM: New objective: Tutor assignment. Recommended subjects: Classics, Strategy, Horsecraft, Calligraphy. Unlock: Memory Palace Technique at age 4 (training time required).
Calligraphy, horses, memory palaces. The list felt oddly like a shopping list. Long Yue thought of exams, of the imperial halls where a single poem could launch a career. He also thought of the system's more amusing little lines — "Culinary module unlock at age 6."
[MC / Long Yue:] (thought) "I will memorize everything. And then I will make dumplings into a statecraft lesson."
The Empress, overhearing perhaps more than she let on, inclined her head. There was a ghost of a smile, rarer than jade and colder than tea.
[Empress Wu:] "We shall teach you to rule and to eat well, in that order."
Long Yue, in his small body and enormous destiny, felt the beginning of plans uncoil. The system blinked like a patient tutor, and the palace — hungry, watchful — hummed on.
SYSTEM: Infant Charisma I progress: 12%. Quest: Establish 3 low-level allies in household within 30 days. Reward: Favor token x2.
He grinned, small and childish, and the nursery walls somehow felt less like a cage and more like a peculiar training hall. The game had begun.