During these three years, the composition of the harem had changed greatly. The four consorts and Imperial Concubine Lin had passed away from illness, Eunuch Lian had died peacefully in his sleep, Little Shunzi and a group of maids who had reached the appropriate age had been released from the palace. Those who had served the empress rarely left Kunning Palace.

Many girls who wanted to rise in the world asked people who had been familiar with the empress to describe her appearance and character. Emperor Jingren had been on the throne for eight years, and the empress had been childless after five but had still been able to enjoy Emperor Jingren’s exclusive favor. Presumably there must have been something extraordinary about her. Many people wished to imitate the empress, but those who had known her well never brought her up. No one knew just what kind of person the empress had been.

This was why, when that tall, strapping girl entered the palace, all the other girls taking part in the selection were astonished. How could a person like this be part of the selection? Though the rest were plain-looking, at least they had families to back them, and they weren’t too ugly to look at. But when this girl put on feminine clothes, the sight was as ghastly as a warrior embroidering flowers.

Many people secretly criticized the empress dowager for her poor eyesight, but the empress dowager herself was extremely fond of the girl named Fan Die’er. From the moment she saw her, she kept the girl by her side all the time, telling her that though she had no rank, when the emperor saw her, he was sure to promote her to consort.

In fact, Fan Die’er was quite peculiar. She didn’t seem especially pleased to receive such favor from the empress dowager. Her expression was always calm, and she was completely indifferent to the sarcasm and mockery of others. All she did was spend her days quietly at the empress dowager’s side, waiting for the end of the selection period, when she would be recommended by the empress dowager to Emperor Jingren.

Emperor Jingren was apathetic on the subject of the selection. The empress dowager had already instructed that he be told that the selection was over, and she had chosen a number of decent girls to keep around her; would His Majesty come visit?

This was what it was like for harem candidates. Until they received His Majesty’s favor, they had no rank. Their portraits would be brought to Emperor Jingren, and if Emperor Jingren took a liking to them, he would turn over their tokens. But a portrait was never a match for the real person, and portraits were often manipulated by the artist. Therefore, harem candidates usually attended on the empress or one of the more prominent consorts. But now, Emperor Jingren’s harem was as blank as a sheet of paper. The empress dowager was the only available support. But the girls who had been chosen by the empress dowager waited and waited, day after day, and still Emperor Jingren did not come to Cining Palace.

They had heard that His Majesty and the empress had been very close. His Majesty had mourned the empress for three years. Not only had he not chosen a new empress, he hadn’t even touched any of the women in the harem; the four consorts had simply died of waiting. Even this selection was only being held because the empress dowager had cried and told the emperor that she wanted to hold her grandchildren, and if she couldn’t she would hang herself; compelled by filial piety, Emperor Jingren had had no choice but to agree.

After hearing this, all the candidates despaired. They went around asking about the empress, spending quite a bit of money in the process, but they came up empty-handed.

The empress dowager waited for a month, yet Emperor Jingren still didn’t come to pick from among the beauties. At last, she couldn’t stand it any longer. One day, when Emperor Jingren left court, she went to Chengqian Palace with a number of harem candidates dressed as maids. Among them, the most striking was Fan Die’er, who could be picked out from the crowd at a glance.

When Emperor Jingren heard that the empress dowager had arrived, his hand paused in the middle of reading over memorials to the throne. He let out a gentle sigh and sent someone to invite the empress dowager in.

He truly wasn’t interested.

If this had been a real world, perhaps Emperor Jingren would have felt compelled for the sake of the realm to visit some women and produce heirs. But now, the empress had once told him that in the original novel, he didn’t have children with any other women; only Su Huailing had borne his child. In other words, it was very likely that this world would only permit Su Huailing to give birth to his children. And Su Huailing was married to Jing Xixian. No matter what, Emperor Jingren couldn’t steal his subordinate’s wife in order to have children with her.

If he did visit these women for the sake of having children and they were unable to have any, he would only be hurting them.

This selection was being held because the empress dowager had left him no choice. He had planned to let the empress dowager do as she would, then arrange marriages for some of the girls with men of the proper social standing and let the rest go. That would be the end of it.

But the empress dowager had come to see him today with so many people. It seemed she was going to force him to visit one of them tonight.

However frustrated he might be, Emperor Jingren couldn’t disobey the empress dowager, so he had invited her in. As she and the girls entered, Emperor Jingren saw at once a face that was identical to the empress’s.

Just one glance, and he couldn’t look away. For a time, Emperor Jingren couldn’t even think. His eyes saw only Fan Die’er. It took all his strength not to throw himself into Fan Die’er’s arms.

Seeing the look in Emperor Jingren’s eyes, the empress dowager smiled in satisfaction. She had known that her son was sure to be enchanted by this girl. Look at Die’er’s muscles, that tall and broad figure, and that countenance and presence like a door god’s—she’d known His Majesty was certain to like her.

So the empress dowager said, “It seems Your Majesty is very pleased with this candidate?”

Emperor Jingren froze. He tore his gaze off Fan Die’er, and clarity returned to his eyes. He nodded and said, “Let it be her.”

The empress dowager was overjoyed. She didn’t spend long in Chengqian Hall; very soon, she left with the other girls, while Emperor Jingren dismissed the servants, and the two of them remained alone in the room.

Emperor Jingren’s eyes swept greedily over Fan Die’er’s face. Then he looked away and said, “We know that you are not him. You are only using his face.”

“Just what I would expect of the doctor.” Fan Die’er didn’t kneel or bow, only applauded and said, “Even though you haven’t recovered your memories and persist in thinking you’re an NPC, you’re so wise. You see everything.”

Emperor Jingren frowned slightly and asked, “The doctor… That is this world’s creator. You say that we are the doctor?”

“That’s right,” said Fan Die’er. “While testing the system, the doctor’s soul became lost in this world, and it was seriously injured because of Huyan Xi’s unscrupulous actions. It had to attach itself to one of this world’s NPCs to recover. And, as the son of fortune, meeting the daughter of fortune for the first time, and having just struck his head, no one was more suitable a carrier than Emperor Jingren. As soon as you woke up after hitting your head, you were Doctor Shen, who had absorbed an NPC’s data. Only the doctor was asleep and never woke.”

Calmly, Emperor Jingren asked, “How are you going to prove that? Though we guessed the truth of this world, that only goes to show that we, like Huyan Xi, noticed its peculiarities.”

“The pendant hanging around your neck.” Fan Die’er pointed at Emperor Jingren. “That’s an item that can seek out the doctor’s soul, and it was created to protect the doctor. Only the doctor can activate it. It is protecting you now. That is the proof.”

Emperor Jingren put a hand to his chest and took out the pendant that had protected him for three years. At first, the empress had watched him put this pendant on expectantly, then looked disappointed. So the empress had come here in search of the doctor, this world’s creator.

“You say that we created this world, and actually we are a real person,” Emperor Jingren said calmly. He thought that he had accepted this fact very easily; he didn’t feel any discomfiture.

“Yes, that’s right,” Fan Die’er said seriously. “Doctor, when you first touched the item, you ought to have returned to your body. The helmet receiving your data has remained on your head. But because you had been so gravely injured, and because you had melded seamlessly with Emperor Jingren’s data, you were incapable of realizing your true identity. So we had no way to return you to your body. At first we thought that if we only found you, we would be able to force you to return. But that won’t work. You must be willing to return to the modern world, or else we won’t be able to bring you back.”

Emperor Jingren remained silent. He was the emperor. If he left…

Fan Die’er tried to talk him around. “Doctor, I know that you’re unwilling to leave because of your responsibility and your duty. Protecting this nation isn’t Emperor Jingren’s wish, it’s your own. You built this world yourself, and you’ve experienced for yourself how true and sincere the lives of the people here are. The reason you don’t want to leave, doctor, is because of the responsibility you feel for this world. You hope to protect this place. But this system is still in its testing phase, and as for the data in the system, this silly seduction game based on a novel, who will be interested in it? They’ll wipe the data and create whatever they want instead. Only by returning will you be able to preserve all the data here.”

These last words moved Emperor Jingren. He squeezed the pendant and made his decision.

“Why didn’t he come to convince us?” Emperor Jingren asked suddenly.

Fan Die’er abruptly became silent and only continued after a lengthy pause. “The chief… That’s the empress, he’s our chief. He took a pill in the game to enhance his strength, but it was actually a program that mutates data. It was created by the doctor, but in order to find you, the true nature of this program was concealed. The chief didn’t know about it. And the chief isn’t made of data. He’s a real soul. When the program is applied to a soul’s data, it really will alter that data. We don’t know what will happen to the chief when he wakes up, so he’s been asleep since he returned from the game. And your signal was already in the helmet, but you still refused to remember your identity. That was why I had to borrow the chief’s face to come see you.

“Doctor, you’re this program’s designer. Only you can change the chief’s soul data back to normal!” Fan Die’er’s initial calm was gone. Only pleading remained.

He was nothing like the empress. The empress wouldn’t falter even if Mount Tai collapsed in front of his eyes. He was always so calm, so reassuring.

“We know,” said Emperor Jingren. “It seems that time flows differently in…the real world than it does here. How does that work?”

“When the doctor designed this world, he imagined that a day in heaven would be a year on earth,” Fan Die’er answered.

“Understood. In ten days, I will try to return,” Emperor Jingren promised.

“Ten days… Why so long…” Fan Die’er said a little urgently.

“We must train a suitable successor for Xia,” said Emperor Jingren. “We know that you have many worries, but regardless of what your concerns are, nothing can be accomplished in ten days. Ten days is a safe period. It is long enough for us to train a successor, and there will be no changes in the real world either, right?”

“That’s true…” After thinking it through, Fan Die’er wasn’t so fretful himself. He asked, “But why do you need to train a successor? After you return, it will be easy for you to change the data. Even if there is unrest, you can restore the data to its original state.”

“Even if we can restore everything to its original state, the pain the people will have suffered during that time would be real. Even if something reverses their suffering, it won’t mean they hadn’t experienced it,” said Emperor Jingren. “We cannot be willful and permit them to live in a state of unrest. In ten days, we will return.”

—

Emperor Jingren was a legendary emperor of the Xia dynasty. While he reigned, the nation enjoyed good weather and rich harvests, and its people prospered. And this emperor only loved one person his whole life. Even many years after the empress passed away, he still would not visit any other woman. Because of this, a prevalence developed in Xia among nobles and commoners alike of marrying only once, two people growing old together. At first it was done in imitation of Emperor Jingren’s profound love for the empress, but over time it became an institution.

Emperor Jingren never had his own children. In his twenties, he began to choose suitable children from among the imperial clan to raise himself. In the end, he chose the most accomplished of them, and at thirty-six years old, in the prime of life, he abdicated the throne in favor of a worthy successor.

And the strange thing was that Emperor Jingren seemed to know precisely how long his life span would be. The day after the new emperor ascended the throne, the retired emperor was found to have passed away in his bed. His death was not accompanied by any illness, and he hadn’t been murdered. It was just as if he had passed away naturally. A faint smile still lingered on his young face.

Someone found a note on the retired emperor’s desk that read: We are coming to you.

Practically everyone thought that the retired emperor was talking to the empress, Xiao Jinyi. The empress was the only person the retired emperor had loved so deeply.

When later historians appraised Emperor Jingren, some thought that he was an emperor for the ages. His measures hastened Xia’s change from a hereditary system to a democratic one. And during his reign, Xia had been the most powerful nation in the world. To this day, the people of this nation were known abroad by the name of the Xia dynasty, and every country had several Xia Streets.

Others said that Emperor Jingren was a sentimental person. His love for the empress had caused him to die young. A person like this wasn’t suited to be emperor.

Of course, when this second view appeared, it was widely criticized. Many people, particularly girls, wanted a husband like Emperor Jingren.

Regardless of how everyone assessed Emperor Jingren, history’s assessment of him was—a wise ruler.