Everyone in the Harem Has a Cheat Except Me - Chapter 2

“The Noble Consort traveled through time,” Qin Jun said.

“Through time?”

“She’s from the future. Their technology is far more advanced than ours. Unfortunately, she isn’t very bright. She didn’t learn any of it. All she can do is recite a few random poems, and she can’t even choose the right occasion.”

“For example?”

With the face of a man who had lost all hope, he said, “She looked out on a whole courtyard of plum blossoms and recited: ‘A few plum branches by the wall bloom alone in bitter cold. I know it isn’t snow from the faint fragrance drifting near.'”

I gave him a complicated look. “Fine poem. Brilliant mind.”

Perhaps Qin Jun wasn’t delirious after all.

“There’s more,” he said.

“More?”

“The Worthy Consort has a conquest system.”

“What in the world is that?”

“A special advantage that rewards her for winning my affection. Whenever I like her a little more, she can get strange things from the system. Beauty treatments, skin care products, and… ahem… things meant to be enticing in that way.” By the end, his cheeks had reddened.

I nodded in understanding. “So you wanted me in the palace to protect you?”

One reborn woman, one time traveler, one woman with a conquest system, and one heaven’s chosen daughter. With all those women after one man, Qin Jun was practically a lamb waiting to be slaughtered.

He snorted. “With brains like theirs? I could crush them with one finger.”

“Then why did you call me here?”

“I told you. To watch the drama.”

I sat up on the dragon bed without a word.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

I twisted the bracelet on my wrist. Its simple appearance concealed a mechanism holding more than a hundred silver needles. Then I pulled a dagger from the sash of my gauzy gown. Finally, I removed a hairpin that concealed poisoned needles.

Me? Nothing special. Just an ordinary person who happened to be quite good in a fight.

Qin Jun swallowed as he watched me unload my arsenal. “I don’t think my life will be safe once you’re in the palace.”

I laughed coldly.

“Lianyi,” he hurried to say, “you sacrificed your reputation to enter the palace and protect me. I’m deeply moved.”

“Weren’t you the one who summoned me?”

He paused. “I ought to explain that.”

“Then explain.”

“At most, I didn’t stop it. Getting you into the palace was the empress’s idea. She thought that to bring down the Virtuous Consort, she needed the real woman the Virtuous Consort was replacing.” He confessed with remarkable speed.

I shot him a sideways look. “Qin Jun. Did you bring me here to watch the drama, or so you could watch mine?”

If the empress intended to use me against the Virtuous Consort, where would I find a moment’s peace? I wasn’t watching a play. I was in it.

I picked up my dagger as I spoke.

“L-Lianyi, let’s talk this over. No need for violence.” He edged away. As the dagger drew closer, he kept moving until—

Thump. Qin Jun fell straight off the bed.

The crash was loud enough to bring footsteps from outside. “Your Majesty!” The chief eunuch rushed in first.

He found Qin Jun sitting on the floor and me lying on the bed with a dagger in my hand. He stared at us, utterly lost as to whether he should leave or shout for guards to catch an assassin.

In the end, he withdrew with a peculiar expression and considerately closed the door.

The next day, the palace was buzzing with tales of my impressive skills and wild tastes in bed.

Then the empress, the Noble Consort, and the Virtuous Consort came calling, one after another.

I began sharpening my dagger, wondering where I could stab Qin Jun to make him suffer most.