In the morning, Xu Zhen opened the system to check her merit points. Since the last time she looked, her merit points had increased by about a hundred.
Feeling content, she thought it was quite nice to have gained points without doing anything recently.
As she was about to close the interface, she suddenly noticed that the main quest had flickered twice.
Curious, Xu Zhen clicked to view it.
Originally, the task “Discover Xu Qianchun's True Identity” (7/10) had unexpectedly changed to (10/10). The three new pieces of information were:
8. Proficient in techniques such as disguise and body shrinking.
9. Father was a first-rank official; had once targeted him as a role model.
10. Mother was a foreign courtesan, well-versed in palace affairs.
What was all this?
Xu Zhen looked at the three pieces of information, feeling somewhat perplexed. If she hadn’t opened the main quest today, she would have completely forgotten about it.
She was baffled by the mention of "targeting her father." Xu Qianchun had never brought that up! As for being well-versed in palace affairs, whenever Xu Qianchun spoke of her mother, she had never pressed for more details.
How could this be—
Wait, what was clue number 8 all about?
Xu Zhen examined it closely and noticed the phrase “body shrinking.” After pondering for a moment, she recalled her earlier suspicions. Although she had asked Xu Qianchun about it, Xu Qianchun had directly denied it then. Could it really be true?
If so, why not just say it? Was it an attempt to evade pursuers by combining it with disguise techniques?
Xu Zhen mulled over these thoughts while pouring herself a cup of tea.
She couldn’t make sense of it all, but thankfully, this task had finally concluded, earning her a reward of a hundred merit points. It wasn’t a huge amount, but even "mosquito meat is still meat," and Xu Zhen happily accepted it.
Not long after, the system flashed another main quest: —
“Gain one thousand merit points during the flood disaster in Chang'an.”
The keyword “flood disaster in Chang'an” seemed familiar; it must be something that would happen in the future.
Xu Zhen sat on the spacious wooden floor of the grand mansion, gazing up at the large tree by the entrance. The ceiling inside was as high as the tree, allowing her to easily spot the birds perched atop its branches.
The sound of chirping birds filled the air.
She had been sitting against the wall, but in an effort to recall details about the impending flood disaster, she climbed over to the desk to jot down the plotlines she remembered.
If she recalled correctly, the female lead, after being reborn, had gone through a lengthy struggle with domestic conflicts before finally breaking free and returning to her life in Chang’an.
Xu Zhen paused while writing, realizing that the female lead was also from Chang’an. If that were the case, wouldn’t she soon encounter her as well?
She continued to write and managed to recall the plot related to the flood disaster in Chang’an.
It seemed that after several rebirths, the female lead used her memories from her previous life to prevent a significant disaster, thereby gaining the trust of the emperor and the common folk.
That disaster was caused by heavy rain leading to flooding.
Chang’an hadn’t experienced a flood in ten years, so people had not taken it seriously. In her previous life, the female lead witnessed her family and fellow citizens being swept away by the floods. When she was reborn a second time, she sought out the officials in Chang’an to warn them about the impending disaster, but the officials dismissed her as a madwoman and threw her out.
