My Daughter is the Empire’s Lucky Charm

In order to gather more ammunition for her complaint, Yun Shu uncharacteristically paid full attention to all the lessons throughout the day.

Grand Preceptor Cui, unaware of her true intentions, assumed she had finally yielded. By the time he stepped out of the study chamber in the afternoon, his face brimmed with self-satisfaction, as though he had won a battle.

He had no idea Yun Shu turned around and went straight to the imperial study.

At that moment, Emperor Xuanwu had already been informed of the day's events by the Dragon Shadow Guard. When the senior eunuch Li Dehai stepped in and reported that Yun Shu had indeed come to lodge a complaint, the emperor found it rather amusing.

After all, such things had never happened before.

He was both a father and an emperor. When conflicts arose between the princes and their instructors, it was already rare if they didn't beg their consorts to cover for them. Who would ever take the matter straight to him?

This Fifth Princess, now, was quite the curious child.

Setting aside the parchment he'd been testing with a feather pen, Emperor Xuanwu lifted his brows.

"Let her in."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Li Dehai responded promptly. Soon after, a snow-blue figure entered from outside. As before, she gave a proper salute. Compared to her last visit, however, she seemed far livelier and more spirited.

Perhaps it was because she felt closer to him now?

Thinking back on the years he had neglected this daughter, Emperor Xuanwu's gaze softened.

Of course, he still needed to maintain the pretense of ignorance.

"What is this? So eager to claim your reward already?"

"Father Emperor said the reward would be delivered to my palace directly. Why would I come personally for that?"

Yun Shu, ever adept at playing her cards, had already observed that Emperor Xuanwu, as described in the books, was indeed a rather gentle parent. So long as the mistake wasn't grievous, he rarely lost his temper.

Feeling less tense, she began to employ the very tactics that once won her favor from many elders.

"Father Emperor, I do not like Grand Preceptor Cui."

"You do not like him?"

Emperor Xuanwu chuckled.

"So this was how she intended to voice her complaint? How delightfully childish, without even the effort to couch her words."

At court, he was used to courtiers wrapping a single sentence in layers of euphemism. Even in the rear palace, consorts had their own veiled intentions.

This honest child before him required no mental gymnastics, and that alone made him more tolerant of her. His tone carried a teasing lilt.

"Is it because he made you copy the Doctrine of the Mean?"

"It is not just that! If it were, I would have come to complain yesterday."

Yun Shu looked aggrieved.

"I simply think Grand Preceptor Cui is petty."

"Oh?"

Her blunt phrasing amused the emperor once again.

"And how is he petty?"

"Well..."

She fidgeted with her sash, suddenly aware that this act of tattling might have been a tad childish. Still, since she was already here, she pressed on with some embarrassment.

"Today, he wrongly accused me of having someone else write my lines. Did you not already agree to waive the remaining nine repetitions of the punishment? But Grand Preceptor Cui turned right around and gave me twenty copies of the Great Learning. Clearly, that was deliberate!

And regarding the feather pen... he truly despises it. During today's lessons, he kept linking everything back to how a true gentleman ought to be poised and refined. Every time he said it, he glanced at me.

He did not say it directly, but I felt it—he was calling me vulgar with his eyes!

But most importantly..."

Yun Shu hesitated, then mustered the courage to go on.

"Most importantly, I think Grand Preceptor Cui looks down on commoners.

He keeps saying 'vulgar this' and 'vulgar that'. Every word carries disdain for the so-called uncultured. But from what I understand, nearly all of the people in this empire must fall under his definition of vulgar.

Even you, Father Emperor, do not look down on your people. Why should Grand Preceptor Cui be allowed to?"

No emperor in history favored the entrenched aristocracy. Every ruler viewed the great clans with suspicion and kept them in check.

Yun Shu was unsure whether a doubled punishment alone would prompt Emperor Xuanwu to replace Grand Preceptor Cui, so she chose to highlight the one trait he would find most intolerable in a tutor—elitism.

As expected, the emperor, who had chuckled when she spoke of being scolded with looks, began to grow serious at her later words.

He was well aware of Cui Xiude's origins and leanings. That he came from an old noble house and held loyalty to such families was no secret. But he ought not to instill such ideology in the children of the royal household.

If even Yun Shu, a child with little scholarly background, could detect his contempt for the people and his reverence for noble airs, then Cui Xiude's bias must be flagrant indeed.

Emperor Xuanwu darkened his expression, preparing to summon that stubborn old man at once, when suddenly, a familiar light screen unfolded before him.

[Simulation Life Selection System at your service.]

[Please select your next course of action:

A. Summon Grand Preceptor Cui, reprimand him, and reassign tutors for Yun Shu and Yun Chuhuan.

B. Scold Yun Shu, telling her to stop daydreaming and focus on her studies.

C. Find a way to soothe Yun Shu, but take no immediate action.]

There was no need for hesitation.

Emperor Xuanwu selected the first option without pause.

[You have chosen Option A. Yun Shu feels grateful.]

Emperor Xuanwu: "?"

That was it?

Surely not. The Simulation Life Selection System never appeared without purpose.

Suspicious, he tapped open the next options.

[You have chosen Option B. Yun Shu feels hurt and wronged, secretly curses you, and refuses to be close to you again.]

Emperor Xuanwu: "..."

As he thought. That option was utterly unreliable.

"The little rascal had quite the temper."

Casting Yun Shu a sidelong glance, he tapped the final choice.

[You have chosen Option C. The number of poor scholars in the realm increases dramatically!]

What?

Emperor Xuanwu froze in surprise.

He had assumed Yun Shu's feather pen incident had already fulfilled the prophecy.

But evidently... it had only just begun.