The Empress’ Livestream

“Hang up those words, go kneel in the corridor for an hour, and reflect on what you have done.”

Just when Xu Ke thought he might get away with the incident, Jiang Pengji suddenly reprimanded him. He froze.

Xu Ke was indignant as he held onto the paper, but his posture was still polite when he replied, “Yes.”

Taxue, on the other hand, kept her calm.

Xu Ke may have outshone those young masters at the assembly, but what was the point?

“Let today be a lesson to you. Don’t think that you know everything. You’ll cause trouble for the young master,” Taxue said the moment she was beside Xu Ke. She raised her eyebrows and wore a stern expression. “Any of those nobles at the assembly could easily ask for your life.”

Xu Ke pursed his lips and quietly rebutted, “They were after Langjun. A pity they weren’t capable…”

“Were your actions truly to defend Langjun’s honor, or were they for you to show off?” Taxue frowned and coldly replied, “You and I both know the real reason. Do you really need to find excuses? There were many ways to defend Langjun, yet you chose the worst possible one. If you weren’t trying to show off, that Zheng Langjun wouldn’t have even bothered with a servant…”

Xu Ke started feeling guilty under Taxue’s gaze.

Taxue was right. He had two other perfect ways that would have defended Liu Lanting’s honor without embarrassing the other Langjuns. So why did he choose to do what he did? It was all because he could not accept his current status as a servant.

He turned his head away from Taxue’s gaze.

“Since you think of yourself as a well-read noble and virtuous person, do you know what it means to ‘die before letting your master be humiliated’?” Taxue replied vehemently.

In the current era, wealthy families had the right to own their own private armies. That was why they had such high social statuses; they could even become a threat to the imperial court.

Liu Lanting and the Lius may not have been much compared to the other distinguished families of Dongqing, but in Hejian County, they were pretty significant. Liu She’s name, however, was well-known throughout all of Dongqing. Even the emperor loved and dreaded him.

Xu Ke had practically slapped all the nobles who were at the assembly. It was something Jiang Pengji would have been proud of, but it had caused some grudges. He had made the worst possible decision and had needed Jiang Pengji’s help. If his young master had been anyone else, Xu Ke would definitely not be alive today.

As he thought about his narrow escape, he turned pale, and the freshly bandaged wound started throbbing.

Taxue and Xu Ke had their own opinions, but each was restrained by the era’s common logic.

Jiang Pengji had made Xu Ke kneel, but she felt that the punishment was not severe enough. She would need to control him better or else he would continue with his reckless behavior. Not all Langjuns were as courageous as her or had the ability to save the day.

If Xu Ke were in Corps Seven, he would not be just kneeling for an hour. He would have had to face hell and endure a one-on-one training session with a devil commander. It would have ensured that he would always remember his mistake.

Young men were prone to rash decisions, so they had to be controlled.

Jiang Pengji closed the stream and was lost in her thoughts as she stared at the plan she had made.

“Those guards in the ranch can start their training early. I should give Xu Ke something to do to help him control that temper of his.”

Xu Ke was a diamond in the rough. If he could not control his temper, he would not shine later. And Jiang Pengji had plans for him to take over the bookkeeping.

As she thought about what to do, she took a look at her stream account’s Popularity Points.

The channel had been full over the past few days when she had been streaming. There were still people lining up for their turns to enter her channel. With the random Likes and accumulated Points, her account was looking pretty good. According to the agreement, the Points she had earned would need to be split evenly with the System.

In the end, she had 10,034 Popularity Points.

She studied the agreement that the System had given her. A level one streamer’s channel could have up to 3,000 viewers at any given time. If she wanted to increase that capacity, she would need to raise her streamer level. A level two streamer’s channel could have up to 10,000 viewers, but she would need to pay 10,000 Popularity Points.

10,000 might seem like a lot, but at the rate the stream was going, it would not be difficult to raise her channel’s level.

The tough part would come after she leveled up. The difficulty would double as it progressed, and each level would need large amounts of Points. It was like feeding a bottomless pit.

The mall was another problem. It contained many tempting offers and items.

With such a System in her head, the word “buy” kept flashing through her mind.

Any regular person probably wouldn’t have been able to resist temptation, and they would have spent whatever Points they had. Other people might also try tactics like asking their viewers to spend more points in order to increase their channel’s capacities. But that was beneath her dignity.

She lived by the principle that there was no such thing as a free lunch. All free lunches had strings attached to them.

One should not lower their threshold. It’s like an addiction. There will always be a second and third time.

Jiang Pengji opened the profile and statistics screen and was rendered speechless by the information before her.

Name: Jiang Pengji (Liu Xi, AKA Liu Lanting. Base Strength: 5. Strength Fusion +30).

Sex: Female (Masquerading as male. Replacing her late elder brother, Liu Lanting).

Age: 41 (12), Born in the third year of the Tianwu Flower Festival.

Birth: Hejian County. Liu family’s second son (eldest daughter).

Fiancée: Wei family’s second eldest daughter, Wei Jingxian (betrothal canceled).

Abilities: Six Arts of Rites (Elementary), Combat (Expert), Analysis (Expert), and others (tentative).

Attributes: Charisma (hidden:25), Appearance (75).

Channel: Stream (Unlocked), Streamer Lv. 1.

The “analysis” statistic had changed from “tentative” to “expert,” and “charisma” had changed from “21” to “25.”

All this information was nothing to her. She was only interested in the “Strength Fusion +30.”

People can only depend on themselves.

Jiang Pengji narrowed her eyes and said, “System. When you linked yourself to me, I heard an electronic voice talk about the fusion progress. Because the host did not have enough Points, the fusion stopped for a while, so the current fusion is only at 0.3%…”

“Yes,” the System quickly replied. “There were insufficient Points, so we could not finish the fusion process.”

Strength Fusion was the digitized fusion of a soul’s strength from their previous life into the current host body. Jiang Pengji’s soul and strength would always be her best assets.

The condition of Jiang Pengji’s body from her previous life could not be expressed with numbers.

“So can I use my Points to continue the fusion?” Jiang Pengji asked.