Don't provoke mentally ill people in the infinite flow genre!

When dawn breaks, everything in the imperial city returns to normal, and the players continue to play their roles and follow their respective paths.

Yi Zanglan attended a dull morning court session. After the session, he returned to Hongde Hall to catch up on sleep. When he woke up, he found Yan Zhao already sitting at the table next to him, holding a vermilion brush and helping him review memorials.

"Yan Qing, is being an emperor easy? Would you like to try?"

"Let whoever wants to be one be one," Yan Zhao replied irritably. "If I didn't suspect the system would give out role-playing points, I wouldn't have put up with this. But you, you're always a hands-off manager, no matter where you are."

"Look, you've already ruined your public image by criticizing the emperor."

"Alright, then I'll approve a couple more memorials and criticize Your Majesty a couple more times, and that will even out the merits and demerits."

As the two were chatting idly, they suddenly heard light footsteps outside the hall. Then Tang Yunxi ran in excitedly, followed by Su Su, who was quietly stuffing snacks into her mouth.

"Your Majesty, the chefs in the Imperial Kitchen are truly skilled. They've invented a new dish today. Please try it."

"I must try it right away, I'm starving."

Yi Zanglan drank a bowl of bird's nest porridge while feeding Yan Zhao, while Tang Yunxi and Su Su played a game of throwing grapes into each other's mouths.

What respect for the role? It was just Schrödinger's respect.

The four were having some fun when, before long, the three women from the harem arrived one after another.

Shen Yubai took a packet of freshly prepared incense balls and placed them in the incense burner in the hall to slowly burn, saying that the less smoke would have a calming and soothing effect.

Ling Ye found a whetstone from somewhere and was polishing Yi Zanglan's sword. He was very professional at it, and the blade of the sword quickly became thin and sharp, with a cold and sharp light. It looked like its lethality had increased even more than before.

Everyone was busy, except for Qin Shaoyu, who was secretly eating Yi Zanglan's bowl of eight-treasure taro paste.

Yi Zanglan noticed, and she calmly pushed the bowl towards him: "Eat it all if you like it."

"hey-hey."

He let out a classic silly laugh, picked up his spoon and bowl, and ate while secretly glancing at her.

Back in the bonus tournament, she threw him a bag of taro bread like that. Later, after he joined the team, he saw all sorts of taro desserts that were exclusively his own at the dinner table time and time again.

She was always so gentle and kind, worthy of someone's sincere heart. If she needed him, he would give his life for her with just a nod.

...But never mind! Because he knew that someone with such a strong sense of responsibility would want all the members to live well.

He must keep striving to live, to become stronger, to clear the path for her. Even if he can't become her fastest blade, he must at least become that ghostly currency, ready to burn for her at any time.

Yan Zhao had just finished approving a memorial and was twirling his pen when he looked up and happened to see a certain wealthy man staring blankly at a bowl.

She frowned, deep in thought: "We really need to install an anti-addiction system for you."

"..."

About an hour later, the rest of the members also gathered at Hongde Hall. When Wang Mingyue arrived, he ran all the way, holding the scroll in both hands, and was eager to unroll it before he even stood still.

"Your Majesty! The scroll is moving, but there's only one hint so far. I suspect it's for tonight's mission!"

The crowd quickly gathered around and saw that, sure enough, some details of the shading had already appeared in the fourth painting.

A thin booklet floats on the shimmering water, bearing the three words: "Autumn in Bygone Days".

"I believe this is a play script," Wang Mingyue said confidently. "That's why I asked Siqi to inquire with the elders in the palace to see if anyone knows anything about this play and can give us some useful clues."

"Why is the opera folding board submerged in water?" Su Su pondered carefully, referring to the map. "Could it be... that tonight's mission location is on the Qionghua Imperial River?"

Wu Ying explained to Yi Zanglan: "Last night we took a glimpse of the Qionghua Imperial River from afar. It should be a wide body of water used exclusively by the royal family for holding grand ceremonies or parades. It can be reached by going through the Beian Gate. There are more than a dozen water palaces there, which are probably where boats are moored."

Yi Zanglan nodded upon hearing this: "Then let's wait for Siqi to return and discuss the details."

……

So everyone waited for more than an hour before Li Siqi finally returned. He was panting heavily, which showed that there was no transportation in the palace and running alone was quite strenuous.

"I found out!" He looked very happy. "I asked the official in charge of proofreading the books in Wenyuan Pavilion. He introduced me to his teacher, who told me in detail the story of the play excerpt in the illustration."

Su Su asked curiously, "What's the story? Tell me quickly."

"It's... a story about Emperor Jingsheng of Feng Kingdom and her deceased husband."

Emperor Jingsheng spent many years fighting abroad, suppressing countless rebellions for the court. After returning to the capital, he fought against his siblings and went through many hardships to finally seize the throne. Throughout this process, his childhood sweetheart, the son of the prime minister, always stayed by his side.

The two had known each other since childhood and had a deep affection for each other. Emperor Jingsheng once promised to hold the grandest ceremony to welcome the bride at Qionghua Imperial River, to announce to the whole world that the other would become his imperial consort.

Unfortunately, their love was short-lived. The prime minister's son was already frail, and he contracted the plague while accompanying her on a military campaign, which left him with a chronic illness. He died not long after she ascended the throne, without even being able to witness their grand wedding.

Emperor Jingsheng reigned for ten years, working diligently to bring peace and prosperity to the land. He then left an edict to pass the throne to his younger sister, while he himself, disregarding the objections of his ministers, insisted on holding a grand wedding ceremony for his beloved at the Qionghua Imperial River.

"That was not an ordinary imperial wedding procession, but a ghost marriage that summoned the spirits of the dead at midnight when the yin energy was at its heaviest," Li Siqi said. "After that night, the painted boat sank, and no one ever saw Emperor Jingsheng again. Perhaps she went with her lover—the people all lamented the emperor's deep affection, so someone wrote this play excerpt, which was widely circulated."

"So what should we do tonight?" Yan Zhao thought for a moment, then came to her own conclusion, looking at Yi Zanglan with a complicated expression. "We're not suggesting that the current emperor go to the Qionghua Imperial River to recreate the scene of his wedding back then, are we?"

"Oh," Yi Zanglan murmured, "Does my coming here require a special wedding ceremony?"

"Is that a wedding? Isn't that just going to be buried with a water ghost?"

Li Siqi hesitated before speaking: "That's what I thought too, so I went to Qin'an Hall again just now to consult the high priest there who was in charge of performing the rituals."

In order to get information out of that wise man, he used both soft and hard tactics, exhausting all his mental and verbal abilities, before finally piecing together the clues.

"That wise man said that the Qionghua Imperial River is filled with heavy yin energy at night, and for many years all the grand parades and ceremonies have been held during the day."

"It is extremely dangerous to summon a spirit at night using rituals from the underworld. Back then, the spirit to be summoned was only the son of the prime minister, but now the spirit to be summoned includes Emperor Jingsheng. The spirit of an emperor is even more fierce, I'm afraid..."

"It's alright, please continue." Seeing his unease, Yi Zanglan calmly comforted him, "I also have a fiery temper and a strong destiny, so I don't care about these things—besides, Emperor Jingsheng was a wise ruler and deeply loved his lover. Even if he becomes a ghost, he wouldn't be so ferocious as to kill indiscriminately."

Li Siqi sighed: "Indeed, the wise man has pointed out that if we want to recreate the wedding scene, the emperor must personally come to the Qionghua Imperial River, board the painted boat from that year, and go to the center of the river alone."

"and then?"

"Then, four men who were close to the age of the Emperor Consort at the time of his death, dressed in wedding attire, each piloted a small boat and followed the painted boat's path a quarter of an hour later. They were to light a stick of incense at the bow of the boat and have their birth dates and times engraved at the stern."

Yan Zhao, standing nearby, immediately became alert: "Four small boats? And why are their birth dates and times engraved on them?"

"It is said that... based on their birth dates and times, a man who best fits the role of the emperor's consort must be chosen. Only this small boat can find the pleasure boat and complete the ceremony with the emperor."

"The other three ships turned back immediately after the incense burned out, went ashore, lit lanterns, and guided the emperor."