Empress Su Mingyue hummed in acknowledgment, set her teacup onto the tray held by the maid beside her, and lifted her eyes to look at Zhou Ming.

That gaze was neither salty nor bland—indifferent—no different from when she ordered him to do chores in the past.

But Zhou Ming always felt that there was a hint of indescribable interest hidden within her eyes.

She was in no rush to speak, first smoothing out her cuffs in a leisurely manner, and only then did she say unhurriedly:

"I heard from Dongmei that you are very good at telling storybooks."

Zhou Ming's heart gave a thud, and he quickly lowered his head even further:

"This one merely made up a story and told it to Sister Dongmei. It was purely nonsense, and I dare not claim the title of 'storybooks'."

Empress Su Mingyue glanced up at him. That gaze was plain and calm, yet it made Zhou Ming feel as if the skin on the back of his neck had been grabbed by someone.

"Tell the story you told this morning again."

Zhou Ming subconsciously glanced at Dongmei.

He saw that young woman standing behind Empress Su Mingyue, winking and gesturing at him.

Raising her left eyebrow, then her right, and tugging the corners of her mouth upward—that expression translated to:

"Sorry about this, I have no choice either. The Eldest Miss also likes listening to storybooks; you'll have to handle this yourself."

Zhou Ming cursed Dongmei over and over again in his heart.

He had only brought up the story that morning to avoid practicing the Horse Stance and to fool Dongmei; he never expected that Dongmei would turn around and tell Empress Su Mingyue.

And he never expected that Empress Su Mingyue would actually come to the Martial Arts Training Ground in person to listen to him tell a storybook.

Isn't the Eldest Miss usually very busy?

She has to learn to manage the inner household, learn needlework and embroidery, check account books, and meet with stewards. With so much proper work to do, why come to listen to a servant tell stories?

Though he grumbled internally, he dared not show the slightest negligence on the surface. Clearing his throat, he honestly began from the year The Female Protagonist turned ten.

He retold the content he had told Dongmei that morning.

With the rehearsal from the morning, he told it even more smoothly this time, hitting the rhythm more accurately, and adding richer details.

Empress Su Mingyue sat upright in her chair, her Face maintaining that same indifferent expression.

The teacup in her hand rested on her lap, the lid tilted against the rim, with wisps of faint white steam drifting from the gap.

But Zhou Ming noticed that the hand she had originally rested on the armrest had been placed on her knee at some point, and her index finger was lightly tapping out a rhythm.

The rhythm was very light—so light that perhaps only she and Zhou Ming could catch it.

The maids and matrons behind her were not so subtle.

Chunlan had originally kept her eyes lowered in a meditative state, but as she listened, she lifted her head, her lips slightly pursed, as if she were holding something back or wanting to say something.

The heads of several second-rank maids drew closer and closer, exchanging glances; they were on the verge of discussing it right there.

Even the guards standing on the perimeter were listening so intently their eyes were darting about. One of them had his mouth hanging open and forgot to close it, only coming back to his senses when his colleague jabbed him in the ribs with an elbow.

Zhou Ming continued telling the story.

He told of the 800-li urgent military report arriving from the border, the allied northern nomadic tribes invading, the imperial court being shaken, and the Emperor summoning The Female Protagonist to the palace overnight to ask for strategy.

He had just reached the critical juncture where The Female Protagonist said, "Give me half the military power, and I will ensure peace at the border for ten years," when he suddenly found his throat was extremely dry; even swallowing made his throat ache.

He paused and subconsciously reached up to touch his throat.

Just then, with a thud, a waterskin landed on the dirt ground in front of him.

Zhou Ming looked down.

The waterskin was made of leather, finely crafted, with a wooden stopper in the mouth, and a few undried water droplets still clinging to it.

He looked up in the direction from which the waterskin had flown, meeting Dongmei's Face, which she was trying hard to keep stern.

Dongmei kept her Face taut, the corners of her mouth pressed down, but the faint smile lines at the corners of her eyes could not be suppressed.

Her eyes slanted outward; that expression held both disdain and urging—drink quickly, and continue telling the story once you're done.

Zhou Ming picked up the waterskin, pulled out the wooden stopper, and drank several large gulps.

The water was cool and had the faint, bitter taste of bamboo leaves; as it slid down his throat, he felt so comfortable he almost cried out.

He drank nearly half the waterskin, put the stopper back in, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and continued.

He told of how The Female Protagonist seized military power.

This couldn't be seized just like that. He rummaged through the material from the power-struggle plots he had read in his past life and arranged a series of calculated, step-by-step schemes for The Female Protagonist.

The Female Protagonist first used the convenience of overseeing the reforms to pluck out the spies planted in the military by powerful aristocratic families one by one, replacing them with people she had recruited during her time in prison.

Then, she requested an imperial decree to establish a temporary military headquarters at the border, and in the name of delegating military authority and unifying command, she concentrated and reorganized the forces scattered along the border.

The most critical step was when she personally went to see that old general who had remained neutral throughout.

This man held half the military power at the border, didn't care about anyone's standing, and only gave the Emperor three parts of Face.

The Female Protagonist talked with this old general for an entire night, neither promising him high positions and great wealth nor using the imperial decree to pressure him.

Instead, she discussed the border defense situation with him for three hours, laying out one by one the suffering of the border people she had seen with her own eyes while visiting various places, the topographical intelligence she had gathered from enemy merchants, the military books and strategies she had studied since childhood, and the loopholes in the current border defenses.

After listening, the old general only said one sentence: "This old official has served in the military for forty years and has never heard of any capital official who could understand the mountain passes of the border better than the front-line generals. This old official will listen to you."

No one spoke, but every Face Zhou Ming caught with his peripheral vision was written with the same word:

"Thrilling."

Empress Su Mingyue had sat up straight at some point; the spine that had been leaning against the back of the chair was now upright.

Her hands were folded on her lap; the tea had gone completely cold, yet she hadn't taken another sip.

From Zhou Ming's angle, the corners of her mouth seemed to twitch ever so slightly.

It wasn't a smile, but the transitional zone between not smiling and wanting to smile—extremely subtle, almost invisible.

But in the end, she didn't smile; she just moved slightly, suppressed that emotion, and returned to that unflappable appearance.

Only her gaze did not retreat; those phoenix eyes were currently shining with a kind of radiance Zhou Ming had never seen on her Face before.

It was not the cold, sharp scrutiny of usual times, nor the dignified Killing Intent from when she was slaying enemies at West Mountain, but a kind of almost fervent focus.

Zhou Ming cleared his throat and looked at the sky; the sun was tilting toward the west.

But the Eldest Miss hadn't called for a stop, so he could only bite the bullet and continue telling the story.

After the allied northern nomadic tribes were repelled, The Female Protagonist's prestige in the military reached its peak.

The reforms she oversaw had already begun to show results; the new laws were implemented more smoothly than expected in several pilot prefectures, and the tax reform had caused the imperial court's annual revenue to increase by thirty percent in just two years.

The old Emperor was aged and frail, his sons were fighting for the throne, and the political situation was turbulent and unsettled.

After successively toppling several opponents, The Female Protagonist finally stood at the pinnacle of power.

She deposed the last Emperor, changed the name of the country, established a new capital, and ascended the throne as Empress.

Zhou Ming told the part about the coronation ceremony with extra effort.