Why would I do that when I can just write an anonymous complaint and send it straight to Chen yifeng’s workplace?’

She tapped the piece of paper in front of her. ’Come on. All I have to do is send my little complaint to the authorities and her superiors. They will take care of the problem for me. And the best part? I don’t even need to write my actual name. Who is going to call me out? It’s not like I’m broadcasting it to the internet or anything. It’s just a piece of paper. I’ve written exactly what I want them to investigate, and they’ll do the dirty work.’

The System was quiet for a long moment before it metaphorically shook its head.

’[I swear,]’ the System muttered in profound disappointment. ’[Sometimes you really do not give a shit about making things interesting to watch.]’

"That thickness of tension? That dramatic, drawn-out suffering?" Heena thought, scoffing into her teacup as she replied to the System’s nagging. "Why on earth do I need to spend five agonizing months fighting with some brainless idiots when I can utterly destroy them in just five days?"

The System grumbled in her mind about ’proper plot development’ and ’character arcs,’ but Heena completely ignored it. She was a pragmatist to her core, and time was money.

Just as she had meticulously calculated, her carefully crafted, anonymous letter had already made its way into the hands of the higher-ups. If anyone were to ask how a supposedly lowly servant girl managed such a high-level political maneuver, the answer was actually insultingly simple: demographics. In this era, the vast majority of the common populace was completely illiterate. The ability to read and write was a heavily guarded luxury, a skill restricted almost entirely to the powerful—the nobles, the wealthy merchants, and the established scholars. Therefore, a perfectly penned, highly articulate letter didn’t look like the desperate scribblings of a maid; it carried the weight and authority of a peer.

Furthermore, Heena hadn’t been foolish enough to send her grievances to the Emperor or the highest imperial courts, where it would inevitably be buried under a mountain of bureaucratic red tape or intercepted by Chen Yifan’s spies. No, she aimed much closer to home, yet infinitely more dangerous. She sent it directly to Chen Yifan’s immediate superior—a man who also happened to be his father’s sworn political nemesis.

The two aristocratic families had been locked in a bitter, blood-feuding rivalry for generations. They despised each other with a burning passion that eclipsed all reason. To ensure the letter bypassed any lower-level clerks and landed directly on the master’s desk, Heena had written a single, bold phrase on the thick outer envelope: ’’"A Formal Complaint Regarding the Transgressions of Chen Yifan."’’ Those words alone were like fresh blood in the water to a starving shark. It was all the nemesis needed to eagerly tear open the seal. In less than two days, the rival lord had devoured the contents of the letter, verified the highly specific, damning details Heena had so helpfully provided, and immediately mobilized his forces to take swift, devastating action against the Chen family. The trap was sprung, and Heena hadn’t even needed to leave her room.

But the fallout of that political bombshell was a problem for the Chen family to deal with. Right now, Heena was entirely focused on calmly enjoying the peaceful scenery of her courtyard.

She took another slow, luxurious sip of her warm tea, rolling her shoulders with a soft sigh of contentment. For weeks, she had been subjected to the grueling physical labor of Seera’s ’servant’ status—carrying massive, sloshing buckets of water from the well, scrubbing stone floors, lifting, bending, and exhausting herself. Her neck had felt like a coiled block of solid iron, and her shoulder blades had constantly radiated a sharp, biting agony that made it hard to sleep.

She loathed to admit it out loud, lest his ego inflate to the size of the Imperial Palace, but Samuel really knew exactly what he was doing. His massage—despite its highly questionable and distracting detour into other, far more intimate activities—had been an absolute godsend. The debilitating stiffness was completely gone. Her muscles felt loose, warm, and thoroughly relaxed. It was as if her entire body had been magically recharged, her energy reserves fully restored to their maximum capacity.

Setting her porcelain teacup down on the polished wooden table with a decisive ’clink’, Heena’s eyes gleamed with a chaotic, restless energy. The quiet peace of the afternoon was nice, but her mind was already spinning with new ideas. The Chen family was currently imploding, Maya was undoubtedly trapped in her own web, and Samuel was safely away doing estate work. The board was wide open.

’Well,’ Heena thought, a wicked, entirely non-heroic grin spreading across her face as she stood up. ’Since my body is feeling so perfectly recharged... let’s go do something completely nonsensical again.’

What exactly Heena meant by "doing something nonsensical" became abundantly clear to the System very soon.

If the System possessed a physical face, its eyes would have been completely flat—the exhausted, hollow stare of an entity that had seen it all and no longer had any desire to see more. It looked at Heena, then followed her line of sight, and mentally sighed.

’[Host... what is the actual need to be here?]’

Heena, currently crouched deep inside a thick patch of bushes, didn’t even blink. "For our investigation, obviously," she whispered back, her expression entirely deadpan and serious.

’[Oh, come on!]’ the System retorted, its digital voice thick with disbelief. ’[It’s the male bath area. Why the heck do you need to be here?]’

Through a small parting in the leaves, the secluded pond was perfectly visible, along with the quiet, incredibly handsome men currently washing up in the water.

Heena adjusted her position to get a slightly better angle, her eyes fixed entirely on the scenery. "Like I said. Investigation."

The System let out a noise that sounded remarkably like a scoff. ’[Please, don’t lie to me. Just tell the truth. You are only here to look at naked men.]’

Heena didn’t even have the decency to look ashamed. She just shifted her weight, pushing a leafy branch slightly to the left to get a better, unobstructed view of the water.

"Don’t be so vulgar," Heena whispered back, casually swatting a mosquito away from her cheek. "This is purely academic. I am gathering critical intelligence on the physical conditioning of the estate’s security forces."

She pointed a delicate finger through the foliage at a particularly well-built guard rinsing his hair. "Look at those abdominal muscles. That is peak combat readiness. As a woman navigating a dangerous political landscape, I need to know the exact physical capabilities of the men guarding this compound."

The System let out a sound that was remarkably close to a digital groan of despair. ’[Host, you are literally drooling.]’

"It’s the humidity," Heena shot back without missing a single beat, her eyes wide and unblinking. "It makes a person sweat. Don’t change the subject."

’[You are staring directly at the captain of the guard’s glutes,]’ the System pointed out flatly.

"I am analyzing his center of gravity," she corrected smoothly, leaning just a fraction of an inch further out of the bush. "A warrior’s true power comes from the hips and core, System. You’re just a string of code; you wouldn’t understand the intricate complexities of human anatomy and martial arts."