Chapter 5

"Well... the hidden route currently ends in complete tragedy. The Noble Consort exposes the empress, and she dies. Then her followers go mad and slaughter the Noble Consort's entire family. The emperor eliminates both powerful factions without lifting a finger—but!"

At the end of the hidden route, the heroine received something the empress had left behind: a letter written in blood.

It had been written by the Grand General's wife, ordering the empress to protect the heroine.

At that point, the heroine also learned that the Grand General's household possessed a tiger tally that only someone of his bloodline could use.

To get it, the late emperor had exterminated all nine branches of her family. Her mother had given her a memory-erasing drug to protect her, hoping she could live out an ordinary life.

The empress and the Imperial Preceptor had both served the heroine's father. With the Preceptor's help, the empress concealed her identity and entered the palace, seeking revenge.

The male lead knew all this and wanted the tally too. But with the empress protecting the heroine, he and the heroine were never able to confess their feelings, and he couldn't get her to reveal its whereabouts.

Not until the ending, when he killed the empress and the Imperial Preceptor. Then there was nobody left to protect her.

Once her memories returned, the grief-stricken heroine took the male lead down with her.

"..."

What an utterly chaotic, gloriously melodramatic mess of a story.

"So the emperor saw the sketches and discovered those secrets."

"Then he decided to use the baby to control the heroine." The project lead rubbed our belly.

"But now he may suspect that our drawing style means we know the future too. He could be deliberately testing us."

"More importantly, there's the tiger tally mechanic!" the scriptwriter said.

"Why did you cram in so much garbage lore?" the artist snapped.

"I couldn't help it! The plot needed it!" she wailed.

In short, we could get the tiger tally right now. The Imperial Preceptor had hidden it beneath the second flagstone at the Stargazing Terrace.

"Didn't you say the mysterious merchant had it?" the artist asked, speechless.

The scriptwriter sounded guilty. "He's got his own storyline. He hasn't got hold of it yet at this stage!"

Anyway, if we retrieved it and secretly handed it to either the empress or the emperor, we could sit back and do nothing for the rest of the ride.

Late that night, I finally regained control of the body.

"Go, An An!"

"Be careful, whatever you do!"

I nodded, slipped past the dozing maids, and cautiously made my way to the Stargazing Terrace.

Its stone steps were steep. Our pregnant body really wasn't up to it. By the time I reached the top, dripping sweat, I could barely breathe.

Then came a great deal of digging to get the tally out. By the end, I was practically ready to ascend to heaven.

"Lady Yong?"

A cold voice sounded ahead.

I looked up, straight into the male lead's eyes.

"Y-Your Majesty. What a coincidence. Out for a stroll too?"

Breaking into a cold sweat, I hid the tally behind our back.

Unfortunately, the flagstone we'd pried up was rather conclusive evidence that we weren't just taking a walk.

"What are you holding?"

He advanced one step at a time. Danger flooded our minds.

Only then did I notice the soldiers following him.

"Give it to me. Be good." His voice was low, cold, utterly devoid of emotion. "My beloved consort."

"No! We can't give it to him!" the scriptwriter said urgently.

If he got it, the empress and Imperial Preceptor would certainly die.

We could never coexist with the man who murdered our family.

"What other choice do we have?" the artist demanded, even more frantic.

"Don't worry." I swallowed. "They should be here soon."

A sword flew in from the other side and buried itself in the ground, stopping the emperor in his tracks.

"My lady!"

Across from the male lead, the empress appeared with the Imperial Preceptor.

They had troops behind them too.

If the sketches had told the emperor where the tally was buried, the empress and Preceptor, who'd stolen them, would know as well.

"I remember drawing the Stargazing Terrace really abstractly. They still found it this fast. Impressive," the artist said.

"This counts as slow. Otherwise, the emperor would've come ages ago, as soon as he got the sketches—not waited until now."

8.

Hello, everyone. My coworkers and I have been transported to another world.

We're currently standing on the Stargazing Terrace, and the male lead's archers have their arrows aimed at me.

The empress is on the other side. Her archers are aiming at the emperor.

And my coworkers and I, complete with the baby in our belly, are trembling in the cold wind between them.

"If you don't want her dead, you'd better hand over the tiger tally," the male lead said coldly.

"If my lady dies, you won't get away either!" The Imperial Preceptor had dropped his gentle mask.

"Fighting you would be a nuisance, but hardly a serious problem." The male lead sneered, clearly unconcerned.

I don't know who moved first.

Then everything spiraled out of control.

The Preceptor, the empress, and the male lead all lunged toward me at once.

Honestly, I had serious doubts about whether I'd survive the collision.

"How dare you!" The empress parried the male lead's sword and shouted furiously. "Even if you don't love her, she's carrying your child!"

"We can have another child," he said without expression. "There's only one tiger tally."

"Scum."

The Imperial Preceptor stood before us, shielding us from the arrows.

Thud.

Some soldier's head was severed. Blood splashed straight across our face.

That sensation...

Was far too real.

Urgh.

Why design it to be this realistic?!

"My lady, go on ahead," the empress said without turning.

"Take the tally. Our people are waiting below."

"Once you're out, if you don't want any more part in this mess, give it to the Hu man in the capital's Sixth Alley. He'll handle the rest."

Sob... my dear empress!

She hadn't even considered that the heroine might betray her!

Unlike her, though, the male lead had clearly come prepared.

Protecting us meant that neither the empress nor the Preceptor could retreat. They were trapped!

"Sob... No! They'll die if this goes on!" HR cried. "Think of something!"

"There's nothing we can do," the scriptwriter said helplessly. "They're written to be completely loyal to the heroine. In this situation, they can't just abandon her, grab the tally, and run."

"Did you have nothing better to do than invent all these ridiculous settings?" The artist was on the verge of breaking down too.

"Um..." I quietly raised a hand. "Come to think of it, isn't this only a game?"

"An An, being in a game doesn't mean we can just let them die," the boss said disapprovingly.

"That's not what I mean. I mean..." I said. "If it's a game, wouldn't it actually be fine if we died?"

I remembered the completed main route had branches where the heroine killed herself, was deposed, or lived out her life alone.

One ending even had her die by poisoned wine.

Wasn't that another shortcut?

My question left everyone stunned.

"...She has a point."

"Ah... well..."

"Then what were all those months of effort for?"

"..."

We had a quick discussion. Once everyone agreed, I gripped the tally and took a deep breath.

While the empress, Preceptor, and male lead were locked in combat, I rushed forward.

Horrified and afraid of hurting me, the empress and Preceptor both pulled back their swords.

That gave the male lead his chance.

He attacked at once. I quickly pressed the tally into the empress's hand and stepped in front of her.

"Take this and go! You must avenge my parents!"

I cried out in anguish, remembering to play my part to the end.

"My lady!"

The empress and Preceptor panicked behind me.

The male lead's sword thrust straight at me.

The flexible blade struck my belly.

Then it bent.

It didn't even pierce our clothes, as though our belly were made of reinforced concrete.

What the hell?

"Am I carrying a steel ball?!" I yelled.

"I'm so sorry! I haven't programmed a miscarriage event yet!" The scriptwriter frantically mopped her sweat. "So an injury to the belly isn't possible."

Fine.

Who would've thought? In this world, the hardest substance known to man wasn't diamond.

It was our pregnant belly.

Fortunately, the male lead was utterly ruthless. Unconcerned that his blade couldn't penetrate our belly, he swung his sword straight at our neck.

"My lady!"

"No!"

I glanced back at the empress and Preceptor, clutched our neck, and fell.

"Go..."

Blood kept flowing from our neck. My consciousness began to blur.

"Ah... it hurts... I'm dying... in my next life... Hmm. Actually, this doesn't hurt much..."

"Obviously! We can't let customers experience what dying really feels like!" the project lead said, exasperated.

In the final second before my vision went dark, electricity shot into my brain.

A familiar mechanical voice sounded in my ears.

"Beep—this game session has ended."

"Congratulations! You have achieved the ending: A Concubine Who Cares for Her Subordinates."

"Thank you for supporting our company's product. We hope you'll continue to follow our work. We promise our future titles will bring you an even better experience!"

Extra

In August 3077, the game Qingqing: Tears Like Snow was officially released.

It quickly took over one ranking chart after another.

Its popularity kept climbing. With so many side routes and so many different ways to die, players jokingly dubbed it a "death experience pass."

For a year and a half, not a single blogger managed to unlock every achievement. That helped establish it as an industry landmark that would be hard to surpass.

Then, a year and a half after release, a bombshell landed on the game's discussion boards.

There was another hidden route!

It began with a player who'd reached death endings more than a hundred times. During the bedroom event, they started phoning it in—doing the bare minimum, no longer caring.

That very neglect accidentally unlocked the hidden route!

Here, players could bask in sweet affection and finally avoid a death ending. Gamers were ecstatic.

More and more people tried the route and began sharing their sugary romances.

Nobody expected the emperor, who'd doted on them alone, to abruptly change his attitude later and reveal himself as the final boss behind it all.

And the empress, whom they'd fought so fiercely at the start, had secretly been protecting them from beginning to end.

The comment section erupted.

"Damn you, game company! Have you got no hearts?!"

"Hahahaha, I've lost it! I've lost it! Die! Everybody die!"

"Sob... I thought he really loved me!"

"Who came up with this garbage plot? Get out here! Show yourself! Aaaaaah!"

"Aaaaaah! I should've gone with the Imperial Preceptor on the main route!"

"My empress! Waaaaaah!"

I scrolled through the comments, beaming.

Excellent. The players were highly engaged. Influencers were bringing their own traffic to promote us.

That would save the operations team a lot of publicity work.

"...And that brings the story of Qingqing: Tears Like Snow to a close. In the new year, I hope we'll all keep working hard and achieve even greater things together!"

The boss clenched his fist enthusiastically, face flushed with excitement.

Everyone below set down their chopsticks and applauded.

The scriptwriter's eyes were red. She secretly dabbed away tears with a tissue.

The game meant something special to us, after all.

After the day we cleared it, we never shared the same body—or account—again.

The programmer had spent ages hunting for the bug but never discovered what had made us share a body in the first place.

I looked back at my phone.

A long review, buried among countless comments, unexpectedly caught my eye.

"Sob... Has nobody else cleared 'A Concubine Who Cares for Her Subordinates'? There's an official Easter egg afterward! In third-person view, I got to watch the empress and Imperial Preceptor take the tiger tally, summon a ghost army, and overthrow the emperor. Then the empress takes the reigning-empress route! Once I finished, I even got an official thank-you message from the developers and an anime sketch by the game's own artist!"

Fresh comments quickly buried the review until it sank right to the bottom.

But one thing was certain.

Next year, the years after that, and far into the future, it would still be the same group of us, creating more and more distinctive works together and bringing everyone stories that were just right.

THE END