CHAPTER 90: CHAPTER 85: THE MEANING OF SAVE POINTS (2 UPDATES)

It is said that the Emperor favored Concubine Xi, which put the Empress Dowager at ease.

Calling for water multiple times at night further proved that there was nothing wrong with the Emperor’s health.

Relieved, she also complained to the wet nurse: "When the Emperor gets busy with state affairs, he neglects the harem. He still doesn’t have a healthy Prince! It makes me worry for him. If only Concubine Xi could conceive soon, so as not to waste the Emperor’s favor."

"Please rest assured, Lady. Princess Consort Jing has not called for the Imperial Physician for a long time, and the Eldest Prince’s body is stronger than before. Why not summon His Highness to accompany you for a meal?"

The Empress Dowager hesitated slightly and sighed:

"No need, it’s still snowing outside. If Jing’er catches a cold, I will be blamed again."

...

Yun Jiao slept in Weiyang Palace until the sun was high in the sky.

The palace maids and eunuchs serving at the Imperial Court had never seen such a relaxed concubine. With the Emperor’s remark of "treat this as your own palace," she took it to heart, and when she woke up, she called people to serve her with eyes still closed, leisurely ordered dishes, and only returned after dining in Weiyang Palace.

Yun Jiao traveled the same route daily from Xianfu Palace to Jianzhang Palace to pay respects.

This time, thanks to the Emperor’s favor, she saw a different view.

"Lady, aren’t you taking the sedan chair?"

"It’s snowing, I want to walk myself."

With the Longevity Festival approaching, a major holiday within the Imperial Palace, everyone was busy. Those she met on the road walked hastily, while Yun Jiao held onto her backup plan and was accompanied by two palace maids. Even if she encountered something as absurd as an assassin, she could buy time to revert to the backup. Thus, she walked with an imposing stride that recognized no relatives.

The cold was indeed severe, the wind swirled the fine snow, landing on her nape and wrists. Although the tiger skin kept her warm, after snow chilled her neck, Gong Mei forcibly put the tiger skin hat on her.

"Look, my ears move, so I’m a real tiger."

Yun Jiao clasped the tiger ears, folding them forward: "Roar!"

Gong Mei coaxed her: "Alright, alright, you are a real tiger, Lady."

Yun Jiao pondered, thinking she might have been insulting the master, but the evidence was insufficient.

She circled around the back of the rockery and told Xue Ya: "Murder cases in the palace generally occur in such desolate places."

"Even though the palace is safe, given the Lady’s noble status, some caution is necessary."

"I will protect the Lady!" Xue Ya clenched her small fists.

...

Passing the rockery, Yun Jiao sharply noticed a small figure swaying near the pond in the distance, wondering: "What is that?"

A closer look revealed it was a little boy dressed in a eunuch’s attire.

There were quite a few young eunuchs in the palace, newly arrived, but that boy was especially small, appearing not even ten years old. He crawled at the pond’s edge, and if one didn’t look closely, he could easily be overlooked.

"Clearing wild grass by the pond, perhaps," Xue Ya empathetically noted, "This is tough work, surely assigned by an old eunuch to bully him. Poor boy, he’s so small. How long will it take him to finish? If not done, he’ll go hungry at night."

"The eunuchs have the toughest life in the palace and are the best at tormenting others."

Just as Yun Jiao was about to look away, a sudden splash drew her attention back.

Her pupils contracted sharply.

"He fell into the water!"

The little eunuch, after falling into the water, frantically slapped the surface, sending up an enormous spray.

"What should we do, Mistress... I can’t swim..."

Both grew up in the Capital City, which had no swimming pools, so they had neither the opportunity nor the necessity to learn swimming.

Moreover, it was currently winter, and the three were heavily dressed. Getting wet meant sinking.

Yun Jiao could swim, but was not adept.

During her physical therapy, she would water jog and do Tai Chi in the hospital pool, but her condition neither obligated nor supported intense swimming exercises. Only when her health improved did she implore her therapist to teach her to swim, managing at most to flounder a little in the water.

Yun Jiao reset the scenario to before she passed the rockery. From afar, she noticed the little eunuch by the pond and called out, "It’s too dangerous there. You shouldn’t be clearing it alone. Come ashore first! I’ll speak to your supervising eunuch if there’s an issue."

Referring to herself in the royal first person was meant to embolden him.

Unexpectedly, upon hearing someone call him, the little eunuch, scared, slipped and tumbled into the water!

Yun Jiao had no earlier save point, so she reset again, trying to reach an outcome where the little eunuch would not slip. Even as her head began to ache from repeated resets, that small figure continued to slip on the wet mud and fall into the pond.

The time from struggling to drowning would not be long.

The little eunuch couldn’t wait for others to help; only the three of them could save him.

"Quick, call for help!"

Yun Jiao reset the scenario again, first instructing the panicking Xue Ya to seek assistance, while she removed her coat, leaving only a single garment. Without even entering the water, the penetrating cold wind chilled her to the bone, yet it could not extinguish Yun Jiao’s resolve.

She had countless chances to start over, while the little eunuch had only one life.

"Mistress, no!"

"Lady!"

When the shocked Xue Ya tried to stop her, Yun Jiao had already taken a leap, adding momentum before diving into the water.

Yun Jiao entered the water with eyes closed; the icy pond engulfed her ears, muffling all but the sound of water and her heartbeat. She opened her eyes underwater, swimming toward the little eunuch.

After just a couple of strokes, a cramp took her by surprise.

Reset.

The second attempt, Yun Jiao swam close to him, trying to lift him out of the water, but realized he was entangled in water weeds, and both were nearly exhausted.

Reset.

The third time, she was prepared, heading straight down to untangle him. In distress, the little eunuch instinctively clung to her, causing the rescue to fail.

Reset.

Yun Jiao attributed the previous failure to her lack of experience in aquatic rescue. People in extreme panic, driven by a survival instinct, are indeed likely to grasp rescuers reflexively. She didn’t blame the little eunuch, considering she herself once as a child, after surgery and still under anesthesia, nearly embarrassed the surgeon by yanking at his trousers without consciousness.

On her fourth try, Yun Jiao dived underwater, first untangling the weeds from his ankle, then approached from behind, attempting to drag him to shore. Unfortunately, her swimming proficiency was lacking, and when she ran out of breath, there was another floundering person on the surface.

Trying to rescue a drowning person in a pond was nearly impossible for someone who couldn’t swim confidently even in a swimming pool.

If this were a game, a mission titled "Save the Drowning Eunuch 0/1," the success rate would probably be less than 10%.

No matter, she could reset ten times if needed.

With each reset, Yun Jiao’s stamina would return to its original state, but the mental fatigue and fear of the icy pond accumulated with each retry, with a voice in her mind advising her that it wasn’t her fault or responsibility, that she wasn’t capable, that she wasn’t good at swimming...

Recalling her past life, post-surgery, she lay silently with eyes closed, overhearing her parents repeatedly asking doctors the same questions while thinking her asleep. She even chuckled internally at her father’s questions, thinking him silly for asking so many times, as the doctor had clearly stated: Jiaojiao was not in life-threatening danger.

As she grew older, Yun Jiao realized her father understood perfectly.

He hoped to hear from the doctor that the patient was beyond saving, unnecessary to treat. This way, he could be relieved of responsibility without bearing the moral guilt of abandoning treatment for his daughter.

The doctors hadn’t given up on the patient, and neither would she give up on the little eunuch.

Unknown to her, from the third reset, the Emperor had already sent someone to fetch Concubine Xi.

With each reset, he learned slightly more than before.

Each time he reset, it narrowed the search range.

Finally, when Yun Jiao went back into the water again, performing every detail perfectly to pull the little eunuch back from King Yan’s grasp, swimming back ashore, the palace guards arrived! A eunuch who could swim rescued her to the shore, with Xue Ya crying as she threw the coat over her master: "Lady!"

Gong Mei also looked relieved: "What luck! As soon as I went out to find help, I ran into Chief Su searching for you, Lady."

"That eunuch who fell into the water..."

Yun Jiao felt it was truly unfair to have such a small child clean the pondside alone and wanted to stand up for him.

However, Ying Lu’s anxious voice came from the side:

"Quick, call the Imperial Physician! The Eldest Prince has fallen into the water!"