Chapter 5

That night, Emperor Xuande was full of embarrassment as he looked at the large pile of underwear his three sons and the ministers had sent him.

“How humiliating! Truly humiliating!” he thought. Could that girl stop gossiping about him? There are so many other people in the court to gossip about—wasn’t that enough?

“Your Majesty, should we replace the old underwear?” Eunuch Li asked, keeping his head down and struggling to suppress a smile.

But the truth was, the Emperor’s old underwear was really unwearable—couldn’t even cover his backside anymore.

Emperor Xuande sighed helplessly, “Replace them. They’ve already been sent, might as well use them.” After all, he was still a poor emperor.

But once he confiscated the estates of King of Qi and the National Protector General, he might finally have a little wealth.

For now, the most important thing was to protect Lin Mo. If anything happened to her, it would be a significant loss.

Emperor Xuande immediately sent shadow guards to the Lin residence, but they returned late at night.

Seeing his shadow guards bruised and battered, Emperor Xuande twitched his mouth. “What happened to you all?”

The leader of the shadow guards explained helplessly, “Your Majesty, as soon as we reached the residence of the second Miss Lin, we couldn’t get in. That system of hers said it has some kind of protection mechanism to guard her. When we tried to get closer to listen, we were bounced away.”

Emperor Xuande: … Well then, she’s already got protection; no need to worry.

“Keep your distance and keep an eye on her. Don’t get too close, just stay close enough to hear something. But make sure you’re not discovered.”

At the Lin residence, all the other courtyards were already quiet for the night, except for Lin Mo’s, where the lights were still on.

“Ugh, tomorrow’s another day of not wanting to go to work. I can’t get up!” Lin Mo sighed, lying in bed reading a book.

The system, puzzled by her behavior, asked, “If you know you can’t get up, why don’t you go to sleep now?”

Lin Mo sighed, got up, and poured herself a glass of water. “I can’t sleep. The night is so beautiful—why waste it on sleep?”

“Besides, I already slept enough during the day. Now I’m wide awake.”

System: … It had nothing to say to that.

“I checked the time—it’s 2 AM in modern time. If you don’t sleep soon, you’re going to be in trouble at the morning court session.”

“Sneaking a nap is one thing, but if you collapse, that’ll be a huge embarrassment.”

Lin Mo: …

“You’re right. If I can’t sleep but still have to go to work tomorrow, I need to find a way to do both—stay up late and wake up early.”

Fifteen minutes later, the system watched in disbelief as Lin Mo, holding her pillow and blanket, tiptoed out of her room.

“Where are you planning to take those? That’s your parents’ courtyard over there. Don’t tell me you’re planning to sleep with your parents—you’re an adult now!”

Lin Mo replied, “Who said I’m sleeping with them? I’m just setting up a bedroll by their door. That way, when my dad gets up, he can take me with him.”

System: …

The night watch servants: …

Is the second Miss Lin getting more and more unusual? Who in their right mind would set up a bedroll outside their parents’ door in the middle of the night?

The shadow guards watching from afar: …

“This second Miss Lin—her thoughts are really hard to understand. It must have been tough for Minister Lin and his wife to raise her to this age,” one shadow guard remarked.

Another shadow guard was equally speechless.

The Emperor had ordered them to report any strange behavior by this second Miss Lin, and this definitely qualified as strange.

Lin Mo set up a cozy little bedroll for herself and lay down without a care. The system was at a loss for words.

Maybe it was the novelty of sleeping in a new spot, but Lin Mo fell asleep quickly and soon started snoring.

Inside, Minister Lin and his wife frowned at the sound. Lady Lin, annoyed, kicked Minister Lin out of bed.

“If you keep snoring, you can go sleep in the side room!”

Minister Lin sat on the ground, utterly bewildered. “Wait, I wasn’t snoring! I’m already awake, and the snoring is still happening. How could it possibly be me?”

Feeling a bit wronged, he nudged his wife and said, “Dear, it really wasn’t me snoring. I’m awake, and the snoring is still going on. Maybe it’s one of the night watchmen snoring.”

Lady Lin groggily got out of bed, leaned out, and peeked outside. “Go out and remind them. If they’re too tired, just let them go rest. Snoring at this hour really disrupts sleep.”

Minister Lin silently got up from the floor, walked to the door, and opened it. The moment he did, his pupils dilated in shock, and with a thud, he fainted.

“Master!” the nearby night watchmen cried out in alarm.

Lin Mo, however, didn’t wake up at all amidst the commotion. She just slept even more soundly.

Minister Lin was quickly carried back to the bed, with servants doing everything they could to revive him. The room was a flurry of activity.

The servants bustled in and out, carefully avoiding stepping on someone lying at the doorway—someone who, despite everything, was sleeping so soundly that nothing could wake them.

Lin Qi and Lin Ran hurried over and were immediately met with the sight of their troublesome little sister lying at the door.

Lin Qi and Lin Ran: …

System: “I knew this would happen! This troublesome host! The Lin family sure has it rough with a daughter like this.”

Lin Family: …

The Lin family’s servants: …

Minister Lin wasn’t actually in any real danger; he had just been badly startled. After a moment, he recovered.

“Is that thing awake yet?” He pointed shakily at the door. “Get her up right now! Sleeping at our door in the middle of the night—does she want to scare me and her mother to death?”

Lin Qi sighed and simply hauled Lin Mo off the ground.

Good grief, this troublesome girl was even wearing her court dress to sleep! Was she planning to just get up and go straight to court without changing?

When Lin Mo was yanked up by her brother, she was still half-asleep.

“Brother, what are you doing? I still need to go to court. If you’re waking me up now, will you go in my place later? Don’t you know how tiring work is?”

Lin Qi gave her a flick on the forehead. “You’re tired from work? Look at the mess you’ve caused! You scared the life out of our father!”

“What were you doing, not sleeping in your room and instead camping out at our parents’ door in the middle of the night?”

Lin Mo suddenly snapped awake, looking at her mother trying to hold back laughter, her father’s dark expression, and her exasperated siblings. She quickly asked the system in her mind, “What happened? Why is everyone here?”

The system replied helplessly, “It’s all because of your snoring. How could a young lady like you snore so loudly, like a donkey braying? Your parents were woken up by it, and when your dad opened the door and saw you, he was so shocked he fainted.”

“So that’s how it all turned into this. I don’t have other hosts to compare you to, but I think you must be the most troublesome one I’ve ever had and likely will ever have.”

The system’s tone almost made everyone burst out laughing. The servants all lowered their heads, Lin Qi and Lin Ran bit their lips, shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter, Lady Lin wiped away the tears forming from holding back her laughter, and Minister Lin almost lost his stern expression.

The system’s commentary was spot-on. The snoring really did sound like a donkey braying!