"Father, younger brother found a beautiful little plaque!" As soon as she saw her parents, the little girl finally took out the plaque she had been clutching protectively to her chest.
Her father took the plaque, less than two inches long, and the few people gathered around couldn't help but gasp when they saw its striking colors and patterns. Yue Fuguang had designed these plaques through the system, making them aesthetically pleasing and collectible—they weren't just inscribed with words.
The plaques were also engraved with landscapes, flowers, birds, and fish. Among the twelve plaques, no two patterns were the same. And those two prophetic lines were like inscriptions on the front and back of a painting, though the characters were golden, impossible to miss.
"This... this... what is this?" The child's father had initially thought it was one of those jade plaques used by wealthy nobles.
But when he weighed it in his hand, the heft was off. He had never seen jade before, but common folk weren't fools—jade was made of stone, and stone had weight. Yet this plaque, neither large nor small, felt strangely light in his hand.
"Brother, that thing in your hand... the material doesn't seem like jade, does it?" A middle-aged man, dressed noticeably better than those around him, leaned in slightly, his eyes glued to the plaque.
The colors were vivid, the luster fine, but it didn't look like jade at all, nor was it the priceless glassware that was hard to come by.
"Kind sir, do you recognize this?" the child's father asked, holding the unknown treasure with a look of anticipation.
The middle-aged man shook his head. "Never seen it before."
"Oh! The characters on it..." A young man in a long gown pointed at the lettering, his face full of shock.
"What about the characters?" The child's father, illiterate, only thought the golden characters looked beautiful.
"The goddess descends upon the world, destiny lies in Dayan!" The upward-facing side bore the floral design. Prompted by the scholar, the middle-aged man finally noticed those eight small characters and read them aloud without thinking.
His voice wasn't loud, but those who heard it couldn't help but freeze. A goddess? This beautiful plaque spoke of a goddess descending to the world!
"A goddess! This plaque mentions the divine lady!" The crowd around them buzzed with discussion. Whether they understood the full meaning of those eight characters or not, they remembered this phrase and added their own interpretations.
They had just witnessed the goddess bringing rain to bless Dayan with their own eyes.
So was this a prophecy from heaven? Destiny in Dayan? What about their Southern Yue? Did heaven no longer care for them?
Some, more simple-minded, felt that heaven simply wanted nothing to do with their fate.
But the middle-aged man and the young scholar in green, being a man of wealth and a man of learning respectively, couldn't help but think more deeply.
The scholar in green pursed his lips, then suddenly bowed to the commoner. With considerable politeness, he said, "Big brother, I am Huang Wei from Weicheng Academy. May I have a look at the back of this plaque?"
The commoner, seeing a courteous scholar, found it hard to refuse. He was counting on learned men to help him figure out what this treasure was, and how much grain he could exchange it for.
"Not at all, not at all. I was hoping you could, young master, take a look and tell me what this treasure is!"
Hearing this, the middle-aged man's eyes flickered.
Huang Wei took the plaque. It was light to the touch, smooth in texture. Turning it over, he saw a landscape painting with six small golden characters: "When the five kings have finished, the four seas will be one."
"This... what does this mean?" The commoner scratched his head. He could barely grasp half of the first line, but this one he didn't understand at all.
"Brother, come, let's talk privately."
The middle-aged man spoke up, inviting both the commoner and Huang Wei, who held the plaque, to a spot away from the crowd by the roadside.
"Brother, I'm not looking down on you, but with the words on this plaque, keeping it in your hands—you won't be able to handle what comes with it. How about..."
At that moment, Yue Fuguang, still on her way to Xingzhou, had no idea that her dropped plastic plaque had been found on the very first day, turning a poor family's fortunes around overnight, making them moderately well-off.
In the following days, lucky people successively found several more. Yes, "found"—ever since the second similar plaque was accidentally discovered, folks within a hundred miles of the Southern Yue border gained an important way to make money: searching for these beautiful jade plaques.
And those two prophetic lines spread far and wide, even faster and farther than Yue Fuguang had initially anticipated.
This even sparked numerous disputes over the unique material of the plaques. Before the Southern Yue military could fully seal the border, many Southern Yue people—carrying packs and families—could be seen crossing into Great Yan.
Whether inspired by the little girl's words or by the prophecies, many clever and decisive individuals had already slipped into the bordering cities of Great Yan before the Southern Yue court could react.
It was only two weeks later that Yue Fuguang learned of this through a confidential letter from the Crown Prince.
Yue Fuguang waved the letter triumphantly. "System, see? You said those plaques were worthless, but look at what they've accomplished!"
She was brimming with pride at this moment. If she weren't still in the carriage surrounded by people, she would have loved to put her hands on her hips and laugh uproariously at the sky.
System: What's there to be so proud of? It was all thanks to my help!
But thinking back on its own past, the system inexplicably felt a wave of guilt. Its backbone wouldn't straighten, and it couldn't muster a single bold retort.
Right now, the system feared nothing more than its host asking about the data repair progress!
[Yes, yes, yes, host, you're the greatest, the most resourceful, with the bearing of a great general, you strategize far away and win battles...]
The system began blowing rainbow-colored flattery at Yue Fuguang without restraint...
Yue Fuguang enjoyed the praise, but a growing sense of unease gnawed at her. Was it her imagination, or had the system been acting strangely lately? It always seemed to be hiding something from her.
Should she try to probe a little?
"Little Tong, how's the data recovery going? I'll still need your information support for our actions against the other countries. You can't let me down."
System: !!! The very thing I feared!
[Host, the data recovery has hit a bottleneck. It seems... it seems to be locked.]
"Locked? What does that mean?"
[It means... because we've already reached level six and will soon level up to seven, the higher management system has taken notice. Our attempt to repair the data might have been discovered. The Merit System is fine, but the Gossip System seems to have been locked!]
Yue Fuguang's heart sank. The reason she could complete her tasks so smoothly now was entirely thanks to the Gossip System. If she couldn't dig up gossip and expose secrets, she couldn't very well show up as the goddess and openly chat with the ministers and the king of Great Yan over tea and snacks, spilling dark secrets about corrupt officials like one of those gossiping old women under the locust tree at the village entrance, could she?
That would ruin her image—too cringeworthy to imagine!
"Being locked means we can't continue repairing the data? Will it affect our current usage?"