The Eight Empresses Betrayed Me, Only to Deeply Regret It After Being Reborn

Shen Xitong cast a contemptuous glance at Chu Ling, full of disdain.
"Go on then. Just what identity are you using to meet with Lu Ye now?" Shen Xitong asked.

"I am the young master’s maid!"
Chu Ling straightened her back and said with renewed spirit.
"Proof?"

Shen Xitong held out her hand.
"What proof?" Chu Ling was caught off guard.
"You say you're Lu Ye's maid and that just makes it true? Then I could say I’m Lu Ye’s mother, and does that make me his mother for real?"

"How dare you insult the young master like that!"
Chu Ling exploded in fury.
Shen Xitong laughed gleefully. "I insult him because we’re close. Go ahead, try calling yourself his mother—see if Lu Ye doesn’t sew your mouth shut."

Chu Ling was both furious and helpless.
She came to apologize to Lu Ye, not to pick a fight.
"No proof..."

The contract she sold herself with had already been burned to ashes within the first three minutes of her rebirth.
"No proof, and you still want to call yourself a maid? Honestly, I doubt Lu Ye even remembers you. That’s enough—leave. If Lu Ye had to meet everyone who claimed to be his maid, he’d never get any cultivation done."
"No! I truly have something important to tell the young master. You must let me in! If this delays his plans, you won’t be able to bear the consequences!"

But Shen Xitong didn’t budge a single inch.
She continued blocking the way.
"Of course, if you can’t prove you’re Lu Ye’s maid, that’s not necessarily a problem either. As it happens, I do know one way you could prove it."

Chu Ling struggled to suppress the urge to act out.
"...What way?"
Shen Xitong smiled gently—and in that moment, it was as though the whole world lost its color.
"Simple. Call me Matron."

Chu Ling froze for a moment, then flew into a rage.
Though she called herself the young master’s maid, she’d never truly placed herself in the position of one.
"Young master"—that was just a habitual form of address.

Lu Ye had once said it himself: there would be no distinction of wife or concubine among them. He would treat all the women equally, with love and care.
She wasn’t even a concubine, let alone some servant—how could she possibly accept calling herself a maid in earnest?
Her so-called “maid” status was just like how Yue Hongling called herself “little junior sister”—a unique title to protect one’s standing.

Didn’t she still refer to Bai Qiulan as “Sister Bai”?
And now she was being asked to call Shen Xitong Matron?
"You’re dreaming!" she snapped.
Shen Xitong wasn’t surprised at all. She shrugged.

"There you go. Since you’re not Lu Ye’s maid, that means you’ve got nothing to do with him. Off you go."
"I’m not the young master’s maid, I’m his wife! Let me in!"
Shen Xitong rolled her eyes so hard they nearly flipped out of her skull. "You don’t even qualify to be his maid anymore, and you’re still delusional enough to want to be his wife? You’re nothing but a toad chasing a frog—ugly and full of tricks!"

"With a face like yours? Average. Figure? Average. Cultivation? Also average. And you think you’re good enough to be Lu Ye’s maid? If Lu Ye wanted maids, the line of better candidates could stretch from Grand Dao Sect all the way to the Eastern Sea! What are you even thinking?"
Chu Ling felt as though her steel teeth were about to shatter from the pressure of her clenched jaw.
How was she a toad? What part of her was “average”?

Her face was stunning, breathtaking. Her waist was slender enough to grip in one hand. Every inch of her body was firm, tight, and springy.
And yet Shen Xitong had just torn her apart like she was completely worthless.
Chu Ling wanted to argue back, but the moment she looked at Shen Xitong—that overwhelmingly beautiful face, that flawless figure—she realized she couldn’t compete. Not at all.

In comparison to Shen Xitong, she was completely outclassed on every front. Even their aura wasn’t on the same level.
The aura Shen Xitong exuded—it perfectly matched the name she had given herself.
Matron.

She truly had the air of a household matron.
One had to know: in the beginning, Shen Xitong had planned to take on the form of a cute little loli.
Bouncy, lively, like a little bunny—who wouldn’t love that?

But in the end, she’d thought it through. A loli? A loli had zero presence. This system was going to be a queen! A crushing, radiant, peerless queen!
Chu Ling was pinned under Shen Xitong’s gaze, her aura crumbling bit by bit.
Shen Xitong said nothing, merely stared.

"...If I call you Matron, that will really prove I’m the young master’s maid?" Chu Ling asked, jaw clenched tight.
Shen Xitong nodded.
"As Matron, I have the authority to confirm it."

Chu Ling’s lips twitched. Inside, she was in turmoil. She was doing this to win the young master back!
If she had to swallow some humiliation... it was worth it.
At last, Chu Ling mustered every ounce of courage in her body and called out in a voice just barely above a whisper:

"...Matron..."
Shen Xitong flicked her ear.
"What was that? I didn’t catch it."

Chu Ling bit her lip hard.
"Matron!"
This time, her voice was loud enough. Shen Xitong heard it clearly.

"Mhm."
Shen Xitong gave a satisfied nod.
"Alright. I suppose you’ve now proven you’re Lu Ye’s maid."

She smiled as she spoke.
"Then can I go see the young master now?" Chu Ling asked eagerly, already starting to walk forward.
"Insolence!"

Shen Xitong barked.
"You’re a maid. What business do you have meeting the master directly? If you have something to report, you must go through me! And what is that garish outfit you’re wearing? Looking like some seductive vixen! Go change into plain clothes at once. Then come report your business to me properly!"
Chu Ling’s eyes turned red.

She glared at Shen Xitong with everything she had.
But Shen Xitong only returned her gaze, completely unafraid. If anything, her expression was mocking, full of scorn.
"What? Staring at me like that? Is that how you treat your Matron? No sense of propriety whatsoever. A woman like you—can’t even manage the bare minimum for a maid. You don’t deserve to be one!"

"You betray the master. You scorn the matron. You don’t know your place. You have no skills, no talent. Every day you dream of rising above your station. What a disgrace!"
"If you’re going to be a maid, then learn what it means to be a maid. Back when you were still part of the household, people treated you decently for the master’s sake. But now? You’re no one."
"Innate Sword Body? Please. I could throw a stone and hit a hundred of you."

Chu Ling’s eyes were now completely bloodshot.
Her demon sword was trembling nonstop.
"What? You going to kill your Matron?"

Chu Ling was barely holding back the explosive rage in her heart. She hadn’t come here to make things worse. She came to reconcile.
She’d heard Yue Hongling talk about how insufferably “green tea” Shen Xitong was, how infuriating she could be. At the time, she hadn’t really believed it.
Green tea? What use was that?

Act coy and prissy and people would just get disgusted.
But now... what Shen Xitong was showing wasn’t even green tea.
It was just pure aggravation.

Chu Ling was so pissed off, she ran.
She was afraid that if she stayed even one second longer, her demon sword would snap—and she’d end up chopping Shen Xitong into bits.
Watching Chu Ling flee in disgrace, Shen Xitong tilted up her little chin in pride.

"Utterly pathetic."
"System Queen, unmatched and mighty!"