The servants bowed. "Yes, Master."

Maya looked absolutely stricken. "This is ridiculous! I’ve done NOTHING wrong! This is based on nothing but an anonymous letter with no proof!"

"The proof," the old Master said icily, "is that you ADMITTED to meeting with this man. Multiple times. Privately. Without informing your husband. That’s enough proof for me to take precautions."

He turned away from her dismissively.

"You are confined until I determine whether your behavior has been appropriate. And you will have NO further contact with this Chen Yifan, or any other young official, or any man outside this household without my direct supervision."

Maya stood there, trembling with rage and humiliation, tears of fury streaming down her face.

But she had no recourse. In this era, husbands had complete legal authority over their wives’ movements and activities. The old Master was well within his rights to confine her.

Heena watched this entire punishment unfold with satisfaction.

’Perfect,’ she thought. ’Maya is now under house arrest, her movements restricted, her reputation damaged. She’ll be far too busy dealing with her suspicious husband to scheme against me.’

’And the best part? I didn’t even have to do anything directly. The System wrote the letter, the old Master’s paranoia did the rest.’

Samuel leaned close to Heena and whispered, "You’re looking awfully satisfied for someone who supposedly had nothing to do with this."

Heena whispered back innocently, "I’m just happy to see household discipline being properly maintained. As a filial daughter-in-law should be."

Samuel snorted quietly, clearly not believing her innocent act for a second.

After the old Master dismissed everyone and Maya was escorted—practically dragged—back to her quarters by her new keeper-servants, the crowd dispersed.

Heena and Samuel walked back toward their own quarters.

"That was quite a performance," Samuel observed. "My stepmother went from accuser to accused in about five minutes."

"She made it easy," Heena said. "She panicked and lashed out at the most convenient target—me—without thinking through whether the accusation made any logical sense."

"And the handwriting comparison was brilliant," Samuel added. "Very clever of you to have written me that grocery list yesterday."

Heena looked at him sideways. "I wrote that list three days ago, actually. For legitimate grocery purposes."

"Hmm," Samuel said, clearly not entirely convinced. "What a fortunate coincidence that you had such perfect evidence ready."

Heena just smiled mysteriously.

Back in their room, the System appeared, looking extremely anxious.

"Host! That was terrifying! When they compared the handwriting, I thought we were done for!"

"But we weren’t," Heena pointed out. "Because even though your handwriting is absolutely atrocious, it’s SO bad that it’s clearly different from mine. No one would believe the same person wrote both letters."

She sat down on her sleeping mat.

"Did you see that, Host? Are you surprised by my smart work?" the System asked proudly, puffing out his little lion chest.

Hearing that self-congratulatory question, Heena looked at him from head to tail and back again, and there was complete dumbfoundedness on her face as she said slowly, "Well, yeah, I am surprised. Like, you’re supposed to be an AI—a System, artificial intelligence from beyond this world, advanced technology that supposedly surpasses human capabilities in processing and analysis."

The System felt a chill run down his spine, because he was learning that whenever this woman used that particular tone of voice, there was NEVER a good word coming from her mouth next.

Heena continued: "But I cannot understand ONE thing. How can an artificial intelligence—such a supposedly smart, computerized device that has supposedly surpassed humans throughout the entire universe with advanced processing capabilities—how can YOUR handwriting be SO incredibly, impossibly BAD?"

Hearing that cutting assessment, the System looked at her with complete shock and offense.

"What do you MEAN by ’bad writing’?! It’s perfectly fine writing! You know, I won THIRD place in calligraphy competitions in my System training program!"

Hearing that defensive claim, Heena looked at him with pity and said, "Dear System, if YOU won third place, then I can already guess what the judges must have been like. They were probably other Systems with equally terrible paw-writing skills."

She shook her head.

"Another thing—what you do is not called ’writing.’ It’s called ’symbolizing.’ You know, back when early humans were still half-evolved, when they were just learning to walk upright and communicate, they used to scratch crude drawings on cave walls with sharp rocks and primitive tools."

She looked at the System seriously.

"And believe me, looking at YOUR handwriting, I can definitely say for sure that you are WORSE than those prehistoric cave-dwellers. At least their symbols were recognizable."

Hearing that absolutely devastating comparison, the System looked at her and said in a hurt pout, "I HELPED you with your scheme, and you’re STILL talking to me like this? You’re so mean! You’re the meanest Host I’ve ever had!"

Heena looked at him and shook her head, saying firmly, "Nah, nah, nah. It’s not that you ’helped’ me out of the goodness of your heart, dear System. It’s just that if you DON’T help me succeed in these missions, you would be absolutely fucked up too. Your performance ratings depend on my success, remember?"

Hearing that undeniable truth, the System shut up immediately.

Heena sighed and massaged her forehead, then said, "Now, if I’m not wrong, today is the day I’m supposed to meet Maya’s mother, right?"

Hearing that question, the System nodded eagerly, happy to change the subject from his terrible handwriting.

Heena stood up and said, "Fine. Well, let’s go then."

Hearing that immediate decision, the System looked flustered and said, "Wait, wait! You can’t just GO like that! What about your husband? What’s your cover story? If you just disappear for the day, people will start asking questions and maybe even fighting again!"

Hearing that concern, Heena looked at the System with exasperation and said, "System, sometimes I genuinely cannot understand—are you smart, or are you too dumb to function?"

Hearing that ambiguous statement, the System looked at her and said uncertainly, "Wait... did you just praise me or insult me? I can’t tell!"

Heena just looked at him with a long-suffering sigh and said, "See? You’re STILL asking me that question. That should answer your own question."

The System stood there in complete disbelief at being insulted so smoothly.

Before he could protest further, Heena raised her hand and said, "System, listen. If I’m going to do something—ANYTHING—of course I have Plan A, Plan B, Plan C, Plan D, and whatever other contingencies might be necessary. Do you REALLY think I would attempt something like this without proper preparation?"

Hearing that reasonable point, the System tilted his head and asked, "Then what IS your plan? What’s your cover story?"

Heena smiled mysteriously and said, "Of course we’re going shopping."

The System looked at her in complete disbelief and said, "THAT’S your grand plan? Just... shopping?"

Heena looked at him with a smirk and said, "Well, it’s definitely a much better plan than your handwriting skills would suggest you’re capable of creating."

The System had no comeback for that devastating burn.

---

’’[Twenty Minutes Later - Confronting Samuel]’’ 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Twenty minutes later, Samuel looked up from the business documents he’d been reviewing to find Heena standing in front of him with an expectant expression.