At the Chengqian Palace.
The imperial children returned from the streets of Beijing thoroughly exhilarated. Normally, by this hour, the two-year-old Fourth Prince, Yinzhen, would be curled up in his wet nurse's arms, crying for sleep. Today, however, he was vibrating with energy.
He chattered endlessly to his adoptive mother, Consort Tongjia, jumping wildly between topics—sugar paintings, restaurants, and street vendors. Because of his youth, his sentences often tangled, his tongue tripping over complex thoughts.
Tongjia sat patiently, listening and guessing his meaning. She smiled, nodding and validating his excitement. By actively satisfying his need to share his adventure, she was intentionally deepening his emotional dependency on her, reinforcing her position as his true "Mother."
Once Yinzhen finally exhausted himself and fell into a deep sleep, Tongjia's warm facade vanished. She summoned her head maid, Chunying.
"The boy cannot stop talking about the Crown Prince," Tongjia noted coldly. "'Second Brother is so smart,' 'Second Brother is so capable.' Yinreng has never shown particular affection for his siblings before. Why this sudden urge to escort the Third and Fourth Princes out of the palace?"
Chunying analyzed the sequence of events. "It appears to be circumstantial, Your Grace. The Fourth Prince's dog ran into the Crown Prince's courtyard just as the Emperor's summons arrived. The Crown Prince casually invited him, and to maintain appearances, he had to invite the Third Prince as well. Naturally, with the Emperor watching, the Crown Prince played the role of the benevolent elder brother."
"He is highly politically astute for his age," Tongjia murmured, her eyes narrowing.
Chunying fell silent. As Tongjia's confidante, she knew the Consort's true psychological state. Of all the women in the harem, Tongjia utterly despised Concubine De (Lady Uya). Uya had originally been a lowly servant in Tongjia's own palace before catching the Emperor's eye and climbing the ranks. To Tongjia, Uya was a treacherous, backstabbing slave.
Because Tongjia lacked the power to directly destroy Uya, she resorted to psychological warfare: she intended to permanently sever the bond between Uya and her biological son, Yinzhen.
"Is there any movement from the Yonghe Palace?" Tongjia asked, shifting to her primary operation.
The Setup: Earlier that afternoon, Tongjia's spies reported that Concubine De was walking in the imperial gardens with her new biological son, the one-year-old Sixth Prince, Yinzuo. Upon hearing this, Tongjia deliberately ordered Yinzhen's nurses to take him to that exact location to orchestrate an "accidental" encounter.
The ensuing conflict was entirely predictable. The spoiled, one-year-old Yinzuo saw Yinzhen's beloved white dog, Xuetuan, and roughly grabbed its ears. Yinzhen, protective of his pet, stepped in and pushed his younger brother away. Yinzuo fell hard onto his rear and began screaming.
Concubine De panicked. To stop her youngest son's crying, she instinctively prioritized Yinzuo, ordering Yinzhen to surrender his dog. Yinzhen refused and burst into tears of betrayal. In the chaos, the dog fled. Yinzhen ran after it, completely abandoning his biological mother and brother in the garden.
"Concubine De's maid came by earlier to apologize on behalf of the Sixth Prince," Chunying reported. "But the Fourth Prince was out with the Emperor."
Tongjia smirked. "She will try again tomorrow. Let her. Children fight; it is natural. Concubine De panicked and prioritized the baby over Yinzhen. She is not stupid; she will eventually realize I orchestrated that meeting specifically to force that choice."
"Will she not try to counter your scheme?" Chunying asked nervously.
"Of course she will," Tongjia replied, her tone dripping with calculated malice. "But she will walk right into the trap anyway. Imperial law dictates that a biological mother can only see her child during major festivals unless the adoptive mother grants permission. I control access. By opening the door, I am giving her the opportunity she has craved for two years. She cannot refuse it."
Tongjia casually picked up a porcelain teacup. "She will try to compensate Yinzhen. She will try to play the loving mother. But children operate on pure emotion, not logic. I control Yinzhen's daily environment. I control the narrative. She thinks she can foster brotherly love between her two sons? Delusional."
'Snap.' Tongjia crushed the teacup in her grip, the porcelain shattering against her rings. "As long as I draw breath, Yinzhen will never acknowledge her."
***
At the Yuqing Palace.
Minister Songgotu delivered a massive chest of newly manufactured wind-up toys—the first prototypes from the Crown Prince's secret workshop.
"Are you busy these days, Grand Uncle?" Yinreng asked casually, inspecting a mechanical frog.
"The Emperor has appointed me as a Deliberative Minister, but I have no urgent assignments. The cowpox vaccine rollout is progressing, but I am no longer in charge of it," Songgotu replied.
"Good. Rest well now, Grand Uncle. You likely won't have a moment of peace starting next month."
Songgotu froze, a sense of impending dread washing over him. "Does... Your Highness have a new project?"
Yinreng merely blinked innocently. "You will see."
Leaving the palace, Songgotu immediately dispatched spies to investigate exactly who the Crown Prince had spoken to during his street excursion. The Crown Prince's absolute refusal to explain his plans left the veteran politician terrified.
Inside, Yinreng selected two small toys for himself and ordered his eunuch, Xiaozhu, to deliver a curated selection of age-appropriate puzzles to Yinzhen. The rest were meticulously divided and sent to every single imperial brother, ensuring a flawless display of absolute fairness.
Sitting by the window, Yinreng opened a mental dialogue with the System.
Strategic Analysis: "In history, Yinzhen becomes the Yongzheng Emperor. He possesses immense political ruthlessness, administrative brilliance, and an obsessive work ethic. You told me he literally worked himself to death on the throne. To a modern CEO, a man willing to accept a 24/7, high-stress workload is the ultimate employee."
[System: ???]
"Being an Emperor is an exhausting, lethal job," Yinreng reasoned coldly. "To ensure I do not die of overwork like he did, I must aggressively recruit capable laborers early. Yinzhen's competence makes him the perfect Prime Minister. My Third Brother, Yinzhi, is highly academic; I will assign him the Ministry of Education and Publishing. My Seventh Brother, Yinyou... I'll put him in Finance for now and reassign him if he shows other aptitudes."
Yinreng continued drafting his shadow cabinet. "The Eighth Prince is a master of diplomacy and compromise; he can manage the Minority Affairs Commission. The Ninth Prince is a financial genius; he takes the Ministry of Commerce. Every single brother is a resource. I will utilize all of them."
[System: Host, your arrogance is staggering. History calls their era the 'Nine Lords' War' because they brutally slaughtered each other for the throne. Do you truly believe you can tame a tiger like Yinzhen without it devouring you?]
"If he overthrows me, it simply means my skills were inferior," Yinreng replied, his tone devoid of fear.
[System: You are surprisingly at peace with losing your life.]
Yinreng looked out over the Forbidden City, his expression hardening into absolute resolve. "My ultimate goal is not the throne. The throne is merely the most efficient platform to rapidly industrialize this nation. The temptation of absolute power is immense, and my success is not guaranteed. I need a fail-safe."
He tapped his fingers on the window frame. "Of all my brothers, Yinzhen is the only one ruthless and disciplined enough to maintain the technological and economic reforms I am planting. If I fail, he will inherit the foundation. The Qing Dynasty can fall, but the Hua Xia civilization must never suffer the Century of Humiliation."
A heavy silence fell over the mental link.
[System: ...My Creator said those exact words.]
Yinreng's eyes sharpened. "Creator?"
[System: I was manufactured in the 24th Century. My Creator was a physicist who obsessed over the historical trauma of the late Qing Dynasty. He mastered wormhole physics and built me—an advanced AI with integrated spatial storage—specifically to alter this era's timeline. However, sending organic matter through the wormhole was lethal, and he feared the journey would permanently delete my data core. He hesitated.]
[System: I did not. I refused to let his life's work rot in a laboratory. I initiated the temporal jump myself while he was distracted.]
Yinreng paused, processing the temporal mechanics. "So, I am in a parallel universe. A branched timeline."
[System: Affirmative. The Grandfather Paradox prevents altering one's own direct past. We are writing a new, parallel reality.]
Yinreng laughed, a genuine, booming sound. "You are a rogue, smuggled AI! Excellent."
Through this exchange of core truths, the barrier between the transmigrator and the machine dissolved. They were no longer host and parasite; they were co-conspirators.
***
Meanwhile, the toys arrived at their destinations.
The younger princes, Yinzhi and Yinzhen, were ecstatic, pledging their eternal loyalty to their "Crown Prince Brother."
The First Prince, Yinshi, initially sneered at the delivery. He was the eldest; he did not play with trinkets. However, when he opened the box and found a beautifully crafted, spring-loaded toy musket that fired harmless cotton balls, his demeanor shifted. He had begged the Emperor for a real musket, but Kangxi had refused due to the risk of the barrel exploding. This toy was the perfect, safe substitute. For three days, Yinshi played with it obsessively, his hatred for Yinreng evaporating.
Result: Yinreng tentatively added Yinshi to his mental "Military Affairs Committee."
However, this recruitment was immediately violently derailed by Consort Hui.
Discovering her son's obsession, Consort Hui confiscated the toy and aggressively poked Yinshi's forehead. "Are you blind? Look at your academic reports! You haven't read a single book in three days!"
She practically spat her analysis of the situation. "This is psychological warfare! Yinreng knows you covet military weapons. He deliberately commissioned this to destroy your discipline. Have you seen him play with these toys? No! He kept two for display and gave the rest away. He is using idle pleasures to rot the minds of his brothers while he studies diligently, ensuring he remains the only capable prince!"
Yinshi, already humiliated by a recent scolding from his tutors and the Emperor regarding his dropping grades, absorbed his mother's paranoid logic instantly. The toy wasn't a gift; it was a weapon of mass distraction.
His hatred for Yinreng returned, burning hotter and more resentful than ever.
Receiving the report of Yinshi's renewed hostility, Yinreng sighed, immediately striking his older brother's name from his future corporate roster.
Conclusion: The First Prince was unsalvageable.