Return of Black Lotus system:Taming Cheating Male Leads

Chapter 429: Chapter-429

"You guys don’t even know him perfectly," Heena muttered silently to the empty, quiet room.

With that final, heavy thought, she flopped back onto the plush silk mattress, closed her eyes, and let exhaustion claim her.

When she opened her eyes again some twenty to thirty minutes later, the heavy haze of her nap had cleared just enough for her to perceive her surroundings. She looked down to her side and found the little holographic lion curled up right next to her on the pillow. This damn little brat.

Heena raised her hand, her fingers gently patting the soft, glowing fur on the lion’s head. As she stroked its digital face, a sudden, fleeting memory flashed before her eyes—a hazy vision of a completely different face from her past, sporting a sharp, mischievous, cat-like smile.

The memory vanished as quickly as it came. Heena looked back down at the sleeping lion and let out a quiet, complicated sigh.

Suddenly, the little lion straightened up, sitting right up on the bed. It let out a tiny, overly dramatic yawn, stretching its digital arms wide as if it had just opened its eyes for the first time all day.

Heena didn’t buy the act for a single second. She raised a finger and sharply flicked the brat right on its head.

’Snap!’

The System immediately tumbled backward, rubbing its forehead with its tiny paws as it whined loudly. "What type of behavior is this?! People don’t even beat a sleeping dog, Host!"

Heena rolled her eyes, propping herself up on her elbow. "Well, first of all, you are a digital entity, not a living being, so you cannot be compared to a dog. And secondly, you absolute idiot, I know you have been awake this entire time. So shut up and tell me why you’re creeping around sleeping beside me."

The System’s dramatic whining instantly deflated. It didn’t offer a witty comeback. Instead, its glowing eyes turned deeply downcast, staring miserably at the silk sheets.

Slowly, the little lion flopped forward, crawling directly into Heena’s arms. It lowered its head, nuzzling against her chest as it buried its face in the folds of her robes.

"Am I really that bad...?" the System whispered, its mechanical voice sounding incredibly small, muffled, and thick with genuine distress. "Did I make a really huge mistake? Is your life really going to be in danger because of me?"

It had clearly overheard every single word of Laila’s harsh warning through the thin wooden door.

Heena stared down at the trembling little ball of code. She let out a long sigh, her hand automatically coming down to gently pat its head to soothe its panic. But then, her fingers drifted lower, gently pinching the tip of the lion’s fuzzy ear.

"Do you honestly think I don’t know exactly why you did it, huh?" Heena asked, her voice dropping into a dangerous, knowing purr as she gave the ear a sharp tug.

"Ow! Ow!" the System squeaked.

"You wrote that administrative ticket word-for-word because I was complaining about your formatting and threatening to withhold your cut of the points, didn’t you?" Heena smirked, mercilessly pulling the ear. "You thought you were being a clever, stubborn little bastard to get back at me, and now you think you can just act pitiful so I’ll let you off the hook? You dumb bastard."

"Host! Let go! It’s going to tear off! My code will glitch!" the System screamed, flailing its tiny paws wildly in her grip.

Heena let go with a sharp chuckle, flicking its nose one last time for good measure.

"Don’t worry, I won’t delete you," Heena promised, leaning back against her pillows with a cold, thoroughly amused glint in her eyes. "But you made a massive mess of my reputation back at headquarters, and you permanently locked us in a world with a rogue Regressor. The mistake you made is huge, you absolute idiot... and you are going to spend every single second of this mission paying it off."

The System sniffled, wiping its digital nose with a fuzzy paw, and quickly scrambled to its feet on the mattress. It looked incredibly determined, its glowing tail puffing up with newfound energy.

"I-I will pay it off!" the little lion declared, aggressively nodding its head. "I will work twenty-four hours a day without any battery-saving mode! Host, look! I am already scanning the estate’s structural network! I will monitor the Regressor’s global coordinates perfectly!"

Heena couldn’t help but chuckle at the sudden burst of motivation. "Good. Keep that exact same energy when we have to hunt down a time-traveler with zero corporate backup."

Before the System could boast any further, a soft, incredibly polite knock echoed from the heavy wooden doors of her chamber. The little lion instantly vanished into thin air, retreating back into Heena’s mental space to act as her invisible radar.

"Come in," Heena called out, leaning back against her pillows.

The door pushed open silently, and the towering figure of Samuel stepped into the room. He had already put his wooden cat mask back on, reverting fully to his role as the loyal, unyielding shadow guard. But the moment his dark eyes found Heena sitting up in bed, his rigid posture instantly softened. He closed the door behind him with meticulous care, ensuring it didn’t make a single sound.

In his massive hands, he was carefully balancing a delicate, steaming porcelain bowl. The contrast between his scarred, lethal hands and the fragile china was almost comical.

"Young Miss," Samuel rumbled softly, his deep voice carrying a trace of lingering anxiety as he approached the bedside. He dropped to one knee, lowering the tray so she could see it. "The Grand Madam personally ordered the kitchens to brew this medicinal tonic for your nausea. She stated that if you do not drink every single drop, she will personally come here and feed it to you herself."

Heena stared at the dark, steaming liquid and felt an immediate wave of phantom bitterness on her tongue. Her grandmother’s love was truly terrifyingly aggressive.

"And what about Grandfather?" Heena asked, leaning forward to take the bowl. "Did he finish his... spring cleaning?"

Behind his mask, a dark, thoroughly satisfied smirk played on Samuel’s lips. "The Old Marquis was exceptionally thorough, My Lady. The Fourth Groom, Soram, has had his cultivation veins temporarily sealed and has been dragged out to the eastern stables to work as a lowly manual laborer. As for the Marquis..."

Samuel paused, his eyes gleaming with a chilly light.

"Your father has been stripped of all financial and administrative authority over the estate. He is currently kneeling in the cold Ancestral Hall under the direct supervision of the Grand Madam’s personal elite guards. He is required to write a five-thousand-word essay on familial propriety by dawn."

Heena nearly choked on her first sip of the bitter tonic. She burst into a sudden, bright laugh, clutching her stomach. A five-thousand-word essay! Her grandmother really was a woman of culture and extreme literary vengeance. First the three-thousand-word essay to get the Grandfather back into the family, and now this. The Marquis was probably crying tears of blood onto his inkstone right now.

"Excellent," Heena smiled, her dark eyes flashing with a cold, vindictive pleasure. "Let him write until his fingers bleed. It’s much better than what he deserves."