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There's a body in front of him.
The blue-tinted blood shines almost black on the ice-covered floor. (Why did he design the whole place to be covered in ice!? Why not marble? Or Eternal Frost Glacier Concrete!? No one would slip on concrete and die from falling on a sharp corner of the column and- oh gods that's a dead body-)
The prone body of Linguang-jun is ever so still in front of him. Blood pooling across the so so slippery floor that never should have caused an ice demon to slip and bash his skull on a corner of a column. (Cucumber-bro, may his soul never find him in this life, would have written him a 10-page-long essay in the comments for the sheer audacity of such a thing happening.)
Ice demons might not usually slide on ice like this, but it sure seems like Three-Headed Red Spotted Snow Panther leather boots do.
This wasn't supposed to happen. They're still over a decade away from the start of the plot. Luo Binghe isn't even 5 years old yet! He was adopted by the Old Washer Woman less than a year ago! (Song Li. Her name was Song Li. Though she changed it to Luo Li after adopting Binghe. It never made it past his drafts, but he can't bring himself to call her 'The Old Washer Woman' in this life where everyone is so alive and not just characters on the screen-)
Alive. Alive like Linguang-jun isn't. It is over a decade before the plot starts, and he has achieved something that never occurred in PIDW at the point of his death and the subsequent transmigration that followed it.
His King! How will he explain this to His King!? How will he explain getting his (at this point, still hated but not as loathed) uncle dead? He almost expects the System to pop up and deal him a major point loss for the plot change, but Shang Qinghua stopped expecting such things after the first time It said he could kill His King for not being important enough to the plot to keep him alive. (His King! Luo Binghe's right-hand man! His most favored creation in this whole universe they're in! Not important, like such a thing could ever be possible!)
This wasn't supposed to happen! Linguang-jun wasn't even supposed to be here! He was supposed to be at his own Ice Palace on the other side of the Northern Wastes Under the Mountain (okay, even he agrees that was a bad name)! He definitely wasn't supposed to be at the Ice Palace or even know of "my dear nephew's scheming human pet". Which, first of all, rude! He's not Mobei Jun's pet! He's- well, alright, not really an advisor either; but he's at least earned the title of Informant if nothing else!
Either way, he wasn't supposed to find out about Shang Qinghua working for Mobei Jun until two years from now! So why. was. he. here???? And trying to kill him at that! Not even a decent "betray my foolish nephew, and I'll let you live!" speech a level 40IQ villain like him would have! Though he supposes his original draft version of Linguang-jun was a much more competent person than that. Which makes his sudden death all the more astounding.
Who even slips and falls to their death anyway!? Oh gods (Binghe's future heavenly sisters wives or whoever the System manifested here), he really is dead. Wait. Is he? Should he check???? He's going to have to check, won't he?
Shang Qinghua slowly creeps forward, making sure not to step into the, by now thrice as big, puddle of blood surrounding Linguang-jun. He uses the tip of his boot to give him a little nudge before quickly backing away in case it turns out he isn't dead after all.
This proves to be unnecessary since the body barely moves from his nudge (cultivator strength or not, Linguang-jun certainly couldn't be described as small for an ice demon) and stays in place after.
So. He just killed His King's uncle. That was a thing that happened, and will have consequences that he will have to deal with. That's just... great. Wonderful. At least the System isn't here to issue him a-
[CONGRATULATIONS! CONGRATULATIONS! CONGRATULATIONS! Important things must be said three times!]
Shang Qinghua gives a long sigh and mentally berates himself for falling right into the trope. Cucuber-bro must be laughing his ass off somewhere back in Shanghai or wherever his keyboard-warrior self resides.
[User_1 has unlocked a Secret Route "Long Live the King!"]
"Long Live the King"??? He may have spent the past two decades here, but he still remembers the plot of The Lion King, and that line is about an uncle killing a king, not being killed! Hey System, what's with that name, aah??
[New mission "Queen of the North: The Trial of the Frozen Heart!" is available. Accept? [Yes.] [Yes.] ]
"Queen of the North"? Mobei Jun's mom? What does she have to do with this? Shang Qinghua doesn't remember any plot points like that. In fact, he never wrote anything about the woman besides the whole bride-napping business, making Liguang-jun turn to fratricide and nepocite. And what's with those options! System-dada, you never gave him an option to refuse!
[This System will take that as a Yes! Mission "Queen of the North: The Trial of the Frozen Heart!" start! This System wishes User_1 all the luck with this endeavor! You can you up, No can no BB!]
And with that, the System window closes before his eyes.
System! System-dada, come back and explain yourself! What is this mission about? What trial? Just how is it connected to the (well, actually no, not cooling, ice demons are already cool so... warming? heating?) corpse of Linguang-jun!?
Before can continue asking the (oh so conveniently missing) System more questions, the sound of a heavy door on the other end of the hallway interrupts his attempt at summoning the entity.
Shang Qinghua, still standing next to the prone body of Linguang-jun, looks up and right into the shocked gaze of Mobei-jun, whose eyes are trained on said corpse beneath his feet.
Well, fu-