The road to the seat was not so smooth, so in this short life of hers, there were quite a few people like Yan Lin.
For example, Xiao Dingfei, the Assistant Minister from the Ministry of Civil Service.
For example, the Commander of the Imperial Guards, Zhou Yinzhi.
Even Shen Zhiyi, the Eldest Princess of Le Yang who perished in the Barbarians Tribe later…
It’s just that, no one had thought that the teenager from the past would make a comeback. After the victory at the border, Yan Lin casted himself to Xie Wei, and under the banner of “cleaning up the ‘evil’ ministers by the Emperor’s side”, he returned in armor, led the army to encircle the capital, controlled the entire Forbidden City, and put her in confinement.
Shen Jie was poisoned, bedridden with a lingering illness, and ignored the political situation and power in the imperial government.
He went in and out of her palace grandiosely. When he came, he always ordered the palace people to withdraw, and sometimes with a drowsy alcohol in him…
Whether it was inside or outside the court, no one dared to say anything.
Everyone knows that he is Xie Wei's right arm.
When Xie Wei slaughtered half of the palace, it was him who led the soldiers to guard the gates of the palace to prevent anyone from escaping. When Xie Wei confiscated the Xiao clan's properties and executed the nine generations of the Xiao family, it was him who led the people to break open the tightly closed door of the Manor and catch the men and women, old and young…
Now, he and Xie Wei, the former Imperial Teacher, are standing outside of her palace.
Shen Jie has already died, leaving an imperial edict ordering her to administer the state from ‘behind the veil’.
However, the crown prince who came from the imperial clan that has yet to ascend the throne, was beheaded on his way to the capital by the uprising rebellion party from the Heavenly Sect, and his head was hung on the city gate.
Now, it’s her turn.
Jiang Xuening blinked gently. Her thick and curly eyelashes cast a faint shadow under her eyelids, which made her look a bit desolate with the unpredictable changing in the world at the moment.
You Fangyin looked at her with some disappointment.
However, she had put down the incense chopstick, covered the incense burner, took the big square brocade box on the table and opened it. Inside, there was the Imperial Jade Seal to hand down the state’s power, and a letter that she had written and sealed two hour ago.
Inside the Empress's decree, she wrote that she volunteered to be buried alive with the former Emperor and asked the Crown Prince’s Grand Tutor, Xie Wei, to support the country, assist the government in handling affairs, and select a virtuous monarch to succeed the throne.
Jiang Xuening suddenly raised her head and looked out of the window.
At some point, the snow that had been falling all night long, had stopped.
The dazzling sunlight came out of the dark clouds, and fell into the windows of the gloomy palace, casting a bright light down.
She murmured: "If I had known that the ending would be like today, why did I have to anxiously bother with all the efforts from one place to another? It's better to travel thousands of miles, to see the rivers and mountains, and become the free bird that I have always dreamed about. In this life, it's a mistake to enter the palace wall in the end. It’s just a cocoon of prosperity.... "
You Fangyin was silent without any word.
Jiang Xuening then asked: "Fangyin, if you were given a choice, would you still do it again?"
You Fangyin is the strangest one among everyone that Jiang Xuening has ever known.
She was originally the shu[1] daughter from a Count Mansion. Clumsy and pitiful. One day, she fell into the water and suddenly had a great change of temperament afterwards. From then on, she became the focus of public attention, engaged in trades and got rich. She issued a bill and established a Chamber of Commerce. In just a few short years, she became a leading merchant in Jiangning Prefecture.
It is not even an exaggeration to call her ‘You Half-A-City’[2].
It's just that she was unlucky. In the court battle between the monarch and his officials, she first stood in the wrong line. Although she later defected to Xie Wei, she was also being guarded against these days and was put into confinement in this palace.
They were both in a miserable situation together, but they became a confidant that told one another everything instead.
Jiang Xuening heard her talk about her experience of starting from scratch, and many of them were novel. Also heard her complained that when she had visited foreign countries during her business trips, even a steam engine had never appeared.
[1] shu : children born from a concubine.
[2] ‘You’ is her surname, and her wealth is ‘half-a-city’.
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