Ren Kun, Qi Yuchun, Zhuang Xiaocheng... all thrown away by you one by one... and yet you still shalessly claim you were forced to do this?
Xu Zhenguan laughed, a cold laugh, a desolate laugh, a sorrowful laugh:
"Xu Jianwen, you once had countless ways out, but you never chose them. And now you tell you had no choice, isn’t that laughable?"
Good!
Zhao Douan wanted to applaud as he listened, his worries dissipated. After the two years of the Eight Princes’ Rebellion, the Empress had undergone monuntal changes.
Now, she finally seed more like a capable ruler.
...
Silence.
The study room was engulfed in silence.
Xu Jianwen seed speechless for a mont before he finally laughed, his laugh was calm, very... complicated.
Xu Jianwen looked up, gazing at the Empress, trying to overlap the woman before him with the mory of that extraordinarily talented but overly family-concerned sister...
But he failed.
He smiled and said, "Looks like the little girl who used to cry behind and the Crown Prince has grown up."
He paused, let out a deep sigh, and the "anger" and "grievance" he had just feigned dissipated from his eyes, and Xu Jianwen finally lowered his head:
"I lost."
At this mont, facing the cold-blooded Empress, he finally gave up the last shred of luck in his heart.
Then...
He raised his head again and asked very seriously:
"Your guesses are excellent, but I’m still curious, how did you determine I was deceiving you? Just because of these guesses? Or perhaps..."
He turned and glanced at Zhao Douan and said mockingly:
"Is it because of this gigolo whispering in your ear?"
Zhao Douan was displeased, swung his fist, and Xu Jianwen stopped speaking.
Xu Zhenguan shook his head and said indifferently:
"Because of Master Gu Huo.
Although the demon path is called ’Gu Huo,’ his Chang God thods never confuse people out of thin air, but rather sees the desires within and then offers slanderous advice.
So since Gu Huo was by your side, it shows he saw through your desire for power."
After a brief pause, the Empress suddenly said:
"In fact, among all Father’s descendants, you are the one most like him, cold, selfish, greedy for power."
Xu Jianwen did not refute, just closed his eyes:
"I see... I understand. Do you have any more questions? Ask them all."
So cooperative?
Zhao Douan was surprised but then slightly understood:
Soone like Xu Jianwen doesn’t give up until the end, but once he realizes he has truly lost completely, he becos particularly relieved.
The Empress thought for a mont and asked:
"I wonder, if I kill you, will you resurrect?"
Zhao Douan glanced at her in surprise, thinking if Zhenbao had gotten smarter?
He almost overlooked this himself.
Master Gu Huo has resurrected several tis, so if Xu Jianwen dies... wouldn’t it be like letting a tiger go back to the mountain?
Xu Jianwen shook his head with a smile:
"My resurrection was achieved by Gu Huo inviting the Netherworld Sect’s people at a great cost, and it worked only once.
Not just , but the Chang God believers of Gu Huo’s lineage spent almost all their accumulated resources over generations, and he probably has only one life left too. But as for , you might as well not believe it."
The Empress did not comnt, asking once more:
"One more question, how did you learn so many Royal Family secrets? Who told you?"
Xu Jianwen smiled:
"You have a woman to assist you, and I have a woman to assist ."
Queen Wen?
No, that’s not right... but other than her, which woman does Xu Jianwen have?
Zhao Douan was taken aback and perked up his little ears eager for gossip.
Subsequently, he and the Empress heard a na.
...
...
Jizhao Temple.
As the only nunnery in the Capital, this place had always been quiet. When Divine Dragon Temple was flourishing, people rarely passed by this side.
Whether high officials or noble ladies or the nuns inside the nunnery, they habitually avoided rumors.
Even if the forr owner here was the indiscreet, indulgent Bodhisattva.
After the fall of Divine Dragon Temple, this area beca increasingly desolate, and people passing occasionally from the city would avoid it, fearing being misunderstood by the hidden "Imperial Court Yama" as coming to summon spirits for Divine Dragon Temple.
But today, Jizhao Temple was uncommonly noisy.
Inside the tightly closed doors, outside the ditation room, nuns chattered noisily, all in disarray, most scurrying about like ants on a hot griddle.
A few carried basins filled with hot water, scissors, bloodstained silk cloths, and other items, going in and out...
From inside the ditation room ca the frequent screams of a woman in pain.
"If this really doesn’t work, let’s go find a midwife." A young nun couldn’t resist saying.
The nun beside her imdiately interrupted:
"What are you thinking? Dare I invite them; would they dare to co? And to have a child in the nunnery, let alone the Eldest Princess... If this gets out, do you all want to die?!"
The young nuns were too frightened to speak.
"But..." A young nun clenched her fists, looking panicked at the diminishing cries from the ditation room, her face mournful:
"If soone dies... we won’t survive either, right?"
After several months of pregnancy, Princess Yunyang has finally reached childbirth today.
But what experience do a group of nuns have in delivering a baby?
They could only rush and panic, flipping through dical books within the temple, following instructions, while a few daring ones assisted with the delivery.
Yet, more than an hour has passed, and the child still hasn’t been born.
"Wah—"
Suddenly, alongside a piercing shriek from Princess Yunyang, the ditation room erupted with a child’s wailing!
An elderly nun excitedly ran out, her face flushed:
"It’s born! It’s born!"
A large group of nuns all breathed a long sigh of relief, with so even collapsing onto the ground, as if they themselves had given birth.
Shortly after.
With arrangents made, the nuns waiting outside were finally permitted to enter the ditation room.
Despite being cleaned up, the room was still ssy and untidy, with Eldest Princess Yunyang lying on the bed.
She was draped in loose monk robes, her cloud-like black hair scattered ssily, her face weak and pale, strands of hair sticking wetly to her forehead, appearing completely drained of energy.
Wrapped in blankets, there was a small bundle beside her, containing a closed-eyed, wrinkled baby.
The newborn hadn’t reached the feeding stage yet and seed to have exhausted much strength striving to be free from its mother, now sleeping peacefully.
Yunyang gazed vacantly at the beam of the ditation room, lost in thought.
A group of nuns stood at the door holding their breath, the scene extraordinarily bizarre.
"Bang!"
Suddenly, knocking sounds erupted from outside Jizhao Temple’s main gate.
Breaking the silence.
Monts later, a group of imperial guards barged in, loudly announcing:
"Summoning Princess Yunyang to the palace!"
The elderly nun leading them was shocked, thinking, had news of the childbirth spread? Was His Majesty so prescient?
No... wasn’t His Majesty on an expedition west?
The nun barely had ti to think, hastily waving her hand:
"No, no, the Eldest Princess has just given birth, she’s presently weak..."
The imperial guards were montarily taken aback, looking at each other, before expressionlessly, with a swift sound, drawing their swords:
"Mr. Zhao has decreed, even if knives fall from the sky, you must take her!"
The nuns shivered in fear.
At this mont, Yunyang weakly supported herself at the ditation room’s doorfra, her gaze calm:
"I’ll go with you."
...
The imperial guards ultimately took into account Yunyang’s royal status and went through the trouble arranging a sedan chair.
Carrying post-childbirth Yunyang, they moved into the palace.
Within the sedan chair.
Yunyang, draped in monk robes, holding the swaddled infant, gazed expressionlessly through the sedan chair’s "window," looking at the Capital at springti noon.
Confined for over a year, she had thought she would be as joyful as a bird freed from its cage when released, yet her heart remained unmoved.
Passing through Vermilion Bird Street, entering the Imperial City gates, then passing through the palace city gates.
When Yunyang, holding her child, was led by several female officials to the Imperial Study Room door, her forehead was already drenched in sweat.
Exhausted and depleted post-delivery, she forced herself to walk here, ultimately feeling sowhat weak.
However, Yunyang firmly bit her lip, her gaze coldly pushing open the study room’s door panels.
"Creak—"
Sunlight stread into the room behind her, allowing her to see the Empress dressed in white, sitting behind the imperial desk.
Seeing her enemy Zhao Douan, sitting nonchalantly beside the Empress, flipping through docunts.
Then...
Yunyang saw Xu Jianwen powerlessly slumped on the ground, cross-legged like a monk, facing the door.
Yunyang trembled all over, as if seeing a ghost!
Cried out in surprise!
Xu Jianwen opened his eyes, unexpectedly gazing at the bundle she held, then smiling calmly:
"Aunt."
The next mont, the stunned Princess Yunyang dashed forward impulsively, rushing to Xu Jianwen, locking her eyes on that familiar face.
"Smack!"
Yunyang suddenly delivered a sharp slap across Xu Jianwen’s face, tears streaming down her cheeks.
——
ps: This storyline finally ca around...
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