Emperor Longxing died unexpectedly. Afterward, he was stripped of his imperial title and demoted to a commoner for ten major transgressions, including filial piety and rebelliousness. The Empress Dowager issued an edict acknowledging her guilt in failing to properly educate her son. For the sake of the Great Zhou’s stability, neither the ten major transgressions nor the self-blame edict mentioned the Emperor’s crime of betraying the country. However, the families of the Tianwei Army were released, as were the protesting scholars, and all were rewarded. Only Emperor Longxing, whom they had opposed, was dead. Thus, right and wrong became clear to all.

Though official histories did not mention it, unofficial histories and poetry made veiled references to it, essentially announcing Emperor Longxing’s crimes to the world. For thousands of years to come, Emperor Longxing would bear eternal infamy.

Emperor Longxing had no sons, leaving the throne vacant. Various princes began to stir with ambition. Some even went so far as to criticize the Empress Dowager for failing to educate her son properly, claiming she was unfit to be Empress Dowager. However, Right Deputy Director of the Department of State Affairs Cui Songqing and Deputy Chief Justice of the Dali Temple Lu Huai openly supported the Empress Dowager. With lightning speed and an iron hand, she placed a young member of the imperial clan on the throne, known in history as the Young Emperor. The situation was quickly stabilized, and with the imperial position settled, the princes could only sigh with regret.

Although the common people were angered by Emperor Longxing’s actions, they admired and marveled at the Empress Dowager’s willingness to sacrifice her son for righteousness. Moreover, under her governance for many years, the people’s lives had gradually improved, and even farmers’ sons could become officials through the imperial examinations. With a new emperor, no one knew what would happen. Therefore, the people had few objections to this decision, and Chang’an temporarily returned to peace.

Everyone returned to normal life, including Cui Xun, who had been imprisoned in the Dali Temple jail.

This imprisonment had almost destroyed Cui Xun’s health completely. After his release, he was emaciated, his illness was difficult to recover from.

Though the mute servant had surrendered to the Turks, he had eventually repented and gone to the palace to clarify the truth for Cui Xun, proving himself to be a loyal and righteous person after all. After deliberation by the Three Judicial Offices, he was sentenced to death by hanging, with his family exempted from punishment. For the mute servant, death was already a form of release.

After the mute servant’s death, the Cui residence was empty with no one to look after it. Yu Fuwei sent two tight-lipped Kunlun slaves to take care of Cui Xun. Cui Songqing also came to see Cui Xun once. This old man, who had been so fixated on the new policies and had ignored the grievances of the dead, finally began to reflect on his actions. He had once told the Empress Dowager that his only wish in life was for good governance and peace. But if the grievances of soldiers and common people could not be redressed, how could the Great Zhou achieve good governance and peace?

At Cui Xun’s sickbed, he remained silent for a long time before finally saying, “Your name has been added back to the Cui clan genealogy.”

As a young man, Cui Xun had once taken great pride in the name “Cui of Boling,” but after experiencing so many storms, the grown Cui Xun had long since let go of his attachment to this name. He just shook his head and said softly, “Whether it’s added or not, I am still me.”

A person’s character is not determined by their birth, but by what they have done.

Cui Songqing was silent for a while longer, then said, “Your father wants to see you.”

Cui Xun still shook his head: “I don’t want to see him.”

“All four of your brothers have been killed. He is in a very bad state.”

Cui Xun naturally knew who had killed his brothers. Cui Songqing said his father and stepmother were in tears every day. Cui Songqing paused, then continued, “When your mother was gravely ill, your father swore before her that even if he remarried, he would treat you well, or else he would face retribution. Now it seems the retribution has come. Your father regrets everything deeply. He hopes you can forgive him and move back home.”

Cui Xun coughed twice, his pale face completely devoid of color. He looked up at Cui Songqing and smiled slightly: “I will not forgive him.”

“Wangshu…”

“I, Cui Xun, have always been someone who holds grudges,” Cui Xun said. “I am not a gentleman who forgets past grievances.”

Cui Songqing was stunned. He smiled bitterly: “If I hadn’t protected you when you were young, I fear you wouldn’t even want to see me today.”

Cui Xun looked at him and nodded.

Cui Songqing immediately felt a mixture of shame and embarrassment. After a long silence, he finally sighed deeply: “For what happened before, your uncle was wrong. Your uncle… is sorry for you.”

He probably recalled his previous instances of contempt and insult toward Cui Xun, as well as how he had ignored the suffering of Sheng Yunting and the Tianwei Army for the sake of the new policies. Both he and Lu Yumin had claimed everything was for the people, but in the end, they were the ones who had abandoned the people. Instead, it was Cui Xun, the sycophant they despised, who had sought justice for the people of the six provinces.

Cui Songqing finally admitted his mistake in front of his nephew he had despised. In the end, he said dejectedly, “Wangshu, you are a descendant of the Cui clan of Boling. Your uncle cannot compare to you.”

Uncle and nephew faced each other in silence. He could only leave dejectedly. As he crossed the threshold, Cui Xun suddenly called out to him. Cui Xun said calmly, “Uncle, the new policies and the welfare of the people will still need your attention in the future.”

For a moment, Cui Songqing felt a flood of emotions. He looked at Cui Xun, nodded silently, and then turned to leave.

After Cui Songqing left, Li Ying, who had been staying by the window, came forward and sat at Cui Xun’s bedside.

Li Ying had forcibly manifested her form before the Empress Dowager, which had injured her even more severely than when she had appeared to Wang Ranxi. If not for the Buddha’s crown relic protecting her spiritual core, she might have faced complete spiritual dissolution.

Even so, Li Ying had suffered severe damage to her vital energy. She could no longer walk during the day and could only appear at night or stay indoors. She gently took Cui Xun’s silk-wrapped fingers: “Let me change your bandages.”

Cui Xun nodded. Li Ying unwrapped the silk. Those once beautiful hands now had deformed joints, twisted in an extremely ugly manner. These hands could never return to their former state. Cui Xun stared at his fingers and smiled: “Not good-looking anymore.”

“No, they’re very good-looking,” Li Ying carefully applied medicine to his swollen fingers. “They’re the most beautiful hands in my heart.”

After applying the medicine, she carefully wrapped the wounds with clean silk. This time she wrapped them a bit thick, making it impossible for the fingers to bend. Cui Xun said helplessly: “How can I drink medicine like this?”

“I’ll feed you,” Li Ying said naturally. “Haven’t I been feeding you since you left the Dali Temple?”

Cui Xun smiled and took the initiative to draw Li Ying into his arms. Li Ying leaned against him and used her hand to measure his back: “You’ve lost more weight.”

He had grown so thin that his shoulder blades protruded, making him as fragile as a vanishing sick crane. His complexion was an extremely sickly pale, and the dozen or so bowls of medicinal soup he drank daily had barely improved his condition.

Previously, the Hermit of Lingxu Mountain had said he had no more than ten years to live, and if he took harsh medicines, at most five years. But now, after enduring this torture, Li Ying dared not think about how much longer he could live.

She raised her head in his embrace, her eyes moist, and kissed his lips. Cui Xun responded to her kiss. The two gently touched each other’s lips. This kiss was neither passionate nor did it involve deeper contact; it simply conveyed the purest tenderness and affection for each other, intertwining gently.

When the kiss ended, Cui Xun lightly kissed Li Ying’s eyes and said, “The Empress Dowager has returned the lotus sachet to me.”

It had been delivered through Lu Huai, who also represented the Empress Dowager’s recognition of him.

Besides this, the Empress Dowager had sent imperial physicians to treat him and bestowed countless precious medicinal materials. Li Ying wrapped a strand of his black hair around her finger as she lay in his arms and said, “Mother didn’t like you before, but now, she must have changed her opinion of you.”

“She had Lu Huai tell me to take good care of the owner of the lotus sachet.”

Li Ying sighed helplessly. She pointed at the white silk bandages wrapped all over his body: “In your condition, who can you take care of?”

Cui Xun coughed twice and smiled slightly: “A mother will always favor her daughter.”

The Empress Dowager had never been interested in Taoist arts or kept Taoist priests or magicians, but now she was searching throughout the country for experts, presumably to see Li Ying again.

But Li Ying said, “I won’t be able to see Mother again in the future.”

Even without manifesting physically, like when she had met her at the Famen Temple pagoda before, it would be impossible now.

Cui Xun asked, “Why?”

“Mother has the dragon aura now.”

The dragon aura was something only emperors possessed, and with the dragon aura protecting them, ghosts could not approach.

This was also why Li Ying had been especially severely injured this time.

Li Ying’s face was also terribly pale. She lay weakly in Cui Xun’s arms and said softly, “Perhaps soon, Mother will force the young Emperor to abdicate and take the throne herself.”

After this incident, the Empress Dowager had probably realized that having the throne in someone else’s hands was never as reliable as having it in her own. She didn’t want to experience a second Emperor Longxing—someone who would fight her for power at the cost of territory and people’s lives, leading to corpses strewn everywhere, rivers of blood, and a court in complete chaos.

Emperor Longxing had been able to contend with her for power and gain the wholehearted loyalty of people like Lu Yumin simply because he had the title of Emperor. In people’s minds, it was natural for the Emperor to hold absolute power and for the Empress Dowager to retire to the inner palace; otherwise, it would be like a hen crowing like a rooster, overstepping her bounds.

Since the title of Emperor was so useful, why not become the Emperor herself? Using the pretext of a mandate from Heaven to establish an era of her own.

However, since the founding of the Great Zhou, there had never been a female emperor. The path to the throne would inevitably be fraught with obstacles.

Cui Xun was surprised for a moment, but his expression quickly returned to calm. He said, “Your mother can do it.”

A merchant’s daughter who once couldn’t even afford shoes had become the supreme Empress Dowager, commanding the obedience of civil and military officials alike. She had also been able to steel her heart and kill her son, who had betrayed the country. With her strategy, methods, cunning, and righteousness, she certainly could transform from Empress Dowager to the first female emperor in history.

But before becoming a female emperor, the Empress Dowager still needed to accumulate unparalleled achievements to make the common people worship her and leave even the most conservative scholars speechless.

What constituted unparalleled achievements? The implementation of new policies was certainly one, but these achievements might only become apparent thirty or fifty years later. The quickest way to make unparalleled achievements resonate with the people was to recover lost territory, uphold the Great Zhou’s national prestige, drive the barbarians beyond the Yin Mountains so they would no longer have the power to invade southward, and ensure peace in the Central Plains for a hundred years.

Cui Xun had a fit of violent coughing, his face showing a slightly sickly flush. He murmured, “Mingyue Pearl, your mother is going to wage war against the Turks.”