The Empress Dowager forcibly issued the dowager edict.

The Imperial Study instantly quieted down.

The Empress quietly pondered—could it be that the Yun family still had some hidden power she didn’t know about? Otherwise, why would the Empress Dowager争 endlessly争 争 for this?

Consort Yin silently shook her head.

They all said that beautiful women brought calamity. Today she had finally witnessed it. It must be that Chu Rui had taken a fancy to Yun Chu and had the Empress Dowager come to force the marriage.

First there was the Empress’s natal nephew proposing marriage, then the Empress Dowager came to force marriage. When a woman was too beautiful, it wouldn’t do either—the marriage matter was completely beyond her own control.

Truly pitiful, lamentable, and deplorable.

In the midst of this silence, Yun Chu directly knelt on the ground: “This guilty subject would never dare accept the decree. Please ask the Empress Dowager to impose punishment!”

The Empress Dowager flew into a rage: “Lady Yun, you actually dare defy the decree!”

“Please ask the Empress Dowager to impose punishment!”

Yun Chu prostrated herself on the ground.

Living life over again, if she still had to let others control where she went, then she might as well be dead.

Whatever punishment, she would accept.

The Empress Dowager’s chest heaved violently with anger.

This woman was willing to marry into Prince Pingxi’s estate, yet would rather defy the decree than refuse to marry Rui’er. Wasn’t it because Rui’er was currently not a prince and had no power…

Such a woman who loved power and influence fundamentally wasn’t worthy of Rui’er.

Rui’er was truly blind to have taken a fancy to such a woman!

“Your father Yun Silin’s crime of colluding with the enemy and betraying the nation is established. It’s because the Emperor considers the Yun family’s merits that he has never had the Court of Judicial Review announce the case. You wouldn’t think the Yun family is still the Yun family of before, would you?” The Empress Dowager looked down at Yun Chu from above. “Without the Yun family as your backing, what do you have to defy this dowager’s edict?”

As she spoke, she raised her foot, pressing her toe against Yun Chu’s shoulder and kicking Yun Chu forward.

Before the Empress Dowager applied force, Yun Chu had already followed the momentum to fall backward, then sat sprawled on the ground. She wasn’t hurt in the slightest, but her face showed just the right amount of fear and unease.

The Emperor’s brow and eyes were somber.

He gave Eunuch Gao a look.

Eunuch Gao had served the Emperor for over forty years and immediately understood what this look meant.

It was telling him to immediately go invite those officials from the Censorate over, to let those officials personally witness how the Empress Dowager forced marriage, to write it in the history books.

Whether the marriage succeeded or not, what the Emperor wanted was to ruin the reputation of the Empress Dowager and Chu Rui…

“Yun Chu, with the Yun family having become like this now, if you’re a smart person, you should know how fortunate it is to be able to marry Rui’er.” The Empress Dowager spoke word by word. “Of course, if you insist on defying the decree, this dowager won’t force you to nod, but you’ll have to carefully weigh whether you can bear the consequences.”

Consort Yin’s eyelid twitched.

For those who defied decrees, the only outcome was a death sentence.

Yi’er defied a decree and escaped disaster because Yi’er was the Emperor’s own son. Which father would execute his son because the son was disobedient?

But Yun Chu was nothing.

“The Yun family men all died in battle on the battlefield. If a Yun family woman dies miserably in the palace for defying a decree, if word spreads…” The Empress’s face was full of worry. “The common people in the streets are likely to gossip about the Empress Dowager.”

The Emperor raised an eyebrow.

If a Yun family woman died at the Empress Dowager’s hands, under the witness of everyone from the Censorate, died at the Empress Dowager’s hands, then this matter would become wonderful.

He glanced out the window. It seemed he could vaguely see human figures approaching.

Only then did he speak: “Defying a decree without compliance—the crime deserves execution. Lady Yun, are you certain you want to defy the Empress Dowager’s edict?”

From the corner of her eye, Yun Chu also saw the figures outside the window drawing closer and closer.

She was thinking, Big Brother’s movements were truly fast—he had actually rushed over so quickly.

She spoke: “In response to Your Majesty, this subject is not defying the decree, but following her own heart… This subject knows that defying a decree and showing disrespect is a capital crime, but the Empress Dowager worships Buddha and has a merciful heart. This subject knows the Empress Dowager definitely won’t be so heartless…”

The Empress Dowager laughed.

This lowly person was certain she wouldn’t sentence her to death, so she dared to defy the decree.

This was not taking her, the Empress Dowager, seriously at all.

She spoke word by word: “If Lady Yun defies the decree, then poisoned wine or white silk—choose one of the two. In consideration of the Yun family’s merits, this dowager permits you an intact corpse.”

“By this logic, should my Yun family also thank the Empress Dowager for her grace?”

A cold, condensed voice transmitted in from outside the Imperial Study.

At the same time, the door of the Imperial Study was pushed open by Eunuch Gao, and a group of people walked in carrying winter’s harsh, piercing cold wind.

Yun Chu raised her head to look.

She was immediately stunned.

She had thought it was Big Brother Yun Ze bringing people from the Censorate.

Who would have thought she would actually see her father.

Yun Silin walked at the very front, behind him was Yun Ze along with two vice generals, and further back were various civil officials from the Censorate.

In her previous life, her father had only returned to the capital two years later.

But in this life, in less than three months, he had returned.

The Emperor was also stunned.

Yun Silin, whose life or death had been uncertain, had actually appeared before him. What did this mean?

“You—you’re not dead?”

The Empress Dowager looked at Yun Silin as if she had seen a ghost.

Her nephew was the General of Chariots and Cavalry. Over a month ago, he had written to tell her that Yun Silin had been surrounded and killed by his people, dying in Dark Lake.

Yun Silin looked toward Yun Chu who was sitting collapsed on the ground.

The daughter he had protected and raised in the palm of his hand, the pampered daughter he had treasured like a pearl, the daughter who had suffered five years in the Xie family and finally returned to the Yun family—she was actually about to be sentenced to death by the Empress Dowager.

If he hadn’t heard it with his own ears, he wouldn’t dare believe that imperial family members would actually dare treat his Yun family people this way!

He had faked his death—he hadn’t truly died!

After he disguised himself as dead and took the Southern Border, the vice general was to rush back eight hundred li to report.

But the vice general’s speed on horseback couldn’t compare to his.

He handed the Southern Border matters to the city lord to handle the aftermath, rode over a dozen thoroughbred horses to death, galloping all the way from the Southern Border to the capital.

He had just returned to the Yun family estate, preparing to inform his family that he was still alive before entering the palace to have an audience with the Emperor, when he heard from Yun Ze that Chu’er had been summoned into the palace.

Therefore, he rushed over without stopping.

Before he even entered the door, he had heard those words from the Empress Dowager.

“Chu’er.”

Yun Silin threw down what he was holding in his hand and immediately went over to help his daughter up.

The thing he was holding fell to the ground with a thud, rolling and rolling until it rolled before the Empress Dowager.

The cloth wrapping the thing came loose, revealing two bloody human heads.

“Ahhh—!”

The Empress Dowager let out a sharp scream and collapsed sitting on the ground in fright.

Her hand trembled as she reached forward, completely pulling away the cloth piece, revealing the human face: “Pin’er…”

Feng Pin was her nephew who was far away in the Southern Border serving as General of Chariots and Cavalry.

“This subject pays respects to Your Majesty and the Empress. This subject’s audience comes late—please ask Your Majesty to forgive this crime!” After Yun Silin had greeted His Majesty, only then did he point to those heads and say, “General of Chariots and Cavalry Feng Pin colluded with Southern Yue Kingdom’s military officers, intending rebellion, causing the Southern Border’s Qi City to fall into becoming Southern Yue Kingdom’s backyard garden where the people lived in misery, suffering unbearably… This subject first beheaded Feng Pin, then subsequently took the head of the Southern Yue King. Please ask Your Majesty to examine them!”

One head was Feng Pin.

The other was the Southern Yue King.

The Emperor suddenly stood up, greatly delighted: “Good, very good! Yun Silin, you indeed have not failed my expectations! Reward! Heavily reward!”

The Empress Dowager finally came back to her senses: “Your Majesty, he, Yun Silin, clearly didn’t die, yet sent back news that he had died. He is so cunning—just because he says Feng Pin rebelled means it was rebellion? Where is the evidence?!”