Hearing these words, hatred surfaced on Uncle Cai’s face.

“That Chu thief is detestable,” he said.

Xie Yanfang made a sound of acknowledgment: “Uncle Cai, you truly haven’t said a single good word about her from beginning to end.”

Indeed, from the first time he’d seen that girl, he hadn’t liked her. Why was that? Uncle Cai wondered as he rowed the oar, watching the young master leaning against the boat’s railing, whose once jet-black hair had turned white as snow.

Probably because from the very first time, this girl had received special treatment from the young master.

In the young master’s eyes, all people in the world were the same. Once there was a difference, the heart would inevitably show favoritism.

When the heart showed favoritism, it would be trapped and hindered by it.

As expected, the young master had fallen to his current state.

“Now I only regret that I merely spoke unpleasant words,” Uncle Cai sighed.

He should have eliminated her directly.

He had still underestimated this woman.

Xie Yanfang laughed heartily: “But this time you truly can’t blame her. She didn’t harm me—I harmed myself.”

Hearing this, Uncle Cai’s expression grew even uglier, rowing the oar so forcefully it creaked.

When that woman killed her way back to the capital, the first thing she did was send the young master a cup of poisoned wine.

This had naturally been anticipated. Xie Yanfang had harmed himself earlier to make her return to the imperial city, not because he didn’t want to live or was willing to be killed.

So he had drunk poisoned wine in advance, thinking he could use poison to counter poison and avoid harm.

Who could have known—

“What she gave me actually wasn’t poisoned wine,” Xie Yanfang said.

As a result, with no poison to counter, the poison injured him instead, and he’d nearly died for real.

“She did it on purpose! No wonder when she left, she said to me: ‘Those who scheme against others are actually only scheming against themselves.'” Uncle Cai still trembled with rage remembering it.

At the time, he hadn’t reacted, thinking Chu Zhao was saying that the Xie clan had brought disaster upon themselves through their own chaos. Only when he discovered the young master’s condition worsening did he understand what had happened.

Xie Yanfang laughed again. Unfortunately, he’d been unconscious from the poison at that moment, unable to know what expression Chu Zhao wore or what else she’d said, unable to applaud her and call out his approval.

She was right. She’d been wary of him, knowing he was also wary of her, so she’d simply gone with the flow and let him reap what he’d sown.

She truly was different from him—she was even more detestable than him.

Xie Yanfang leaned against the boat’s railing with a smile, watching the rushing water, Uncle Cai’s voice continuing in his ears.

“The old master and the others were imprisoned, the family property confiscated. Though we followed the young master’s instructions in advance and had the clan’s young people scatter under changed names to preserve the bloodline, what relationship do bloodlines with changed names have with our Xie clan anymore?”

“This past year, after the Xie clan was convicted, she still wouldn’t let up, using a dull knife to grind flesh, grinding the Xie clan into dust.”

“Not just the Xie clan—the Xie clan’s friends and relatives have all suffered greatly, enduring unspeakable misery.”

Xie Yanfang interrupted him: “None of this matters anymore, Uncle Cai. The defeated become bandits—this is a bandit’s fate.”

He turned his palm downward, and the fallen flowers dropped back into the water, disappearing in the blink of an eye.

Uncle Cai was silent for a moment before sighing deeply: “I understand this principle, but who would have thought we’d fall at her hands?”

Xie Yanfang suddenly said: “During the year I was unconscious, I had a dream in which I experienced another life.”

Uncle Cai paused: “What was that other life like?”

Xie Yanfang replied: “Both the same as now and different. In that life, A’Yu also died.”

Xiao Yu had died too. Though he knew it was a dream, Uncle Cai couldn’t help asking: “What was the outcome?”

Xie Yanfang smiled slightly: “The outcome was naturally still as I wished.”

But it was rather meaningless.

In that dream, there was no Chu Zhao—or rather, there was a Chu Zhao so negligible she could be ignored.

He hadn’t even seen what she looked like alive.

He’d only seen a corpse.

So, it was just like that—no surprise, no joy, no interest.

Uncle Cai had little interest in dreams. He only lived in the present, sighing softly: “Empress Chu pushed Deng Yi forward but won’t clear his name, leaving him in ambiguity, controlled for life, to be used by her.”

The late Grand Tutor Deng Yi’s crimes were firmly established. Now, even if Deng Yi didn’t change his name or appearance, even if everyone knew he was Deng Yi, he could never become Deng Yi again. Moreover, Deng Yi had become a sword suspended over his head.

Once the Emperor no longer wanted to use him, it could be brought down.

Who knew why he even came out? Better to have died directly. Perhaps he couldn’t even seek death—who told him to become a plaything in Chu Zhao’s palm?

“Don’t think about it so much,” Xie Yanfang said lazily.

If he were by her side, he would have had her do the same thing.

This not only controlled Deng Yi but also controlled the Emperor.

Uncle Cai continued: “She opened the civil examinations to women, winning over more aristocratic families to consolidate power.”

The court no longer had Grand Tutor Deng Yi, and she’d eliminated the Xie clan. So her only remaining obstacle was the Emperor.

At this point, Uncle Cai sighed mournfully again.

“Young master, back when you were enraged that she wouldn’t become Empress, you fell into her trap.”

“She merely wanted to use the opportunity to eliminate you.”

“You wholeheartedly supported her as Empress, while she wholeheartedly wanted you dead.”

Xie Yanfang still smiled lazily: “Don’t think about it so much.”

He too would have had her do this—using one examination and a few women as officials to win over a group of aristocratic families was very wise.

So what if the Empress competed with Xiao Yu for power?

Who said that becoming Empress meant one could only be an Empress?

Xiao Yu’s life was saved by her, so it belonged to her. She could do whatever she wanted.

Hearing these two “don’t think about it so much” statements, Uncle Cai stood stunned for a moment before sighing deeply again. Yes, no point thinking about it anymore. No matter how much he thought, it was useless. The young master’s body was completely ruined, the Xie clan was gone. They said Deng Yi was neither human nor ghost, but at least he could still appear in the world. The young master could not.

He took the young master wandering everywhere, only hoping to keep him alive.

Those grand talents and strategies, those schemes involving human hearts—what use was thinking about them so much?

He didn’t want to sadden the young master further and quietly rowed the oar.

Xie Yanfang leaned against the boat’s railing, silently watching the flowing water. He wasn’t particularly saddened. His body was ruined, his family was ruined, his outcome was ruined—none of it really mattered.

She had indeed become Empress as he wished, and what she’d done after becoming Empress all accorded with his intentions.

So where exactly was she different, as she claimed?

His body, with its completely rotten internal organs, made living very difficult, but he had still awakened.

He endured the pain and suffering, wanting to see just how this worldly version of her was different.

……

……

The great hall, empty for over a year, was now filled with people.

The two hundred scholar-officials selected in the first civil examination since the new Emperor assumed personal rule, along with the twenty women who had competed and won against the scholars, all stood in the court hall.

Regardless of gender or age, all wore red robes with flowers in their hair. Accompanied by the ceremonial officials’ chanting, they kowtowed in unison to the Emperor and Empress.

The scholars were excited; the women were even more excited.

Earlier, they had paraded through the streets on horseback, and it seemed all the women of the capital had appeared to pave their way with fresh flowers.

They’d done such things before too, except they’d stood on the street sides scattering flowers for the men, admiring and envying them.

They’d never imagined that one day they would be treated the same way.

Now standing in the imperial palace’s great hall, some among them had visited the imperial palace before, but always as female family members in side halls or the rear palace. They had never set foot in the great court hall, standing shoulder to shoulder with men.

In the great hall, everyone forcibly restrained themselves from losing composure. When the court ceremony ended and the Empress personally summoned them, several women couldn’t help covering their faces as tears fell.

Among these twenty women, only seven or eight were playmates familiar to Chu Zhao. Though Qi Leyun and others had all participated, not everyone could be selected—after all, not all possessed stunning and exceptional talent.

These seven or eight who were selected had also put in tremendous effort. Chu Tang had practiced with her hair suspended and stabbing herself with an awl, while Zhou Jiang had been locked at home by her grandfather, who watched her study with a punishment rod in hand.

Their selection was also fortunate—after all, compared to the men, the women participating in this examination were still few.

“So excited?” Chu Zhao said with a smile. “Weren’t you already excited when the results were announced?”

“Earlier was excitement from winning,” one woman said. “Now is excitement from truly experiencing the results of winning.”

This woman’s surname was Zeng, not one of Chu Zhao’s familiar playmates. She was even quite old—over thirty.

She called herself Madame Zeng, also born into a prominent family, yet the capital’s talented women had never included her name.

Madame Zeng had broken through the competition with astronomy, calendar systems, and mathematics. Not only was she unmatched among the women, but among the two hundred scholars in this examination, no one could compare with her in these areas.

Though it had been previously established that women would enter the Hanlin Academy, these past few days officials from the Ministry of Rites, Ministry of Revenue, and Ministry of Works had been circling around the Empress, hinting and probing about this Madame Zeng. They seemed interested but hesitant due to the separation between men and women.

“The results of winning are concrete status and power,” Chu Zhao said with a smile. “For so many years, these are what have driven the officials filling this court to press forward one after another, risking their lives.”

Madame Zeng stepped forward: “Your Majesty, the Zeng clan is willing to risk our lives for Your Majesty.”

Her father, her brothers—all were ordinary and undistinguished, unable to enter official service. And she herself was a woman who remained at home, maintaining chastity for her deceased fiancé, never to marry.

The greatest expectation her clan had for her was to earn a commemorative archway upon her death.

Who would have thought the skills she’d used to pass the time could actually earn her an official title?

And for the family, an official’s cap was more valuable than a commemorative archway. As long as it brought glory to the family name, the clan didn’t care whether it was a man or woman—they provided connections and financial resources with full support.

She wasn’t the only one to say this. Several other women also stepped forward to express their determination.

Their present circumstances were given by the Empress, and their families knew it too. To receive, one must give, and the families were very willing to give.

When men became officials, they sold themselves and their families to the sovereign, then received rewards from the sovereign’s hands.

When women became officials, naturally they must do the same.

Chu Zhao looked at them with a smile.

“No, what you must do is not risk your lives for me, but for yourselves,” she said. “Now that you’ve won, what you need to do is not look upward, but look downward.”