“She lives sustained by this one breath. I don’t want her to lose that breath.”

The Imperial Grand Prince kept only Yu Qingwu alone in the room.

He was furious. “What’s going on? How did Shanjun suddenly come to have such thoughts?”

Yu Qingwu said nothing.

Today, he had remained silent throughout, treating himself as a mute.

The Imperial Grand Prince then scolded, “You must have discussed this at home too. Why didn’t you try to dissuade her at all!”

Yu Qingwu’s head drooped lower and lower.

The Imperial Grand Prince was still unsatisfied and said, “Having great righteousness in one’s heart is a good thing. But her suddenly developing such righteousness and wanting to act on it immediately—don’t you see a problem? People can act on momentary anger, can act on momentary capability, but what about afterward? If she doesn’t understand, I can comprehend that. But you’re not at the point where righteousness has just emerged, you’re not at the stage where you think standing on the two words ‘common people’ means you can forge ahead without looking back. You should know how dangerous this is!”

Yu Qingwu still didn’t speak.

His head drooped to his chest.

Then he said softly, “It’s not momentary anger.”

The Imperial Grand Prince looked over. “What?”

Yu Qingwu: “It’s not momentary anger.”

He said dejectedly with his head lowered, “She came to Luoyang… and did not encounter spring. Everything she saw and heard was a world frozen over.”

“First, my elder brother Su Xingzhou died—this opened with an inauspicious beginning.”

He paused, then said, “What a corpse that died unjustly, soaked in water, would look like—she saw it.”

Not a single good spot on the entire body, the stench of decay overwhelming. What everyone thought of wasn’t how much pain or injustice Elder Brother suffered, but turned away to vomit. Only she looked at Elder Brother in shock, seemingly unwilling to believe a living person had been killed just like that.

She didn’t vomit either, didn’t feel nauseous. She turned and fetched two black umbrellas from the carriage.

“I held one for Elder Brother, she held one.”

She gave a deceased person from Shuzhou final dignity. At that time he was grateful, moved. Later, after learning about her past, when he recalled that moment, he could understand why she didn’t vomit or feel nauseous.

—She had been locked in that place without dignity for so long, she had grown accustomed to it.

His nose was quite dull—he couldn’t smell perfume even when it was strong—but her nose was very sensitive.

Yet the more sensitive it was, the more he could know how much suffering she had endured.

But even having endured all this suffering, she hadn’t become filled with violent hostility, hadn’t become a biased executioner.

Seeing someone die unjustly, she would still empathize.

Yu Qingwu’s voice remained soft: “You don’t know how heartbroken she was when she looked at Elder Brother, looked at me. Later, after learning Elder Brother was killed by Marquis Boyuan and Wu Qingchuan, she was silent for a long time. She said, Yu Qingwu, you must survive, and you must avenge him.”

“At that time, I had just entered Luoyang. Everything was difficult. Many people admonished me, wanting me to give up struggling for Elder Brother, saying Marquis Boyuan’s power was great, Prince Qi was ruthless. If I made a move, should you abandon me in the future, I would surely die without a burial place.”

“But only Shanjun—she understood me. She also felt that people live sustained by one breath, bones must be hard, must be stubborn, must live standing tall and upright. If one can’t even avenge, if one can’t even obtain the truth, then living is too painful.”

This breath that demanded the truth, this breath that must have grievances avenged and refused to admit defeat, supported her as she walked year after year, making one choice after another.

When Elder Brother died, this had already begun to show.

“After that came Old Madam Shou’s death. Minister Su’s death through remonstration.”

They died ahead of schedule. Shanjun still felt guilty.

Especially Minister Su—she felt it was her return that brought these sins.

She no longer only stared hatefully at Prince Qi and Song Zhiwei alone, but standing upon Minister Su’s death, she saw the court’s lifeless stagnation.

Yu Qingwu sighed softly, “Shanjun told me—Yu Qingwu, you all are also lighting dawn.”

“At that moment, that one breath in her heart became great righteousness.”

The “small kindness” of feeling heartbroken over Elder Brother’s death also became great kindness.

He said word by word, “Your Highness, I… I watched Shanjun walk here step by step. I watched her…”

From a young woman who only wanted to find the truth for herself, to avenge herself, she became someone who would read official gazettes, understand court affairs, and finally grow dissatisfied with the suffering throughout the realm—a scholar.

Yu Qingwu said this and exhaled heavily, then after quite a while said, “When everything finally had a turn for the better, Ni Wanyuan died through remonstration, implicating Minister Ni Tao, Duke Zhenguo’s manor, nameless wronged people of Shuzhou…”

Incident after incident made her understand the tree’s roots had rotted.

In her past life and this life, there were many, many people who died full of injustice like her.

She began to be dissatisfied with this state of the world. She began wanting to do something, to do something for this world.

The deaths of Wu Qingchuan and Duke Songguo—she achieved this.

She saw hope.

She felt there was still light in this world.

She wanted to kill Prince Qi, wanted to kill the Emperor. She was willing to sacrifice her own life to see that glimpse of light.

She so desperately wanted to see light.

Yu Qingwu shook his head. “Your Highness, she’s not acting on momentary capability, nor momentary anger, but from the winter of the forty-seventh year of Yuanshao until now—this is already the fourth year.”

“Over these three or four years, so many people have died, yet Shanjun still hasn’t seen spring light.”

“When will this ice and snow finally melt?”

Yu Qingwu said this and smiled slightly. “Your Highness, Shanjun and I—do you know why we married?”

The Imperial Grand Prince silently shook his head.

Yu Qingwu said, “Shanjun said, once we marry, at least one of us can be properly laid out in death, lying in a coffin.”

“When we married, we had already agreed to prepare coffins for each other.”

His eyes reddened. He lowered his head and said, “Moreover… I can also understand why she’s anxious.”

Only she knew that after Old Duke Zhenguo died in autumn, Duke Zhenguo would follow soon after. Once these two left, this matter would lose its best opportunity, with no next good opportunity for them to plan again.

Furthermore—

He murmured, “This year is the fifty-first year of Yuanshao.”

In the summer of the fifty-first year of Yuanshao in her past life, the Grand Princess Consort died.

Would she continue living?

So far, apart from the Grand Princess Consort, no one had successfully survived. Only people constantly dying ahead of schedule.

Then what would the Grand Princess Consort’s final fate be?

Her health had been poor since the poisoning.

Yu Qingwu choked up. “Your Highness, Shanjun… really isn’t acting on momentary capability… She’s already trying her hardest to save people.”

Bearing secrets only she knew, carrying her Zhong Kui demon-expelling lamp, walking through frozen heaven and earth, taking out candlelight, slowly reflecting it on the ice, vainly attempting to melt the spring light beneath the ice and snow.

“This is her in my eyes. She absolutely isn’t willing to do this matter because of the impulsiveness you speak of, nor is she a deeply calculating strategist.”

“If the former, this matter cannot be accomplished. If the latter, this matter also cannot be accomplished.”

Yu Qingwu exhaled lightly, struggling to suppress his choking voice. “So they say, people resemble whoever raised them. Shanjun is more like Duan Boyan—an ascetic monk.”

In the eighteenth year of Yuanshao, Duan Boyan succeeded. He extended the Great Xia Dynasty’s life by thirty-three years.

“Shanjun can do it too.”

“I can do it too.”

“Minister Xu, Minister Yu, Old Duke Zhenguo and his son, Imperial Academy students, Gong Lin, the people of Shuzhou… they all can.”

He understood her. He also understood them.

Yu Qingwu brushed his sleeves. “Your Highness, I won’t dissuade her. You needn’t dissuade her either.”

“She lives sustained by this one breath. I don’t want her to lose that breath.”

When Old Madam Shou lost that breath, she also passed away.

Yu Qingwu silently entered the room, silently took Lan Shanjun’s hand to go home.

He brought her many military texts, painting for her a brilliant future.

“In the future, I’ll be a powerful minister, you’ll be a military general. You’ll fight enemies outside while I prepare provisions for you in court—absolutely not the slightest bit fake.”

Lan Shanjun looked at him quietly, looked at him, then suddenly said, “In your next life, remember to come find me.”

Yu Qingwu was about to cry from this one sentence.

He made a sound of agreement. “I’ll definitely come find you.”

His tears fell heavily. Lan Shanjun used her hands to wipe them. In the end, it took both hands to wipe his tears clean.

But crying and crying, he said again, “Don’t worry, when I’m old later I won’t cry like this.”

Lan Shanjun’s hands froze. “Why?”

Yu Qingwu: “Originally when crying, pear blossoms with rain is beautiful. I’m like hailstones falling. Right now I’m still young, quite handsome. When I’m old and my looks have faded, if I still cry like this, you’ll despise me.”

Lan Shanjun didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, didn’t know whether to wipe his tears or mock him. Finally, she pinched his face with both hands. “You should apply more cream—”

Yu Qingwu fell silent.

He asked, “You think I need to apply cream?”

This time it was Lan Shanjun’s turn to fall silent. But she was also successfully diverted by him and suddenly laughed aloud.

She murmured, “Yu Qingwu, being with you truly makes me very happy.”

Never regretted it.

…

On the Lantern Festival in the fifty-first year of Yuanshao, the Imperial Grand Prince, under the pretext of viewing lanterns during the festival, secretly summoned his trusted confidants outside the palace to discuss Duke Zhenguo manor’s case.

Yu Qingwu was also present.

When the officials were indignant, he uttered not a word. When the officials planned detailed schemes, he uttered not a word.

When the Imperial Grand Prince said Lan Shanjun was willing to be the primary accuser, taking the first step, the officials looked at Yu Qingwu in surprise. He still uttered not a word.

When everyone dispersed, before the Imperial Grand Prince returned to the Eastern Palace, he asked, “Once matters occur, they cannot be stopped. Are you and Shanjun prepared?”

Yu Qingwu nodded. “Ready to act at any time.”

But this readiness lasted until mid-April before the time came.

This was a time deliberated by many people.

Because at this time, Prince Qi’s heir had discovered that Prince Qi was unwilling to delegate power to him.

He couldn’t obtain the troops in Prince Qi’s hands.

And his methods were too merciful compared to Prince Qi, too weak, even containing some compassion for the world—such a person was already at an impasse with Prince Qi’s old ministers.

But the more the old ministers disdained him, the more the Emperor liked him. One day the Emperor even said, “Your father is far inferior to you.”

Reportedly, several more vases in Prince Qi’s manor were smashed.

And in April, another matter occurred.

Prince Wei learned that it was the Emperor’s doing regarding the child in his concubine’s belly.

He sat in his manor all night, thinking all night, truly unable to comprehend.

Why would Imperial Father feel having offspring was wrong?

Prince Wei thought hard but couldn’t understand. But he didn’t dare let the Emperor know he had discovered the truth, so he continued beating and scolding Princess Consort Wei incessantly.

In April, Princess Consort Wei, unable to endure the humiliation, in a fit of anger, hanged herself at home.

Prince Wei was grief-stricken, even more hateful toward the Emperor, but turned around and falsely accused Prince Qi of this matter.

The Emperor laughed in anger. But at this moment he hesitated, didn’t directly rebuke Prince Wei, but had people reprimand Prince Qi instead.

The Imperial Grand Prince’s faction immediately plotted secretly, discovering this was a good opportunity.

On the nineteenth of April, Lan Shanjun struck the Petition Drum.