The only descendant of the Miao family was in the hands of the New Xia Queen. Therefore, everyone should behave.

Feng Miaojun’s smile widened as she patted her shoulder: “You truly are my lucky charm. Every time you’re by my side, fortune favors me. It was so before, and it’s no different now.”

Princess Hanyue didn’t know what scheme she was hatching, but composed herself and smiled: “If I were truly a lucky charm, I would first settle your marriage affairs.”

Feng Miaojun’s smile slightly stiffened.

At that moment, fireworks burst in the sky, casting shifting colors on her face. She said softly: “There’s no rush.”

She had sworn to Yun Ya that in this lifetime, she would marry no one but him. Given the current circumstances, the prospect of the two of them being together openly seemed indefinitely distant.

Being a sovereign was far from allowing one to do whatever they pleased, contrary to what common people might imagine.

Fu Lingchuan’s wedding ceremony was a complete success. When Liu Qingru returned to visit her parents, she was radiant. Fu Lingchuan accompanied her, speaking in soft tones and smiling continuously—both appearing as a loving couple.

However, Feng Miaojun would not be deceived by appearances. She had her ways to gather the information she wanted:

A month into the marriage, Fu Lingchuan had changed his habit of reading by candlelight and instead stayed in his wife’s quarters. Water was frequently requested in the master bedroom, sometimes two or three times a night.

Without elders in the house, Liu Qingru rose late in the morning.

Hearing this, Feng Miaojun smiled faintly. It seemed her cousin had chosen well.

Two days later, the New Xia Queen issued an edict stipulating that nobles from the Eastern Region must come to the capital for an audience once every two years, and send their principal wives and eldest sons to reside permanently in Wusel, the capital of New Xia, to accompany Princess Hanyue and her son.

This edict specifically detailed the names and official positions of the nobles; all those named were required to have their wives and sons arrive in Wusel City within the specified time, with severe punishment for delays.

To the discerning eye, this was punishment for the Eastern Region’s former officials who had secretly plotted rebellion. Moreover, to eliminate the root of trouble, the Queen wanted to take their wives and children to Wusel City as hostages. The pretext of accompanying the Miao-Yao bloodline was merely an excuse and a particularly half-hearted one.

The people of New Xia naturally had no objections, but the matter was significant enough to alert the Prime Minister. Fu Lingchuan, not even three days into his marriage, rushed over to analyze the advantages and disadvantages with the Queen.

However, after several high officials held private discussions with Feng Miaojun in the study, they changed their stance to firmly support the new policy. Despite repeated inquiries from others, the reason remained unclear.

This order created waves of shock in the Eastern Region. The nobles shook their heads in opposition and sent various reasons to Wusel City, but all were rejected without a single exemption.

The actions of Grand Tutor Lu and others had thoroughly angered the Queen, making her determined to strengthen control over the Eastern Region. Two months earlier, the volatile people of the Eastern Region might have resisted by force. Still, after a round of purges, the resistance had been severely crippled and dared not act openly.

Thus, this new policy was implemented.

In less than three months, Wusel City welcomed more than three hundred family members of Eastern Region nobles, with more continuously arriving. Since they needed places to stay, and being prominent figures, they naturally wouldn’t arrive with just two people. Including servants, bodyguards, and protectors, each family brought at least two to three hundred people. How could ordinary residences accommodate them?

Consequently, housing prices in Wusel City suddenly soared, increasing more than threefold within half a year. What to do when existing mansions are sold out? Build new ones. So land prices rose accordingly.

Every move of New Xia was, of course, closely observed by other kingdoms.

The New Xia Queen had not issued any further new policies targeting the Eastern Region. The Prince of Yan smirked coldly: “Trying to control the people of the Eastern Region with such a simple method is naive.”

“The people of the Eastern Region established their kingdom over two hundred years ago and have men of iron will. Unless New Xia subdues and crushes them completely, they cannot expect peace in the future. The Eastern Region hasn’t suffered the ravages of the Kingdom of Wei; officials and commoners are wealthy. For New Xia not to devise a way to get their hands on that money is truly foolish!”

New Xia had been doing well in recent years, with national power steadily rising, but it still lagged significantly behind the established major kingdoms. To have at least some self-preservation capability in future conflicts, the current pace of development was not fast enough.

Now that they had finally acquired the wealthy Eastern Region, for New Xia not to find ways to pocket the money and strengthen itself was, in the eyes of many prominent figures, like starving beside a mountain of treasure—they deserved their fate.

A high official remarked: “The issue between the Eastern Region and Xia is sensitive; perhaps New Xia fears that excessive exploitation would provoke strong resistance from the people of the Eastern Region.”

The Prince of Yan dismissed this: “Leaving money in their hands prevents resistance? Doesn’t everyone know money makes things happen?” He chuckled, “Women, are always insufficient in achievement but excessive in failure.”

Meanwhile, the Kingdom of Yan’s governance of the Xi territories was proceeding smoothly. The Kingdom of Xi had long been like a dilapidated building; Yan had merely delivered the crucial kick. Even if the people of Xi still had spirit and backbone, without leadership they were merely scattered sand—

Unlike An Xia and the Eastern Region, the former King of Xi, who had surrendered his cities and kingdom, though still alive, had no rallying power to speak of.

What displeased the Prince of Yan, however, was that after Feng Miaojun returned to Wusel City, she announced to the world Yan’s secret instigation to split New Xia. After this was embellished by public gossip, it transformed into a narrative of Yan bullying New Xia, secretly plotting against the Queen, and wholeheartedly intending to plunge the New Xia people into deep suffering…

People are emotional and conformist; this time, without Feng Miaojun needing to guide public opinion, anti-Yan sentiment surged among the common people.

Far away, thousands of miles distant, Feng Miaojun hadn’t heard the conversations between the Yan ruler and his ministers, nor did she know the Prince of Yan’s assessment of her—even if she had known, she wouldn’t have cared, as she was extremely busy lately.

Having finally processed the accumulated official business from the first half of the year, New Xia’s various developments were back on track. By this time, cultivators from the Kingdom of Xi who had followed Yu Haizhen had arrived in Wusel and had been in contact with New Xia’s cultivators for several months. Thus, after a series of State Preceptor trials, the New Xia Queen held a grand ceremony to officially transfer the position of State Preceptor to her.

With this, New Xia created a spectacle unseen in the world:

Both the sovereign and the State Preceptor were women.

Coincidentally, both were also of celestial beauty, which triggered a gossip storm that swept across the northern and southern continents in a short time, becoming a hot topic of street corner discussions. Some jokingly referred to New Xia as having an excess of yin and a deficiency of yang, while others suspected hidden mysteries within.

Having long experienced the complexities of human nature, Feng Miaojun completely disregarded such talk. To sit in her position, one could not care about others’ views.

After careful consideration, she issued another new urban policy:

Wusel City opened up “adoption rights” for city construction!

This meant that the construction of certain elements in the capital, such as roads or lakes, under official planning and monitoring, could be funded by nobles and powerful families. As a reward, they would have naming rights.