The mountain flowers were in full bloom at Yu She’s vacation manor.
In the pavilion, the nanny in charge of teaching Xuan Congxin patiently asked, “What is Young Miss embroidering?”
Xuan Congxin smoothed down the silk handkerchief in her hands and answered, distracted, “A phoenix.”
The nanny fell silent for a moment. She forced herself to nod. “Yes, at first I couldn’t tell, but upon looking at the tail feathers, I understand. This is a phoenix.”
“These aren’t the tail feathers.” Xuan Congxin tried to keep her temper in check. “This is its head.”
Awkwardly, the nanny replied, “Is that so. But Young Miss, you embroidered this area wrong. You should have…”
“You should have started sewing from here.” Xuan Yu was holding one of his books upside down. Upon hearing this, he couldn’t stop himself from poking his head out and gesturing. “Elder Sister, Nanny has been teaching you for so long. Even I’ve learned already. Your stitches are wrong. You’ve been wrong from the start. Look here…”
“Am I learning or are you learning?” Xuan Congxin glanced at Xuan Yu. She didn’t appear angry, but still seemed scary. “Why are you watching me embroider instead of reading your books? Is embroidery on the test?”
Xuan Yu shrank back and muttered, “No.”
“If it’s not on the test, what are you looking at?!” Xuan Congxin had been restless since morning. She had just been looking for someplace to vent her anger. “You’re not young anymore, but you’re neither good at academics nor martial arts. Father’s title is already gone too. Our estate has turned into this state because of Eldest Brother’s foolish actions. If not for Zhong Wan’s protection, the two of us would be eating bran back in Qian An. For all these years, everyone has been treating our estate as a joke. Can’t you be a little useful?”
In a hurry, Xuan Yu flipped open his book. “I-I only have a dumb brain. I still know to help share some of Big Brother’s burdens, though.”
Xuan Yu had long since switched titles. The “Big Brother” he was referring to was Zhong Wan.
Sulkily, Xuan Congxin responded, “At least you have a bit of a conscience left.”
Xuan Congxin felt a bit irritated too when lowering her head and looking at what she had embroidered. She sighed. “I’m not sewing anymore. Where’s the essay you wrote yesterday? I’ll look over it for you first so you don’t piss off the teacher again.”
Xuan Yu trembled briefly. In fear, he responded, “Yesterday, Guard Brother took me out to catch wild chickens. S-so I didn’t write it.”
“I refuse!” Xuan Congxin shouted with rage. “It’s been a whole day, yet you can’t even finish writing an essay! What do you want to do in the future? What can you do? Wait for a meat pie to fall from the sky?”
Wejc Te’r ojmf oiertfv gfv yfmjerf bo atlr rmbivlcu. Aera jr tf kjr agslcu ab mbwf eq klat j qijc ab frmjqf, j ojwlis rbivlfg gertfv bnfg ogbw ojg boo lc atf vlrajcmf klat j ifaafg.
The family soldier approached and scanned the two of them. Very perceptively, he handed the letter to Xuan Congxin.
Xuan Congxin was unwilling to scold Xuan Yu in front of outsiders. She forced her rage down and accepted the letter from the family soldier. She opened it and froze upon reading it.
Xuan Yu stood cautiously off to the side. After noticing that Xuan Congxin was acting like a stone sculpture and remaining silent for a long time, he tentatively asked, “Elder Sister, what’s wrong? Has something happened in the capital?”
In a daze, Xuan Congxin said, “Little Brother, I think a meat pie has really fallen from the sky.”
Less than a month after naming the crown prince, Emperor Chongan passed away.
Emperor Chongan hadn’t actually passed away peacefully. Like a snake that had been broken in half, he had spasmed and struggled on his bed for a long time. He had used his tongue, which was no longer nimble after the stroke, to loudly wail. The screams had resounded throughout the entire palace, almost as if he had many unfinished words to say.
But at this time, he was no longer capable of changing the testamentary edict. Additionally, no one could understand what he was saying anymore. Full of fury and unwillingness, Emperor Chongan died on the dragon bed.
Everyone turned their gazes to Yu She.
Thanks to Yu Mucheng and the imperial clansmen’s hard work, after Emperor Chongan’s death, Yu She managed to very easily figure out the details of Prince Ning’s old case. Yu She didn’t care for any of his blood kin. During the investigation, he laid bare a lot of shameful things that had happened during the previous era. Yu She no longer avoided his own identity either. He directly announced that he was the offspring of a wrongful affair between Emperor Chongan and Little Imperial Consort Zhong. His blood was dirty and he wasn’t fit to serve in such an important role.
Nobody had expected that the crown prince, who had finally managed to climb up to that highest spot after great difficulty, would suddenly change his mind after Emperor Chongan’s death and refuse to ascend to the throne. No matter how much the officials on Emperor Chongan’s side begged, pleaded, and threatened, he refused to accept the decree.
Regardless of how hard everyone else thought about it, they couldn’t figure it out: what was Yu Ziyou actually trying to do?!
The imperial clansmen had ultimately placed their bets on the wrong person. On this side, Yu She was adamant about not ascending to the throne. On the other side, nobody could find Xuan Rui’s living person or dead body. And just as Yu Mucheng’s allies tried to seize this opportunity to turn everything around and place a new emperor on the throne, Zhong Wan Zhong Guiyuan, who had disappeared for several days, returned to the capital. And he had also brought back with him Prince Ning’s younger son, Xuan Yu.
Prince Ning’s case had just been reversed. It was obvious what Yu She was trying to do by personally bringing Xuan Yu into the palace.
Aside from Yu She and Zhong Wan, outsiders couldn’t get to see Xuan Yu so easily. Yu Mucheng had been plotting for his whole life. In the end, though, all his work had aided someone else. The day Yu She brought Xuan Yu into the palace, Yu Mucheng committed suicide in the Imperial Clan Court.
Xuan Qiong was a muddled mess for several days. After learning of Yu Mucheng’s death, he became scared out of his wits and turned into a true lunatic.
After learning about everything that had occurred during the previous emperor’s rule, Emperor Chongan’s fourth son, Xuan Jing, spent a day in his own estate to calm down. Then, he locked his doors and turned away all visitors.
Everything was unexpected; everything was reasonable.
Three months later, the new emperor, Xuan Yu, officially ascended to the throne. The name of his reign was Yuanyan.
The former crown prince, Yu She, who had played an important role in helping the new emperor ascend to the throne, naturally became named prince regent.
Or it could be said that Yu She named himself prince regent.
Everyone all thought that they could see through the facade. Yu She had placed a younger and more easily controlled puppet on the throne.
Going with this idea, things seemed very logical. When Emperor Chongan had just passed away, the Court had been full of external and internal strife. Everyone had been investigating Emperor Chongan’s crimes of patricide and regicide. Even Emperor Chongan himself had gotten onto the throne wrongfully, not to mention Yu She. If Yu She disregarded the criticisms and forcefully ascended to the throne, it was doubtless that there would be innumerous troubles in the future.
Just his background alone was enough of an excuse to stage a revolt against him.
But now, he had found Xuan Yu, who had grown up in Qian An and who no one had really paid attention to before. Not only had he quieted the controversies, he had also managed to keep the real power in his own grasp while at it. He had honestly calculated this all out quite well.
In hindsight, the imperial clansmen realized that they had underestimated this madman.
Of course, they only dared to think these thoughts in their hearts.
Following the crowning of the new emperor, the prince regent boldly got rid of Yu Mucheng’s allies while also taking care of those officials completely loyal to Emperor Chongan. By using the excuse of settling the conflict with the Beidi Tribes, he managed to seize military power too. By the end of the first year of Yuanyan, the prince regent’s allies had used this momentum to start a completely new generation of officials. Yu She finally had everything in the palm of his hands.
After the dust had settled, no one dared to say another word.
Including the new emperor.
Inside the small warmroom of the assembly hall, Xuan Yu uneasily sat in the dragon chair and watched Yu She, who was sitting off to the side, take care of political matters. He had something to say, but didn’t dare to say it.
“These are the important pamphlets that the Cabinet has sent over today,” Yu She said after adding his comments to all of the pamphlets. “If Emperor feels that anything is wrong after looking over them, you can tell me.”
Xuan Yu dryly said, “Since Prince Regent has already looked over them, there mustn’t be anything wrong with them. I…I’ll skip out on looking over them.”
Yu She looked up at Xuan Yu. After a moment of silent consideration, he asked, “Does the emperor have something to say?”
Though Xuan Yu and Yu She were biological cousins, they weren’t close at all.
After finding out about the old events of the past, Xuan Yu’s feelings towards this person who was both his cousin and uncle were a bit conflicted.
Xuan Yu and Xuan Rui were different. Though he wasn’t very smart, he was quite reasonable.
After returning to the capital, he and Xuan Congxin had engaged in a long discussion. No matter how they thought about it, the twins didn’t think that Yu She could be blamed for what had happened back in the day. Now that he was accepting the throne from Yu She, he didn’t feel very confident.
Xuan Yu didn’t feel secure while sitting on the dragon chair. Many times, he had wanted to tell Yu She, how about I give this throne back to you?
But when the words were on the tip of his tongue, he didn’t know how to open his mouth.
Xuan Yu was a bit scared of Yu She.
Yu She observed Xuan Yu momentarily. He tried to figure out this little emperor’s thoughts. He said, “If Emperor is still worried about Xuan Rui, I can order someone to tell him to handwrite a letter and bring it over. As of now, Emperor has just ascended to the throne. It isn’t suitable for him to show his face. Regarding the details of why, you should already have an understanding in your heart, Emperor.”
Xuan Yu hurriedly shook his head. “No, no. I’m not worried about Elder Brother.”