Tu Shanjin put himself in the people’s shoes and thought it over carefully. He would certainly consider the common folk and do practical things for them.
But he could never bring himself to mingle with the people, exaggerate his great achievements, and then add a beautiful vision of the future—in short, promise them the moon.
And yet, the people absolutely ate it up. One after another, they were moved to tears.
“See that? A good politician also has to be an excellent speaker.” Yun Yaoyao sounded rather smug. “Some things aren’t enough to merely do—you have to know how to talk about them, too.”
“Making empty promises is practically omnipotent. Everyone hates empty promises, but no one can resist them when someone else makes them. That’s human nature.”
“Have you learned your lesson~?”
Tu Shanjin: I’ve learned nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Who could have known that in the very next moment, Yun Yaoyao took his hand and pushed him forward with a smile.
“Next, His Majesty’s walking lucky charm, Consort Miao, will say a few words!”
The people had yet to recover from their earlier gratitude. Their eyes were still red as they sniffed and stared at Tu Shanjin with countless moved and expectant gazes.
“……”
Tu Shanjin closed his eyes and took several deep breaths.
Fine. The Book of Life and Death had been right. His horizons had simply been too narrow before.
When he opened his eyes again, Tu Shanjin’s expression had completely changed. He smiled with an eerie sort of benevolence.
The people: Why does that smile feel so… chilly?
Tu Shanjin began his performance.
“Everyone knows that I entered the palace after assassinating the emperor. But what no one knows is that, on the night before the assassination, the Heavenly Dao appeared in my dreams, revealed the secrets of Yan Chi’s destiny to me, and entrusted me with a great mission!”
The explosive opening instantly drew gasps from everyone present. Their eyes widened.
Was this the sort of secret an ordinary commoner like them was even allowed to hear?
Tu Shanjin continued, “The destiny of Yan Chi had originally reached its end. It was fated to be conquered and trampled beneath the Xiongnu, leaving its people to suffer in misery…”
“The Heavenly Dao entrusted me with the responsibility of saving all of Yan Chi… blah, blah, blah… assisting His Majesty in reforming the court, building museums to warn future generations, introducing papermaking and printing to benefit the nation and its people, establishing libraries and literacy centers to enlighten the common folk…”
“I will continue devoting myself to the development of Yan Chi’s society and state. In the future, I will introduce even more measures to benefit the people, such as…”
“...strengthening Yan Chi’s national destiny and bringing prosperity to all the people of Yan Chi!”
“When that day comes, my mission will finally be complete!”
With that, Tu Shanjin tilted his head back until he was gazing at the sky at a perfect ninety-degree angle. The sunlight scattered across his face, as though coating him in a layer of golden radiance.
His purple robes fluttered, his black hair streamed in the wind, and his entire presence was as solemn and immovable as a monument. At that moment, he seemed almost divine!
Even Yun Yaoyao was stunned.
Holy crap!
You really are something. You don’t brainwash people often, but when you do, you go all out! You’ve gone straight from a scientific great leap forward to outright mysticism!
He even dragged the Heavenly Dao into it!
Most of the people already firmly believed the rumors that the Goddess had descended to the mortal realm, thanks to Yun Yaoyao’s deification campaign. After hearing this speech, they immediately began banging their heads on the ground before the two of them.
They shouted things like, “The Goddess has descended to the mortal realm!” “Long live His Majesty’s wisdom!” and “Heaven itself will aid Yan Chi!”
With the Yaoshan couple joining forces, the people were completely fooled.
After this public speech, the more lavishly Yun Yaoyao and Tu Shanjin were praised, the more viciously the Du family was cursed.
The reason was simple: His Majesty and Her Ladyship had been exhausting themselves and pouring their hearts into serving Yan Chi, while the Du family had actually harmed women, disrupted the social order, and held the two of them back!
The nerve!
And so, the Du family’s Pure Spirit Lake incident was turned into a textbook negative example. The people spread it from mouth to mouth, repeatedly dragging it back out to condemn and curse.
The various great clans also took warning from it. Whatever needed to be changed, they changed; whatever needed to be abandoned, they abandoned.
A great many women who had suffered because of so-called chastity finally managed to break free from the mire.
Du Guanliu regretted it so deeply that his intestines practically turned green. He would have been better off admitting that the Xiongnu really had been hiding in the Du residence!
But he could not say a single word against His Majesty.
After all, His Majesty had not shown any particular grudge against the Du family. He had merely wanted more people in order to advance the development of the realm and strengthen Yan Chi.
How despicable! Truly despicable!
The more stifled Du Guanliu felt that day, the more he took it out on Gao Dexiang.
This only made the already precarious relationship between the two men even worse.
Left with no choice, Gao Dexiang returned to his own residence in a daze.
Looking at the glory surrounding the Gao household today, then glancing at his dim-witted son beside him, he could not help but be overcome with sorrow.
Alas, alas! How perilous!
That night, Gao Dexiang went to bed early. He tossed and turned for quite some time before finally falling asleep.
Perhaps the events of the past few days had truly gotten into his head. That night, Gao Dexiang dreamed—and it was practically an entire television series.
First, a faceless man kept whispering in his ear:
“Minister Du doesn’t want you anymore~”
“Minister Du doesn’t want you anymore~”
“Minister Du doesn’t want you anymore~”
……
He wanted to run, but his feet seemed glued to the ground. No matter how hard he tried, he could not get away.
Then his rebellious son appeared, chased off the faceless man, and began chanting in his ear like the Tang Monk:
“Father, how could you be so foolish?”
“You should have listened to your son. Now look what happened!”
“There, happy now? You’ve lost your position, your residence is gone, and soon you’ll lose your life too!”
After that, Du Guanliu appeared with a grim expression and ran him through with his longsword. The pain and pounding in his chest felt so real that he slowly collapsed.
At the moment of his death, the Emperor and Concubine Miao appeared. He hurriedly grabbed the hems of their robes and begged for help. “Save me...”
The Emperor shook his head. “Gao Dexiang, oh, Gao Dexiang. If you’d known this would happen, you should have given in to Me back then.”
The aloof Concubine Sha merely waved her hand, bringing down a bolt of heavenly lightning that reduced him to ash.
He was dead.
Gao Dexiang jolted awake, drenched in cold sweat, his eyes wide with terror.
Suddenly, he found himself staring into a pair of eerie eyes and let out the highest-pitched cry of his life.
Gao Chongguang hurriedly covered his ears, looking aggrieved. Beside him lay the quilt and pillow he had brought over. “Father, it’s me. I was passing your room on my way to the privy and heard you shouting, so I came in.”
“You must have had a nightmare, Father. Don’t be afraid. I’ll sleep on the floor here and keep you company tonight.”
His emotion lasted less than three seconds before he heard the little devil snicker.
“Since your son is being so filial, why don’t you just give in to His Majesty~?”
That reminded Gao Dexiang of his dream. He shuddered all over again. “Get out!”
The next day, just as the sky was beginning to lighten—
No, in truth, it had barely begun to brighten at all—Yun Yaoyao miserably set off for the Xuanzheng Hall.
Summer and autumn had been bearable, but now that winter had arrived, dawn came late and the cold pierced straight through her. Being forced to crawl out of a warm bed at this hour was downright murder, followed by a second execution!
Yun Yaoyao felt that her beautiful body, and even her very soul, were about to wither away!
(⌇ຶД⌇ຶ)
Beside her, Tu Shanjin took the lantern from Xiao Wuzi and dismissed him before beginning to comfort Yun Yaoyao. “Getting up early is good for you. The spiritual energy of heaven and earth is especially abundant at this hour, making it perfect for absorbing and cultivating.”
Yun Yaoyao: “...”
That was very comforting. Next time, please don’t comfort me again.
The tyrant must have been secretly reading too many of Mr. Fortune’s books.
After two seconds of silence, Yun Yaoyao suddenly spoke with a solemn expression. “I can’t take this anymore. I want two days off.”
Having only one day of rest every ten days during winter was torture. It was time to make some adjustments.
“Dual cultivation?!” Tu Shanjin’s pupils widened in shock, and his voice was filled with disbelief.
Yun Yaoyao nodded. “Yes, a two-day break. Don’t you think it’s time we had two days off?”
Her blunt words short-circuited Tu Shanjin’s mind. His thoughts began to race.
The Book of Life and Death was currently inside his male body. After being pent up for so long, and considering how deeply she was devoted to him, it was understandable that she would want dual cultivation.
Of course, she could only cultivate with him.
However, the dual cultivation he had imagined would take place after the two of them switched back and properly consummated their relationship.
At the thought of what that scene might look like, the tips of Tu Shanjin’s ears turned bright red.
But the Book of Life and Death was clearly too eager now...
Yun Yaoyao stared at Tu Shanjin in confusion as he stood there, obviously thinking about all sorts of nonsense. “Are you taking that as a yes?”
“Fine. I’ll think about how we should arrange this dual cultivation later.”
Even if implementing a two-day weekend was impractical given the current state of the court, they could at least switch to a single day off.
“Wait!” Tu Shanjin was about to speak, but by then they had already reached the Xuanzheng Hall, and Yun Yaoyao had walked in without even looking back.
Dual cultivation, dual cultivation...
At that moment, Tu Shanjin’s mind was filled entirely with thoughts of how to deal with the dual cultivation later.
Yun Yaoyao entered the Xuanzheng Hall and took her seat upon the imperial throne.
Most of the ministers below looked as though they had yet to wake up but had been forcibly booted up anyway. Their vacant eyes stared ahead, while their court robes were slightly damp from the mist. They stood there listlessly.
The enormous Xuanzheng Hall was filled with an icy chill.
Cold on top of cold.
Truly enough to give anyone a palace chill!
Yun Yaoyao withdrew her gaze in satisfaction. Seeing that everyone looked just as miserable as she felt, she was reassured!
The only exceptions were the censors, who had gained another KPI after catching Yun Yaoyao sneaking out of the palace yet again the previous day. Seizing the opportunity, they excitedly began their performance.
With so many lice, who could still be afraid of a few more bites? Yun Yaoyao simply treated their display as a colorful performance put on for her amusement.
It was clear that the censors genuinely loved their jobs. After a rousing round of remonstrating at the risk of their lives, they successfully warmed up the atmosphere.
The Du faction began stirring up trouble and flexing its muscles, submitting a joint memorial.
“Your Majesty, the imperial harem has no mistress, and proper etiquette has fallen into disarray. We, your subjects, humbly request that Your Majesty establish an empress at the earliest opportunity to preside over the inner palace!”
