Zhang Zhongping still had a bit of sweat on his forehead, which he didn't even have time to wipe before bowing and replying, "Your Majesty, we have carefully checked the dowry for the Princess. Everything is in order, with no omissions."
Emperor Mingxi nodded, waved his large sleeve, and said, "Begin!"
Zhang Zhongping immediately assented.
As he turned, he straightened his ceremonial attire and announced loudly: The auspicious hour has arrived!
Palace music began to play, solemn and distant. Surrounded by court ladies and palace maids, the figure of Princess Pingning, Xie Zhiyao, finally appeared beneath the Chengtian Gate.
She wore a headdress adorned with nine kingfisher feathers and four phoenixes, encircled by pearls and jade, and a grand, wide-sleeved robe of bright red woven with gold and embroidered phoenixes, cinched at the waist with a jade belt. She looked dignified, elegant, and flawless.
However, Yue Fuguang noticed that beneath her overly large ceremonial robes, Xie Zhiyao did not possess the same fullness of figure as when they had first met.
Her face was covered with thick powder, revealing no expression whatsoever.
Supported by palace attendants, she performed a solemn ceremony of three kneelings and nine prostrations before Emperor Mingxi, a daughter's farewell to the family elders.
Emperor Mingxi offered her a few words of encouragement, flowery and formal. The illiterate Yue Fuguang only grasped the gist: to live peacefully among the Western Qiang and not to engage in any improper conduct.
After speaking, he waved her off with a rather sorrowful expression on his face. In truth, Emperor Mingxi's patience was already worn thin. His already tenuous uncle-niece affection for her had been utterly exhausted since learning of Prince Qi's secret plot to rebel, in which Xie Zhiyao was involved.
Moreover, just yesterday he had received intelligence that, even on the eve of her distant marriage, his dear niece was still not quiet, making small moves incessantly.
Thanks to her maneuvers, his men had actually discovered two more small courtyards where she had hidden people, capturing over a dozen servants Xie Zhiyao had prepared to plant within the palace and the households of several important officials.
Xie Zhiyao did not glance at Prince Qi or the Prince and Princess Consort even once throughout the ceremony. Only when she boarded the phoenix carriage and looked back one final time did she exchange an almost imperceptible glance with Prince Qi.
As her gaze swept around, it passed over the small figure of Yue Fuguang standing beside the Crown Prince. Deep within her eyes flashed a sliver of killing intent so swift it could be mistaken for an illusion.
This murderous intent was swiftly detected by the system. [Host, Xie Zhiyao's desire to kill you has grown stronger. The hatred of the Prince Qi family towards you has increased from negative twenty at the time of the assassination attempt to negative fifty now.
Especially Xie Zhiyao's, which plummeted from negative fifty to negative sixty-eight. She's leaving now, but could she still have a backup plan to act against you?]
"With Emperor Mingxi watching, nothing major can go wrong. Furthermore, once the Prince Qi household falls, those people will become snakes without heads, dogs without a home."
[What if she gains power in Western Qiang and returns for revenge?]
"Then we simply don't give her the chance to gain power. With Emperor Mingxi's people watching, and the contingency you planted on her, if she doesn't sow chaos within the Western Qiang royal family but instead helps them develop power to oppose Dayan...
Then we eliminate her physically. Anyone or anything that hinders us from completing our mission is our enemy."
And enemies must, of course, be thoroughly eradicated.
The Vice Minister of Rites then raised his voice in a loud chant, the sound echoing across the empty square. Every word and phrase spoke of "the peace and prosperity of the state" and "eternal alliance and friendship"—high-sounding rhetoric that likely few truly believed.
"System, this is Dayan's last political marriage alliance, right?"
[Host, we've already received the mission points, so it's definitely the last. Back when you were in school, the court already debated and abolished the state-level policy of external political marriage alliances.]
"I didn't expect it to be passed so quickly. Weren't those pedantic scholars vehemently opposing it just before the new year? They even dragged out 'the laws of the ancestors must not be lightly discarded.'"
[Hehehe, didn't the Emperor use your suggestion? First, he threw out the question: who opposes? If there are more political marriages, their female family members can go.
There really were those who sought fame by sacrificing their daughters, like that old Hanlin academician Kong Ru, a secretary from the Ministry of Rites named Song Tao, and a few others.
Then Emperor Mingxi tossed out another line: all relatives of anyone involved in a political marriage must relocate to the border after the daughter's marriage, because the Emperor couldn't bear to see families separated. Such is the vastness of imperial grace, allowing the bride's family to live closer to the married daughter.
Once that was said, those people immediately fell in line! Hahaha!]
Amidst the system's laughter, the phoenix carriage slowly began to move. The wheels pressed against the bluestone pavement, emitting a rumbling sound.
The hooves of the escorting cavalry beat in unison, their armor clanging, adding to the austere and solemn atmosphere.
Watching the departing dowry carts, then observing the composed Emperor Mingxi, Zhang Zhongping, and the others, Yue Fuguang was very curious about how they had handled the contents of the last few carts.
"System, judging by the Emperor's demeanor, it seems the task was accomplished. Do you know how Zhang Zhongping and the others managed it in the end?"
After all, the dowry had already been loaded onto the carts, cataloged, and displayed publicly. Replacing it in a short time couldn't have been easy.
[Host, they loaded several carts with similar-looking items and swapped them out when leaving the city. The classical texts weren't replaced, but the agricultural manuals and technical books were swapped for storybooks, Buddhist sutras, and the like.
I noticed that over half the storybooks were tales of poor scholars and rich young ladies, or scholars and various spirits and monsters. So they're not just poisoning the minds of Dayan's young ladies, but continuing with the young women of Western Qiang!]
Yue Fuguang understood. This type of storybook was the most common on Dayan's markets. The Ministry of Rites probably found it hard to find anything else.
"What about the other items?"
[I heard the seeds will be half-roasted. The tools were all swapped for models from decades ago—not only cumbersome but also having many parts, making them time-consuming and labor-intensive to manufacture.
The artisans are untouched. They are all household slaves or apprentices from the Prince Qi estate, used to assisting master craftsmen in daily tasks. None possess any real technical skill.]
Yue Fuguang also felt relieved. She had been worried that a misstep might increase the difficulty of completing her mission.
The carriage bells jingled incessantly, shaken by the bumpy ride, emitting crisp ding-dong sounds from time to time. The procession escorting the bride stretched from within the imperial city all the way outside its walls, flowing slowly and irrevocably towards the northwest.
There lay Western Qiang, destined to clash with Dayan eventually. Yue Fuguang hoped this piece, Xie Zhiyao, truly possessed the unorthodox talent the system mentioned. Otherwise, she'd feel her loss was immense—after all, Xie Zhiyao had played a part in that assassination attempt too.
Yue Fuguang considered herself not a magnanimous person. Sparing an enemy's life only happened if letting them live proved more useful.
The figure in red on the phoenix carriage, bearing her boundless expectations, completely disappeared at the edge of her vision. The Chengtian Gate slowly closed once more with a dull, heavy thud, shutting everything outside the palace walls.
The morning sunlight finally completely dispersed the thin mist, bathing the Imperial Way in golden light that shone upon the now empty square, where the faint traces of cart wheels could still be seen.
Yue Fuguang couldn't help but yawn again. Time to go home and catch up on sleep!
After seeing off Xie Zhiyao, Yue Fuguang returned to her routine of court attendance and studies.
At the Hongwen Academy, Yue Fuguang grumbled about how tiring traditional characters were for the hand while swiftly taking notes with a marker pen.
Swish, swish, swish—the sound of her pen tip against the paper drew sidelong glances from her focused classmates.
Yue Fuguang had retained her habit from her previous life: she liked taking notes in class. Using a brush to write slowly was fine, but for note-taking, it simply couldn't keep up with the teacher's pace.
