Chapter 62
By the time he spoke the last sentence, Emperor Xuanning's voice was so faint it could barely be heard, and his half-propped-up body went limp.
The imperial physicians rushed forward to check his pulse. After several of them tried administering a few acupuncture points, they reported back with mournful faces, "His Majesty has ascended to immortality."
The room was instantly filled with the sound of weeping. Empress Dowager Li cried so hard she nearly fainted. Chief Minister Li was weeping bitterly himself, yet he still had to attend to Empress Dowager Li, looking utterly distraught.
Among all the people crying in the great hall, how many of them were truly grieving?
Cui Lanyin could not tell, and even Empress Dowager Li was mostly crying out of fear for what the future held.
Faced with the chaotic mess before her, Cui Lanyin felt completely at a loss. It seemed she should not be staying here.
Her hand was suddenly pulled, and it was Prince Wei. He nodded toward the outer chamber and said, "Help the Empress Dowager to go sit elsewhere."
Everything felt just like a dream. Cui Lanyin was still in a daze at the moment, and without someone guiding her, she could not move or speak on her own.
"Oh!" She stood up like a wooden puppet, went over to support Empress Dowager Chen, and parroted, "My cousin uncle told me to help you go sit outside."
Years of forbearance had all been for this very moment, yet Empress Dowager Chen did not look particularly triumphant.
Emperor Xuanning had been raised by her from the day he was born, and only moved to the Eastern Palace when he was nine years old. There must have been a time of loving mother and filial son between them back then. Now that he was gone, all the grudges and resentments were wiped away. In such a scene, it was inevitable for her to feel a deep sense of melancholy.
Hearing what Cui Lanyin said, the look on Empress Dowager Chen's face softened a great deal, and she let the girl help her out to the luohan couch in the outer chamber to sit down.
She had barely sat down when they heard Chief Minister Li crying from inside the room, "A nation cannot go a single day without a ruler. I humbly beg Your Highness the Prince to ascend the throne as soon as possible, so that the Late Emperor may depart in peace."
The room fell silent for a moment, then Grand Secretary Shen and the other senior officials followed suit, saying in unison, "We humbly beg Your Highness the Prince to ascend the throne as soon as possible."
Then came a chorus of plopping sounds as everyone dropped to their knees. The assembled officials shouted in one voice, "Long live Your Majesty!"
The Li clan did not rise to their current status for no reason at all.
Chief Minister Li had responded so swiftly that even Grand Secretary Shen and the others could not keep up.
On an occasion like this, it had been proven countless times that the first person to invite the new emperor to take the throne would definitely leave a favorable impression on him. Even if that person had once been someone the new emperor disfavored, their impression would be completely turned around.
Sure enough, when Grand Secretary Shen came out to assign tasks later, the chagrin on his face was impossible to hide.
There were funeral arrangements to be made, and preparations for the new emperor's ascension to the throne to be organized. Countless matters were waiting to be dealt with.
The two empress dowagers were advanced in age and should not remain in this chamber. Chief Minister Li called over the attendants who had come with Empress Dowager Li and had them carry her back to the Fu'an Palace.
Amid the flurry of activity, Prince Wei came over to Empress Dowager Chen and said, "Let Lanyin stay with you as you return to your palace."
Empress Dowager Chen did not add to his troubles. She stood up, holding Cui Lanyin's hand, and walked out. After two steps, without turning her head, she said in a low, steady voice, "The agreement we made years ago ends here. You may handle the rest as you see fit."
Prince Wei responded with an "mm-hmm", then summoned Gufeng and said, "Escort the Empress Dowager... and the Second Miss back."
Cui Lanyin was regaining some of her senses. Realizing that this was a time when everyone was needed to help, she stopped Gufeng and said, "Where is Uncle Qian? We can head back on our own, you don't need to come."
Qian He slapped Gufeng on the shoulder. "I know the palace grounds better than you do. You stay here and look after the Prince more closely."
Gufeng glanced at Prince Wei. He knew he was far less capable than Buyan, and most of the time he could not guess what Prince Wei was thinking. Even now, he compromised, "I will escort you out of the Benyuan Palace before I come back. Right now, all the officials are hurrying into the palace, and the place is packed tight with people. I can clear a path so you may travel smoothly."
Empress Dowager Chen still refused to have a palanquin called, saying much the same as before, "I want to take a walk."
But her state of mind was completely different from when she had come earlier.
"Cousin uncle, please take care of yourself." At this moment, Cui Lanyin really did not know what else to say. She supported the Empress Dowager as they walked out.
Prince Wei called out to her from behind, "Lanyin!"
Cui Lanyin turned around, but Prince Wei only looked at her for a moment before waving his hand and saying, "Go on now."
The group exited through the back main gate of the Benyuan Palace, stepped down from the rear eave corridor, and were crossing the courtyard to leave through the back gate when they saw Wen Song leading several eunuchs carrying chests inside.
Seeing Empress Dowager Chen, he hurriedly stepped forward to pay his respects.
Empress Dowager Chen waved a hand. "Go attend to your duties."
Wen Song stepped back to make way, but as Cui Lanyin walked past him, he suddenly called out, "This must be Second Miss Cui, right?"
Cui Lanyin stopped and curtsied. "It is I."
Wen Song nodded, then said to Empress Dowager Chen, "Later, all the imperial wives and noble ladies will enter the palace to mourn at the late Emperor's wake. We cannot let Second Miss Cui get jostled or bumped into in the chaos. What do you say..."
Seeing Empress Dowager Chen's face darken, he added humbly, "The Miss Li staying in the Fu'an Palace is set to leave the palace tomorrow morning. This whole matter is taking place right as the new Emperor is taking over the reins, and His Majesty does not like to speak many words..."
Cui Lanyin tugged at the sleeve of Empress Dowager Chen's robe and said, "Eunuch Wen is quite right. It really is improper for me to remain in the palace right now. I will leave the first thing tomorrow as soon as the palace gates are opened."
Wen Song praised her repeatedly, "Second Miss Cui is the most understanding and reasonable person there could ever be."
Qian He spat in the direction of Wen Song's back. "Ugh, what a piece of work. He hasn't even settled into his new position yet and he's already putting on airs, ordering us around like he's our superior."
After returning to the Funing Palace, Empress Dowager Chen, who had been silent all the way, sighed softly. "Does everyone who sits on that throne have to change?"
She then spoke solemnly to Qi An and the others, "The resentment I had been holding in has finally dissipated. From now on, we will close our doors and live our own lives. You do not need to keep picking on the people in Fu'an Palace anymore. After all, she is the new Emperor's biological grandmother. Filial piety is expected everywhere, and someone sitting on the throne must set a good example for it."
Qi An and the rest were not happy about this, but they knew what Empress Dowager Chen said was the truth. They had seen so many people in the palace rise to glory and then fall from grace. Prince Wei's relationship with Empress Dowager Chen was different from ordinary adoptive grandmother and grandson. They had joined forces in the first place on mutually agreed terms.
Everything Empress Dowager Chen had asked for, Prince Wei had delivered without fail. What he did from now on would be entirely up to him.
Now that Prince Wei had become the Emperor, no one could tell what was going on in his mind.
Emperor Gaozong had once seemed so deeply and unwaveringly in love with Empress Dowager Chen, but after Empress Dowager Li gave birth to a son for him, he gradually shifted all his favor to her side.
On his deathbed, he regretted it. He thought he had made it up to Empress Dowager Chen by leaving her the hidden Lin Guard and letting her pick the imperial heir she favored most. But how could that ever make up for the pain?
To have the person you love turn away from you and side with the person you hate the most, yet still have to face them day after day—those dozen years of suffering Empress Dowager Chen went through were unbearable for ordinary people to even imagine.
If they had not been in the imperial family, with her temperament she would have demanded a separation and left. But back then, she could only swallow her pain and bear it in silence.
If even Emperor Gaozong could be like that, what good could anyone else expect?
Then there was Emperor Xuanning. Empress Dowager Chen had raised him as if he were her own son for nine years, but he had turned out to be an ungrateful wretch. The moment he ascended the throne, he did not even bother to pretend for a few days before switching loyalties to his biological mother and his uncle, Chief Minister Li.
Compared to them, Prince Wei was truly a rare man of conscience and integrity. He had kept every promise he made without cutting corners. Even if his thoughts changed later, he would surely treat her better than those two men did.
But after all, times were different now. They needed to be wise and know their place.
If they showed they were understanding, the new Emperor would surely still look after them here. That would be more than enough. The rest of Empress Dowager Chen's days would certainly be more free and comfortable than they had been when Emperor Xuanning was still alive.
Having thought this through, Qi An, Aunt Xia, and Aunt Gao all responded in unison.
Empress Dowager Chen then looked at Qian He. "You too need to rein in your temper. Do not be arrogant or overstep your bounds from now on."
Qian He only gave a muffled acknowledgement in response.
Empress Dowager Chen pulled Cui Lanyin into her embrace. "My poor Lanyin, you've been wronged. Once the mourning period is over, we'll pick a perfect match for you and arrange a grand wedding. I'll even ask His Majesty for extra favors to put together a 128-palanquin dowry for you. With me backing you up, that entire household will have to watch your every wish and act according to your whims."
Hearing that she no longer mentioned Prince Wei being her support, Cui Lanyin felt a sharp, tugging sensation in her chest, and an uncomfortable feeling kept spreading through her.
She had thought she would have to wait quite a while longer, but was this the moment they were supposed to part ways amicably?
It made sense, after all. From what all the court officials had just said, Prince Wei would ascend the throne right before the late Emperor's bier the very next morning. After that, he would take up permanent residence in the Benyuan Palace, and would rarely leave the palace unless there was urgent business. The Prince Wei Mansion would then become a former imperial residence, left empty and unoccupied.
She had spent the first half of the night panicking over what would happen if their coup failed, but the moment they succeeded, before her joy and excitement could even settle in, she was faced with this quiet parting with no proper goodbye. Was this the way members of the imperial family always treated each other?
The promise she had made to Prince Wei, that the two of them would try to get along for a year, would no longer hold any weight, of course.
She had always looked up to Prince Wei as an elder, and had never managed to adjust her feelings over these past days. Logically, she should have felt relieved at this turn of events, but right now there was a wad of cotton stuck in her chest. It had no weight, yet it made it hard for her to breathe, and every few moments she had to heave a long sigh.
It must be because they would no longer be able to enjoy that close, uncle-niece dynamic they used to have, she reasoned with herself amid her deep sense of loss.
She thought back to when she was leaving earlier, how Prince Wei had called out to her only to say nothing in the end. Was that his way of saying goodbye?
From now on, things would never be the same between them again.
After such a harrowing, tumultuous night, everyone was worn out. No one felt like talking any more after that, and they all washed up and went to their respective beds.
Cui Lanyin was jolted awake by the non-stop tolling of bells. She stared blankly for a good while before she realized the sound was the official announcement to the entire realm that a generation's emperor had passed away.
After the bells rang exactly eighty-one times, Cui Lanyin had Aiye and Sangzhi help her wash and dress. She picked out a plain white blouse and skirt, and didn't wear any ornaments in her hair at all. Everything about her appearance was perfectly proper for the occasion, and then she made her way over to Empress Dowager Chen's chambers.
No meat was allowed during the imperial mourning period, and Empress Dowager Chen's place was no exception. Neither of them had much of an appetite, so they ordered plain noodle soup and ate it in silence, sitting across from one another.
When they finished their meal, Cui Lanyin stood up to take her leave. "I'll head off now, then?"
Empress Dowager Chen pulled her over, smoothing out the creases on her neat little robe over and over again. "Don't let this frighten you. Things aren't that bad. Once the mourning period ends, you can still come visit me here just as you used to. After all that time as uncle and niece, even though you can't be as close as before, he will surely look out for you."
Cui Lanyin smiled to reassure her. "I know. It's just that from now on, it won't be proper to call him 'Cousin Uncle' any more."
Empress Dowager Chen nodded in agreement. "That's right. You absolutely can't call him that anymore."
Everyone else had come to the palace to mourn before the late Emperor, so Li Yixin and Cui Lanyin, as they walked out of the palace together, stood out very noticeably.
That morning, the palace gates were lined with heavy troops. Chiyun swept her gaze across the guards, then turned back to Cui Lanyin. "Second Miss, all the guards at the gate are new faces. I wonder if the old ones will ever be transferred back."
A new emperor brings new officials. After the recent palace unrest, such a key location as the palace gates was bound to get a full change of guards.
As they chatted about the changes at the palace gate, there was a man who could not tear his eyes away from their departing carriage.
The figure he had caught a glimpse of through the fleeting gap in the carriage curtains earlier, even if it was only a side profile, was so stunningly graceful that it was beyond description. That must be what a peerless, breathtaking beauty looked like.
Coming back to his senses, the cold, stern military officer turned to the people beside him and asked, "Which family's young lady is that?"
Since he had only arrived in Yingcheng a month ago, the others explained to him, "Commander Meng, you wouldn't know. There's hardly a person in Yingcheng who doesn't know her. That's Second Miss Cui of the Earl of Wu'an's main household. People here nickname her 'Fierce Second Cui'. She can walk all over Yingcheng doing whatever she wants, and no one dares to cross her."
"Empress Dowager Chen and Prince Wei—oh no, His present Majesty—dote on her so much. If anyone ever picks a fight with her, both the Empress Dowager and the Emperor will defend her no matter who's in the right or wrong."
"But I heard that Miss Cui Lan has a weak constitution, and it seems she might have trouble bearing children. Otherwise, the threshold of her family's manor would have been worn down by all the suitors coming to ask for her hand."
"Now that His Majesty is ascending the throne, who would care if she has trouble bearing children? Just wait and see, all the noble lords and ministers' households will be lining up to propose marriage to her."
...
So this was the famous Second Miss Cui. Meng Huaizong stared at the disappearing carriage, lost in thought, remembering that his own mother had once considered asking for her hand in marriage for him.
Outside the imperial city, columns of Golden Guard soldiers patrolled the streets.
It hadn't only been the palace that saw bloodshed last night. Chaos had spread across the whole city: mobs had taken advantage of the unrest to attack many court officials' manors. Fortunately, all the scholar-official households kept a large number of private guards, and with their help, the masters and servants of each household fought side by side to barely hold their grounds and keep the intruders from breaking in.
Nearly the entire city of Yingcheng had stayed awake all through last night.
When the mourning bells rang in the morning and people learned that Emperor Xuanning had passed away, the whole city fell into a state of panic. The streets and alleys of Yingcheng were almost completely empty, with barely any people walking about.
Cui Lanyin was worried about her family, so she ordered the carriage to head straight for the Cui Manor.
Inside the Benyuan Palace, after ascending the throne before the late Emperor's bier, all the court officials had started addressing Prince Wei as "Your Majesty".
Even though every procedure followed long-standing precedents, everything was still so busy that he barely had a moment to catch his breath.
The series of rituals for the funeral alone were so complicated that they were enough to make anyone want to bang their head against a pillar. On top of that, preparations for the grand enthronement ceremony 27 days later had to be arranged, and he also had to go before the bier to mourn and weep. Since the new Emperor was a man of few words, every court official had to constantly guess what his hidden intentions were for every single matter. In just half a morning, the officials all looked as if they had aged several years.
There was no time to interrogate the people involved in the forced coup last night. All those implicated had been locked up in the imperial prison. As for Prince Kang, he was ordered to keep vigil for the late Emperor first. His restraints were removed, and he was guarded by imperial escorts as he knelt in the mourning hall together with Prince An and the other princes.
After the noon sacrificial wine ceremony and formal salutations, Buyan and Gufeng followed the Emperor back to the West Pavilion, where he would reside and carry out his duties throughout the mourning period.
Buyan handed over a cup of hot tea, but the Emperor did not take it. He remained seated cross-legged and asked Gufeng, "How are things in the Funing Palace? Where is Second Miss?"
Gufeng froze for a moment. "Didn't Chief Steward Wen tell you? Second Miss left the palace early this morning."
"Why did she leave the palace?" The Emperor's expression did not change, but Gufeng could feel an intangible, heavy air of authority pressing down on him.
Here we go, the fight for power and profit has only just begun [grinning emoji].
