Chapter 82
With the Emperor’s decree, Cining Palace fell into complete silence.
The only sound came from the Empress Dowager directing the eunuchs as they moved the Guanyin statue.
Even the Crown Prince seemed to be in shock. After a brief pause, he hurried forward, knelt beside the Empress, and pleaded, “Father! Please quell your anger! What crime has my mother committed to deserve such a punishment?”
The Emperor pressed his fingers against his throbbing temples, suddenly looking years older.
He gazed down at the mother and son before him, momentarily at a loss for words.
Just days ago, the Crown Prince had regained his authority to oversee state affairs. Never in his wildest dreams did he imagine he would go from the heights of power to the depths of despair in an instant.
He had thought that with his reinstatement, it was only a matter of time before his mother’s house arrest would be lifted and she would reclaim the phoenix seal.
But instead of her reinstatement, what he got was her deposition.
Su Wan’ning, standing behind them, was also wide-eyed in shock, utterly unable to comprehend what had happened.
After all the careful maneuvering she had done—why had things turned out this way?
The Emperor finally spoke. He slowly closed his eyes, clearly suffering from a severe headache.
His slightly hoarse voice echoed through Cining Palace: “I… had intended to leave you, the Yin family, and Pingwu with some final dignity. But you yourself have forced me to issue this decree now.”
The Empress was dumbfounded, and the gathered officials’ wives witnessed firsthand what it meant to serve a ruler as unpredictable as a tiger.
In an instant, the Empress was dragged out by the eunuchs, yet the Emperor never provided a reason.
Lu Hanzhi clenched the gold-inlaid jade waist token in his hand and asked Yuwen Min in a strained voice, “That escalated quickly!”
Yuwen Min responded, “As expected.”
Lu Hanzhi fell into thought. This must be what Yuwen Min meant when he said, ‘How can one tolerate another’s peaceful slumber beside one’s own bed?’
The Emperor abolished the Empress’s title with just two words: unvirtuous and unworthy. Yet, he gave no further explanation.
The truth was that his reasoning wouldn’t hold up under scrutiny.
Even if an investigation was conducted, there were only two possible outcomes.
One, if it was true that the Yin family had secretly raised assassins, then the entire Yin clan would be uprooted.
Two, if it was false, then someone had framed them.
While identifying the culprit behind the framing might be difficult, understanding their motive was simple.
The Emperor was well aware that whoever framed the Yin family wanted to bring them down—and that person was inevitably tied to the Rong family.
For years, the Emperor had been suppressing the Rong clan. Now, they had been pushed to their limits. If he pressed them any further, there would likely be a backlash.
The Emperor had always been lenient toward the Yin family, but such leniency had also fostered their arrogance.
To maintain balance, he needed a solution that would prevent both factions from succeeding in their schemes.
Thus, he abolished the Yin family’s influence within the palace as a warning that they had overreached.
At the same time, he continued to support the Crown Prince, ensuring the Rong family had no opportunity to take advantage.
At times, even an emperor felt helpless. He knew he was negotiating with a tiger, yet he still had to use it.
If he killed everyone who opposed him over a single disagreement, he’d soon find himself with no one left to govern.
Just like that infamous tyrant—who, after ascending the throne, executed nearly all his officials until only a handful remained in court. Eventually, he found life unbearably dull and set himself on fire.
But one had to admit, Yuwen Min truly understood his father to the core.
The Emperor was deeply paranoid, overthought everything, and—
Worst of all—he was terrible at handling people. He neglected what needed discipline while meddling unnecessarily with what didn’t.
The Rong family had been a clan of loyal warriors, their sons and grandsons buried across five frontiers—yet their devotion only led to despair within the military.
When would the Emperor finally understand the principle of trust those you use, and do not use those you distrust?
A man with the most reason to rebel had never once done so, yet even such restraint failed to awaken the Emperor.
Perhaps his childhood trauma of witnessing his maternal relatives meddling in politics had terrified him into pretending to sleep ever since.
Returning from the Empress Dowager’s birthday banquet, Lu Hanzhi sighed in contemplation.
Tugging at Yuwen Min’s sleeve, he kept talking: “What exactly does your father mean by giving me this gold-inlaid jade waist token? Does he plan to promote you? You don’t have a birth mother of noble status, nor have you shown any ambition—is he thinking of grooming you?”
Yuwen Min replied, “Impossible. He will still pass the throne to the Crown Prince.”
Lu Hanzhi’s mouth twitched. “And yet he abolished his mother’s position as Empress?”
Note: his mother sounds like f him in Chinese slang.
After saying that, he realized he had just cursed aloud.
Fortunately, Yuwen Min didn’t seem to notice. He explained, “No matter how much the Empress loves her son, she is still a maternal relative. The Emperor fears external influence in politics—the more power she grasps, the more wary he becomes. Besides, if he hadn’t given the waist token to you, he would have given it to someone else. It was merely a move to publicly disgrace the Empress.”
Lu Hanzhi said, “I think I get it now—it’s like removing the mother but keeping the son?”
Yuwen Min nodded. “That’s more or less it.”
Lu Hanzhi asked again, “Does he really favor Yuwen Jun that much?”
Yuwen Min replied, “Because he looks like Yin Pingwu.”
“Wow?” Lu Hanzhi was stunned, then quickly nodded. “Right, right—nephews often resemble their uncles.”
—
That night, the Prime Minister Yin Cheng, entered the palace to meet the Emperor and didn’t leave until the third watch.
Lu Hanzhi received a message from the palace—no doubt sent out by Eunuch Wu.
The letter stated that Prime Minister Yin had repeatedly sworn his loyalty, furiously denounced those who framed his family, and even offered to retire to his hometown to prove his innocence.
The Empress had indeed behaved improperly by publicly contradicting the Emperor, so her removal was justified. However, the Crown Prince was blameless, and Yin Cheng pleaded that the Emperor not direct his anger at him.
The outcome was exactly as Yuwen Min had predicted—the Crown Prince remained the Crown Prince.
He would continue to oversee the government and handle state affairs, completely unaffected by the Empress’s downfall.
Leaning against the headboard, Lu Hanzhi clicked his tongue in amazement.
The fate of the court really depended on the type of ruler sitting on the throne.
Lu Hanzhi rubbed his temples and asked, “Husband, is there a faster way to seize power?”
Yuwen Min replied, “Yes—kill them all.”
Lu Hanzhi: “Cough, cough, cough… Forget I asked.”
Clearly, even without turning into a tyrant, Yuwen Min still carried a heavy aura of bloodshed.
But since Lu Hanzhi had helped temper his violent tendencies before, he probably wouldn’t become ruthless now… right?
Yuwen Min glanced at the startled Lu Hanzhi before reassuring him, “Don’t worry, I won’t do that. If I were planning to, I wouldn’t have spent so long scheming.”
After all, if he truly went on a killing spree, none of these people would stand a chance.
Lu Hanzhi turned over and gazed at the man sitting before the bed. He asked, “Oh? Then have you thought about how you would govern the country if you became Emperor?”
Yuwen Min frowned and shook his head.
Why would he bother thinking that far ahead?
The Great Zhao dynasty had won the world through conquest, yet their founding Emperor hadn’t spent his campaigns worrying about governance.
Lu Hanzhi pondered for a moment before saying, “Look at Great Zhao—such a vast nation, yet even in the outskirts of the capital, you’ll find countless unburied corpses. A true ruler doesn’t just think about keeping his throne; he should also consider the welfare of his people. Whatever you do, just don’t end up like your father—he still hasn’t figured out how to be an Emperor.”
Yuwen Min stared at Lu Hanzhi for a long time without looking away.
Lu Hanzhi touched his cheek again and asked, “Do I have words carved on my face?”
Yuwen Min pulled a stool over in front of Lu Hanzhi and said, “Then tell me, how should this country be governed?”
Lu Hanzhi sat cross-legged and replied, “Look, the entire Great Zhao has millions of people, yet most of them are slaves. They have the same productivity, the same value, yet they can only serve the nobility, treated as private property. But they could serve the nation instead—generate revenue, increase the GDP… However, that would mean a significant decrease in the treasury’s income. Hmm… This world belongs to the people, not the nobility, and certainly not the emperor alone. Instead of figuring out how to hold on to the throne, wouldn’t it be better to find a way to make the people willingly support your rule? Since ancient times, those who win the people’s hearts win the world. If you let the people live good lives, they will let you be a good emperor. That way, everyone gets what they want, and you can rest easy.”
After hearing Lu Hanzhi’s words, Yuwen Min fell silent for a moment.
It was the first time he had ever heard such an outrageous statement. After all, in his understanding, people were not born equal.
Even among princes, his fate was to grow up alone in a secluded palace, while the crown prince was born the chosen one.
What was even more absurd was that everyone under heaven accepted this rule.
Birth determined destiny—no one could escape this shackle.
He couldn’t even imagine a world without slaves or servants, where everyone served only their country and family.
Yet, for some reason, as he thought about it, he felt that what Lu Hanzhi said was the way the world should be.
Lu Hanzhi, however, simply lay back down and said, “But this world and that world are separated by an impassable chasm. It’s not that easy to achieve.”
Even if that system would be much better for his GDP growth.
Just as Yuwen Min was about to say something else, he realized that Lu Hanzhi had already fallen asleep on the couch.
He stood up, pulled the blanket over him, then turned and quietly left the room.
Lu Hanzhi slept soundly and woke up the next day to find it was the sixteenth of the twelfth lunar month.
Despite the tense political atmosphere at court, it did not affect the festive mood as people prepared for the New Year.
The Han Ji Porcelain Workshop, which he had been preparing for a long time, finally opened as scheduled just before the year-end.
As expected, the delicate, jade-like white porcelain and the exquisitely patterned colored porcelain were immediately in high demand, selling out as soon as they hit the market.
Also as expected, that same day, he completed the third phase of his mission.
Listening to the system notifications announcing each mission’s completion, Lu Hanzhi felt an almost euphoric rush.
He excitedly waved his hands and immediately ran to his mental space to claim his rewards.
He received thirty exchange points, an additional twenty points as a bonus for completing this phase, four treasure chests, and a notification about the loyalty index cap for the monarch.
Four treasure chests! Hopefully, they wouldn’t disappoint him—maybe he could get something truly valuable.
But he wasn’t sure about his luck. He thought about heading to Yuwen-Autumn to steal some of his fortune.
Then again, he reconsidered— Yuwen-Autumn might be just as unlucky as him.
On top of that, he had also triggered a new strategy mission related to the monarch.
Lu Hanzhi knew just how generous the rewards for these missions were, even if they required some unusual behavior.
But of course, he had to accept it!
Without hesitation, he ran to the mission center and activated the new monarch-related quest.
The system notification immediately followed:
“Congratulations, Host! You have successfully accepted the new loyalty mission for the monarch. This time, your mission is—engage in a deep conversation with the monarch.”
Lu Hanzhi: ???
System, could you please explain what kind of ‘deep’ conversation this is supposed to be?
Your favorite BL chaos wouldn’t be possible without coffee… lots of coffee….
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