19. A piece of candy in his palm.

◎Enmity Ends◎

It was half a month later when the carriage entered the gates of Kyoto.

Cui Xun escorted Hua Yao to the entrance of the Prime Minister's residence. He first lifted the curtain and got out of the carriage, then let her take his arm and bent down to instruct her, "Take it easy."

After he finished speaking, he raised his eyes and nodded slightly to the Hua family members waiting at the entrance of the Prime Minister's residence.

After Hua Yao landed safely, he gave her a few more instructions. As he turned to get into the carriage, Hua Yanbo's voice came from behind him, "Duke, please wait."

Inside the study, Hua Yanbo, with a solemn expression, handed a sandalwood box to Cui Xun, saying, "This is something that Empress Xiaochun entrusted to me for safekeeping."

Cui Xun took the box, lifted the lid, and saw what was inside. It contained fragments of his mother's hairpin and jade pendant, whom he had never met, with a secret letter underneath.

He suppressed the pain in his heart and said, "Prime Minister Hua, I will remember this kindness."

Hua Yanbo sighed, "I've kept this hidden all these years, afraid to hand it over, because I was afraid His Majesty's people would find out, and also afraid of implicating the entire Hua family."

He looked at Cui Xun, “Now is the time.”

...

The next morning at court, Cui Xun, carrying the box, caused an uproar in the imperial court.

Dressed in a purple official robe, he waved his sleeves and threw the yellowed scrolls onto the steps in front of the dragon throne with a thud.

The bloodstains on the file had turned black, and mixed among the dense text, they were particularly horrifying. A hairpin also fell with the file.

"What does Your Majesty think?" Cui Xun's voice was not loud, but it made all the officials in the hall dare not breathe.

Seeing this situation, the officials were in an uproar.

When Li Juan saw the phoenix hairpin, his face turned deathly pale. He slammed his fist on the dragon throne and roared, "Cui Xun! You are committing treason by disrespecting your superiors!"

Cui Xun chuckled softly upon hearing this, his tone trailing off with a flippant tone, "Treason?"

"I cannot bear this crime."

The next moment, he stepped onto the imperial steps, his eyes surging with hatred that had lasted for more than a decade. "What I must do," his voice suddenly rose, "is to assassinate the emperor!"

He knew his mother's death was suspicious when he was six and had been secretly investigating ever since. The feeling of knowing who his enemy was but not being able to kill him tormented him every day. Now that the time had come, how could he possibly let him go?

These words caused an uproar in the hall, with officials whispering among themselves, but Hua Yanbo remained calm and composed.

Li Juan, sitting on the throne, turned pale. He hurriedly stood up from the dragon throne, staggered backward, and knocked over the jade cup beside him without caring. "You...you are being insolent!" He pointed at Cui Xun, his voice trembling.

"Someone come here!"

"Protect the Emperor!"

A deathly silence.

The imperial guards outside the palace remained completely still.

Cui Xun's gaze fell on him as if he were an inanimate object. "Your Majesty is now resting on your laurels, but do you still remember Empress Xiaochun, whom you killed?"

The moment the words "Empress Xiaochun" were uttered, several senior officials trembled. Back then, Empress Xiaochun had committed adultery within the palace, yet the Emperor, in his benevolence, allowed her to be buried in the imperial mausoleum. Now that she was being mentioned, could there be some hidden story?

Seeing Li Juan slumped on the ground, Cui Xun pressed on relentlessly, "She's been lying in the ground for twenty-one years. This debt should be settled today!"

Li Juan shuddered, staring intently at Cui Xun's face, then at the phoenix hairpin, his lips trembling, "You...you're that bastard? Impossible! You were clearly already..."

A wandering monk flashed through his mind.

"It's that wandering scholar, it must be him! I will send men to exterminate his entire clan!"

The next second, as if all his strength had been drained, he staggered and fell onto the steps, his fingers frantically digging at the ground. Finally, he touched the phoenix hairpin and grasped at it like a lifeline. "It wasn't me, it wasn't me, Mei'er, it wasn't me, don't blame me."

Cui Xun thought it would take a lot of effort, but he didn't expect that he would already be so crazy after just starting.

But he felt no pleasure, only a dull pain from extreme hatred.

Cui Xun glanced at Hua Yanbo, who was standing at the head of the table. Hua Yanbo understood, took a step forward, took out a yellowed scroll from his sleeve, and held it high above his head.

"This scroll was left by the Duke of Rui before his death. Knowing that he was about to die, he sent this item to me. The memorial in this scroll is about how, twenty-one years ago, His Majesty, in order to cover up the crimes of framing his brothers, harmed Empress Xiaochun and framed her father and brothers for treason, and then poisoned the Duke of Rui!"

He straightened his back, his words striking the ears of everyone in the hall: "Throughout my life, I have been loyal to the emperor and loved the people, working tirelessly day and night without ever daring to slacken my efforts. Yet Your Majesty can frame loyal officials today and unjustly kill virtuous ministers tomorrow. If the blade falls on the necks of any of you colleagues one day, who will be able to speak a word of defense for our innocence?"

The officials in the hall looked at each other, their eyes filled with bewilderment and resentment...

Hearing the whispers in his ear, Cui Xun turned to face the officials, his voice as steady as a mountain, "Your Majesty is morally deficient and unworthy to rule the country!"

"It wasn't me, it wasn't me! Mei'er, I was wrong, I was wrong, Mei'er, please forgive me..."

Looking at Li Juan, who was kneeling on the ground, Cui Xun's lips curled into a sarcastic smile.

He didn't realize his mistake; he probably hated her even more for not taking those secrets with him...

No one knew that Xiao Yimei had long anticipated that the Emperor would silence her.

Under the pretext of visiting her parents' home, she secretly buried the letter under an old tree outside the city. The note with the hiding place written on it was tucked into a jade pendant she kept close to her body, never leaving it behind.

Later at the palace banquet, she arranged for assassins to create chaos.

She stopped the upright and honest Prime Minister Hua, whom her father had mentioned, and hurriedly forced the jade pendant into his hands.

--

That evening, news of the emperor's sudden death spread throughout the court and the public.

Amidst the turmoil in the court and among the people, a veteran official submitted a memorial requesting that Cui Xun ascend the throne.

In front of the entire court, he threw the memorial into the fire; what he wanted was never the throne.

He selected three upright and experienced ministers to assist the young Li Shiyi in governing the country, and set a rule that all matters of military and national importance must be discussed by the three of them before being reported to another department for a final decision.

After making the arrangements, he rode out of the palace at full speed and went straight to a newly cleared open space next to East Street.

Hua Yao was leading craftsmen to repair the courtyard wall of the orphanage. She had her sleeves rolled up, and there was some dust on her forehead.

When she saw him arrive, her eyes lit up. "Is everything taken care of?"

Cui Xun walked over and reached out to wipe away the dust for her. His fingertips were calloused, but his movements were gentle.

"Everything is ready."

The orphanage was completed quickly. The front yard was a school where boys and girls studied together, and next to it was a clinic where Hua Yao practiced medicine and occasionally taught the children how to identify medicines and some first aid methods.

After finishing the trivial matters of assisting the Crown Prince, Cui Xun ran to the Ciyou Hall.

Within six months, other prefectures and cities followed suit. One after another, "charitable schools" opened, and news of girls entering schools spread throughout the country.

On this day, the sunflowers at Salesian Church were in full bloom.

Hua Yao was distributing candy to the children when Cui Xun stood on the veranda watching her. Sunlight fell on her, and it also shone into his heart.

He walked over, "Yao'er."

Hua Yao turned around and met his gentle gaze. She saw him reach out his hand to her, and when she looked down, she saw a piece of candy in his palm.

The two looked at each other and smiled, with the clear laughter of children all around them.

A gentle breeze accompanies the warm sun; life is peaceful and serene.

-----End of article