toss

Cui Lingxian knew that Cui Shenzhi's treatment wasn't very good, after all, Cui Sugong never hid his dislike for Cui Shenzhi. But she really didn't expect it to be this bad. She also didn't expect that her treatment would be several times that of Cui Shenzhi, to the point that Cui Shenzhi and Ping An combined were worse off than she had been back then.

The thought that all these years, she claimed to be taking care of the people in the slums with Choi Shin-ji, but in reality she had been exploiting them made her feel incredibly hypocritical. She felt inferior not only to Choi Shin-ji, with whom she had grown up, but also to An Ping.

Cui Lingxian became increasingly saddened by what she thought about, losing all interest in traveling and spending her days wallowing in self-pity at her and Lu Fengping's lodgings.

Lu Fengping couldn't bear to see Cui Lingxian upset, so he tried his best to comfort her.

“Ling Xian, that’s not your fault. You were unaware of it. It was the Emperor Emeritus and your mother who blinded you, allowing you to indulge in extravagance without realizing it.”

“No,” Cui Lingxian said, leaning against Lu Fengping’s chest with a pained expression. “I should have known. Shen Zhi and I grew up together and I could clearly see the difference in our spending habits, but I never paid any attention to it.”

"Moreover, I went with Shen Zhi when he went to the slums. Along the way, I could see what kind of lives the people were living, but I never cared. Feng Ping, I am, after all, my father and mother's biological daughter. Deep down, I am just as despicable as they are. It's just that they know their own despicableness, while I am despicable without even realizing it."

“No, Ling Xian, calm down. When you were in the palace, your monthly allowance was much higher than Shen Zhi's, but did you use it for enjoyment? No, you used it all to improve the living conditions in the slums. As for your expenses, that was arranged by your mother and father, and you had no say in it.”

"But…"

“Ling Xian,” Lu Fengping interrupted, “you are just a person, not a god. You can’t demand perfection from yourself in everything, and you can’t demean yourself to the dust because of past oversights. You can’t be so cruel to yourself.”

Cui Lingxian didn't say anything more, but her face remained full of worry.

Seeing this, Lu Fengping sighed and took her to a family they had helped a few days ago.

"Auntie, are you home?"

"Yes, yes." A middle-aged woman opened the door and greeted the two warmly: "Why didn't you tell me you were coming? I could have asked the child's father to go to the village to buy some meat and cook you two nice dishes."

Lu Fengping quickly stopped her: "Auntie, I had dinner with Ling Xian before we came. You don't need to bother. We came to see how your daughter's leg is."

The woman's eyes were filled with gratitude as she spoke of this.

"It's much better now! It's all thanks to you. My husband and I didn't know anything about this. We thought she was just making things up because she was being lazy and didn't want to do any work. If it weren't for Miss Chen passing by and insisting that you, Dr. Lu, take a look at my daughter, we would have delayed her treatment. That would have been a lifelong problem!"

"That's good. We won't keep you from having dinner any longer."

After saying that, Lu Fengping led Cui Lingxian to another house.

"Uncle, Lingxian and I have come to see you. How is your hand? Does it still hurt?"

A man who looked somewhat weathered, somewhere between middle-aged and elderly, smiled and said, "I still have some, but it's much better than before. Although I still can't do heavy work, it's enough to help out my family. I'm already very content!"

Hearing this, Lu Fengping quickly reminded him, "Uncle, you have to be careful when helping out. After all, your injury is an old one, and it definitely won't heal in a short time. You have to take it slowly. Also, you have to remember all the precautions I told you, and you have to be careful about what you eat, otherwise your hand will hurt again."

"I know, I know, stop nagging. I really don't know how someone as good as Miss Shen can put up with you," the uncle said with a teasing smile.

Lu Fengping's face quickly turned red.

"Uncle! I came to show my concern for you, why are you..."

Lu Fengping led Cui Lingxian away in a hasty retreat, with the uncle's kind laughter echoing behind them.

Afterwards, Lu Fengping took Cui Lingxian to visit every household in the village. Whether they had helped someone or not, they shamelessly went to visit them for a while before returning to their lodgings.

“Lingxian, even if I’m biased towards you because I love you, what about the people in the village? They have eyes. If you were a despicable person, they wouldn’t like you so much. So don’t think like that anymore. Your mother is your mother, your father is your father, and you are you. The mistakes they made and the sins they committed have nothing to do with you, and you shouldn’t have to suffer because of them.”

Cui Lingxian nodded with a slight smile.

*****

After that court session, Ping An became a regular presence in the court and in the Qianqing Palace. However, unlike the first time he attended court, Ping An never caused any more trouble.

—The main reason is that the government doesn't care about those political affairs at all.

That's not quite right either. It should be said that Ping An simply couldn't understand why government affairs had to be handled that way.

When faced with natural disasters or man-made calamities, one should offer sacrifices to Heaven, issue an edict of self-reproach, and go through the motions. Why be so foolish as to exempt taxes, use national treasury funds for disaster relief, and send people to supervise the process—all that trouble and effort? Those disaster victims have suffered so much; survival is a problem for them. Do you think they can possibly unite and rebel against the court?

In short, Ping An only wanted to enjoy the rights of an emperor, not to bear the obligations of an emperor, and even less to care about the lives of the people.

But when she actually went to court, she found that the so-called supreme power seemed to be nothing more than that. She was able to suppress the ministers only because they were caught off guard. Once the ministers were prepared, she could hardly understand their memorials, let alone oppose them, so naturally she couldn't say anything.

The ministers also saw through Ping An's outward strength but inner weakness, and their attitude towards Ping An gradually changed from being wary to being contemptuous. Cui Shenzhi could only teach Ping An how to handle government affairs step by step.

But as I said before, Ping An simply couldn't understand, so no matter how hard Cui Shenzhi tried to teach her, it went in one ear and out the other, and she didn't listen to a single word. As for the ministers' disdain... she had her own way of dealing with it.

*****

“Shenzhi,” Ping’an rested her elbows on the table, her face gently resting on her folded hands, looking completely innocent: “Is this the Lord Zhao who writes memorials that are over ten pages long and rambling, with no focus, so much so that you have to read them over and over again to understand what they’re trying to say?”

Lord Zhao lowered his head in shame.

Ping An tilted his head, looking at the person to the side with a half-smile: "That's the Lord Wang who asks you about every little thing, no matter how trivial, pretending to be dutiful but actually dumping everything on you, just trying to gain fame and reputation?"

Lord Wang's face was ashen.

Ping An tugged at Cui Shenzhi's sleeve, his voice full of the joy of discovering a treasure: "As for this young man, he should be that Lord Zhang who submits memorials to you every few days during festivals to flatter you, and you complained to me that no matter how you tell him not to submit such memorials, he won't listen?"

Lord Zhang and Cui Shenzhi both blushed.

Thinking of the booklet Lin Yimo had given her, Ping An asked with a charming smile, "By the way, has Lord He, who is afraid of his wife like a tiger but keeps many mistresses and brothel prostitutes, come? And has Lord Jiang, who looks down on officials born out of wedlock but has a lot of illegitimate sons of his own and favors his concubines over his wife, come too?"

Lord He and Lord Jiang's faces turned ashen.

Ping An glanced around and, finding that the disdain in the eyes of all the ministers had vanished, finally leaned back lazily on the soft couch, a smug look on his face.

However, Ping An did not expect that the ministers would not look down on her anymore. But because of what she said and Cui Shenzhi’s undisguised favoritism, the ministers began to think that she was someone who should not exist even more than Shen Meiwu. However, under the current circumstances, the ministers could not force Cui Shenzhi to stay away from Ping An like the Huang family had done back then. They could only take things slowly.

*****

Strange phenomena began to appear frequently across the country.

In a certain place, a centenarian's white hair turned black, but at the same time, tears of blood flowed from his eyes.

In a certain county, rice stalks with multiple ears appeared, but the rice seeds inside the ears were not healthy; instead, they were dark, lifeless masses.

A precious cauldron appeared in a vegetable garden, but it was neither bronze nor brass; instead, it was red copper, as red as blood.

These are auspicious omens, but also inauspicious ones.

Once these unusual phenomena had accumulated enough, the ministers launched an attack.

"Your Majesty, you are the ruler of the world, and these ominous omens are naturally because of you."

"Although you became the wise ruler you are today because of the protection of the late Empress, your relatives were killed by the Emperor Emeritus. Now you sit on the throne of the Cui family, inheriting the Cui family's empire and maintaining the Cui family's rule. Of course your relatives will feel indignant and shed tears of blood."

"It is still early in the season, and they are only expressing their dissatisfaction in this insignificant way. In the future, they may cause more turmoil, such as the previous snow disaster or the great earthquake in Nanzhou. I urge Your Majesty to consider the people of the world and establish a new dynasty."

After he finished speaking, all the ministers in the hall knelt down.

Seeing this, Choi Shin-ji's brows furrowed deeply.

He didn't believe in auspicious omens or bad omens, and he could see that these so-called "auspicious omens with bad omens" were just man-made, meant to persuade him, or rather force him, to change the dynasty. But he didn't understand why the ministers, who had accepted it so well before, suddenly started to make trouble.

Sitting next to Choi Shin-ji, Ping An knew perfectly well that the so-called change of dynasty was merely paving the way for their future dealings against her. However, she didn't believe it was the ministers' intention to eliminate her, but rather…

Cui Shenzhi.

It turns out that Cui Shenzhi gave her the right to attend court so that everyone could see her incompetence.

It turns out that Cui Shenzhi allowed her to act recklessly in the court in order to quickly gain the support and righteousness to deal with her.

It turns out that Cui Shenzhi's seemingly obedient attitude towards her was a ploy to make her lower her guard, become complacent, and then bring about her own demise.

Thinking of this, Ping An felt a chill creeping up her body from nowhere, coursing through her bones. It was so cold that she felt as if she had returned to the time when she could only walk barefoot in the snow in the cold palace. She began to tremble slightly uncontrollably, and a fine, dense pain spread through her heart. It wasn't heart-wrenching, but she couldn't ignore it.