Chapter 68 Dream

Zhao Mingyue and her soldiers were discovered by the rebels, and after a fierce battle, they were defeated.

The rebels captured Zhao Mingyue, confirmed her identity, and imprisoned her in the palace.

Zhao Mingyue sat blankly in the palace. She didn't need to look to know that the outside was full of guards carrying swords and guns.

They followed Zhao Zhuo's orders and guarded the palace closely to ensure that not even a fly could fly out.

At first, she could still hear the roar of the palace burning and collapsing, accompanied by the screams and cries of the eunuchs and the wild laughter of the rebels, and the imperial city groaning in pain.

But gradually, these painful and chaotic sounds disappeared, the bells rang, and the new emperor ascended the throne.

Zhao Mingyue seemed to see all the civil and military officials bowing before Zhao Zhuo. Even though he had come to power illegitimately, they believed that Zhao Zhuo was more qualified to rule the country than the cruel and merciless Queen Mother Chi.

At this moment, in the eyes of these Confucian officials who were full of benevolence, righteousness and morality, Zhao Zhuo was not the leader of the rebels, but a hero who defeated the evil queen.

Zhao Mingyue was still sitting blankly in the palace, on the luxurious and exquisite lacquered bed, without a trace of emotion in her heart, as if her soul had left her body.

Suddenly, the whole palace turned red, and the bright red silk and brocade curtains were blown up by the wind. Two red candles with dragon and phoenix patterns were lit, and the bright flames made the red in the room even more vivid.

With a creaking sound, the palace door was pushed open from the outside. Zhao Mingyue looked up and saw Zhao Zhuo, wearing a dragon robe and with a rosy face, walking in. He smiled and said, "Sister Mingyue."

Zhao Mingyue had a very shallow impression of his cousin Zhao Zhuo. He had only met him a few times when he came to the capital to kowtow and pay homage to Emperor Rong Ai.

Therefore, she found it very strange to hear him call her so passionately.

Zhao Zhuo, however, seemed oblivious to her cold expression. He walked up to her, leaned forward slightly, looked at her, and said, "I have announced to the world that I will crown you the Queen. Today is our wedding day. Why don't you change into your phoenix robe?"

"What?!" Zhao Mingyue widened her eyes in disbelief, raised her head slightly, and her eyes met Zhao Zhuo's extremely happy smile. A strong sense of disgust and anger immediately surged in her heart.

Didn't Zhao Zhuo know that they were cousins and couldn't get married? "If a man and a woman have the same surname, their offspring will not prosper," this is a warning written in books by the ancients.

Was he doing this to humiliate her?

Zhao Mingyue reached for her waist and touched the handle of the knife that could kill with one blow. Just as she was about to take action, a thought suddenly flashed through her mind, and she stopped drawing the knife.

No, it's not just that.

Why did everyone think that marrying someone with the same surname was a heinous crime? Even she was furious, even more so than when the court officials were urging her to marry?

If it is for the health of future generations, then cousins should not marry.

The law of every dynasty stipulated that anyone marrying someone with the same surname would be punished with caning and divorce, and the laws of Dayong also followed this lineage.

Master Xue had told her that not marrying someone with the same surname was intended to maintain the male-centered patriarchal system.

If women were allowed to marry members of the same clan as them, it would not only undermine the order of seniority, but would also allow women to pass down assets from generation to generation and accumulate clan assets, thereby shaking the power of male clan leaders.

Therefore, in order to better maintain the patriarchal system, human ethics and rituals were born. As long as those who married with the same surname were denounced as beasts, all women could be easily expelled from the family.

Perhaps this is why for thousands of years, women have been able to survive only by relying on men.

The patriarchal system is the most important reason.

But how can we overturn it?

Clan etiquette, respect for elders and juniors, these things have long been ingrained into everyone's bones through words, and even she is not immune to them.

Master Xue hopes that what she is fighting against is not a person, an army, or a country, but everyone's thoughts and ideas.

This is simply impossible.

Just like what Master once wrote in answering the question of how women fight for power, throughout history, there have been women who have seized imperial power by relying on their bodies, but there has never been anyone who has been able to pass on power to their descendants and pass it down from generation to generation.

If women's power and wealth cannot be inherited, then their history will disappear at death, just like their power and wealth.

Even if you reach the pinnacle of power, it will be in vain.

Perhaps they had tried. In order to pass on their power to future generations at the lowest cost, they arranged for their daughters, who were princesses, to marry the emperor.

But in the end, these princesses will not only be branded as disrespectful of human ethics, but all their power will be taken away by the growing emperor.

According to mythology, Nüwa and Fuxi were once siblings, but Fuxi eventually married Nüwa as fate would have it. Thus, Fuxi, assuming the identity of Nüwa's husband, stole her divine title and became the first human ancestor.

They used dirty means to steal the credit of women, and when women tried to act according to the law, they were denounced as beasts.

But why should women choose their spouses according to the etiquette and laws they set?

Why, as a princess, was she forced to marry by court officials and couldn't even have a child of her own?

Obviously she didn't ask for much, she just didn't want her fate to be controlled by others.

But why do they all want to control her life?

If that's the case, why can't she do whatever it takes?

Zhao Mingyue gritted her teeth, a hint of resentment flashing in her eyes.

"Sister Mingyue?" Seeing that she was slow to speak, Zhao Zhuo called out again and extended his hand to her.

Zhao Mingyue looked at Zhao Zhuo, and suddenly an impulse arose in her heart to agree to him!

Promise him and take back the imperial power from him.

This was the easiest path before her.

She slowly loosened her grip on the hilt and reached out towards Zhao Zhuo. At this moment, there was a snap and the dagger fell to the ground.

Zhao Mingyue looked at Zhao Zhuo, and Zhao Zhuo also looked at her. The next moment, they both attacked at the same time to grab the dagger on the ground.

However, just as Zhao Mingyue was about to touch the dagger, the ground beneath her feet began to sink. She stumbled and fell to the ground. The dagger disappeared, and when she looked up again, Zhao Zhuo was gone too.

The surrounding scene became blurred, the walls and wooden pillars twisted and deformed at the same time, and the originally gorgeous red satin faded in an instant and turned into white mourning cloth, moving without wind.

The scene in front of him was so weird that Zhao Mingyue felt her heart pounding in her chest, almost jumping out of her throat.

This was definitely not reality, was she dreaming?

"Ah——!" Zhao Mingyue suddenly opened her eyes and broke free from the dream. She supported her elbows on the table and her palms on her cheeks. Her whole arms were numb.

She actually fell asleep like this? Zhao Mingyue was a little dazed, and for a moment she couldn't tell whether it was reality or a dream.

Looking around, he found that she was still in the study of the princess's mansion. The furnishings in the room were no different from when Xue Qi left, except that the candle on the lamp was almost burned out.

Just a dream.

Zhao Mingyue breathed a sigh of relief, but she was still a little frightened. Her chest was heaving slightly and she couldn't calm down.

That dream was so weird and scary.

A'niang was forced to death in the imperial city. When Zhao Zhuo ascended the throne, he wanted to enthrone her as queen. What was even more terrifying was that she actually wanted to agree.

Zhao Mingyue felt as if she had been hit on the head with a stick, and Xue Qi's words rang in her ears again -

"Your Highness, do you disagree with me because you think this thing can't succeed, or because it has no benefit to you at the moment? Princess, you want immediate benefits more than long-term gains, right?"

Is she really such a short-sighted, cowardly and incompetent person? Would she really choose to bend over backwards for the sake of immediate benefits, even at the cost of selling out herself?

No, this is impossible. She would never do as she did in her dream, betraying her mother, her master, and the sisters who trusted her, and selling herself to Zhao Zhuo for the position of queen.

Zhao Mingyue raised her hands to cover her eyes, feeling a chill in her heart and her whole body shivering.

At this moment, she had to admit that her master was right.

————

In Qingning Palace, candles were burning quietly.

Liu Shen'ai sat cross-legged on the wooden couch, his eyes fixed on the virtual screen floating in the air, lines of code emerging continuously like flowing water.

Before her stood a door, a door to a dream world, its outline outlined by a faint blue light. Inside the door was a chaotic darkness, like a black hole that could swallow everything.

Chi Lan has been in there for an hour, and during this hour, Liu Shen Ai has been desperately correcting mistakes and fixing loopholes to ensure that the virtual world constructed by Chi Lan's subconscious mind will not collapse.

Chi Li spent a full five thousand points just for this dream door, so in order to save points, the maintenance of the dream can only be done by her evil system.

She had to ensure that this information could be presented safely and orderly in Zhao Mingyue's dream, but the problem was that her level was not high and her computing power was insufficient. The construction of each scene and character in the dream required a huge amount of information capacity, and one hour was her limit.

Finally, the dream twisted and collapsed.

The smooth flow of data on the screen was suddenly interrupted, replaced by a series of jumbled characters and error messages.

Liu Shen'ai's tense nerves relaxed and he fell sideways on the wooden couch.

At this time, Chi Lan walked out of the door. Then, she stretched out her hand, and with a thought, the door of dreams slowly shrank and became smaller, eventually turning into a black bead the size of a thumb, which fell into the palm of Chi Lan's hand.

Chi Yan's expression was calm. She put away the beads and walked to Liu Shen Ai. "Time."

"60 minutes and 32 seconds."

"That's enough. How many points are left?"

"2661." Liu Shen'ai reported subconsciously. After she finished speaking, she realized it and asked in surprise, "Why is there only 2661 left?"

There were 8261 points before, but after exchanging for the Dream Gate, there were still 3261 points left.

In addition, Chi Li also exchanged a sword for Zhao Mingyue to defend herself.

However, in order to save points, this knife is just an ordinary dagger with the talent of fatal blow, which only requires 100 points. However, each subsequent attack with the talent will consume 500 points.

In this case, there should be 3261 points left. What happened to the 500 points that were inexplicably consumed?

Chi Li looked at Liu Shen'ai with a deep gaze, "Because she killed someone in her dream."

Her guess was successful, and soon, she would be able to kill the "Lord God" who had been controlling her with her own hands.

Didn't Xie Qinjian want to complete the task of "marrying the princess"? Then she would just play along.

Thinking of the terrified expression that might appear on his face at that time, Chi Qi couldn't help but curl the corners of her mouth.

This game is really interesting.