Side Story 1: Girls' School (Guo Yan'er's Perspective)

The blue brick path leads deep underground, where the perpetually damp and stagnant air, mixed with the stench of blood, seems to seep into one's very bones.

The chains rattled, and with a creak, the cell door opened.

The prison warden, abandoning his usual arrogant demeanor, bowed and scraped as he ushered a man into the cell. Guo Yan'er, sitting against the wall in a haystack, was blinded by the candlelight and tilted her head to adjust for a while before opening her eyes properly.

The first thing that caught the eye was a bright yellow robe, with peacock feathers twisted into threads and mixed with red and gold silk, forming nine five-clawed dragons on black brocade. The hem of the robe was decorated with vermilion cloud patterns, making it so noble that it was completely out of place in this damp and dark dungeon.

The Imperial Guard leader Guo Shouzhen colluded with the rebel Lin Tan, but was defeated and captured. Guo Yan'er lost her father and husband overnight. However, for some reason, he only imprisoned her in the dungeon and refused to kill her.

But now, Guo Yaner knows that the time has come.

"Are you here to laugh at me?"

It was a question, but without any questioning tone. Guo Yan'er glanced at Xie Yutang, scoffed, and spoke in a hoarse voice as if scraping through rough sandpaper.

Her disrespect caused the jailer's face to turn cold, and he was about to teach her a lesson when Xie Yutang waved her hand. The jailer immediately put on a fawning smile and left, bowing and scraping.

Xie Yutang lowered her eyes and looked at the disheveled person in front of her, now a prisoner. In her previous life, she was Consort Guo, the most favored concubine in the palace, and the woman she had fought with for most of her life.

They see each other as their biggest rivals, but also, in a sense, the people who understand each other best.

Guo Yan'er knew that she loathed the constraints of high walls and roofs and longed for the freedom of blue skies, grasslands, and galloping horses.

She also knew that Guo Yan'er was using all sorts of means to fight not for a man's love, but for power and status.

Guo Yan'er chose the least favored of the three princes, Lin Tan, and persuaded her father to cooperate with him. Sure enough, as she expected, Lin Tan successfully sat on the throne. The only thing she didn't expect was that she wouldn't be the empress.

Xie Yutang looked down at her, his expression unchanged, neither sad nor happy: "Are you interested in making a deal with me?"

trade?

Guo Yan'er looked as if she had heard the funniest joke.

The victor is king, the loser is villain. She is now a prisoner who has fallen into the dust. The only thing between them is the hatred of killing her father and husband. What deal can they possibly make?

Now that Lin Tan is dead, Guo Yan'er's eyes are like a stagnant, cold pool, devoid of any life: "What I want, you can't give me."

"Wrong."

She heard the man at the head of the table say, "What you want, only I can give you."

Guo Yan'er looked up in a daze. Her eyes seemed to see through everything. Her desires and ambitions seemed to have been seen through by Xie Yutang. However, there was no unexpected mockery, but rather a tolerant acceptance, and even a hint of expectation and admiration.

Her fingers, still congealed with dried blood, twitched, and she heard herself ask, "What do you want me to do?"

...

The regulations for women's schools were detailed, with clear rules for duties and examinations, and precedents and models to follow, leaving the opposing ministers speechless.

*

Outside Xuanzhi Gate in the capital city of Dayan.

Guo Yan'er had just been released from prison. After taking a shower and changing into clean clothes, the long-lost breeze of freedom felt a little uncomfortable on her face.

Seeing her lost in thought, the two accompanying officials tentatively asked, "Are you tired, sir? Would you like to return to the carriage?"

Both officials were young people newly promoted by the Ministry of Personnel through the imperial examination system. They were well-read, with clear eyes, passionate hearts, and lofty ideals, and their cleanliness was refreshing.

Since Xie Yutang wanted her to be in charge of establishing girls' schools, it was a suitable person for her.

Guo Yan'er shook her head: "I'm just looking around, you don't need to follow me."

The news of Xie Yutang's ascension to the throne has left her still reeling from the shock.

She once thought that the position of empress was the limit a woman could reach, but then there was this person who told her that it wasn't enough, that she could stand even higher, and that what men have, they can have too.

But she actually did it.

Show her.

And she also had to do it.

...However, there was a moment of confusion in Guo Yan'er's eyes. Was it really feasible for a woman to become empress?

Those officials can be intimidated by force and pressure, but can the voices of the people be silenced?

How will people judge us a thousand years from now?

"Hey, little girl, are you here to enroll in girls' school too?"

Guo Yan'er turned around in a daze and saw an old man taking a sip of tea and leaning against the door frame talking to her.

She wasn't wearing official robes; she was dressed in plain clothes, and unless someone knew her, they wouldn't be able to tell her identity.

The old man's face lit up with joy, and Guo Yan'er hesitated for a moment: "Don't you find it strange that a girl goes to school?"

“What’s so strange about that! My daughter said at the embroidery shop that even the governor’s wife is sending her daughter to school. If officials are doing this, it can’t be anything bad, right? My daughter has already enrolled.” The old man said happily, “Let me tell you, not only do you not have to pay tuition when you enroll in girls’ school, but the palace also gives you a monthly allowance.”

"Old Li, do you know where this money came from?"

A middle-aged man at the next table, who looked like a scholar, interjected. He looked around and lowered his voice, "The Empress is truly ruthless... I heard that Vice Minister Zhao of the Ministry of Revenue had his home ransacked the other day, and the silver alone amounted to thirty cartloads! His brother-in-law even returned all the mulberry fields he had forcibly seized in our county to the tenants." The scholar clicked his tongue, "Such swift and decisive methods..."

The scholar, hands clasped in his pockets, scoffed, "Come on! Those foreign merchants can't even pronounce classical Chinese 'zhi hu zhe ye' properly, how could they become officials? They probably bribed their way in..."

"Don't talk nonsense!" The old man sipping tea straightened his face upon hearing this. "My cousin works at the state school. He said that last month a young man from the Northern Rong region came and wrote beautiful calligraphy. He was personally selected by the school administrator to enter the academy. His Mandarin is even more fluent than yours!"

Amidst the laughter of the crowd, a merchant from Hu (Central Asian descent) pushed his cart, speaking broken Chinese: "Gentlemen, fellow villagers! I am Kang... Kang Xian. This naan bread is a specialty of my... our Nasebo." As he spoke, he distributed small pieces of naan bread to the crowd. "Please try some, everyone. It's only three... three coins..."

Laughter filled the tea stall, and the aroma of Hu-style naan bread mixed with Han-style tea wafted among the crowd. Guo Yan'er took the naan bread handed to her by the Hu merchant, took a bite, and tasted the warmth of everyday life for the first time in the capital city where she had lived for decades.