Both prosperity and decline are painful
The autumn atmosphere in the imperial capital is so thick that it cannot be dispelled. The air inside and outside the palace walls is stagnant and dull, with the dull feeling of impending rain.
The silence of the deserted Xuehan Palace finally attracted criticism.
In an elegantly decorated warm room, several friendly ladies from the royal family were accompanying Ning Lingli to drink tea and chat.
"Come to think of it, I haven't seen Sister Mingzhu for several days." Ning Lingli gently stroked the edge of the teacup, her tone filled with just the right amount of concern.
She sighed softly, her eyes sweeping over the crowd. "Leaving Beijing at this time is truly worrying. Mingzhou is far away, and it's a time of great uncertainty. Why would a noble girl like her go through this trouble herself?"
Ning Zilu, the daughter of Prince Jing, replied with understanding, "Princess Changning is right. Princess Mingzhu's hasty departure from the capital only makes our royal family seem unbecoming."
Another lady spoke carefully, "I heard that Mr. Shen is here too? Although it's official business, it's still a young official traveling with a princess to be married. If word gets to the Beishuo envoys, it wouldn't be appropriate."
Ning Lingli shook her head slightly, a faint smile on her lips: "Let's just talk about this among our family. Sister Mingzhu has a strong personality and doesn't like others asking about her plans. But as her elder sister, I can't help but worry a little more about her."
She picked up the teacup and said in a gentle yet meaningful tone, "I hope her trip to Mingzhou will be successful and not let her hard work go to waste."
This seemingly considerate chat quietly spread among the noble ladies in the capital.
Every word reveals concern, yet every sentence is thought-provoking.
*
When Concubine Yu stepped into the emperor's bedroom, her steps still maintained the demeanor of a palace concubine, but were a little faster than usual. Her face was evenly powdered, except for her pair of carefully painted phoenix eyes, with an imperceptible red at the corners.
She walked to the dragon bed, bowed gracefully, and said in a low, trembling voice: "Your Majesty, I deserve to die. Mingzhu has left the capital for Mingzhou..."
She raised her eyes, her gaze fixed, "That child must have heard those unbearable rumors about Mingzhou, and was so angry that..."
The emperor was half-leaning on a soft pillow, Fu'an helping him drink medicine. He paused when he heard this, and slowly turned his gaze to Concubine Yu: "Rumors in Mingzhou? What rumors?"
Imperial Concubine Yu took a deep breath, suppressing the sob in her throat. "I just learned that someone in Mingzhou is spreading rumors and slandering Mingzhu, even going so far as to implicate her in an affair with Shen Changshi."
At this point, her voice was filled with anger, "Your Majesty, you know Mingzhu. From childhood to adulthood, how could she have ever suffered such a humiliating situation? She was sincere and dedicated to her people, yet she was framed to this point..."
A tear fell, and she snuggled into the emperor's arms, her shoulders shrugged slightly. "She has a strong temper, how can I tolerate this? That's why I disregarded the rules and must go to Mingzhou to see for myself. Your Majesty, you must make the decision for Mingzhu."
"Bastard!" The emperor slammed the bed and started coughing violently. Fu'an hurried forward and patted his back.
After his breathing subsided a bit, the emperor said, "I'm not dead yet, but I can't hold it back any longer."
"Fuan."
"The servant is here."
"Propagate my oral order: I have specially permitted Princess Mingzhu to visit her fiefdom to observe the people's sentiments. Anyone who dares to speak ill of the princess or spread rumors will be treated as slandering the royal family, regardless of whether they are an official or a civilian, and will be severely punished."
"I obey your command!" Fu'an bowed and responded with a solemn look.
Concubine Yu leaned against the emperor and sobbed softly, "Your Majesty, without you, what will happen to Mingzhu and me? Mingzhu is traveling alone, and I am worried about her..."
The emperor patted her hand, his voice full of fatigue: "Mingzhu is very smart, don't worry too much, alas, this child..."
At this moment, the eunuch outside the palace announced: "Your Majesty, Military Officer Pan Hao is outside the palace requesting to see you."
"Xuan."
Pan Hao, dressed in a brand new military officer's uniform, strode in, his posture as straight as a pine tree. He knelt on one knee and spoke in a loud and steady voice: "Your Majesty, I, Pan Hao, pay my respects to you, Your Majesty, the Imperial Concubine!"
The emperor saw him and asked, "What's the matter?"
Pan Hao raised his head, his gaze straight into the emperor's face. "I have heard that Princess Mingzhu has gone to Mingzhou. Your Majesty has granted me a position in your presence. I boldly request that I lead my elite troops and depart immediately to protect Her Highness. I beg Your Majesty for your approval!"
The emperor's gaze lingered on Pan Hao's face for a moment. As the general's son, he was loyal, brave, and his character was evident. Even if there were villains, he would be able to protect the pearl.
After making up his mind, he said in a deep voice, "Permitted, Pan Hao, take my handwritten order and rush to Mingzhou immediately. Make sure Mingzhu is well protected."
"Your Majesty, I, Pan Hao, obey your command! I will definitely live up to your Majesty and the Imperial Concubine's trust!" Pan Hao kowtowed heavily and left the hall.
Concubine Yu looked at the departing figure. She believed in Pan Hao. It was worth it for her to find Pan Hao. Based on the friendship between the boy and Mingzhu, as they had grown up together, he would naturally keep Mingzhu in his heart. Her tense heartstrings finally relaxed a little.
She turned to the emperor, her brows still etched with worry, "Your Majesty, with Pan Langguan gone, I can rest a little easier, but Mingzhu is in the court this time..."
The emperor waved his hand wearily. "We must act swiftly. She has been slandered, how can I blame her any further? If the censors attempt to impeach her, I will defend them. Rest assured."
After saying this, Concubine Yu shed a tear, which made the emperor feel a little distressed.
The conversation in the palace soon reached Fengzao Palace.
Inside Fengzao Palace, it was warm as spring and filled with lingering incense.
The queen sat in the main seat, holding a scroll in her hand, and was talking to Princess Zhaoyang Ning Lingshu.
"These young men are all top-notch in terms of family background, talent, and character. Lingshu, what do you think?"
Zhaoyang's eyes swept over the prominent names on the roster. Hearing this, she raised her head and let out a subtle smile. "Mother, your vision is naturally excellent. I have no objection."
But that smile was as thin as spring ice and did not reach his eyes.
The queen was keenly aware of her daughter's wandering. She put down the list and picked up the teacup: "Are you still thinking about Mingzhu?"
Zhaoyang was slightly startled, then lowered her eyes: "My daughter just feels that Mingzhou is far away, and with all the rumors, it is really worrying for Sister Mingzhu to go there alone."
"Worried?" The Queen gently blew away the tea foam. Her voice was calm, yet weighty. "Lingshu, you never make me worry. As a princess of the royal family, every move you make is within the bounds of moral principles and laws."
She paused, then spoke earnestly, "Mother has taught you for years. As a daughter of the Heavenly Family, you must be even more diligent in upholding your duties. Your path should be to assist your brother, maintain order, choose a good husband, and live a stable life. This is the long-term path."
"Don't be like Mingzhu. The world won't tolerate women doing this. Forcing yourself to do something like this will only hurt yourself and others."
Zhaoyang lowered his head and said nothing, his knuckles turning slightly white.
After a moment, her voice returned to a respectful calm: "My daughter understands your mother's painstaking efforts."
The queen nodded with satisfaction and picked up the list again.
*
Thousands of miles away, on the road to Mingzhou, there is only the chill of late autumn.
Ning Lingyi pulled the reins and stopped at a fork in the road beside the official road.
Her face was covered with a veil to block out the dust, revealing only a pair of clear but solemn eyes, which looked towards the muddy path that meandered deep into the desolate hills.
"Your Highness, we will reach the provincial capital in another day and a half by taking the official road." The guard commander rode forward and reminded him.
Ning Lingyi's eyes were fixed on the path, and her voice left no room for doubt: "Go this way."
She wanted to see with her own eyes what her fiefdom looked like.
The group turned their horses around and set foot on the muddy path away from the smooth official road.
The further we went, the more desolate and difficult the road became. The air was thick with the smell of earth and decay. The mountains and forests were barren and yellow, devoid of any sign of life. In the distance, low adobe houses lay dilapidated, their walls mottled and their thatched roofs shivering in the wind. The fields were sparsely covered with crops, a sign of a failed harvest.
The occasional farmers were ragged, pale and thin. When they saw this group of strangers in bright clothes and riding horses, they were like frightened birds. They quickly lowered their heads and hurriedly hid in the shadows of the houses.
Ning Lingyi's heart sank all the way.
The four words "people's livelihood is exhausted" in the memorial finally took on a shocking look.
When we arrived at the entrance of a small village called "Xiahewa", we saw a few villagers with pale faces huddled under an old locust tree with withered branches and leaves.
A little girl, about five or six years old, wearing patched clothes and with nothing on her lower body, was skinny and timidly hiding behind a bony old woman.
Ning Lingyi signaled the team to stop.
She dismounted and walked under the old locust tree.
The villagers' heads were almost buried in their chests, their bodies were stiff, and they dared not move.
She untied the brocade bag, took out a piece of sweet cake, squatted down, and handed it to the little girl: "Are you hungry? Take it."
The little girl stared at the pastries, but shrank back even tighter behind the old woman, who was like a withered branch, not daring to move at all.
The old woman's cloudy eyes were filled with fear. Her skinny body leaned forward humbly, and her cracked lips whispered, "Your Excellency, please don't..."
"It's okay." Ning Lingyi stuffed the pastry directly into the little girl's hand.
The little girl took it and immediately stuffed it whole into her mouth. Her face flushed red from choking, but her little hand tightly protected the remaining half. The old woman's cloudy eyes watched her granddaughter swallowing, then slowly moved to Ning Lingyi's face. In those clear eyes, she saw a trace of genuine pity.
It's not about treating them like ants, it's not about making fun of them, but real sympathy.
Ning Lingyi turned her gaze towards the old woman and said in a very soft voice, "Old lady, how many households are there in this village?"
The old woman lowered her head, not daring to look directly at the angel-like figure. She spoke in a hoarse, country-style accent, "In reply to your Excellency, in the early years, when it was prosperous, there were about twenty households and a hundred or so people."
"And now?"
The old woman was silent for a moment. "Last year, there were about fifty people. This year, there were floods in the summer and droughts in the autumn. The crops rotted and the roots burned. We couldn't collect enough grain to pay the taxes..."
She paused, her voice so low it sounded like a sigh, "Several families left in the spring. Last month, the second daughter was sold at the east end of the village, and Dalinzi's family also sold a boy."
Her cloudy eyes looked at the withered and yellow mountains, empty without a single tear: "Now my forty-year-old family is hanging by a thread. This winter..."
She didn't say anything else, but just sighed deeply, and the sigh was like a dead leaf falling to the ground.
Ning Lingyi remained silent.
"How much tax have you paid? How are you going to survive the winter?" Her voice was a little tense.
There was only dead silence in the old woman's cloudy eyes. "How much? My lord, the official scale has the final say. Not a single grain of rice can be missing. In previous years, we could always get by by digging wild vegetables and gnawing on tree bark. This year..."
She pointed feebly at the bare ridges and withered hillsides with her dry hands. "They're all gone."
She watched her granddaughter licking the last bit of cake crumbs between her fingers, then looked up and saw the sympathy in Ning Lingyi's eyes, and an idea emerged.
The old woman pulled her granddaughter along, and with a plop, she knelt on the cold muddy ground, knocking her forehead into the mud. "My noble lord! My noble lord, who is like a bodhisattva! Please, have mercy! Take this girl away!"
Her skinny fingers grasped her granddaughter's arm like a pair of iron pliers and pushed her forward. "Serving tea, working as a slave is fine! Just give her a bite to eat, keep her alive, and let her live. My dear, you are so kind. Please take her away. I will repay you by working as a slave in my next life..."
The little girl was frightened by this sudden action and burst into tears.
Ning Lingyi's heart was shaken, and she subconsciously reached out to help: "Hurry up, old lady! Where are her parents? Why don't they..."
The old woman raised her face, which was covered in mud and tears, and her voice was filled with deeper despair: "Father and mother? They went out to find a way to make a living at the beginning of spring. They said they would come back after earning enough food, but now it's winter, and there is no sign of them, and no news. I'm afraid they won't be able to come back! My dear..."
A chill mixed with a huge sense of absurdity filled Ning Lingyi's heart. "What about the village head and the village chief? Didn't the government provide any relief?"
A flicker of numbness flashed through the old woman's cloudy eyes, and then she was overwhelmed by a deeper fear. "Village head? A noble, a noble in front of me, can still speak for me. If the noble is gone, this girl and I will be dead! The government porridge stall? That's for the gentlemen in the city to see. How can a peasant like me from Xiahewa be worthy of it? Who will take care of us?"
Ning Lingyi subconsciously reached for her purse, wanting to take out some silver and money to give to the old woman.
"No, I don't want money, my lord!" The old woman seemed to see through her intention and shook her head in horror.
"Money, money can't be kept! Even if you give it to us...it will be taken away. People like us will die faster if we hold money in our hands. My dear, I only ask you to take her away, take her away!"
She kowtowed again and again, and the two of them were like dead branches and leaves that would break into pieces with a single squeeze.
Ning Lingyi's hand, which was reaching for her purse, froze in mid-air.
She wanted to say something. She wanted to tell them that she was a princess, the master of this fiefdom, and that she could protect them, but all her words were stopped by the scene before her.
She can protect those in Xiahewa, but how many Xiahewas are there in the world, and how many of them are there?
Her identity seemed so powerless at this moment.
She was silent, only the wind blowing through the branches of the dead locust tree made a whimper.
She looked at the old woman's tearful face, the little girl's frightened and confused eyes, and the pair of withered hands that were tightly grasping the hem of her skirt.
I will strip you of the silk and take the millet from your mouth. Your hands are calloused. Give me a phoenix hairpin and millions of coins.
And what merit do I have?
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