Zhang Jun's voice gradually faded away.
In the summer of 413 AD, during the reign of Emperor Xuan of the Great Xuan Dynasty, the Empress Dowager passed away and was posthumously honored as Empress Dowager Wenzhen.
The whole nation mourns.
All civil and military officials are required to observe a 27-day mourning period.
During the period of national mourning, civil and military officials and all common people are not allowed to make merry for 100 days, and slaughter animals is prohibited for 49 days. Marriages are also prohibited throughout the Great Xuan Dynasty for one month.
Due to the passing of the Empress Dowager, the wedding of Zhao Yun, Zhao Rou, and Li Huai'an, originally scheduled for the sixth day of next month, has been cancelled. Instead, it will be held as originally agreed, the day before the Mid-Autumn Festival.
Zhao Yun breathed a sigh of relief, but Zhao Rou was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan.
What if the Duchess of the Duke's mansion changes her mind and refuses to let her in?
She needs to get pregnant first.
Zhao Rou looked towards the direction of the palace, secretly praying that Zhang Wan wouldn't return so early.
At dusk, a palace maid named Hongying came to deliver a message: Zhang Wan and Zhao Zhi were to observe a twenty-seven-day mourning period for the Empress Dowager in the palace.
Kangning Palace.
Zhao Zhi, along with his mother Zhang Wan and elder brother Zhao Yi, dressed in plain clothes, knelt in the mourning hall to mourn the Empress Dowager.
Shen Hanshan, a prince of a different surname, along with other members of the royal family's collateral branches, as well as some officials and noblewomen, knelt outside the mourning hall.
The Empress Dowager had only one son, the late Emperor Zhao Xuan.
By the time of Zhao Xuan's generation, the royal bloodline had become particularly thin.
Of Zhao Xuan's offspring, only one prince, Zhao Yi, reached adulthood. Although he had conceived several princesses, they were like flowers that bloomed briefly, withering away before reaching adulthood.
As the ruler of a country, Zhao Yi had a harem full of beauties, but what is puzzling is that he had very few children, only a few princesses.
Even more peculiarly, after the Empress Dowager's death, Zhao Yi issued an edict allowing only the concubines in the harem to offer sacrifices in their own palaces. No one could fathom the deeper meaning behind this action.
Zhao Zhi knelt for an hour, and her lower abdomen ached a little, so she left the mourning hall and went for a walk in a secluded part of Kangning Palace.
Seeing Zhao Zhi leave, Shen Hanshan also quietly withdrew and followed behind her.
Realizing someone was following her, Zhao Zhi assumed it was a palace maid worried she might get lost, and initially paid no attention.
Until suddenly someone grabbed my hand.
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