Chapter 105 Her marital relationship with He Hansheng…
Chapter 105
As the New Year began with the sound of firecrackers, on the morning of the first day of the lunar new year, Li Bo, as was customary, went to Shou Kang Palace to pay his respects to the Empress Dowager.
The once peaceful and harmonious imperial city was filled with a strong sense of tension the moment Li Bo stepped into Shou Kang Palace. The Empress Dowager's expression was not good. Even when she saw the Emperor enter, she did not put on a show of maternal love and filial piety as usual.
"Your Majesty, I pay my respects. I wonder if Your Majesty slept well last night?"
Li Bo smiled and bowed. Seeing the Empress Dowager's ashen face, his smile widened. "Today is New Year's Day. Which fool in the palace has displeased you? Guards—"
He raised his hand and casually ordered, "The people in Shou Kang Palace have been incompetent, displeasing the Empress Dowager. Drag those head maids and eunuchs away and beat them severely! Stop when the Empress Dowager starts to smile. If she doesn't smile, beat them to death!"
The palace maids and eunuchs inside the hall were terrified and immediately knelt down, begging for mercy: "Your Majesty, spare our lives! Your Majesty, spare our lives!"
"Hit him!" Li Bo seemed determined, and the guards immediately responded by dragging the man out.
The palace was thrown into chaos.
The relationship between the Emperor and the Empress Dowager has never been harmonious. In the past, they had only put on a show for others out of consideration for appearances. However, it was clear to everyone that the Emperor had ordered the slapping of Eunuch He Quan, who served the Empress Dowager, at the Winter Solstice Palace Banquet last time. And today, on the first day of the Lunar New Year, he went directly to Shou Kang Palace, clearly intending to break off relations with the Empress Dowager.
The Empress Dowager wasn't oblivious; seeing that the palace servants were about to be dragged out and flogged, she shouted, "Stop!"
The guards were quite accommodating and stopped.
The Empress Dowager looked at Li Bo with a cold face, "The Emperor came to my palace early this morning to make a scene. Does he think I've had too peaceful a New Year?"
Li Bo said "Oh?" with a somewhat deliberate smile, "I just felt that Mother Empress's palace was too quiet and wanted to add some liveliness."
After saying that, he did not make things difficult for the others in Shou Kang Palace. He simply waved his hand and ordered everyone to leave.
After everyone else left, the Empress Dowager finally lost her temper and questioned, "Isn't it a bit too hasty for the Emperor to rush to settle scores with those officials who had dealings with He Bufan as soon as he died?"
"Liquidation?"
Li Bo laughed, found a seat and sat down, playing with the teapot and cups in front of him, his expression indifferent. "It was just getting rid of a few troublesome minor figures. In the Empress Dowager's eyes, is that what you call a purge?"
"It was my oversight that I was unaware that the Emperor had taken in such a capable person."
"It was Your Majesty who made me careless. Living in the deep palace for so long, you have managed to weave such a tight network of relationships. Who knows if it is because Prince Zhao has been raised by you for too long that you have developed some thoughts that you should not have?"
The Empress Dowager forced a smile, saying, "Prince Zhao is my grandson, and it is only natural that I dote on him. Apart from that, I have never had any other thoughts. It is you, Emperor, who have no regard for the bond between mother and son and want to drive me to my death."
"Mother-son relationship?"
Li Bo repeated it twice, a moment of confusion in his eyes, but he quickly spoke with sarcasm: "Sitting in this position, everyone tells me to consider the big picture, not to have my own emotions, to even weigh my joys and sorrows, not to cry or laugh at will. Even when I watched my most respected mother force the woman I loved to her death, I could only silently endure it, because I am the emperor, and I must prioritize the big picture. Everyone in the world is counting on me. So, before A Jin's body was even cold, I didn't even have time to look at her before I had to start having children in this harem, just because I am the emperor! I must give up the emotions that a person should have!"
"And all of this, Mother—"
Li Bo strode up to the Empress Dowager, looked down at her, and grinned sadly, "These are all lessons you taught me back then. So what mother-son relationship are you talking about now? It's long gone."
Li Bo's voice grew louder and louder until it was almost a roar, as if he wanted to release all the emotions he had suppressed over the years.
The Empress Dowager remained silent for a long time before speaking in a hoarse voice: "Back then, Ah Jin... it wasn't that I couldn't tolerate her, it was just because..."
"It's just because her maternal family can't help me. I need a wife from a powerful family to help me conquer the world," Li Bo interrupted the Empress Dowager.
He took a deep breath and said slowly and deliberately, "My mother has said this to me many times, and I am tired of hearing it."
The Empress Dowager closed her eyes, unable to offer any explanation.
Colluding with eunuchs and manipulating court officials... these were all things outside her job description, and the emperor could turn a blind eye to them. Even if everything she did afterward was for self-preservation, it was still understandable. But the matter of Xu Jin was the only one she could not defend herself against. This was a poisonous thorn that had been lodged between the mother and son for many years, and it could not be touched in the slightest.
"Things have come to this point, and I have no way to explain any further," the Empress Dowager sighed, her expression as weary as if she had aged ten years in an instant. "What do you intend to do? Do you intend to force everyone to their deaths, just like you did with Marquis Qing, Zhou Pei, and He Changxin back then?"
Li Bo remained silent, seemingly suppressing his emotions, or perhaps suddenly seeing his younger self. The changes over the decades had left him feeling lost, and he couldn't even distinguish between the past and the present, wondering which version of himself truly was.
Xu Jin died in the first summer after Li Bo ascended the throne.
At that time, the whole country was in ruins and everyone was looking forward to a peaceful and new life. Li Bo thought that since he had already sat on the throne and had made Hu the empress according to the empress dowager's wishes, he could bring his beloved woman into the palace, even if she was just a concubine.
This thought had been in Li Bo's mind for a long time, but he dared not mention it directly to the Empress Dowager. Instead, he summoned the ministers who were like brothers to him to discuss it one by one and ask for their opinions. After all, Li Bo's position was something they had worked hard to obtain, and if he could get the support of the majority, the Empress Dowager would probably not object anymore.
However, the Marquis of Qingguo was the first to stand up and object, saying that Xu Jin was from the Empress Dowager's maternal family and was favored by the Emperor, and that he would inevitably cause trouble as a maternal relative in the future, repeating the mistakes of the previous dynasty.
Aside from the Marquis of Qingguo, there were quite a few court officials who opposed it. Li Bo had no choice. At that time, Xu Jin was pregnant. He thought that he should wait until Xu Jin gave birth to the imperial heir, and then it would be a legitimate matter to establish her as a concubine.
As a result, not long after Xu Jin gave birth to Princess Biyue, she passed away before receiving the imperial decree to confer her title as a concubine. Li Bo was heartbroken, but he still had to restrain his emotions and attend court in the morning, pretending that nothing was wrong.
Li Bo clearly remembers that on the seventh day after Xu Jin's death, which was the summer solstice, Zhou Pei saw that he was depressed all day and night and stayed in the Hall of Mental Cultivation. So he advised him to spend more time in the inner palace so that he could get out of his grief as soon as possible.
It was probably around that summer solstice that Li Bo truly felt his soul being killed, replaced by another version of himself that felt unfamiliar to him. This version of himself had executed the Marquis of Qingguo without any reason, exiled Zhou Pei, and after Shen Yan retired from Huadu, even He Changxin, whom he trusted most, had developed a rift with him.
Li Bo looked at the Empress Dowager in confusion. The mother who had once vehemently opposed his relationship with Xu Jin now had gray hairs mixed in. She asked him what he wanted to do, but Li Bo didn't know.
He didn't know what he wanted; all he knew was that more than twenty years ago, on that summer solstice, the young Li Bo had already died.
...
Beyond the nine heavens.
Shen Suining sat by the window, wiping the short dagger in her hand, but her gaze was fixed on the outside, lost in thought, unaware that someone had come up behind her.
“Young Master has never been one to be controlled by others, so I suppose he has new plans.” Luo Jiuxun carried a pot of sake into the room and sat opposite Shen Suining to warm the sake.
Shen Suining smiled and sheathed her dagger. "In this capital city now, only you truly understand me."
The confidants who came with her from Yangzhou were unaware of the affairs of the court, and even she herself only had a vague understanding of them. Therefore, she could only discuss this matter with Luo Jiuxun.
Luo Jiuxun glanced up and saw Shen Suining sheathing his dagger. After a moment, he spoke, "You've only been in Huadu for half a year, yet you're no longer as carefree and bright as when you first arrived. You seem to have many worries on your mind. Forgive me for asking, but is it really necessary for you to get involved in this mess?"
"The Emperor ordered me to deal with an old minister surnamed Ge this time. Although he had worked for the Empress Dowager and the aristocratic families, he was actually a coward. When I found him, before I even explained my purpose, he was so scared that he wet himself and gave up on someone."
Shen Suining did not answer Luo Jiuxun's question, and Luo Jiuxun knew that she had made up her mind. He sighed and asked, "Who did you implicate?"
“Xie Chang.” Shen Suining said slowly and deliberately, “When I went to see He Bufan in prison, he also mentioned that Xie Chang was related to the death of the Marquis of Yong’an.”
Luo Jiuxun was slightly taken aback, and couldn't help but remind him, "Mr. Xie is the master's close friend and also the mentor of Young Master He. Young Master, you..."
"I know."
Shen Suining tilted her head back and exhaled a breath of white air. This was not the first time she had felt that winter in the capital seemed particularly cold, with a chill that penetrated to the bone.
She tilted her head back and drank the cup of warm wine that Luo Jiuxun poured for her before speaking: "I went to see him with my father before the New Year. My father said that twenty years have passed and the only good friend he has left is Xie Chang. On New Year's Eve, he even sent someone to give He Hansheng a birthday gift."
"Lord He, a cautious and sentimental man, entrusted his only son to him, which shows he trusted him completely. He Hansheng was his prized student whom he personally raised, and he even personally gave him the courtesy name 'Yunchu.' Little Jiu," Shen Suining paused, "you tell me... after Lord He passed away, what was Xie Chang thinking every time he saw He Hansheng? Every year during Qingming and Hanshi Festival, what was he thinking when he looked at Lord He's memorial tablet?"
Luo Jiuxun did not answer Shen Suining's question, but simply poured her more wine.
After finishing his drink, Luo Jiuxun slowly spoke: "Young Master has never been one to beat around the bush. Is our next step to confront Mr. Xie Chang face to face?"
Shen Suining remained silent. It was inappropriate for her to approach Xie Chang in her current position; he was not only He Hansheng's mentor but also her father's close friend and her elder.
Moreover, once she leaves, regardless of the truth, this cruel and unspeakable truth will be revealed, and the marital relationship between Shen Suining and He Hansheng over the past six months will probably come to an end.
“This matter needs to be resolved,” Shen Suining said after a moment, feigning ease. “How about I play the villain?”
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