Luo Guanlin suddenly realized that he had a huge misunderstanding of Chang Suining.
Yes, he had roughly attributed her to "the likes of Xu Zhengye", and she had never concealed her "difference" from him, but he tacitly acknowledged that everything she did and thought was due to the Chang family behind her, and the Chang family had Chang Kuo, and Chang Kuo had his own children...
But now he suddenly realized that the person she really wanted to support was not her father and brother, but herself! Her ambition was so great, did Chang Kuo know?
If he knew, would he still be able to accommodate her as his adopted daughter under such a huge divergence of interests? This sudden realization made Luo Guanlin subconsciously put up a natural guard, with more undisguised rejection in his eyes, and his tone became colder, even asking sarcastically: "Chang Zhishi, do you know what Luo has always been against?"
"I know." Chang Suining said calmly: "Mr. Luo is rebelling against the current saint, the empress in power."
She slightly emphasized the word "female" in the word "empress".
Mr. Luo, in his public remarks when he was an imperial censor, or in the various satirical poems and manifestos he wrote, never concealed his refutation and contempt for a woman as emperor.
Luo Guanlin frowned: "Then Governor Chang dared to declare his ambitions in front of me like this, is he afraid that I will agree to Governor Chang's lobbying?"
How could there be such a stupid lobbying method in the world to show his most taboo and repulsive disloyalty? "This is my sincerity to you, sir. I don't want to deliberately deceive you from the beginning." Chang Suining looked at him and said calmly, "They all have ambitions, and I am no worse than them. Why should I hide and deceive just because I am a woman? If even I think that women's ambitions are not good enough and I dare not identify myself openly, then how can I let you and others identify with me in the future?"
Luo Guanlin frowned, not knowing how to respond for a moment.
"Sir, you don't want to see a woman in power, but you also care about the world. So, I also have a question for you -"
"In your mind, sir, which is more important, the struggle between men and women for power or the safety of the world?" Chang Suining asked.
Luo Guanlin's frown deepened, and he didn't answer for a long while.
Chang Suining asked again: "If all men in the world are inferior to me, would you also turn to men who are inferior to me just because I am a woman?"
Luo Guanlin seemed to have heard a huge joke, and finally spoke: "Chang Zhishi is indeed outstanding, but is he too naive to be so arrogant?"
Everyone in the world is inferior to her? She is a rookie, and now she has seen a lot of the world? He also said frankly: "I do look down on women! That's because they are born inferior to men. Women are yin, suspicious and fickle by nature. Moreover, they do not have the same experience and vision as men, so they cannot develop the mind and means to win the hearts of the people!"
"Yes, the Queen has her own abilities. The fact that she can sit here is enough to prove that she is indeed not inferior to men! But her background limits her. It is also undeniable that it is difficult for her to act as a woman. She has no choice, but the people's lives under her rule are also difficult! This is an indisputable fact!"
Luo Guanlin said solemnly: "How many vassal generals did she kill in vain in order to concentrate power? The fight with the nobles was a lose-lose situation! She was obsessed with power and caused the world to fall apart... And the root of it was nothing more than her insistence on becoming an emperor as a woman, and her perverse actions!"
"But the world is falling apart, and it's not her fault alone." Chang Suining's tone was even and emotionless: "The Great Sheng's fortunes are declining, wars are frequent, and the struggles between the nobles and the new nobles have been apparent since the beginning of the late emperor's reign. So, can I say that all of this is actually the fault of the late emperor's incompetence?"
Luo Guanlin was furious: "You..."
"Sir, please don't be upset." Chang Suining's voice was still calm. "Many times, I often wonder, if someone else had ruled after Li Bing was deposed, or if someone else had directly succeeded to the throne instead of the Ming empress... could the current situation of the country really be prosperous?"
She asked seriously, "Sir, not necessarily?"
Luo Guanlin wanted to refute her, asking her why a little girl could presumptuously speculate on the direction of the country's overall situation, but when he met her eyes, for some reason, he couldn't utter the words of denial for a moment.
The night wind was a little dry, and this topic made people restless, but the girl's eyes were always as calm as water.
She said: "Before the Ming Empress ascended the throne, the Great Sheng was already in ruins."
Otherwise, why would she agree to the marriage? It was not because she was foolishly filial or loyal, but because she knew better than anyone that the Great Sheng was already exhausted at that time, and the king and the crown prince had passed away one after another. If the Northern Di came to fight, there would be chaos both inside and outside.
Speaking of the death of the crown prince, she actually had a knot in her heart. Ah Xiao did die of illness at that time, but she was still alive. She could have continued to be Ah Xiao. At least, for the sake of the overall stability, the "crown prince" should never have died immediately after the king...
But somehow, the news of Ah Xiao's death had spread throughout the court before she even had a chance to know it.
At that time, she suspected that it was her mother who did it, and subsequent facts proved that the Queen did have the motive to do so.
But now, Chang Suining is not so sure.
"Then do you know why Li Bing succeeded to the throne?" Luo Guanlin said, "It was because of the Queen's promotion and approval!"
"At that time, she knew that Li Bing was not up to the task, but she still pushed him to the throne! Later, we found out that she did this deliberately, in order to win over the hearts of the people and accumulate power during Li Bing's reign! Then, for the sake of the 'big picture', she would abolish Li Bing and take power!"
"Do you know how many immoral and harmful things Li Bing did during her years in office? I said that she sacrificed the lives of the people in the world just to pave her own way to the sky, and therefore she is not worthy of being a king. Is that wrong?"
"Of course you are right." Chang Suining looked at the increasingly agitated Luo Guanlin and said, "But sir, her methods have been seen many times since ancient times. There are many kings who willfully abuse their power and harm the people. However, I am not trying to excuse her, otherwise why would I have a 'disloyal heart'?"
"I just think that it has nothing to do with whether she is a man or a woman." Chang Suining said: "She is not the best king, but she is definitely not the worst."
"Even if someone else becomes the emperor, disputes among the nobles will still break out, and those who want to rebel will still look for opportunities to rebel. Without this pretext, there will be other pretexts. Sir, you said that she could not win the hearts of the people of the country, which is true. But what she could not do, was there anyone else in the Li royal family who could do it well at that time or now?" Chang Suining asked.
Luo Guanlin tried to answer, but in the end he just smiled sadly and sarcastically: "If there is such a person, she probably won't have the chance to ascend the throne."
Compared to his previous excitement and anger, his shoulders sank a little at this moment, his drooping eyelids closed for a moment, and he said sadly: "Perhaps, since the death of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Dasheng's fortune... has been cut off."
After hearing this, Chang Suining paused for a moment before continuing, "So, sir, there is no reason to attribute all your dissatisfaction with the current situation to the 'original sin' of the Queen being a woman. She has shortcomings and faults, but all this is not just because she is a woman."
"Now that the masses are in chaos, many places have seized on the 'defect' of women's bodies and criticized the Ming empress. But in the final analysis, most of these voices are just a cover to gather strength. For the sake of profit, they will naturally publicize it. But if they deceive the world, it will be fine. If they also fall into blind prejudice, wouldn't it be more harm than good?"
When Luo Guanlin heard this, his eyes flickered.
"I said all this just to tell you, sir, that being a woman has never been a flaw in being a human being, and it will never be a flaw in achieving great things—" Chang Suining finally said, "If you think words are powerless, I will prove it with facts and actions."
Luo Guanlin looked at her steadily.
"Sir, please give me three years." Chang Suining said, "If after three years, you still insist on your own opinion, or find another wise leader in the overall situation, I will personally send you away and will never pester you."
"If you want to live in seclusion, I will find you a place with mountains, rivers and countryside to live out your life." Chang Suining said seriously, "If you still want to die, I will choose a quick way for you to die, and then choose a good feng shui place for you to be properly buried, which will benefit your descendants."
Luo Guanlin's eyebrows jumped wildly when he heard the last part - he should thank her for her thoughtfulness? "Things in this world change rapidly, a gust of wind can move a leaf, one person's thoughts can change the current situation, and the thoughts of thousands of people may not be able to shake the world's situation." Chang Suining invited sincerely: "If you really feel guilty about the past and are still unwilling to see the decline of Dasheng River, please try to walk with me for a while."
At this moment, the fireworks have slowed down, with only a few scattered across the sky.
Looking at those frank and unrestrained eyes at this moment, Luo Guanlin felt that there were infinite unknown possibilities hidden in them.
In the endless night, the unknown actually means hope, at least it represents that there may be other possibilities for survival.
He actually saw this unknown in a seventeen-year-old girl.
Luo Guanlin felt complicated and indescribable. At this moment, it was hard for him not to think with regret why the other party was not a man, why he was not a man from the Li family.
"Sir, don't be in a hurry to answer me." Chang Suining said, "I have prepared a generous gift for you. It won't be too late to give me an answer after you have read it."
A generous gift?
Luo Guanlin looked at her.
But Chang Suining did not say anything, he just smiled and said, "It's getting late, I'll have someone escort you back - you'll know what it is after you see it with your own eyes."
After she had said what she was about to say, she said no more. She saluted Luo Guanlin and walked away from the tower.
Luo Guanlin looked at her back and muttered "mystifying" with disdain.
When Chang Suining rode back to the governor's mansion, it was already the second watch.
Chang Suining returned to his residence and told Azhi to carry the bamboo basket from the study to the bedroom, while he went to the side room to take a bath and wash up.
When Chang Suining came out of the ear room with wet hair, Azhi had already placed the bamboo basket beside the couch.
There was nothing else in the basket except letters sent from various places, which accumulated day by day. Chang Suining had no time to read them, so he saved them.
Yao Ran had already picked out the important letters or those involving official business. Most of them were just congratulatory letters, either sent by local officials in Huainan Road or from acquaintances in the capital.
Among the acquaintances, Chang Suining saw those sent by Yao Xia, Wu Chunbai and others, as well as those sent by the Qiao family and those sent by Hu Huan and others.
There was also a letter from Cui Lang. Cui Lang, who was now in Qinghe, naturally wrote a separate letter. In the letter, he was very excited and happy about her appointment as the governor of Jiangdu. He said a lot of congratulatory words, but also said a lot of complaints. He poured out a lot of bitterness about the hardship of his life in Qinghe now.
To use Cui Lang's words in the letter, his life was so miserable that when he boiled a pot of coptis chinensis water, the coptis chinensis water would jump out of the pot out of shame, leaving him in the pot to lie down and bubble.
Human joys and sorrows are not so similar. His master who was reading the letter yawned at this moment.
Chang Suining put Cui Lang's bitter letter aside, thinking of taking time out tomorrow to write him a letter back to comfort him a little.
Then he rummaged through the basket again, and at the end he found a letter from Cui Jing.
Holding Cui Jing's letter in his hand, Chang Suining, sitting cross-legged on the couch with his hair loose, was in a daze for a while.
She was thinking that she hadn't received a letter from Duan Zhenyi for quite some time, and she hadn't received a letter from Wei Shuyi either...
It's understandable that Wei Shuyi didn't write a letter, but how could Duan Zhenyi, a chatterbox, hold back? Chang Suining thought about it and couldn't think of a second possibility.
In this world, apart from being afraid of ghosts, there is probably nothing else that can stop Duan Zhenyi's mouth.
In addition to being afraid of ghosts, she was probably also feeling guilty - after all, Duan Zhenyi had boasted too many times in front of her, and this basket couldn't contain all the boasting. Now that he suspected that she was the real culprit, she must have been tormented in her heart.
Don't worry, she's not the one being punished anyway.
Chang Suining, who had an unclear moral bottom line, opened and read Cui Jing's letter with a clear conscience.
The farthest place these letters came from was the northern border. When he wrote to her, he didn't know she had been appointed as the governor of Jiangdu, but he had already congratulated her in advance - as secret allies, the two of them had some tacit understanding.
Apart from congratulations, there were some brief greetings and a few words about the current situation in the North and her brother.
Looking at the piece of letter paper with pleasing yet extremely simple handwriting, Chang Suining felt a little regretful that he had taken Yuan Xiang away. Otherwise, maybe he would still have some waste letters to read today - if the words in the letter in front of him were also carefully considered.
The letter was too short, so Chang Suining read it again, and then asked Xier to bring paper and pen. He sat on the couch, spread the paper on the small table, and began to write a reply to Cui Jing.
She said in the letter that since she had asked someone to travel thousands of miles to deliver the letter, the more words she could say in future letters, the better.
So he set an example himself and talked about the affairs of Jiangdu in detail.
Finally, he emphasized his new discovery tonight: [Maybe it’s because of a happy event, my drinking capacity has improved. When we meet again, maybe we won’t have to sit at the same table together. ]
Beside the couch, outside the half-open window, the summer night breeze brought in the bright moonlight, which sprinkled on the lines of the words written.
…
On the other side, Luo Guanlin, who was "escorted" back to his residence by Shepherd's Purse, had already seen the "generous gift" that Chang Suining mentioned. He was greatly surprised and could not help but feel shocked and angry for a moment.
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