Epilogue 01: The Minor Matter of Abdication
Epilogue 01
The trivial matter of abdication
I just didn't expect this day to come so soon.
An hour after he climbed down Yanshan Mountain and returned to land, he was filled with regret.
First, the eunuchs and officials collectively stopped calling him "Your Highness" and started addressing him as "Your Majesty." This made young Fusu feel extremely uncomfortable, as if he had aged several years overnight.
Emperor Renzong, who should have been addressed as "Your Majesty," readily accepted the new title "Retired Emperor." He smiled upon hearing it, showing no sign of annoyance.
"Your Highness... Your Majesty, please move to the carriage in front."
Fusu secretly rubbed his skin to get goosebumps, which elicited a soft chuckle from beside him. He immediately stared at a point in the air.
"You just made those grand pronouncements, and you can't even handle it anymore?" the First Emperor said leisurely.
"No, not at all, I'm just a little not used to it." Fusu moved his lips slightly. Following the eunuch's gesture, he quickly slipped into the new carriage prepared for him, which was clearly of a higher standard than the one used by the Crown Prince.
According to him, there was no need to change course so quickly. Given the limited conditions during the journey, it would be better to keep everything simple and renegotiate the etiquette after returning to Bianjing.
Furthermore, won't such blatant discrimination make Father feel resentful? Knowing his personality, he'll never ask for something back after giving it to him personally; he'll just be unhappy in private. Don't push him to the point of developing a mental illness.
It wasn't until he saw the smiling Emperor, clearly waiting for him, in the new carriage that Fusu realized his mistake. What disparity? What unhappiness? All of it was imagined! Everything before him was orchestrated by the Emperor himself! How could he have been unprepared!
Including the pearwood wooden table propped up on the carriage, and the mountain of memorials piled on it: "Come on, Su'er, now that you have abdicated the throne, you shall approve all of these."
Fusu's vision went black for a moment. At the same time, he heard a familiar laugh again.
"..."
Knowing it was a provocation, he shamefully fell for it. How could he so quickly contradict himself after making such a bold statement? And there was one thing he needed to change: even though his father and grandfather had completely different styles of ruling, their methods of coercing and enticing him were strangely aligned!
But Xiao Fusu didn't want this strangeness at all.
The carriage bumped and jolted violently as it traveled up and down the mountain, often leaving the reader feeling dizzy and lightheaded while reviewing memorials. The poor experience made one wonder: was the emperor's abdication not for his own benefit, but simply because he no longer wanted the position?
"Half and half," the official said.
Fusu touched his face. Had he accidentally blurted out his own words?
"Su'er's thoughts are all written on his face, making him too easy to guess." The Emperor kindly explained, and then earnestly instructed, "In the future, when facing your officials, you must never act like you did today. You must learn the skill of not showing your emotions."
"It's a bit difficult," Fusu said honestly.
Although he lived for three lifetimes, he only lived to his youth at most, which is different from people who normally enter middle and old age and whose psychological age naturally increases.
"I will try my best." Fusu pursed her lips.
"Yes, Father believes in Su'er." Emperor Renzong said, "Thinking back to when Father ascended the throne at a young age, I was far inferior to you, Su'er. But at that time, Empress Dowager Liu held power, and fortunately, I had loyal ministers to assist me, so I managed to get through it. You are different; you still have your father."
These words acted as a reassurance, instantly putting Fusu's mind at ease. He then naturally took over more of Emperor Renzong's work under the guise of "training."
Besides reviewing memorials daily and engaging in wits and battles with court officials, he was responsible for inspecting the countryside and populace whenever he visited a newly recovered territory, while also announcing the good news of the court's tax exemption to win over the people. It happened to be the seventh month of the lunar calendar, and the weather was extremely harsh.
Exposed to the wind and sun, even the usually fair-skinned little man had tanned a shade darker. When he rolled up his sleeves, a noticeable difference in color appeared between his upper and lower body, with his wrist as the dividing line.
"The Empress will definitely laugh at me," Fusu said quietly.
This is the treatment that should be given to officials.
Fusu suspected he had fallen into a trap again: "Will it always be this hard from now on?"
"That is, every year during festivals, spring plowing days, and the birthdays and death anniversaries of ancestors..." The official's voice grew softer and softer.
"..."
Fusu, his face tanned but still quite pale, collapsed onto the carriage, utterly disheveled. Logically, the Emperor should have reminded him to "sit properly," but Fusu was too exhausted, and feeling guilty, he silently turned his head away, pretending not to see anything.
The Emperor cannot see it, but the Father Emperor can.
"What's going on? You finally realize the hardships of being an emperor and want to back out?" The First Emperor's voice was filled with a hint of mockery and teasing as it reached Fusu's ears: "Anyway, we haven't returned to the capital yet. You can tell your father, who loves you so much, that it's not too late to back out."
It was clearly his father's provocation, but why did I smell a faint hint of sourness in it...?
Fusu thought to himself, "I'm cursing this in my heart."
He shifted to a more comfortable position and silently answered his father in his heart: "I just never imagined that being an emperor would be so arduous."
Fusu had to admit that he had been somewhat spoiled by Emperor Renzong. Over the years, he had been doing all sorts of things haphazardly, from new crops to building horse farms to starting newspapers. All these novel ideas were backed by the emperor.
If it had been a less capable ruler, unable to maintain order, the Song Dynasty would have been thrown into chaos long ago. His good ideas would not only have been ineffective, but would have also had the opposite effect, like pulling up seedlings to help them grow.
In the past few days, while reviewing memorials, he encountered countless ones involving the "Zhenni machine." The various problems he encountered, such as being obstructed by local farmers when selecting a factory site and being met with indifference during promotion, were all things that Fusu had never imagined when he invented it.
It's easy to imagine that cotton, potatoes, newspapers, and so on must have encountered similar problems in the past. But the officials never let him know, always solving the problems silently, thus covering up his ingenuity.
But from now on, he'll have to do this job himself.
"I need to work harder," Fusu said.
The provocation had clearly worked, and things were developing as the First Emperor had anticipated. But as he floated in the air, looking at Fusu's furrowed brows, he couldn't feel happy for some reason.
People are always greedy...
After a long silence, the First Emperor sighed slowly.
He had clearly said long ago that being able to witness Fusu ascend the throne in this life would make up for the regrets of his previous life. But when he saw Fusu worrying about someone else's empire, he still felt a faint sense of resentment.
My Great Qin Empire... Enough, enough.
After all, it wasn't him who wholeheartedly wanted to give Fusu the position of Crown Prince. Nor was it him who painstakingly planned the abdication drama.
After a long silence, Qin Shi Huang finally spoke: "No matter what, I will always support you."
"Hmm?" Fusu suddenly straightened up and stared into the void.
"Su'er, what's wrong?"
"A strange sight flashed by just now," Fusu said with a smile. "Perhaps I was mistaken."
After all, it's rare to see such a sentimental father!
Fusu had expected that returning to Bianjing would bring even more trivial matters, making his life unbearable. He was even prepared for his work-weariness to flare up.
"...What? The Cheng family has come to cause trouble? They're questioning the official's decision to arrange the marriage and they're refusing to leave the Su family's house?"
Fusu felt as if all the wrinkles in his brain had been smoothed out. How could someone have made such a decision? He didn't know whether to overestimate or underestimate. Forget it, maybe it's best not to use a human brain against humanoid beings.
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go.” Fusu said, “Isn’t he questioning the Emperor? I’ll go and answer his questions.”
A loud cough came from behind him, and Fusu turned around: "Father, what's wrong?"
He thought the government didn't want him to directly confront the Cheng family.
"Don't forget, Su'er, your current identity."
"Oh." Fusu suddenly realized: "I am now '朕' (the imperial "I").
"May I ask, what wrong do you, the Cheng family, think I have done?"
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