Mo Yuanyuan completed this task again, but she wasn't too happy this time.
Back in the Forbidden City, chaos reigned due to Qingyu's departure. Hongli, who loved Wei Yanqing, couldn't bear to kill her.
However, the Empress Dowager had already developed a rift with Hongli. She did not want Hongli to live too comfortably, so she directly gave Wei Yanqing poisoned wine, hoping to make Hongli sad and heartbroken.
This deepened the conflict between mother and son, and Hongli began to contradict the Empress Dowager repeatedly. Eventually, the Empress Dowager died of anger, and Hongli was branded as an unfilial son.
But so what? Hongli was a heartless man. He pretended to cry a few times and then hastily buried the Empress Dowager.
Hongli lived to be eighty-seven years old, and the throne eventually fell into the hands of Wei Yanqing's son.
The situation remained the same as in history, except that, thanks to the popularity of spinning machines, people no longer suffered from the cold, and their lives improved somewhat.
Seeing this, Mo Yuanyuan managed to force a smile, which was the only thing that brought her comfort.
"Alright, you've seen everything you need to see. Do you still want to take on the last mission?" the system asked, turning off the screen.
Upon hearing this, Mo Yuanyuan suddenly realized, "Right, there's still a mission!!"
So she quickly pressed the accept button.
She immediately felt lightheaded and soon lost consciousness. When she woke up again, she found herself in a bed.
Mo Yuanyuan rubbed her eyes and looked around. The room was still bustling with activity.
She slowly sat down in front of the mirror, looking at her face. It was an ordinary face, but her skin was fair and delicate. If you didn't know, you would never guess that she was already thirty-five years old.
"Who is she?" she murmured, looking at herself in the mirror.
Seeing her listless and weak, the system chuckled, "What's wrong? Not a beauty this time, are you unhappy?"
She shook her head. "I know the timeline of your mission is from the distant past to the present. If I'm not mistaken, we're currently in the late Qing Dynasty!"
These were the darkest days for the people: the Opium War, the Eight-Nation Alliance invasion of China, famine, and plague nearly drove them to the brink of despair.
Seeing that she had already guessed, the system also sighed heavily, "You are now Empress Dowager Cixi, Niohuru Zhen'er."
"Oh!" Without even looking up, she asked with a sorrowful expression, "What is her wish?"
"Her wish is simple: to take good care of herself and live to be a hundred years old," the system obediently replied.
Zhen'er sneered, "Live to a hundred years old? Does that mean I have to live here for sixty-five years? Is that easy?"
"But you've already pressed the accept button, there's no going back," the system reminded you.
"Yes, there's no going back now." Zhen'er gave a bitter smile.
"Sigh!" The system sighed, then pretended to be malfunctioning, and wouldn't respond no matter how it was called.
She calculated the dates and realized that it should be during the reign of Emperor Tongzhi, whose biological mother was the famous Empress Dowager Cixi.
Because Zhen'er was Emperor Xianfeng's empress, she was respectfully addressed as Empress Dowager by Emperor Tongzhi and was known as the Eastern Empress Dowager, while Empress Dowager Cixi was the Western Empress Dowager.
Historically, Emperor Tongzhi was not a very opinionated person, and he spent many years staying in brothels. He died of syphilis at the young age of nineteen.
The entire court was basically managed by the two empress dowagers.
Unfortunately, Zhen'er did not live as long as Empress Dowager Cixi, dying suddenly from an illness at the young age of forty-five, which led to Cixi later wielding absolute power and holding the entire Qing Dynasty in her hands.
However, Empress Dowager Cixi lacked the ability to govern the country and was extremely extravagant. She required dozens of people to serve her when she took a bath, used hundreds of towels at a time, and had 108 dishes for each meal.
If we're just talking about extravagance, that's fine, but she's also ruthless. If the palace maids or eunuchs don't serve her well in the slightest, they'll be beheaded. Even losing a single hair will result in being beaten with twenty strokes of the cane.
Even worse, she preferred to spend tens of thousands of taels of silver on her own birthday rather than give the money to the Beiyang Fleet, which led to the complete annihilation of the Beiyang Fleet in one battle.
There were other crimes as well, but Zhen'er really didn't want to think about them anymore; thinking about them too much would only bring her heartache.
However, she quickly put her displeasure behind her and replaced it with a relieved smile, "If I had lived, that old witch Cixi wouldn't have dared to be so smug."
"Yes, she wouldn't dare," Zhen'er comforted herself.
Although she has to do this task for sixty-five years, it is worth it if it can reduce the suffering of the people.
She knew that the Qing government was corrupt and beyond saving, and she did not intend to change the course of history. She only wanted to help the people in any way she could.
As she thought about it, she gradually accepted this identity, realizing that it did have some advantages after all.
"Thump-thump-thump!" The clock hand on the wall had reached twelve, and she knew it was noon.
Just as I was about to push open the door and step outside, I heard hurried footsteps.
"Your Majesty, please go and have your lunch!" the little eunuch at the door said cheerfully.
"Oh!" Zhen'er responded softly, then opened the door, and a burst of intense light shone on her face.
She instinctively closed her eyes, and only opened them after her eyes had adjusted.
"What's your name?" Zhen'er asked, her voice gentle yet authoritative.
"Reporting to Your Majesty, this servant is Xiao Anzi," the little eunuch replied in a shrill voice. He dared not ask Zhen'er why she would suddenly ask him his name.
"Hmm, very good." After saying that, Zhen'er lifted her foot and walked towards the front hall.
Xiao Anzi quickly followed, bowing as he walked, saying, "Your Majesty, the weather is hot these days. After lunch, let the palace maids help you bathe and change."
"We'll see when the time comes!" Zhen'er said and continued walking forward. She neither agreed nor disagreed.
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