Chapter 431 The Truth is Always Seeked in Regret
The Empress Dowager's face was filled with embarrassment, and her lips were trembling. She could not deny that what she said was true.
"The saying goes, 'The victor is king, the loser is a bandit.' Who is good and who is evil depends entirely on one's own heart in the end. The late emperor sent me to pay my respects to the Empress Dowager. Whether Emperor Huijing was a good emperor or not, whether the Empress Dowager acknowledges it or not, it's all in the past now."
She no longer wanted to say that the late emperor had cared for them his whole life, because the Empress Dowager and Prince Kang were taking advantage of this last bit of affection from the late emperor to rip out his heart and eat his flesh. What use was this kind of affection?
Jiang Fenghua took out the tiger-head doll and placed it in front of the Empress Dowager, saying coldly, "Here you go."
The Empress Dowager felt a sudden pang in her heart. Images of the two brothers in their childhood flashed before her eyes. Could it be that I really owed him something, which is why he severed ties with me and returned the tiger-head dolls that I had made for them after his death?
Jiang Fenghua stood up and respectfully bowed to the Empress Dowager, saying, "Granddaughter-in-law takes her leave."
Only after Jiang Fenghua reached the door did the Empress Dowager speak, "Does he truly hate me that much?"
Jiang Fenghua slowly turned around. "Yes." Don't you know what kind of person your own son is? How can you not hate him after severing ties?
After saying that, she left Qing'an Palace directly.
Xie Minmin said repeatedly, "Grandmother, what's wrong?"
The Empress Dowager is eighty years old and won't live much longer. The late emperor still reserved a place for her in the imperial mausoleum in Hengyang. If they want to be reunited, they can go to the underworld to be reunited as mother and son.
Jiang Fenghua knew how to handle an old lady like the Empress Dowager who refused to admit her mistakes, so she decided to let her find the answer herself!
Xie Shang pleaded with her three or four times, but to no avail. The late emperor's body lay in the palace for a month after his death, but she did not appear. No wonder she did not see the Empress Dowager return to the capital in her previous life. She was probably preoccupied with going to the Northwest to see her youngest son.
She couldn't go to the Northwest without the Emperor's decree. The late Emperor even had the Empress Dowager stay in Hengyang Palace to prevent Prince Kang from rebelling.
The person is dead, so there's no use saying anything now. It's the new emperor's world now. No wonder Xie Shang didn't meddle with her; he knew she would be turned away.
Jiang Fenghua thought: If she continued to talk to the Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager might say that she would never enter the mausoleum prepared for her by Emperor Huijing, even if it meant death.
Humans are inherently fickle; they always seek the truth in moments of deep regret, only to regret it again later.
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Meanwhile, Xie Shang was handling state affairs at the post station. Most of the officials who had accompanied him had already returned, and he stayed behind to wait for Jiang Fenghua to return to Shengjing together.
In fact, he had secretly visited the Hengyang Palace to see his grandmother before, but it seemed that his grandmother really only had one son, Prince Kang. He thought that this was the real reason why his father and grandmother had severed ties.
Even though Father Emperor was such a cold and ruthless person, he still cared about them in the end. It seems that Father Emperor was not a heartless person after all.
He didn't want to repair this relationship; he just wanted to see what Ruan Ruan could do to fulfill her father's last wish.
Ruan Ruan has been gone for a while now. He's almost finished dealing with the memorials he has to go to Hengyang Palace. He's afraid that his grandmother won't see them, since she hasn't even shown her face since his father has already been buried.
Ruan Ruan's wish to fulfill her father's last wish may not be able to be fulfilled.
Just then, Zhu Yiyi finally found an opportunity to approach Xie Shang and said, "This humble woman greets Your Majesty."
At this moment, Zhu Yiyi had changed out of her funeral clothes and back into her original dress. She was dressed in a snow-white long dress, light and graceful, like a fairy who had stepped out of a painting.
Xie Shang glanced at her, and she asked again, "Is His Majesty setting off back to Shengjing?"
"Didn't Imperial Censor Zhu inform Miss Zhu? I'm still waiting for the Empress to return to the capital with her." Xie Shang said in a deep voice, "Miss Zhu didn't go back with Imperial Censor Zhu?"
"Father said that it's rare for me to come out, and he wants me to return to the capital with Consort Zhen," Zhu Yiyi said, making up an excuse.
Xie Shang said, "Then Miss Zhu and Consort Zhu can go together."
Zhu Yiyi quickly said, "Your Majesty the Empress will not be back from Hengyang Palace so soon. Your Majesty has been working hard for many days. You can go out and take a look around and experience the local customs and culture of Hengyang. I heard that it is very prosperous here, and the people live and work in peace and contentment. It is even more lively than Shengjing City!"
Before Xie Shang could speak, Zhu Zhenzhen and Zhang Jingjing also came over, and both of them bowed, saying, "Your Majesty, we pay our respects."
"No need for formalities," Xie Shang said in a deep voice.
This was the first time Zhu Zhenzhen had seen Zhu Yiyi in so many days. She asked in confusion, "Why is Big Sister here?" She had known for a long time that Zhu Yiyi was in the group, but because of the funeral arrangements for the late emperor, Zhu Yiyi had been keeping quiet.
Now that they met, she really wanted to ask if she was still hiding the aphrodisiac, but in the end she held back.
Zhu Yiyi obediently greeted Zhu Zhenzhen, saying, "Greetings to Your Highness."
Zhu Zhenzhen felt disgusted, but still took her hand and said, "We're sisters, no need for formalities. His Majesty already said outside the palace that all etiquette should be kept simple."
"It was my father who asked me to stay and return to the capital with you, Your Highness," Zhu Yiyi said. "Actually, I saw you a long time ago, but my father said that we sisters are now of different statuses, and told me not to get too close to you. I left the palace with my father on my mother's orders to take care of him along the way. Now that we are about to return to the capital, I wanted to ask His Majesty if he would like to visit Hengyang City."
In fact, she knew that her father had made two preparations. The fact that Zhu Zhenzhen was able to leave the palace with the Emperor meant that she had a chance to regain the Emperor's favor. If Zhu Zhenzhen gained the Emperor's favor again and became pregnant, then there would be no chance for Zhu Yiyi. Therefore, she needed to speed up her pace.
Zhu Zhenzhen smiled and said, "I didn't see my eldest sister. Did she go out for a stroll a long time ago? Mother asked you to take care of Father, but you went out to play by yourself. You're really free!"
"I've come to invite Your Majesty, haven't I? Hengyang is truly a wonderful place, a land of outstanding people and beautiful scenery. Our Great Zhou's Holy Ancestor Emperor was from Hengyang, wasn't he? In that sense, Your Majesty has returned to your hometown! As the saying goes, when you're in your hometown, you feel at home. Your Majesty should also go and experience your hometown..." Zhu Yiyi looked at Xie Shang and asked, as if she knew him very well.
Before he could speak, Zhang Jingjing suddenly said, "When the Holy Ancestor Emperor was conquering the world, he only built palaces in Hengyang. The Xie family was not from Hengyang. Shengjing was the capital of the previous dynasty. After the previous dynasty was destroyed, the Xie family also regarded the Shengjing Imperial City as their capital. After renovation, they moved to the Shengjing Imperial City. The Hengyang Palace was just a temporary residence."
Xie Shang stared at Zhang Jingjing and smiled faintly, "Zhang Zhaoxun is right, Hengyang is not the Xie family's ancestral home." The whole world belongs to the Xie family.
An awkward look flashed across Zhu Yiyi's eyes. "So it turns out I'm just ignorant."
"It's alright, most people don't know about it anyway," Xie Shang added. "I see you're all quite interested in Hengyang. Since you've come to such a wonderful place, why don't you change your clothes and go for a stroll?"
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