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No one in the Shenlong Guard dared to mention retirement anymore.
At this point, recruiting monks was no longer possible, and the court completely focused its attention on martial artists. Recruitment notices for the Divine Dragon Guard were posted throughout towns and villages, vowing to fill the gaps left by the lack of monks with warriors.
But even among warriors, only a handful signed up to join. The reason was simple: the sects whose members had died were unwilling to sit idly by and watch the imperial court fill up the ranks, so they spread the news in advance. It quickly became known that the Divine Dragon Guards were only allowed to enter, not leave.
Pei Yingguan was troubled, as were the Emperor and the Crown Prince, but they couldn't force any warriors to join the Dragon Guard. Ultimately, they could only change recruitment into a long-term task, with each member taking on more tasks in the short term.
Xiao Wan'er watched with aloof eyes, delighted by the situation. She had already fallen out with the Crown Prince and Pei Yingguan, and being able to work normally with them was already difficult, so she naturally wouldn't offer any advice on recruiting.
So things can only be dragged on like this.
However, Xiao Wan'er did not expect that the relationship between the two parties had reached such a point that the prince still invited her to the banquet.
"Senior Sister, why don't you just decline the invitation?" Liu Mingyin looked at the invitation and suggested after a while.
The banquet was held in the East Palace, but he was not invited.
"Can we just turn down the Crown Prince's invitation?" Xiao Wan'er disagreed. "I will be careful at the banquet."
Liu Mingyin nodded.
On the day of the banquet, Xiao Wan'er dressed in her finest attire and arrived on time. The East Palace servants politely ushered her to her seat, as if there was no hostility between them.
But as soon as Xiao Wan'er sat down, her face nearly turned pale. The prince had actually arranged a seat for her and Pei Yingguan together.
Not long after she sat down, Pei Yingguan also sat down at the table.
"Junior sister, long time no see." Pei Yingguan greeted Xiao Wan'er with a smile, as if there had never been any conflict between them.
"Sir Pei, nice to meet you." Xiao Wan'er's attitude was much more distant.
Pei Yingguan shook his head, with a look of helplessness and doting, as if he was a poor man who was often unreasonablely teased by his Taoist partner, which attracted the attention of the guests around, who looked at him with sympathy.
Xiao Wan'er became even more unhappy, and quietly moved her butt to sit further away from him.
Pei Yingguan didn't say anything else. Soon, the prince arrived and the banquet officially began.
The banquet hosted by the prince was arranged according to the best specifications. There was a constant supply of fine wine and delicious food from beginning to end. The actors who entertained the banquet also had beautiful looks and superb skills.
If the host wasn't the prince, this would have been a banquet that Xiao Wan'er would have thoroughly enjoyed.
After the banquet, the prince openly called the two of them.
"Pei Qing hasn't gotten along well with your junior sister for a while. Today, you will take He Jing back home," he said to Xiao Wan'er. "He Jing, you too. Pei Qing has missed you for so many years. You should give him a chance and not let him waste all these years."
As soon as the Crown Prince spoke, a minister immediately echoed him: "Your Highness is right. The county lady is truly blessed to have such a talented, self-disciplined, and devoted admirer. Please do not let her beloved man down."
With the prince's mediation and the ministers' support, the atmosphere immediately became one where Xiao Wan'er was ungrateful for not accepting Pei Yingguan. She was almost suffocating in the situation and wished she could use magic to turn the banquet upside down.
"Your Highness, I will consider your words carefully. I have other things to do, so I will not stay." She took a deep breath, suppressed the desire to destroy in her heart, and said goodbye and left.
Pei Yingguan immediately bowed and said goodbye, and a minister followed her, who smiled knowingly.
Xiao Wan'er became even more irritated, pretending not to see him, and walked quickly to the street. After a few steps, someone suddenly called her.
The man wasn't familiar with her, and his voice was filled with uncertainty: "Could the lady be Deputy Commander Xiao of the Divine Dragon Guard?"
"I am," Xiao Wan'er replied, "I wonder who your wife is?"
"I used to be a lady-in-waiting in the palace, and today I am attending the banquet at the East Palace with my husband."
"Is that so..." Xiao Wan'er saw that the woman didn't want to end the conversation, then looked at Pei Yingguan who was still standing aside, and instantly came up with an idea, "Madam, would you like to come to my house for a short chat?"
The woman responded without hesitation: "It is my great honor."
In the County Lady's Mansion, Liu Mingyin served tea to the two of them and then walked into the courtyard, staring intently at Pei Yingguan. Pei Yingguan pretended not to feel unwelcome and continued to stay in the courtyard.
The woman picked up the tea, took a sip, and then said softly, "I congratulate Deputy Commander Xiao. I have been granted the surname Li and the title of County Lady. I will have a bright future."
"What's with the promising future?" Xiao Wan'er sighed. "This county lady was traded for the abbot of Biyun Temple."
"What's going on?" the woman was shocked. "I lived in the backyard after my marriage and didn't know about this."
Xiao Wan'er drank the tea in one gulp, and the teacup hit the table with a clear sound.
"The Crown Prince wanted Pei Yingguan to be the abbot of Biyun Temple, so he asked the Emperor for an imperial decree. Either I marry Pei Yingguan and become a county lady, or I take the Emperor's surname and become a county lady. In any case, I must be in a position that can be controlled by the Crown Prince."
The woman was speechless for a long time before she murmured, "It turns out the deputy commander's life isn't easy either."
Xiao Wan'er waved her hand. "It's not bad. I can still fight them. But you, why did you suddenly leave the palace and get married?"
At this point, the woman was overcome with sorrow.
"If there is a choice, who would be willing to leave the palace?"
Since Shangguan Wan'er's death, the emperor had gradually dismissed all female officials who had previously been involved in government affairs. This official, a commoner, had originally entered the palace as a court lady hoping for a better future. Now, having grown older, she had essentially been expelled from the palace, leaving her with a poor reputation within her class. Seeing that her career as a court lady would no longer offer any hope of advancement for the family, and disdained by the new emperor and the crown prince, her family hastily married her off to a widower over a decade her senior, whose children were not much younger than hers.
This widower's rank was indeed higher than her father's, and after she got married, both her father and brother were promoted. However, she herself was guarded by both her father and son, and all household affairs were managed by her stepson's new wife. She was called a step-wife, but in reality, she was no different from a concubine.
"You know, on the night of our wedding, I was forced to drink a bowl of sterilizing medicine. They were afraid that I used to be a court lady, so they didn't even allow me to have children."
Everything she once had has now become a reason for others to hurt her.
"Deputy Commander Xiao, tell me why Empress Wu Zetian wanted to allow her ladies-in-waiting to participate in government affairs," she cried. "She herself left, but left us behind. We've already seen the vastness of the world, so how can we endure being trapped in the inner chamber day after day?"
Xiao Wan'er didn't know how to comfort the former female official. When reality was too bleak, all words were pale.
But this should not be Emperor Wu's fault, she thought, people should never blame the pioneers who blazed the trail.
After a long silence, she said dryly, "It would be nice if the involvement of women officials in politics could be written into the law."
"That's impossible," the woman objected. "The courtiers would never agree to that."
This was too obvious, and the two fell silent again.
"Perhaps it's because we're too incompetent. Not only have we failed to continue along the path pioneered by Empress Wu Zetian, but we're also almost throwing away all the achievements she made."
After a moment of silence, Xiao Wan'er slowly summarized. After the two of them talked for a while, their moods only worsened.
Seeing that the conversation could no longer continue, the woman forced a smile, stood up and said goodbye to Xiao Wan'er.
Xiao Wan'er stood in front of the gate, watching her gradually receding figure, her heart aching.
"Junior sister," Pei Yingguan came over again at this time, "You seem to be in a bad mood, but what happened?"
Xiao Wan'er looked at the prince's confidant in front of her, and a sudden surge of violent emotion rose in her heart.
"Pei Yingguan, if I become your Taoist partner, the price is that you will no longer be able to serve as an official in the imperial court, you will not be able to socialize freely with others, you will have to take care of household chores every day, and in the future you will even have to raise our children and manage my other concubines. Can you accept this?"
"What are you talking about?" Pei Yingguan flatly refused. "How can a man of honor be confined to the backyard?"
"Oh, you're a man, and you can't. Then why do you think I can? Just because I'm a woman?" Xiao Wan'er pressed. "But we share the same teachers, eat the same grains, wear the same silks, and have the same appearance. Why should women have to accept what men can't? Didn't you just seize power first?"
Xiao Wan'er said this, pointing to the depths of the road.
"Just like that woman just now, she was once a court lady, but now she lives a miserable life in her husband's household. She never broke any laws, never hurt anyone, so why did she end up like this? What was her fault? Just because you men are afraid of capable women, does that mean she has to live a life worse than death?"
Pei Yingguan knew that Xiao Wan'er was taking her anger out on him. But he looked at the angry girl in front of him, his lips moving, but he remained silent.
"Master Pei, please go away. In the future, please do not use such despicable means as forming a Taoist partner to tie me to the Crown Prince and your chariot. If you still have any conscience towards your master, please fight me in a fair and square battle."
That night, Pei Yingguan fled Xiao Wan'er's home almost as if he were running away. It's said that he stumbled and fell several times along the way, and by the time he got home, his clothes were in tatters.
However, Commander Pei's miserable appearance did not provoke widespread discussion. Because the next morning, even bigger news broke in Chang'an: the second wife of a fourth-rank official killed her husband in the middle of the night and then set fire to his mansion. The flames spread rapidly, killing the official's eldest son and his wife, and most of his other children also died. The only one who escaped was the official's young concubine's daughter. Born to a maid, she had never been favored and lived in the most secluded of houses.
The woman was crushed to ashes by the angry officials and their relatives. When people in Chang'an talked about this incident, they often called her a vicious woman. As for the reason for the crime, no one cared.
Xiao Wan'er lit three incense sticks for her and placed some tributes as a memorial, and then returned to her seemingly ordinary but undercurrent-filled life.
It was not until January of the following year that Princess Taiping stopped the Minister of Personnel and openly demanded that the emperor appoint the eldest legitimate son as crown prince on the grounds that the crown prince was not the eldest legitimate son.
When Xiao Wan'er first heard the news, her head was buzzing and she almost fell to the ground.
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