The curtain falls
"Mingyu, you've grown up."
Emperor Shengyuan sat on the dragon throne in the Qin'an Hall, looking at Nan Yun kneeling below him, and the palace maid who had been expelled from the palace fourteen years ago.
The palace maid originally served in Kunning Palace, but left the palace when she reached a certain age.
Princess Yu Ning was surprised that she could find the palace maids who were still alive from back then.
It was as if someone had secretly investigated everything and was just waiting to hand the evidence to her.
Nan Yun held the poisonous herb called "Starry Sky" in her hands.
"Father, this is the evidence I have collected. I beg you to do justice for Mother."
Princess Yuning, with tears in her eyes, seemed to still be the child who would cry when she couldn't find her mother.
At that time, the Empress took her in her incessant crying and patiently comforted her again and again, telling her not to cry, that her mother was gone, but she was her mother, the same as her, they were the same.
However, Mingyu now understands that they are different.
"Go back to the palace. I'll go see your mother."
"Father Emperor—"
Princess Yuning called him again, her eyes urging him urgently, as if she wanted him to do something.
Emperor Shengyuan had not seen his empress for a very long time; he couldn't even remember when they last met.
When he entered Kunning Palace, Empress Ye was sitting there blankly, still dressed as she had been at the palace banquet, her rouge still on.
"Empress," Emperor Shengyuan called out to her.
Empress Ye slowly came to her senses. "You've come," she said calmly.
"Wanrong's death is related to you, isn't it...?"
Emperor Shengyuan did not present the witnesses and physical evidence to the Empress; instead, he asked the question he already knew the answer to.
"Yes." She didn't deny it; denial was useless, the evidence was conclusive, and everyone knew.
She waited for the guillotine hanging over her neck for fourteen years.
Emperor Shengyuan sighed and asked, "Why bother? You are my empress, why bother? Wanrong poses no threat to your position, why bother?"
Why should his clean and gentle empress dirty her hands?
"Wasn't it good that Wanrong was alive?"
“Ah Yuan…”
She called him as she did when she was a child, but Emperor Shengyuan remained silent for a long time. He himself couldn't remember how long it had been since anyone had called him that.
"Ah Yuan, do you still remember my name?"
Empress Ye stared intently into his eyes; now no one else was watching, only the two of them.
She was no longer the empress, no longer the head of the six palaces, but simply his wife.
Emperor Shengyuan's lips trembled. He had been intelligent since childhood and had a photographic memory, but at this moment he found that he had forgotten his wife's name. Not that he had forgotten it, but that it had been covered up by something.
“My surname is Ye, my given name is Xuezhen, and my nickname is Yunyun. You used to call me Yunyun, but now you only call me Empress.”
She trembled all over, tears streaming down her face, staining her rouge. "We've been husband and wife for twenty-four years, and you've already forgotten my name."
"You may spend your life with me, but you have long forgotten my name."
"Ah Yuan, she's been dead for so long, yet you still remember her but have forgotten me. I'm clearly the one who's still alive!"
To outsiders, she always appeared gentle and kind, but at this moment her face contorted with rage.
"If that's the case, if that's the case, how I wish it were me who died..."
"I'm sorry." Emperor Shengyuan had lived for forty years and had never uttered these three words to anyone, but now he bowed his head and admitted his mistake.
"But Wanrong is so innocent! How can you, with your kind heart, bear to let Mingyu lose her mother at the age of three?"
"Haha... Mingyu's performance of that excerpt was really well done, A Yuan."
She gave a half-smile. "How could I bear it? Maybe I'm crazy, Ah Yuan. Are you satisfied with this outcome?"
"I used to think you were heartless, so I didn't care about those women. But Ah Yuan, I suddenly realized that you've fallen in love with Zhang Wanrong. I've waited so long, so long, and this is the result..."
"Ah Yuan, maybe I went crazy a long, long time ago."
"But you are the Empress, and your son is the Crown Prince. I don't understand what you still have to be dissatisfied with."
“Not satisfied? No, no, no, I’m not dissatisfied. Ah Yuan, please call Zi Kun back. Even if he did something wrong, it’s been more than three years. He should have gotten over his anger by now.”
"Ah Yuan, recall the Crown Prince. I can confess my guilt, I can pay for Zhang Wanrong's life, but the Crown Prince is innocent. Please recall him. I want to see Zikun one last time before I die."
She suddenly knelt on the ground, kowtowing repeatedly, pleading as a mother.
"I never wanted you to die, I never even thought of that. Just stay in Kunning Palace and don't go out unless necessary."
Emperor Shengyuan opened his mouth several times, but ultimately did not call out her name.
"Empress, hand over your imperial seal to Consort Xian. You should reflect on your actions."
She collapsed to the ground, weeping uncontrollably. Her hair was disheveled, her rouge smudged, but she didn't care. It was as if she wanted to cry out all the pain she had endured for the past twenty-four years.
It's so heartbreaking. If she hadn't been jealous or resentful, would things have turned out this way?
Zhang Wanrong, Zhang Wanrong, she envied her so much, envied her beauty, envied her being favored by the emperor, and even envied her having a lovely and beautiful daughter.
Before Zhang Wanrong died, she went to see her. Zhang Wanrong was lying pale and weak on the bed, without even the strength to get up.
"Your Majesty, I know my own body is failing, and I fear I do not have much time left. I have no relatives left in this world, and I have no attachments. But now I have Mingyu."
My Mingyu is only three years old and is about to lose her mother. I'm worried she'll be bullied in the palace.
"Your Majesty, I have never asked you for anything, but now I have a request."
Even though her complexion had faded, Zhang Wanrong was still as beautiful as ever. "I hope Your Majesty the Empress can raise Mingyu under your care."
She heard herself feigning kindness, saying, "Alright, Wanrong, don't worry. I also like Mingyu. I will treat her as my own daughter. She will be the most honored princess of Dasheng."
"Thank you for your grace, Your Majesty. I am so happy to have met you. The year I spent serving you was a very happy one..."
"Your Majesty is such a kind person, it is no exaggeration to say that you have the heart of a Bodhisattva. I have no way to repay you in this life, but I wish to repay Your Majesty's kindness in the next life."
"Next life?" The ugly face in her mind sneered, "Zhang Wanrong, you should pray you don't meet her again in your next life."
Ye Xuezhen cried for a long time, staring blankly at the caisson ceiling above her, which was carved with dragons and phoenixes symbolizing good fortune.
She has lost the emperor's affection; what will happen to her crown prince? She can't die yet; what will happen to her crown prince if she dies?
What will happen to her Zikun? What will happen to the Crown Prince, whom she hasn't seen for three years in Bianjing?
He was too much like her—ordinary and unassuming—which is why he didn't win the emperor's favor.
After leaving Kunning Palace, Emperor Shengyuan never set foot there again until his death.
Emperors are unintentional; emperors should be unintentional.
His father had told him this, and he disciplined himself in the same way.
Nothing in the world is greater than imperial power.
*
Holding the beautiful flower named Starlight, Nan Yun walked out step by step from the deep palace behind her, where the lights flickered.
Fourteen years ago, her grandfather was summoned into the deep palace by the empress, who was seriously ill and had sought out famous doctors without success.
As usual, he conjured up a string of candied hawthorns from nowhere, patted her head, and told her that he would come out once he cured the Empress's illness.
Then, he disappeared without a trace, neither alive nor dead.
Using the little pharmacology she learned from her grandfather, she disguised herself as a boy and worked as a helper in various medical clinics in Shengjing City.
She knew a lot about herbs and could process them. The clinic took pity on her and would occasionally ask her for help, giving her some money in return. She managed to survive in Shengjing City.
Later, the hard times finally passed, and she saved up enough money to rent a shop and open her own clinic, but her grandfather still did not return.
She waited and waited, fearing that her grandfather would return but not be able to find her.
She used all her money to inquire about news in the palace. She learned very little, but that the Empress's illness would soon be cured, and that Consort Rong's health deteriorated after giving birth to the princess.
A witch doctor examined her, but was helpless. Then the witch doctor disappeared. How could he disappear?
She thought of Fanxing who had been taken away, she thought of the Empress, she thought of Consort Rong, and she roughly knew what had happened.
So her grandfather never came back, because he had to go and treat that nobleman.
After opening her clinic, Nan Yun established a rule that she would not visit patients at their homes; patients could only be treated at her clinic.
Life went on peacefully, so peacefully that she thought the hatred in her heart had disappeared. She tended to herbs, cultivated the medicinal herbs she brought from the southern border, and treated patients who came to her door.
One day, a boy disguised as a girl timidly appeared at her clinic. She herself was a girl disguised as a boy, and she could tell at a glance that the boy was also a girl disguised as a boy.
The boy immediately recognized her disguise.
They looked at each other for a long time, and then they both laughed.
After learning about the boy's family's financial difficulties, she took him in to help at the clinic...
"Miss Gu?"
Holding the starry sky in her hands, Nan Yun entered the clinic and was surprised to find candles burning inside, indicating that someone was waiting for her.
"How was it?" Gu Yu smiled sincerely.
She had thought she wouldn't feel any nostalgia for the past, but those memories were shrouded in the shadow of hatred, and every time she thought of them, she felt only pain in her heart.
The pain was so intense that she dared not think about it.
As the candlelight flickered, Nanyun seemed to see the figure of that boy from years ago; their smiles in the light were so similar.
“I believe Princess Yuning will give an explanation for my grandfather’s death.”
Nan Yun could finally breathe a long sigh of relief; the hatred that had weighed on her heart for over a decade suddenly came to an end.
She felt relieved, and only then did she have the leisure to inquire about the old acquaintance, "That... boy you met..."
After hesitating for a moment, she finally asked, "How is she?"
Gu Yu smiled and said, "Her? She's quite skilled in medicine. I'm physically weak, and she saved me when I fainted on the street once."
"She told me that there was too much money to rent a shop in Shengjing, and she wanted to go to Jiangnan to take a look. I gave her some money to thank her. Now she should have opened a clinic in some remote corner of the south."
She paused, her eyes stinging with tears, "...just like you, Dr. Nan."
Sometimes, after telling so many lies, Gu Yu doesn't even realize she's lying. Her tone is so calm, as if everything is true.
"That's good, that's good."
Nan Yun laughed happily, but when she thought about how that person had suddenly disappeared, she still felt a little resentful. "She's so ungrateful. She learned my skills but didn't formally become my disciple. She just disappeared for no reason, making me worry about her for a long time."
"Before you leave, you should at least say goodbye properly. If you're not skilled enough and cause any trouble, don't blame it on being my apprentice..."
Nan Yun muttered to himself for a long time.
Gu Yu turned her head away, trying hard not to let her tears fall. She realized that she could still cry, because she had been a human and experienced human joys and sorrows.
She asked Nan Yun, "What does Dr. Nan plan to do next?"
Nan Yun thought for a moment, a light smile on her face, "Actually, if I weren't waiting for my grandfather to come back, I wouldn't want to stay in Shengjing either. Renting a shop here for a year is too expensive."
Nan Yun largely agreed with what the young man said: if you open a clinic in Shengjing City, you can't make money if you don't raise your consultation fees; if you do raise them, ordinary people won't be able to afford medical care.
“I think I might go back to the southern border, maybe to become a shaman in a tribe, or I might continue to travel around the Central Plains as a wandering doctor.”
"Look at me, what a skilled doctor I am! If those who have been ill for a long time were lucky enough to meet me, wouldn't they treat me like a living Bodhisattva?"
"Yes, indeed, Dr. Nan is a very capable doctor." Gu Yu smiled, her eyes flickering with candlelight. "Dr. Nan..."
"Um?"
She looked at Gu Yu with a puzzled expression, feeling as if she had met her before.
From now on, may we all cherish the snow-covered mountains, the autumn clouds, and the spring waters.
This time she said goodbye properly, so don't say anything like "we didn't say goodbye."
Nan Yun looked at her earnestly, "Miss Gu, thank you. Take good care of yourself. Maybe we'll meet again someday. I hope you'll be healthy then."
"Oh, right, I also have some medical books. I sent someone to deliver them to your residence before I left, otherwise I wouldn't be able to take them with me, and it would be a waste to leave them here."
"good."
After Nan Yun left, Gu Yu had someone take over her clinic, and she didn't take down the signboard, still calling it Nanfang Clinic.
She recruited many skilled itinerant doctors to practice at her clinic. The consultation fees were still charged according to the rules previously set by Doctor Nan, but the rule of not visiting patients at their homes was changed.
"My precious darling, my daughter who tastes like Tang Sanzang, you've finally returned."
Gu Hanying had obviously been sitting in the front hall for a while, waiting for Gu Yu to return after she went out.
"???" Gu Yu saw the marriage certificate in her father's hand and finally remembered that she had forgotten something. Her marriage with Xu Qiu was still not settled.
"Who delivered the betrothal letter to the mansion?" Gu Yu asked curiously.
Gu Jin said in a muffled voice, "The Fifth Prince wants to marry you as his principal wife."
"Only this one betrothal letter was delivered to your residence, but I heard news from Bianjing that that group of people posing as members of the Six Ministries are urging the Crown Prince to marry you as a concubine..."
Bianjing had a group of six ministries, modeled after the official positions in Shengjing, but their authority was certainly not comparable to that of Shengjing. Therefore, people who were dissatisfied with the Bianjing regime often called them fake ministries.
Gu Hanying grumbled in dissatisfaction, "How can my precious daughter become a concubine? Not even the Crown Prince! Those people are practically scheming in front of me..."
"If you become a concubine, the Crown Princess will surely torment you. Ayu, you absolutely cannot go to Bianjing."
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