When Zhen Huan went inside, she found that the chubby orange had already fainted.
She wasn't one to judge people by their appearance, or rather, his status as emperor made her overlook his looks and age from the start.
From the moment she learned she had been chosen, she knew she had to win this man's heart. Otherwise, when Fang Ruo taught her manners and spoke of Consort Hua's exclusive favor, she wouldn't have blurted out that relying on beauty to please others was unsustainable.
After entering the palace, he avoided the emperor's favor, hoping to temporarily escape the limelight and remain an outsider in the situation, in order to plan for the future.
But no matter what she planned, all she wanted was to find a soulmate and stay together until old age.
Unfortunately, they were both wrong from the very beginning.
Every time she thought the emperor had fallen in love with her for who she was, she was jolted back to reality by his so-called favor. In particular, the appearance of Consort Yun constantly reminded her of the fact that Wanwan resembled Qing.
Zhen Huan murmured, "You ruined my life, and I've taken my revenge on you. We owe each other nothing."
The light in front of her suddenly dimmed, and Zhen Huan was startled, hurriedly turning her head away.
Upon discovering that the person behind him was Yunli, he quickly glanced outside and breathed a sigh of relief only when he saw that no one had noticed. He whispered,
"How did you get in here? What if someone finds out...?"
Yunli glanced at the lifeless emperor on the bed and said, "I don't trust you. The guards at the door have all been sent away. No one will notice."
Zhen Huan pulled Yunli along and carefully walked to the shadows behind the shelf, where they could hide and also detect any movement at the door.
“What do I have to worry about? His Majesty will only be here for the next two days. After the funeral is over, I will leave the palace to be with you.”
Yunli smiled as he thought about the days they would spend together in the future, but he was still worried.
The imperial concubines either moved to the back courtyards of Cining Palace and Shou Kang Palace, or became nuns like his mother. How many emperors in thousands of years have allowed their concubines to leave the palace and marry after his death?
"Did Consort Cheng really make that promise to you? Even if she did, the imperial family and all the officials would certainly not agree."
Zhen Huan said, "There's no need for them to agree. Just move to the temporary palace. After a few months, say that you died of grief because of the late emperor's passing, and then change your identity."
"It's not just me, it's the same for everyone else. If you want to leave the palace, you can fake your death, change your name, and live the life you want."
"But this means that you and I will have to leave here and won't be able to return to the capital for a while."
Yunli embraced Zhen Huan and spoke of their future, saying, "As long as we can be together, what do these things matter? After the funeral, I will request to lead the overseas campaign."
"Then we can go far away and live like an ordinary couple, without worrying about being discovered."
Zhen Huan nodded happily, pressing her face against Yunli's chest, feeling his hot and powerful heartbeat.
The two then expressed their deepest feelings for each other, imagining traveling the world together and living a life of blissful companionship, envying not even the immortals.
Big Fat Orange groggily woke up from his coma, feeling only that his body was ice cold and he had no feeling in his lower body, with only a trace of warmth in his chest.
Seeing that no one was by the bedside, Su Peisheng was nowhere to be found. Just as he was about to call someone in, he heard a noise coming from the shelf.
Whether it was a final burst of energy before death or not, the big orange cat suddenly became sharp-witted and quick-witted.
Although he was unable to move, he managed to catch most of what the two were saying.
Before he even died, the person he had doted on for many years and his younger brother, whom he had always treated well, were plotting to run away after he died.
Not only Zhen Huan, but the fairy also agreed that others should do the same.
Big Fat Orange's chest heaved violently, blood gushed from his mouth like a fountain, and his body trembled uncontrollably.
In his final moments, what he was thinking was that he hadn't heard any of this from Yao Jing's mind. Secondly, he realized that while she had indeed treated the concubines well, she hadn't treated him well...
After Zhen Huan finished speaking to Yunli, they discovered that their beloved son, Da Pang Ju, had died with his eyes wide open, seemingly unable to rest in peace...
*
The silver accumulated in the national treasury and private coffers over the past few years far exceeds that at the beginning of the reign of the late emperor. The late emperor's achievements can be considered those of a great emperor throughout history.
Therefore, the funeral of the late emperor was unusually grand and extravagant, with expenses that were considered luxurious even for the imperial palace.
Sun Miaoqing, who was used to extravagance and big money, rubbed her eyes hard as she looked at the numbers in the ledger.
After confirming that he hadn't misread it, he wished he could dig the deceased emperor out of his tomb and let him live a few more years.
"I am now in my twenties, and my eyesight has already deteriorated. Just burying the emperor cost twelve million taels of silver!"
"Even if the entire mausoleum were covered in gold, it wouldn't require this much..."
Just toss the ledger aside, out of sight, out of mind.
Nian Shilan said, "You didn't handle palace affairs before, so you don't know about these things. More than a year ago, the late emperor had a premonition that his life was not long. He was probably afraid of being wronged after his death, so he gradually prepared a lot of things."
"The ceiling of the imperial mausoleum is entirely carved from huanghuali wood, each piece measuring one foot square, and decorated with one and a half taels of gold. The underground palace is the same."
"This alone would cost 50,000 taels of gold. And that doesn't even include the gold dust on the pillars and the gold flowers on the furnishings."
"There were a total of 1,088 pearls on the burial shroud and the burial clothes. Each pearl represented a life, and the pearls used on the emperor could not be ordinary pearls."
"You do the math yourself, just these alone will cost a fortune."
The Imperial Noble Consort Yijing said, "The Imperial Noble Consort is right. The late Emperor even had terracotta figurines made in the likeness of his beloved pets."
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