Huo Xiaolong and Lan Tingche returned home late, and few people in the manor knew it. Coincidentally, the light in Cen Ang's room was still on that day.
"Long'er and Tingche should have gotten their share from the Princess."
Hua Luan didn't leave; she stood at the window looking outside and said...
Cen Ang was thinking of the Crown Princess again, playing with the pearl she had given him years ago, not replying to Hua Luan's words, but just lying quietly on the table.
“You’re over forty years old, why are you still so childish?” Hua Luan said again.
"The matter is almost settled. As for overturning the verdict, we have all the witnesses and evidence, and it's a done deal."
"I just missed her again."
"Luan'er, I miss the Crown Princess again."
Cen Ang looked at Hua Luan with red eyes.
Hua Luan understood her feelings. Over the years, in countless midnight dreams, that woman would come to her side, gently stroke her head, and whisper the words she had repeated countless times before.
"Luan'er, you're always so preoccupied with these things, you'll definitely age faster in the future."
"And our Aunt Cen, can't you smile a little? Look how scared you two have of our little palace maids."
Hua Luan smiled and poured Lan Youxin a cup of iced tea, saying...
“If the two of us weren’t more capable, our Crown Prince’s residence would have been turned into a cave by that little vixen, and you wouldn’t care about His Highness the Crown Prince.”
"Do men need to be controlled? If he's yours, he's yours. If he's not, it's no use clinging to him all the time. You two don't need to worry about him anymore. When you're done with your work, go out and have some fun. If you don't like it, I'll take you two out."
As soon as she said this, Aunt Cen strode towards the door.
"Ah Cen, Ah Cen?"
She was the head maid who the Crown Princess couldn't call back, and also Cen Ang who had read her messages but never replied.
"Your Highness, please calm down. I guess it's just another young lady who has fallen in front of our Crown Prince's sedan chair."
Bringing her thoughts back to the present, Hua Luan thought, "It's so dark outside."
"Let's go back and take a look around."
Cen Ang stood up, pulled Hua Luan along, and left.
Before the woman could even react, the two women, no longer young girls in their early twenties, were suddenly leaving in the middle of the night.
Huo Xiaolong looked up at the figure being carried over the courtyard wall in a princess carry by Cen's mother, wondering what had happened.
The lights in the Imperial Study were still on today; the same Great Yan, the same capital, the same insomnia.
Yuwen Xuanhong sat there, and Lu Kai reported to him on the changes that had taken place in the palace in the past few days.
"Most of the eunuchs in the Empress Dowager's palace have been replaced; they are all unfamiliar faces that the Imperial Household Department has never seen before."
The man in the bright yellow dragon robe pinched the bridge of his nose, didn't look up, and asked indifferently.
"Is he a newly arrived eunuch?"
Lu Kai shook his head and replied.
"No, it's...it's a man who wasn't castrated."
"..."
At her age, the Empress Dowager is definitely not someone who seeks men to alleviate her loneliness, unless…
Yuwen Xuanhong subconsciously refuted his own thoughts. She was his own mother, and as long as he was on the dragon throne, she would always be the most honored woman in Great Yan.
How could she possibly harbor such rebellious intentions?
Absolutely impossible.
"Mother might just be a little lonely, absolutely not... she absolutely wouldn't..."
"But Your Majesty, in the past few months, the Embroidered Uniform Guard and the Imperial Guards who stand guard every day have all been replaced by Xu Taifu's confidants. You must make two preparations."
The man exhaled, and Lu Kai could clearly hear his voice trembling.
Having watched him grow up, from an ordinary prince to who he is today, Lu Kai understands him well.
He even understands Yuwen Xuanhong better than Yuwen Xuanhong himself.
Why would he like Lan Youxin? He is her elder, yet he has developed feelings for her that he shouldn't.
They just hadn't seen a woman like that before. Sometimes, those of them who had no roots could see things more clearly.
Lan Youxin came to the capital that year because the Prince of the Southwest wanted to find her a good marriage.
That year, the woman rode into the capital, looking dashing and with striking features.
At their first meeting, Yuwen Xuanhong didn't particularly like her; he simply remarked that she was extraordinary.
Until she was betrothed to the crown prince.
The man began to go a little crazy from that time on, while Lu Kai, who had been with him since childhood, did not realize that his master liked Lan Youxin that much.
What does Lan Youxin represent?
It is imperial power.
It was the power that Yuwen Xuanhong longed for most.
Later, under the Empress Dowager's arrangement, Yuwen Xuanhong rebelled.
Lu Kai began to feel that he did not understand the Empress Dowager. She was ruthless and indiscriminate in her pursuit of pleasure.
When the Emperor wanted to make Lan Youxin his Empress, the Empress Dowager did not stop him.
This was a blasphemous act, yet the Empress Dowager actually helped the Emperor spread the message.
Lu Kai was puzzled.
"Why did the Empress Dowager agree to Yuwen Xuanhong's message back then?"
Cen Ang leaned against a tree in the Crown Prince's courtyard and asked Hua Luan.
"It's nothing more than a declaration of war against the constraints he can never escape in this life, and the Empress Dowager is those constraints."
"Why did the Empress Dowager agree? Shouldn't she be furious that her son is out of her control?"
"Did he succeed?" Hua Luan asked in return.
He once told the Crown Princess that as long as she didn't cause trouble and was obedient, she would be the Empress the day he became Emperor.
By then, the late emperor had already died, and the crown prince's downfall was only a matter of time.
"The Empress Dowager wants to tell Yuwen Xuanhong that you can resist, but you can't even resist properly. For the rest of your life, you should just be obedient."
"What is due will be given to him by the Empress Dowager."
“Yuwen Xuanhong grew up under the control of the Empress Dowager. His master was a novelty to him, something he had never seen before. She was unconventional and defiant, and she regarded the imperial class as nothing.”
"To say that he liked the master that much is not actually true. In that situation back then, if the master had agreed to him, the Prince of the Southwest would no longer have any objections to him, and the Crown Prince's faction would have been easier to control."
"In the end, it's all about power."
"And the Empress Dowager was his greatest support."
In other words, the Empress Dowager's position in Yuwen Xuanhong's life was somewhat similar to that of Hua Luan. However, the difference was that the Empress Dowager held a higher position; she was his mother, and Yuwen Xuanhong could not resist her from birth.
What her son looks like, what kind of person he becomes, and what his values are are all within her control.
People always have to pay the price for all the mistakes they've made.
Take Yuwen Xuanhong, for example.
The Empress Dowager thought that her son wouldn't manage the inner palace, but he was the emperor, living in the palace. He might not be able to manage the Great Yan, but how could there not be spies in his place of residence?
Now he only has two paths before him: either obey the Empress Dowager to kill Huo Xiaolong, or watch the Empress Dowager do something big.
Yuwen Xuanhong couldn't understand why his once resourceful mother was so hostile towards Huo Xiaolong.
Lan Tingche can die, but Huo Xiaolong cannot.
Even if she dislikes the Prince of Zhenbei, it will take her more than ten years and a specific opportunity, just like it did for her back then.
But now the Empress Dowager has a full head of white hair and spends almost every day in bed resting for a long time. She has no time left, no time to wait until Huo Xiaolong's power is gone.
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