Previous life
Yuan Ming knew very well that tyrants never had a good ending.
Inside the palace, the palace maids and guards were in a panic. They packed their bags and rushed around. Some tripped over candlesticks, and gold, silver and jewelry were scattered all over the floor. Some bumped into each other in panic, cursing loudly; while some numbly took brooms and cleaned up the mess.
Yuan Ming sat quietly on the dragon throne, watching this farce like a bystander, with a slight curl of his lips. His dilapidated face looked funny because of the wry smile.
Outside the palace, the sound of horse hooves echoed. Soldiers followed their commander, Zhong Yingqi, and shouted, "Heaven's will is clear. This evil woman is ruining our country. We must eradicate violence and bring peace to the people. Recover our land!"
It is ridiculous that the emperor of a country is called a monster.
The cavalry had already arrived outside the hall. Yuan Ming, with his left eye half blind, could still see the pairs of angry eyes.
Yuan Ming wanted to cry, but her dry eyes couldn't squeeze out a single tear, just like her life was dry and cracked, without any spiritual nourishment.
In fact, a long time ago, Yuan Ming was also a favored child of heaven, like the bright moon hanging high in the night sky, watched by everyone from afar.
She was the most honored princess of the Great Qi Kingdom, a figure revered by all. The previous empress had only two daughters: the elder, Yuan Zi, and the younger, Yuan Ming. Yuan Zi had always been frail and sickly, never expressing any desire for imperial power. The previous empress placed all her hopes on Yuan Ming.
Yuan Ming lived up to her mother's high expectations. Diligent in learning and inquiring, possessing both civil and military prowess, she was the undisputed successor to the throne in the eyes of all officials. With the emperor's overwhelming favor and the people's support, Yuan Ming's first half of life was a smooth sailing, a time of prosperity and prosperity.
But the moon waxes and wanes, and everything that rises must decline. Since ancient times, it's easy to dodge an open spear, but hard to guard against an arrow from the dark. A conspiracy hatched by his elder sister, Yuan Zi, becomes a turning point in Yuan Ming's life, pushing him into an irretrievable situation.
In the 13th year of the Yuan'an Period, floods and plagues struck Jiangnan. Yuan Ming, bearing the emperor's orders, traveled south to provide disaster relief, falling squarely into a trap set by Yuan Zi.
At that time, the Empress was cracking down on corrupt officials, and she had no tolerance for corruption. Jiangnan Governor Li Quanyu, having embezzled disaster relief funds, committed the heinous crime of exterminating his entire clan. Desperate, he used refugees and the local garrison to force Yuan Ming to travel to the capital, using the pretext of supporting the new emperor to stage a coup. Meanwhile, Yuan Zi secretly instigated Li Quanyu's troops to reach the imperial city.
There was chaos in the palace. The empress was so angry that she vomited blood. Seeing that the imperial guards could not hold on, Yuan Zi asked for the reinforcements that had been brought in in advance to save the imperial city and made great contributions.
In the aftermath, no one cared that Yuan Ming had been taken to the imperial city under the threat of Li Quanyu threatening the lives of tens of thousands of civilians, nor did anyone investigate why Yuan Ming's letter for help had fallen on deaf ears. People only cared that the moon, once soaring high in the sky, was now falling into a stinking ditch, being trampled underfoot.
After this incident, Yuan Ming was demoted to a commoner and exiled a thousand miles away. Yuan Zi, having saved the emperor, was rewarded with the title of the new heir to the empress.
The night before Yuan Ming was exiled, Yuan Zi appeared in front of Yuan Ming in a black robe. She stepped on Yuan Ming's index finger with the attitude of a winner and told Yuan Ming about the injustice and neglect she had always suffered, as well as her hatred and jealousy towards her own sister. Finally, she talked about her carefully planned plans in recent years, smiled and said to Yuan Ming, "Never see you again", and then embarked on her bright future, while Yuan Ming fell into hell.
No one knows what happened to Yuan Ming after he was exiled. After all, with Yuan Zi's "care", it was a question whether he could survive.
But after the previous empress's death and before Yuan Zi ascended the throne, people once again saw the once favored child of heaven—Yuan Ming. She looked like a demon from hell, her face hideous and terrifying, her hands and feet mutilated, making one wonder if her skin beneath the fabric was also pitted and dented.
Yuan Zi could never have imagined that Yuan Ming, tortured to this point, could return to the imperial city and make a comeback. But Yuan Zi would never know the answer. Yuan Ming gripped the sword tightly with his broken right hand, and the blade slashed across, killing Yuan Zi cleanly and quickly, without even having time to close her eyes.
Thus, the Great Qi Kingdom welcomed a new king, a tyrant whose heart had long been broken...
During Yuan Ming's reign, all civil and military officials lived in fear. No one dared to express dissatisfaction with Yuan Ming, as he would really kill the ministers of the time.
In that meeting hall, the blood of countless ministers flowed, and the occasional breeze carried the smell of blood.
What frightened the ministers even more was Yuan Ming's mood swings. Some of the people who died had no idea what had angered Yuan Ming. It could be a look that showed disgust at Yuan Ming's broken face, or a complaint that expressed dissatisfaction with Yuan Ming; or perhaps Yuan Ming was just in a bad mood that day and wanted to kill a few people for fun.
Zhong Yingqi, who was only a young general at the time, was fearless and openly confronted Yuan Ming, pointing out his cruel behavior. He angrily scolded Yuan Ming for disrupting the government and making the people live in dire straits. He said that his words and actions were unfitting for an emperor, and he did not deserve to sit on the throne and was unworthy of his support.
Yuan Ming remembered that when the young general said this, there was disappointment in his eyes. What was he disappointed about? Did he deserve it?
After hearing this, Yuan Ming just sneered and pointed his sword at Zhong Yingqi. The white-bearded Zhong Daxueshi was so frightened that he rolled over and crawled to protect his younger generation, begging the emperor for mercy with tears and snot.
The Zhong family, a prominent clan that had produced three dynasties, had lost its descendants, leaving only Zhong Yingqi as the sole heir. The family had initially envisioned a career as a civil servant, but this beloved young master, harboring dreams of becoming a general, resolutely joined the army. This angered his father, who scolded him for his unorthodoxy and ignorance of the hardships of war. Zhong Yingqi, also harboring a resentment, bravely fought against the invasion of the enemy outside the Great Wall, capturing the enemy leader and earning a reputation for himself.
In the eyes of Grand Secretary Zhong, sacrificing one's life for one's country was a worthy death. If Zhong Yingqi were to die on the battlefield, it would be a testament to the Zhong family's loyalty to their country. But if he were to die at the hands of their own emperor, then... how could he possibly justify his actions? Therefore, Grand Secretary Zhong took a gamble, risking his reputation to save Zhong Yingqi's life from the tyrant Yuan Ming's sword.
Perhaps Yuan Ming was not really crazy enough. Considering that Zhong Daxueshi had devoted most of his life to the country and had survived the sword for the first time, he chose to exile Zhong Yingqi to the border and no longer interfere in his affairs.
Zhong Yingqi escaped safely and gracefully. Before leaving, he stared at Yuan Ming, whose face was disfigured on the dragon throne, with a look of collapsed faith.
In short, words like "evil character," "perverse and violent," and "cruel and bloodthirsty" are not enough to describe Yuan Ming. She became a notorious tyrant, a demon that silenced children at night, and a demon that everyone wanted to kill.
The bloody storm she stirred up drowned out her past. No one remembered anymore that the monster on the dragon throne once had a beautiful face, a beauty praised by countless literati and poets.
Yuan Ming's current actions were resentful, so the hardships she had endured were insignificant in the eyes of the living. Some even lamented that such a wicked person hadn't rotted away among the beggars. Some even felt that Yuan Zi was too soft-hearted, too lenient towards her defeated opponent, and that her sisterly love had cost Qing Qing her life.
…
Yuan Ming stepped down from the throne, stepped over the messy ground, and walked outside the hall. The sun was shining brightly outside, so bright that Yuan Ming couldn't open his eyes. It was as if the heavens were celebrating that the shabby country of Qi had finally welcomed a new master.
Zhong Yingqi, atop a black horse, stood majestically before the army. He no longer possessed the recklessness and youthful energy he had displayed when he had charged into Yuan Ming. Instead, he exuded a murderous aura honed on the battlefield, especially the scar on his face, which made him intimidating, like a living devil.
Fighting back to the imperial city from the frontier seemed extremely difficult.
Yuan Ming suddenly felt like she was seeing herself back then. She was like this back then, covered in scars. People admired her as she climbed out of the quagmire step by step, but they didn't know that every step had cost her everything. Hatred had pulled her back to the throne, but it also overdrafted her future.
And now, she saw the same ending in this once handsome and majestic marshal.
The border of Qi State is not stable. Enemy forces are eyeing it covetously, and barbarians outside the border come to take advantage of it from time to time. In addition, Yuan Ming is in power, the situation is turbulent, and there are unpredictable situations inside and outside the court. Small riots will break out in various places.
To be honest, on the surface, it seems easy to overthrow Yuan Ming's regime.
However, everyone knows that tyrants are destined to be overthrown, but the darkness before dawn is the most difficult to endure. Just as Yuan Ming gave everything for hatred, Zhong Yingqi also paid a price that cannot be ignored to overthrow Yuan Ming and protect this crumbling kingdom.
He worked tirelessly on the front lines, while his comrades died on the battlefield. The separation of life and death was so common that it made people indifferent and numb. The front lines could still fight hard against the enemy, but the rear could not even supply food and grass.
Zhong Yingqi held the frontier like this for three years, narrowly escaping death several times. When he saw the emaciated old soldier holding a broken arrow, fighting the enemy, being trampled into a pool of flesh and blood, but refusing to give up an inch of the country, the old soldier's dying eyes became the last straw that broke the camel's back, and Zhong Yingqi decided to plan a "rebellion."
Treason is a heinous crime. The Zhong family has always been upright and honest, and the principles of rulership and subjectivity are deeply ingrained in their hearts. The elders of the Zhong family have been loyal to the emperor their entire lives, so how could they accept a traitor emerging from the Zhong family?
Zhong Yingqi thought it was foolish loyalty, but the older generation's ideas were deeply rooted, so Zhong Yingqi cut ties with the Zhong family. However, during the two years of planning, Zhong Yingqi was still betrayed by his family - his pedantic father even tried every means to let his own son die in the battlefield, so that he could fulfill the reputation of loyalty in history books.
It turns out that there are people in this world who value reputation more than anything else.
So, does Yuan Ming, the arch-villain, know this? Of course she does, but she doesn't try to stop it. She consciously allows events to unfold, allowing herself to be destroyed. Her instinct for survival has caused her to turn back from her tyrannical path several times, but the pain of the past becomes an inescapable vine, tightly entangling her and dragging her into the abyss.
Facing the army led by Zhong Yingqi, Yuan Ming felt a sense of sarcasm in his heart: "Are you like me? Living is unbearable, but you are unwilling to die. You want to just cling to life and then go to hell!"
Yuan Ming took a few steps closer to Zhong Yingqi. Seeing this, Zhong Yingqi raised his head slightly. With the help of the bright sunlight, Yuan Ming could see the clear and bright eyes under Zhong Yingqi's horrific scar.
Unlike the world-weariness, dullness, and pain in Yuan Ming's eyes, his eyes held the hope that Yuan Ming had always dreamed of. Yuan Ming felt instantly struck by lightning. She saw Zhong Yingqi as the reincarnation of fate, but in fact, she was the only one who was despicable and pitiful.
Under the scorching sun, Yuan Ming felt bitingly cold.
The young general next to Zhong Yingqi cursed Yuan Ming very harshly and listed ten charges against Yuan Ming, but Yuan Ming turned a deaf ear to him.
She silently took out the small silver knife hidden in her sleeve. It was a birthday gift given to her by the former empress when she came of age, implying that the heir to the throne would be able to shoulder heavy responsibilities and have a bright future. And now, Yuan Ming used it to cut her throat.
Blood gushed out from her neck, and Yuan Ming could feel her body gradually cooling down as she collapsed. She vaguely saw Zhong Yingqi approaching her, sword in hand.
When a dying person is about to speak, his words are kind. Before her death, Yuan Ming's eyes became soft, and she said her last words to Zhong Yingqi: I'm sorry.
What was she sorry for? She probably felt sorry for a lot of people: the loyal soldiers, the suffering civilians, the ministers who served their country and their people, and herself—the once brilliant and favored child of heaven.
Yuan Ming closed her eyes. In the end, she still failed to save herself from falling into the abyss, and this life ended in such a miserable way...
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