As the emperor and empress pledged their empire and future on the dragon throne in the Golden Palace, the remnants of the old era, which they had buried with their own hands, were being silently swallowed up by time in the dark corners of the palace.
The new era is unfolding in a thriving way, while the tears of the old era have long been forgotten.
...
Cixi Palace.
This place was once the heart of power in the inner palace; a single word from the Empress Dowager could determine the honor, disgrace, life, and death of countless people. Now, however, it is quieter than even the most remote corner of the palace.
The towering palace gates remain tightly shut all day long, their bronze rings long since lost their shine, covered with a thin layer of dust. The once bustling halls are now deserted, save for withered yellow leaves swirling in the autumn wind, adding to the desolate atmosphere.
Inside the Buddhist hall, the scent of sandalwood lingers year after year, but it is no longer an embellishment to display majesty; instead, it has become a drug that imprisons the soul.
The once dignified and regal Empress Dowager, now stripped of her phoenix robes, sat cross-legged on a prayer mat, dressed only in a faded gray robe, like a withered stone statue. Before her were no longer mountains of memorials and tributes from all sides, but only a flickering blue lamp and an ancient Buddha with a sorrowful face.
“Du”.
“Du”.
“Du”.
She struck the wooden fish rhythmically, the monotonous and numb sound echoing in the empty Buddhist hall, as if tolling a death knell for a bygone era.
She stopped thinking, stopped scheming, stopped resentful. That "letter of divorce" from Kunning Palace completely severed all ties between her and the dynasty, and drained her of all her energy. She was no longer the Empress Dowager, but merely a "widow of the late emperor" allowed to live.
This identity made her feel more humiliated than death, but also more secure than death itself.
The young palace maid who delivered the food placed the food box outside the door, gave a respectful but distant report through the door, and then hurried away, as if this were some kind of ominous place. They dared not look at it for long, much less utter a word.
Sometimes, the Empress Dowager would stop playing her wooden fish and stare blankly at the square patch of sky outside the window, cut off by the palace walls. She would recall the grand scene of her entering the palace in her youth, the high spirits she felt when she held the Phoenix Seal, and the smugness she felt when the Regent was still alive, when they had joined forces to manipulate the sickly emperor.
But all of that seems like a distant memory.
She lost, utterly and completely. She lost not only to the son she had never taken seriously, but also to the daughter-in-law, whom she had despised from the very beginning and who came from a humble background.
She couldn't figure it out, but she was too lazy to think about it anymore.
The sound of the wooden fish rang out again, monotonous, numb, day after day, until the end of life.
...
If the Cixi Palace ended in deathly silence, then the Cold Palace was a noisy graveyard.
This is the final resting place for all losers.
The once arrogant Consort Shu now squats disheveled in a weed-covered corner, muttering to herself as she stares at a patch of moss. Her fingernails are cracked, and her once well-maintained hands are covered in mud.
"The mirror...where is my mirror..." She chuckled dreamily, stroking the damp moss with her hand, as if caressing her once-proud face. "Aunt, look, I'm the most beautiful in this palace...the Emperor will surely love me...what is that Lin fellow anyway..."
Her mind completely collapsed after losing her family and the Empress Dowager, her two greatest supporters. She couldn't accept the reality of falling from grace and into the mire, and could only live forever in her own delusional fantasies.
Not far away, several concubines who had once been subservient to Consort Xian, Su Jinxiu, were fighting like shrewish women over half a moldy steamed bun. They were pulling each other's hair and cursing each other with the most vicious language, having long since lost all the decorum of noble ladies.
Others simply sat numbly on the stone steps, staring blankly at the gray sky. Despair had long since devoured their souls, leaving only empty shells of walking corpses.
There are no more conspiracies, no more scheming, because the losers have nothing left to lose. All that remains is the most primal, ugly despair and madness.
Their cries and curses would occasionally drift out of the high walls of the Cold Palace on the wind, but they would soon be drowned out by the vibrant life in other parts of the palace, without causing the slightest ripple.
...
The young eunuch Li An (Xiao Anzi) carried a meager meal, barely enough to fill his stomach, delivered to the Cold Palace, and walked briskly along the palace path.
He was only fifteen years old and had only been in the palace for two years. He only had a vague understanding of the past upheavals. All he knew was that the Cold Palace was an ominous place, that the "noble ladies" there had all gone mad, and that every time food was delivered to him, he felt a chill run down his spine and wished he could leave immediately.
He quickly handed the food box through the specially designed small door, and before anyone inside could take it, he immediately turned around and almost ran away.
Just as he rounded a corner, he nearly bumped into a group of chattering palace maids.
"Oh dear, Xiao Anzi, why are you in such a panic?" The one in the lead was a palace maid who knew him well, named Chun Tao.
This group of young palace maids were all newcomers to the palace, their faces still showing innocence and curiosity about palace life. They were the first batch of women officials selected through examination after the reform of the female official system this year, and they were responsible for cleaning and sweeping the area around Kunning Palace.
"Just got back from the Cold Palace, what bad luck." Xiao Anzi patted his chest, still shaken.
“The Cold Palace…” Chun Tao stuck out her tongue. “I heard that those imprisoned there are all bad women who offended the Empress in the past.”
“That’s right.” Xiao Anzi lowered his voice and said mysteriously, “I also heard that even the former… Empress Dowager was… ‘divorced’ by the Empress!”
As he spoke, he himself found the word somewhat unbelievable.
Chun Tao and the few palace maids behind her listened with wide eyes and faces full of admiration.
"Her Majesty the Empress is so amazing!" a young palace maid, only about thirteen or fourteen years old, exclaimed in amazement. "I heard from the nanny that the former Empress Dowager was very fierce, and she controlled the entire harem!"
"That's all ancient history!" Chun Tao puffed out her chest proudly. "Now in our harem, we only listen to the Empress! The other day His Majesty said in court that the Empress's decrees are just like imperial edicts!"
“I know, I know!” another palace maid chimed in. “Now, the storytellers in the capital have turned the Empress’s story into a storytelling performance called ‘The Goddess Empress Settles the Country,’ and it’s so wonderful!”
Just as they were chattering about the virtue and majesty of the current empress, the youngest palace maid suddenly tilted her head and asked a naive and bewildered question.
"Sister Chuntao, what is the 'Empress Dowager'? Is she a very high-ranking official?"
The moment the question was asked, the entire room fell silent.
Chun Tao was stunned, and Xiao Anzi was also stunned.
These elderly people, who had spent a year or two in the palace, still felt awe and fear towards the term "Empress Dowager." It was a symbol of an era, a mountain weighing down on everyone.
However, for this newly arrived palace maid, "Empress Dowager" was already an unfamiliar term that needed to be explained.
Yes, she didn't know. When she entered the palace, the Empress Dowager had already lost power; all she heard were the legends of the Goddess Empress; and she followed the new rules personally set by the Empress.
In her world, the throne of the harem originally belonged to the Lin family.
The traces of the old era were thus completely and cleanly erased by the ignorance of the new generation without their knowledge.
Looking at the young palace maid's bewildered face, Xiao Anzi suddenly felt a surge of inexplicable emotion. He shook his head, said nothing more, bid them farewell, and continued walking towards his residence.
He walked past the high walls of the Cold Palace, where, within those walls lay the wails and tears of a bygone era, isolated and forgotten.
He raised his head and looked in the direction of Kunning Palace.
Even from a distance, he could still see that the place was brightly lit, as bright as day. In the evening breeze, he could faintly hear bursts of laughter and cheerful conversation, full of the warmth of everyday life, which formed a stark contrast to the deathly silence behind him.
Xiao Anzi knew nothing about the political landscape or the changing of power.
All he knew was that the palace used to be oppressive and cold, where everyone lived cautiously. But now, the palace seemed... to have become warmer and more hopeful.
He knew that a new and brighter era had arrived.
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