Chapter 204

I Truly Am Not a Wise King!

Emperor Chongzhao's soul floated through the imperial palace.

He was waiting for Little Seven to marry and have children, and the court officials were also waiting for the new emperor to marry and have children.

The dead late emperor and his former subjects had never reached such a highly unified consensus on any matter before.

The shared belief in urging marriage and childbirth united the monarch and his subjects, man and ghost, as one.

When a palace maid bribed the eunuch serving before the emperor in an attempt to seduce the new emperor, Emperor Chongzhao was very annoyed. His personality simply did not allow for anyone susceptible to bribery to appear in the emperor's presence.

But then he thought, it wasn't as if they were choosing an empress; taking her in and tossing her into the harem as a low-ranking attendant would be fine too.

However, the seduction ultimately failed.

Emperor Chongzhao pondered, "That works too. It's better to find a clean girl from a respectable family to properly enter the palace as a concubine."

The officials also began to exert their efforts, and the voices requesting the new emperor to select concubines grew increasingly intense.

Each time was more severe than the last.

Imperial physicians were permanently stationed in the Zichen Hall, a much grander spectacle than when the new emperor was sick as a child.

The officials panicked, and Emperor Chongzhao, looking at his youngest son's pale face and increasingly frail body, also panicked.

How long had it been? The Great Zhou Dynasty had just stabilized. Could it be that father and son were about to meet in the underworld?

What was going on? What exactly was happening? Was someone poisoning him? Hadn't Little Seven's health improved over the years, or was this the aftermath of being poisoned in the Northern Frontier, causing his body to break down?

Emperor Chongzhao's heart ached with anxiety.

Ye Xiaoyuan pulled Imperial Physician Yang outside, and Emperor Chongzhao followed behind them, wanting to hear what the physician had to say.

"Physician Yang, we have known each other for many years. Please tell me directly about His Majesty's condition; no one will blame you."

Physician Yang sighed, "His Majesty has been treated by me since he was a child. However, after His Majesty turned fourteen, he rarely fell ill. This sudden occurrence recently... perhaps the residual poison has triggered an old ailment, it's hard to say..."

Emperor Chongzhao had the urge to tear Concubine Yi to pieces.

Why hadn't he seen that woman after death? He definitely had to chop her corpse into ten thousand pieces all over again!

Hearing this, Ye Xiaoyuan frowned slightly.

Physician Yang acutely observed, "Eunuch? If there is something you haven't mentioned, please tell me everything, otherwise it might affect my diagnosis."

Ye Xiaoyuan hesitated for a few seconds before saying in a low voice, "His Majesty's health didn't improve after he turned fourteen. Rather, he confined himself in his residence and never summoned an imperial physician again."

Physician Yang was startled: "What do you mean?"

Ye Xiaoyuan said, "As you know, when His Majesty was fourteen, Eldest Princess Zhiyi went for a political marriage, and a rift formed between His Majesty and the late emperor.

The late emperor said His Majesty was forbidden to go to the Northern Frontier because he lacked the strength and had a sickly body, making it impossible to command respect.

That is why His Majesty rarely summoned imperial physicians during those two years. Whenever he fell ill, he endured it on his own. It wasn't as the outside world rumored, that His Majesty's health improved as he grew older."

Only he and Lord Liuliu knew about this matter.

It was originally something that absolutely had to be kept secret, but now that His Majesty had ascended the throne and required treatment, there was no harm in telling Physician Yang.

Physician Yang couldn't help but say, "His Majesty endured it himself? For two years."

He knew best the frequency and severity of His Majesty's illnesses. His heart felt as if it had half-sunk into ice water. "If there had been any mishap, then, then..."

What the Great Zhou would look like now, no one dared to imagine.

Physician Yang: "Eunuch Ye, you too, how could you agree to help His Majesty hide this!"

Ye Xiaoyuan smiled bitterly, "His Majesty's temperament has been like this since childhood. No one can go against what he has set his mind to do. If it weren't for this, how could the late emperor have agreed to let His Majesty go suppress the bandits, let alone the subsequent matters in the Northern Frontier."

Physician Yang sighed deeply, not knowing what to say for a moment. After a long while, he said, "The prescription needs to be changed."

Use a heavy dose!

He flicked his sleeves and, with a serious face, ducked into the Eastern Warm Pavilion to revise the prescription.

Ye Xiaoyuan also entered the hall to take care of him.

Emperor Chongzhao floated blankly in place, the conversation between Ye Xiaoyuan and Physician Yang echoing repeatedly in his mind.

Those words were like whips lined with soft thorns, thrashing back and forth in his heart.

Even though he obviously had no physical body and no heartbeat anymore, he felt as if a hand had grabbed his heart, tightly binding it together with that soft-thorned whip, and then squeezing hard.

A sour, aching sensation filled his chest.

He silently floated back into the hall.

The new emperor on the dragon bed was very young, surrounded by an aura of sickness. One hand rested on the pulse pillow by the bed, the tiny purplish-blue veins on the inside of his wrist clearly visible. His face was pale, his lips thin and light in color. His eyes were closed, with faint dark circles beneath them.

Suffering from the illness and unable to rest well, he had tossed and turned for a long time before finally managing to fall asleep.

Emperor Chongzhao stopped floating outside and just stayed here watching him.

When the condition worsened, he would angrily lash out at the imperial physicians; when the condition improved, he would stare with furrowed brows.

The brat calmly took his medicine, accustomed to the bitter taste.

No matter how uncomfortable he was, he would merely grip the wrists of Ye Xiaoyuan and that hidden guard named Liuliu, resting his head against them to recover for a moment.

Never again did he whine and act spoiled in front of him and the other elders like he did when he was a child, rolling his eyes to scheme up a bad idea, trying to play pitiful to scam some good food or fun toys.

Many days passed, and the new emperor's condition fluctuated without signs of recovery.

The officials were sorrowful, coming and going in the palace with gloomy faces, which made Emperor Chongzhao furious to see.

Who were they showing these unlucky, wretched faces to?!

There were also those who passed by with smiles, which made Emperor Chongzhao even angrier.

What were they smiling at? What was so funny? How could they smile when the emperor was sick?!

He began to hope that the Black and White Guards of Death would come quickly to take him away, to see if he could strike a deal with the King of Hell to extend this brat's life, and in doing so, extend the life of the Great Zhou.

Perhaps the heavens heard his prayers.

After the important ministers of Great Zhou shared a collective dream and stopped forcing the marriage, the new emperor began to recover.

Emperor Chongzhao floated out of the palace and listened to their private discussions about the contents of the dream, his expression turning uglier the more he heard.

An immortal banished to the mortal realm? Cannot have too many entanglements with the mortal world?

"What nonsense," he said angrily. "Are they saying Little Seven has to be lonely for his whole life? Not even having a confidante by his side, and that marrying and having children will result in him being taken back to heaven? Absolute rubbish."

As he cursed the nonsense, he turned around and went to Zhiyi's estate to evaluate the prince consort.

He didn't know if this prince consort was up to par; if not, he would send a dream to Zhiyi telling her to recruit a few more.

Then he thought of the Fifth Prince, feeling that the officials' plan wasn't bad. It wasn't as if one couldn't marry and have children while in prison.

Even if he punished the fifth son to spend his life in prison, he was still a member of the royal family. If Little Seven couldn't have children, as an older brother, he had the responsibility to branch out and bear offspring for the royal family.

In short, the matter of the imperial draft passed just like that.

Emperor Chongzhao thought he could stay by Qu Dubian's side forever, but the truth was, he would occasionally fall into a dark world, completely losing consciousness. When he regained awareness, several months would have often passed.

Intermittently like this, he would appear in the imperial palace every once in a while.

For about two years.

Little Seven rarely got angry over court politics or the officials' affairs.

But once he got angry and lost his temper, almost everyone would keep quiet out of fear. The old foxes and officials who usually played Tai Chi would tuck their tails between their legs and hastily smooth the emperor's fur.

First, because the emperor truly held real power. Occasionally stepping on the bottom line was nothing much—just the way of checks and balances between monarch and ministers—but they weren't actually tired of living.

Second, they worried that His Majesty would make himself sick with anger. Without a monarch who could suppress both the civil officials and military generals leading them, Da Zhou would be finished.

That flattering, child-coaxing posture gave Emperor Chongzhao goosebumps all over and made his teeth ache.

Both were emperors, but different people had different fates.

If he were to pull a stunt like this, these officials would only become more stubborn and absolutely would not yield.

Emperor Chongzhao thought that Little Seven's days in power would pass by ordinarily like this. He didn't expect the unification of Da Zhou to come so quickly.

Even less did he expect that, under circumstances where the state treasury was still not wealthy, Little Seven would so decisively resolve to attack Nanning and quell the public anger.

He watched Little Seven and Xi Zixing standing on the city tower, gazing in the direction the troops had marched out.

Emperor Chongzhao stood shoulder-to-shoulder with him, hands behind his back. He turned his head to glance at him, then raised his hand, his ethereal palm patting his youngest son's shoulder.

"Don't worry, Xu Tingfeng is very skilled in military affairs, and Xia Fuyang has been guarding the Northern Frontier since before it was even a protectorate. Their strength is quite good. With the right timing, favorable terrain, and unity among the people, this war will at most be a bit difficult and take a long time, but victory will be ours."

"When the time comes, you can think carefully about how to extract more money and land from Nanning. Bit by bit, slowly encroach upon them. In less than ten years, Nanning will cease to exist."

At this time, he had not yet anticipated that Da Zhou's army, bolstered by public outrage, would smash through enemy lines like splitting bamboo, reaching the very walls of Nanning's imperial city and annexing it in one fell swoop.

The war lasted for over a year.

Qu Dujian handled state affairs and battle reports in the imperial palace, exchanging letters with Xu Tingfeng and Xia Fuyang to discuss decisions.

While handling matters, a smile was rarely seen on his face. The decisive, killing aura and oppressive presence honed on the battlefields of the Northern Frontier faintly began to show.

Emperor Chongzhao had never seen him like this before and found it quite novel.

He floated a circle and sat on the desk.

"Quite serious, aren't we? Looking very much the part now."

When encountering thorny issues that required the emperor to make a decision, Little Seven would pace to the window, slightly knit his brows, and unconsciously pluck the leaves of the potted plants on the windowsill to play with.

When there were many issues, the potted plants had to be replaced every three to five days. When there were fewer issues, the poor plants could live a little longer.

Emperor Chongzhao looked at the leaf twirling in his hand, the corner of his mouth twitching slightly. "This is the Golden Silk Tea Vein offered as tribute from Lingbei, right? Ruined just like that. It makes for excellent roasted tea in the coming spring."

Ye Xiaoyuan was really something too, only picking plants with a good texture to place here for Little Seven to ravage, regardless of how precious they were.

He rambled in the hall for a while, then floated out.

He floated to the highest point of the entire imperial palace and looked out.

Clouds rolled and unrolled. The evening wind quietly swept across the dust on the eaves of the imperial palace.

After watching for a long time, he sighed.

Da Zhou was going to be united.

Although he only appeared in the imperial palace every now and then, every time he woke up, he could learn the progress of the war from Zichen Hall.

With the war pushed to this point, unification was an inevitable trend.

Sure enough.

The new emperor of Nanning sent an invitation, and Little Seven attended the meeting alone.

The two emperors met and signed a treaty. From then on, the tripartite confrontation between Nanning, Da Zhou, and the Northern Frontier completely ended, and the continent once again ushered in a unified conclusion.

With such an achievement, the one who personally forged it would surely go down in history.

Da Zhou would also become a great unified dynasty remembered by later generations!

Emperor Chongzhao's blood boiled with excitement. He went to the Fengxian Shrine, hands behind his back, looking at the ancestral tablets enshrined above, a sense of pride spontaneously arising.

The founding ancestors were formidable, but didn't they also fail to achieve unification when founding the nation?

Then he began to feel a pang of sorrow.

His son was so incredible. As his father, in later generations, he would probably be reduced to just a single sentence: "Oh, I remember now, I know him, Emperor Yonghe's imperial father!"

Actually, after Da Zhou was unified, a wave of people secretly wanting to propose an imperial draft quietly emerged again.

After all, His Majesty was so fierce; not having any descendants was truly too distressing.

However, they only beat their chests and stamped their feet in pity in the dark, not daring to make a fuss out in the open.

The more His Majesty could lead Da Zhou toward a prosperous era, the more they feared that the prophecy of the so-called banished immortal in their dreams would come true.

For the next ten, twenty years.

His Majesty remained all alone.

Even though Xi Zixing, Xia Fuyang, and some other young officials who came up through the imperial examinations frequently entered the palace to keep him company and chat, they weren't available all the time.

Including Qu Xiaobing (Little Pancake), who was later designated as the crown prince.

Qu Dujian had to find things to do for himself from time to time to pass the boring hours.

When he played chess against himself, Emperor Chongzhao would sit cross-legged opposite him, pretending the two of them were playing a match.

When researching spice formulas and tinkering with incense ingredients, Emperor Chongzhao would bend over behind him to watch, clicking his tongue and shaking his head. "You had quite the knack for ruining my spices, but when it comes to making your own, you're flying blind, aren't you."

"After all these years, your progress in incense-making isn't even half of mine."

Qu Dujian used his small scale to weigh things, his expression serious as he deliberated over the amounts, using small tweezers to add ingredients.

Emperor Chongzhao: "Wrong, you added too much. It will turn bitter when burned later, and you hate that smell the most."

"Hey, hey, you added too much of this too..."

He facepalmed.

Forget it. Once the failed product was made, if Little Seven didn't like it, he would give it away. He just didn't know which 'lucky guy' would end up with this failure.

As Emperor Chongzhao watched, he once again fell into that unconscious darkness.

When he woke up again, he didn't know how many years had passed.

He saw Little Seven looking in the mirror.

Half of Ye Xiaoyuan's hair had turned white.

Qu Dujian peered into the mirror. "Banban, take a look, have I grown a few more white hairs here?"

Ye Xiaoyuan narrowed his eyes and nodded. "Yes, shall I pluck them?"

Qu Dujian: "Pluck them, pluck them."

Ye Xiaoyuan said softly, "Your Majesty ages slowly; the heavens favor you." With so many Longevity Shrines among the commoners, perhaps they were useful.

Qu Dujian: "It's good and bad. I'm always the one watching you all leave. Banban, so many people have left me. You have to live longer and stay with me, otherwise I will get angry. If I get angry, I will only prepare a New Year's gift for Xiaochun, and there won't be a share for you."

Banban Ye smiled and nodded. "En."

He didn't think Qu Dujian's words were childish, because in his eyes, the emperor he had watched and cared for as he grew up had always been a child.

Those plucked white hairs were stored by Ye Xiaoyuan in a black-bottomed wooden box.

Emperor Chongzhao took a look. There were already quite a few white hairs inside.

"...Sigh."

For some reason, his heart felt a melancholic ache, and he let out a sigh.

"Time passes so quickly."

Emperor Chongzhao floated out of the imperial palace and went to take a look around various parts of Da Zhou.

In over thirty years, Da Zhou had stepped into a prosperous era.

It was bustling and prosperous, the people were healthy and at peace, public security was excellent, and everything was in perfect order.

The incense at the Longevity Shrines had never once been interrupted.

The secluded blue of the Cangyan flowers bloomed from the soft, damp shores of the Xiang River all the way to the Gobi desert in the Northern Frontier, which was lashed by harsh winters and scorching suns.

The trade routes, carved out by the trampling of horse hooves and camel bells, echoed with unfamiliar slang and folk songs.

The golden age of prosperity recorded in the history books had finally come to life in the Great Zhou.

Emperor Chongzhao once again thought of the white hair in that wooden box.

He had been drifting out there for a long time, until he felt the pull of a deep slumber approaching once more.

His intuition told him that this slumber would be different from the past; perhaps, he would never return.

Hurrying as fast as he could, Emperor Chongzhao drifted back to the imperial city.

However, he did not see Emperor Yonghe, the ruler praised by all under heaven.

Instead, he only saw a small, very young-looking herbalist dressed in plain, simple clothes. Carrying a woven bamboo basket on his back and with a bamboo hat pressed low over his head, the boy had already sneaked away to the outskirts of the capital.

The herbalist muttered to the person beside him, "Liuliu, let's sneak over to Qingzhou first and lay low until this blows over."

Yi Shier replied helplessly, "Didn't you say we were going to the Northern Frontier first? It would be much harder for them to catch us and drag us back from there."

The herbalist shook his head back and forth, "No, no. I just suddenly remembered that Ye Lianyang is over there, and there's no guarantee he won't snitch to Xia Fuyang. Qingzhou, on the other hand, has plenty of mountains and rivers, which means plenty of places to hide."

"Oh, stop spacing out and let's go, let's go..." He tugged at the person beside him and marched forward.

Emperor Chongzhao wanted to follow them for one last look, but ultimately halted his steps. He simply stood by the city gates, watching as they boarded a ferry and departed.

He smiled faintly.

"Go on, you little brat."