Many young people today may be unfamiliar with the name "Empress Yin," but her generation will have a deep impression of this virtuous empress.
The late emperor sat firmly on the throne, and Empress Yin was the mother of the nation, a wise and capable assistant to the emperor, and a role model for women in the Great Yan Dynasty.
But one day, the virtuous empress was deposed. She was demoted to a concubine and sent to the cold palace by the furious late emperor for the crime of "licentiousness in the harem," which was known to all.
The fourth prince, who should have been the legitimate son of the Empress, became a son born out of wedlock.
Fate took an unexpected turn.
Yan Hui has officially taken over.
The deposition of the virtuous empress caused a great uproar at the time, and many officials submitted petitions to her request, but to no avail.
The fact that the fourth prince, who is now His Majesty, was able to stand out among all the princes and seize the throne is undeniably partly due to the influence of his virtuous empress.
Although Yin Yun is dead, there are still many people who commemorate her. These people became the backbone of Ji Ying's ascension to the throne and have stood on the same side with him for many years, defending the legitimacy of the Great Yan Dynasty.
Now that the injustice has been cleared, many people are weeping bitterly.
The virtuous empress, whose injustice has been redressed, deserves their weeping.
But the matter wasn't over yet.
Someone said, "Empress Dowager Yan is truly wicked!"
These words are like a drop of water splashing into a hot oil pan, causing countless sizzling oil droplets to erupt.
"Are you out of your mind?" a kind person whispered a reminder.
A young scholar, dressed in the robes of Mingzhao Academy, exuding youthful vigor, pointed to the notice: "Look, Empress Dowager Yan not only seized the empress's position from Empress Yin through insidious means, but also poisoned Empress Yin with hemlock..."
He turned cold and said, "Not only did she harm the virtuous empress, but she also harmed the emperor and empress's child. Princess Changyang is so pitiful. Her life was secretly altered from birth, allowing that thief to usurp her place and enjoy eighteen years of honor!"
One stone stirs up a thousand waves.
People stood on tiptoe to look, and even those who couldn't read still tried to read the densely packed notices.
"Princess Changyang is the Emperor and Empress's long-lost daughter. It's a pity that first there was a poisonous woman who switched her own sister's flesh and blood, and later the Empress Dowager who strangled the innocent baby in her swaddling clothes, replacing the imperial bloodline with an illegitimate child. Her actions are truly hateful!"
"How could this happen? How could it be so bad?"
The people living under the emperor's nose still retain a rare simplicity. When such a shocking secret came down, the old truth was smeared all over everyone's faces.
Another scholar said with a complicated expression, "Miss Wei is the 'Princess Changyang' personally bestowed by His Majesty. It's a pity that she grew up in a den of thieves. Although her temperament is strange, at least she wasn't corrupted by a vicious woman like Madam Wei."
After news spread that Madam Wei had instructed the Old Ancestor of Xuanyin to assassinate her adopted daughter at the Liuyun Hunting Grounds, people stopped mentioning how Miss Wei had acted in the past.
Such a pitiful child, with such a tragic fate, we're too heartbroken to even point fingers at him.
"The Wei family has fallen."
"The Wei family has been powerful for so many years, they should have fallen long ago. Rebellion is a serious crime punishable by confiscation of property and extermination of the entire family. His Majesty only sentenced the Wei father and son to immediate execution, without implicating others, which is already a great act of mercy."
"If only I had known then what I know now, I wouldn't have done it in the first place."
People shook their heads, recalling the past glory of the Marquis's mansion, and couldn't help but sigh.
As the weather warmed up completely, His Majesty, to celebrate the return of his beloved daughter, decreed that the people be exempt from taxes for one year.
Unlike those chaotic and more exciting imperial secrets than fictional stories, this is a genuinely beneficial thing for the people.
While her daughter was still asleep, Ji Ying made a lot of goodwill towards her sleepy and obedient daughter.
Upon receiving the imperial decree, the people of the entire country seemed to have forgotten Miss Wei's past "bad reputation" overnight, and when Princess Changyang was mentioned, everyone praised her.
The entire nation was plunged into a joyful, large-scale 'amnesia,' while the newly-born Princess Changyang lay on a soft, cloud-like bed, fast asleep.
In his dream, Wei Pingxi was unaware that he had been recognized as Ji Pingxi and returned to his ancestral home. The emperor and empress came hand in hand to visit their lost and found little darling. They found the little darling sleeping like a little pig adorable.
This is roughly what people mean when they say, "You always think your own child is the best."
Even before her origins were known, the Empress thought she was good. After confirming that she was her own child, she thought she was even better.
Yu Zhi stood by and watched the Emperor and Empress, who seemed unsure how to love their child. She thought to herself that even the Emperor and Empress were just ordinary parents to their own flesh and blood.
But it's not exactly ordinary either.
Ji Ying smiled broadly: "How can she sleep so much?"
The Empress tucked her daughter in, her eyes smiling. "Perhaps she's tired. I heard from the divine physician that our Xi Xi has mastered the world's number one divine skill, and her mind and spirit are severely depleted."
"Then you'll need to take good care of yourself." His Majesty said earnestly.
"..."
Yuzhi had become numb to such words these past few days, and dared not imagine whether she would be praised to the skies when she woke up.
She said that the Emperor and Empress were acting very strangely, constantly referring to "our Xixi" or "our child."
Especially yesterday, when she was chatting with the senior physician, muttering about why little Xi Xi could sleep so much, His Majesty appeared out of nowhere and said in a low voice, "She's still a child."
Do you have children that big?
Yuzhi pretends to be deaf and cannot hear the couple's conversation.
Her eyes were slightly red at the end.
She was genuinely happy for this person. What she couldn't have in her past life, she finally got in this life and had a complete family.
It's a pity that Heaven took pity on us.
Even though he didn't want to leave his daughter, His Majesty was the ruler of a country and had state affairs to attend to, so he couldn't stay at the Yu family's residence for long.
The Empress was in no hurry to return to the palace. Today, she had a premonition that her daughter's long sleep would soon end.
She wanted Xi Xi to open her eyes and see her family by her side.
Princess Changyang slept until the afternoon.
The sun shone brightly, the flowers in the back garden were in full bloom, magpies chattered and whispered among themselves on the branches, and Yu Zhi and the Empress sat on small round wooden stools on either side of the bed.
The eyelashes of the person on the bed trembled slightly, and Yan Xiu's breathing tightened as well.
Wei Pingxi slept soundly and had no idea how long he had slept when he opened his eyes.
The room was bright, and a delicate fragrance wafted to her nose. She opened her eyes and the first thing she saw was two extremely beautiful faces.
"Awake?" Yan Xiu helped her up.
Wei Pingxi was in a daze. He looked at the Empress, then at Yu Zhi, and his confused consciousness gradually cleared.
Her throat was dry, and a thousand emotions were stuck in her chest. Just as she was about to ask for water, Yuzhi brought her a glass of water and fed it to her lips.
It's acacia honey water.
Sweet and refreshing.
Her eyebrows curved slightly.
Yan Xiu gave her future daughter-in-law an approving look, and Yu Zhi's ears turned red, unable to bear her silent praise.
After drinking the honey water, she had many questions, such as: Was Gu Chenzi locked up? What became of Madam Wei? What else happened that day?
But before these chaotic thoughts could even fully form in her mind, she met two pairs of eyes that were both fiery and restrained.
The Empress watched her daughter with slight nervousness.
Yu Zhi didn't dare to compete with the Empress for the man, and tried to escape after taking a quick peek, but she was caught red-handed by someone.
She felt ashamed.
In a flash, Wei Pingxi's restless mind, which had been wavering since she woke up, finally found a stable place. She smiled and said, "Mother."
Having just drunk the honey water, her words now seemed to carry the sweetness of honey, sweetening Yan Xiu's heart. She held her precious baby, whom she had carried for ten months and risked her life to bring into the world: "Say it again."
Wei Pingxi's eyes welled up with tears, and she could no longer suppress the tremor in her voice. Overjoyed, she cried, "Mother."
The loving mother's heart was comforted, and Yan Xiu softly agreed.
From aunt to birth mother, from the Wei family to the royal family, Wei Pingxi has walked this path of recognizing relatives for two lifetimes.
In my past life, I lived in a daze, and I died in a daze too.
In this life, like a weary bird returning to its nest, she has found a true home and true family. Her smile is radiant: "Mother, Mother."
No matter how much you shout, it's never enough.
Yan Xiu held her tightly, unwilling to let go.
What a touching display of maternal love and filial piety!
When the mother and daughter remembered that there was a third person in the room, Yu Zhi yawned listlessly.
She hadn't slept well a single night these past few days—she was constantly worried that the newly born princess would fall asleep and die.
She was narrow-minded and prone to overthinking. She thought that since something like being reborn had already happened, dying by 'passing away in her sleep' didn't seem so strange.
Fortunately, the person woke up.
She relaxed, and halfway through her yawn, the princess's gaze drifted over.
Wei Pingxi, no, it should be Ji Pingxi.
The noble Princess Changyang blinked, successfully wiping away the tears clinging to her eyelashes, and asked with a half-smile, "Why are you still here?"
She bullied people as soon as she woke up, but Yu Zhi didn't argue with her. She brought the honey water to her lips again and whispered, "Want some more?"
"..."
The Empress watched her daughter make a fool of herself.
Karma really does come quickly in this lifetime.
Licking his dry lips, he thought to himself that his concubine seemed to have gone bad. He pretended to hold out for a few moments, but finally, without any backbone, he spoke: "Drink."
She was dying of thirst!
Yu Zhi Liu Ye's eyes lit up with a smile as she attentively served her.
The news of His Highness's awakening spread throughout the Yu family in the blink of an eye.
Seeing that she was full of energy and had eaten and drunk her fill, Yanxiu then explained to her daughter why she hadn't brought the person into the palace.
The daughter of the imperial family should naturally be welcomed into the family with dignity—the grand ceremony of recognizing one's ancestors and establishing one's name has passed away, but the daughter should be awake when she returns home.
It would also allow the subjects to witness the elegance of Princess Changyang.
There was undoubtedly an element of the emperor and empress wanting to show off their daughter, but those with discerning eyes saw through it but kept quiet.