The document is clear to the world - Chapter 45
In the hazy darkness of the night, I vaguely heard voices outside, mentioning the Empress and something about her being seriously ill...
I struggled to get up, and Lu Li came in from the outer room, tucking the blanket around me. "It's chilly at night, why did you wake up?"
I looked at him with concern, "What's going on outside?"
"It's nothing..." Lu Li turned his head slightly, hiding the panic on his face.
I tugged at his sleeve. "Auntie... what happened to her?"
After I urged him repeatedly, Lu Li finally took me into the palace.
This was the first time I had ever gone to the palace in the dead of night, and my heart was far from at peace.
In the brightly lit palace, the emperor sat by his aunt's bedside. His aunt slightly opened her eyes, smiled tremulously, and said to the emperor, "I want to be alone with Zhao'er for a while..."
After everyone left, I was the only one kneeling by my aunt's bedside. My aunt slowly reached out her hand and said, "The ground is cold. You're pregnant again, so you have to take care of yourself."
I got up and walked closer to her, taking her hands in mine.
"Aunt, the Crown Prince..."
Aunt nodded silently. "I understand. Everyone outside is saying that my brother ruined the Crown Prince?"
"That seems to be the case, but I don't understand..."
The aunt smiled, tears quickly sliding down her cheeks. "They all say I'm heartless as a mother. But it doesn't matter, I'm going to die anyway, so it doesn't matter if I carry these sins with me."
"Could it be..."
My aunt looked at me with a resolute expression, "My brother is too busy taking care of himself to interfere in the Crown Prince's affairs. It's the Emperor..."
After the answer in my heart was confirmed, I felt as if I had fallen into an even deeper quagmire.
"Zhao'er, you must remember every word I say today."
I nodded blankly.
"I'm afraid Aunt won't be able to hold on much longer." Aunt shook her head, took the jade thumb ring from her left thumb, and personally put it on my hand. "I must say my last words no matter what... After I die, you must return to Nalan Manor immediately, without delay. Give birth to the child and raise him well. You can only return to the capital after the Emperor passes away and Lu Li ascends the throne..."
I frowned in surprise.
“Child…listen to me. After I die, the Rong family will face a great calamity, and you must survive. At least one member of our family must survive. The Emperor will no longer tolerate the Rong family’s growing power. He tolerated one Rong family member but will not allow a second. Cleansing up the influence of the maternal relatives is urgent. If we cannot survive this calamity, the Rong family will never have a chance to rise again. If we can make a comeback, you must survive and become the Empress, just like me.”
She felt a lump in her throat and said, "Aunt, the Emperor has feelings for you and would not do such a cruel thing."
“If it weren’t for his affection,” Aunt sneered, “the Rong family would have been wiped out long ago. The only thing he could do for me was to not touch my brother while I was alive. But he had already made preparations. You really think that the fourth brother went to defend the frontier? He was ordered by the emperor to set up camp in the suburbs of Huainan, ready to engage my family’s 300,000 troops in close combat at any time.”
A chill ran through me, and I was speechless.
"For the past twenty-five years, he has been good to me... but this cannot make him forget my brother, the Prince of Huainan, whose achievements overshadow the emperor and whose power is immense. He initially married me because he valued the strength of the Huainan army, but my father and brother have been eyeing the throne for so many years... how could the emperor not be wary? It was my brother who helped him usurp the throne and seize the country. As long as my brother lives, his throne is illegitimate. Therefore, since I married him, he has been giving me medicine to prevent me from having children. He can tolerate the arrogance of the Rong family and accept me as Empress Rong, but he absolutely cannot allow the Rong bloodline to remain and hand over the country to others... This is also the reason why Jihe has suffered repeated miscarriages over the years... His sons and his grandsons, if they are related to the Rong family, he will not let them go... He is deeply in love with me, but he is also an emperor..."
"My aunt knew this would happen, yet she still made me repeat the same mistake?" I shook my head; at that moment, I didn't want to take on any responsibility.
My aunt looked up at me, a hint of sadness in her eyes. "Jihe is gentle by nature. The Crown Prince has lost power and is not up to the task... What you need to do is protect your father and protect the Rong family... I beg you one last time to protect Hong'er. He is my only concern in this world."
"What if I can't save it?" I asked resolutely, suppressing the panic and anger in my chest, with tears in my eyes.
“That is…fate…” Aunt slowly closed her eyes.
He walked out of the main hall dejectedly, his steps so heavy he could barely move, his aunt's repeated admonitions echoing behind him...
"Zhao'er, you must not be cowardly... The women of the Rong family never fear fate..."
Seeing my distraught expression, Lu Li simply comforted me without saying anything more, and gently pulled me into his arms.
I looked down at the jade thumb ring that my aunt had personally put on my hand, which emitted a strange light in the night.
I stopped and looked at Lu Li. "That position... is it possible to compete for it?"
In the darkness, I couldn't make out his outline, but he was unusually still.
After a long silence, he turned to leave. I grabbed his sleeve, tears falling drop by drop onto his cuff. "I won't be a pawn, nor will I do this for the Rong family. This time, it's only for me. Can you fight for me?"
My aunt passed away peacefully one morning.
Those who saw her for the last time said that her aunt suddenly woke up, reached out and shouted out the window, "Go home, go home..." As she shouted, there was a smile in her eyes. When the emperor called out her name and took her hand, that smile froze in his eyes. And that's how her aunt passed away.
My aunt entered the palace at eighteen, betrothed to the then third prince, the emperor, thus beginning her life filled with power struggles and a marriage intertwined with love and pain. For twenty-five years, she worried and toiled for her family; for twenty-five years, she remained steadfastly by the emperor's side. She lived her entire life for the Rong family, sacrificing her youth for the imperial family, yet left nothing for herself—no children around her, no peaceful family life, no simple happiness a woman should possess… My aunt, Empress Jingciyi Rong, fulfilled the heavy responsibilities of a Rong family woman with her life, yet left nothing for herself…
I still remember waking up from a nightmare in the early morning and rushing to the palace without thinking. Along the way, the morning bell of the palace, the Buddhist bell of Huangjue Temple, and the drum and bell of Jingning Nunnery all rang out, flooding the capital.
I remember when I rushed into the Chang'an Palace, the palace maids and eunuchs were kneeling all over the floor. The emperor, dressed in a dragon robe, seemed to still be in a daze. He fell off the bed and sat down awkwardly on the footstool, staring blankly into space...
I sat silently beside my aunt.
She left quietly like that. She seemed to still be asleep on the phoenix bed. I called her softly as usual, but no matter what I did, I couldn't wake her.
She wanted to go home, back to the hometown that only existed in her childhood memories. She... must have been a woman who had experienced great love and great pain.
All around me were sobs, but I could not shed a tear; my heart was utterly empty.
My aunt finally escaped her shackles in this world, entrusted all her burdens to me, and then departed peacefully.
Looking towards the end of the corridor, a familiar figure appeared: Lu Li, dressed in black robes and a white crown, striding towards them, accompanied by the princes who had already gathered and were walking briskly together.
He and the dejected crown prince walked at the very front, their steps surprisingly in sync. My heart ached; those were the two beloved sons that my aunt had painstakingly raised...