Chapter 378: Chapter 378
Until her old age when An Ning peacefully passed away and returned to the space, that earlier scene still remained so laughable that remembering it would make people burst out laughing.
Especially Yin Zhen—an esteemed prince, already in his fifties at the time, with grandchildren old enough to enter the imperial study. And yet, in front of a large audience, he caused that incident. It was said that the unlucky Yin Tang was even drinking at a tavern when he got the news, and without pausing even once he hurried straight over to Fourth Prince’s residence to watch the spectacle.
Because of that, all the inside details by chance reached An Ning, the Empress Dowager.
Fasting? He actually starved himself unconscious at the yamen.
Not only was Yin Zhen mortified when he came to his senses, even Grand Imperial Consort De, who was living quietly at her younger son’s residence, personally ordered a carriage to go over, seized him, and gave him a severe scolding. She hurriedly instructed the Fourteenth Prince to deliver a memorial to the palace.
She claimed it was not meant to offend the emperor or the Empress Dowager.
An Ning’s expression on hearing that: “……”
After a brief shock, if she were to say she was especially surprised—well… she really wasn’t.
Life as Empress Dowager was comparatively leisurely, so over the following decades An Ning inevitably devoted more time to Taoist studies, and with Emperor Yinreng helping collect rare classic texts from across the land, after several revisions her sword technique based on yin-yang and the five elements began to bear fruit.
As for fasting, An Ning herself had used it to purge internal impurity, but she always chose auspicious times and took her physical condition into account. Later, Yinreng followed her example.
Not fellow—he actually starved himself! One must ask Fourth Prince, doesn’t he know his own constitution at all?
Still, it wasn’t that surprising, An Ning thought.
Fourth Prince had always practiced both Buddhism and Daoism, devout about that path, and seeing the Empress Dowager and his elder brother increasingly “dedicated” to this way of life only encouraged him. Especially the second brother—when he ascended the throne, anyone could see that the crown prince, though appearing normal on the surface, had a certain madness within.
Yet as the years passed, the old impatience in his brow vanished, leaving an almost ethereal temperament.
Though they were the same age and constantly handling state affairs, when he stood with his brothers he somehow looked younger. Then considering the Empress Dowager in the palace, who was likewise well-preserved and even more outstanding in bearing—
Ah, this… could not be summed up as merely being influenced by one’s surroundings!
Not only Yin Zhen, who loved the Dao, even several of the brothers quietly asked around, secretly imitating An Ning to study Daoist scriptures.
And every festival, Cining Palace was the liveliest place. The princes and princes’ sons almost all tried extremely hard to curry favor.
But for someone to stir up trouble to that extent—well…
Hmm… that was rather rare! An Ning clicked her tongue.
In short, after that incident, the man didn’t dare to go out for quite some time.
Yinreng merely snorted once, unconcerned, with not even a sliver of desire to guide him.
The Dao is not so simple.
If the mind hasn’t reached the proper place, what good are the moves? Even he had only by daily exposure—seeing the moon over and over—barely managed to absorb a sliver of its radiance by luck.
Watching the woman before him quietly playing the qin, clearly in her seventies yet still carrying a hint of spiritual elegance, Yinreng’s gaze was gentle and he quietly smiled to himself:
The Emperor, oh the Emperor, do you know what you lost because of your suspicion and paranoia?
When the song ended, Yinreng smoothly handed over a cup of clear tea.
If there was anyone slightly harmed by this, it was the younger princes who complained incessantly about how little of that lunar radiance they had been able to snatch.
Who could understand it—an old father who lived so long and remained energetic every day, who could bear it!
To test this new method’s effect, and because life as Empress Dowager was indeed comfortable and the new emperor rarely refused her, An Ning lived a fairly long life. Only when she felt genuinely unwell in her nineties did she choose to close her eyes.
By then Yinreng was already in his eighties and still looking quite spirited, so one could imagine how desperate the other princes were.
But that had nothing to do with her. Given how this life began for An Ning, to be able to finish it peacefully, to fulfill the original body’s wishes, she had no more demands.
Neither Kangxi nor Yinreng were fools. Under massive pressures of institution and power, An Ning would not be arrogant enough to stir up trouble under their eyes and add extra problems.
As for the original body, An Ning could see that although she had not explicitly demanded other things, deep down she had hoped to leave behind a biological child.
But for An Ning, that was the one thing she could not and would not do…
Unexpectedly, the judgment given was still five stars.
As for the reason, according to the system, even the original body felt her previous conditions were a terrible pit, especially after witnessing firsthand Kangxi’s paranoia later on.
Of course the most important factor was that her own sister had lived exceptionally well. Ever since An Ning arrived, her sister—who had been Cherished Consort, Consort Chen, Imperial Noble Consort, Empress, even the only sister the Empress Dowager truly cared about—had spent her life under protective wings, flourishing in public. Her business thrived, and in the end even prince sons-in-law and grandchildren vied to flatter and be filial.
Fine then! The original body truly had been a gentle, soft-hearted girl!
Casually flipping through the thread of fate in her hand, if one speaks of what happened after the original body’s death, Consort Shu had indeed grieved for a long time, but before she could even fully sink into despair, everything afterward had already slipped entirely out of control.
Or rather, since the original gave birth to the twins Thirteen and Fourteen, everything had ceased to be controllable.
Three princes under her, the sole consort in the harem with such status, born of a prominent Manchu clan—can one even ask whether Kangxi, the master of balance, would allow that?
At the moment an emperor’s instincts awaken, the force unleashed could not be resisted by a single consort.
Perhaps he could not slay his own children, but what else could he do?
Especially since Consort Shu clearly favored her eldest son.
In any case, by the time the Guwalgiya clan realized it, under Kangxi’s intentional or unintentional hand the Eighth Prince’s relationship with his two younger brothers had already plummeted to rock bottom, and later during the struggle for the throne they tore each other apart, doing idiotic things.
What, twins can’t succeed to the throne?
If they look so different in appearance, why not? Who set that rule? Is there a written law?
It’s the throne—what did it matter if they were brothers?
Well… in the previous life Eighth Prince’s situation was, hmm… only slightly better than this life; at least he had been valued early on.
The horror of sons killing sons left the Guwalgiya clan devastated in the previous life just as much. Moreover, when it became clear that the emperor had orchestrated much of it, and when the three almost ended up killing each other, the Guwalgiya house was utterly crushed.
All that led to regicide becoming inevitable.
Coincidentally, even though the death timings differed, the one who mistakenly ascended the throne in the previous life was still Crown Prince Yinreng. Why else? Just think how Yongzheng treated Old Eight in history—Guwalgiya would never dare truly let him take the throne.
Seeing how that crown prince behaved after ascending, An Ning couldn’t help but exhale softly.
By comparison, it seemed this life someone’s mental state was at least passable?