The sky brightened again. The morning light shone through the windows, and the glazed tiles on the roof of the Ziwei Palace sparkled brightly under the rising sun.
Mu Fulan sat in front of the mirror. Aju was beside her, combing her long hair.
"Aunt, your hair is so beautiful, just like the spring water of our Dongting Lake, smooth and shiny..."
The girl combed her hair and praised her softly from the bottom of her heart.
Mu Fulan stared at herself in the mirror, with her green hair and snowy face. Suddenly, in a trance, she remembered another sixteen-year-old self ten years ago.
I remember it was a morning like this. At that time, she had been married for less than a year. Her young and ambitious husband left her on the wedding night and never returned for a long time. And she had just woken up from a nightmare the night before.
It was that nightmare that changed everything for her.
At that time, she only wanted to leave the man who brought her all the misfortunes. She wanted to return to Changsha, where she was born and raised, and live out her new life in peace and stability. How could she have imagined that ten years later, she would be in Zique, being honored as the Queen Mother.
Three months ago, the young emperor had prepared for a long time and personally planned the war to pacify the court of King Qi in the south, and won a great victory. The small court that had lingered in the south for a few years after the founding of the country ceased to exist. Zhao Xitai committed suicide by jumping into the sea under the pursuit of the army. A few days ago, the army returned victoriously, and the young emperor led the civil and military officials to walk 20 miles out of the city to welcome them.
The founding emperor of the Dacheng Dynasty, Xie Changgeng, led the army in person, but unfortunately his old injury recurred and he died young six months later. Afterwards, the crown prince succeeded to the throne with the assistance of the regent queen and several important ministers. In the past two years, he was not only smart and good at governing, but also very diligent. In addition to handling state affairs, he would get up at five in the morning, just like when he was a child, practicing sword and reading, rain or shine.
Today, the world is stable and unified. Because of the southern expedition, the prestige of the young emperor has greatly increased. He is also about to turn fourteen years old, old enough to rule the country himself.
Just yesterday, the empress dowager resigned from her post as regent, and in the presence of all civil and military officials, she personally handed over the imperial seal, which had been in her control, to the young emperor.
"Queen Mother, His Majesty is here—"
Accompanied by a burst of hurried footsteps, the palace servant's message also came in.
Aju's hand paused, her cheeks turned red, and she quickly put down the comb and hid away.
Mu Fulan looked at her graceful back as she shyly walked away, a smile in her eyes.
Everyone knows that the young emperor and Princess A'ru were childhood sweethearts. Now that the young emperor has taken power, they will get married after the mourning period for the late emperor is over.
"Mother!"
A young man in a dragon robe ran in from outside the palace. He ran to her quickly, and with a plop, he knelt down on his knees.
"Mother, is this true? Are you really leaving?"
The young man looked at her with wide eyes, his expression full of surprise and surprise.
Mu Fulan ordered everyone around her to leave.
"Yes. I will go back to Dongting after some time," she said.
The young man tightly grasped Mu Fulan's sleeve and asked, "Why did mother suddenly want to leave?"
"Xi'er, mother has wanted to come back a long time ago. She couldn't get away before, but now that you are in charge of the government, I am very confident in you."
"I should go back too."
The young man stared at her in a daze. After a moment, he slowly loosened his fingers that were clutching Mu Fulan's sleeve.
"Mother..." he said softly, "Although I hope to see you sooner or later, if you don't want to be trapped here anymore and want to go back to Dongting, I will never stop you."
As he spoke, his eyes slowly turned red.
Mu Fulan smiled and said, "Mother grew up there. Now she is back home like a fish in water. You don't have to worry about her. Besides, it's not that mother won't come back. On the day of your wedding, mother will come back in person."
"Mother!" The young man kowtowed to her and did not get up for a long time.
Mu Fulan helped him up, stared at the face in front of him that looked increasingly like that man, hesitated for a moment, and said, "I'm going back and I want to take someone from you."
"Mom, tell me!" The boy nodded. "Who is it?"
Mu Fulan said a name.
The boy was startled.
That man was the deputy commander of the imperial guards in Shangjing. He was usually taciturn and had a missing thumb on his left hand. It was said that he had followed the previous emperor in his early years, but he did not know what he had done wrong and so he quit his job on his own initiative. However, due to his ability and loyalty, in addition to performing his duties as the commander of the imperial guards, he was also responsible for the training and instruction of the imperial guards in the past two years.
"I have asked him, and he volunteered to go back to Dongting with me."
Although he didn't know why his mother wanted to take Zhu Liuhu away, since she had asked, how could the young man refuse? He immediately agreed: "Son, I know. I will ask him to prepare and go back with mother today."
Mu Fulan smiled and said, "I'm fine. You just took over the government, and there are a lot of things to do. Go and do your work. There's no need to keep me here any longer."
The young man stood up and left. Mu Fulan watched his back, and when he was about to leave the hall, he suddenly stopped and turned back.
"Mother! My son..."
He started to speak, but suddenly stopped.
"Xier, do you have anything else to say?" Mu Fulan asked when she saw that he seemed to have something else to say.
"nothing… "
He hesitated, then slowly shook his head.
"My son wants to say that as long as my mother is happy in the future, I will have nothing else to ask for in this life."
He turned around, knelt solemnly again in front of Mu Fulan, and said with sobs.
…
This year, the 26-year-old young Empress Dowager Mu of the Dacheng Dynasty quietly left Shangjing and returned to Dongting in late spring after returning power to the young emperor, in order to recuperate and to avoid being criticized for repeating the interference in government affairs of Empress Liu of the previous dynasty.
She went all the way south and returned to Yuecheng. After settling down, the first thing she did was to go to the ancestral temple to pay homage to the ancestors of the Mu family and her parents, brothers and sisters-in-law whom she had lost over the years.
After leaving the ancestral temple, she took an ordinary carriage and passed through the bustling old streets that she was very familiar with, heading for the medicine house in Junshan. She arrived at the ferry, boarded the boat, and summoned Zhu Liuhu, who had been accompanying her as a guard, and said, "If you had stayed in Shangjing, you would have a bright future. But if you came here with me, you will have to spend the rest of your life in mediocrity. Will you really not regret it?"
"Even if you regret it now, it doesn't matter. Just tell me straight away and go back. I will ask His Majesty to reinstate you."
Zhu Liuhu knelt down slowly towards her without thinking.
"It was thanks to the late emperor's grace that Zhu Liuhu was lucky enough to be alive. I am a nobody, how could I be so worthy of being remembered by the empress dowager until now? Zhu Liuhu is so grateful that I burst into tears. It is my honor to be able to follow the empress dowager here, and I will never regret it!"
Mu Fulan smiled and nodded.
"She was originally a teaching maid in the palace, smart and clever, and I sent her to you back then. She still doesn't know that your name is Zhu Liuhu, not Zhu Liu as you told her back then, but I heard from my mother Mu that she has never forgotten you, and she has probably been waiting for you all these years. I've seen that you have never gotten married in all these years, so I asked you a question before leaving Shangjing."
She turned her head and looked at the pier in the center of the lake that was getting closer and closer.
"She already knows you're coming. Look, there she is."
Zhu Liuhu was shocked and could hardly believe his ears.
He raised his head sharply.
At the end of his sight, there was an island in the middle of the lake, with rippling green waves. Faintly, he saw a graceful figure standing on the shore, a woman looking into the distance against the wind, her dress fluttering.
As the boat got closer, his eyes opened wider and wider, and he soon recognized it.
The person on the shore, if not the woman who still haunts his dreams, then who could it be
Over the years, whenever it was late at night and everyone was asleep, he had dreamed countless times about the peddler and his woman who used to carry their loads and walk through the streets of Yuecheng. However, after waking up from the dream, he never dared to think that one day in this life, he would be able to meet her again.
He stared intently.
The boat gradually approached the shore. The woman seemed to have seen him, and ran towards him, but after running a few steps, she suddenly stopped and just stood there, staring at him blankly.
This usually silent man couldn't wait for the boat to stop. His eyes lit up, he kowtowed heavily to Mu Fulan, then jumped up, waded down, and ran towards the woman on the shore who was staring at him with tears streaming down her face.
Mother Mu is getting old and her health is not very good. In the past few years, she did not follow Mu Fulan into the palace, and has been living out her days in the medicine house.
She brought Ah Mao, who had left the palace two years ago, here with her, and stood aside, looking at the couple who met again after many years, her eyes couldn't help but well up in tears.
"Mother Mu, how does he know my Aunt Hua Niang? What is his relationship with Aunt Hua Niang?"
"Oh my! What is he going to do!"
Ah Mao looked in surprise at the man who waded over and held Aunt Hua Niang's hand tightly as soon as he got ashore. He covered his eyes, but out of curiosity, he couldn't help but open his fingers and look secretly.
Mother Mu wiped her eyes, turned around and walked over quickly, hugging the person in front of her whom she had not seen for several years tightly in her arms, stroking her black hair which was as smooth as before, and called her "Princess" lovingly with a trembling voice, as if she was still the innocent and naive princess of Changsha State who was waiting to be married.
The word "Princess" seems like a lifetime ago.
Mu Fulan closed her eyes and let her mother Mu hold her, with her face resting in her arms, motionless.
After a long while, she opened her eyes, smiled and said softly, "Mother Mu, I'm back."
The author has something to say: The next chapter will be around 18:00 tomorrow~