After the rebellion was successful, I realized that this place was the Red Mansion

Chapter 143 Peace and Stability in the World
At night, Shi Xiangyun and Lin Daiyu chatted in the study. They slept together in the west wing that night.

Xiangyun laughed, "There are so many beautiful sights in Daming Palace. There's a mountain by the lake, formed from the soil brought out during the excavation of the lake. From afar, the six-story pagoda on the mountain shines with golden light, like being in a Buddhist kingdom. It's a pity you didn't see it, Sister Lin~"

Recalling the day, she was still immersed in the joy of her daytime outing, appearing quite enthusiastic.

Daiyu laughed at her and said, "Your Emperor brother's garden can be visited whenever he wants from now on. You don't even need to go back to the Grand View Garden anymore. You can just stay in the Daming Palace."

Xiangyun glanced at her and asked with a smile, "Sister Lin, what did you say to him? Did the Emperor bully you again?"

Xiangyun knew that Chu Yan had held Lin Daiyu in his arms last time.

Daiyu sighed, "Even if I'm bullied, what can I say? Don't worry about me, just be nice to your emperor brother, and we'll each mind our own business."

Xiangyun said, "You always say that the emperor is domineering, but what about today? The princess asked him to go in and visit her father, and he didn't get angry. He was fair in rewarding and punishing. If he were domineering, he would have implicated many people long ago."

Daiyu knew that Xiangyun's heart already belonged to her emperor brother.

She wanted to find some shortcomings in the bandit king Chu Yan, but she found that apart from the bandit king hugging her whenever they met and his insatiable greed for the young girls in the mansion, he did everything else perfectly, leaving no room for criticism.

Around midnight, the two went to sleep together.

Xiangyun was tired after half a day of sightseeing, and fell asleep after chatting for only a few minutes after getting into bed.

Daiyu, however, was on her pillow, thinking of Baoyu, who was currently outside the military camp, and wondered where he was sleeping. He used to live a life of luxury in the Yihong Courtyard, but now he was suffering.

Then she thought of what Chu Yan had said during the day: if she was Jiangzhu and Baoyu was Shenying Attendant, then she was reincarnated to repay the kindness of Ganlu.
It is evident that she and Baoyu had a predestined connection from a previous life, but unfortunately, Chu Yan interfered, truly a celestial demon star in her destiny, sent specifically to bring her misfortune.

In the stillness of the night, only Xiangyun's soft breathing could be heard. Daiyu thought of Baoyu, and tears welled up in her eyes again.

Half-asleep, she suddenly got up, went outside, and met the emperor in the courtyard.

In a dreamlike state, Daiyu spoke with him for a while, and then, without knowing how long it had been, she suddenly woke up.

"Zicuckoo..."

Daiyu sat up in bed, still shaken, and couldn't help but let out a soft cry.

Zijuan outside was still asleep.

After a moment, Daiyu finally came to her senses.

She still remembered some of the words spoken in her dream, which coincided with what Chu Yan had said during the day, filling her with awe and suspicion that she had been tricked by him again, yet she couldn't figure out why.

Suddenly, there was a knock on the door.

"Well."

Xiangyun mumbled something and turned to continue sleeping. Daiyu heard it clearly: it was the eunuch knocking on the door, saying... the Emperor had arrived!

"Girl, girl!"

Zijuan and Xueyan were both awakened and quickly got up to fumble for a lamp while calling her.

After figuring out why he had come, Daiyu calmed down and said to the two people outside, "It's the Emperor. You don't need to panic."

Zijuan was taken aback. "Why is the Emperor here in the middle of the night?"

"They came to see me."

Daiyu got out of bed, put on shoes with her delicate feet, took a long coat and put it on, and walked outside with Zijuan and Xueyan.

After the door was opened, the tall emperor stood outside, followed by four or five eunuchs and palace maids on night duty, each carrying a palace lantern. They arrived at the west wing where Daiyu lived in the dead of night.

"..."

"..."

By the firelight, the two looked into each other's eyes and understood what the other wanted to say.

Chu Yan smiled at her, took the palace lantern from the maid, and went into the room.

Zijuan and Xueyan dared not speak. The emperor's unusual behavior made them uneasy. If the emperor were to summon the young lady, they would feel at ease, but it did not seem like he was coming to summon her.

"what do you want to do?"

Daiyu asked him, but she was not alarmed, because she knew he had come because of what happened in her dream.

Chu Yan laughed and said, "I'm just here to see what Fairy Jiangzhu looks like, nothing more."

Chu Yan had a dream just now, in which he met Lin Daiyu again. Although they didn't say anything, Chu Yan thought that she was in his harem, so he simply got up to witness it with his own eyes.

If Daiyu possessed the magical powers of the Crimson Pearl Fairy, she could also broaden her horizons and see what the status of a mortal emperor was in front of a fairy.

Daiyu was wrapped tightly in her long coat, with only a thin garment underneath. If he were to see her like that, she would be mortified.

"Has Your Majesty seen Jiangzhu?" she asked.

"Although I did not see the fairy, I saw someone even more beautiful than the fairy."

"Are you talking about Sister Yun who's sleeping inside?"

Daiyu said, embarrassed and annoyed.

"Yun'er is sleeping inside?" Chu Yan, holding a palace lantern, strolled into the bedroom, leaving the three of them to watch helplessly.

Chu Yan entered Daiyu's bedroom and first smelled a faint, sweet fragrance of a young girl. He held up a palace lantern and shone it on the bed, where he saw Xiangyun fast asleep.

Her long black hair was scattered on the pillow, the quilt reached her chest, and one could vaguely see the pink bodice she was wearing underneath. One snow-white arm was hanging outside the quilt, and there were two gold bracelets on her wrist, making her look like a delicate young girl.

Chu Yan couldn't help but smile, lowered his head and kissed Xiangyun's lips, then helped her pull the blanket up.

The sleeping Shi Xiangyun only let out a soft hum and did not notice his arrival. "Your Majesty..." Zijuan said tremblingly, hesitating to speak.

A grown man barged into a young woman's boudoir in the middle of the night. If he weren't the emperor, she would have already summoned her.

Daiyu, wrapped in a long coat, stood to the side and sneered, "You didn't get enough of kissing her the other day, and now you're barging in in the middle of the night just to kiss Sister Yun? Which emperor throughout history has been as absurd as you?" She added, "Now that you're done kissing her, hurry up and leave. I need to rest!"

Zijuan looked at her in surprise again. The girl was acting differently in front of the emperor than before.

Chu Yan approached her and said with a smile, "No emperor throughout history has ever had the opportunity to see the Twelve Beauties of Jinling like I have."

"The Twelve Beauties of Jinling?"

Daiyu looked at Xiangyun and realized many things. No wonder he wanted to take the girls in the mansion as concubines. It turned out that Leng Zixing was a fake, but he knew their backgrounds.

Chu Yan said, "I won't pursue the money you used last time, but I'll owe you one tonight in advance."

As he spoke, he reached out and pulled her slender body into his arms, wanting to experience the charm and grace of the elegant Lin Daiyu.

Daiyu blushed with embarrassment, raised her head, and glared at him with her angry, dewy eyes.

Chu Yan smiled, released her slender waist, and said, "Rest now. Forget about any past life connections. From now on, you will remain in my harem."

After saying this, he glanced at her twice and walked out. Seeing that the girl was standing still, Zijuan took the initiative to see the emperor out.

The room fell silent.

Daiyu sighed softly, took off her long coat, and went back to bed.

This time, despite being humiliated again, she was not as ashamed as before. When Chu Yan barged into her room, she was not panicked because she knew he would not forcibly ruin her reputation.

Daiyu wondered if it was because she had met him in her dream?
In the dream, the two did not say much, nor did they have any intimate moments. She simply saw the emperor in her dream, and that was all.

She also loathed the thief king's domineering ways, how he would come to her room late at night and then hug and humiliate her.

Perhaps it was only because he had been so unreasonable before that she felt a little more at ease now that she saw he was willing to keep his promise.

After figuring things out, Daiyu closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep.

……

When they woke up the next day, neither Zijuan nor Xueyan mentioned what had happened the night before.

As Xiangyun and Daiyu were washing and dressing, they suddenly heard the voice of a eunuch outside: "His Majesty has bestowed rewards upon Miss Yun and Miss Lin for their disturbance last night. Each of them will receive two cloisonné enamel boxes, one Suzhou embroidered nightgown, five bolts of Yun brocade satin, and one Songhua stone inkstone."

After the two went out to receive their reward, Xiangyun asked in surprise, "Why did His Majesty bother us last night? He even gave us a special reward."

Xueyan smiled and said, "Miss Yun, you were fast asleep and didn't know that the Emperor came last night, but he didn't do anything. He just took a quick look around and left."

Daiyu smiled and said, "The emperor was doing something. He saw that Sister Yun looked like Consort Yang sleeping in the spring, so he kissed her on the lips."

What was meant as a joke turned into embarrassment for her after she said it.

Xiangyun blushed and covered her mouth with her hand. Seeing that Zijuan and Xueyan were laughing, she knew that her brother the emperor had really kissed her last night!
She complained, "Why did he come to our room so late at night? Sister Lin, why didn't you wake me up?"

As she spoke, she hurriedly washed and dressed, and rushed out to find Chu Yan to ask what had happened last night.

As expected, Chu Yan hugged her and kissed her again.

In the afternoon, news arrived from the Northwest that the soldiers of Xining Pass had surrendered, and from then on, the world was at peace.

Chu Yan was in high spirits and that night he summoned Empress Zhang to his bedchamber. While on the bed, he announced that he had seized the throne from the Shun Dynasty.

Empress Zhang was too weak to do anything else. She waved her hand at him and said, "It's one thing for Your Majesty to show off your prowess on the battlefield, but why must you humiliate me, the former empress of the dynasty, in the bedchamber?"

Chu Yan laughed and said, "How is my lenient treatment of former officials of the Shun Dynasty an insult?"

It was another fierce battle between dragons and phoenixes.

"I have surrendered!"

Empress Zhang obediently knelt at his waist, adopting the demeanor of an empress and submitting to him.

Chu Yan sensed something was wrong, and after playing with her soft hair, he asked, "What reward does the Empress desire?"

Empress Zhang hurriedly said, "I dare not accept any reward... However, after hearing that Duke Chongle was seriously ill, I went to see the Empress Dowager. Although I know that Your Majesty just punished the imperial physician, I am worried that Duke Chongle will not survive for more than a few days. Considering that they were husband and wife after all, I dare to ask Your Majesty to allow the Empress Dowager to enter Wangyue Tower to accompany Duke Chongle and see him off on his final journey."

According to the imperial physician, Chong Le Gong is already old and has been taking many elixirs indiscriminately. His illness is incurable. He will die within three to five days, or at most a month, after which he will become emaciated.

Chu Yan nodded: "It's nothing. We'll send her in to serve us, but once she's inside, she won't be able to come out until Lord Chongle dies."

"On behalf of the Empress Dowager, I would like to express my gratitude to Your Majesty!"

Empress Zhang knelt on the bed and kowtowed to him, but then opened her mouth and mumbled something like, "This concubine thanks you."

Chu Yan stroked her sunken face and ruffled the Empress's hair. Suddenly, he said, "The Duke of Chongle is dead. Are you going to become a nun too?"

Empress Zhang could not speak, she could only nod, and pleaded with him with her eyes.

Chu Yan thought for a moment and sighed, "Fine, you can go to Huang'en Temple to become a monk for half a year or a year for now, and then I will bring you back to the palace."

Following the example of Yang Guifei, first make Empress Zhang become a nun, then bring her back.

"This concubine...is willing to serve Your Majesty!"

Moved, Empress Zhang released her lips and sat down again.

(End of this chapter)