Denghuangtai

"Aunt, Your Majesty!"

Seeing the mother and son about to clash, Yun Zheng stepped forward again, acting as a peacemaker, "Please hear me out first."

"Yun Zheng, are you also going to persuade me to spare Pei Qingyan?" Empress Dowager Yun turned to look at Yun Zheng, her eyes blazing with fury. "Don't forget, that's your father!"

Upon hearing Yun Heng's name, Yun Zheng felt a surge of disgust. It was true that Yun Heng was his father, but he had no fatherly affection for Yun Heng whatsoever.

If it weren't for the immense kindness Empress Dowager Yun showed him, he would never have lied about avenging Yun Heng.

"Aunt, you have long known my attitude towards Pei Qingyan. Since she came to the capital, I have been thinking only about how to properly ruin her reputation, and I have never thought of pleading for her. Besides, you also made me swear a solemn oath. If I do not wipe out the Pei family, my father's soul will not be able to rest in peace. Such a solemn oath, even if I had other thoughts, I would not dare to break it."

Yun Zheng sighed and continued, "But as Your Majesty said, the fate of the Great Zhao Dynasty is as insignificant as Mount Tai compared to a goose feather. Recently, due to the Pei family's affair, various rumors have been circulating in the court and among the people. First, court officials pleaded for leniency, and then the people petitioned. If it weren't for the matter in the north, we could have dealt with it slowly. As long as Pei Qingyan signed and confessed, we could silence the gossip of the people."

"Can't it be now?"

As soon as he finished speaking, the hall fell silent.

Yun Zheng and the young emperor had basically made their point clear. At this moment, neither of them wanted to further offend Empress Dowager Yun, and the other didn't want to waste any more words. An eerie silence fell over the hall.

Empress Dowager Yun's expression was cold, and a sense of powerlessness rose in her heart.

Actually, she already had the answer in her heart.

She was chosen by the late emperor to be the Empress Dowager Regent, which shows she possessed a certain level of strategic acumen. Coming from a prestigious family, she understood better than anyone that for a dynasty to remain stable, it needed the support of powerful families.

The relationships between powerful families are complex. Today they may fight fiercely for their own interests, but tomorrow they may join forces to protect their rights against a common enemy.

In their hearts, family interests come above all else. The saying goes, "Ironclad families stand the test of time, while the imperial court changes hands constantly." Over thousands of years, dynasties have risen and fallen, and the land has changed hands many times, yet these aristocratic families have remained virtually untouched.

The aristocratic families seemed to have no reaction to the Pei clan's affairs, but the events in the north had already revealed their true intentions.

If Empress Dowager Yun continues to act willfully, what awaits her next may be a backlash from the powerful families...

Empress Dowager Yun closed her eyes and sighed, "So be it. Things have come to this. I must prioritize the greater good. Issue the decree."

Yun Zheng knelt down, and heard Empress Dowager Yun's voice slowly say: "Pei Xuan miscalculated his military strategy, resulting in the deaths of 30,000 soldiers. However, considering his loyalty and integrity, and his death, his crime will not be pursued further. His daughter, Pei Qingyan, has old injuries and is unable to serve in the army. Therefore, she is specially ordered to go to Xuandu Temple to perform a ritual to pray for the souls of the three soldiers who died unjustly, and to comfort their loyal spirits."

"Your subject obeys the decree," Yun Zheng replied.

"Now that you've entered the temple, you should cast aside all worldly affairs. Pei Qingyan's titles and official positions are no longer relevant," Empress Dowager Yun added.

Upon hearing this, Yun Zheng helplessly closed his eyes, thinking to himself that Pei Qingyan was about to jump up and down in anger.

"absurd!"

Inside the imperial prison, Pei Qingyan trembled with rage. "What do you mean by 'no further investigation for a crime'! Can't you people see how suspicious things are in Linhe County?"

"General Pei, you'd better watch your words," Yun Zheng said coldly. "The Empress Dowager has already shown you immense kindness. If you don't know what's good for you and continue to offend her like this, no one will plead for you anymore."

At this moment, Pei Qingyan had no time to care about any of that. Her father and brothers had been betrayed by spies, and she and 30,000 soldiers had been ambushed and killed by the Xiongnu on the territory of Da Zhao. In the end, no one sought justice for them, and no one cared about the reasons for their deaths. Her father's illustrious military achievements were simply glossed over with the phrase, "He is already dead, so his crimes will not be investigated further."

Is there any justice in this world?

"If she's so capable, then she'll..." Pei Qingyan hadn't finished speaking when he was so angry that his vision blurred and he could barely breathe.

She hunched over, her hands clutching the fabric of her dress tightly. She finally managed to catch her breath. "If she has the guts, she can take my life."

"Oh," Yun Zheng sneered, "General Pei, if you're so fearless in the face of death, why didn't you just surrender sooner?"

"You've already escorted me from Shuofang to the capital, and you still say I'm surrendering?" Pei Qingyan glared angrily at Yun Zheng. Of course, what she said was a lie, but how could she possibly admit to tampering with things in front of Yun Zheng and the prison guards?

In this kind of situation, denying it is one outcome, but admitting it is another.

"Whether it is or not, General Pei knows for sure," Yun Zheng said calmly. "But I advise you to take better care of your health before spouting such threats. You're even panting as you speak..."

Yun Zheng paused, then sneered, "Anyone who didn't know better would think you were deliberately feigning weakness to gain sympathy."

"I'll fucking kill you!"

Enraged, Pei Qingyan couldn't resist stepping forward, intending to grab Yun Zheng by the collar and beat him up. But overwhelmed by anger, his vision went black, and he completely fainted.

Yun Zheng clenched his fists behind his back, but still pretended to be nonchalant. "Carry him to Xuandu Temple."

"Yes," Li Ji bowed and replied. He had a door panel removed, and they carried Pei Qingyan out of the prison and onto a carriage. Pei Qingyan lay on the ground of the carriage, which had been salvaged from the prison. The bumpy ride from the prison to the Xuandu Temple hadn't roused him from his unconscious state...

"My lord, something terrible has happened!"

In a secluded bamboo grove at Xuandu Temple, Yun Zheng's chief secretary hurriedly knocked on the door of the main room.

Inside the room, Yun Zheng was passing the time by holding a chess manual.

After Empress Dowager Yun ordered Pei Qingyan to enter the temple for cultivation, she was still filled with resentment. After much deliberation, she ordered Yun Zheng to also move into the temple, ostensibly to prevent others from disturbing Pei Qingyan. In reality, she wanted Yun Zheng to find an opportunity to humiliate and torment Pei Qingyan.

Yun Zheng appeared reluctant, but inwardly he was delighted and ordered his men to pack his usual bedding and settle in at Xuandu Temple.

Hearing the commotion from the chief secretary, Yun Zheng closed the book he was holding and tossed it aside. He quickly walked to the door, opened it, and asked, "What is it?"

"General Pei can't take any more medicine! We've tried everything we can, and the physician says that if she can't take any more, she might..."

Before she could finish speaking, Yun Zheng had already strode outside.

Since Pei Qingyan entered the temple, he has been in a daze and shows no signs of waking up.

She was lost in a dream, replaying every moment of her life over the years like a revolving lantern.

As she reminisced about the past in her dream, she suddenly remembered a rumor that people would recall their entire lives before they died, and once they finished recalling it, their lives would come to an end.

She recalled those words, and then she remembered that before she lost consciousness, she hadn't even been able to vent her anger towards Yun Zheng. This pathetic way of dying made her grit her teeth in hatred.

If she really dies this time, she will definitely transform into a vengeful ghost and squat by Yun Zheng's bedside every day, coming out to scare him when he wakes up in the middle of the night!

She was so angry that she clenched her teeth, which worried the old doctor and the chief clerk. They were anxious and flustered, and they boiled the medicine again and again after it cooled down. They tried their best, but they could only get her to drink a tiny bit of it.

Seeing that her breathing was intermittent and her life hung by a thread, the chief clerk had no choice but to bite the bullet and go to ask Yun Zheng for help, while the old doctor continued to busy himself at the bedside.

Yun Zheng rushed into the room and ran to the bedside.

"My lord." The old physician looked at Yun Zheng with hopeful eyes as if he had seen a savior, and carefully presented the freshly decocted medicine to Yun Zheng, waiting for Yun Zheng to show his skills.

Yun Zheng didn't reach out; his gaze remained fixed on Pei Qingyan's tightly closed lips, his eyes holding an unreadable meaning.

After a long while, he scoffed softly, turned around, and left the inner room.

"Lord?"

The old doctor, unaware of what was going on, put down his bowl in surprise and chased after them.

Yun Zheng stopped and said with certainty, "She won't die."

"She won't even take the medicine!" the old doctor said curtly, thinking to himself: What exactly are your feelings for General Pei? A few days ago, when General Pei was in a coma, you were asking me three times a day when she would wake up. Why do you seem so indifferent now?

"It's not that he can't get the medicine in," Yun Zheng explained.

The old doctor was stunned, looking at him in bewilderment. It wasn't that she couldn't be fed; could it be that General Pei herself refused to drink? How could someone who was unconscious have such consciousness? It was utterly ridiculous!

Yun Zheng slowly said, "She was too busy cursing me, cursing me so harshly, she was gritting her teeth, she didn't have time to drink."

The old doctor was speechless. In all his decades of medical practice, this was the first time he had heard such a bizarre reason.

"Go to her ear and tell her..."