Chapter 89: Safety

Though Wu Dongmu was broad and portly, and appeared quite foolish, when it came to the time of extreme risk to life, he was as nimble as a rat, and in a few seconds, he slipped into the crowd, such that Song Juguang's head ached a bit too.

A ferocious ruthlessness flashed in Song Juguang's gaze, and she leaped to chase after him, but she hadn't gone far when she was obstructed by the soldiers in the middle of battle. Raising her gaze, she saw Wu Dongmu fleeing even further away, like a dog with its tail tucked between its legs, and her hands surreptitiously formed a seal, and the next moment, she turned and rushed towards the Rear Court.

What was insignificant and what was not, she could still tell clearly.

Over there, ever since Meng Daosheng had brought soldiers into the Imperial Palace, she'd pressed towards the Rear Court, cutting through thorns and overcoming all obstacles along the way, the battlefield behind her left largely to the sisters she'd brought along. So, though her pace wasn't that of Song Juguang's, the two knelt before Jiang Changbai at the same time.

"This subject arrived late to rescue your majesty—your majesty, please forgive me!"

"This minister arrived late to rescue your majesty—your majesty, please forgive me!"

The two different voices rose at the same time, and Jiang Changbai's gaze swept over the two of them, and she once more displayed the posture of an emperor remaining calm in the face of the chaos. "No matter; We aren't one to collapse at a single blow; go on, stand up."

Song Juguang naturally wasn't so reserved, and stood up as soon as Jiang Changbai had finished speaking. But Meng Daosheng remained stiffly in place, a degree of alertness suddenly increasing in her gaze.

Jiang Changbai, assuming she'd been startled, found it a bit amusing, but her tone warmed a few degrees. "What are you doing frozen there? We told you to rise."

Only now did Meng Daosheng slowly get to her feet, and she observed her surroundings nervously, unconsciously tightening her grasp on the long dao in her hand. She said in a low tone, "Bixia, please be careful; this subject scented blood on arriving here."

Before Jiang Changbai could respond, it was Song Juguang who laughed first. Arms crossed, she tilted her head to indicate the side hall with her jaw, and said lightly, "If you go and push that door open, you'll know that there are two dead laying there."

Song Juguang's words were entirely unconcerned, as if those who had died weren't people, but rather animals such as fowl or fish. But Meng Daosheng didn't dare to relax her vigilance in the slightest, and after she received Jiang Changbai's permissive expression, held her long dao before her, and, one step after the other, moved in the direction that Song Juguang had just indicated.

Jiang Changbai naturally knew where the scent of blood that Meng Daosheng had noticed came from, but seeing this tableau, she didn't obstruct her, because she had more important matters. Her gaze fell on Song Juguang, and faintly worried, she asked, "What of Chang Jiaye? Did she come along with you?"

Hearing this, for a flash, Song Juguang was at a loss, and, even, for a bit, she couldn't find the face to match to the name of Chang Jiaye. She could only shake her head and tell a small lie. "This minister only hurried over on seeing Meng-daren rushing towards the Imperial Palace with soldiers, and didn't meet any Chang Jiaye."

As soon as she'd finished speaking, Jiang Changbai's expression darkened. It wasn't that she didn't know how dangerous the Imperial Palace was just now; even the remote place they'd hidden away in had been infiltrated by rebel forces. Chang Jiaye, rushing out with a single weapon and horse, it would be impossible for her not to be injured.

And now that her whereabouts were unknown, then the situation was most definitely not optimistic. Inexplicably, Jiang Changbai shivered.

But before she could send someone to go look, she heard Meng Daosheng's startled cry from the side hall. Looking in the direction of the side hall with its door laying wide open, there were two corpses haphazardly sprawled on the ground.

In a place no one was paying any mind, Meng Daosheng trembled faintly. The more she looked at the sprawled body, the more familiar it appeared.

One step, two steps. She drew in a deep breath, and slowly walked closer to that corpse with its incredibly familiar figure. With the tip of her blade, she turned that figure laying on its stomach over, and the face that greeted her was one that couldn't be any more familiar.

How is it her?

In an instant, Meng Daosheng froze, her heartbeat suddenly increasing, and a bit of moisture rose at the corners of her eyes. She turned her head back to look disbelievingly at Jiang Changbai, and in an instant, read the sorrow on her face. But Meng Daosheng wasn't willing to believe it, and said tremblingly, "Bixia, this—this is…"

Jiang Changbai closed her eyes, her mind a bit at odds. Only after a while did she make up her mind, and said, "Issue a decree; Shen Yanyi was loyal and true, meritorious in protecting the Emperor, and is to be issued a posthumous title for her martyrdom, and will be buried as princess."

"Bixia is brilliant and enlightened!"

The responding voices rose in an instant, but Shen Yanyi would never have the opportunity to thank her for the favour herself again. Until now, no matter what path she'd chosen to take before, she'd reached the end of the road far quicker than most people.

Meng Daosheng was still submerged in grief, and Jiang Changbai came out before her. Turning to the imperial guard by her side, she said, "Go on the route from the grand barracks in the outskirts of the capital to the Regent's residence, and look for Chang Jiaye."

"Understood!"

That imperial guard was one who'd often received Chang Jiaye's favour, and just now, perking her ears to listen to Jiang Changbai and Song Juguang's exchange, she'd long since been worried to no end. Receiving Jiang Changbai's order, after voicing her assent, she rushed away; but by the time she made it to the Rongtai Gate, the scene there had already changed.

The previously equal forces had changed into Jiang Changbai's might unilaterally crushing them, and the rebel forces Wu Lianyi had led were scurrying off in all directions. The confidence of that imperial guards, seeing this situation, rose, thinking that the hardship at the Rongtai Gate had already been resolved, and naturally, the capital was even more secure. Even if Chang Jiaye were more injured, as long as she were to have entered the capital, then there was a way for her to survive.

Amidst the fleeing, the cloth covering one of the rebel forces' faces was torn off by a blade. In a flash, the imperial guard recognised him. Before, when the Tai Emperor had been on the throne, the imperial guards of the Imperial Palace were all men, and the ones like them had been maids in the Rear Court, and when occasionally seeing these blade-wielders, their constitutions would weaken a few degrees.

But when Jiang Changbai had taken the throne, she'd gradually eliminated these men batch by batch, and selected the best from the maids who'd previously been in the Rear Court for training, who had become the current imperial guards. They didn't know where the original imperial guards had gone; they only knew that they would no longer be as low in status as they had been before.

Of course, the situation of those who had remained in the Rear Court as maids was much better than before as well.

The imperial guard who had been ordered to find Chang Jiaye, on seeing this, felt everything that had piled up in her heart for so long finally rush up in a single breath; if it weren't for having remembered that she still had an important task, she'd most certainly have joined the fighting and vent her anger for her previous self.

With rapid footsteps, she headed out of the Palace, without the slightest awareness that what was waiting for her was her benefactor's corpse.

Now, Yang Zhuofei no longer had the concern of struggling, and merely dejectedly hung her head, letting the imperial guards who'd rushed from all corners bind her up like a zongzi,^[1] and then staggered her way towards the prison.

Once Jiang Changbai made it to the Rongtai Gate, all the rebel forces had already been brought under control. The leader of the forces, Wu Lianyi, knelt on the ground with her hands bound behind her back, but she looked at Jiang Changbai with her head raised high, a refusal to give in in her gaze.

Actually, she'd not initially wanted to raise soldiers to revolt; she'd only told Wu Dongmu the news of Han Yu because she wanted Wu Dongmu to be on guard, and not keep provoking things and harming her prospects.

If it were only from Wu Lianyi's perspective, she even rather liked Jiang Changbai as the Emperor. After all, before, even though she'd been born into the family of a high-ranking official, her family only wished for her to be able to find a good husband to allow Wu Dongmu's position in the court to be even more secure and to rise another level.

But from the time Jiang Changbai had ascended the throne, these hopes had changed completely, and she even benefited from her previous secret studies, and the three characters of "Wu Lianyi" had been written publicly on the list of jinshi holders that had been released recently. But perhaps because of her background, Wu Lianyi hadn't been trusted the way that the others had been at all.

Though her rank was the same as others', when it came to the degree of importance, she was far from theirs.

But Wu Lianyi herself knew as well the indelible effect of blood. If Wu Dongmu were to raise forces and revolt, even if she had been even more loyal and devoted, even if she were even more talented, she'd struggle to escape from the fate of implication with her own useless father. Since that was the case, then she no longer needed to live an ignoble existence in the official sphere; it would be better to risk it all, and if they lost, she'd lose her life, but if they won, she'd enjoy endless glory, wealth, and rank.

After all, as Wu Lianyi saw it, Wu Dongmu had long since grown greedy, that mind of his coated with lard. If his revolt really did succeed, the command of the military would all be in the Wu family's hand, and the only person who could sit on the imperial throne would, naturally, be from the Wu family. When that time came, it would be her time to commit patricide and ascend the throne.

If Jiang Changbai could do it, how come she couldn't?

But in the end, everything had devolved rapidly, and they'd seemed to have lacked a bit of luck as well. As a result, even if she'd been more capable, and been able to fight three opponents herself, right now, she could only be restrained by others and kneel before Jiang Changbai.

The flagstones before the Rongtai Gate had originally been uneven, and now, having just gone through a fierce battle, they were even more pocked and pitted. Being pressed against this hard ground by another, Wu Lianyi merely felt that her knees were nearly about to shatter.

Yet Jiang Changbai only swept a glance across her, and immediately asked, suspiciously, "Where's Wu Dongmu? How come you allowed him to get away?"

Wen Song, who'd just been prepared to report to Jiang Changbai, was startled by these words, and hurriedly lowered her head. "Responding to Bixia, we've already locked all the gates to the Imperial Palace; it'll be like catching a turtle in a jar—Wu Dongmu can't get away."

Jiang Changbai nodded.

Before Wu Dongmu was even found, it was unexpectedly Xie Qianbing who rushed over; she was even carrying a jian, her bearing rather that of being about to struggle with someone like her life depended on it. Only on seeing Jiang Changbai standing hale and hearty from a distance did her aura soften a bit. But she still came before Jiang Changbai with quick steps. "Bixia, you're alright, aren't you?"

Jiang Changbai merely smiled at her. "What, does Our standing here not answer your question well enough?"

Hearing this, Xie Qianbing slapped her head, and smiled. "This minster's a bit muddled; Bixia is peerless and carries the Mandate of Heaven—how could you be injured by such petty people? Laoshi was worried as well—hearing the news, she urged this minister to come; as a matter of fact, this jian is one that Laoshi found for me, saying that it was the one she used when in the mountains, and was the most suitable to killing animals."

"Good!" Jiang Changbai understood the metaphor in Xie Qianbing's words, and as she smiled, her gaze swept over the kneeling Wu Lianyi. But before she'd finished speaking, she heard the imperial guard she'd just sent out stagger in, her face carrying undried tear tracks.

Without needing her to speak, Jiang Changbai knew the answer.

Jiang Changbai slowly closed her eyes, her expression pained. "Give her the same treatment as Shen Yanyi, and let be buried and at rest."

Fine, Jiang Changbai said to herself. This way, the two of them can still be companions on the path of the Yellow Springs.

But now, it had come to pass that there was no longer anyone in the world who knew the jokes of their youth.

They'd really died in the same year, in the same month, and on the same day.

And by the time Wen Song finished the count of this time's casualties, the crowd had once more sunk into an even deeper silence.

The rebel forces had come quickly, and the might of the imperial guards had been caught unprepared; as a result, even if in the end the situation had been stabilised, there were a not insignificant number of deaths.

The atmosphere of grief enveloped them all; just at this time, Wu Dongmu was being brought back under escort. As it turned out, the seal that Song Juguang had made offhand had muddled his mind, and made it so that, no matter what, he hadn't been able to leave the Imperial Palace.

His expression was dazed, and he looked at Jiang Changbai, unable to say a word, mumbling something unintelligible. Suddenly, the scent of blood pervaded the air, assailing them and causing the crowd to furrow their brows.

Jiang Changbai's expression was thunderous enough that it was practically raining; so many people had died because of Wu Dongmu's rebellion; to say she wasn't angry would be entirely impossible.

She strode over to Wu Dongmu; those behind her, fearing she'd be in danger, followed blindly after. The next moment, she suddenly stopped by Wu Dongmu's side, and before anyone could react, she unsheathed the dagger in her hand, and stabbed it into his heart.

The hot, fresh blood burst out in a flash, and Wu Dongmu's eyes widened, a mixture of resistance in his gaze. But even if he'd been more resistant, he had no chance to say it, and only slowly drew his body's last breath, and weakly fell over.

But the Emperor merely took a cloth and wiped the marks of blood staining the dagger, the robes she was wearing still bright and neat, without the slightest stain of blood.

Wu Lianyi, who'd just watched her father die before her own eyes, was unexpectedly not the slightest bit hostile. She merely smiled bleakly, and looked at Jiang Changbai, who was approaching her. "With our shared identity as women, could you let me commit suicide?"

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Translator's notes: 

[1]: Zongzi (粽子) are a type of food made of glutinous rice and a sweet or savoury filling, wrapped and steamed in bamboo leaves. They're bound up with string to ensure that the zongzi keeps its shape and the filling doesn't spill out while it's cooking.