Chapter 27 Upheaval: Locking Tian Qin Away

Chapter 27: A Change in the Heavens: Locking Up Tian Qin

The anomaly of the Blazing Star was a strange celestial phenomenon, dealing a heavy blow to the already tottering imperial house.

Three days later, the emperor, nearing twenty-three years of age, spat out his final breath. His unfocused eyes fixed in a dead stare, clutching the imperial seal and ribbon with endless regret, and ascended to heaven.

The emperor's illness had dragged on for a long time. In the prime of his youth, those around him always thought there was still time to catch a breath. His death was an expected surprise, yet still unexpected.

As he lay dying, the emperor's teeth clenched with difficulty, as if he still wanted to say, "Never let Xie Tanwei return to the capital..." But the eunuch was the first to wail loudly, announcing the mourning, drowning out the emperor's final edict in the endless echoes of cries.

The seventy-year-old Grand Empress Dowager, Xie Miaozhen, rushed to the Qianqing Palace, took control of the emperor's body, sealed the forbidden palace, and kept his death a secret. At the same time, she dispatched messengers to ride overnight with utmost urgency to Xindu to find Xie Tanwei, ordering him to return to the capital immediately to take charge.

This was the Xie family's one and only chance to turn things around.

It was as thrilling as any battle.

Within just two hours, Xie Tanwei, far away in Xindu, received the secret message. The Grand Empress Dowager ordered him back to the capital without explaining the reason. As sensitive as he was, he anticipated that the sovereign who had kept him down had finally set like the sun.

Xie Tanwei returned to the capital, taking charge as the Grand Empress Dowager ordered. With him came dark clouds that blotted out the sky, enough to envelop the entire capital. A sage had arrived—or a demon.

During his brief absence, the dynasty had spiraled into a panic of self-destruction: one disaster after another, cracks in the bureaucracy, the crumbling of Confucian faith... Clearly, heaven was on his side, even willing to grant the stubborn emperor a sudden death to bring him back.

He was the Heavenly Way.

The Confucianism he represented was the true path for the human world.

The Grand Empress Dowager, Xie Miaozhen, was a ruthless woman who had weathered three dynasties and knew politics. Though advanced in years, her eyes were sharp and her mind clear. For her family's sake, she'd sacrifice anything—even commit regicide.

Of course, the emperor had died of illness on his own, unable to bear the blow of the Blazing Star's chaos. It was only his own bad luck to blame, not the Xie family scavenging like vultures over his corpse.

And so a heart-stopping palace coup was nipped in the bud by the Grand Empress Dowager. With the emperor dead and before the next emperor ascended the throne, the Grand Empress Dowager was the real supreme ruler.

The emperor's death was kept secret. Several ministers in the know and eunuchs were assassinated, and Empress Yu Suanzhi was placed under house arrest.

Xie Tanwei gained precious time. Arriving at the Qianqing Palace, he and the Grand Empress Dowager, both seasoned politicians, needed no words between them. They worked together seamlessly, smoothly taking control of the situation.

The Grand Empress Dowager, using the emperor's seal, directly restored all of Xie Tanwei's official positions: Grand Marshal, in charge of military power both inside and outside the capital; and Director of the Shangshu Secretariat, holding political authority.

With these two crucial powers, Xie Tanwei could legitimately summon a new emperor, turning him overnight into the real ruler of the dynasty, completing a near-miraculous reversal.

The Xie family was alive again.

The next day, when the first rays of sunlight fell upon the peaceful and harmonious streets of the capital, vendors hawked their breakfast wares as usual, and commoners rubbed their sleepy eyes, just awakening from sweet dreams.

Only when the notices were posted did the people learn Xie Tanwei was back. They were overjoyed, rushing to the old Xie mansion to get a look.

Wonderful—the sage had returned, the disasters had finally stopped, and the skies had cleared.

They thought the wicked emperor had finally seen the light, but little did they know the emperor was already dead.

...

The emperor's sudden death left the court a mess.

Though the Grand Empress Dowager held a high status, she was ultimately a woman of the inner palace, couldn't easily show up at court. Xie Tanwei was her best stand-in. The aunt and nephew worked in silent agreement to stabilize the political situation.

The emperor was buried on an auspicious day, with the specific procedures handled by the Ministry of Rites. Xie Tanwei meddled with the posthumous title.

The Ministry of Rites proposed "Wen" for the deceased emperor. Xie Tanwei, holding a Xiang brush, thought for a moment and changed "Wen" to "Shang"—meaning early death. On the surface, it seemed mournful and nostalgic, but in reality, it was a light stroke that turned a good title into a bad one.

The emperor's personal name contained the character "Shou" (longevity). "Shou" versus "Shang"—it was hard not to see it as a supremely subtle, peak irony.

Next, he purged his enemies.

The main maternal relatives of Emperor Shang during his lifetime were the Yu family. Because of the Xie family's precedent, Emperor Shang had not given the Yu family excessive power, only wealth and honor under the shadow of the whip. With Emperor Shang's death, the Yu family's so-called glory vanished like a flower in a mirror or the moon on water.

Master Yu was a mediocre man with no political instincts, living day to day. When the mansion collapsed, the Yu family, once powerful in-laws, had no power to fight back.

The radiant reputation Xie Tanwei had accumulated over the years, like the sun and moon, was something the Yu family could not contend with. In the eyes of the people and the vast majority of officials, he was the reincarnation of the Duke of Zhou, a perfect sage with true kingly demeanor, capable of bathing the world's people in benevolence and allowing them to live ideal lives.

Yu Yuan was violently torn from his sweet dreams, fleeing in panic, falling into utter terror.

The imprisoned Empress Yu Suanzhi bore the brunt. The Grand Empress Dowager, citing the emperor's early death due to indulgence in beauty and debauchery, deposed her and bestowed a cup of gold-leaf wine.

Yu Suanzhi died with blood flowing from her seven orifices. Her brief and humble life was entirely a pawn for others, as fleeting as a shooting star.

The Grand Empress Dowager, knowing Xie Tanwei's benevolence, tried to explain. But Xie Tanwei merely glanced indifferently at Suanzhi's body covered in white cloth, easily approved her obituary, and had her hastily buried in the imperial mausoleum. His expression was not merely cold and cruel, but far from that of a so-called benevolent sage.

The Grand Empress Dowager observed, realizing that her nephew had a cold and ruthless heart. Outwardly, he pretended to be pure and aloof, a good man and a devout woman, but the filth beneath his skin was unfathomable.

Suanzhi was dead. The Yu family's great tree had fallen. The sky had changed.

In early winter, the wind rustled softly. The winding streams of the Yu mansion froze into ice. Branches rustled, shedding brownish-yellow leaves that swirled in midair. The air was noticeably colder.

Tian Qin lay collapsed in the goose-feather tent, her body twisted, a wet silk cloth covering her forehead. Her complexion was as white as paper, cold like the conical icicles hanging from the eaves, radiating a desperate sickness.

She had been feverish for two days with no signs of improvement, leaving Nanny Chen in a frantic state. Even the wedding dress could not be embroidered.

There was no need to embroider it anymore. The emperor had died, her elder sister was dead, the Yu family had fallen, and Xie Tanwei was about to regain power.

After painstakingly planning for over half a year, everything collapsed overnight. She had nothing left.

She was now no different from a lamb awaiting punishment, sitting in her own boudoir like a death-row prisoner.

Xie Tanwei would not let her off.

Would he take her life, place her under house arrest, or keep her alive temporarily to exact even crueler revenge?

To be honest, she wasn't quite sure of his methods. In her past life, she had only seen his detachment and indifference. The dark and sinister side beneath his polite exterior made her shudder.

Tian Qin was burning with fever, with no desire to recover. She wished the fever would burn even hotter, burning her to death. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she laughed through her tears.

The Yu family was branded with the crime of "remnants of the former dynasty." The Confucian scholars twisted the facts, changing with the wind, interpreting the "Blazing Star guarding the Heart" that caused the emperor's death as a minister being too fierce, forcing the ruler to his death.

The most prominent minister in the capital was the Yu family. Their eldest daughter was the empress, long favored by the emperor. Thus, the spearhead naturally pointed at the Yu family, drenching them in filth.

The Yu residence was in a state of isolation. Suanzhi died tragically. Yu Yuan and He Shi were both nearly broken from crying. The palace's official statement was "sudden death from illness"—how could a perfectly healthy person suddenly die at this juncture?

The family's long-standing pillar had fallen.

The Yu family was about to be liquidated.

Yu Yuan never imagined this day would come. He had thought the alliance with the Xu family was the safest, with everything in place. Who would have guessed the Xie family could rise again, crushing the Xu family like ants?

Yu Yuan deeply regretted offending Xie Tanwei back then, all for the sake of a concubine-born daughter like Tian Qin, speaking so harshly.

But she was just a concubine. He could have given her to him.

The most terrifying thing was that the second daughter, Xian Qiu, was about to divorce Xie Tanwei. A frozen three feet was not caused by a single day's cold. Misfortunes never came singly—all the bad things were piling up together.

In her letter, Xian Qiu said Xie Tanwei spent all his time hanging around prostitutes and was cold to her. The divorce papers were already drawn up, and they'd be splitting up soon.

The Yu family had completely cut ties with the Xu family. The Xu family, being of humble origins and insignificant, would be lucky not to be crushed themselves, let alone save the Yu family. The marriage between the two families was put on hold.

Worse still, Xu Junzheng's appointment as a Hanlin bachelor was personally rejected by the Grand Empress Dowager on the grounds of "being related to the former imperial consort Yu clan." Xu's mother was practically in tears, sobbing her heart out. After ten years of hard study and passing the imperial exam, he was banned from taking it again for life.

Wealth and status came and went fast—like clouds, like dreams, like smoke, like a deadly trap under sweet candy.

Xu's mother was seething with a thousand grievances and ten thousand resentments. Why did this have to happen just two days before the wedding? If it weren't for marrying that jinx Tian Qin, they wouldn't be in this mess.

She heard the Yu family once tried to send Tian Qin to the Xie family as a concubine, but she jinxed them and got the Xie family exiled. Now she married into the Xu family, and the Xu family was banned from the imperial exams for life, leaving them in a miserable state.

Xu Junzheng was fixated on that old imperial exam fraud case. On one side was his sweet Sister Tian, who had helped him out of favoritism, and on the other was Master Xie, who had regained power. He was stuck in a really tough spot.

"It's all my fault, all my fault..." He hugged his head in sorrow, tears welling up. "I want to see Sister Tian."

"Shut up!" Xu's mother, fearing his impulsiveness, forcefully locked him in the house. "Do you want to ruin the whole family?"

Tian Qin knew better than anyone that she was done for. The marriage was over, and the entire Yu family was finished. Fate had it out for her. She had once flat-out rejected Xie Tanwei, saying some harsh things. Now he was back with a vengeance, and his intentions were bad.

The Yu family had tried many times to get an audience with Xie Tanwei, but he turned them away. Xie Tanwei had once asked the Yu family for Tian Qin and was ruthlessly refused. Now the right to refuse had reversed. Xie Tanwei sat high above, and the Yu family had become the ones being manipulated.

With enemies closing in from all sides, Yu Yuan summoned Tian Qin and sternly ordered her to go to Xie Tanwei on her own.

This was all because of Tian Qin. It was her stubborn refusal to become Xie Tanwei's concubine that had brought the whole family to such a state. She really was a jinx, a total jinx.

"Take some gifts right now and go see your brother-in-law!"

Tian Qin could hardly believe her ears. But upon careful thought, it was not surprising that the Yu family, a den of fire, would do such beastly things.

He Shi wiped her tears and said, "Master, give Tian Qin to our son-in-law. As long as he doesn't divorce Xian'er."

Xian Qiu could not afford to lose this marriage. She had not eaten or drunk for days, looking haggard and despondent.

Only Tian Qin was perfectly suited to be the sacrifice.

After much pleading, Xie Tanwei finally agreed to visit the Yu family, but he would not see anyone else—only Tian Qin.

He said with amusement that Tian Qin should be locked in the embroidery pavilion, and then they could talk quietly.