The Yuan King lay paralyzed in bed, unable to speak. To make matters worse, his right hand was also immobilized due to a stroke.
Suddenly rendered mute and unable to write, he could only make "ah" sounds in impotent rage.
The King of Shu, who was temporarily in charge of the Yuan dynasty's affairs, moved directly into the palace. To show respect for his royal brother, he took up residence in a secluded palace.
However, during daily court sessions, the King of Shu was far from modest, already behaving like the new emperor!
Soon, the coffins of three empresses were opened.
The Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Punishment carefully examined them, and a terrifying silence fell.
All three had died from poisoning!
Especially the third empress, who had been fatally poisoned.
Her body hadn't fully decomposed, with poison accumulated deep in her internal organs.
When silver chopsticks were inserted into the empress's throat and hot vinegar was used to fumigate her abdomen, within moments, a third of the chopsticks turned black!
Everyone fell silent.
Anyone with even a little experience in examining corpses could confirm - the former empress had been poisoned and died an unnatural death!
"Thoroughly investigate the empress's poisoning case!" the King of Shu ordered sternly.
Soon after the Yuan King's "stroke", the truth gradually unraveled. All the imperial physicians who had treated the three empresses confessed.
The commander of the imperial guard, hoping to curry favor with the new emperor, also revealed all of the Yuan King's secrets.
The entire Yuan dynasty court, both civil and military officials, felt as if they were in a dream.
Everything was just as the celestial child had said!
The Yuan King had deceived them all!
"Thank you, celestial child, for appearing and warning us."
"Thank you, celestial child, for enlightening us in our dreams!"
"Thank you, celestial child, for bringing justice for my daughter!"
All those who had dreamed chanted devoutly!
[Oh, no need to thank me, I'm just a legend.]
Xiao Chuchu smiled contentedly in the palace of Jing Country.
[The Marquis of Zhenguo brought out the Empress Dowager and several royal uncles to reprimand the Yuan King on behalf of the ancestors.]
[They wrote a self-accusation edict for the Yuan King, and he abdicated to the King of Shu. The Yuan King will spend the rest of his life in the royal temple, copying sutras and chanting Buddhist scriptures.]
[That's basically house arrest, right?]
Xiao Yunzhou nodded silently to himself.
The others in Yuan seemed to still be clear-headed, not covering up the Yuan King's evil deeds, and knew to replace him with a good emperor.
[The Yuan King can't speak and is frantically patting the bed, haha, he deserves it.]
[The current empress and concubines in the Yuan King's harem who are still alive have been granted mercy by the new emperor and sent home to remarry.]
With this, the dramatic scandal finally came to an end.
Xiao Yunzhou listened with lingering interest, taking a sip of tea from his cup, feeling a bit reluctant to let go.
This exciting story was over, and he would miss the Yuan King.
A few days later, Xiao Yunzhou received confidential letters on his desk from his own spies, as well as from Chu Kingdom and Zhou Kingdom, all informing him of the news of the King of Shu's ascension to the throne.
Xiao Yunzhou instructed his Minister of Rites, "Although the new person is better than the old, we still need compensation for our previous war losses."
The Minister of Rites also frowned, "We don't know if this new emperor is a troublemaker. Our Jing Country isn't afraid of them, but we can't afford to fight every year."
"Indeed, we finally have some silver in our national treasury, and we can't spend it all on firearms," said Jiang Li, the Minister of Revenue, habitually crying poverty. "Your Majesty, should we send envoys to test the new emperor's conduct?"
Xiao Yunzhou nodded, it was necessary.
But before he could speak, he heard his daughter's thoughts.
[I'll go~ Tonight in my dream, I'll see what kind of person this new Yuan emperor is.]
Xiao Chuchu was still very interested in her dream-entering ability.
One sentence raised Xiao Yunzhou's concerns again.
[If this King of Shu who took the throne is also a tyrant, I'll send him a set of The Grudge plus The Ring!]
Xiao Chuchu chuckled as she imagined.
[By the way, Princess Ronghua has been having uneasy dreams these past two days. It seems the empress who left the palace has refused the Marquis of Zhenguo, feeling that her reputation has been damaged and she can't marry such a world-famous general.]
[Even the King of Shu doesn't support this matter much. He talked to the Marquis of Zhenguo and said he's willing to issue an imperial decree for any marriage the Marquis wants, except for this former empress.]
[Eh, why is the King of Shu breaking up this pair of lovebirds?]
Xiao Chuchu furrowed her brows, thinking, [This won't do. I need to go into the King of Shu's dream and guide him properly, let people have the freedom to love.]
Xiao Yunzhou: "..."
Now whenever he heard his daughter say "guide," he felt a bit nervous.
Was it the same kind of guidance as with the Yuan King? Like a woman crawling out of a bronze mirror?
Xiao Yunzhou didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He hoped the new King of Shu would be more sensible and not end up like the Yuan King, frightened out of his wits by his daughter.
Otherwise, just as Jing Country had sent out a group of envoys to meet the new Yuan emperor, they would soon have to send another!
While Xiao Yunzhou was worrying, Shangguan Ming in the Yuan dynasty was also having a headache in court.
"Chancellor, you don't need to be considerate of me," the King of Shu, who had already ascended the throne as the new emperor, smiled at Shangguan Ming below during the morning court session. "Tell me frankly, how did you discover the evil deeds in my royal brother's palace?"
"You mentioned a celestial child entering dreams. Is this to humor me because I'm young, or do you think I can't tolerate others and you're afraid I'll blame you for investigating the emperor's movements within the palace?"
The King of Shu was too curious.
How did Shangguan Ming discover the death of the former empress and the Yuan King's secrets?
And how did Shangguan Ming secretly notify all the officials and coordinate their actions in court right under the Yuan King's nose?
The King of Shu didn't understand, "My royal brother was cautious and suspicious. How did the Chancellor manage to deceive him and gather all the officials to take action?"
Shangguan Ming looked constipated.
"Chancellor, don't worry. Whatever spies you placed in the palace, let bygones be bygones. I won't pursue the matter," the King of Shu said generously, showing his good temper.
"Originally, the Chancellor and the Censorate have the right to advise and discipline me."
"So, speak boldly. There's no need to conceal anything."
Shangguan Ming's eyebrows were almost knitted together: "...Well, Your Majesty, it really was a celestial child..."
"How is that possible?" The King of Shu scoffed, not believing it at all.
Shangguan Ming looked around, hoping for someone to come to his aid.
But everyone remained silent.
They hadn't dreamed of the celestial child again after that.
It seemed the celestial being didn't want to disturb them further.
The Yuan King matter was settled, and from now on, they would have to rely on themselves. This was probably what the celestial child meant.
All the officials who had dreamed of the celestial child thought so.
Now that the King of Shu was asking, they didn't dare to support Shangguan Ming's claim about the celestial child entering their dreams. After all, if the King of Shu wanted proof, they, as mere mortals, couldn't conjure up a celestial child for the emperor!
It was truly a difficult situation.
Shangguan Ming also had no evidence and was at a loss.
"I understand. If the Chancellor doesn't want to say, then don't. No need to keep fooling me," the King of Shu was a bit unhappy, but still mild-mannered, not pressing further.
"Court dismissed."
The King of Shu sighed and returned to the inner palace. Only then did he complain to his childhood companion, a eunuch, "These old ministers still don't trust me."
"Talking about some celestial child! Do they think I'm a three-year-old?"
"And the Marquis too, beauty should be paired with a hero, but he insists on marrying a controversial former empress as his main wife, who will be the subject of gossip among the common people," the King of Shu sighed.
"It really puts me in a difficult position! Even if a celestial child came, I couldn't agree to this."
However, after lunch, the unhappy King of Shu took a nap and fell into a dream, only to open his eyes and find himself in a place shrouded in clouds and mist.
"Are you the new ruler of Yuan?"
The King of Shu looked up and saw a celestial child sitting cross-legged on the clouds, eating grapes, looking like a figure from a New Year's painting!
"!"
"!!"
The King of Shu was completely stunned.