Chapter 1895

Inside the ancestral shrine, there was dead silence.

Wu Zhao's heart was in chaos. Tomorrow was the grand court session, and Gao Yang would also attend. She wanted to settle this matter and reward him in public.

But with Gao Yang's current power and his rapid rate of ascent, she was truly in a difficult position.

Unaccountably.

In Wu Zhao's mind, Xiao Yuan's words slowly emerged.

This caused the thoughts that Wu Zhao had suppressed for several days to suddenly churn!

As an emperor, even if one's heart is laid bare by others, how can one show the fragility of an ordinary person in front of outsiders?

The Son of Heaven, inheriting the Heavenly Dao above and ruling the myriad people below, can determine the life and death of thousands with one word, and make the myriad people tremble with one glance—this is the Son of Heaven!

But the supreme power also inevitably brings a closed heart and extreme loneliness!

The ancestral shrine was one of the few resting places in Wu Zhao's heart, where she could speak her mind, even if it was just talking to herself...

"Father, Xiao Yuan has followed Zhao'er for ten years, and she actually said that Zhao'er has fallen in love with Gao Yang."

"At first, Zhao'er just thought it was nonsense. After all, the Prime Minister is Wan'er's sweetheart, and Zhao'er treats Wan'er like a sister. How could Zhao'er fall in love with her sister's sweetheart?"

"Furthermore, this Gao Yang is extremely lecherous, frequently visiting brothels, and is extremely fickle. That is definitely not the disguise described to the outside world; he is truly lecherous. Setting aside his vicious strategies for governing the country, in terms of character, Zhao'er dislikes him extremely."

"One might ask, in this world, who would fall in love with someone they dislike?"

Wu Zhao mocked herself, as if pouring out her inner frustration, or as if interrogating her own heart.

"But... Zhao'er seems to have truly fallen in love with this person she somewhat dislikes."

"When he left Changancheng and did not return for a long time, I felt deeply bored and hoped urgently for his return. When he was in mortal danger and his life hung by a thread, I wished I could destroy the Yan Kingdom and slaughter the Yan Imperial Capital to avenge him."

"When Chu Qingluan returned, under the night sky, I looked at the rainstorm outside the window and thought about what he might be doing, and I had an urge to kill."

"I can deceive the world, but I cannot deceive my own heart. This heart, upon seeing him, happens to be more joyful and beats faster than when seeing anyone else..."

Wu Zhao raised her phoenix eyes, her gaze becoming distant, as if piercing through the sandalwood smoke surrounding the ancestral shrine, returning to that period of time that had almost crushed her...

At that time.

The world was in chaos, and she had ascended the throne in a rush amidst the games of various parties, sitting behind the dragon desk that symbolized the power of the world.

But what followed was not supreme power, but mountains of memorials.

Those mountains of memorials almost drowned her: emergency military reports with ink not yet dry, wails of local disasters, and the overt and covert constraints of the noble families.

In the court, Prince Rong watched like a tiger, prowling like a poisonous snake, eliminating dissenters. Prime Minister Xu Xuanji was insincere, and her decrees could not leave Changancheng.

At that time, she felt as if countless large hands had choked her throat, making her unable to breathe.

Wu Zhao still remembered that it was a night when everything was silent, and the hall was empty enough to make one's heart tremble.

She was reviewing memorials by candlelight. Everyone said it was good to be an emperor. Prince Rong wanted to seize it, and the current Prince Guangling, using state affairs, wanted to return to Changancheng to worship his ancestors.

But she was not a fool; she naturally knew that Prince Guangling's intentions were not about the wine, but about the dragon throne.

It was just that unlike Prince Rong, his calculation was that no matter how Wu Zhao expanded the territory and achieved great feats, she was ultimately a woman.

This Da Qian empire could not be sat upon by an outsider; it had to be sat upon by the Wu family!

What he plotted was ultimately the throne!

How could they know how difficult it was just to review memorials?

She had once calculated that just between June 13th and June 20th, in just eight days, she had reviewed 1,865 memorials and handled a total of 3,981 state affairs, meaning she had to read 233 memorials and handle 497 state affairs every day!

It is easy to be a foolish emperor, but it is as difficult as ascending to heaven to be a good emperor.

That night, in that empty hall, her memory was profound. The mountains of memorials made her unable to breathe, especially since many memorials were mixed with a lot of nonsense.

Coupled with Prince Rong's threats, the constraints of the hundred officials, the entrenchment of noble families, and the urgency of the world's disasters.

That night, she stared at the memorials in front of her until the words on the memorials began to blur.

She still remembered.

Plop!

A drop of cold ink slid from her fingertips, staining the memorial in front of her with a smudge.

By the time she came to her senses, she had long been covered in tears.

She collapsed.

The immense pressure, the questioning of the world, hit her like a ten-thousand-foot-high giant wave!

And she was like a lonely boat, about to be swallowed by this giant wave at any moment.

She could not see a glimmer of light, nor a glimmer of hope. She could only hold on in the court, facing those arrogant or sinister faces alone, using all her strength to maintain the 'majesty' of an emperor that could not be violated!