I traveled with them to the Northern Song Dynasty

...

To be honest, Zhao Yu had also thought that these time travelers might really have the superpower of immortality. After all, they were all in their fifties or sixties, but they all looked like they were in their twenties.

Therefore, Zhao Yu was still wondering if preparing an imperial mausoleum for himself was unnecessary.
It wasn't until Zhang Chun fell seriously ill due to the shock from Zhao Cheng, and suddenly aged rapidly and deteriorated day by day, that Zhao Yu realized he had been overthinking things; he too would grow old and eventually die.

Having confirmed all this, Zhao Yu continued his retirement and began preparing for his death.

That day, while Zhao Yu was exchanging calligraphy and paintings with Zhao Ji and others, someone suddenly came to report that Consort Zhang was dying and was currently at Empress Dowager Ma's residence.

Upon hearing this, Zhao Yu immediately went to visit Zhang Chun.

As soon as Zhao Yu arrived at Ma Xiaojiao's residence, he saw Li Lin, Ma Xiaojiao, Ye Shiyun, and Yuan Qingcheng all there.

When the four women saw Zhao Yu, their eyes darted away, and they whispered among themselves:
“Jiaojiao, you are the Empress Dowager. Among us, you have the highest status. Go and explain the reason to the Emperor.”

"I'm not going. It's not like I wanted to keep it from Chun-jie. I already said that I would tell everyone about this. It was Qing-cheng who said to keep it a secret. Now that something has happened, it's natural for Qing-cheng to handle it. What does it have to do with me?"

"Later I agreed to tell everyone about it, but Shiyun disagreed. If Shiyun had agreed then, and Lin Jie and Zhang Chun had known together, Zhang Chun wouldn't have been so angry and upset herself like this."

"Oh! You're trying to shift the blame onto me. I got caught in the rain, so why should I hold an umbrella for someone else? Besides, I said we should play by the rules you originally set, that's the only fair way, and neither of you objected. Now that something's happened, you're trying to pin the blame on me? No way."

"Why don't you go and talk to her, Sister Lin? You're the eldest sister, and when we younger sisters do something wrong, you have to clean up our messes."

"Now you know I'm your eldest sister, but I've never seen you treat me with much respect before. Besides, I didn't know about this a few years before Zhang Chun did."

The four women pushed and shoved each other, none of them wanting to be the first to stick their necks out and provoke Zhao Yu.

But Zhao Yu walked towards them again, and the four women had no choice but to tell him what was going on.

In the end, Li Lin was the most responsible. She went to Zhao Yu and told him that they thought Zhang Chun didn't have much time left. They discussed whether to tell Zhang Chun that Zhao Yu was also a time traveler. Zhang Chun overheard this and was so angry that he vomited blood. He then told Zhao Yu everything.

To Li Lin's and the other three women's relief, Zhao Yu did not punish them for their actions, nor did he even reprimand them.

After listening to Li Lin's explanation, Zhao Yu simply nodded and said, "I understand," before going to see Zhang Chun.

Zhao Yu was the one who started this whole thing, hiding the fact that he was also a time traveler from Zhang Chun. Yuan Qingcheng and the other three were just scheming. If Zhao Yu wanted to tell Zhang Chun that he was also a time traveler, could the four of them have stopped him?
Zhao Yu has that much sense of responsibility; he won't let the four women take the blame for him.

Besides, all four women are his women. Even if they did something wrong, he has an obligation to protect them.

Finally, Zhang Chun was nearing the end of her life. For both emotional and rational reasons, Zhao Yu could no longer hide the fact that he was also a time traveler from Zhang Chun. Therefore, even if the four women did not accidentally reveal this to Zhang Chun, Zhao Yu would find a time to tell Zhang Chun about it, so that she would not leave this world in a daze.

In short, Zhao Yu chose to take the blame himself.

When Zhao Yu entered the room, he saw Chen Miaozhen taking Zhang Chun's pulse. Chen Miaozhen's fingertips rested on Zhang Chun's wrist, her brows furrowed tightly, and she didn't relax them for a long time.

Zhang Chun, lying on the couch, was no longer the confident and commanding woman she once was. Now, she was emaciated, with sunken eyes, prominent cheekbones, and a sparse, undefined jawline. Her hair clung to her temples, and she exuded an aura of haggardness and decay.

At this moment, Zhang Chun's eyes were tightly closed, and his breathing was so weak that his chest was barely rising and falling. Only his nostrils occasionally twitched slightly. His breath was like a thread, and each inhale was accompanied by a heavy phlegm sound, like the pulling of a broken bellows, which made people's hearts clench.

A trace of pale red blood remained on the corner of her lips, blood she had vomited earlier in a fit of anger. It had dried and turned black, making her face appear even paler.

When Chen Miaozhen withdrew her hand, her fingertips trembled slightly. She gently shook her head at Zhao Yu, who had just entered, and then whispered in his ear:
"Your Majesty, Consort Zhang's pulse is weak and feeble, her true yin is exhausted, and her true yang is about to collapse. Her illness was originally caused by accumulated depression, worry damaging her spleen, overwork harming her lungs, and deficiency of both qi and blood, which has been chronic for a long time. Now, her obsession has become too deep, and she has suddenly become anxious and her heart is attacked. Her liver fire is rising, and her blood is surging with her qi, greatly damaging her vital spirit. She is like a lamp that has run out of oil. Medicine is useless, there is no way to save her. She only has a few days left to live."

Hearing Chen Miaozhen sentence Zhang Chun to death, Zhao Yu felt very uneasy.

Yes.

Zhang Chun was the most scheming among the five women, and even dared to try to replace her and become a powerful empress dowager like Lü Zhi, Wu Zetian, or Liu E.

On the other hand, Zhang Chun ultimately failed. Moreover, over the years she bore Zhao Yu seven children and had been advising him on various strategies. It's no exaggeration to say that without Zhang Chun's efforts, Zhao Yu might not have achieved what he has today.

Furthermore, to be fair, even if Zhang Chun's intentions were impure, she had done so much for Zhao Yu that, despite her mistakes, she could atone for them with her merits.

Furthermore, to be honest, only in the very beginning did Zhang Chun have the intention of killing me and taking my place. Later, all she thought about was taking over my power as Empress Dowager after my death.

In other words, Zhang Chun later only wanted the highest power in the world and never intended to harm Zhao Yu.

Moreover, Zhao Yu was well aware that Zhang Chun had deep feelings for him.

In Zhang Chun's words, Zhao Yu was her first love, the only man in her two lifetimes, and the father of her seven children. So, what reason did she have not to like Zhao Yu?

Humans are not plants or trees, how can they be without feelings? After all, Zhang Chun had devoted herself to accompanying him for more than forty years, how could Zhao Yu have no feelings for her at all?

Now, he sees the woman he loves about to reach the end of her life.

It's no wonder Zhao Yu couldn't feel good about it.

Zhao Yu instructed Chen Miaozhen and the other imperial physicians to do their utmost to save Zhang Chun.

Chen Miaozhen and the others dared not be negligent.

Chen Miaozhen quickly wrote down a prescription for a life-saving medicine that warms the yang, consolidates the body, invigorates qi, and calms the mind. After writing it down, she ordered people to quickly prepare the medicine and decoct it without any mistakes.

Before long, the medicine was ready and brought over. Zhao Yu personally used a silver spoon to carefully pry open Zhang Chun's chapped lips and slowly fed him the medicine little by little.

After a short while, Zhang Chun's throat bobbed slightly, and his previously faint breathing became a little more stable. His unsteady eyelids also trembled very slightly.

After a while, Zhang Chun slowly woke up. Although he was still unable to open his eyes and his breath was still weak, he was finally pulled back to his senses from the brink of death. The oppressive death aura around him was also temporarily suppressed by this strong medicine.

After a while, Zhang Chun slowly opened his eyes, his cloudy vision barely focusing on Zhao Yu's face.

The moment their eyes met, a thousand emotions tangled like a tangled mess within Zhang Chun's already battered and broken body, causing her excruciating pain that almost suffocated her.

The man before her was the only man she had ever truly loved in both her lives, the father of her seven children, and the husband she had devoted herself to supporting and loving for over forty years.

The initial attraction, the reliance during their time together, and the tacit understanding when they conquered the world—all these feelings were etched into her very being. Even now, as she lay dying, her deep-seated love and longing for Zhao Yu remained undiminished.

What others didn't know was that Zhang Chun had countless times felt fortunate to have met Zhao Yu in this world, to have children with him, and to have accompanied him until the stability of his empire. Even though Zhao Yu was insatiably lustful, and even though she harbored ambitions for power and profit in the latter half of her life, her feelings for Zhao Yu were always genuine, without the slightest pretense. However, despite her lifelong scheming, struggle, and pride, believing she had seen through the ways of the world and understood human nature, and that everything was under her control, she ultimately turned out to be nothing more than a complete clown, kept in the dark by Zhao Yu for over forty years.

Zhao Yu was also a time traveler, something she never expected.

She admitted that it was because she was too arrogant and never expected that while the five of them traveled through time together, a sixth person would also travel through time with them to this era.

But then again, it was also because Zhao Yu kept this biggest secret hidden, watching her speculate, struggle, and scheme to survive on her own, watching her sink deeper and deeper into her obsession, until today she was driven to despair and her life hung by a thread.

Otherwise, how could this have been kept from her for so long?
She resented, she hated, she was unwilling to accept it. She resented Zhao Yu's concealment, hated Zhao Yu's deception, and was unwilling to accept that her lifelong shrewdness had ultimately become a joke.

Her lips trembled violently, tiny beads of blood oozing from her cracked wounds. Zhang Chun opened her mouth, straining with all her might, but only a faint, almost imperceptible sound escaped her lips. Her voice was filled with tears, resentment, and an overwhelming, unyielding affection, each word uttered with difficulty, as if she were traversing a mountain of knives: "You... kept it from me... for so long..."

Zhao Yu took Zhang Chun's withered hand and said softly, "In my previous life, I was your fan. I often listened to you explain history and knew that you were Empress Dowager Chun."

Upon hearing Zhao Yu's words, Zhang Chun immediately understood that the reason Zhao Yu didn't reveal that he was also a time traveler was entirely for self-preservation, as he didn't want her to kill him and become the Empress Dowager.

Upon learning that Zhao Yu had concealed his identity as a time traveler because she wanted to become Empress Dowager, Zhang Chun felt a profound sense of irony, absurdity, and realization.

She suddenly felt that her life of more than forty years was like a carefully choreographed but poorly performed one-woman show.

She always strives to be the first to act, to calculate everything thoroughly, treating everyone around her and everything in the world as pieces on a chessboard, proceeding cautiously step by step.

She was convinced of her prophetic abilities and wisdom, believing she could control the entire situation.

Only now did she realize that she had been fooling herself from beginning to end.

After a moment's hesitation, Zhang Chun asked, "Tang'er didn't return to compete for the crown prince position... was that your doing?"

Zhang Chun actually wanted to ask if Zhao Yu was preventing her from becoming Empress Dowager.

Zhao Yu shook his head: "With me here, it makes no difference whether you become the Empress Dowager or Jiao Jiao becomes the Empress Dowager."

Zhang Chunyi thought so too.

All her previous plans were based on the premise that Zhao Yu was a native and would not outlive her.

Since Zhao Yu was a time traveler and his lifespan was significantly longer than hers, there was indeed no need to stop her from becoming Empress Dowager.

Having figured all this out, Zhang Chun looked at Zhao Yu and asked, "Am I stupid?"

Zhao Yu said softly, "You are the wisest of us six transmigrators. Without you, we probably wouldn't have been able to unify this world. Your contribution is no less than any of ours."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Chun's eyes lit up, and she asked, "Really?"

Zhao Yu nodded: "Although I also understand history, I don't know as much or as well as you. Moreover, you do have a certain political wisdom and a thousand-year-old perspective that surpasses people of this era. Therefore, the ideas you give me are irreplaceable by others, including myself."

Zhao Yu's sincere words made Zhang Chun feel much better.

Perhaps, it is true that a person's words are kind when they are about to die.

It's also possible that Zhang Chun didn't want to leave a bad impression on Zhao Yu, the man she had loved for over forty years, especially given her impending death.

In short, Zhang Chun said to Zhao Yu, "Whether you believe it or not... I didn't intend to harm you. I just really wanted to become Empress Dowager, so..."

Zhao Yu gently patted Zhang Chun's hand: "I know."

Having said all that, Zhang Chun, feeling exhausted, wanted to close her eyes.

But Zhang Chun was also afraid that if she closed her eyes, she would never be able to open them again.

Therefore, Zhang Chun decided to tell Zhao Yu what was on her mind while she was still conscious.

"Your Majesty, although our marriage is not perfect, I have many schemes, you are unfaithful, and you have kept it a secret from me for more than forty years that you are also a time traveler, but all in all, I do not regret marrying you in this life."

"If there is an afterlife... I will still be your wife..."

After saying this, Zhang Chun looked at Zhao Yu with deep affection, her eyes filled with reluctance.

Zhang Chun was too tired. After saying everything she wanted to say, she couldn't hold on any longer, and her eyes slowly closed.

But at that moment, Zhao Yu suddenly announced in a loud voice: "Consort Zhang, listen to the imperial decree."

Over forty years of ingrained instincts made Zhang Chun immediately open her eyes again and reply, "Your Majesty, I am here."

With tears welling in his eyes, Zhao Yu looked at Zhang Chun and issued an edict: "Your Noble Consort Zhang is wise and insightful, with profound wisdom and strategy. In the past, we shared hardships and difficulties, worked together to establish the dynasty, and assisted me in securing the country. Her contributions to the nation are invaluable. For decades, she has weathered storms and strategized, assisting in governing the country internally and consolidating its foundation externally. Her far-sightedness and precise judgment are truly my unparalleled help."

Looking back, Zhang, with his vision that transcended his time, solidified the foundation of the dynasty. Such achievements will be recorded in history.

I am deeply moved by her merits and commend her virtues. Therefore, I hereby issue this imperial edict to proclaim this to the world: Zhang is hereby conferred the title of Empress Chunsu, with a rank equivalent to that of the Empress, serving as the mother of the nation. She will also be promoted to Empress Dowager Chunsu. After the death of her, her spirit tablet will be enshrined in the Imperial Ancestral Temple, where she will enjoy eternal reverence.

The announcement was made to the whole world so that everyone would know.

So be it.

In reality, Zhao Yu, who had already become the retired emperor, was not qualified to appoint Zhang Chun as empress or empress dowager.

On the other hand, Zhao Di, who was extremely filial to Zhao Yu, would certainly not stop Zhao Yu from posthumously honoring one of his concubines as empress, especially since this concubine was about to die.

Besides, this kind of thing has happened before in history.

—Leaving aside distant examples, Emperor Huizong of Tang (Zhao Ji) posthumously honored his two concubines, Consort Liu and Consort Liu, as empresses.

In any case, on Zhang Chun's deathbed, Zhao Yu granted her wish to become the Empress Dowager, a position she had always dreamed of...

...(End of this chapter)