Reincarnated as the daughter of my mortal enemy, all I want is to ascend the throne.

"Your Majesty, twenty Imperial Guards have been transferred away by the young prince."

Huang Xiao was also one of the assassins. He belonged to the same branch as Hong Yu and others and would not usually appear. He was sent by Li Yan to protect Li Qingyan.

His sudden appearance made Li Yan tense, but when he heard that he was going to Wenshu Monastery to retrieve the files, Li Yan relaxed.

"What has this brat discovered?" Li Yan thought, and headed towards the Misty Courtyard.

only……

"Your Majesty, you dare to obstruct us?"

This was the first time Lai Fu had ever seen such fearless Imperial Guards, who directly blocked the Emperor's carriage from entering.

The two guards knelt before Li Yan, saying, "Your Majesty, please forgive us. It was the young prince who said that this matter was too far-reaching, and that apart from the existing personnel, no one was allowed to enter."

They were startled when they first heard Li Qingyan's order, but the three-year-old child, who was not even as tall as their legs, had a cold demeanor and said in a cold voice while holding up the jade token: "Those who cannot be stopped, then you shall wait for military law to deal with them."

Military law? That means being sent to the White Tiger Camp...

They shuddered but still reluctantly agreed.

And so this scene unfolded: these lowly soldiers were caught between the emperor and the princess—wasn't that just courting death?

Li Yan chuckled, "This little brat is playing tricks. Since she won't let anyone in, I won't go in either. Send these things in so she remembers to eat dinner."

As the grand procession departed, the two guards wiped the sweat from their faces. Only this one inside could force the emperor to back down.

The scrolls were spread all over the ground, and Cui Zhu followed along, tidying them up. Until she saw an article ranked seventh.

"Cuizhu, give me that."

Li Qingyan, with a piece of candy dangling from her mouth, knelt on a piece of paper that was longer than her.

Compare them character by character.

As the sun began to set outside, the room started to darken.

"My lord, the documents from Wenshu Monastery have been transferred out and are being transported by the Imperial Guards."

The man stood in the darkness, his clothes and appearance obscured. Through a bamboo curtain, he swept the dust from the ground in the setting sun. The broom made a slow, rhythmic rustling sound as it touched the ground, until the last corner was swept clean.

The man sweeping the floor straightened up. "Looks like someone's discovered something. Interesting. It's time to send out that letter we found back then."

"Yes, Master."

A gust of wind blew, and the person behind the bamboo curtain had vanished.

The man looked up at the fiery sunset on the horizon and smiled. "It's always better for the sky to be chaotic; a little chaos makes it even better."

The incidents involving the Zhou family and the Xun Prince's residence have caused widespread panic in the capital, and the guards at the imperial mausoleum have also heard about them.

"The Zhou family and the Xunwang Mansion were completely raided and confiscated."

"I heard that the Emperor ordered that neither family's chickens nor dogs be spared."

"That……"

The soldier peered inside and saw that the current Empress Dowager lived there. However, the relationship between the Empress Dowager and the Emperor was not good; despite being biological mother and son, their relationship was less harmonious than that of strangers.

A kestrel circled in the sky.

The soldiers glanced at it and then lowered their heads to continue chatting. Those were birds brought by the Empress Dowager; they had no power to care about them.

The Emperor Emeritus's letter was delivered from outside into the Buddhist hall. The Empress Dowager, dressed in plain white, knelt on the prayer mat and kowtowed several times before being helped up by her maid.

Even though she was banished to the imperial mausoleum, the honor of being the retired emperor was still restored to her. Li Yan simply turned a blind eye, since it didn't matter to his reputation whether his mother was mistreated or not, but he couldn't let his little brat be implicated.

To prevent anyone with ulterior motives from associating the matter of driving away the Empress Dowager with Li Qingyan.

The Empress Dowager put down her prayer beads and picked up the letter.

She thought she would get her husband's help, but she only received a rejection, and the affection between husband and wife was gone forever.

"Hahahaha..." The Empress Dowager threw her head back and laughed loudly, "The men of the Li family are truly ruthless."

"I raised six children for him, and yet I've been abandoned like this, hahaha..."

The Empress Dowager's laughter was tinged with madness. Her maternal clan was about to be wiped out, leaving only a newborn infant, which Li Yan refused to allow. The Emperor Emeritus had even sent this letter severing all ties.

How could she not go mad?

The maids knelt on the ground, trembling with fear, terrified that the Empress Dowager would implicate them.

Until the bell inside the house jingled, "Get out, all of you!"

The Empress Dowager's roar was like a general amnesty to the maids; they scrambled to their feet and fled as if their lives depended on it.

"What's wrong?"

The Empress Dowager suppressed her anger and held her forehead.

"Someone delivered this letter." Baihe respectfully presented the envelope with both hands.

After escaping from the seven southern counties, Baihe hid by the Empress Dowager's side. It seemed that he was protecting the Empress Dowager, but in fact he was using the Empress Dowager's status to protect himself.

The handwriting on the envelope was all too familiar to them; it was the late Crown Prince's. Seeing it again after so many years still sent shivers down their spines.

I took the envelope and slowly took out the letter. Along with the paper, a silver longevity lock fell out, with "Peace" written on the front and "Joy" on the back.

"This is……"

The Empress Dowager gripped the small longevity lock tightly; it belonged to the late Crown Prince, to her son.

As the envelope slowly unfolded, the Empress Dowager could see the words inside.

In just a few short sentences, he wrote, "Mother, your son is unfilial. If I were to depart first, I hope you will take good care of yourself."

"My second brother and I have been fighting for many years, but the outcome is predetermined; Mother, please don't take it to heart."

"I only ask for one thing: the Crown Princess is young and unaware of the hardships of life, nor does she know the extent of my actions. I only beg Mother to protect her and Cong'er. I have prepared a letter of divorce; I implore Mother to help me protect their lives."

Your son, Li Cheng, bids farewell.

A letter finally reached the Empress Dowager many years later. But the Crown Princess had already committed suicide out of love, and Li Cong had disappeared.

She didn't do anything her son asked her to do.

"Ah..." The Empress Dowager clutched her chest and buried her face in her hands on the table, weeping bitterly. "Why, why did I only see this letter now? Why?"

She let out roar after roar, as if only in this way could she soothe the pain in her heart.

Bai He stood expressionlessly to the side; in this world, only he and the Empress Dowager remembered the former Crown Prince.

But looking at the Empress Dowager and the white crane, he felt nothing. If it weren't for the Empress Dowager's instigation back then, the former Crown Prince might not have done such a thing...

Li Yan is guilty, but how could the Empress Dowager be innocent?

He watched coldly as the Empress Dowager cried until she nearly fainted.

Bai Hecai knelt on the ground and said, "Your Majesty, please take care of yourself."

The Empress Dowager laughed heartily, "Hahaha... Take care of your health? Take care of your health? My life has been truly tragic; all my sons and daughters are dead."

"But why should those who killed them live so comfortably? Why?"

The Empress Dowager stood up and let the candlelight slowly ignite the letter, the light dust falling in front of the white crane.

He looked down, trying to glean some writing from the ashes, but he couldn't see anything.

"Bai He, it's time for our people to make a move too."

The white crane paused for a moment, then replied, "Yes."