After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

The second quarter of the hour of Yin.

A few rays of light had already appeared on the horizon.

People dressed in formal attire began to emerge from Changchun Garden.

Eunuchs carried funerary objects, palace maids held up paper offerings, guards erected long banners, lamas shook bells, monks chanted sutras, Taoist priests scattered paper money... and a group of princes and ministers whose eyes were red from crying.

The crowd remained orderly.

Only the sounds of crying and footsteps could be heard; not a single complaint or impatience could be heard.

Even when the late emperor was alive, the princes, who were once so arrogant, are now all old and frail, walking at the back with their heads drooping, no longer possessing the spiritedness they had twenty or thirty years ago.

The golden coffin of Consort Dunsu was carried out of the main hall slowly by sixteen strong eunuchs and led by a group of monks and lamas, leaving dozens of deep footprints in the mud beside it.

Walk along the imperial road.

We passed several artificial hills and ponds.

We left Changchun Garden.

The funeral procession was a grand affair, with three or four hundred people.

In addition, there were 500 guardsmen dressed in white armor escorting them.

The queue is now a long line, but once they leave the inner city...

Outside the city, a procession of nearly a thousand people was waiting. This consisted of officials and their relatives living in the outer city, as well as Eight Banners descendants who still held some status, who would come together to send off the coffin of the Imperial Noble Consort Dunsu.

The seventeenth princess walked behind the golden coffin, with a group of princes and several other princesses beside her.

The Emperor had many children, but few of them lived to adulthood.

Her mother had two older sisters who died young before she was born.

There are still seven princes, but only three princesses. She is the youngest princess.

Ama wanted to win people's hearts, so he married some princesses to Mongolia. He selected adopted daughters from the royal family and then married them off.

Princess Heshuo Duanrou, the eldest daughter of Prince Zhuang, was adopted by her father and married to Qimote Dorji, a prince of the Khorchin tribe.

Burbuza was weak, and he looked at his mother's golden coffin in front of him. Tears streamed down his face like a broken beaded curtain, impossible to wipe away no matter how hard he tried.

Beside her were several specially permitted sedan chairs, each carried by eight men.

My maternal grandfather, Nian Xialing, sat in one black sedan chair, while my maternal uncle, Nian Xiyao, sat in the other.

Both of them were in poor health and were crying uncontrollably, so Burbuza forced them to ride in a sedan chair.

In addition, she ordered two more sedan chairs to be prepared, one of which carried her eldest aunt.

The other sedan chair was empty and prepared for later use; the sedan chair bearers found it rather heavy when carrying it.

One of the family members said, "There are books inside, so be careful."

The sedan bearers were startled and quickly nodded.

The rest of the family followed around the four sedan chairs, and several of her older and younger cousins ​​would come forward from time to time to wipe away her tears.

Hongli, dressed in a snow-white robe, walked at the very front of the golden coffin.

White banners had already been hung all over Fuchengmen Inner Street, fluttering in the wind, to bid farewell to the Imperial Noble Consort Dunsu.

Hongli's eyes were stern.

In the funeral procession.

In front of the golden coffin were lamas chanting sutras, followed by monks, and then Taoist priests.

They were all solemnly reciting various scriptures.

They walked for a short while.

The procession then arrived at the towering Fucheng Gate.

Ortai, along with Mushu, dressed in formal attire and wearing a melon-shaped hat, were standing in front of the city gate.

Ortai had already spoken to Hongli about this matter not long ago.

"Ning Baixuan... Ning Jiexiao..."

Ortai said that the person he originally thought was really dead was still in the capital and was very likely trying to sneak into the funeral procession to escape the city today.

"Escape? Why say escape?"

Wasn't he the deputy envoy of the Southern Kingdom delegation? Why did he flee?

Emperor Hongli, who was unaware of the details, was completely baffled.

But after Ortai said it was his father's order, he did not refute it, only saying:

"Do not disturb the Imperial Noble Consort Dunsu."

Ortai naturally bowed in agreement.

The procession stopped in front of the city gate.

There were three hundred soldiers from the Imperial Guard standing at the city gate.

There were also about a dozen guards from the Sticky Rod Bureau wearing black riding jackets... They all knew what Ning Baixuan looked like.

Click, click, click.

Then a series of unpleasant sounds rang out.

The wide and heavy city gates gradually opened.

A strong, cold wind howled through the city gate along the long street!

The white curtains on both sides of the long street and the clothes worn by everyone were all rustling in the wind.

The entire long street was covered in white.

Like snow that fell in the capital overnight.

The wind blows.

The snow began to fall.

After a while, people were allowed to pass through the city gate.

Under the watchful eyes and inspection of the guards, the soldiers and officials leading the way passed by.

Lamas carrying white banners and shaking bells walked past one by one.

The devout monks, who were chanting sutras and striking a wooden fish all the way, also walked by.

But when the Taoists tried to pass through the city gate after the monks, they were blocked by a group of guards from the Sticky Pole Office.

Ortai stepped forward and bowed to the leading old Taoist priest, saying:

"Please wait a moment, Master Xuyun."

Xu Yun forced a smile and gestured with his eyes towards the Grand Councilor before him. But Ortai ignored him.

There were a total of twenty-two Taoist priests, of all shapes and sizes.

Ortai personally oversaw the screening of these Taoist priests one by one.

……

……

Inside the courtyard of Chengqian Palace.

Tang Caifeng hadn't slept all night, and even now, she was still gazing at the gradually emerging dawn.

The little maid who had been massaging her shoulders for a long time was tired and dozed off at the stone table next to her, resting her head on her hand.

Tang Caifeng woke her up and told her to go to sleep, but the little maid refused. Having no other option, she ordered the maid to drape a blanket over her and also to drape one over herself. The little maid ran off quickly.

"We're almost out of town..."

Tang Caifeng thought to herself with a somewhat helpless expression.

He was living a good life as the Prince Consort in the capital, marrying a princess and becoming her consort.

With your abilities, becoming the brother-in-law of Fu Hui, the Emperor's most beloved son, will surely earn you a place in his heart.

Even if you lose your freedom temporarily, it doesn't matter who wins in the end; everything will come back.

pity……

She sighed softly.

perhaps.

she thought.

Humans live between heaven and earth.

No one can escape this furnace.

……

……

The procession carrying the coffin of Consort Dunsu lingered at the entrance of Fucheng for a full quarter of an hour.

Ortai led a group of guards from the Sticky Rod Office to check each of the Taoist priests, but they found nothing amiss.

He even sent people to summon back all the high lamas and monks who were chanting sutras, and they were all screened again. Their faces were wiped and rubbed, and many of the Taoist priests' faces were rubbed raw, but no abnormalities were found.

This angered the group of senior lamas, who demanded, "What is it, sir? If this delays the mourning period for Imperial Noble Consort Dunsu, can you bear the consequences?"

Officials from the Ministry of Rites and the head of the Imperial Clan Court were furious, loudly rebuking him and questioning where he got the audacity to delay for so long.

"Is there an imperial edict? Is there a decree from the Emperor?"

Since Ortai did not have these, he had no choice but to let them pass.

However, screening each individual is naturally indispensable.

The search continued until they reached the government personnel.

With a pale face and bloodshot eyes, Nian Xiyao stepped down from the sedan chair.

Unlike Nian Gengyao, Nian Xiyao, the Minister of Works, was a well-known upright and pedantic official. In his youth, he was known as the "foolish young master." His favorite things in life were medicine, mathematics, and astronomy. He published books such as "Calculation Tool" and "Sight Study." He was one of the few people in the court who could discuss strange and unusual things with Westerners. The Westerner Giuseppe Castiglione was his close friend.

Nian Xiyao stared at Ortai:

"You want me to go with my little sister?"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

(Note: Nian Xiyao's "Perspective Studies" is the first book specifically introducing Western perspective, and it was also selected for the "National List of Precious Ancient Books". He was proficient in medicine, painting, and phonetics, and especially in mathematics. But he was indeed too dull, a pure science student.)