Ding Yun, upon her return, continued her usual routine: submitting missions, writing trial reports, and checking for any issues with previous trials.
She found that there were no problems.
Concurrently, another payment for a trial was credited.
Ding Yun's mood immediately brightened, and she once again selected a random golden finger and accepted a new mission.
…
Client: Immortal Master Jing Ci, Hu Shanxiang
Mission: Save my daughter. I only wish for my two daughters to be safe and happy, free from illness, and blessed with a lifetime of joy.
Mission Reward: One million people's hearts, incomplete Phoenix Qi.
"Saving someone? I wonder how urgent it is…"
After reading the original host's mission request, Ding Yun's heart sank slightly. There was a significant difference between saving someone and saving someone. Some wounds and illnesses were easy to cure, but others might be beyond even the divine. So, it was hard to say for sure.
It depended on the specific situation and analysis.
Therefore, Ding Yun did not immediately delve into the original host's memories this time. Instead, she first checked the content related to her children in the original host's memories. She discovered that although her younger daughter was critically ill and the imperial physicians had declared her beyond medical help, her life was being sustained by medication for the time being, and she would likely be safe for a day or two.
With peace of mind, Ding Yun quickly sorted through her memories.
She also familiarized herself with the golden finger for this mission.
The original host was born on the tenth day of the fourth month of Jianwen IV, a native of Jining. Her father was a thousand-household officer in the Imperial Guard. Although her childhood was not lavish, it was not overly difficult either, certainly better than that of ordinary commoners. She had learned and mastered domestic skills such as needlework, embroidery, and cooking.
Her reputation had always been good.
However, to prevent the powerful influence of maternal relatives, the current emperor specifically chose consorts for his heirs from common families. The original host was of appropriate age and renowned for her virtue. After multiple selections, she was chosen as the imperial grandson's principal consort in Yongle XV and was later enfeoffed as the Crown Princess in Hongxi.
She had two daughters with the then Crown Prince.
Over the years, the original host had strictly adhered to the path of a virtuous wife, conducting herself with integrity and unimpeachable morality.
She also maintained a good relationship with her mother-in-law, the Empress Dowager.
Yet, she had never truly earned the Crown Prince's affection.
After the Crown Prince ascended the throne and became emperor, she was, by custom, enfeoffed as Empress. However, this position was never secure.
The lack of a son was particularly problematic.
Her husband, Emperor Xuande, endured for three years. Once he had consolidated his control over the court, he wasted no time in using the excuse of infertility and illness to depose the original host.
However, due to her consistently good reputation,
he feared that a direct deposition would incite dissatisfaction among the populace and officials.
Therefore, he devised a cunning plan, shamelessly issuing an edict commanding the original host to submit a memorial requesting to abdicate her position as Empress, and to retire to Changan Palace as a Daoist nun, bestowed with the title Immortal Master Jing Ci.
What recourse did the original host have?
She was merely an Empress without power or influence, not a powerful maternal relative. If she refused, the emperor had countless ways to torment her, and even her family.
Once a man stops loving you,
everything you do is wrong.
Even if she was unwilling or disagreed, Emperor Xuande could still depose her. The process of deposition might just face some criticism. After considerable deliberation,
the original host could only reluctantly agree.
She voluntarily requested to step down and reside in Changan Palace.
Even so, the officials and the public were not oblivious. Although they did not voice their opinions openly, they privately spoke of Emperor Xuande's harshness and lack of benevolence, and how pitiable the Empress was.
The reason he gave for her deposition – infertility and illness – was, in everyone's eyes, utterly baseless. What did "infertility and illness" mean?
While the Empress's lack of a son was an issue,
firstly, they were not too old and could still have children. Even if they couldn't in the future, there was precedent for the Empress Dowager and the Grand Empress Dowager coexisting at court. Could that be a reason for deposition?
Even in ordinary families, if the matriarch couldn't bear a son,
normally, a wife wouldn't be divorced.
Instead, a concubine would be taken.
Therefore, Emperor Xuande's actions, in the eyes of the officials, resembled favoritism towards concubines and discarding wives, making him an unpleasant person.
It was just that they couldn't say it directly.
In the common folk's eyes, most pitied the original host.
Even Empress Dowager Zhang felt her son had gone too far. However, her daughter-in-law was ultimately less important than her son. Thus, she could only offer more care to the original host. Whether her caring for the original host, even seating her at the head of the table during banquets, while seating the newly enfeoffed Consort Sun, who was favored by the emperor, below her, was a tactic to use the original host to suppress Emperor Xuande's favor towards Consort Sun,
was hard to say.
Regardless, after several such instances, the original host became a thorn in the eye of Empress Sun, and Emperor Xuande's displeasure towards the original host grew even greater. The original host wasn't oblivious to the machinations, but how could a deposed Empress survive in the palace without a supporter? Thus, even though she knew aligning herself with Empress Dowager Zhang and fighting alongside her was akin to drinking poison for salvation,
she had no other choice.
Because besides Empress Dowager Zhang, whom else could she turn to?
Without a patron, even the lives of unfavored consorts were difficult. How much more so for a deposed Empress? For the sake of her two daughters, and even their future marriages,
she had to stand with Empress Dowager Zhang.
She used herself to fulfill Empress Dowager Zhang's reputation for kindness and served as a tool for Empress Dowager Zhang to suppress Consort Sun.
Empress Dowager Zhang's fondness for the original host and dislike for Consort Sun might not be due to the original host's virtues, but simply because the original host was not favored by Emperor Xuande, while Consort Sun was.
It was Consort Sun's favor that was the root of Empress Dowager Zhang's unhappiness.
From then on, the original host lived a peaceful life, supported by Empress Dowager Zhang, engaging in vegetarianism and chanting scriptures when she had nothing else to do, and taking care of her two daughters.
Although monotonous, she did not suffer greatly.
Because Emperor Xuande disliked her and her two daughters, and she had already been deposed, he never visited Changan Palace. Consort Sun was well aware that as long as Empress Dowager Zhang was there, she could do nothing to the original host,
so she wouldn't seek trouble unnecessarily.
Other consorts would naturally not involve themselves in this.
As for ordinary eunuchs and palace maids, out of respect for Empress Dowager Zhang, they dared not mistreat the original host too harshly. Therefore, although the original host's living conditions were not as grand as when she was Empress, they were not too bad.
They were definitely much better than the treatment of a normal deposed empress.
If things had continued this way, the original host would not have been dissatisfied, and life could have gone on. However, five years after her deposition, her younger daughter, Princess Yongqing, suddenly fell ill. Even though she had tried her best to ask Empress Dowager Zhang for imperial physicians to treat her, her daughter showed no improvement.
Watching her daughter grow thinner day by day,
her heart was torn apart.
She used all her might to seek imperial physicians, consult oracles, chant scriptures, and even write blood letters,
all in the hope of her daughter's safety.
Following this, she was overcome with grief, suffered excessive blood loss,
and then the original host arrived.