How could it be? Just four words, yet when uttered from the thin, ruthless lips of the monarch, they seemed to add layer upon layer of icy frost to the entire imperial study. Limitless, endless, immeasurable cold was born without cause, freezing the glass windows, the mahogany low tables, the green indoor plants. It seemed as if frost, invisible to the naked eye, was spreading across these objects, and then continuing to spread, enveloping the entire cold imperial palace, turning the cold into freezing, the chill even piercing the heavens, assailing the grayish clouds on the distant horizon to the east.

The clouds, like startled little animals, were stirred by this chill, their bodies shrinking rapidly, shivering, their colors deepening, reluctantly squeezing out some of the moisture deeply hidden within the myriad miles of clouds and mist.

The moisture condensed into water, condensed into rain, and slowly fell from the sky. In the gray and heavy capital, in the palace, all those who had already awakened squinted and looked towards the cloud in the sky, only then realizing that the first rain of early autumn had finally arrived, and the weather was about to turn cold.

…

…

However, the chill emanating from Emperor Qing was not an all-encompassing, seamless block of ice; the color of his thin lips was not very pleasant, and a trace of leeway remained in his heart. Chen Pingping sat in his wheelchair, quietly watching this master he had served for decades, silently waiting for his next words.

If Emperor Qing had never felt any remorse for the events of that year, if there wasn't even a trace of hidden pain deep in his heart, if he was truly ruthless to the extreme, then he would be the most flawless person in the world. Anyone standing before this monarch would involuntarily feel a sense of submission, a sense of defeat, and would not look at him as coldly as Chen Pingping did.

The corners of Chen Pingping's eyes drooped. If His Majesty the Emperor truly possessed a heart of thousand-year-old ice, then why would he utter those four words? Although they were the coldest four words, they were still words.

The Emperor was displeased that in Chen Pingping's heart, he did not measure up to Ye Qingmei; that was the true source of his anger.

"Ye Qingmei could never be just a passerby to Your Majesty..." Chen Pingping sighed softly, his eyes glancing past the Emperor's shoulder, towards the wall behind the imperial study, as if trying to see through it, all the way to a certain portrait.

His Majesty the Emperor laughed, a smile that was faint, cold, self-deprecating, painful, and complex. After a long silence, he said, "I do not wish to speak of the past."

"Why not?" Chen Pingping narrowed his eyes, looking at him. "Is it because you feel she was too radiant, to the point of completely overshadowing your pride, so you have always felt uncomfortable in your heart?"

The Emperor smiled wryly, without explaining anything, and merely said, "Xiao Yezi was never one who enjoyed showing off."

"So you do know." Chen Pingping cackled, his sharp, raspy voice laced with a growing sense of resentment. "What is it that you ultimately cannot tolerate?"

"What I cannot tolerate, or what this world cannot tolerate?" The Emperor slowly raised his head, looking directly into Chen Pingping's eyes, his expression utterly cold and solemn. "Perhaps you people have never considered this question."

The cold voice stopped abruptly. Clearly, Emperor Qing had no desire to discuss anything related to the past, even when facing his partner of decades, even in this situation, he still staunchly guarded that piece of sacred ground in his heart, unwilling to touch it.

However, Chen Pingping had returned to the capital today to die, in order to tear open that middle-aged man, that man who seemed impossibly strong, to expose the patch of gauze that had separated him from the world for thousands of years, to reveal the wound that might exist in his heart, so as to weaken him!

Chen Pingping stared into Emperor Qing's eyes and said, "Was it the Empress Dowager's great displeasure, the powerful backlash from the princes and nobles, or your own pride that led you to make such a cold-blooded and ruthless decision?"

Emperor Qing's expression was indifferent, and he did not answer his question, but his pupils gradually became empty, his focus drifting to an unknown place, and he coldly changed the subject: "What prompted you to make such a rebellious decision? You are a eunuch; would you also be fond of women?"

"A eunuch..." Chen Pingping slowly lowered his eyelids and said, "I said before, I will treat those who treat me well well. I have always remembered her kindness to me. She died tragically, and likely also with bewilderment. I have guarded these decades, just to ask Your Majesty on her behalf."

"Am I not good to you?" Emperor Qing's gaze lightly swept across Chen Pingping's aged face and said indifferently, "I bestowed upon you unparalleled glory, I bestowed upon you a status that ordinary subjects would never have, I bestowed upon you... trust. And you, because of a woman who has been dead for twenty years... you come to question me?"

Chen Pingping looked at the Emperor with a smile that was not a smile and suddenly said, "She treated me well, like a friend; Your Majesty treats me well, like a slave. Can these be the same?"

The Emperor waved his hand, feeling somewhat tired, not wanting to discuss this question that had no answer. The encounters in life were always extremely wondrous, especially for these partners in Qing Kingdom back then; the entanglements between them would likely take three days and three nights to explain clearly.

But Chen Pingping continued to say, "I was just a eunuch in Prince Cheng's mansion, but she never looked down on me in the slightest because of my physical imperfection. She treated me with sincerity, she treated me as a friend... ah, this is a treatment that this old servant has never enjoyed in his life, not before her, and not after her."

He suddenly said with a smile, "Fortunately, Fan Xian is quite like her."

At this time, within the quiet imperial study, the name Fan Xian sounded particularly jarring. His Majesty the Emperor, who had maintained his composure with a strong mind, frowned very slightly when he heard the name Fan Xian.

"I do not wish to speak any further about what Xiao Yezi did for Qing Kingdom, for the Li clan, for all of us." Chen Pingping sighed with some weariness. Yes, the past did not need to be spoken of; in fact, it was all accumulated in the hearts and minds of these partners. No one would deliberately remember it, but no one would forget it.

His voice was slightly sharp as he said, "Yes, back then, when you first ascended the throne, the court was unstable, and the implementation of new policies met with too much resistance. The Supervisory Council under my control monitored officialdom, which also caused some instability in the entire capital. Moreover, the Empress Dowager had always been wary of that woman who refused to enter the palace, especially when she discovered that that woman's influence over Your Majesty was far greater than hers! The Empress, that foolish woman who had just married you not long ago, was even more clueless as to why you were not in the palace every day, but instead went to climb the walls of the Taiping Manor!"

"Ye Qingmei helped you to the point where, on the coast of Danzhou, the scroll she had once promised gradually unfolded. The Lao Ye family had already built three major workshops in Northern Min, and the foundations of Qing Kingdom had been firmly laid. It seemed that she was no longer of any use to Your Majesty. On the contrary... she was the most unstable factor in the court and the palace. If you followed her scroll, Qing Kingdom would not be the Qing Kingdom it is today, and Your Majesty, you would never allow such a thing to happen, let alone that you might offend all the officials and gentry in the process."

Chen Pingping narrowed his eyes and said with a slightly mocking tone, "To achieve extraordinary achievements, one must have extraordinary courage, but you do not have that kind of courage. You also do not want to give up everything you already possess. As long as Ye Qingmei died, you would enjoy everything she had given you, but you would not need to bear any of the dangers she brought."

"A thousand reasons, ten thousand reasons, even if you have countless reasons, because of this dragon throne, because of this country, because of your own ambitions, to kill her." Chen Pingping pursed his lips and shook his head disdainfully. "But you are the one who did it; you have no right to do such a thing."

Emperor Qing's gaze remained empty, as if he had not heard Chen Pingping's direct and insistent questioning. He merely said slowly, "The writings from back then are still kept in Prince Jing's mansion. You should still remember clearly that her whimsical ideas that went against the hearts of the people, though beautiful, were poisonous flowers. Once they bloomed in the fields of Qing Kingdom, I fear the entire Qing Kingdom would be overthrown because of it. As the monarch of Qing Kingdom, I must be responsible for the people of the world."

"In my life, I cherished that woman the most." His Majesty the Emperor turned his head and looked at Chen Pingping coldly. "I cherished that woman more than anyone else in the world."

"What does it have to do with the people? What kind of person Xiao Yezi was, Your Majesty and I both know very well. She was never one who had only ideas but no ability to put them into practice. The words she spoke, the writings she left behind, were perhaps just things she wanted to leave behind." Chen Pingping looked at the Emperor coldly. "But you were terrified by those terrible ideas. Your Majesty, you suddenly discovered that her ideas posed too much of a threat to this chair. Even if she did not act now, the spark she left behind might one day burn this chair, which is outwardly glamorous but actually rotten to the core, to ashes."

"A decayed chair?" The Emperor laughed strangely, looking at Chen Pingping and saying, "I did not expect that you, this old dog, would actually be such a person."

Chen Pingping did not respond. After coughing twice, he continued weakly, "Your Majesty, why bother explaining so much? It would be better to just say those four words from before... You are just greedy for this chair. You have too many ambitions, or rather, ambitions to fulfill. How can you allow someone to possibly endanger this process? And returning to the very beginning, you are just... you can never allow a woman to subtly suppress you."

After hearing these words, Emperor Qing remained silent for a long time, not knowing if this was an admission or if he was reflecting on his most hidden inner thoughts from back then. After a long time, he said coldly, "Even if I have any ambitions, did she not give them to me?"

"Back then, I was just an insignificant prince in Prince Cheng's mansion. Although I had great ambitions, compassion for the people's suffering, and wanted to change all of this war and strife, what virtue or ability did I have to achieve all of this, or even to dream of it?" The Emperor said with a mocking tone, "It was she, it was you, it was Fan Jian, it was everyone, who led me step by step to the dragon throne, giving me the possibility of dreaming all of this and achieving all of this."

Emperor Qing's gaze sharpened, and his voice became steady, louder, and somewhat stern. "Now that I have ascended to this dragon throne, I must fulfill the thoughts of back then. No matter who it is, do not even try to stop all of this!"

"The thoughts of back then?" Chen Pingping looked at him and said coldly, "Your Majesty, do you still remember our thoughts from back then?"

"I know what you, this old dog, want to say." The Emperor sat on the soft couch, his dragon robes spread out like vast clouds, and a powerful and solemn aura emerged from his entire body, like a deity in the clouds. He said in a deep voice, "I want to conquer a vast land, unify the entire world, and free the hundreds of millions of people of the Three Kingdoms from the suffering of war for all eternity. Is this not her wish?"

Emperor Qing's voice gradually rose, and he looked at Chen Pingping with a hint of coldness. "It has been a long time since we have talked like this. I have only now realized that you, this old dog, are actually a compassionate person. But do not forget that I am the Emperor of Qing Kingdom. I do not care about the agreement from back then, nor do I care about what I have betrayed. But I... care about her. I am doing everything I promised her, one by one. So... whether it is you or Fan Jian, even if she returns from the underworld and asks me about my actions over these decades, I can look at you disdainfully and say that only I can accomplish all of this!"

Chen Pingping fell into silence.

"She is a mysterious woman, but she is, after all, a woman. She is very naive, but I did not expect that you would also be so naive." The Emperor slowly closed his eyes, only his thin lips were slightly parted, and his words were full of coldness. "Governing a country is not like tending flowers and weeding, it cannot be done by a waste like Prince Jing who wallows in self-pity every day. As a monarch, in order to achieve one's goals, anyone can die."

"Anyone can die."

"So she died." Chen Pingping hunched over in his wheelchair, and said sorrowfully, "All the causes of internal strife in Qing Kingdom can die, such as the Empress, such as the Eldest Princess, such as the Crown Prince, such as many, many others. But I just do not understand, what is the difference between the Qing Kingdom of today and the Qing Kingdom of the past? What is the difference between this world and the world of twenty years ago? Your Majesty, you say that you are the chosen one in this world, so in order to achieve your goals, you can sacrifice everything. But if one day it is your turn to be sacrificed, would you be willing to go to your death readily?"

"I... will surely be the master of the world, the king of mankind." Emperor Qing said coldly, "As long as I am here, this world will be better off by one day."

"It is still just an empty name." Chen Pingping sighed and said, "Your Majesty, you are energetic and have keen eyes. The officialdom of Qing Kingdom is better than ever before, but what will happen after you die? People always have to die."

Immediately, the old cripple sitting in the wheelchair waved his hand and said indifferently, "After you die, let the floods rage. I suddenly thought of this sentence. I suddenly thought that this sentence was somewhat superfluous. Your Majesty, I still overestimated you. You are ultimately just an ordinary person whose entire mind is occupied by ambition. Whether you are a Grandmaster or a monarch, you still cannot escape this point."

The Emperor was not particularly angry; he merely looked at him and said faintly, "At least I am doing everything I promised her back then, one by one."

"Is that so? Before this old servant dies, can I hear Your Majesty explain one or two things, so that I can die in peace? Just consider it Your Majesty's last grace to this old servant."

The Emperor noticed the hint of sarcasm on Chen Pingping's lips. For some reason, the monarch's heart suddenly trembled, and countless anger arose. Perhaps as an emperor, especially an emperor like him, what he could least tolerate was being ignored or deliberately belittled for the accomplishments he had achieved on this continent in his life.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and slowly said, "I do not need to explain anything to you, this eunuch. After I die, I will naturally tell her everything, one by one."

"Your Majesty, do you have the face to see her after you die?" Chen Pingping was completely unlike his usual self today. When a person is about to die, his mind becomes clear and his ambition becomes strong. In front of the strongest person in the world, he coldly and harshly scraped at the other party's heart. "I heard that on the coast of Danzhou, you once explained these so-called... things, one by one, to Fan Xian. Did you want to comfort yourself, or did you want to use Fan Xian to gain her forgiveness in the afterlife?"

These words were very light, but they just happened to strike Emperor Qing's heart. Emperor Qing opened his eyes, and his eyes were still that strange emptiness, but his face was somewhat pale.

"Why would I not dare to see her?" Emperor Qing was silent for a long time, and then suddenly laughed. His laughter echoed in the imperial study. "The things I promised her back then on the coast of Danzhou, in the old mansion of Prince Cheng, have all been done, or will be done. Are not all of my actions in this life the things she had endlessly hoped for?"

Chen Pingping just looked at him coldly.

Emperor Qing's voice lowered and said coldly, "She wanted reform, she wanted to eradicate the corruption in the court. Fine, I will listen to her. I will change the era name, change the system, and implement new policies."

"She said that a wise monarch should be able to hear advice, so I granted the Censorate the power to report matters based on hearsay."

"She said that establishing a postal system within the country would greatly benefit commerce and the people's livelihood. Fine, I spared no expense to build a postal system covering the entire country in the shortest amount of time."

"She said that the eunuchs in the palace were both pitiful and hateful." Emperor Qing glanced coldly at Chen Pingping. "So I abolished the practice of sending eunuchs to the various princes' and dukes' mansions, dismissed half of the eunuchs in the palace, and strictly prohibited eunuchs from interfering in politics."

"She said that a country cannot be rich without commerce, so I strongly supported merchants and sent Xue Qing to reside in Jiangnan to ensure that the court did not interfere in private commercial affairs."

"She said that a country cannot be stable without agriculture, so I vigorously developed water conservancy and established a special River Transport Commissioner's Office to repair the Great River dikes."

"She said she wanted newspapers, so I started newspapers."

"She said she wanted lace, so I drew lace."

…

…

The Emperor spoke faster and faster, his eyes growing brighter and brighter. In the end, he seemed to be somewhat moved and shouted at Chen Pingping, "Whatever she wanted, I did. What right do you or you all have to criticize me!"

…

…

Chen Pingping laughed, a very happy and very strange laugh. He looked at His Majesty the Emperor and said softly, "You spoke this passage very fluently. Besides on the coast of Danzhou, you must often be in the small building, talking to yourself in front of that portrait. Is this to comfort her in heaven, or is it to dispel the coldness in your heart?"

Emperor Qing's expression changed slightly. However, Chen Pingping slowly sat up straight and looked at him, saying word by word:

"Implementing new policies is not just changing the era name a few times! Changing the system is even more not changing the Ministry of War to the Old Ministry of War, and then changing it to the Privy Council and calling it a change of system. Your Majesty, do you still remember what the Imperial Academy was originally called? Do you still remember an office that was once called the Education Institute? The Tongwen Pavilion? What is the Transfer Division? What is the Transport Division?"

"New policies are not new just because the name is new!" Chen Pingping's sharp voice was like a whip, stinging the Emperor's face. "Changing the system is not changing the name to make it a change. What is this bullshit new policy! Making officials and people not know what the office is called? Are you deceiving the people of the world, or are you deceiving yourself?"

"The Censorate reports matters based on hearsay? In the end, how did it become a lump of mud in the hands of the Princess of Xinyang? Allowing them to discuss matters without punishment? In the autumn of the fifth year of the Qingli era, the Left Censor-in-Chief and below, those censorate officials wearing vermilion robes, were miserably flogged in court because of Fan Xian. Who... who issued that decree?"

"Not to mention the postal system! This is purely a joke. It costs one tael of silver to send a letter. Besides the children of officials, who can afford to send it? Besides supporting a large number of lazy relatives of officials in the post stations, what use is this postal system?"

"Strictly prohibiting eunuchs from interfering in politics? Then what is Hong Siqi? Assassins entered the palace, involving court affairs and national affairs, yet he, a commander of eunuchs, has the right to preside over the investigation. Fine, even if his identity is special, then I will ask Your Majesty, when Eunuch Yao goes out, a large number of officials of the second and third ranks have to bow and give way. What is that?"

"The court vigorously supports merchants? The court does not interfere in private commercial affairs?" Chen Pingping's voice became sharper and sharper, saying with contempt, "Why do the Ming family have so many shares held by powerful people? If Your Majesty did not interfere in commercial affairs, what did Fan Xian go to Jiangnan to do? Merchants... are now just a group of fattened sheep raised by the court."

"Developing water conservancy and ensuring agricultural affairs?" Chen Pingping's laughter became more and more absurd. "... Hehe, the River Transport Commissioner's Office is the darkest office in the world. This old servant wanted to investigate it many years ago, but Your Majesty, with your imperial heart, knew that this office contained the entanglement of half the officials in the world. You did not want to shake the court, so you had to let it rot. As a result? The Great River collapsed, how many people drowned? How many people froze to death in the winter of the fifth and sixth years of the Qingli era? Even if Fan Xian and his wife have been desperately filling it with silver in the past two years, they can still only maintain it."

"And those damn newspapers and lace." Chen Pingping's eyes narrowed and he looked at Emperor Qing mockingly. "The newspaper she spoke of was something to enlighten the people, not useless dog shit from the inner court. It should not only contain the story of this old black dog of mine, but there should be some other content. Your Majesty, do you think I am right?"

The Emperor's face was getting whiter and whiter, so white that it was almost transparent, and he did not hear Chen Pingping's last words at all.

"You may be able to convince Fan Xian, you may be able to convince yourself that in recent years, you have been working hard to do something, trying to make up for something, practicing something, for the sake of what happened on the coast of Danzhou and in Prince Cheng's mansion back then." Chen Pingping looked at His Majesty the Emperor with bitterness, "But you cannot convince her in the portrait. It is just that she cannot speak now. But Your Majesty, you cannot convince me either. Unfortunately, I can still speak now."

The Emperor was silent for a long time. His pale face and his slightly trembling fingers showed how angry he was deep down. He slowly raised his head and looked at Chen Pingping coldly and said, "In my life, the worst thing I ever did was to listen to her when I was still the Crown Prince and said that the court officials needed an independent office to supervise them. So, despite everyone's opposition, I submitted a memorial to my father, strongly requesting the establishment of the Supervisory Council."

"I should not have listened to her and let you, this old black dog who could never be tamed, this eunuch with the smell of urine all over his body, become the first president of the Supervisory Council." Emperor Qing's voice was very calm, but it contained endless coldness.

After a long silence, Chen Pingping raised his head and said very calmly, "Even the Supervisory Council, the Supervisory Council that I, this old black dog, have desperately guarded for decades, may not be the Supervisory Council that she wanted to see."

The Emperor listened to the old cripple saying quietly, "The Supervisory Council is an organization to supervise the officials, but it is not the deformed and powerful secret service agency that it is today, especially since this courtyard itself is Your Majesty's courtyard."

Chen Pingping suddenly laughed uglily, looking straight at the Emperor's face: "Do you still remember what was written on the stone tablet in front of the Supervisory Council?"

Those were golden and glittering words, forever shining in front of the gloomy and square building of the Supervisory Council, attracting the attention of countless people in the capital, but no one would ever really look at these words clearly. The officials of the Supervisory Council all knew them very well, but they did not know the meaning hidden behind these words.

The most important thing was that those people from back then might know the full text of these words, but whether it was the Emperor or others, they might have subconsciously forgotten this point. Only Chen Pingping and the earliest members of the Supervisory Council had always remembered that passage.

"I hope that the people of Qing Kingdom can all become untamed people. When abused by others, they have the heart not to yield; when attacked by disasters, they have the heart not to be frustrated; when there are unjust things, they have the heart not to fear correction, and not to fawn on jackals and tigers..."

These were the words that Ye Qingmei left to the Supervisory Council. However, this passage was not finished. There were two more sentences behind it, which for some reason, had been buried in the dust of history.

Chen Pingping looked at His Majesty the Emperor indifferently, his dry lips trembling slightly, and said word by word, "I hope that every citizen of Qing Kingdom can become a king, can become the one and only king who rules over the territory called 'self'."

"Your Majesty, my king." Chen Pingping's eyes contained a trace of burning heat and the persistence to give everything for it.

"The Supervisory Council... from the very beginning, was used to supervise you."

…

…

(Today, Pingping Jie's last long passage to the Emperor satisfied me, um, really satisfied me. I did not want to ruin the mood at this time, but I will still say a word, if everyone is satisfied with what they have seen, give me two monthly tickets.)