Chapter 135

The skies over the Shu region had truly changed.

The two towering burdens that had long weighed on the common folk of Shu, the Ruan garrison troops and the three great noble clans, were now on the verge of vanishing entirely.

One side had crumbled in a total rout, beaten so badly by the imperial army that they fled in disarray, tails tucked between their legs.

As for the other, its clan head was dead, and the entire noble house had fallen apart—some members absconded with all the valuables they could carry, while others were rounded up and investigated by the authorities.

In no time at all, the lives of the people in Shu grew far more comfortable.

As for Yun Yaoyao, right then she was in the middle of giving her deadly poison master—no, her great meritorious officials, pre-appointment training for their new roles as female officials.

Yun Yaoyao did not hold back a single bit of praise for the three of them at first.

"As low-status, overlooked concubines' daughters who never got any favor in your clans, you still managed to use the Seven-Day Soul-Snatching Powder I gave you to send that clan head of a major noble house straight to the afterlife. Such capability... and on and on..."

The three were so flattered they grew sheepish. "Your Majesty, it's all thanks to the medicine you gave us. It's completely colorless and odorless, and only takes effect after seven days, which gave us the perfect chance to use it."

Next, Yun Yaoyao hit them with a full-on brainwashing package.

"The ranks of female officials are exactly in need of people as brave, resourceful, and patient as you are... and on and on..."

By the time she dropped a huge, tempting, sweet promise right in front of them, the three were so fired up their eyes practically burned with passionate fervor.

"Your Majesty, can we really do this?!"

Yun Yaoyao said, "Why wouldn't you be able to? I predict you will leave a bold, indelible mark in the history books!"

The three declared in unison, "We shall obey every order from Your Majesty!"

Yun Yaoyao nodded in relief. "Your very first mission is to go... 'suddenly, like a spring breeze coming overnight, a thousand pear trees burst into bloom.' The women of the Shu region are just like those blooming pear blossoms—go seek out those among them who have the potential to become female officials."

Her inner thoughts raced: I almost blurted out what I really meant just now!

The three replied excitedly, "We will never fail to live up to Your Majesty's trust!"

At the very same moment, the entire White Wind Stronghold was busy with one huge, joyous occasion.

Their stronghold leader Chu Fei had been appointed as the prefectural magistrate!

Of course, all the other skilled, capable people in the stronghold had also received official positions. It was joy piled on top of more joy.

Once the celebrations wound down, it was time to get down to serious business.

Everyone, whether they'd been given an official post or not, was pumped up and raring to go. Every last one of them had been oppressed and bullied before.

Now that they were the officials governing the people of Shu, holding real power in their hands, they were determined to be good officials, so that no other common folk would ever have to suffer the same hardships they had endured.

It didn't take long for them to realize that being a good official was no easier than staging a rebellion.

If anything, there were far more trivial, tedious matters to deal with!

From major affairs like collecting grain taxes and handling judicial cases, all the way down to mediating family disputes and catching men who secretly kept mistresses on the side—if you failed to handle those small matters well, you might even get a scratch from a furious legal wife, ending up with a work-related injury.

Good heavens, they were so swamped with work that they didn't have a single spare thought left for staging any rebellion at all!

The Hua Manor was also brimming with joy.

Hua Bufang, who had backed the right side, snuck off to the ancestral hall every single night to light three sticks of incense. After lighting the incense, he would hold his parents' spirit tablets and alternate between crying and laughing.

"Father, Mother, the Hua family's ancestral graves are about to wreathe in smoke of great fortune!"

"Your son will make sure the ships marked with the Hua family name sail across the entire Yan Chi kingdom, then sail out of Yan Chi to all the other ancient, culturally rich dynasties across the world, and eventually sail across every corner of the globe!"

"Your child Hua Bufang is going to become the number one maritime merchant whose name is known across the whole world!"

As for Tu Shanjin, he was busy too—well, he had never been free for a single moment.

Every day, he handled state affairs remotely, chased down the fleeing remnants of the rebel army, and reshuffled the power structure across the Shu region, determined to make this land submit fully to the central imperial court.

Seeing her beloved Tu Concubine work so nonstop, Yun Yaoyao, who had just slept for three whole days straight, started to feel a little guilty.

So she picked up her old trade again, kicking off her new round of persuasive "grand enlightenment" work.

On the first day of her grand enlightenment spree: the folk customs in Shu are truly bold, everyone here looks like they're not easy to convince, and they're all so wary and cautious.

No matter, she'd show the people of Shu a little taste of the Goddess's awe-inspiring power.

The very next day, Yun Yaoyao set up a ritual altar on the busiest main street in Shu City, and sat on top of it giving speeches every single day.

She could talk from dawn till dusk, pausing only to eat her necessary meals, without stopping for a single second.

On top of that, Yun Yaoyao's public opinion troops had all mobilized too.

Far away in the capital, Di Shunzhi, the hidden master of wealth that no one knew the real identity of, heard about what was happening. He stayed up all night writing new storybooks, working so hard that blisters nearly formed on his lips. He cranked out several volumes in total, and sent them all to the Shu region to support Yaoyao.

With three separate forces all working in tandem, the common folk of Shu were completely won over.

Her Majesty the Empress was a Goddess who had descended to the mortal realm to save the fate of Yan Chi, to bring salvation to every person in Shu!

They were all people of Yan Chi, so how could they ever harbor thoughts of rebellion? The only people who wanted to rebel were the barbarians from the Xiongnu!

Their love for Yan Chi, their love for the Emperor, their love for the Goddess—none of these feelings had ever burned as bright and intense as they did right then!

Seeing that the will of the people in Shu was fully aligned with the Yan Chi kingdom, the Emperor, and the Goddess, Yun Yaoyao was finally satisfied.

But all this hard work left Tu Shanjin, who had been hoping every night to spend some quiet, cozy time chatting with his Yaoyao, out of luck.

Every night when he came back, he would find Yun Yaoyao lying on the bed, looking completely drained of all energy. When she saw him walk in, she stretched out her hand like the character from that old classic drama and said, "Baojuan, my throat..."

Baojuan?

What on earth did that mean?

Could it be some kind of special, playful intimate term from the netherworld that she was using in their private moments?

The thought made Tu Shanjin a little frustrated. He'd been tricked and fooled around by Yaoyao so many times that he'd almost forgotten she wasn't some deity who kept the books of life and death.

Tu Shanjin wanted to ask Yun Yaoyao about her real identity, to find out where she really came from, to hear every story she had to tell. But when he saw how exhausted she was, he swallowed all the questions back.

Fine, he thought. When Yaoyao is ready to tell me, I will know everything naturally.

Ever since the people of Shu had fully devoted themselves to believing in the Goddess, Yun Yaoyao started slipping in some personal agendas of her own.

Yun Yaoyao thought to herself with a huff: You people dared to spread nasty, slanderous rumors about her beloved Tu Concubine before, right? You messed with the wrong person, because she's got a temper as petty as a sesame seed, and you've just hit a steel plate.

First, she spread the word that the two rebel leaders Du and Ruan were incarnations of the evil Mars star, fated to bring disaster to Yan Chi and ruin everyone around them.

Then she went on to claim that the two were both mentally deranged—they were both impotent, were having an improper affair with each other, and even tried to harm the soldiers under their own command. They were utterly devoid of all conscience, and deserved to be struck down by lightning for their wicked acts.

After half a month of unremarkable days passing by, under the combined blows of military suppression in the physical world and this massive public opinion campaign in the spiritual world, the rebel army was completely wiped out. Both Du Guanliu and Ruan Xiangsong lost their lives in the end.

At the same time, the memorials from the hundreds of imperial officials in the capital kept piling up, one more affectionate and sappy than the last.

Their wording grew increasingly cloying and over the top. It started out as "When will Your Majesty return?" "Will you come back tomorrow?" "Will you return the day after tomorrow?" and soon evolved into lines like "My longing for you wraps around my heart like endless silk threads." "My longing for you fills every dream, as I wait for your return." "My heart that misses you is like the great Yangtze River, its waters flowing nonstop, my longing for you growing deeper with each passing day."...

Tu Shanjin cringed so hard reading these memorials that goosebumps covered his arms, and his hand holding the writing brush to reply broke out in layers of chills.

Yun ​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌‌​​​​​‌‌‌​​‌​​‌‌​​‌​​​‌‌​​​​​‌‌​​​​‌​‌‌​​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌​‌​​‌‌​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌​​​‌‌​‌‌​​​‌‌‌​​​​‌‌​​‌‌​​​‌‌​​​​​​‌‌​‌​​​​‌‌​‌​‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​​‌‌​‌​‌‍Yaoyao took the stack of memorials, glanced through them, and smiled. Oh right, these are the "telegrams of longing" sent by her hardworking colleagues back at work!

They hadn't seen each other for so many days, and she really did miss them a lot.

Now that the Shu region had been fully stabilized, they would set off on their journey back to the capital tomorrow!