Chapter 284 - 280: The Crazy Couple 44 (Finale)

Chapter 284: Chapter 280: The Crazy Couple 44 (Finale)

"Sister, look at this."

Ji Xiaohua spread the yellowed letter out on the purple sandalwood desk. Her fingertip tapped on the words "three mu of paddy fields east of the village." "When we were begging door to door with our clay pot, these people weren’t nearly this respectful."

Ji Xiaosong leaned against a mother-of-pearl inlaid armrest, her gaze sweeping over the neat, standard script on the letter.

Spring sunlight streamed through the glazed window, spilling onto her crimson palace gown. The nine-tailed phoenix, embroidered with golden thread, trembled faintly with her every breath.

"I remember."

She stroked her seven-month pregnant belly and recalled, "Butcher Zhang’s dog chased us until we fell into a muddy ditch. Scholar Li’s wife said we were jinxes who’d caused our parents’ deaths. Blacksmith Wang..."

Her voice trailed off into the smoke of the Agarwood, where a column of vapor rose languidly from the gilded censer.

Ji Xiaohua subconsciously tightened her grip on her cuffs.

Ever since her sister was named Empress, these moments of unguarded emotion had become more and more frequent.

She watched her sister lift the letter with her Green Jade Armor; the thin, brittle mulberry paper turned to ashes in the candle flame.

"Summon the Palace Bureau."

Ji Xiaosong suddenly rose, her twelve-paneled skirt sweeping over the scattered ashes. "I intend to return to my hometown to visit my family."

「Three days later, at the auspicious time chosen by the Astronomical Observatory.」

Outside the Vermilion Bird Gate, seventy-two pairs of Imperial Guards cleared the path with halberds, while twenty-eight female officials followed, carrying the phoenix seal and the golden book.

The Phoenix Carriage, crafted from Agarwood, had East Sea Pearls hanging from its four corners. Gold foil covered the ground wherever it passed.

"Your Majesty, Qingshi Village is just ahead."

The Chief Lady-in-waiting reported softly from behind the gauze curtain.

Ji Xiaosong’s fingertips rested on the carved window lattice of the carriage as she watched the sea of kneeling villagers at the entrance.

The same faces that had once spat at her were now pressed tightly against the cracked, yellow earth.

The village chief, trembling, presented the village annals. "Your Majesty, please review the blueprints for rebuilding your ancestral home."

The dirt from last year’s harvest, when he’d seized the wheat fields of a branch of the Ji family, was still caked under his fingernails.

"There’s no hurry."

Leaning on a female official’s hand, Ji Xiaosong descended slowly from the carriage, her embroidered slippers stepping onto a newly laid crimson carpet.

The old locust tree at the east end of the village swayed gently in the breeze. Its tender green branches hung down, forming a verdant canopy above her head.

The village annals in the village chief’s hands fell to the ground with a THUD.

An elder in the crowd exclaimed in awe, "An auspicious sign!" That night, a ninety-foot-tall memorial arch of green jade was erected on the site of the Ji family’s old ancestral home.

The coiled dragon patterns, chiseled overnight by three hundred artisans, gleamed in the moonlight. On the spot chosen by the Astronomical Observatory, an ancestral hall of white jade was under construction.

Artisans bustled about, stacking stone blocks, while bells on the eaves chimed in the breeze.

"This was personally bestowed by His Majesty, to ’Guard the Mountains and Rivers for Eternity.’"

The accompanying Minister of the Ministry of Industry explained, wiping cold sweat from his brow.

He saw the Empress merely give a slight nod. The stone lions before the ancestral hall’s gate, meticulously carved by the artisans, looked incredibly lifelike.

As the morning mist still lingered, Ji Xiaosong knelt before her parents’ grave in plain clothes.

Stripped of her opulent robes, her figure looked frail. As her fingertips touched the mottled tombstone, everything around her seemed to fall silent.

"Father, Mother."

She placed the imperially bestowed gilded censer before the tombstone and said, "Daughter has converted our family’s three mu of paddy fields into an imperially sponsored school."

The villagers watching from a distance suddenly broke into a collective fit of coughing.

They were astonished to find that with every word the Empress spoke, their own chronic ailments seemed to lessen.

On the day of her return to the capital, the number of villagers kneeling at the village entrance had tripled.

Ji Xiaosong gazed at the newly erected boundary stone outside her carriage and chuckled softly. "After we return to the palace, remember to remind me to send a plaque to the Prefect of Wu State, inscribed with ’For Meritorious Edification.’"

As the Phoenix Carriage rounded a bend on the main road, a Taoist priest in green robes suddenly appeared in the swirling dust.

The needle of the Compass in his hand spun rapidly, his eyes fixed intently on Ji Xiaosong’s swollen belly.

"Your Majesty!"

Before the guards could even draw their blades, the priest had already turned and left.

He left only a whisper echoing in Ji Xiaosong’s ear: "The dragon’s lineage is a great responsibility..."

When the Phoenix Carriage reached Qixia Ridge, Ji Xiaosong suddenly clutched her swollen belly, her face contorted in pain.

The pearls hanging from the carriage’s four corners flashed with blinding light from the violent shaking, startling the eight snow-white steeds pulling it, causing them to rear up simultaneously.

The clouds on the horizon, disturbed by the airflow, churned like a boiling pot, unexpectedly forming a vortex in the clear sky.

"Quickly, summon..."

The Chief Lady-in-waiting’s words died in her throat as she lifted the curtain.

She saw the Empress seemingly radiating a glow from within. The jade hairpin in her hair snapped from the jolting, revealing the thousand-year-old ginseng root hidden inside.

That was the Protective Pregnancy Medicine Wu Chufeng had personally traveled to Changsheng Mountain to find.

At that moment, in Xuanzheng Hall, the vermillion pen in Wu Chufeng’s hand suddenly snapped.

The splashing ink snaked across the memorial scroll. He shot to his feet, knocking over a gilded lamp stand, and ordered urgently, "Prepare the Dragon Steed!"

Qixia Ridge was now shrouded in a thick fog.

The accompanying Imperial Physician knelt outside the carriage, his voice trembling. "Your Majesty’s pregnancy is unstable... the usual methods of delivery..."

Before he could finish, a fierce gale swept through, and all the grass and trees on the mountain bent toward the east.

"All of you, withdraw."

Ji Xiaosong pretended to endure the pain, biting her fingertip and drawing a simple pattern on the brocade mattress. Her blood spread across the fabric, a shocking sight.

’I can’t make this birth look easy. I have to build momentum for the son I’m about to bear.’

’The Wu Family came to power by conquest; they don’t play by the rules.’

’I can’t rely on a little love to bind him to me.’

"Tell His Majesty..."

Just then, a strong gust of wind threw open the carriage curtains, and the cry of a newborn baby suddenly rang out.

As Wu Chufeng galloped up the mountain path, he saw his wife standing before the carriage, holding a swaddled infant.

Her hair was slightly disheveled, but her eyes were bright and clear.

At her feet, nameless wildflowers, washed clean by the storm, looked vibrant and full of life.

"Song Song!"

He shattered the Jade Pendant at his waist as he dismounted but froze the moment he touched the infant’s swaddling clothes.

Beneath the imperial yellow silk embroidered with the Twelve Symbols, the child had a birthmark between his brows shaped like a faint dragon scale.

Ji Xiaosong gently placed the child in his arms, her voice filled with the joy of a new mother:

"Did Your Majesty hear the child’s cry? It is so loud and strong."

Before her voice faded, twelve chimes of a bell suddenly rang out from afar—the daily, scheduled tolling from the direction of the Imperial Mausoleum.

The Director of the Astronomical Observatory, who was part of the entourage, suddenly dropped to his knees and declared loudly, "The birth of a Prince is truly a joyous occasion for the nation!"

He tremblingly unfurled his divination plate, as if calculating something.

Wu Chufeng gazed at the infant in his arms, whose eyes were now open.

Those lively eyes reminded him of when he first met Ji Xiaosong, of the way she bravely faced adversity.

"Issue a decree."

He unwrapped his black cloak and wrapped it around his wife and child. After a moment of thought, he said, "The Imperial First Son shall be made the Crown Prince, and he shall be named..."

At that moment, the mountain wind suddenly swept a few dewy bamboo leaves into his palm, arranging themselves into an intricate character.

Wu Chufeng’s heart stirred, and he decided on the Crown Prince’s name then and there.

That night, at the Astronomical Observatory, seven bronze lamps were lit on the Observatory platform.

The Director, seeing a brilliant new star suddenly light up in the southern sky, bowed deeply toward Weiyang Palace, his hands clasped until they touched the ground.

Although the Empress had endured a difficult birth, her body was gradually recovering under everyone’s meticulous care.

And beneath the sleeping Crown Prince’s pillow lay the "Nine Provinces Ode," handwritten by Wu Chufeng himself, bearing his fervent hopes for his son.

「5:45 AM.」

Wu Wanqing awoke with a start in her ancestral hall. The Wu Family Tree on the altar table fluttered in the breeze her movement created, stopping on the newest page—the one recording the Royal Family. It read: "Crown Prince Huán, born on Qixia Ridge, the Emperor’s eldest son."

Her clenched fist was silhouetted by the candlelight, casting a lonely shadow on the wall.

Everyone has their own ending; cause and effect complete their cycle.

In her lifetime, Ji Xiaosong gave birth to ten children, and every one of them made significant achievements in their respective positions.

Wu Chufeng was not a man who lusted after a large harem. On the rare occasion someone at court tried to curry favor by offering their female relatives to him, they were ultimately dealt with by Ji Xiaosong.

She was a purist when it came to love; she had no interest in unfaithful men.

’If she hadn’t had a choice, that would be one thing. But she did have a choice, and she would not allow her children to be put in danger.’

She lived a long life. After Wu Chufeng died, she became the Empress Dowager, and then the Grand Empress Dowager.

She did not pass away until she was exactly one hundred years old.