Chapter 185: Chapter 184: Slapping the Green Tea Empress Dowager (Part 1)
Prince Jin showed no interest in government affairs, but Anning accompanied him to court daily, gradually taking over the matters of the court.
She appointed wise officials, improved water conservancy, increased agricultural output, and upgraded various tools.
Most importantly, once Jin Country was no longer short of food, Anning began to enhance the quality of Jin’s soldiers, promoting many generals and strengthening Jin’s military might.
After five years, Anning began to assist Prince Jin in unifying the realm.
She first conquered Song Country, the weakest, and then wiped out the small neighboring countries one by one.
After six years of campaigning, Jin unified the realm.
Meanwhile, Feng Chengxi remained in Yang City.
After the Third Prince of Lu Country ascended the throne, he went mad once and was severely beaten. Afterward, he became completely foolish.
The Xie Family also stayed in Yang City. Whether before or after the unification, Feng Chengxi and the Xie Family never returned to Lu Country, nor did they ever lay eyes on their homeland again.
When they died, they faced their homeland.
Anning felt this was the greatest revenge against Feng Chengxi and the Xie Family.
Xie Anning was deceived by them to come to Jin Country, longing for her homeland until death, unable to return.
This time, Anning ensured they could never return to their hometown.
Moreover, the reputation of the Xie Family was ruined.
Apart from the people of Jin Country, the rest of the realm cursed the Xie Family.
They believed that Anning was backed by the Xie Family, and that all her actions were orchestrated by them.
When Anning annihilated various countries, the people of those countries cursed the Xie Family even more fiercely.
Mr. Xie died of rage when Anning destroyed Lu Country.
After Jin unified the realm, Prince Jin ascended the throne as Emperor and conferred Anning as the Empress.
After his enthronement, Emperor Jin continued to sit together with Anning in court, the practice of the Emperor and Empress presiding over court affairs together having become customary.
In this life, Anning led Jin Dynasty to thrive. She reduced corvee labor and lightened taxes. In less than a decade, the realm had stabilized, and the lives of the common people gradually became prosperous.
Twenty years later, the people no longer reminisced about their old countries, and the new generations only knew of Jin’s rule, unaware of how the former nations were.
Anning’s life in this world was not long.
Emperor Jin was not in good health, gradually deteriorating when Anning was in her forties.
Afterward, his body declined at an accelerated rate and Anning, despite her efforts, could not prolong his life.
Lying on his deathbed, he gazed at Anning, his eyes filled with reluctance.
"I’ll go first... take care of yourself."
He smiled, "I’ve been willful my whole life. Let me be willful one last time as I depart. I won’t have to endure the pain of losing you."
Emperor Jin held Anning’s hand: "Being with you, I’ve been truly happy."
After uttering these words, Emperor Jin closed his eyes.
By the time the Crown Prince arrived, he found not only his Father Emperor had passed, but also his usually healthy Queen Mother lain beside the Emperor, passing away with a smile in her clothes.
Anning passed away when Feng Chengxi was still alive.
Upon hearing of the simultaneous deaths of the Emperor and Empress of Jin Dynasty, he laughed heartily to the sky, "Finally dead, finally dead, I can go back now, I can go home..."
However, after the new Emperor ascended the throne, not to mention letting Feng Chengxi go home, even living was a luxury for him.
The new Emperor ordered his execution immediately.
Anning once again returned to the Nihility Space.
This time, she spent a long time recuperating.
While in Jin Country, Anning had lost a part of her memory, and now, she sought to restore it.
Additionally, Anning began to be cautious of the Main God.
She had always been quietly accepting tasks to earn merit, wanting to gradually strengthen herself so that, by the time the Main God noticed something was amiss with her, she would already be strong enough to directly confront the Main God.
She did not expect the Main God to detect her so early.
Or perhaps...
Anning sat in the Nihility Space, furrowing her brows in thought.
She thought that perhaps the Main God had not really discovered her intentions but was following procedure to eliminate some harmful elements.
Just like how a computer eliminates viruses.
And Anning was the virus being eliminated.
If that was the case, Anning figured she might find a way to avoid it.
After contemplating for many days, she finally decided that during her next tasks, she would no longer take An Xin with her but instead let An Xin act separately from her to divert the Main God’s attention.
She would work hard to strengthen herself, striving to arrange An Xin’s return sooner, as well as to deliver a fatal strike to the Main God as early as possible.
Anning shared her decision with An Xin.
An Xin was reluctant to part, sobbing for quite a while before bidding farewell to Anning and throwing herself into a time and space that sparked her interest.
Anning replenished her memories to make them complete, thought for a moment, and then, in the Nihility Space, used some of the merit she had obtained this time to create a Memory Pearl, copying some of her memories into it.
In the future, if the Main God caused her to lose some of her memories again, she could easily retrieve them with the Memory Pearl.
Having prepared everything, Anning summoned a soul from outside the Nihility Space.
Shortly afterward, a woman so thin she looked misshaped, dressed in elaborate and complex ancient attire, approached.
Though thin and appearing rather aged, her every move was exceedingly dignified and imposing, clearly indicative of a typical noble lady from ancient times.
"Greetings, fairy," the noble lady gave Anning a salutation upon arrival.
Anning smiled: "Tell me your wish."
The lady stood there, looking bewildered for a moment, then a surge of hatred poured out: "I... will no longer fancy that despicable man, I want to be strangers with him. I also want to safeguard my children’s lives. Furthermore... I want to take revenge on He Yiqiu. I want her life to be more agonizing than mine, and her son—I want him to die without a place to be buried. I want vengeance, I want vengeance."
Anning nodded: "As you wish."
As the noble lady’s figure disappeared, Anning stood up and adjusted her clothes, directly immersing herself into the time period that the noble lady had inhabited.
Anning opened her eyes, and before she could finish processing her memories, she heard a maid’s voice saying: "Princess, someone from the palace has come to summon the Princess."
Anning responded softly: "Understood."
Without looking at her surroundings, nor at the people around, she turned back to sit on the bed and pulled down the bed curtains to start absorbing the memories.
Before long, Anning had fully assimilated all the memories of her original body.
After absorbing the memories, Anning felt like swearing.
As Xie Anning, she had experienced the scumbag Feng Chengxi, but it turns out, just when she thought Feng Chengxi was bad enough, there were even worse men here.
Her original self was named Xu Anning, a classic ancient boudoir daughter from a noble family.
When she was fifteen, she was granted a marriage to Prince Kang and became Princess Kang.
Prince Kang’s parents had passed away early, and he had no siblings; in the entire Prince Mansion, there was only him as the master. Soon after Xu Anning entered, she took over the mansion’s affairs, managing everyone from top to bottom.
Not long after she moved in, she became pregnant, later giving birth to a daughter and, two years after, a son.
Since marrying Prince Kang, he had been devoted to her, and aside from Xu Anning, there were no other concubines or such in the mansion.
Xu Anning considered herself to be very fortunate.
Although Prince Kang was always very courteous to her, speaking with distance and basically not staying in her chamber, she still felt that her life was quite good.
The women of the Capital all particularly envied the original self for not having the nuisances of other concubines.
But behind this happiness lay Prince Kang’s heartlessness and lack of righteousness.
Prince Kang had never truly liked Xu Anning. His marriage to her was merely for the need of a wife to manage the mansion affairs and to have an heir to take over Prince Kang Mansion.
All the tenderness and sweetness in Prince Kang’s heart were bestowed upon the Empress Dowager, He Yiqiu.