Chapter 161
The Tanhua Lang was someone she knew well here. For now, he seemed fine. Plus, after several years as regent, the officials below him probably wouldn’t cause too much turmoil.
Qiu Chi was also very quick to abdicate.
Almost immediately after announcing it in court, she was ready to abdicate the very next day.
The officials had nothing more to say about it. It was the same familiar routine, and they had all grown numb to it.
As for their reaction?
When Qiu Chi said she would abdicate in favor of the Tanhua Lang, they naturally went through the motions of loudly protesting that it was unacceptable.
But Qiu Chi wasn’t one to listen to them.
And if they really thought about it, they also felt Qiu Chi wasn’t suited to be emperor. Although the country’s territory had expanded greatly and they no longer had to worry about harassment from other nations or the outbreak of war…
…this empress was too autocratic. That was certainly a good quality for a general, but not so much for an emperor.
However, none of this had anything to do with Qiu Chi anymore. After passing on the throne, she left directly.
As for where she went after disappearing…
…naturally, people would fill in the blanks with their own imagination.
For example, that with the world at peace, the empress had gone traveling.
In any case, Qiu Chi didn’t need to worry about it.
Later generations would say that Empress Pei Siyi was the last emperor of the Pei Dynasty, yet the prosperity of the Great Jing Dynasty was single-handedly established by this very empress.
It was only because the empress was not attached to power and wished only to roam among the mountains and rivers that she abdicated the throne to Emperor Jingyuan. After leaving the capital, she was never heard from again.
As the first empress in history, Pei Siyi left a rich and colorful mark on the annals of later generations.
But none of this had anything to do with Qiu Chi anymore.
She had already moved on to the next world.
The Republic Era.
Though it lasted only a few short decades, it could not be ignored.
It was an era of transition between the old and the new, an era filled with the chaos of war, and an era where great scholars blossomed in succession.
However, for the heroine, the story of the first half of her life was set amidst this tide of change.
The beginning of the story was very cliché. The heroine, Zhai Jiayue, had been engaged to Nie Zhicheng since childhood. They had grown up together as childhood sweethearts, but a month before their wedding, Nie Zhicheng suddenly announced that he was going abroad to study.
Both families suggested they hold the wedding first, and Nie Zhicheng could go abroad afterward. But Nie Zhicheng insisted that his departure date was set and couldn’t be changed. He gave them an ultimatum: either hold the wedding early or call off the engagement.
Calling off the engagement was naturally out of the question. At that time, both families still held to old-fashioned beliefs, thinking that if a woman’s engagement was broken, her life would be ruined.
Helpless, they had no choice but to cancel the originally scheduled wedding date and hold a hasty ceremony instead.
The day after the wedding, Nie Zhicheng left the country, leaving Zhai Jiayue behind to serve her parents-in-law in the Nie family home.
Zhai Jiayue’s life in the Nie household was not easy. Madam Nie found fault with everything she did, blaming Zhai Jiayue for her son going so far away and not coming home. She believed Zhai Jiayue was a jinx.
Nie Zhicheng also had a younger sister who had disliked Zhai Jiayue since they were children. This was because Zhai Jiayue had always been too beautiful, and she was jealous.
She had secretly stirred up trouble in the past, but it had little effect since Zhai Jiayue hadn’t married into the family yet. Now, knowing her mother’s dislike for Zhai Jiayue, she became even more unscrupulous.
As for the Zhai family, their attitude toward Zhai Jiayue was that a married daughter is like spilled water—how she fared in her husband’s home was her own business.
In other words, no matter how much injustice Zhai Jiayue suffered in the Nie household, there was no one to stand up for her. She could only endure it on her own.
Zhai Jiayue was not old-fashioned in her thinking. She loved the new culture, admired the new styles of clothing she had never seen, and was curious about foreign novelties.
However, the Nie family wouldn’t allow it.
The domestic affairs of the Nie household were entirely in Madam Nie’s hands; her word was practically law.
And Nie Zhicheng’s sister, Nie Yaya, naturally wanted to prevent Zhai Jiayue from coming into contact with these new things. She had already come up with a reason.
“Mother, Big Brother is so far from home now. Sister-in-law must wait for him obediently at home. What if she comes into contact with those foreign things and gets wild ideas, and doesn’t want to wait for him anymore? Mother, you must keep a close eye on her. Don’t let her wear those flashy clothes. With a seductive face like that, you can tell at a glance she’s the restless type…”
Nie Yaya’s intentions were malicious, but Madam Nie thought she made a good point.
Her son was so far away; who knew if this new daughter-in-law would behave herself? Even if her son might not like this wife, they had to wait for him to come back and say he didn’t want her anymore.
Thus, Zhai Jiayue had to report to Madam Nie or be accompanied by her whenever she wanted to leave the house.
Thus, Zhai Jiayue’s clothes became staid and old-fashioned, and her hair was styled in a way only Madam Nie would wear.
No matter how beautiful Zhai Jiayue’s face was, when paired with staid clothes, a hairstyle fit for an older woman, and the stern, unsmiling expression Madam Nie demanded she wear in public, her entire person exuded an air of rigid conventionality.
Of course, Zhai Jiayue was unwilling to accept this. It wasn’t that she hadn’t resisted, but the household was in Madam Nie’s hands. If she disobeyed, she would be punished by family law. Her own family didn’t care whether she lived or died. Other than yielding, she was powerless to resist.
Zhai Jiayue did have feelings for Nie Zhicheng. After all, they had grown up together as childhood sweethearts, and before he left to study abroad, he had told her to wait for his return.
So, despite the oppressive life in the Nie household, Zhai Jiayue still held a sliver of hope for Nie Zhicheng in her heart. Little did she know that his return would be the fatal blow.
Zhai Jiayue’s life in the Nie household continued like this until Nie Zhicheng returned from his studies abroad two years later.
Having returned from abroad, Nie Zhicheng considered himself a youth of the new era and naturally looked down on the remnants of feudalism.
This, of course, included his “feudal marriage” to Zhai Jiayue. Upon seeing her attire, his eyes widened in disbelief. “How did you become like this? What’s the difference between you and those women from the feudal era? You’ve disappointed me so much!”
Zhai Jiayue, who had been eagerly awaiting Nie Zhicheng’s return, was stunned.
As a youth of the new era, Nie Zhicheng had naturally engaged in “free love.” As for Zhai Jiayue back home, in his eyes, she was just part of a feudal marriage that needed to be broken.
He now considered his childhood bond with Zhai Jiayue to be merely sibling-like affection, not romantic love. He had found his true love and had brought her back with him.
Madam Nie had been thrilled about Nie Zhicheng’s return.
But the moment he came back, he demanded a divorce from Zhai Jiayue, claiming their marriage was a product of feudal thinking. He said the new era advocated for free love, and he wanted to marry Fang Caiyue, his one true love.
This time, it was Madam Nie’s turn to be stunned.
She had someone investigate Fang Caiyue and found that she was just a girl from a humble family. She did not approve.
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