On the wedding day, my wife was abnormal

"I want to ask you this! When Northern Qi invaded our borders and their iron hooves crushed our border towns, did any of your Kong family members don armor and wield sharp weapons, fight the enemy, and sacrifice their lives for our country? When I pacified the southwestern barbarians and our soldiers fought bloody battles, did your Kong family, with its vast acres of fertile land, don a single grain of rations or a single strand of cotton? When I established the Academy of Gewu, where artisans toiled tirelessly to create new agricultural tools that ensured food and clothing for the people, and improved military equipment to minimize the bloodshed and sacrifices of our border troops, did you, the Kong Family Academy, ever say a single good word that benefited the country and its people?"

With every question she asked, she took a step forward, her aura growing more fierce. No one under the Danbi dared to look directly at her sharp edge!

"You! Enjoying the peace and prosperity brought by my reign! Reading books published by my government! Wearing silk woven by my people! And yet here you are! Using your useless mouths, which only talk about morality, accusing me of bringing disaster to the country and its people? Who gave you the courage?"

Her voice was as sharp as a knife, carrying an overwhelming pressure that resonated throughout the square!

"Kill Lin Zhen? Clear the court?" Her gaze was like icy lightning, sweeping across all the kneeling civil servants, and finally returning to Kong Xiren. Her voice was filled with a piercing chill.

"Where were you when Lin Zhen braved life and death alongside me, suppressing rebellions on all sides? When he fought bloody battles at the border, his body covered in wounds, were you hiding away in your cozy study, writing these dross-up articles praising his achievements or whining about his own merits? His achievements were earned with his blood and life! What about you? Besides kowtow and bleed, and talking nonsense, what else can you do?"

"Stop the study of things? Restore the Zhou rituals?"

She sneered, full of extreme contempt.

"Without the powerful bows and crossbows crafted by the Institute of Gewu, and without the new warships, do you think the iron hooves of Northern Qi and the barbarians would have taught you the Zhou rituals? Your bones would have been crushed into mud long ago! Gewu ensures that the people are well fed and clothed, and that the army defends the country—this is true benevolent governance! What use is your empty talk, other than tying people's hearts and maintaining your pitiful sense of superiority?"

She suddenly pointed a finger at Kong Xiren, her voice like the profound ice of the nine heavens, carrying the final judgment: "Kong Xiren! You keep saying you are loyal to the emperor and patriotic, and every word you say is based on the teachings of the saints! I think you are a hypocrite, and you deserve to be killed!"

"Do you think that because you are a descendant of a saint, I won't dare to kill you?"

"Do you think that just by a bunch of you kowtow a few times and shed a few drops of blood, you can force me to submit and shake my rule?"

"dream!"

She swung her wide bell-shaped sleeves violently, and her voice was decisive and resounding through the sky: "Someone come!"

The Fengling Guards, who had been waiting for orders for a long time and were as fierce as wolves and tigers, responded with a loud bang, and their armors clanged!

"Capture Kong Xiren and all those who participated in today's bloody remonstration! Throw them into the Sky Prison and keep them under strict guard!"

"Your Majesty! Stupid ruler! Tyrant! You will not die a good death! The way of the sages no longer exists, and the country will not last long!" Kong Xiren struggled and roared, and other civil servants also cried and wailed, and the scene instantly became chaotic.

Murong Yan watched coldly as they were dragged away mercilessly, her face expressionless, as if she was watching a group of noisy ants being cleared away.

She glanced at the officials in the distance who were silent, pale as paper, and wishing they could hide in the cracks of the ground. Her voice was clear and calm, but it carried a chilling, undeniable chill that made the soul tremble:

"Preach my will."

"Kong Xiren, as Grand Secretary of Wenhua Palace and Duke of Yansheng, has failed to serve his country. Instead, he has gathered a crowd to cause riots and slandered the emperor. This is treason and unforgivable! His entire clan must be exterminated! His ancestral graves must be dug up and his remains exposed in the wilderness! His family's title of Duke of Yansheng is forever revoked! All the land, mansions, books, and property of the Kong family must be confiscated and put into my treasury!"

"The rest of those who participated in the bloody remonstration, regardless of their official rank, will all be beheaded! Their heads will be hung outside the Imperial College and exposed to the sun for three days! I want every scholar in the world to see clearly what the consequences will be for opposing me and slandering those I love!"

"From now on, all Confucius academies throughout the country will be closed down, and private teaching will be banned! I want to see if, without this descendant of the sage, the world will be unable to succeed!"

Order after order, cold, bloody, eradicating the entire system! They not only wanted to kill, but also to destroy the very souls of the people! This was the most thorough and humiliating destruction of the millennia-old symbol of Confucianism!

The entire square was dead silent, with only the whimpering of the cold wind, as if even the air had frozen. The smell of blood mixed with fear filled every corner.

After Murong Yan finished speaking, she no longer looked at anyone. She turned around, wearing the gorgeous "Divine Phoenix Dress" that seemed to be soaked in invisible blood, and walked back to the deep and dark door of the Golden Throne Hall step by step, leaving the dead silence and the impending bloody storm behind her.

When she returned to Fenghuan Palace, the setting sun had dyed the sky a sad blood red.

Inside the bedroom, candles had already been lit, attempting to dispel the chill outside. Murong Yan's face held a trace of fatigue, barely concealed after the slaughter, and a deeper, indescribable emptiness.

She walked straight into the bedroom and saw that Lin Zhen was still standing there, almost maintaining the same posture as when she left, like a silent guardian stone statue.

She didn't say anything, nor did she show any sign, she just walked quickly to him and threw herself into his arms!

She wrapped her arms tightly around his waist and buried her face deeply in his chest. Her hands under the wide flared sleeves even trembled slightly, hardly perceptible.

Lin Zhen's heart tightened as he felt the slight coolness and trembling of her body. Without any hesitation, he immediately closed his arms and held her tightly and firmly in his arms, wrapping her with the warmth and strength of his body.

He could smell the familiar cold plum fragrance in her hair, mixed with a very faint smell of blood brought back from the Golden Palace.

"Is everything done?" he asked in a low voice, his voice hoarse and full of heartache.

Murong Yan hummed muffledly in his arms, and after a long while, she raised her head.

Her eyes were a little red, not from crying, but from extreme emotional fluctuations. Her eyes held a cold emptiness, and a madness that was almost paranoid.

"They all want you dead." She looked at him, her voice carrying a subtle grievance, but more of a chilling murderous intent. "I will make all those who want you dead die ugly first."

Lin Zhen's heart was shaken, both by the deep emotion contained in her words and by the almost pathological possessive and protective desire. He held her face in his hands, looked deeply into her eyes, and vowed in a sonorous and gentle voice:

"With Yan'er here, no one can hurt me. My heart, my life, has long been yours. As long as it's for you, even if it means making the whole world my enemy, I will gladly accept it and will not refuse even if it means death."

He lowered his head and lovingly kissed away the faint moisture in the corners of her eyes. "Don't bother yourself with those ants. I feel bad for you. My Yan'er, you deserve to be happy forever and shouldn't be disturbed by these filthy things."

Murong Yan seemed to be soothed by his words of love and kisses, and her violent emotions gradually calmed down. She buried her face back into his warm neck, her voice low and dependent: "Hold me tight and don't let go, I'm tired."

"Okay, hold Yan'er and never let go." Lin Zhen lifted her up and walked towards the warm bed in the inner room. His voice was so gentle that it could drip water. "I'll make a bowl of calming soup for Yan'er and read you some travel notes, okay? Forget about the outside world. Only I will accompany you."

Outside the palace, the setting sun was as red as blood, illuminating the imperial city that had just experienced a brutal purge like a literary inquisition.

Inside Fenghuan Palace, candlelight flickered, and a man and a woman who held the power of life and death hugged each other tightly.

Brutal suppression and extreme tenderness, witnessed by this "divine phoenix dress", are strangely and closely intertwined.

The phoenix on the gorgeous dress is still gorgeous under the candlelight, but it also seems to be surrounded by invisible blood light, foreshadowing that this monstrous killing caused by love is perhaps just the prelude to a longer story.