Transmigrating Female Supreme: The Peerless Husband Depends on Me

"I came to power at the age of sixteen, and in the past thirty years..." She suddenly choked.

I recalled the rosewood screen presented by the Zhao family on the empress's birthday last year. In the pattern of nine phoenixes facing the sun, the eyes of the leading phoenix were made of rubies, a specialty of Prince Ning'an's fiefdom.

The bronze bell rang again, this time it was the gilded wind chime on the eaves of the Cining Palace.

The Queen Mother looked up suddenly. This bell was hung by Ning An herself when she was ten years old. She said, "When the Queen Mother is tired of reviewing memorials, she can listen to it."

Now the ringing of the bell seemed to be mixed with the child's sneer: "The result of you turning a blind eye is that my sister will turn the court into a sieve!"

Beneath the paperweight on the desk was the empress's letter of greeting from yesterday, and between the lines were words praising the Zhao family's daughter for her "prudence and preservation of the status quo."

The Emperor suddenly grabbed the inkstone and smashed it against the Panlong Pillar, splattering ink like blood.

She knew why the Empress was feigning ignorance—the Zhao family controlled 60% of the Northern Frontier's grain and fodder, and the Empress's trusted general was in Northern Frontier...

"Someone come here!" The Queen Mother broke the Buddhist beads on her wrist, "Go and check how much 'rouge' the Zhao family has sent to the palace recently!" She deliberately emphasized the last two words.

The female official's face turned pale instantly - in the palace code, "rouge" refers to the frontier military report.

At three o'clock that night, the secret guard presented a secret report: in the "rouge box" presented by the Zhao family to the empress, there was a blood letter from the generals of the northern border requesting reinforcements.

The Emperor unfolded the blood-stained silk in front of the candlelight, and on the back was Prince Ning'an's unique secret mark - half a tiger talisman pattern.

"Okay..." The Grand Emperor suddenly chuckled, startling the crows roosting outside the palace. "My dear daughter, with the lives of the soldiers at the border..."

She opened the last page of Su Yue's secret letter. The small characters circled in cinnabar were now as sharp as a blade: "When the canal route is changed, we must guard against unrest in the northern border."

The bronze mirror reflected her instantly aged face.

In the mirror, he seemed to see Ning An kneeling in the snow and shouting, "Mother! My sister is making a deal with the Zhao family!" And how did she respond? A slap in the face and the words, "How shameless for sisters to quarrel with each other!"

Now she finally understood why Ning An burned down the palace and committed suicide that night - it was not because he was heartbroken, but because he wanted to use the flames to destroy the evidence of treason and himself, so as to save his son's life.

"Draft an edict." The Grand Emperor grabbed the wolf-hair brush left by the previous emperor, and the ink dripped onto the bright yellow silk like congealed blood. "The Spring Examination will be re-examined, and I will attend in person."

The tip of her pen suddenly stopped, and she stared at the ink shadow swaying in the inkstone - was it the shadow of the Zhao family reflected there, or the disaster she had indulged in?

The lights in the palace were dim all night long. The empress clenched the secret report in her hand inch by inch, her knuckles turned white, and the paper turned into powder in her palm.

"Your Majesty, the Emperor has ordered the Ministry of Rites to be sealed. All transcribers and examiners have been taken to the Dali Temple to await trial."

The secret guard knelt on the ground and lowered his voice to a very low voice, "The Zhao family...Mr. Zhao has been dismissed and investigated."

The empress's eyes were gloomy and her fingertips tapped lightly on the dragon table.

Of course she knew the Zhao family was greedy, but she hadn't expected them to be so foolish as to take the top spot directly! If it were an ordinary ranking, even if a few more girls from aristocratic families were squeezed in, the emperor would just turn a blind eye.

But the top spot on the list has always attracted much attention, but now it is occupied by Zhao Minglan, who can't even recite the entire "Analects of Confucius" - this is simply trampling on the face of the emperor!

"Su Yue..." The empress read out the name coldly.

She should have thought of it earlier. A woman from a farming family was able to run such a large business in just a few years, and even dared to interfere in the Yangzhou Canal Transport. How could she be a simple character?

She originally thought that Su Yue was just a poor scholar with some talent, but now it seems that this woman is so scheming and cunning that she even managed to win over the emperor in advance!

"Your Majesty, the Zhao family sent someone to deliver a secret letter..." The personal female official carefully presented a letter written in blood.

The empress took a glance, sneered, and threw the letter directly into the charcoal brazier.

The flames instantly swallowed up the Zhao family's final pleas - how dare they ask her for help?

"Issue the decree." The empress's voice was icy. "The evidence of Zhao Minglan's fraud is irrefutable. He is to be exiled to Lingnan immediately and never employed again. The Zhao family will be stripped of their titles and dismissed from office as a warning to others."

The female official's heart trembled: "Then Mr. Zhao..."

"She's old, it's time for her to retire," the empress said calmly. "As for the Northern Frontier Military Report..." Her fingertips gently stroked an unopened secret letter on the table, the final evidence of the Zhao family's correspondence with the Northern Frontier generals. "Burn it."

The secret guards received the order and retreated, and silence returned to the hall.

The empress stood alone in front of the window, looking towards the direction of the emperor's bedroom, her eyes dark and unclear.

"Your Majesty handled it quickly." The emperor listened to the female official's report, and a hint of sneer appeared on his lips. "The Zhao family has become a discarded child?"

The female official did not dare to respond, but only respectfully presented the empress's disposal document.

The retired emperor glanced at her and suddenly chuckled, "She is smart. She knows what I hate the most." The empress did not mention the Northern Frontier Military Report at all. She only convicted him of cheating in the imperial examination, which saved the court's face and preserved her own reputation.

"Mother Queen." The Empress's voice suddenly came from outside the palace. She had arrived without anyone noticing, dressed in plain clothes and without a crown, as if she were apologizing.

The emperor raised his eyes and looked at her quietly.

"I failed to discipline my child properly, which led to such a scandal in the Spring Examination. Please punish me, Mother." The empress knelt on the ground, her voice heavy with grief.

The emperor stared at her and suddenly remembered that many years ago, Ning An had also knelt in the snow like this, looking up stubbornly and saying, "Your son is right!"

——One is too smart, the other is too stubborn.

"Get up." The emperor finally waved his hand tiredly. "Now that you have dealt with it, the matter ends here."

The empress secretly breathed a sigh of relief, but then she heard the emperor say again: "That Su Yue... I want to meet her."

Everyone in the Su Mansion gathered together, "The Zhao family has fallen?" Su Yue raised his eyebrows and looked at Shen Yunyan who had just received the secret letter.

Shen Yunyan nodded: "The Empress herself issued an order to exile Zhao Minglan and strip the Zhao family of their titles."

Shangguan Haochen sneered: "Sacrificing the rook to save the king is quite decisive."

Su Yue looked towards the palace, her eyes dark. "The more decisive she is, the more it shows that the situation in the Northern Frontier is not simple."

Mu Feng stroked her pregnant belly and whispered, "The Emperor wants to see you. Is it a blessing or a curse?"

"Good or bad fortune is hard to predict." Su Yue chuckled, "But at least our names should be back on the list."

On the day when the results of the Spring Examination were announced, the entire capital was in an uproar.

At the top of the list, the words "Su Yue" were clearly written.

Lu Lingyun's name was also among the top two, while people like Zhao Minglan had long become the talk of the streets.

"Is it that simple?" Shangguan Haochen looked at the notice board in disbelief. "I thought there would be at least one more commotion."

Shangguan Haomu chuckled, his fingertips gently stroking the account book hidden in his sleeve: "The Supreme Emperor is expressing his position." - The account book recorded every "transaction" between the Zhao family and the generals of the Northern Frontier, and now it has become a sword hanging over the head of the empress.

Shen Yunyan squeezed back from the crowd and lowered his voice, saying, "Just got the news. Xiaofan's coming-of-age ceremony will be on the fifth day of next month, and the Emperor will preside over it personally."

Su Yue's eyes flickered slightly. The fifth day of the first lunar month was the anniversary of Prince Ning'an's death.