Tangli Fried Snow

Ruyi stayed by the Empress Dowager's side, sometimes crying and sometimes laughing. When she wasn't crying or laughing, she couldn't help but think of many things from the past.

She is thirty-one years old this year.

From as far back as she could remember, she knew that her family had always been very poor. They were so poor that they only had two good pairs of pants, and whoever went out wore them. Her father wore them to work, her mother wore them to farm, her older brother wore them to fetch water, and her older sister wore them to gather firewood. Those who didn't have pants would go naked in the summer and huddle on the kang (a heated brick bed) in the winter to keep warm under the covers.

When my second sister grew up, she no longer wanted to run around the village naked. She would come home and make a scene, all she wanted was for a piece of clothing from her mother. Her father would beat her severely and punish her by not letting her eat dinner. The next day, my second sister fell ill. The family had no money for medicine, and a simple illness took her life. She was only six years old and had never had a full meal. Ruyi still remembers that when my second sister died, only a thin layer of skin covered her ribs. She was so small, yet my grandfather complained that it would take a 1.2-meter-long tattered mat to wrap her up. My second sister was buried by my grandfather on the back hill.

One year, it didn't rain for several months, and the crops failed. My father first sold my eldest sister to a wealthy family as a concubine, in exchange for some rice and money. Later, the rain still didn't come, and one day my eldest brother fell ill. To pay for his treatment, my father sold her as well. I can no longer remember what my mother looked like, but I remember her holding my hand and saying to me, "Little girl, wherever you go, you must live. You must live well."

She was only five years old at the time, and she doesn't remember most of the other things, but she does remember this sentence: "Live well."

When she first met Aunt Zhuxiao, she was only twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old, as beautiful as a fairy from heaven. Fate is so wonderful; out of so many children, she took a liking to her at first sight. She bathed and fed her, and even gave her a brand new set of clothes to wear. The fairy said, "From now on, your name will be Ruyi. You are my daughter. At home, you can call me Mother, and outside, you must call me Aunt."

Since leaving with Aunt Zhuxiao, I have never gone hungry again.

Being able to eat one's fill and having new clothes and shoes to wear, Little Ruyi thought, "How wonderful it would be if I could always live such a good life."

She was taught many rules and regulations, and then lived in the Empress Dowager's palace. At that time, the Emperor was only ten years old and studied diligently every day, while the eldest princess was only eight years old and busy learning embroidery. She followed the eldest princess around, running around happily every day. Even the wind felt sweet back then.

The Empress Dowager was then the Crown Princess. She was so beautiful and gentle, and she spent her days making little clothes and shoes for the baby in her womb. But one cold, rainy night, she was carried in, her dress stained with blood. She cried out in pain until midnight, and finally gave birth to a child the size of a palm. Aunt Zhuxiao said it was a boy.

Whether that child was buried in the back mountain like her second sister, Ruyi didn't know. But little Ruyi finally understood from that day that whether rich or poor, everyone is born into suffering. It's just that the suffering experienced by different people is different. The suffering of the poor is poverty, which can be devastating. The suffering of kings and rich people is both physically and emotionally devastating.

From that day on, she began to live cautiously, trembling with fear every day, as if walking on thin ice. She was no longer afraid of starving to death, but was afraid that someone would kill Aunt Zhuxiao and the Crown Princess in their sleep. For the past twenty years, she has been careful in everything she does, meticulous in everything she does, without any omissions. It is simply because she lives in fear all the time, because if she is not careful, they will die.

Finally, the Emperor ascended the throne, and the Empress became the Empress Dowager. They thought life would finally be peaceful and happy, and that they, the women, could finally live a more relaxed and enjoyable life. Finally, everything would go as they wished.

Who knew that the emperor would fall seriously ill again, and with wars raging in both the south and the north, a tense and uneasy atmosphere filled everyone's hearts once more.

Ha, who would have thought that a meat pie could kill Mother? Mother was already full, but I said she hadn't eaten enough and kept nagging her to eat more.

If my mother dies like this, how can I face the world?

She had even planned how she would die: after drinking a cup of poisoned wine, she would go with her mother.

Amidst a multitude of thoughts, the Empress Dowager softly called out, "Ruyi."

Ruyi snapped out of her daze, quickly put on a smiling face, and replied in a hoarse voice, "Empress Dowager."

Seeing that she was frightened today, the Empress Dowager first comforted her and then instructed her, "Go and find that little palace maid. I have some questions for her."

Ruyi smiled and said, "Okay, I'll go call her right now."