"They managed to return to the capital this time through the Empress Dowager's connections," Lady Di added. "The Empress Dowager's birthday is approaching, and she expressed her wish to see the Sima family. The Emperor couldn't very well refuse her. Come to think of it, the Empress Dowager and the Sima clan are cousins."
Yi Qing thought that being cousins didn't really mean much here. After all, in most families, there could be a dozen or even dozens of paternal cousins, and it was quite normal to have dozens or even hundreds of maternal cousins. Whether they knew each other or not was another matter.
This kinship wasn't that important. What really mattered was the relationship between the two.
From Lady Di, Yi Qing learned more about the Empress Dowager.
The Empress Dowager wasn't the Emperor's biological mother. She was a lady-in-waiting beside the Emperor's mother, Empress Dowager Anyi, when the latter was young. She was very proper in her conduct, so she was highly regarded. Later, during Empress Dowager Anyi's pregnancy, she was given to the Emperor to gain his favor and later became a beauty in Empress Dowager Anyi's palace.
Later, Empress Dowager Anyi's family suffered a great change. She fell out of favor with the late Emperor and was badly mistreated in the palace. Unable to bear it any longer, she fled the deep palace with the young Emperor.
Empress Dowager Anyi soon fell seriously ill and passed away, leaving the young and innocent Emperor to the current Empress Dowager.
The Empress Dowager had raised the Emperor with great hardship. At first, she was just carrying out Empress Dowager Anyi's last wish to raise the Emperor well and let him live as an ordinary person. But unexpectedly, the Emperor soared to great heights, and because of her upbringing, she became the Empress Dowager.
"The Emperor respects the Empress Dowager very much," Lady Di said.
Yi Qing immediately pictured the image of the Empress Dowager in "My Fair Princess" who always took sides.
The Empress Dowager would surely side with the Sima family, and she herself was just like the unlucky Xia Zi who was targeted.
"Wait a minute, Lady Di," Yi Qing suddenly remembered something. "The Emperor and Xiao Jinghan have known each other since they were young. Does that mean the Empress Dowager also knows Xiao Jinghan?"
Maybe that poor boy, Xiao Jinghan, who had a scumbag father and a stepmother and was in a worse situation than an orphan, even often went to the Emperor's house to mooch off meals.
"Of course she does, and the Empress Dowager likes him very much."
"But Xiao Jinghan and the Yianbo Mansion are at odds with each other, and the root cause is still the Sima family. Does the Empress Dowager know about this?"
This was what puzzled Yi Qing. In her opinion, if the Empress Dowager liked Xiao Jinghan, she should have known his situation well and stood up for him.
Lady Di hesitated for a moment. She got up, walked to the door, and peeked outside. Seeing that there was no one in the courtyard, she closed the door and came back in a low voice. "I'll only tell you this. The Empress Dowager is a very kind person, but she's just a bit gullible... Back then, she was forced by her stepmother to the point that she had nowhere to go and had to enter the palace as a lady-in-waiting. But after she became successful, she treated her stepmother and several siblings very well."
Yi Qing immediately understood. This was really the Virgin Empress Dowager!
The world must be in harmony, broken mirrors must be reunited, and she just loved happy endings!
"So now, the Empress Dowager," Lady Di continued, "probably doesn't mean any harm. She probably just hopes for everyone to get along in harmony."
Harmony? There was no such thing.
They had treated Xiao Jinghan so badly. Why should they still benefit from him?
Yi Qing asked, "If the people from the Yianbo Mansion come to snatch things, who will the Empress Dowager side with?"
"Well, she'll probably try to smooth things over..."
That meant she would help the Sima family snatch things and then say that they were all Xiao Jinghan's family and should get along well. Yi Qing could already picture what was going to happen in the future.
So what she was facing wasn't just a vicious stepmother-in-law but also a muddle-headed but high-ranking Empress Dowager who inexplicably supported the stepmother-in-law.
No wonder the dog Emperor was so shrewd. With such a kind-hearted but overly benevolent foster mother, if he wasn't tough, he would have been eaten up long ago.
Lady Di lowered her voice and said, "There's another reason. The Empress Dowager isn't the Emperor's biological mother, but she has received so many honors. I'm afraid she feels a bit uneasy in her heart. So, she's very willing to promote the reconciliation between the Sima family and the Xiao Mansion. You should understand this feeling, right?"
Understand? Of course she did.
The logic of the Virgin was naturally that love could move the heavens. They were all a family, and there were no knots that couldn't be untied. Everyone should live in harmony, and they would always be a family.
Everyone was for themselves. Subconsciously, the Empress Dowager always thought from her own perspective.
— She had raised the Emperor with great hardship, and now it was time to reap the rewards. The Emperor mustn't forget his roots.
At the same time, to ease her conscience, she would keep interfering in the reconciliation between stepmothers and stepchildren who had no blood relation and even had grudges against each other, to prove that even without blood relation, there could still be a kind mother and a filial son... Since others could do it, and she had raised the Emperor, of course, she should be respected by him.
Before, Yi Qing had complained that the dog Emperor was useless for bringing the Yianbo family back. But now, after hearing Lady Di's words, she understood that the dog Emperor was also helpless under the pressure of "filial piety."
If he didn't agree, he would be unfilial to the Empress Dowager and would be forgetting his roots. The Empress Dowager would feel uneasy, and there would probably be other critical voices.
So what if he was sitting on the throne?
He was still being labeled and still being kidnapped by secular and public opinions.
Lady Di said, "I've said so much just to tell you to be careful. Sometimes, taking a small loss is actually a gain. If you're caught with a handle, you may suffer a great loss. After all, there's the Empress Dowager behind the Sima family."
Yi Qing nodded. She didn't want Lady Di to worry about her, but a cold and sharp look flashed in her eyes.
The Sima family, who not only snatched someone else's husband but also abused someone else's son, was so evil that they were rotten to the core. Would they know when to stop?
They were like sharks in the deep sea. Once they smelled blood and tasted the benefits, they wouldn't stop until they had swallowed their prey whole.
After Lady Di left, Xiao Tian said, "Don't worry. The Emperor knows everything that happened back then, so he will surely side with you. After all, this is still the Emperor's world, and the Empress Dowager is the Emperor's mother."
Yi Qing was amused by him. "Do you mean to let the Emperor handle his own mother?"
"The Yianbo was allowed to return to the capital by him, so he should be responsible for it," Xiao Tian said proudly.
Yi Qing stroked her chin, deep in thought, with a playful look in her eyes.
"What are you thinking?" Xiao Tian could tell from her expression that she was up to something.
"The general trend of the world is that long division must be followed by unity, and long unity must be followed by division!" Yi Qing said in a deliberately profound tone. "I never thought that now I'm on the same boat as the Emperor."
Xiao Tian's eyes were full of affection, but he still said, "Just talk like this at home. Don't say such things outside. It's disrespectful."
Yi Qing didn't answer. She rolled her eyes and suddenly slapped the table. "No, I feel like I've been tricked by the dog Emperor!"
As soon as she said this, Xiao Tian's eyes almost popped out. "What did you say?"
"I said he tricked me!"
"No, I'm talking about your address for the Emperor."
Yi Qing:... Sorry, she was too excited and blurted out her true feelings. Dog Emperor, dog Emperor!
"You'd better not even think of such an address in your heart in the future. I'm afraid you might blurt it out one day," Xiao Tian sighed and admonished.