After Zhao Han left, she naturally knew that news of her becoming emperor would soon cause a tremendous uproar within the Jia Family.
And indeed, it did.
Jia Tanchun, Jia Yingchun, Jia Xichun, and Jia Yuanchun, whom she had hidden away long ago, spent half a month walking as if on air after their initial shock.
They always felt as though they had not woken up.
They always felt as though they were dreaming.
"I must still be dreaming, right?" Yuanchun sighed in a secluded little courtyard where she lived alone.
The flowers outside had bloomed and withered for two years already.
Even now, she could not believe that her brother had used the ruse of a false death from illness to get her out of that unspeakable place.
She had never lived well there.
Not a single day had she truly smiled.
That was why, when she saw her brother's smile and her sisters' smiles, she had been so moved that she had disregarded the strict boundaries of propriety and let them live together in the same courtyard.
She had never imagined that her family would somehow become the imperial clan.
This was the imperial clan.
Ordinary people did not understand what that meant.
But having lived in the palace for many years, how could she not know the weight of it? It meant that as long as she did not act recklessly, she would not die.
She would no longer have to tread carefully, no longer have to worry that eating a little too much or giving off an unpleasant smell would anger the emperor and get her dragged out for a beating.
The Imperial Palace's rules were far too strict.
They simply did not treat people as people.
Even the Empress was merely a tool.
Unless she