Granddaughter and Grandfather
After lunch, the coal delivery driver arrived in his truck, and Liu Chang'an helped unload the coal briquettes, stacking them in rows under the stairs, even piling some on top of Lu Si'en's doghouse.
Fewer and fewer households in the city still burn coal briquettes. Apart from these very old neighborhoods and streets, they are almost nowhere to be seen in newly built neighborhoods and development areas.
Liu Chang'an recalled that in the old days, people would do things themselves rather than ask others to do them, and the same was true for making coal briquettes.
I bought a cartload of coal, dumped it in the yard, broke up the large pieces, filtered out the coal dust with a sieve, mixed it with yellow soil and water, and then used molds to make coal balls. After drying them, they were ready.
Making these handmade coal briquettes is time-consuming and labor-intensive, so now everyone buys machine-made briquettes... In fact, flammable and environmentally friendly honeycomb briquettes have basically replaced these old-fashioned briquette recipes.
Once all the coal briquettes were stacked, Shangguan Dandan came out of the room. After watching Liu Chang'an pay, she waved to the coal deliveryman.
Although he didn't know why the beautiful girl who suddenly appeared was waving at him, the driver smiled and nodded, then drove away.
Shangguan Dandan looked at the pile of coal briquettes at the bottom of the stairs and smiled happily. She patted her chest with her hands, then stood in front of Liu Chang'an, leaned into his arms, looked up at him, and seemed quite satisfied.
"Doesn't this feel like the loving mother and filial son you've always longed for?" Liu Chang'an glanced at her and knew exactly what she was thinking.
Shangguan Dandan nodded, turned around, and tiptoed, trying to touch Liu Chang'an's head to express her affection. However, Liu Chang'an didn't know how to cooperate and didn't realize that he should lower his head so that she could reach him.
Shangguan Dandan jumped a few times, then gave up.
Liu Chang'an pressed her head down, then pushed her away. After thinking for a moment, he tapped her nose. "You wait."
Shangguan Dandan tilted her head to watch Liu Chang'an go upstairs, wondering what he was going to do.
Shangguan Dandan first carried a coal briquette back to the storage room, then used the kettle lid to fill a cup with effervescent water and drank it. She then sat on Liu Chang'an's recliner and looked up at the sparse leaves of the sycamore tree.
It is already late autumn, nearing winter.
At this moment, a tall, handsome man with fair skin and clear features came down from upstairs.
He was wearing a long robe and cloth shoes, and looked at Shangguan Dandan with a smile on his face.
Shangguan Dandan's fingers, which were holding the lid of the teapot, trembled slightly for a moment. An incredulous light flashed in her eyes as she slowly stood up.
This was the first powerful minister in history to depose and install emperors, and also a meritorious official who truly and thoroughly drove out the Xiongnu, allowing the people to recuperate and ushering in the Zhaoxuan Restoration.
Huo Guang, the foremost of the eleven meritorious officials of the Unicorn Pavilion.
"Grandfather." Shangguan Dandan put down the lid of the pot and the thermos, instantly transforming from a young girl holding the pot back into the poise and elegance of an empress dowager, bowing slightly in greeting.
After Huo Guang exterminated Shangguan Jie and his son, Shangguan Dandan stopped calling Huo Guang "maternal grandfather" and was instead required by Huo Guang to become "grandfather". Huo Guang would bow to her in court, but in private, Shangguan Dandan still treated Huo Guang with the respect due to a junior.
"Good."
Huo Guang patted Shangguan Dandan's head, "Say it again."
"Grandfather." Shangguan Dandan revealed a deliberately friendly smile.
After shouting, Shangguan Dandan realized something was wrong and couldn't help but raise her head with some doubt. Her maternal grandfather should actually be taller. Even when he was old and frail, he was still as tall as the man in front of him. The man in front of her looked like her maternal grandfather in his prime, but his height was the same as when he was old.
"Haha..." Liu Chang'an laughed loudly. This "Huo Guang" was, of course, his disguise. He still reached out and patted Shangguan Dandan's head, "My dear granddaughter."
"You... you..." Shangguan Dandan finally reacted. In the end, Huo Guang's imposing aura was too deeply ingrained in her mind. At first, Shangguan Dandan didn't even notice that his aura was off. Just looking at that familiar face, she couldn't help but return to the state of mind she had been suppressing in the Everlasting Palace back then.
Shangguan Dandan angrily picked up the lid of her teapot, downed the cup of effervescent water she had just poured, and glared at Liu Chang'an with a wet mouth.
"Your subjects kowtow and beg for death. The reason why the Emperor can forever preserve the ancestral temples and unify the realm is based on benevolence, filial piety, propriety, and rewards and punishments... The King of Changyi, Yi, succeeded to the throne, wore mourning clothes, showed no grief, abandoned propriety, did not eat vegetarian food on the road, and had his officials abduct women to be transported to his residence before he could pay homage. He was then made Crown Prince and often secretly bought chickens and pigs for food. Before receiving the Emperor's imperial seal and official seal, he would open the seal without sealing it... When the Emperor was in the front hall, he would play musical instruments from the Music Bureau, and have musicians from Changyi perform drumming, singing, and acting as entertainers... He would ride in the imperial carriage, with leather canopy and phoenix banners, and gallop through the North Palace and Cassia Palace, playing with pigs and fighting tigers. He would summon the Empress Dowager to ride in a small carriage, with servants riding it, and play games in the inner palace. He would also have illicit relations with Meng and other palace women of Emperor Xiaozhao..."
Liu Chang'an read a passage from "Memorial to Depose the King of Changyi," which was a memorial submitted by Yang Chang to Shangguan Dandan on Huo Guang's orders. It contained a bunch of messy charges, even including things like playing with the Empress Dowager's carriage.
As for the emperor's licentiousness, does that even count as licentiousness? If an emperor isn't licentious, what's the point of having a harem? It's truly a case of finding fault where none exists.
After the memorial was submitted, Shangguan Dandan knew that her stepson's power was gone. Among those who submitted the memorial were the Prime Minister, the Grand Manager Sima and General, the General of Chariots and Cavalry, the General of the Vanguard and the General of the Rear, the Imperial Censor, and so on. All of them were later among the eleven meritorious officials of the Unicorn Pavilion.
"Why are you reading this?" Shangguan Dandan said angrily, her cheeks flushed. "I've already tried my best to protect you... You... If it weren't for that night... If it weren't for that night you forced me to have illicit relations with your wet nurses, I wouldn't have petitioned Yang Chang to depose you. You mean: fine."
Back then, everything required a legitimate reason. Otherwise, with Huo Guang's power, in a different dynasty, the emperor could have been deposed so easily. Why would he need so many reasons and so many people to put on a show? Under the circumstances, if Shangguan Dandan hadn't given his approval and issued an edict, the emperor wouldn't have been so easily deposed.
Similarly, Huo Guang's merits were undeniable. Although the imperial family was wary of this powerful minister whose achievements overshadowed the emperor, they still listed him as the first among the eleven meritorious officials in the Unicorn Pavilion. This was because Huo Guang's actions during his lifetime were all justified. Even though the Liu family emperors later destroyed the Huo Clan, they did not banish Huo Guang to the mortal realm as well.
Liu Chang'an coughed lightly and stroked his long beard.
Women just love to bring up old grievances; they can even bring up things from over two thousand years ago.
It's one thing for them to bring up old grievances, but the real problem is that they do so completely without any reason.
As long as she feels she has been wronged or taken advantage of, she doesn't care what the actual situation was, whose responsibility it was, or who caused the consequences.
Liu Chang'an didn't care about taking the blame, but since Shangguan Dandan kept bringing it up, he would have to write a story called "The Bloody Night of the Everlasting Palace" to explain it clearly someday.
"First, I didn't force you. You were just curious and mingled with the palace maids. Second, I was conducting an experiment, not engaging in promiscuity. Third, I explained that night that the wine contained my essence-regulating drug, which would maximize the body's potential and potentially cause uncontrollable, irrational impulses despite being sober. You still chose to drink it; that was your own choice. Why has it become all my fault?" Liu Chang'an calmly reasoned with Shangguan Dandan.
"Are you trying to reason with me?" Shangguan Dandan looked at Liu Chang'an with disbelief, then raised her hand and grabbed Liu Chang'an's beard.
"Of course, everyone should be reasonable. Does that mean you can be unreasonable?" Liu Chang'an said matter-of-factly, tugging at her fingers. Surprisingly, she was quite strong; how could someone with that much strength not be able to lift a kettle?
"Then isn't it true that you stole my little carriage?" Shangguan Dandan thought for a moment, then calmly brought up a fact recorded in the memorial.
"This... is this even a big deal?" Liu Chang'an admitted that he had thought the little carriage was a bit strange at the time, and some of the patterns and engravings on it even appeared on bronze coffins today. However, he hadn't investigated it at the time and just played with it for a bit before returning it to her... There were many carriages in the Everlasting Palace. As a newcomer, how could he know that it was the Empress Dowager's most beloved little carriage? It was even pulled by two short horses, looking like a child's toy.
"Just say: yes, or no." Shangguan Dandan didn't care whether it was a big deal or not. Many things were like that; if you didn't care, it was a small matter. If she was willing to care, then it was a matter of national importance.
"Yes." A gentleman is open and honest, Liu Chang'an nodded.
"Then why are you saying it wasn't your fault?" Just admit it, Shangguan Dandan wrinkled her nose; the feeling of being so self-righteous made her want to drink some effervescent water.
That's not what I meant...
"It's because you stole my carriage that I was so angry, and that's why I wanted to disguise myself as a palace maid. That's the cause and effect. How can you isolate one event and talk about right and wrong without considering the cause and effect?" Shangguan Dandan stretched out both hands, pulling on Liu Chang'an's beard, standing on tiptoe. "What else do you have to say?"
Liu Chang'an didn't want to reason with her anymore, so he shook his head to indicate that he just didn't want to talk, not that he had nothing to say.
"Since you have nothing to say, I will forgive you for now. After all, those people from back then have all passed away, and only the two of us remain." Shangguan Dandan tugged at his beard again. After all, Huo Guang back then was never the one whose beard was pulled by his granddaughter.
Shangguan Dandan loosened his beard and asked, "Have any of those people from back then had any descendants left?"
"I don't know... but Yang Chang, who wrote the memorial to dismiss me, has descendants who are very prosperous." Liu Chang'an thought for a moment. History is too long, with several dynasties rising and falling, and several purges of aristocratic families. It would be very difficult to verify this now.
"Prime Minister Yang was Sima Qian's son-in-law, and the Manager Sima family's wives were very formidable," Shangguan Dandan said with deep impression.
"Yang Chang was the first ancestor of the Hongnong Yang Clan. Later, a Yang Zhen emerged from their lineage—the Yang Zhen name is known only to Heaven, the Gods, myself, and you. From Yang Zhen onward, the Yang family produced four generations of high-ranking officials. During the Sui Dynasty, they produced Yang Jian, Yang Guang, Yang Su, and Yang Xuangan. In the Tang Dynasty, they were a family of eleven prime ministers. The mothers of Empress Wu Zetian and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang were both from the Yang family. Do you know the Yang Family Generals? Indeed." Liu Chang'an said with a hint of envy, "It's a pity I don't have a single son. Otherwise, raising a powerful family of my own bloodline might have been an interesting thing..."
"How do you know that Prime Minister Yang's descendants are so numerous?"
Baidu.
Is it accurate?
"Just browsing, it's not like I'm doing academic research."
Shangguan Dandan lowered her head and touched her lower abdomen, looking at Liu Chang'an with some worry, "Can I still have a baby?"
She seemed a little envious, but Liu Chang'an had no idea. She wasn't going to be his research subject. He shook his head. "Generally speaking, if you have your period, you should be able to give birth."
Shangguan Dandan blushed slightly. If she had a child, she wouldn't know what to call him.
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What was with yesterday's red envelopes? The book gained 43,000 new favorites! What kind of red envelope was that?!