Once I Step Down, It Will Be for the Rest of My Life!

When she was young, her late father had told her what conditions heralded the fall of a dynasty—

An empty treasury;

Frequent natural disasters;

Rebels everywhere;

A suffering populace;

Dynasties fell in all manner of ways, but the fall of every old dynasty was accompanied by the birth of a new one.

Didn't the situation before her match the scenes from the second simulation perfectly?

Mu Xuehuang's face involuntarily paled, and her breathing quickened.

She could not accept such a thing happening.

If rebels were the only threat the future held, she would still have the confidence to turn everything around.

But now, besides the threat of rebels, there were such merciless natural disasters and man-made calamities.

A sense of helplessness rose in Mu Xuehuang's heart.

Heaven's decree was beyond reckoning. How could she defy heaven with her meager human strength?

"Will... Great Li truly meet its end in my hands?"

Mu Xuehuang bit her red lip and murmured to herself.

She refused to accept it!

The thought of Great Li, which her forebears had defended with their lives, being destroyed in her hands filled Mu Xuehuang with profound guilt.

"No... it won't!"

Mu Xuehuang shook her head fiercely. Once again, a determination and stubbornness beyond her years surfaced on her face. "Great Li must never fall in my hands. Even if I die, I will never become a sinner condemned for all eternity!"

"Yes... I will change all of this!"

Mu Xuehuang clenched her teeth, her gaze resolute, and kept murmuring to herself, "Now that I know floods and droughts will happen in the future, I just need to take precautions beforehand..."

Just then, something jolted in Mu Xuehuang's mind, and she involuntarily recalled that morning's court session.

Yue Zhenling, a veteran minister who had served two reigns, had offered one suggestion after another to improve the people's livelihoods.

That's right!

Yue Zhenling was an expert in this field, and he was eager to focus on the people's welfare.

Yue Zhenling was a veteran of two reigns, an old minister who had already entered the palace for an audience during the reign of Mu Xuehuang's grandfather, the late emperor.

Unlike the other hereditary nobles, Yue Zhenling had been born into poverty. Only through years of studying by a cold window had he passed the examinations and made it to Capital City.

Precisely because of that, he cared all the more about the people's suffering.

Yue Zhenling truly served as an official to benefit the common people!

With him around, such disasters should be preventable...

Mu Xuehuang weighed the matter in her heart.

In his earlier years, Yue Zhenling had proposed several policies to benefit the people: reclaiming wasteland, encouraging cultivation, and building irrigation works.

Now that she had learned of the coming disasters beforehand, she could assign Yue Zhenling to take preventive measures.

For instance, building levees to hold back floods;

Building dams to guard against drought;

And so on...

Mu Xuehuang's eyes grew brighter and brighter, and her confidence in facing the future steadily increased.

Human resolve could conquer heaven; success depended on human effort.

As long as she knew beforehand and took precautions, she would surely be able to change the future!

Mu Xuehuang firmly believed this!

Soon, however, the scene faded to black.

A new scene appeared.

This time, it was inside the great hall.

The white-haired, stooped veteran minister who had served two reigns stood in the hall.

His spine remained unbowed, his face solemn and resolute.

He gazed at the glittering golden throne above the court, and at the breathtakingly beautiful Empress seated upon it in her phoenix crown and ceremonial robes.

His gaze grew a little unfocused.

For a fleeting moment, he seemed to see the late emperor.

Yet the woman seated before him was that emperor's granddaughter...

Without realizing it, he had already served three generations of the imperial family...

Yue Zhenling closed his eyes deeply. His face held reluctance, wistfulness, and... acceptance!

When he opened his eyes again, his gaze was perfectly clear.

He looked at the Empress before him and bowed with his hands clasped. "Your Majesty, I... am stepping down!"

"And once I step down, it will be for the rest of my life!"

Then, before Mu Xuehuang and all the civil and military officials, he removed his official robes.

He took off his official hat.

And simply walked out of the palace.

The great hall fell deathly silent.

At that moment, every civil and military official stared in shock at this stunning sight.

Whether they had once been Yue Zhenling's enemies or his friends, their hearts were now filled with a jumble of emotions.

"No, no, no... how can this happen?"

"How can Minister Yue step down? Minister Yue mustn't step down!"

Watching the scene, Mu Xuehuang panicked.

She still needed Yue Zhenling to prevent the coming floods and droughts!

How could he step down?

And the words "once I step down, it will be for the rest of my life" echoed deep in Mu Xuehuang's ears like a demonic refrain lingering in the rafters.

She was deeply shaken.

She could hear it: Yue Zhenling was disappointed in her, and in the entire court.

That was why he was laying aside his armor and returning to his fields.

While the watching Mu Xuehuang grew frantic, the Mu Xuehuang in the scene remained cold and haughty.

As she watched Yue Zhenling's retreating back, a flicker of anger flashed through her eyes.

"Let him go! I refuse to believe this dynasty will collapse just because Yue Zhenling is gone!"

"He's served three reigns. It's time he retired! Even without Yue Zhenling, I can weather this flood!"

Mu Xuehuang's furious roars echoed throughout the great hall.

"Pfft!"

The Mu Xuehuang watching the simulation nearly spat blood.

She almost fainted.

Why was her future self so obstinate and self-righteous?

She could not handle a flood like this!

Neither could anyone else!

It had to be Yue Zhenling!

Yet he had gone and retired to his hometown!

And she still hadn't realized how serious the situation was!

Just as Mu Xuehuang watched in mounting anxiety, the scene changed again.

To Mu Xuehuang, this was nothing short of hell on earth.

She was no ornamental vase; she had truly been on the battlefield. Yet the sight before her still sent an inexplicable chill through her.

Everywhere the view passed, there were ghastly white bones!

Countless refugees had died in this disaster, their corpses strewn across the land and exposed to the scorching sun.

Then a ragged figure who looked like a beggar approached, leaning on a walking stick as he limped toward a corpse.

He took out a knife, sliced flesh and skin straight off the dead body, and stuffed it into his mouth.

That year, drought struck Jiangnan, and people devoured one another!

Those two lines were the best description of the scene before her.

The drought had withered every crop. There was simply no food to eat.

To survive, the refugees could only eat the flesh of the dead.

They did not care that flies buzzed around them or that the flesh already stank.

Later, people were no longer satisfied with eating human flesh.

They slit open the bellies of the dead with daggers, hoping to drink a little human blood.

There was no water, so they could only use human blood in its place.

But the corpses had been dead for too long, and all the blood inside had drained away.

Only shriveled lumps of flesh remained.

One by one, the people's eyes turned hollow. Sallow and emaciated, they resembled walking corpses.

Finally, one refugee could bear it no longer.

He picked up a dagger and viciously plunged it into the belly of someone beside him.

Blood instantly poured out.

Every refugee's eyes lit up.

"Water! I see water!"

"Everyone, come drink! Water... water..."

Everyone swarmed forward, split the wounded person's belly open, and drank their fill of the blood that flowed out.

The sight made Mu Xuehuang feel sick, her insides churning like rivers and seas overturning.

She had never imagined that drought could drive the refugees into such madness, reducing them to devouring their own kind...

Hmm?

No!

This scene must be some time after the disaster began. Why hadn't any effective relief measures been taken?

I understand now!

It must have something to do with Minister Yue's departure!