Fortunes
"After the Grand Princess Was Reborn, the Grand Secretary Could No Longer Sit Still" by Dong Chichi [Complete + extras]
Synopsis
[Rebirth +
Political intrigue
+ Strong male lead
Strong female lead
+ Plenty of foreshadowing + ensemble serious drama style]
[An alluring, charming grand princess who looks innocent but is ruthless inside + an autocratic, dictatorial grand secretary who is a jar of vinegar]
[Important: not a
wish-fulfillment novel
!!!]
As a princess, Zhao Huiluan had been pampered and precious, yet she had died in the prime of her life. Only after she was reborn did she learn that all the boundless favor and glory she had once taken pride in had been an illusion.
Power was most secure only when held in her own hands. By the time she reached the age at which she should have died, she had schemed and striven her way to becoming the most exalted woman under heaven.
She secured imperial power, brought order to the inner palace, and helped her younger brother ascend the throne; she controlled the Eastern Depot, purged her political enemies, and stood as an equal against the Grand Secretariat.
Everything she was supposed to do, and everything she was not, she did.
Chapter 1: Fortunes
"Your Highness! Princess! Would you please come out?"
Zhao Huiluan curled up inside the dim, cramped cabinet, her arms wrapped tightly around herself, but she could not stop trembling.
She had been reborn. She should have been grateful.
But...
"Your Highness, you've locked yourself in there for six hours already. The empress has passed away, and I know you're grieving, but you must take care of yourself. Only then can Her Majesty rest easy in the afterlife."
"I've already sent someone to fetch His Majesty. Whatever grievances you have, you can tell him. His Majesty has always doted on you most..."
As she listened to Xichun, Zhao Huiluan tightened her grip bit by bit, digging into her arms until they ached, yet she made no sound. Not until she heard the words "His Majesty" did a flash of scarlet suddenly surge into her grief-stricken eyes.
She had died in the forty-third year of Yongzhao's reign.
Her imperial father had suddenly passed away, and her younger brother had been on the throne for barely a month when news of the Prince of Jin's rebellion reached the palace. By then, his army was already at the gates of the Yan Capital. She had never seen anything like it. In the space of a day, she had fallen from a pampered, precious grand princess to a prisoner.
After sixteen years of being spoiled, her dignity and proud spirit had been worn away bit by bit under humiliation. She had clung to life like an ant, and when she finally managed to leave the Imperial Prison, she learned that her younger brother had been imprisoned and was gravely ill.
In the most humble, earnest posture, she prostrated herself in the ice and snow, begging only to see her younger brother once. Everyone loathed her, cast her aside, and spat on her; not one person helped her.
She knelt until even her bones ached, and then the Marquis of Annan, a newly powerful figure at court, traded all his military merits for an imperial edict granting him marriage to her. The Marquis of Annan brought an army physician to attend to her younger brother, whose condition improved day by day. Life seemed to offer hope again.
She thought wealth, honor, and power were like clouds and smoke; being alive was enough.
But her younger brother died suddenly on New Year's Eve. Only then did she realize that even such a small wish was a luxury beyond their reach.
Her status as the Marchioness of Annan was a useful shield. None of the guards dared hurt her, and with reddened eyes, she killed everyone who stood in her way. But she could not kill the new emperor, who sat high above them all.
She hated her own helplessness. She had been unable to protect anything and could only watch her enemy strut and swagger in her own home.
Grief and despair bound her like shackles, and resentment and hatred swallowed her whole. She bared her neck and slit her own throat, preserving the last shred of her dignity.
She had never imagined that heaven would give her another chance.
Reborn in the thirty-fourth year of Yongzhao's reign, Zhao Huiluan was both startled and overjoyed. There were still nine long years before the Prince of Jin's rebellion.
Then came a flood of grievance that blotted out the sky and covered the earth.
She ran to Yaoguang Hall in tears. She missed her imperial father, who had cherished and loved her like a pearl in his palm.
Whether or not he believed her, she had to tell him that her uncle, the Prince of Jin, harbored rebellious intentions, so he could make preparations early.
She had to break free of the nightmare of her previous life.
But instead, she heard four words that chilled her to the bone-kill the mother, keep the child.
It suddenly dawned on Zhao Huiluan that today was the day her mother had died in childbirth.
With difficulty, she looked at her imperial father in the hall, so familiar and yet so strange. She could not believe that such cruel words had come from his mouth.
Kill the mother, keep the child. Why?
"Your Majesty is wise! The Zhang Clan commands a powerful army and has guarded the frontier for many years, relying on its great merits. I have heard that the northern barbarians fear Zhang Tai but know nothing of Your Majesty, and the Northern Garrison Army even calls itself the Zhang Family Army in private."
"Your Majesty has few children. Now that the empress has borne a son, the Zhang Clan, as his maternal relatives, will grow too powerful, to the imperial family's detriment. By killing the mother and keeping the child, Your Majesty has truly prepared for a rainy day for our Great Yin. It is the act of an enlightened ruler!"
That old villain Wen Hong!
Zhao Huiluan hated him so much that her eyes nearly spat fire.
It was that old villain who had tricked her younger brother into handing over the imperial seal, claiming he would take the two siblings to safety, only to turn around and carry the seal to the city gates, leading the civil and military officials to open them and welcome the rebel and traitor.
So he had played a part in her mother's death too!
"Jianjian."
The cabinet door opened, and a warm palm settled on her head.
Hearing her childhood nickname again, Zhao Huiluan could not stop the tears from streaming down her face.
Memories of two lifetimes overlapped: her imperial father and mother, who had cherished her like a pearl, and the cold, merciless sovereign in Yaoguang Hall.
Zhao Huiluan bit her lip hard and met the Yongzhao Emperor's gaze.
She wanted to see just how much sincerity lay in those reddened eyes, so full of grief.
The Yongzhao Emperor had no idea that the person before him was no longer an innocent little girl ignorant of the world. Seeing his daughter so helpless and heartbroken, looking so much like the empress, he could not help gazing at her with tenderness and pity.
"Come, come to Father."
The Yongzhao Emperor opened his arms and coaxed her in a choked voice.
Zhao Huiluan did not move. The nail of her right thumb dug hard into the pad of her left forefinger, again and again.
She dearly wanted to act on impulse as she had in her previous life. She wanted to ask her imperial father what the love between emperor and empress, praised by everyone, had amounted to. And what did she and her brother mean to him?
But she could not.
Having lived through the overthrow of imperial power and seen the warmth and coldness of human hearts, she knew all too well that before power, neither family affection nor love mattered, and neither did life itself.
"Father!"
Zhao Huiluan threw herself into his arms and burst into tears.
"Father, I... I don't have Mother anymore. No one will ever love me again. What am I going to do? I miss Mother."
Her grief was so heartrending that her crying broke the Yongzhao Emperor's heart.
"There, there, Jianjian. You still have Father. From now on, Father will cherish and love you with your mother's love as well as his own. My Jianjian will be the most exalted princess in all of Great Yin."