[HE, tons of one-sided crushes and a tangled love triangle, CB/CP interpretations are up to you]
· The road is hard, harder than mountains, treacherous as water.
· It is not only husbands and wives in the human world, but modern-day rulers and their ministers too.
· Have you not seen the left counselor and right historian, receiving the emperor's favor at dawn and being sentenced to death by dusk?
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From a young age, Xi Yun understood that she wanted to serve as a minister, not be married off. But no one told her that, since ancient times, being a minister and being a bride were one and the same.
Ministers who entered service at a young age often met one of three fates:
First: Your Majesty, you have made my life so miserable.
Second: I helped Your Majesty achieve your grand ambitions. Now repay me with ten thousand taels of gold.
Third: ...Your Majesty was quite nice back when you didn't suspect me.
Xi Yun felt she had experienced all three.
The aging emperor was outwardly magnanimous but inwardly suspicious, while the young Crown Princess was headstrong and obsessive. At fifteen, Xi Yun entered the Eastern Palace as a reader, making a living in the narrow space between the royal mother and daughter.
She devoted herself to careful planning and finally helped a group of senior ministers secure the Crown Princess's accession to the throne. On the eve of taking up residence in Ming Palace, the Crown Princess took her hand and promised, "I will never let you down."
And she didn't exactly break that promise.
After the new emperor ascended the throne, Xi Yun went from being a county magistrate's daughter to the youngest powerful minister in the realm. By imperial decree, she punished corrupt officials, suppressed the great clans, swept away the old dynasty's entrenched abuses, and crushed arrogant separatist forces. She served the emperor wholeheartedly and never once considered overstepping her station. Yet in the end, she became someone the emperor feared.
Xi Yun was devastated. "Your Majesty, why do you suspect me? What about being your Zhang Liang, being as close as fish and water? Was all of that a lie?"
The emperor: "Yes, yes. It was all a lie."
Xi Yun: "Then I'm leaving."
The emperor: "That won't do."
Theme: Keep your heart turned toward the light; true greatness may seem incomplete
