Forgotten Legend of the Bloodied Flower

"Hmm?" Old Master Nan looked at his granddaughter in surprise. He laughed faintly. "Didn't you already know what they say?"

"It's not the truth."

Old Master Nan was silent then sighed. Nan Family was not close to the Yan Family, so he had only heard of the matter in passing. But from the way it is, Emperor Yang Zhou had planned to release the news of what had happened in the past.

Empress Dowager Yan's position would definitely crumble.

Her reputation would be tarnished because of the truth that had been concealed for so many years. It was unknown what the result would be for Empress Dowager Yan, but it was sure that she wouldn't be as respected as she used to be when she had the highest power in the imperial harem.

The Imperial Family originally couldn't afford such a loss of face.

But Old Master Nan guessed that Empress Dowager Yan had made some kind of agreement with him. This would restore Yan Family's reputation at the cost of Empress Dowager Yan's own reputation.

Whether it would be for the best or not, he didn't know.

He was not close to Yan Family and only knew about the matter due to the words that had spread outside and the little investigation that was done. But about what happened in detail back then, Old Master Nan was not very clear.

One had to ask Empress Dowager Yan or the people who were involved in question if they truly wanted to know.

And with the loss of power of Empress Dowager Yan, the imperial harem would also have some shuffle.

The only woman with the highest power in the palace would be Empress Xiao Qiang. The other concubines would definitely stay inside the palace, but they didn't have as much influence as Empress Xiao Qiang.

"The rumors stated that Empress Dowager Yan's brother is a womanizer who destroyed other noble women's reputation. His reputation fell into rock bottom because there's once a young lady found in his bedroom on a daytime but he refused to marry her." Old Master Nan rubbed his forehead.

This was actually a private matter that he didn't wish to know. There were various household in the entire world. Nan Family was definitely not the only one who had so much problems that it seemed that the number of stars were not enough to rival it.

Other families also have some troubles and most of the times, the matter of concubines, main daughters, stupid people, and so on would dominate.

Back then Shangguan Family had the problem of the conflict between the concubine and main daughters because of their mothers. After all, the power for women were the power within the household.

The children were dragged into it.

But Empress Dowager Yan's family was somewhat different. The problems existed because of her stupidity that was being used by those who claimed to be her 'family members.'

"However, Empress Dowager Yan was actually the one who drugged her brother under the influence of her family members." Old Master Nan smiled bitterly. Empress Dowager Yan's stupidity was contained, so only a few people knew. But he realized that the pampered daughter truly had bad eyes to not recognize the people who only wanted to use her.

Her cousins coaxed the stupid girl to be able to take advantage of her family members. Empress Dowager Yan's immediate family members were only her brother, father and mother. Her mother had passed away a long time ago, so the few who were close to her were her aunt and cousins.

Her brother and father naturally couldn't participate much in the matter of girls. Thus, the young girl was being led astray. "That girl is the sister of her aunt's family and wished to be able to enter the Yan Family. This is the method used by relying on Empress Dowager Yan's stupidity.

Aside from that, there are various benefits they got after Empress Dowager Yan become the Empress back then. The Yan Family become overbearing and garnered quite a lot of hate by relying on their connection. Even though Empress Dowager Yan could obtain Emperor Xuan's attention, it was mostly because she also has Yan Family behind her.

And even back then, Empress Dowager Yan is mostly a figurehead with no real power. I'm not entirely sure about the condition inside the Imperial Harem, but without a child, Empress Dowager Yan couldn't truly control the entire Imperial Harem. However, it's indeed her ability to be able to hold the power even when the current Emperor had no blood relationship with her.

Now that this truth is spread, it's very likely that Empress Dowager Yan's status will fall."

Nan Hua blinked her eyes.

Normally, Imperial Family member would not allow any of their member's blemish to be spread like that. However, Empress Dowager Yan wanted to clear her brother's name. It has been around a decade ever since that incident happened, but Empress Dowager Yan only managed to clear his name now.

After all, she had to wait.

Wait until she was allowed to do this. Without the Emperor's approval, she will be dead if this matter were to spread. But with his approval, her life could be kept.

There might be other methods to clear this matter such as pushing other people to the front. But Empress Dowager Yan didn't want to do such tricks. She had deceived a lot of people in her life and disappointed her closest family members over and over again.

Perhaps, this was her way to apologize to them.

Returning their innocence so that they could rise even without her. At the same time, she will slowly disappear from the front with only the story about her passing down from time to time.

But this was just Nan Hua's conjecture.

She naturally didn't know what Empress Dowager Yan actually thought when she decided to put all the blame on her body. Nan Hua's interaction with Empress Dowager Yan only happened during public time, they didn't have any private conversation.

Saying that Nan Hua knew what Empress Dowager Yan was thinking would be an overstatement.

She could only guess based on what happened on the surface.

"But all this time, her brother is still an official and had some position. Emperor Yang Zhou had silently promoted him from time to time, so his position is relatively stable. He also had good ability, so it's not really because of his sister's words that allowed his position to rise.

However, it's also the truth that Empress Dowager Yan's brother had bad reputation on the outside and his path is not smooth. With his reputation cleared, it is estimated that things will be easy for him from now on. No one will dare to belittle him because of his past reputation anymore."

Old Master Nan looked at Nan Hua. "While it might sound strange that such a stupid girl who used to be used for so many years to change, but the Imperial Harem might have changed her. If she kept on letting other people use her, she would have not last long and if I was not wrong, there was a few incident in which Empress Dowager Yan fell sick.

After one such occasion, it was said that Empress Dowager Yan changed and began to gather more of the power in the Imperial Harem covertly.

Emperor Xuan didn't pay much attention at that time and soon afterwards, he passed away and the throne was handed to the teenager Emperor Yang Zhou.

Empress Dowager Yan changed greatly around five to six years ago and become more mature. She no longer agreed to the request of her family members and alienated herself from them. It's also because of this stance of hers that Emperor Yang Zhou finally granted her request."

Nan Hua nodded.

"Is this enough, Hua'er?"

"Yes, I'll pay a visit to Empress Dowager Yan tomorrow, Grandfather."

Empress Dowager Yan used to be stupid and easily manipulated. But she changed midway…

Nan Hua looked at the letter in her hand. She really wondered whether that Empress Dowager would notice about that or not. If she really did could notice, she would have to say that the description in the original story about her ability… was a bit undervalued.

…

<Yan Family's Residence>

The matter of Yan Family was blown up.

Even though there were a lot of officials who were handled today, Yan Family was definitely one of the few who attracted the many people's attention all around the area.

They wanted to know what had happened to this supposedly powerful family.

But no one said it for sure.

Empress Dowager Yan's father walked to his home while dragging his tired body. His sister was scolding him fiercely on his way home, but he said nothing to the other party. For him, what these people do was simply retribution after what they had done.

As for what will happen to him, he honestly didn't know.

But no matter what, he will accept it.