Forgotten Legend of the Bloodied Flower

He acknowledged his incompetence in educating his daughter and being a good influence to his other family members.

It was not something to be proud of, but Empress Dowager Yan didn't want to run away from this responsibility of his.

"Father."

Hearing that call, Empress Dowager Yan's father, First Master Yan, raised his head and saw his son, Empress Dowager Yan's brother. His only son who had been following him all these years and also worked on the court but because of the fierce rumors against him, his position had been relatively low and suppressed.

After hearing the news that his sister actually told the truth of the matter that day, Empress Dowager Yan's brother, Young Master Yan was stupefied.

He's an official.

And as a person who had been working on the court, he was naturally very clear about the consequences of tarnishing the Imperial Family's reputation. There was no way that ordinary person would be able to be left alive after they dared to offend the Imperial Family.

Now, his own sister actually caused people to know the truth of her background.

This made Young Master Yan scared.

He didn't want his sister to leak out this matter in fear that she would be killed.

"Have you heard the news?" First Master Yan asked in a low voice.

"I heard it." Young Master Yan gritted his teeth. "Will Nian'er be fine in the palace? Would the Emperor kill her because of this?"

No matter what had happened in the past, Young Master Yan couldn't just turn blind eye to his sister. Years of affection and interaction with each other had allowed them to grow close and even after several years of separation, he still couldn't just forget about his own sister.

This was why Young Master Yan wanted to know more about what had happened to his sister.

First Master Yan took a deep breath. "I don't know."

"You don't know? But Father…"

"Speak no more. Jin Nian had already grown up." First Master Yan waved his hand. He paused his steps. "You're not involved in the matter at all, so you can still avoid it. At most, you will get a demotion, but you should be able to stay alive. However, from now on, you will no longer have any support."

No matter how bad Young Master Yan's reputation was, he still could enter the court because his sister is the Empress (or Empress Dowager after Emperor Yang Zhou become the Emperor).

The other officials might not like him, but they would only scold him when they were outside the palace.

In the court, they would still flash him smile and act polite around him.

After all, no one would dare to offend the Empress Dowager's relatives.

The other Yan Family members would also enjoy the status of being Empress Dowager Yan's relatives and their positions were higher than him. Many of them would mock him openly or covertly, showing that no matter how close he used to be with his sister, in the end, they were the one who benefited the most.

Young Master Yan was helpless about this matter.

He did feel anger and disappointment after his sister set up the trap for him, but he couldn't completely hate his own sister.

No matter what, they used to be the closest.

He didn't even remember when they started to drift away until Yan Jin Nian set up that scheme under the urge of their cousins.

"Father, I don't care about the officials' matter." Young Master Yan frowned. He didn't really care about the other officials' treatment. After all, they were all annoying people in his eyes.

No matter how polite they were in front of him, it was all nothing more than a fake façade they showed.

He was disgusted with them.

Having them showing their real face in front of him more freely would be quite beneficial since it would not disgust him that much.

"I know you're worried about Nian'er, but there's nothing that we can do." First Master Nan looked at his son and smiled faintly. "I won't be able to stay on the court anymore, so I hope that you won't follow my steps."

"Father, I…"

"And, it's time for you to think about your own marriage matter. You're no longer young and without that reputation holding you back, there will be some offers given to you. I'll select an outstanding woman for you." First Master Yan took a deep breath and walked to his courtyard.

While he didn't look like it, Young Master Yan knew that the one who was worried the most was their father.

He lowered his head and cupped his fist in accordance to etiquette. "I'll listen to you, Father."

First Master Yan waved his hand.

At this point, there was nothing that they could do but wait. They could only pray that their sister would not be implicated as they didn't know the exact situation about this matter.

…

<In the Palace>

Song Chuan looked at the main hall that was bathed in blood. He looked at the sky and wondered why did he even volunteer to help cleaning up the palace if things only end up this way. His hand would end up turning sore first before it could be cleaned up.

"Stop daydreaming, Song Chuan."

"Young Master Long, I'm not daydreaming." Song Chuan was speechless. He was only lamenting his poor luck to be staying behind at this time.

Long Qian Xing swung his sword to clean up the blood there. He was acting as the executioner and dealt with the necessary annoying people all this time. It was not like there were no others, but many of them would rather give up their job and handed it to Long Qian Xing.

It was not like they couldn't do it. If they didn't have to, they didn't want to.

"Leave the cleanup to the servants. You just have to supervise at the side. I hope you're not that repulsive to the smell of blood." Long Qian Xing sheathed his sword back once he had finished cleaning it.

"I'm just thinking that there are a lot of officials involved this time. Does the Emperor plan on killing all of them?"

"It's impossible to kill them all. However, more than half might not be able to keep their lives while the rest will be punished in accordance to their crimes. Some of them will be exiled instead of killed since they have some abilities and some others will only serve prison time." Long Qian Xing knew that the Imperial Palace would be too empty without any officials.

Since that was the case, it would be better to use their weakness to somewhat control these officials. It wouldn't be easy but while pulling the strings here and there, it should be plausible. Those who had the biggest power in this matter and also the mastermind would definitely be executed.

The rest should be exiled or prisoned.

And those with relatively light involvement or light crimes could get away with some demotion or fine.

Naturally, Long Qian Xing had no intention of getting involved.

He would rather go to the battlefield.

"I see."

"Are you alright?"

Song Chuan sighed. "I'm fine. Also, will it be fine?"

"Hmm?"

"She's still.... His mother, right?"

"There's no longer any support for her and most of the people had already followed His Majesty's side. These people's fate had been set ever since a long time ago."

Song Chuan was speechless.

"I'm not talking about the other people, Young Master…."

Long Qian Xing knew that Song Chuan was worrying about the people's opinion towards Emperor Yang Zhou for his strict treatment towards his mother. No matter what, Empress Dowager Mei is still Emperor Yang Zhou's birth mother.

Even if she was also the one who did wrong, would Emperor Yang Zhou be so cold hearted that he didn't care about their blood relationship?

"It's hard to say." Long Qian Xing looked at Song Chuan. "If your own mother tried to kill you, strangle you, abuse you, and tried to oppose you at every occasion, can you still treat her as your mother?"

Song Chuan was silent.

His parents were loving and there was not even any instance when Song Chuan felt wronged. However, the Imperial Family was different.

"Empress Dowager Mei was given to Emperor Xuan because of his request. She's originally… a dancer from Prime Minister Bei's house." Long Qian Xing looked at Song Chuan. "She's given to the Emperor because he fancied her beauty."

Her beauty.

Song Chuan had heard about it from a long time ago. Back in her youth, Empress Dowager Mei was one of the most beautiful women in the entire kingdom. Her beauty alone was more than enough to cause destruction in the city.

It was said that no man would not be attracted by her beauty that many people even daydream in the middle of the day when they saw her face. It was to the point that some of their wives were angry at their husband.

Truly…

Calamitous beauty.