49: Chapter 49 Sir, you big liar

The content of the letter ended there.

There was no lingering, sentimental farewell, just like Su Chen's style in the past.

Feigning ease, carrying a touch of playfulness, and showing consideration for her.

"Avenged the arrow wound from all those years ago..."

Zhuge Jinyu stared at this sentence.

She could already imagine the look of feigned triumph that would appear on the face of the man in the green robe as he lifted his brush to write these words.

She clutched the letter tightly and curled up on the prayer mat.

Just like that night when she met him when she was being forced into marriage all those years ago.

Lost, helpless, and weeping uncontrollably.

"Sir, how do you know everything..."

"You knew I would collapse after you left, you knew I needed an answer, and you even knew I would come here."

"So, you left this letter."

Su Chen, in his own unique way.

Just like after the incident at White Emperor City, when he said, "Make me your goal."

He had once again paved the way for Zhuge Jinyu, who was on the verge of collapse, to keep living.

"Sir... you are a liar!"

"A big, big liar!"

"But..."

"But... Sir, I must still live on for you, because you said..."

"My glory is your glory, and the continuation of my life is the continuation of your life..."

"Sir... Xiao Yu feels."

"It is very romantic."

That day, when Huang Ying and the others had waited a long time for the Prime Minister to come out and, worried, went to the Wuhou Shrine to find her, this was the scene they saw.

Their majestic and seemingly invincible Prime Minister was slumped before her own statue, clutching a sheet of letter paper tightly to her chest.

Crying and laughing at the same time.

Weeping heart-wrenchingly, laughing with desolate despair.

Tears streamed down her beautiful face; there was no trace of her usual calm and self-restraint.

And the letter paper in her hand, to anyone else, was empty.

There was not a single word on it.

The letter paper was completely blank.

...

Time passes relentlessly, and the seasons flow like water.

Under the governance of Zhuge Jinyu, the national strength of the Great Qian recovered at an astonishing speed and grew increasingly powerful.

After several years of rest and recuperation, the army set out once more.

The Northern Expedition!

And this Northern Expedition was not as arduous as the last.

By this time, the Great Hao Dynasty and the Wei were already at the end of their rope.

The Great Wei had lost Sima Yi, and the Great Hao had lost its own military god.

Even if the two nations united, they could not withstand the Great Qian, which had consolidated all its power and was overseen by Zhuge Jinyu, a powerhouse of the Tribulation Transcendence Realm.

The war continued sporadically for several years.

But the trend of the world had already been decided the moment the Great Qian launched its troops.

In the end, the ruler of Great Hao surrendered.

The Emperor of Wei, knowing that his ancestors had offended the Great Qian too deeply, burned himself to death in the imperial palace of Luodu.

The situation of the three kingdoms, which had dragged on for hundreds of years, was completely ended.

The flags of the Great Qian were once again planted in every corner of this ancient land.

The world was unified, and peace reigned throughout the land.

Although this rare unification was nominally achieved under the Great Qian Emperor Liu Dou.

In reality, everyone knew who the person who truly unified the world was.

The first Female Prime Minister of the Great Qian, Zhuge Jinyu!

The unification ceremony was held in Luodu.

This place was once the capital of the Eastern Qian Dynasty, and later fell into the hands of the Great Wei.

Now, it had returned to the Great Qian.

The ceremony was held on a winter day in the same year as the unification.

It was unprecedented in its grandeur, with ten thousand nations coming to pay homage.

Zhuge Jinyu, dressed in intricate and magnificent black ceremonial robes, stood atop the high altar to heaven, accepting the homage of the world's subjects together with Emperor Liu Dou.

Her prestige reached an unprecedented peak.

She had fulfilled his dying wish, unified the world, and achieved a prosperous and peaceful nation.

Yet, the lights of ten thousand homes beneath the altar and the scene of peace and prosperity across the four seas, when falling into her eyes, could not stir up the slightest ripple.

Her heart had already completely fallen silent on that morning at the Wuzhang Plains, along with the shattering of that mirror.

The heart beating in her chest now was merely a continuation of Su Chen's life.

On the night the ceremony ended.

A heavy snow fell in Luodu.

For a time, countless goose-feather-like snowflakes fell right in front of the magnificent palace, drawing the admiration of the crowd.

Some palace servants, while patrolling the depths of the abandoned palace.

Discovered a crystal-clear but cracked glass mirror shard under a remote eave.

It swayed lonely in the wind and snow.

No one knew when it had been hung there, or by whom it had been left.

From that day on, people gradually heard less and less news of Zhuge Jinyu.

It is said that the Female Prime Minister Zhuge Jinyu, who ended the chaos of several hundred years and created an unprecedented golden age.

Shortly after the unification ceremony, returned all government affairs to the now-grown Emperor Liu Dou.

And left behind a complete system for assisting in governance.

Then, she disappeared from everyone's sight.

Some say she retired after achieving success and went traveling across the four seas.

Some say she found a secret realm and went into seclusion to seek the elusive path of ascension.

But only a very few confidants, including Huang Ying, knew.

The last place the Prime Minister appeared was outside Jinguan City, at that incense-filled Wuhou Shrine.

She dismissed all her attendants and was alone.

Carrying a broken mirror missing a piece of glass, and a wordless book with no words on it.

She came to the steps of the ancestral hall.

Then, slowly, very slowly, she bowed her body.

Her forehead rested gently against the cold ground.

Just like back then on Mount Qingcheng, one kowtow for every step, praying for the gods' mercy.

Walking to the main gate of the ancestral hall, she gently stepped over the threshold.

The heavy ancestral hall doors slowly closed.

She took one last, faint look back at the snowy scenery outside the hall.

Then, facing the waves of Buddhist chanting, she walked into the depths of the hall.

She never appeared again.

Later, a long, long time after.

On the streets of Luodu, there were more storytellers.

They swore that the reason the Great Qian Female Prime Minister Zhuge Jinyu chose to go into seclusion was because she had suffered a heartbreak.

Naturally, no one would believe that the cold and stunningly beautiful Zhuge Jinyu, who was so adept at planning and strategy, would be trapped by any such emotion.

So the earnings of these storytellers were always not very good.

Often the final topic would always unconsciously drift to the heavy snow in Luodu in the year of the Great Qian's unification.

Because it was so rare.

How could there be such a heavy snow in Luodu, located in the heart of the Central Plains?

Whenever this happened, the storytellers would always explain it this way.

"That year."

"The goose-feather-like snow fell for three whole days and nights."

"Rumors in the streets say."

"After the heart of the Prime Minister, who stood at the absolute pinnacle, died."

"This capital city was destined to have a heavy snow..."