Chapter 26: The Splendid Country Part 1

Cui Momo strutted away with her nose in the air.

The maid kneeling on the floor looked up at her with joy. “Princess, you’re better now?”

“Yes, get up. I’m going to the palace banquet tonight. Go prepare an outfit for me.”

Xiao Luo clutched her head, a headache brewing. Her mind was frantically processing the memories she had just received.

This was the world of the ancient power-struggle novel A Land So Beautiful. The original work was essentially a classic old-school angst-fest.

The female lead, Lin Qiao’er, was originally a wandering heroine of the Jianghu. On her way back to the capital, she encountered a handsome, unconscious man. She took him back, nursed him awake, and discovered he was a prince—the male lead, Xia Wuheng.

Drawn by a pretty face, it was love at first sight.

Later, the male lead claimed the Empress had tried to assassinate him and that he was plotting a grand cause, asking the female lead to become his ally. In the early stages, the female lead was utterly devoted to the male lead, doing whatever he asked. She entered the palace according to his plan, starting as a lowly palace maid and enduring countless grievances.

The male lead constantly promised to make her his Empress once he succeeded to the throne. The female lead, naturally, believed him and worked even harder, lying low in the palace and climbing the ranks step by step to become a high-ranking female official.

Meanwhile, the male lead surrounded himself with a bevy of beautiful women and concubines in his rear court, claiming it was all a facade and that his heart belonged only to her.

After a successful coup, the male lead installed his cherished “white moonlight” as Empress. The female lead did not even receive a consort title. Worse, the white moonlight Empress framed her for adultery with another man. Enraged, the male lead severed the tendons in her hands and feet before throwing her into captivity.

During her imprisonment, she became pregnant. The male lead called the child a bastard, beat her until she miscarried, and then, like the utter scumbag he was, put on a deeply affectionate act, telling her she had broken his heart.

The female lead was tortured not just by the male lead but by various other female rivals. Tormented without end, she eventually committed suicide.

Only then did the male lead realize that his true love had been the female lead all along. He deposed his white moonlight and posthumously named the female lead as Empress, declaring he would never have another Empress.

While nursing his grief, he continued expanding his harem, filling it with beauties, consorts, noble consorts, and even imperial noble consorts. He simply never named another Empress. For this, later historians hailed him as a deeply devoted emperor.

After finishing this story, Xiao Luo’s headache worsened.

Xiao Luo: 【System, is this world really this absurd?】

The System replied: 【Of course, otherwise why would it be called a trash novel world? These things are irrational and need to be corrected.】

Xiao Luo asked: 【What about my identity?】

The System stated: 【You are a hostage princess sent by a small defeated nation. A role with no scenes who dropped dead from unfamiliar ailments the very first day. Don’t worry, your identity was already a discarded pawn.】

Xiao Luo: 【…Uh, so you’re saying I have no power or influence right now?】

The System: 【When have you ever had power or influence?】

Xiao Luo touched her face and said: 【This won’t do. A powerless, beautiful woman like me will be easily bullied in the deep palace. I need to find a thigh to latch onto.】

The System: 【…】Am I not a thigh?

“Princess, do you think this one will do?” The maid, seeing Xiao Luo lost in thought, asked carefully.

Xiao Luo raised her eyes and glanced at the maid. She remembered her name was Chuntao, the most loyal maid this body had had since childhood, and the only person by her side.

Chuntao held a moon-white dress. Two plum blossoms were embroidered only on the cuffs and collar; the rest of the gown was completely unadorned. It was so plain it could not possibly be any plainer.

Wearing this to the palace banquet, Xiao Luo could already imagine how conspicuous she would be among a crowd of lavishly dressed men and women. It would be hard not to stand out.

Chuntao looked pained. “Princess, this servant searched through all the chests and boxes. They’re all plain dresses. Only this one has a bit of pattern.”

Poor Her Highness the Princess, chosen as a hostage and sent to an enemy kingdom’s palace. She hadn’t even brought many personal belongings.

Xiao Luo took the dress. “It’s fine, I’ll wear this one.”

After she changed, Chuntao did her hair and makeup. But there was not much to do. Her hair was simply styled in a basic updo with a single jade hairpin. She looked even more shabby than the palace maids.

Tonight’s palace banquet was hosted by the Empress to celebrate General Mingwu’s great victory in battle. Since Xiao Luo was a princess of the enemy state, dressing plainly was only logical.

Her current status, to put it nicely, was a princess. To put it bluntly, she was a captive.

Night fell. The banquet had yet to begin.

The venue was festooned with lanterns and colored banners, a very joyous atmosphere.

To minimize her presence, Xiao Luo arrived early and followed a guiding palace maid to her seat.

She did not expect her seat to be so prominent, placed right in the front row. Wasn’t this deliberately setting her up to be a laughingstock?

Attending a banquet meant watching the enemy nation celebrate defeating her own country, followed by a crowd mocking her, correct?

So excessive. So humiliating.

Completely unruffled, Xiao Luo sat down. Then she simply ate and drank, acting as if nothing was wrong. The palace maids exchanged glances, their expressions turning strange as they looked at Xiao Luo.

How was this princess not sad at all? She could still eat. What an incredibly strong mentality.

Just before the banquet began, the high officials, nobles, and marquises began to trickle in. They were dressed very festively. After all, this was no ordinary feast.

The noble young ladies were, without exception, meticulously groomed, exquisite from head to toe, trailing fragrance, each followed by two maids. They clustered together with their little cliques, whispering secrets.

Xiao Luo overheard them talking about the male lead.

“Do you know, Prince Heng has returned to the capital!”

“Ah? Will he be coming to this banquet too?”

“It’s said the Prince still hasn’t settled on a consort.”

“Rong’er, help me see if I look okay today. Is my hair messy? And is this hairpin pretty?”

Xiao Luo curled her lip. In the original novel, this dog of a scumbag was described as devastatingly handsome. Flowery praises like “warm and gentle as jade,” “sword-like brows and starry eyes,” and “a peerless gentleman” were heaped upon him. Truthfully, he wasn’t that handsome, just possessing some male-lead aura.

The male lead was not particularly outstanding right now. Today’s main character was the novel’s supporting female character, Xia Lingyu—the current Empress.

Xia Lingyu’s mother gave birth to her and, to secure her own position, raised her daughter as a boy from childhood. She even became the Crown Prince. Fortunately for them, the previous Emperor had no other sons before his death, so she successfully ascended the throne at eighteen.

After her ascension, Xia Lingyu announced that she was a woman. The entire nation was shocked. Ministers opposed a woman ruling as Emperor, and protests arose among the commoners. Neighboring countries, upon learning this, also began eyeing the Dawn Kingdom with covetous intent.

Under such internal and external pressure, an ordinary person would have long been mentally and physically exhausted and abdicated under the unbearable burden.

But not Xia Lingyu. First, she forcefully executed a few stubborn old ministers, then promoted talented and insightful individuals as her trusted aides. After temporarily suppressing the domestic dissent, she personally led troops into battle against a coalition of three kingdoms. She personally beheaded the enemy commander and returned in triumph.

From then on, the Empress’s name soared. The common saying “women are inferior to men” was replaced by “who says women are inferior to men?”

After returning, the Empress continued to reform the country’s internal politics, purge the court, select female officials, promote scholars from humble backgrounds, lighten taxes and forced labor, and govern the state exceptionally well.

Yet seven years passed in a flash. There were still those who looked down on the Empress, believing that as a woman, she had stolen the realm that rightfully belonged to men.

The male lead, Xia Wuheng, thought exactly this. He believed that as the only male descendant of the Xia clan, the throne should be his, not Xia Lingyu’s.

No matter how capable Xia Lingyu was, she was still a woman. Women should stay in the rear courtyard, serve their husbands, and bear children. How dare she fight, shed blood, and show her face in public? To even become the Emperor—this was utterly outrageous!

Because of his male-lead aura, he succeeded. In the end, he became Emperor and had the Empress torn apart by five horses.

A stuffy feeling settled in Xiao Luo’s chest. She had an impulse to tear that dog of a male lead’s head off and use it as a kickball.

The banquet was about to begin. Guests filled the seats, all smiles, the atmosphere at its peak.

“Her Majesty arrives—” a eunuch announced in his shrill, drawn-out voice.

Everyone’s expression turned solemn and respectful. They knelt on the ground to pay their respects. “Long live Her Majesty, for ten thousand years—”

Xiao Luo knelt as well, no exception. She lowered her head. From the corner of her eye, she saw a woman in bright yellow dragon robes slowly pass before her. When the Empress passed her, she seemed to glance at her, perhaps intentionally, perhaps not.

Xiao Luo quickly buried her head even lower.

“You may all rise.” A magnetic, low-pitched female voice came from above.

That voice… for some reason, hearing it made Xiao Luo’s body feel slightly weak, and it struck her with a sense of familiarity.

“We thank Your Majesty.” The crowd rose and returned to their seats. With that, the palace banquet officially began.

Just as the singers and dancers were about to perform, a guard’s announcement rang out from outside: “Prince Heng arrives—”

Hearing that Prince Heng was coming, the guests and young ladies became extremely excited, turning their gazes in unison.

The male lead made his entrance. He wore a black inky jade robe, a charming smile playing on his lips as he swaggered in. As he walked, he said, “Imperial Sister, your Imperial Brother is late.”

On the throne above, the Empress took a light sip of tea, appearing utterly unconcerned. “Take your seat now that you’re here.”

Xia Wuheng then strode confidently to his seat, the first on the left row, closest to the Empress’s throne.

His ambition was blatant. The prince title inherited by noble lineage—he shared neither a father nor a mother with the Empress. He refused to call her “Your Majesty,” instead insisting on “Imperial Sister.” Who knew what the Empress truly thought?

After this little interlude, the palace banquet officially began.