More hurtful than "you're not good enough" was "I'll do it myself."
Wang Xiaoxia immediately became dejected, his head drooping. Wang Xia was physically well-endowed, but his technique was completely lacking. It was like trying to run a supercomputer with humanity's oldest computing system—the abacus.
Human civilization began with the creation and use of tools. Wang Xiaoxia's self-proclaimed magnificent physical advantages could easily be replaced by a Mr. Horn filled with hot water.
Wei Caiwei took his hand and taught him step by step. Only then did Wang Daxia finally have an epiphany and understand something. By the late hours of the night, though still not as skillful as in their previous life, it was no longer as frustratingly ineffective as before.
Wang Daxia lay on the pillow, cheeks flushed, hesitating to speak. Finally gathering courage, he asked: "That... are the eyebrows drawn in fashionable shades?"
"The bridal chamber last night saw red candles bright,
At dawn in the hall, to parents we pay respect.
After makeup, whispering to my husband I ask,
Are the eyebrows drawn in fashionable shades?"
Wang Daxia had improved—not just in technique, but also in using the limited ancient poetry he knew to subtly seek his fiancée's opinion.
Wang Daxia had secretly read some books and paintings that all described how women supposedly adored magnificent endowments and preferred encounters lasting until dawn. He had followed these teachings, never expecting to go down the wrong path and earn Wei Caiwei's disdain.
Wang Daxia decided to burn the entire box of books and paintings hidden under his bed when he returned!
What use did he have for these useless things? Following them had only brought him humiliation.
These books and paintings were completely different from what Wei Caiwei had taught him!
Wei Caiwei struggled to find the right words. "The depth is acceptable." But everything else was lacking.
Wang Daxia wasn't foolish—he could immediately tell Wei Caiwei meant it wasn't really satisfactory. Like eating a meal where you're full but not satisfied.
Feeling frustrated, Wang Daxia immediately shifted blame: "It's not my fault—I read those books... I was misled. Those books are all nonsense."
Wei Caiwei finally understood why, though they were the same person, Wang Daxia was much worse than Eunuch Wang. She said: "Those books were all written by men, for men. They just repeat the same things, becoming increasingly exaggerated for sensationalism. In these books, women are no different from pillows or beds—just objects to be manipulated by men. Who cares about an object's true feelings?"
"The women in these books are merely accessories for men, only knowing how to please them. Even when uncomfortable, they'd say 'you're so amazing, husband'—it's all men deceiving themselves. You treated these books like martial arts manuals, reading and practicing accordingly—no wonder you went astray."
One dared to write, the other dared to learn—Wang Daxia had been running further and further down the wrong path.
Wang Daxia stared intently at Wei Caiwei. "How do you know all this in such detail? You seem to understand better than anyone—you must have read quite a lot." After a pause, he added: "You've definitely read more than I have."
"I—" Wei Caiwei thought to herself: That was from studying how to please you after your self-castration in our previous life. I bought all the relevant books available on the market to summarize—actually didn't read that many, less than a hundred.
Wei Caiwei said: "I'm a studious physician. Knowing more is never a bad thing."
Wang Daxia pounded the bed with both hands, suddenly understanding. "No wonder you know so much! Back in Xinghua City, when you wanted me to set up that honey trap for Ming Wang, you were like an old hand."When it came to reading, Wei Caiwei grew more enlightened with each page, while I only grew more confused. I truly hope our future child doesn't take after me in this regard.
Practice yields true knowledge. Under Wei Caiwei's guidance, there was free trial learning with one-on-one instruction from a master teacher. Theory and practice advanced together, with guaranteed comprehension at no cost—even the most stubborn stone could gain insight.
On the fourteenth day of the twelfth lunar month, the Cloud Board sounded within the Forbidden City, announcing the passing of the Jiajing Emperor. The Five Cities Patrol Battalion took to the streets, ordering every household to remove red lanterns and other festive decorations, replacing them with white cloth as national mourning commenced.
Temples across the capital struck their bells thirty thousand times. The tolling echoed through Beijing's skies day and night, while snowflakes drifted and danced amidst the chimes.
During the state mourning period, slaughtering was prohibited for forty-nine days. Commoners wore plain garments, with women forbidden from adornment. Marriages and musical performances were banned for twenty-seven days, after which normal attire and weddings could resume. Officials were prohibited from celebratory events like weddings for one hundred days. With Wang Daxia and Wei Caiwei's wedding just nine days away, the ceremony had to be canceled according to regulations.
Three years had passed, then another three, and now another hundred days. Wang Daxia felt utterly despondent yet powerless, hurriedly writing notices to cancel the wedding. The new date would be set only after the national mourning concluded.
Even Commander Mu sympathized with him, comforting, "Good things take time. Once the mourning period ends, we'll arrange your marriage immediately."
While joys and sorrows seldom interconnect, as Wang Daxia was forced to postpone his wedding, the mountain pressing upon Prince Yu crumbled away. Like Sun Wukong freed after five centuries under the Five-Finger Mountain, Prince Yu felt refreshed and unburdened.
Nevertheless, Prince Yu maintained a sorrowful public demeanor. On the first day, when ministers urged him to ascend the throne, he tearfully refused. On the second day, when imperial clansmen pleaded, he declined with tears. On the third day, as noble families, centenarians, foreign envoys in the capital, and religious leaders including Buddhist and Taoist monks knelt in supplication, Prince Yu still refused through tears.
The tradition of three invitations and three refusals had been customary since Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang. On the fourth day, when all parties collectively petitioned for his ascension, Prince Yu finally acquiesced, becoming emperor with the era name Longqing—the Longqing Emperor.
Upon ascending the throne, the Longqing Emperor issued an inaugural edict proposing thirty reform policies. The most crucial were redressing unjust cases from his father's Jiajing era, which invigorated the officialdom and won their support. He also waived half the land tax for the first year of Longqing to encourage agriculture, and canceled all outstanding taxes from the forty-third year of Jiajing regardless of category—a sweeping exemption that earned him deep gratitude from farmers and merchants nationwide.
These two measures alone won him the people's hearts, universal reverence, and official allegiance. The remaining twenty-eight policies also held merit, allowing the Longqing Emperor to firmly secure his position as a reformist ruler.
With his throne stabilized, the Longqing Emperor posthumously honored his mother Consort Du Kang as Empress Xiaoke, mending the regret of being forbidden from seeing her on her deathbed by his father. He also posthumously honored his first wife Li Shi as Empress Xiaoyizhuang, and bestowed posthumous titles on his two deceased sons and daughters: Crown Prince Xianhuai, Prince Jingdao, Princess Penglai, and Princess Taihe—granting them in death what they lacked in life.
Having honored the departed, he then conferred titles upon the living.He appointed his principal wife, Chen Shi, as Empress, and elevated his concubine Li Jiubao to the rank of Consort—in the same month of her ennoblement, Consort Li gave birth to a princess, granting her two daughters and one son, elevating her status through her male heir.
The remaining childless concubines were granted various ranks of consorts and ladies-in-waiting based on their age and years of service in the household.
Additionally, the Longqing Emperor ordered the Ministry of Rites to select a name for his only surviving son. The ministry meticulously curated numerous options, from which the emperor ultimately chose Zhu Yijun, embodying his heartfelt wishes for the boy. This act remedied the five-year delay in formally naming the child and registering him in the Imperial Genealogy.
Beyond these appointments, the Longqing Emperor enacted a controversial reversal by removing his grandfather Zhu Youyuan's spirit tablet from the Imperial Ancestral Temple, revoking his eligibility for ceremonial veneration there.
It must be recalled that when the Jiajing Emperor had ascended the throne as a collateral relative—his father being merely a prince—he defied ancestral traditions and ignited the Great Rites Controversy at court. He insisted on posthumously elevating his father to emperor, bestowing an honorific title, and enshrining his tablet in the imperial temple with full ceremonial privileges like previous emperors.
To achieve this, the Jiajing Emperor executed, imprisoned, or demoted all officials who opposed his father's inclusion, plunging the court into years of bloody turmoil.
Now, upon his accession, the Longqing Emperor overturned his father's hard-won "Great Rites Controversy" reforms. He removed his grandfather's tablet and downgraded all associated sacrificial rites, effectively restoring the original order.
The Confucian principle of "maintaining paternal policies for three years after a father's death" was utterly discarded by the Longqing Emperor, who systematically opposed every policy his father had championed.
Where his father built Taoist temples and favored priests, he demolished temples and executed Taoists. Even the orthodox Taoist master from Dragon Tiger Mountain, Zhang Tianshi, was stripped of his hereditary Zhengyi Daoist seal and barred from political affairs.
Where his father had forcibly installed his grandfather's tablet in the temple, he removed it.
The thirty-year-old Longqing Emperor resembled a rebellious adolescent delayed, unleashing all the actions he had long desired but been unable to take, thus venting years of pent-up frustration and resentment.
Had the Jiajing Emperor known his sole heir would negate nearly all his decrees upon succession, he would have turned in his grave.
But death extinguishes all influence. Each reign brings new courtiers. With the new emperor's ascent, the old emperor's policies became obsolete, and the public rallied behind the new sovereign.
Indeed, when the Longqing Emperor appeared at the grand imperial assembly in the first month, many veteran ministers wept openly!
After over thirty years! The emperor finally held court! These elders could die in peace having witnessed an emperor presiding over governance.
Upon his accession, the Longqing Emperor reduced taxes, yet state operations required funding. To compensate for lost revenue, he sought alternative sources.
He announced the lifting of maritime restrictions, designating Yuegang in Zhangzhou, Fujian as a pilot zone before gradually opening coastal cities to legal overseas trade. During the Jiajing era, maritime bans had been most stringent. Whether motivated by revenue needs or defiance of his father, ending the ban delighted the new emperor.
Moreover, thanks to the efforts of anti-piracy generals like Hu Zongxian, Yu Dayou, and Qi Jiguang, the Japanese Pirates along the coast had been largely eradicated, ensuring safer maritime trade and making the timing opportune.
Upon hearing of the lifted ban, wealthy Beijing households recognized the profit potential and eagerly pooled resources to invest in legitimate overseas trade through Yuegang. With a new emperor and new policies, a scene of renewal and bustling activity emerged, filling people with hope for the Longqing era.Only Wang Daxia remained completely focused on preparing for the wedding, paying no attention to the commotion outside. After the hundred-day national mourning period ended, he sent out the third round of wedding invitations, setting the date for the sixth day of the fourth month.
Sending invitations three times for a single wedding—truly, the course of true love never did run smooth.
Wang Daxia handed the new invitation to Lu Ying. "This time, would Commander Lu still be willing to be my groomsman?"
This was the third invitation. The first two times he had agreed, but the wedding never happened.
Lu Ying smiled as he accepted the invitation. "Always."
Author's note: Lu Ying: Always!
After finishing this update, I took my thermal mug and went to line up for nucleic acid testing at the community square. Hope I can get my turn tonight. Everyone, take care of your health—don't take off your masks.
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