sbdcsierra Chapter 545 Why Not Be the Player?
Chapter 545 Why Not Be the Player?
Lu Yangyang turned her gaze to meet her eyes.
His eyes were filled with joy, encouragement, and anticipation.
After leaving the capital and parting ways with Zong Que in Jiangnan, she met Jiang Zhiyi and was unintentionally drawn into the affairs of the Jiangnan salt mines. She went from being clueless to seeing the real officialdom and the true battlefield hidden behind the silent struggle for the throne in the capital.
For the emperor, the struggle for the throne was a manipulation and control of his power. He quietly watched his sons use all sorts of undercurrents to fight for it, just as he had done in his youth. He toyed with the fish in a pond, occasionally throwing in bait to scramble for them. He would then select one that satisfied him and temporarily move it to another pond, leaving the other fish to watch and embark on a new round of waiting and scrambling. But what the fish didn't know was that as long as the bait was occasionally thrown in, they remained just fish in the pond. To become a dragon, they wouldn't just jump from one pond to another, but leap out of this one altogether.
For the court officials, the struggle for the throne was a matter of choosing the right ruler for their future. It concerned not only their own prospects but also their individual circumstances, thoughts, and even the struggles of their ideals. Who wouldn't want to stand on the throne and influence the fate of the nation? Ideals also need a wise ruler to ensure their place in history. Therefore, they desperately aligned themselves with their respective causes, tirelessly campaigning to achieve their ultimate goal, meticulously planning their political maneuvering.
But each star is very, very far apart.
On chess pieces thousands of miles away, because of their ambitions, rivers of blood flow and cries of sorrow fill the land, yet they don't even know they are chess pieces themselves.
For ordinary people, what they care about is never the outcome of the succession struggle, but their current lives. The light in their hearts gathers into a star, but it is merely a pawn played by those in power. When it encounters a good player, it shines brightly; when it encounters a bad player, it gradually dims until it burns into a fire of anger.
Stars can light up the night sky, and anger can burn down the chessboard.
Whether it's Lu Yangyang or Jiang Zhiyi.
They were once just insignificant specks of dust on a chess piece, until they were drawn into the game of the player. They watched the dust billowing on the piece, but behind the sand, there was also a faint glimmer of light.
If that's the case, why not be the one making the moves?
Lu Yangyang was once moved by Zong Que and her elder brother's ideals, but only now does she realize that they were also a kind of ambition.
They had all come a long way before they saw their own ambitions.
This seed had been buried for a very long time, and at a time when it was not particularly dramatic, it broke through the soil and grew in the wind.
Lu Yangyang reached out her hand to Jiang Zhiyi, and Jiang Zhiyi took her hand.
Lu Yangyang: "I want women all over the world to be able to leave their homes and enter academies, and I want people all over the world to have books to read and medical treatment to cure their illnesses."
Jiang Zhiyi: "I want political integrity and the rule of law."
Go ahead, while your youthful passion is still burning.
……
Yuzhou has suffered such a calamity, and it will not be easy to overcome this difficulty overnight.
Although it's starting to get on the right track now, it's only just begun.
With Prefect Ling in charge, Yuzhou will surely be united and gradually become better and better.
During this period, Lu Yangyang received a letter from Zong Que, but still had no news of Yan Yue. In addition, Lu Yangyang also received a letter from Elder Meng, who said that he needed to return to Miao territory and that if Lu Yangyang could make it, she could go with him.
Although Lu Yangyang couldn't let go of the newly established Mingxin Academy, she also had more important things to do. Zong Que's injuries couldn't be delayed, and she had to gather the prescriptions as soon as possible to have any chance of curing him.
After discussing it with Jiang Zhiyi and Wen Qingqing, Lu Yangyang asked someone to send a letter back to ask her senior brother in Yingzhou to help organize a batch of medical books and send them over. She also wrote another letter inviting her senior sister to come and teach at Mingxin Academy.
After Lu Yangyang's free clinic, the people of Yuzhou began to accept the existence of doctors again. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Prefect Ling personally visited the doctors who had previously practiced medicine in Yuzhou Prefecture to invite them to come out of retirement and help them reopen their clinics.
After finishing all that, Jiang Zhiyi stayed in Yuzhou to run Mingxin Academy, reform commerce, and govern Yuzhou together with Prefect Ling. Lu Yangyang and Wen Qingqing took Xiu Niang to the southwest.
Before parting, the three of them drank together in the courtyard.
She also sent Xiu Niang to say goodbye to her mother.
When Xiu Niang returned to the small courtyard where she lived with her mother, Zhang Shi was packing her luggage. Although she was very reluctant to part with her, she had a smile on her face.
Xiu Niang walked over and gently hugged her arm, "Mother."
Madam Zhang turned around, touched her head, and her eyes welled up with tears. "Xiu'er, your mother isn't worried about you. I've never been so happy in my life. When you were little, I thought that I had given birth to such a lovely girl, and I would definitely find you a good family in the future. Later, I thought that it would be good if you could just live. But what does it mean to live? If you're like me, living half your life in a daze, without even having your own name, and can only watch helplessly as your children are taken away one by one, and you can't get them back no matter how hard you try, is that living? But it's so good to be alive. Heaven has been kind to us, and we, mother and daughter, have met a benefactor."
She carefully, as if presenting a treasure, rummaged through her bosom and pulled out a folded piece of paper. She unfolded it and pointed it out to Xiu Niang: "I've divorced your father. The yamen has set up a new household registration for me. Now, I'm the head of the household. Look, Zhang Hehua. Your maternal grandmother said that when I was born, she happened to see lotus flowers blooming in the lake, so she gave me this name. It's prettier than many girls' names in the village. It's a pity that after I got married, I became Zhang Shi, Sixth Sister-in-law, Sixth Aunt, Sixth Aunt. No one calls me by that name anymore, and I've almost forgotten it myself. But from now on, it's written on the household registration, so I won't have to worry about forgetting it."
"And your name, Zhang Mingxiu. Mingxiu, isn't it nice? Your mother specially went to Miss Lu and the others to give you this name. Ming is the Ming from Mingxin Academy. Xiu'er, your mother is content just looking at these two names in this life. You are still young, and you have a long way to go. Your mother can't go that far, but I will stay here, live well, and always look forward to you getting better and better."
Zhang, no, Zhang Hehua, looked at her daughter with anticipation. This thin piece of paper was the heaviest thing she had held in her hands after crossing half a lifetime and the threshold of life and death.
“Zhang Mingxiu…” Xiu Niang, no, Zhang Mingxiu, with red eyes, rushed into her mother’s arms. “Mother, this name is so beautiful.”