After seeing Li Heng come back from Zichen Palace, Empress Dowager Guo's mood was mixed.

She is the queen mother of a country, her husband is gone, and her son finally picked up a life, but he refuses to be the emperor of the world again. A huge world, the Jiangshan Sheji of the Tang Dynasty, what is she going to do?

She is a woman, although she has managed the Daming Palace in an orderly manner for decades, and the history books can also leave her a virtuous name, but she has never had such great ambitions. She just wanted to stand here with her husband properly, but she didn't think that he would abandon her first.

She didn't want to be the second Empress Zetian, she believed that she didn't have the courage and tenacity to stand on that supreme throne at the risk of blood and killing. Although she is also listening to politics now, there is an essential gap between listening to politics and weighing the system of the dynasty. She knew that even with the precedent of Empress Zetian, if she wanted to be the second female emperor, she would still have to face a river of blood.

Without Chun, without the third brother, they are all gone, what is the use of her wanting to come down this day?

She sat silently in the large bearskin, caressing the oily fur and wrapping two bear paws around her neck.

She actually already has the answer in her heart, but this decision is very difficult to make.

Once it goes up, it means that the Guo family will begin to decline sharply, and maybe she will personally send the situation created by Yigong for the Guo family to the end of the road. The children and grandchildren of the Guo family can only do business from now on, and cannot hold important official positions in the court.

She covered her face tiredly and summoned her eldest brother Guo Zhu.

During the entire meeting, the two men sat opposite each other, and most of the time there was silence. The Guo family is no longer what it used to be, the third brother is gone, and the eldest brother is also old, and he has reached the age where he is ready to return to his hometown. The entire Guo family is now falling on her, a woman in the deep palace, and she, her closest relatives have been lost one after another, and she no longer has the strength to take on such a heavy responsibility.

Or perhaps, even if she bears it today, when she is a hundred years later, she still doesn't know what kind of ending it will bring to the Guo family. Maybe it's worse, maybe it's going to be upheaval and massacres.

When Guo Zhu finally stood up, he silently looked at the sunset outside the window and said, Fei'er is gone, and the eldest brother will continue to support you and support all your decisions.

Even though she had gone through so much in her life, at that moment, she still had the urge to cry.

In the morning of the next day, she still took King Guang to the court and patiently taught him a lot of things in the court. King Light is not a very intelligent child, but he is calm, stoic, and has the best qualities and heart of an emperor.

Li Heng's illness is getting better day by day, but he refuses to ask about political affairs anymore, refuses to read any more folds, and only has a few Buddhist scriptures next to his pillow.

Empress Dowager Guo still insisted on letting people send the folds to his couch every day, but every day they were sent to Penglai Hall as they were, and Empress Dowager Guo could only sigh at the thick folds, and then opened them, slowly reading them one by one.

Over the years, she went from being an ignorant little girl in Chang'an to gradually growing into the most powerful woman in the Daming Palace, and even stood in that position overlooking her and his world. But after all, she doesn't know whether she has succeeded or failed in this life.

Is this life full or lonely?

Imperial Doctor Liang's medicine was indeed very effective, but the team looking for the herbs did not come back for a long time. Empress Dowager Guo sent someone to inquire on the road, but when she came back, she got bad news.

Imperial Doctor Liang was old and frail, and after concocting a prescription for His Majesty and explaining the medication methods and precautions, he drove to the west and was buried directly at the foot of Taihang Mountain according to his will. He said that Taihang Mountain is the resort of the immortals, and it is also a lifetime of creation to be able to bury bones here.

When the attendants returned, they also brought back a letter from Imperial Physician Liang, which was addressed to Empress Dowager Guo.

He said that he was once known as the best imperial doctor in Datang, but there were still many patients who could not be cured. He is not an immortal, and the healer can only do his best to obey the destiny of heaven, and there is no real hand of rejuvenation, nor can he bring people back to life. As a person who practices medicine, facing an irreparable life, this is an unbearable pain in life, which others cannot understand. The greater the halo above the head, the higher the expectations of the patient and their loved ones, and the heavier the inner torment of the healer himself.

In his life, he has saved many people, and he has watched many people die in front of his eyes.

If it weren't for the fact that he failed to save the eldest daughter of the Guo family that year, maybe she wouldn't have to enter the East Palace, and her fate wouldn't have changed. From the first time he saw her, he felt that this little girl, like Tao Zhuo, was not suitable for court life. This incident, in his heart, has been guilty for most of his life.

Later, the Zhao Guogong of the Guo family, as well as Princess Shengping, did not come back to life, and again and again, in front of her, all he left behind was disappointment.

He was old, and sometimes disguised himself as an old urchin, but no one knew the pain in his heart.

For the last time, he was finally able to complete the entrustment of the Empress Dowager Guo, and finally lived up to the title of the first imperial doctor.

At the end of the letter, he added that he had another gift for her. But he didn't say what the gift was, nor did he say how to give it to her, just a sentence, without a beginning or an end, a little inexplicable.

In this life, Imperial Doctor Liang has helped her too much. It's just that she never thought that the incident of her sister's poisoning and death had existed in his heart for so long, so many years. In fact, she didn't blame Imperial Doctor Liang, in her opinion, there are many things, and that is fate.

Just like now, Liang Yuyi exchanged his dying life for Heng'er for good medicine, but Datang still has to face a change of dynasty, which is also fate, not within the reach of manpower.

Empress Dowager Guo ordered to build a mound for Imperial Physician Liang, accompany the Jingling Tomb of Xianzong, enshrine the tablet of Imperial Physician Liang in the Shang Pharmacy, and posthumously be a doctor of Zhengyipin.

Soon, Li Heng's illness had basically recovered, and he no longer wore those dragon robes and regular clothes embroidered with complicated patterns, but wore plain white robes every day, living in a simple house. In order to avoid being seen by the palace people, there is almost no one else around him except Shiquan. The harem concubines have not been in front of the saint for a long time, and when they mentioned it to the Empress Dowager Guo, they were always rejected.

Empress Dowager Guo announced to the public that the emperor was seriously ill.

Some skeptical ministers suspected that the Empress Dowager Guo had held the Son of Heaven hostage, and strongly asked to face the saint, and after making trouble several times, and on more than ten folds, the Empress Dowager Guo finally allowed it, but the Majesty he saw was the real Majesty, and it was impossible to fake, so the doubts of the ministers could only be slowly dispelled.

After recovering from this serious illness, he had a kind of indifference and detachment that saw through the world, no joy, no anger, no resentment, and no anger.

The lights in Penglai Hall were turned on until late every night, and she couldn't sleep, and she couldn't sleep. After reading the excerpt, Empress Dowager Guo sat in the room and stroked the bear skin silently, so silent that Fennel and Pothos thought she was asleep, but when she got closer, she found that she was still staring at the dark night outside, stroking the bear skin.

When she was still in the East Palace, there used to be a little eunuch who lit a lamp, and every day he had to carry six pairs of big red lanterns and hang them under her roof. It seemed like a long, long time ago, and she could barely remember what happened afterward.

When she recalled it, she realized that the past was so heavy, so thick that when she thought about it, every piece seemed to be an unbearable weight in life, and she carried it one by one.

The night is already deep, up and down the palace, there are still lights, I'm afraid there is only Penglai Palace.

A man stood before her and bowed down to her.

With a black cloak and black cloth shoes, the whole person seemed to be dark and gloomy, as if he had come out of the dark night.

Empress Dowager Guo slowly raised her head and saw the man slowly uncloaking and taking off his hood, revealing a bald head.

Under the black cloak is a gray robe.

She watched it for a long time, and suddenly realized that this was her Heng'er.

"Heng'er!" She felt a pain in her heart and shed tears. It's been so many years and so many things, but there are still so many tears, and my heart still hurts so much! Although he had long said that he would become a monk and not be an emperor, when he really saw him shave his hair and put on a monk's robe, he still had no way to accept it as a mother.

She still didn't want to give up the last bit of hope, even if she knew it was despair.

"Heng'er, really...... Is it really leaving? ”

He answered in the affirmative.

"Mother, forgive your son for being unfilial."

She stepped forward and held Heng'er in her arms. This is her son, the son she conceived and gave birth to in October, she has high hopes and intends to entrust the son of the Tang Society!

Heng'er stretched out her arms and hugged her very seriously, "Mother, from tonight onwards, my son will no longer be a person in the red dust." From now on, all fetters will be severed, and the mother will only treat her son as if he is sick. ”

Letting go of his hand, Li Heng knelt down seriously again and kowtowed.

Empress Dowager Guo hid her face and accepted his bowing, and then watched him walk out and disappear into the night.

Her life is such a rambling farewell one after another.

The next day, she ordered someone to ring the bell on the tower of Danfeng Gate, a long, continuous 30,000 sounds, announcing the funeral of His Majesty. The world of the Tang Dynasty cannot always be in the hands of a woman like her, in the end, there must be an ending.

Zigong is stored in the Zichen Palace, where the coffins of countless emperors of the Tang Dynasty were stored, including the former Dezong and Xianzong. Among the monks who do the dojo, there is one who bears some resemblance to His Majesty, wearing a golden Buddha-faced mask. His chanting voice was very loud and extraordinarily serious, and every time Empress Dowager Guo's eyes fell on him, she felt full of sourness in her heart.

I don't know what kind of mood Heng'er himself felt when he recited the mantra for himself in front of his coffin, and the past he wanted to say goodbye to the most, was it the court life of a ninety-five honor, or the love he once had for a woman who was nominally his sister?