Years have passed ever since Emperor Ji Shao Yang ascended the throne.

Lives have been peaceful and the small kingdoms near Han Shi Kingdom didn't dare to come closer. There were peace treaty and these kingdoms submitted to Han Shi Kingdom while giving their tribute once a year. Since Han Shi Kingdom was big enough, they wished to be under the kingdom's protection.

​​

"Your Majesty, Prince Ji Song wished to meet with you."

Ji Shao Yang raised his head and arched his eyebrows. He had retrieved his wife back from the cold palace and made her the Empress. Since he was so busy, he had no intention to take other concubines and created messy residence. Though, some officials were a bit too hard headed for him to deal with since they wished to strengthen the royal family's power through these women.

Ji Song was his first son with the Empress and had received proper education since he was young.

"Tell him to come in."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

The servant bowed and walked to the door. He opened it and allowed the little prince to come in. This year, Prince Ji Song would turn 10, and he had already started to show that he was a very capable child. He had truly taken after his father when it came to his intelligence.

"Imperial Father," Ji Song greeted properly.

Ji Shao Yang nodded and beckoned for Ji Song to come closer. He could see that his son was excited, yet he was trying hard to restrain his expression. Ever since they were young, the princes have learned how to control their emotion and conduct so that they would be a proper prince who knew how to conduct himself.

"What is it, Ji Song?"

"There's a message from Strategist Liu, Imperial Father. She'll come to visit the capital city with Yang Xing."

Ji Shao Yang arched his eyebrows. Yang Xing was the name of Yang Xian and Wei Liuying's first son. He was a year or two younger than his own son, but his intelligence was already far ahead from his son. At the same time, he inherited his father's mischievousness and his mother's boldness.

Thinking about that troublemaker, Ji Shao Yang resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "I see. Did she say what did she plan to do?"

"No, she only said that she'll visit the capital city with Yang Xing because she wanted Yang Xing to learn from the officials here," Ji Song replied while sulking. Whenever he was talking about Yang Xing, he would feel a bit inferior, so he had been trying to work harder. He didn't want to lose against that annoying person.

Ji Shao Yang sighed. "I understand. When they come, you can accompany Yang Xing to play."

"Yes, Imperial Father."

After excusing his son, Ji Shao Yang leaned back on the chair and sighed. He took a document which detailed the things that occurred at the north recently. There was a little skirmish with Nu Tribe, but Wei Liuying and Yang Xian were prepared and made sure that the tribe could not attack again.

The plan that they shared through some secret code here revealed to him their deviousness.

'These two should have never got together.'

Ji Shao Yang had the feeling that the two of them would produce a lot of little monsters as time passed. Just recently, he heard that their third son was born. Wei Liuying no longer spent so much time at the frontline, but she still helped out a lot from the shadow without leaving any trace.

Yang Xian himself didn't let himself stand in the limelight and allowed Prince Ji Sheng to take the glory for himself. He was said to only help out from the back and didn't have much contribution.

Those who knew these two very well would know that it was a total lie.

"Your Majesty, Prime Minister Wei is here."

"Let him in."

Wei Lu walked inside and greeted Ji Shao Yang formally. His eyes landed on the document in front of Ji Shao Yang. "Your Majesty, there's another report from Prince Ji Sheng regarding the trade. He wished for you to see if there's anything else that needs to be fixed."

"Put it here."

Aside from the war, Ji Sheng also established a short trade route around the border. It helped the economy there to grow and at the same time, introduced a more peaceful livelihood for the people who lived there. Though it was still imperfect, it helped them very much.

At the same time, there was also report regarding the new river's route that Prince Ji Sheng constructed. It helped to reduce the flood and allowed farmer to be at ease that their crops would not be swept away. He ended up using the same method at the south to prevent the increase of bandits from villagers who lost their homes due to flood.

"Wei Lu."

"Yes, Your Majesty?"

"Your niece will come to visit in a few days. I would like you to be the one to accompany her around. As for your work, you can hand it to Xie Han."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

Wei Lu was smiling happily when he walked out of the room. It has been a few years since the last time he met with Wei Liuying. Last time, the one who came here was Yang Xian with Yang Xing as he wished to show his son around. Now that Wei Liuying would return back, he was excited to welcome her.

Ji Shao Yang shook his head and then turned his attention to the history book.

It was said that history would only be written by the victor, but even then, there were many details that were left unwritten.

'Should I ask the historian to record what happens at the north?'

However, at this point of time, there was not really much point in recording detailed history. Ji Shao Yang ended up casting the thoughts away from his mind and let the historian did their work as they wished.

In the end, all the historian wrote was the fact that the Emperor and his third brother had an amicable relationship and worked together for the better of the kingdom. But for those who lived in this era, they understood that there were many other people who were actually working behind the shadow. Yet their names were not written in the records.

…

(End of Epilogue 4)

This is the last epilogue, so this is the end. Thank you very much for reading up until this far. I'm thankful for all of your support all this time.

Also, to tell you the truth, this story was inspired by several events in the real history of China, one of which is 441 BC, the Zhou Dynasty. During this year, King Zhending of Zhou (the 28th king of Zhou and also 16th king of Eastern Zhou) died. His first son (Ji Quji) inherited the throne, but he was then killed by his second brother (Ji Shu) after three months. However, five months afterwards, Ji Shu was killed by his third brother, Ji Wei, who become the Emperor. The fourth son, Ji Jie would then become Duke Huan and didn't contend for the throne, living peacefully with his brother at separate area.

I was interested at this incident, so I tried to research more, but I couldn't find much detail about this era even after reading several books because the description mostly only several sentences. In the end, it just spurred me to write a story with similar situation to this year. However, I chose to make an alternate world rather than sticking to the real history because of the lack of details of this era. (>.

This is also why I matched the habits, culture, and some other development in accordance. (The example is the fact that there's no paper at this point of time in history, thus people mostly used animal skin or bamboo sticks). Though, not everything is suitable.

It's still an alternate world, so it's NOT the real history.

This is a part of how "Villain Lady" story came from. I hope you all enjoyed the story even though it didn't really match the real history.

*Sending virtual hugs*

Sorahana