She had listened to her daughter. She had betrayed Cui Huaiyin, killed Sun Yi, and slaughtered his entire family. She had suffered so terribly while carrying out those deeds—so how had everything ended up like this?
She was unwilling to accept it. She was unwilling!
It shouldn’t have turned out this way. Clearly, if Cui Huaiyin had died sooner, everything would have been different.
She had only been one step too late. Just one step.
Chen Yunxiang clutched her chest as waves of stabbing pain tore through her heart, nearly drowning her.
……
“Your Majesty, do you think it could be true?” Cui Huaiyin asked Dantai Ji after they left the Ministry of Justice.
Dantai Ji said, “You mean what Chen Yunxiang said about immortals?”
“Mm. She made it sound so convincing that even I felt a little frightened listening to her just now.”
Rongyao hurriedly wrapped her arms around her mother’s waist. “She’s not an immortal! It’s all fake! All of it! Don’t be afraid, Mother.”
Dantai Ji said solemnly, “Yaoyao is right. Someone as ruthless as her, who dared to kill her own mother at such a young age just to protect her secret, could never be an immortal.”
Cui Huaiyin nodded.
“I’m going to the Dali Temple now,” Dantai Ji said. “Will you come with me?”
Cui Huaiyin clenched her hands. Seeing the eager look on her daughter’s face, she couldn’t help but smile faintly. “Very well. We’ll go with Your Majesty.”
Dantai Ji gave an order to the person driving the carriage, and it headed toward the Dali Temple.
However, the moment the three of them arrived and stepped out of the carriage, they saw someone staggering toward them.
“She’s dead! The prisoner under confinement is dead!”
Wang Zhong opened his eyes wide and stopped the man. “Who are you talking about?”
The man replied, “Princess Shengping! Princess Shengping is dead!”
Dantai Ji’s expression hardened.
A chill ran through Cui Huaiyin’s body.
Rongyao clenched her little hands into fists.
The three of them hurried into the Dali Temple. Someone led them to the place where Princess Shengping had been confined.
A man kneeling before them hurriedly explained, “She was perfectly fine this morning. There are no wounds on her body, nor any marks around her neck. But now her body has gone stiff, and there’s no pulse at all. We called several physicians, and every one of them said she was completely dead.”
“Your Majesty! This minister is guilty! I failed in my duty to guard her! I beg Your Majesty to punish me!” The Minister of the Dali Temple knelt on the ground, his face deathly pale as he pleaded for forgiveness.
Dantai Ji did not immediately order him to rise. Instead, he walked to the corpse and lifted the white cloth covering it. The moment he saw the person beneath it, his expression turned grim.
He asked the kneeling coroner in a low voice, “Are you certain she is dead?”
The coroner replied, “Your Majesty, this person has indeed passed away. There is no sign of life, and there is no possibility of revival.”
Dantai Ji asked, “Then tell me—does a drug that can induce false death exist in this world?”
The coroner raised his head in shock. “Your Majesty, please forgive us, but we have never heard of any such drug.”
Dantai Ji glanced once more at the corpse of the girl who had been his daughter for seven years. His eyes reddened slightly, and he closed them.
“Bury her.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” The Minister of the Dali Temple hesitated for a moment before asking, “Your Majesty, should we continue investigating the cause of death?”
“Investigate for another three days,” Dantai Ji said. “If you still find nothing, bury her then.”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
Cui Huaiyin only glanced at the corpse before quickly looking away, nearly vomiting.
Remembering something, she hurriedly covered her daughter’s eyes.
Unexpectedly, the girl was staring fixedly at the corpse, without the slightest trace of fear.
Cui Huaiyin quickly pulled Yaoyao into her arms. “Yaoyao! What—what are you doing?”
“Is she really dead?” Rongyao asked.
“Yes. The physicians and the coroner all say she’s dead.”
Rongyao continued staring straight at the corpse. She said nothing for a long while.
Cui Huaiyin stared at her daughter in a daze before asking, “Yaoyao, aren’t you afraid?”
Rongyao blinked and answered honestly, “No.”
Cui Huaiyin’s voice grew hoarse. “Why not?”
Rongyao blinked again. In her previous life, she had seen countless corpses. She had even been a corpse herself and had touched her own dead body. How could she be afraid?
She wasn’t afraid of ghosts. She had been a ghost herself. Ghosts couldn’t touch people.
They weren’t frightening at all.
Rongyao answered her mother seriously, “Because Yaoyao is powerful.”
A smile appeared on Cui Huaiyin’s face. “Yes. Yaoyao is very powerful.”
They remained at the Dali Temple for another hour. Numerous coroners and physicians examined the body, yet none could determine Sun Yu’s cause of death.
By the time the three of them returned to the palace, news of the convict Sun Yu’s death had already spread throughout the palace.
There were even rumors that Princess Shengping had been killed by Noble Consort Cui.
Dantai Ji flew into a rage. He immediately had several palace maids and eunuchs who had spread such reckless rumors seized and beaten to death.
After that, no one dared to spread such nonsense again.
However, when the Empress Dowager heard the news, she summoned the Emperor and Noble Consort Cui. Rongyao followed them there as well.
The Empress Dowager’s eyes were red, clearly from crying.
She asked the Emperor anxiously, “You truly saw Yu’er’s corpse after leaving the palace? She’s really dead?”
Dantai Ji said, “Mother, she is indeed dead.”
“She was perfectly well just a few days ago. How did she suddenly die?”
“I don’t know either.”
“But, Your Majesty, you—”
“Mother!” Dantai Ji raised his head, his expression unpleasant. “Neither I nor the Noble Consort would stoop to killing such a young child!”
The Empress Dowager froze. Her eyes were bloodshot as she turned away.
“Enough. Enough. She was simply ill-fated. Since she’s dead, so be it. I’ll just pretend I never met her.”
Cui Huaiyin looked at the Empress Dowager’s sorrowful expression and felt no sympathy. After all, the Empress Dowager had watched Princess Shengping grow up. No matter how many grudges there had been in the past, when someone died, it was only natural to feel grief and regret.
Rongyao watched her grandmother shed tears, and a strange feeling stirred in her heart.
Her grandmother really was kind. Even after learning that Princess Shengping was not her true granddaughter, she still couldn’t bear to see her die.
In fact, Rongyao could tell that her father couldn’t bear it either. His eyes had reddened just now.
But when Rongyao had died in her previous life, she had been all alone. No one had cried for her.
Everyone who had loved her had died before her.
Rongyao sniffed and quickly took a piece of candied fruit from her purse, putting it into her mouth.
It was sweet, and the heavy, stifling feeling in her chest eased.
Wait—no, that wasn’t entirely true. Qi Shen had cried for her. He had even avenged her!
They were all crying. That was fine. As long as she was happy.
Princess Shengping, who had killed her in her previous life, was dead. They were secretly crying, while she was secretly rejoicing.
She was so happy……
Tomorrow, when Chen Yunxiang died, she would be even happier!
Princess Shengping was dead.
The news reached the Ministry of Justice, and someone actually told Chen Yunxiang, the convict scheduled for execution the following day.
Chen Yunxiang began shouting and cursing wildly in her cell, making the entire prison restless.
Yet hardly anyone paid her any attention.
Unexpectedly, that very night, Chen Yunxiang slammed her head against the wall and killed herself.
The wound on her head was enormous, and a great deal of blood had flowed out.
No one discovered her for the entire night. By the time she was found, she was already completely dead.
When Dantai Ji learned of it, he paused for only a moment before ordering his men to throw Chen Yunxiang into a mass grave. There was no great change in his expression.
Wang Zhong secretly glanced at the Emperor. Seeing that His Majesty truly did not care and was continuing to review memorials, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.
That mother and daughter had died on the very same day.
Who could say whether it was a good omen or a bad one?
