The carved window creaked open, letting in a rush of icy wind that roused Concubine Yu from her daze. She hastily gathered her disheveled robes and knelt on the floor, trembling.
The Heir of Ningde Marquis was consumed by fury and regret, cursing his misstep today. He had laid an elaborate trap, meticulously planned, even selecting Jiang Qingci, the daughter of the Marquis of Wuning, as the perfect noblewoman to ensnare—
A highborn lady, with a father and brothers who were loyal generals under the Crown Prince, and a husband who held a prestigious position among the civil officials.
Had the Crown Prince taken even a single step into the side chamber, they could have easily accused him of defiling another man’s wife. The Marquis of Wuning and his sons would have turned their backs on him, and the censors’ memorials would have tarnished his reputation beyond repair.
Yet somehow, his scheme had unraveled. Not only had he been outmaneuvered, but Concubine Yu had also been dragged into the mess…
Kneeling before Emperor Chunming, the Heir of Ningde Marquis cried out in anguish, "This lowly subject would never dare to defile Your Majesty’s consort in Chaoyang Hall during the grand banquet! The incense in this chamber was laced with an aphrodisiac—both Concubine Yu and I were drugged! I beg Your Majesty to see the truth!"
At that moment, the Crown Prince suddenly spoke. "You claim you wouldn’t dare? Then where were you and Concubine Yu on the twenty-first day of the second month in the fifteenth year of Zhenning, when His Majesty performed the solar rites at the Altar of the Sun?"
The words struck like a thunderbolt. Concubine Yu’s face drained of color, her vacant eyes widening in terror as her body trembled uncontrollably.
The Heir of Ningde Marquis, who had been vehemently defending himself, froze in shock, beads of cold sweat bursting across his forehead.
The fifteenth year of Zhenning…
A dreadful suspicion flickered in Emperor Chunming’s mind, but he dared not dwell on it. "What happened?" he demanded, his voice low and dangerous.
The Crown Prince offered a pointed reminder. "Your Majesty may not recall, but Concubine Yu was diagnosed with pregnancy in the fifth month of that same year."
Emperor Chunming’s heart clenched, fury flooding his gaze as he nearly staggered.
With a silent signal from the Crown Prince, Qin Ge dragged Zhu Wu, Xie Huaichuan’s attendant, into the hall.
"Tell us what happened that day," the Crown Prince ordered.
The gag was torn from Zhu Wu’s mouth, and he immediately stammered, "On the spring equinox of the fifteenth year of Zhenning, while Your Majesty was at the Altar of the Sun and the Empress led the consorts to Longzong Temple to pray for the Ninth Prince, Concubine Yu—then still a noble lady—remained in the palace due to a cold. The Heir, concerned for her, slipped into Baohua Hall when no one was watching…"
"Lies!" the Heir of Ningde Marquis roared. "Your Majesty, this servant has been bribed! His words cannot be trusted!"
Emperor Chunming’s jaw tightened, his glare fixed on Zhu Wu. "Continue."
Zhu Wu swallowed hard before adding, "By the end of the third month, Noble Lady Yu secretly informed the Heir that her monthly courses were delayed. Too afraid to summon a physician, the Heir then bribed Zhou Xingyan of the Imperial Medical Bureau to falsify the conception date by a month."
One try and it took? The Heir’s really something.
The hall was thick with tension—some seething with rage, others paralyzed by fear, a few calculating their escape—but this stray thought stood out starkly.
Yun Kui was still marveling at the absurdity when she suddenly met the Crown Prince’s piercing gaze. Her heart lurched in fright.
"No way, does he really know what I'm thinking?"
She shrank back slightly and continued peering into the hall.
Beside Emperor Chunming, Tang Fugui cautiously spoke: "Concubine Yu indeed gave birth to the Ninth Prince before completing nine months of pregnancy."
Concubine Yu trembled all over, kneeling forward and clutching the hem of Emperor Chunming's robe, her tears streaming uncontrollably. "Your Majesty, please believe me... Shou'er is your child, he truly is your child..."
Emperor Chunming's eyes were as cold as ice, devoid of any warmth.
He still remembered how large Concubine Yu's belly had been during her pregnancy, and how the Ninth Prince had weighed a full seven pounds at birth. Zhou Xingyan had claimed it was due to Concubine Yu's hearty appetite during her term.
At the time, the Emperor had been overjoyed at the birth of his son, believing it was his deceased Eighth Prince returned to him. He had harbored no suspicions and doted on this plump, fair-skinned youngest son to the core, even naming him "Shou'er"—a wish for his long and healthy life.
But now, the joy he had once felt was replaced by fury. He wanted nothing more than to tear the adulterous pair limb from limb!
Suppressing his rage, he suddenly recalled, "Zhou Xingyan met with some accident, didn’t he? He’s already dead?"
The Crown Prince confirmed, "Zhou Xingyan was responsible for all of Concubine Yu’s medical records from conception to delivery. But after the Ninth Prince’s birth, he died when his carriage plunged off a cliff during his journey home to observe mourning rites."
The Heir of Ningde Marquis roared, "His death was an accident—what does that have to do with me?"
Zhu Wu, trembling, spoke up, "It was Your Lordship who sent men to intercept and silence Zhou Xingyan on his journey, staging the accident..."
The Heir of Ningde Marquis glared at him furiously. "You’ve served me for ten years. I’ve treated you well—why betray me now?"
The Crown Prince smiled faintly. "If the Heir refuses to admit it, it matters not. I have one more witness."
As his words fell, Qin Ge dragged in a squirming, chubby little boy.
At the sound of the child’s cries, Concubine Yu and the Heir of Ningde Marquis looked up simultaneously, their faces mirroring the same terror.
"Mother! Father!" the Ninth Prince wailed.
He had been admiring the palace lanterns in the imperial garden when he was suddenly seized and brought here. Now, seeing the Crown Prince and the guard who had once taken him horseback riding, he burst into frightened sobs, calling for his father and mother.
But the father who had always gazed at him with tender affection now wore a face of stormy fury, his eyes cold and distant.
And his mother, usually so radiant, knelt on the floor, her face streaked with tears, utterly disheveled.
Why... why was this happening?
Ignoring the Ninth Prince’s cries and struggles, the Crown Prince turned his sharp gaze to the woman kneeling below. "Concubine Yu."
Tearfully, she lifted her head. The moment those icy, oppressive eyes locked onto her, she shuddered uncontrollably, as if cold seeped into the very marrow of her bones.
The Crown Prince’s voice was quiet but razor-sharp. "Your adultery is unforgivable. But the child is innocent. The Ninth Prince has known only His Majesty as his father and has been genuinely cherished by him for five years. If you confess the truth, I will persuade His Majesty to send the boy far from the capital, to an estate where he may live in peace. Otherwise... even if His Majesty wishes to spare him, I will never allow anyone to taint the imperial bloodline. You know well what I am capable of."
Concubine Yu trembled like a leaf in the wind, her eyes filled with despair. "No... no, Shou'er is truly His Majesty’s blood..."
The Crown Prince's lips curved into a faint smile, but his deep, ruthless eyes burned with a bloodthirsty killing intent. Each word he uttered dripped with bone-chilling malice: "A grown man can endure three thousand cuts before death. As for the Ninth Prince, so young and tender—I’ve yet to test how many slices it would take for him to perish."
The moment these words left his mouth, nearly everyone in the hall gasped in horror.
Concubine Yu collapsed to the floor, her defenses crumbling in an instant.
Yun Kui’s heart clenched in dread.
"Your Highness..."
The Crown Prince’s expression remained icy and detached, his features devoid of even a trace of warmth.
Concubine Yu’s face was a portrait of despair, yet like a drowning woman clutching at straws, she suddenly threw herself onto her knees before him. "Your Highness, he’s innocent! He’s just a child! Please, please—I’ll confess everything..."
The Heir of Ningde Marquis, frantic, gripped her delicate shoulders. "Lady Yu, don’t believe him! He’s deceiving you!"
The Ninth Prince didn’t understand their words, nor why he was suddenly facing death. His father’s gaze was colder than ice, and his mother wept uncontrollably. What was happening?
He rushed forward and clung to Concubine Yu’s arm. "Mother, why must I die? I don’t want to die! What’s going on?"
Concubine Yu sobbed as if her heart were being torn apart. Every word from the Crown Prince felt like a blade, slicing mercilessly into her soul.
She knew she was doomed—Xie Huaichuan was doomed, and countless others would lose their lives. But she couldn’t abandon her child, not even for the slimmest hope...
Wrenching free from Xie Huaichuan’s grasp, she prostrated herself before Emperor Chunming, kowtowing desperately. "Your Majesty, this concubine admits her guilt! Punish me as you will! But Shou’er—you raised him with love! Spare his life, I beg you! He’s only five years old..."
Emperor Chunming kicked her hand away, his chest ablaze with fury. "You adulterous whore! So you did betray me!"
Maddened, he spun in place twice before snatching a blade from a nearby guard and swinging it at Concubine Yu’s throat.
Yun Kui flinched, turning her face away.
The sound of steel slicing flesh reached her ears.
When she dared to look again, the floor was splattered with blood, followed by a woman’s piercing, shattered scream.
"Huaichuan!"
Xie Huaichuan had taken the blow meant for Concubine Yu.
Emperor Chunming shut his eyes tightly.
Xie Huaichuan shielding her—Concubine Yu crying his name in anguish—what more proof did he need?
Twisted with pain and hatred, Xie Huaichuan’s face contorted in fury, yet his final glance at Concubine Yu was tender.
Her hands slick with blood, she cradled Xie Huaichuan’s lifeless body, trembling violently. Then, her hollow, grief-stricken eyes hardened with resolve.
She stroked the Ninth Prince’s head one last time before turning her gaze to the Crown Prince. "Your Highness... keep your word..."
Before Yun Kui could react, a strong, warm hand pulled her behind a protective figure.
Another sickening thud of steel meeting flesh. Through the gaps, she saw more blood pooling across the floor, heard the Ninth Prince’s heartrending wails.
"Mother! Mother! Don’t die!"
Concubine Yu had followed Xie Huaichuan in death.
The Ninth Prince’s shrill cries filled the air, the room thick with the metallic stench of blood, the crimson tide nearly lapping at Yun Kui’s toes.
She had witnessed death once again.
Yun Kui's face was deathly pale, her heart trembling faintly.
Though she didn’t know these two people, she had often seen them in her dreams. To witness two living souls die right before her eyes—even the truth about the Ninth Prince’s origins had been something she discovered in those very dreams.
The deaths of Concubine Yu and the Heir of Ningde Marquis could not be said to have nothing to do with her.
Yun Kui’s hands and feet turned icy, and suddenly, she was terrified to stay here any longer.
Emperor Chunming stared fixedly at the pair before him, his usually gentle and refined face twisted into something nearly monstrous. "What a pair of shameless adulterers, daring to die together!"
The Ninth Prince knelt on the ground, weeping helplessly, his small, chubby frame drenched in blood as he turned and clutched at his father’s leg, shaking it desperately. "Father! Father! Why is Mother dead? Why didn’t you save her?"
Emperor Chunming watched the spectacle with cold eyes, his gaze frigid to the bone.
His beloved concubine had flirted and committed adultery. His most trusted vassal had defiled his harem. Even the youngest son he had doted on for five years—was not even his own blood!
The dignity of an emperor had been trampled into the mud. How could he possibly remain calm?
And then there were all these people in the hall—were they not all laughing at his disgrace?
Emperor Chunming clenched his fists, murderous intent flashing in his eyes. "Issue the order—seal off the side hall immediately. Not a word of what happened today leaves this place. Any palace servant who saw or heard anything is to be executed on the spot—"
"Your Majesty," the Emperor’s command was cut off mid-sentence by the Crown Prince’s voice. "The show is over. How you handle the aftermath is your business. As for my people—I’ll be taking them with me now."
Emperor Chunming could no longer maintain his composure. The fury in his heart surged like a flood, devouring all reason.
Today, he had been humiliated, his authority shattered—and all of it had been orchestrated by the Crown Prince!
In this world, no one dared face the wrath of an emperor head-on. Only the Crown Prince would dare to walk away with his own people, utterly indifferent, while the Emperor was in the midst of ordering a purge.
By the time Yun Kui registered what was happening, her cold fingers were already enveloped in the warm grasp of a man’s hand.
A tingling sensation spread from her palm—an unfamiliar feeling of being completely encased. Dazed, she let herself be led away from the heart of the storm.
In her memory, the Crown Prince had never once held her hand before.
It had always been her, trailing after him like an eager shadow.
Is this a case of hitting me first, then offering a sweet date?
Did he bring me here on purpose to show me the fate of those who dare to stray? If I ever meet with the guards again, will His Highness make sure I end up just like them—bleeding out on the floor?
Yun Kui’s face twisted in terror, a cold sweat breaking out over her skin.
The Crown Prince: "..."
The Crown Prince: Yes, I’ll punish you mercilessly…
