The Queen, who had seemingly breathed her last, suddenly sat up in bed.
Had she returned from the dead?
Nangong Yu stumbled back several steps in sheer terror, all the color draining from his face.
"M-Mother?"
The Queen on the bed said nothing, merely staring at him with dark, gloomy eyes.
Nangong Yu's heart leaped into his throat.
Trying his hardest to steady his emotions, he walked over to the bed. "Mother, you have already passed away. Please, rest in peace!"
He reached out to close her staring eyes, but in the next second, his wrist was grabbed.
That hand, which he thought would be devoid of warmth, actually carried a trace of body heat.
It did not feel like the hand of a dead person.
Nangong Yu looked at the Queen in disbelief. "Y-You're not dead?"
The Queen threw off Nangong Yu's hand, her eyes full of icy anger. "I took a drug that mimics death. Everything you saw was an illusion. I am not dead yet. Are you very disappointed?"
Nangong Yu's mind instantly buzzed, going completely blank.
The blood in his veins seemed to freeze into ice.
She only took a fake-death pill?
Then... she heard everything he had just said?
Nangong Yu's heart had never felt such panic.
Why would the Queen suddenly fake her death to test him?
Had she discovered something?
In an instant, a million thoughts raced through Nangong Yu's mind!
"Mother, who gave you this drug? Was it Rex?"
The Queen did not answer him. She glared fiercely at Nangong Yu, whose eyes were bulging with guilt and panic. "To seize the throne, you have become so utterly deranged. I am glad I still have a breath left in me. Otherwise, if I handed the royal family over to you, I would become the greatest sinner of the Nangong family!"
With a thud, Nangong Yu fell to his knees.
"Mother, I promise I will be a good King. Please, go in peace!"
At this point, even if the Queen was still alive, he had no choice but to send her to hell.
As he spoke, Nangong Yu shifted toward the bed. He grabbed a pillow and swiftly pressed it over the Queen's face.
"The doctors have already pronounced you dead, and Rex confirmed you stopped breathing. Just die like this!"
With her nose and mouth smothered by Nangong Yu, the Queen instantly felt suffocated.
Her heart plunged into an abyss.
She never imagined that her youngest son would become so crazed for power!
Bang! A loud gunshot rang out.
Nangong Yu took a bullet directly to the back.
The hidden door in the room opened, and a group of secret guards walked out with weapons drawn.
Nangong Yu collapsed to the floor, instantly becoming the target of everyone's guns.
Wen Yan stepped out from behind the guards. She hurried to the bed and fed the Queen a pill.
After the Queen caught her breath, she slapped Nangong Yu viciously across the face. "Traitorous son!"
Nangong Yu looked at the Queen, then at Wen Yan, a fierce murderous intent flashing in his eyes. "You again?"
Seeing Nangong Yu try to stand up to attack Wen Yan, the Queen immediately ordered the guards to pin him down.
"Mother, you would rather believe an outsider than your own son? Weren't you afraid of harming your royal body by taking that drug? Besides, I am now the sole heir to the royal family. Without me, our Nangong family will inevitably be replaced by other families. You cannot touch me—"
The Queen interrupted him, furious beyond measure. "The little prince has been found. I will groom him to be the royal heir!"
What?
Nangong Yu's pupils shrank violently. "Impossible! He died a long time ago!"
"He is still alive. Your wishful thinking has come to nothing."
Nangong Yu shook his head repeatedly, refusing to believe it.
The Queen clapped her hands, and the guards outside escorted Lawson in.
Lawson presented the compiled evidence one by one.
After reading it, the Queen's chest heaved with rage. "So your eldest brother and his wife were murdered by you!"
Nangong Yu knew his cause was lost, but he would never admit to murder.
Looking at the evidence Lawson had compiled, he sneered. "At most, I took some bribes. The deaths of my brother and sister-in-law have nothing to do with me. I just vented a bit on social media. If Lawson decided to go and kill someone on his own, what does that have to do with me? Did I personally order him to do it? Does he have a recording?"
The Queen's face turned incredibly ugly.
Indeed, mere screenshots of social media rants could not prove he had killed anyone.
But the Queen knew that her eldest son and his wife died because of Nangong Yu.
Seeing the Queen's expression, Nangong Yu's arrogance only grew. "On the contrary, I have evidence of Lawson killing Luya. If I don't produce the video, Luo Yuan will have to die. Oh, right, tomorrow Luo Yuan is going to the gallows!"
"If you abdicate, Mother, and let me inherit the throne, I can pardon Luo Yuan. I will also treat the little prince well and guarantee his life won't be in danger anymore!"
The Queen pointed a trembling finger at him. "Just the charge of attempting to murder me is enough to send you to hell."
Nangong Yu's lips curled up. "But aren't you still alive and well? The royal family has had a lot of negative press lately. Are you really willing to publicly announce that I tried to murder you? I didn't murder my brother and sister-in-law. If you falsely accuse and suppress me just so the little prince can succeed the throne, do you think the rest of the royal family and the public will accept it?"
Without evidence that Nangong Yu personally ordered Lawson to murder the eldest prince and his family, even if the Queen forced him to step down and supported the little prince, it would cause widespread dissatisfaction.
Nangong Yu knew they could not produce the evidence, which was why he was so brazen.
Wen Yan, who had been silent all this time, spoke up with a half-smile. "Nangong Yu, you must love Moni very much. To make Moni feel secure staying by your side, you once gave her a diary. In that diary, you wrote down all your criminal plans, including how you manipulated Lawson into killing for you!"
The arrogant expression on Nangong Yu's face abruptly changed.
The diary was his private secret; only he and Moni knew about it.
To reassure Moni and keep her with him, he had indeed entrusted his secrets to her.
Moni was his sweetheart, and he trusted her implicitly.
She would never tell anyone about the diary.
But how did this woman know?
"You love Moni so deeply, but have you really never suspected her at all? For instance, what if the twins she is carrying aren't yours?"
Nangong Yu's eyes bulged. He lunged forward, trying to kick Wen Yan, but the hidden guards held him down tightly.
"Stop trying to sow discord! Moni is pregnant with my children. She was a virgin when we got together, and her love for me is no less than my love for her!"
Wen Yan's lips parted in a soft smirk. "Then you are gravely mistaken. Before Moni was with you, she had already slept with several men. She just had surgery to restore her virginity. Also, there's another major reason why you and Princess Luo Yuan never had children, aside from you secretly drugging her food—you have a low sperm count!"
