“That cripple actually dares to make a move! Does he really think I wouldn’t dare touch him?” The emperor slammed his palm onto the table, making even the teacups tremble and tea spill over their rims.
The eunuch beside him hurriedly dropped to his knees, too frightened to even breathe loudly.
The emperor rose and paced back and forth across the hall, the fury in his heart burning hotter by the moment.
“Before I could even make a move, he secretly transferred his assets. Is he planning to strike first?”
The emperor had long been wary of Zhan Haoting. He immediately made up his mind to eliminate him ahead of schedule.
“Someone!” the emperor shouted. “Summon Minister of Justice Zhao Chongan.”
When Zhao Chongan arrived, the emperor cast him a cold look and tossed him a stack of documents. “Verify these documents. Whether they are genuine or not, you must report back to Me within three days.”
Zhao Chongan’s entire body trembled. He hurriedly flipped through the documents, his face turning deathly pale as cold sweat poured down his forehead. He accepted the order and left.
Watching him depart, the emperor gave a cold snort. “Zhan Haoting, you brought this upon yourself. You have no one to blame but yourself!”
In truth, the emperor’s evidence was nowhere near sufficient. Otherwise, he would have acted against Zhan Haoting long ago.
But Sun Chengmin understood how to read the emperor’s intentions and had begun resorting to every possible means to gather so-called evidence that “Zhan Haoting had colluded with the enemy and betrayed his country.” Through threats, bribes, and brutal torture, he had forcibly fabricated a dossier that appeared to contain “irrefutable evidence.”
Zhan Haoting received the news that very day. Before he could respond, however, a summons from the palace arrived:
“His Majesty commands that the prince enter the palace at once!”
Cheng Yao immediately ordered someone to bring out a steel blade and fasten it over Zhan Haoting’s chest.
After thinking it over, she still wasn’t reassured, so she made him put on a bulletproof vest beneath his inner robes as well.
“Your Highness, this garment could save your life at a critical moment. Try not to take it off. You must be extremely careful when you go to the palace and protect yourself!”
Zhan Haoting’s heart ached with an indescribable bitterness.
His trip to the palace was fraught with danger. But if he fell, what would happen to everyone in the residence—and to his Yao'er?
He pulled Cheng Yao tightly into his arms, as though he wished to fuse her into his very body.
He gazed into her eyes, his own filled with pain and reluctance. Then that anguish gradually hardened into resolve. He slowly released her, turned, and walked to the table. Picking up the brush, he dipped it generously in ink and wrote, stroke by stroke, a divorce agreement.
“Yao'er, if something happens to Me on this trip, someone will come to take you away. The emperor is wary of Me. If you divorce Me, perhaps he won’t make things difficult for you.”
Cheng Yao stared at the divorce agreement in Zhan Haoting’s hand in disbelief. Her heart felt as though it were being pricked by needles, and tears welled in her eyes.
Choking back a sob, she said, “The emperor won’t let me go. Even if we divorce, what good will it do?”
Zhan Haoting’s pain was a hundred times greater than hers.
He knew it would be useless, yet he still held on to a sliver of hope, wishing to win her even the smallest chance of survival.
“Yao'er, I cannot stand by and watch you die with Me. Take the divorce agreement. Perhaps there will still be a glimmer of hope.” His voice carried a fragility it had never held before.
Cheng Yao shook her head resolutely, tears spilling from her eyes. “No. I’m not leaving.” She clutched Zhan Haoting’s arm tightly, as though she would lose him forever the moment she let go. “At least for now, I don’t want to leave.”
Seeing the determination in Cheng Yao’s eyes, Zhan Haoting knew she had made up her mind. He set the divorce agreement aside and pulled her tightly into his arms once more, using all his strength, as though he wanted to engrave this final embrace forever into his heart.
“Yao'er, I’m sorry for dragging you into such a desperate situation. If there is a next life, I swear I will never let you suffer like this again.” Zhan Haoting’s voice was low and hoarse, his eyes bloodshot.
Cheng Yao buried her face against his chest, her heart aching beyond words. “Your Highness, don’t say such ominous things. We’ll be fine. We definitely will…”
The palace attendants called out again, urging him on. “Your Highness, His Majesty is waiting in the palace. Please depart at once!”
Zhan Haoting drew a deep breath. He cupped Cheng Yao’s face in both hands and gently wiped away her tears before kissing her fiercely.
The kiss was filled with endless longing and reluctance, as though he wished to pour all his emotions into it.
After a long while, Zhan Haoting released Cheng Yao and gave her one last, profound look before being pushed away in his wheelchair by the palace attendants.
The wheels rolled over the ground with a heavy, steady rumble, each turn seeming to crush down upon Cheng Yao’s heart.
She stood there in a daze, staring at Zhan Haoting’s departing back as tears streamed endlessly down her face.
She did not stop to wonder whether she had developed genuine feelings for him, or whether she was merely heartbroken to see the God of War reduced to such a miserable state. All she knew was that her heart hurt terribly, and she wanted to cry out loud.
Zhan Haoting had barely left when a maid came rushing over.
“This is bad, Your Highness! The First Madam has fainted!”
Lady Zhan had always been frail. Perhaps she had sensed that something was amiss, and in her agitation, she had collapsed in the courtyard.
Cheng Yao entered her courtyard to find the maids and matrons in complete disarray.
She had only just ordered someone to fetch a physician when a tremendous commotion erupted outside.
There was the clang of iron armor colliding, the dull thud of something heavy smashing against the gates, and rough shouts:
“By order of Minister of Justice Zhao, Zhan Haoting has committed treason by colluding with the enemy! Seize the entire household immediately!”
So soon?!
Cheng Yao rushed outside and happened to see the maid Hongxiu being shoved off balance by a soldier.
The screen wall in the front courtyard had already been smashed and cracked. More than a dozen armed soldiers were charging toward the main hall. Leading them was an official in dark robes, with a scar running from his brow to his jaw.
It was Minister of Justice Zhao Chongan.
“Minister Zhao, may I ask whether you have an imperial edict?” Steward Xiao Fu stepped forward to block him.
“Lord Zhou will be here shortly. He has the imperial edict.”
Zhao Chongan pushed him aside and led his men inside.
Moments later, the entire Zhan residence descended into chaos, filled with wailing and frantic cries.
Cheng Yao was nearly knocked down by a maid and hurriedly stepped aside.
“Madam, be careful!” Steward Xiao Fu was being restrained by two soldiers, his eyes filled with grief and indignation. “I’ll take the officials to the secret chamber.”
Cheng Yao’s pupils contracted sharply.
They knew about the secret chamber!
It seemed that there was someone working for the emperor among Zhan Haoting’s trusted subordinates.
The Zhao Chongan in the novel was the emperor’s blade. The raid was merely a pretext; what they truly wanted was to plant evidence and frame him.
Xiao Fu must have guessed that they would tamper with the secret chamber. Thus, in his despair, he had placed his last hope in her and reminded her with his words.
“Very well, Steward. Take them there.”
Cheng Yao pulled Hongxiu along for several steps. “Have Qingzhu go to the side courtyard and delay them.”
She pulled the golden hairpin from her head and stuffed it into Hongxiu’s hands. “Smash anything that can be smashed. The bigger the commotion, the better.”
Hongxiu froze for a moment. But when she saw the cold light in Cheng Yao’s eyes, she quickly regained her composure.
“This servant understands!”
“Old Madam, this is bad! The officials are raiding the residence!” Hongxiu shouted as she ran toward the side courtyard, deliberately crashing into the flower stand beneath the veranda. Ceramic fragments scattered across the ground with a loud clatter.
Cheng Yao teleported into the secret chamber.
After waiting for a while, Xiao Fu finally led the officials inside.
The officials knocked him unconscious, then hurriedly arranged everything in the chamber.
On a sandalwood stand lay a dragon robe and crown.
On the other side were border-defense maps, military formations, regional maps, mechanism blueprints, and letters exchanged with foreign vassal states.
Two baskets of South Sea pearls—each one as large as a pigeon’s egg, and all treasures reserved for the imperial family—sat on the floor.
Inside the bronze cabinet at the innermost end were rows of repeating crossbows from the Divine Machine Battalion, their arrowheads coated in a bluish poison.
Any one of these items would be enough to send Zhan Haoting plunging into the abyss.
But they still felt it wasn’t enough. “Let’s put a few other things in the corners, too.”
