Chapter 404 The Death of Consort De! Old Stories!

He spoke the cruelest words in the coldest tone, like a ghostly claw dragging Consort De into an inescapable hell from which she could never escape.

"No...the sins of the family should not be visited upon them. Duan Rongshi, you have already harmed your brother, why will you still not let us go?"

If someone else had said this, Consort De might have thought it was just a bluff.

But he is Duan Rongshi, the Yama God of Slaughter whom everyone in the Great Liang fears!

Even Consort De, who lived deep within the palace, had heard of the good deeds he had done in the past.

How could she not be afraid?

Besides her son, she also owes a debt of gratitude to her maternal clan.

She can't drag the whole family down any longer.

Consort De cried so hard that snot and tears streamed down her face.

She climbed forward, grabbed Duan Rongshi's clothes, and pleaded, "Little Wu... please remember how your mother held you, comforted you, played with you on the swings and with grasshoppers when you were little, and helped you learn to walk..."

"I taught you to speak properly..."

"I even sent you to the Imperial Study..."

"Please, for the sake of our relationship, don't harm us, the bookmakers, okay?"

"I am willing to bear all the blame myself."

"I would gladly die, just please spare Xiao Liu's life and spare our family!"

Duan Rongshi yanked off the hem of his robe, his face showing disgust.

"Friendship?"

"That was before you maliciously used your innocent appearance to kill my mother!"

"Mother Consort Zhuang, do you still remember when you called me 'elder sister' back then?"

Consort De's expression froze.

Her memories seemed to have drifted far away, back to when she was thirteen years old and had just entered the palace.

"You, are you a princess of the Great Chu? You are so beautiful."

"Thank you for saving me today. If it weren't for you, I would have made a fool of myself again."

"Really? I... I can call you by your name? Or should I just call you Sister Qingyue?"

"Sister Qingyue, it's so lively here. No one ever sets foot in my place for ten days or half a month. I love coming here too."

"Sister Qingyue, you and the Emperor are just like my older sister and brother-in-law. I'm so envious."

"Sister Qingyue, is this osmanthus wine you brewed yourself? It smells so good!"

"Sister Qingyue, His Majesty just drank some wine. I was going to help him to his bed to rest, but he knew I wasn't you and cruelly pushed me away. His Majesty is really too much!"

"Sister Qingyue, is this your child with the Emperor? He's so handsome. He looks just like you."

"His name is Ashi? Little Ashi, I am your Empress Dowager Zhuang. I will treat you very well from now on, just like your mother treated me."

"No... Father, Mother, I... I don't want to compete for the Emperor's favor. Sister Qingyue and the Emperor are deeply in love, and no one else can interfere. They are so affectionate, how could I do anything to ruin their relationship?"

"I have the advantage of being in a good position... but if I do this, I will lose Sister Qingyue!"

"Father, Mother, get up—alright, I will go and beg Sister Qingyue."

"Sister Qingyue, I am nineteen years old this year... May I ask you for a favor? I wish to be favored by your side... Is that alright?"

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty—please have pity on Ling'er! Ling'er knows that you and Sister Qingyue are deeply in love, but Ling'er just wants a child—Your Majesty!!"

"Waaaaah, Sister Qingyue, His Majesty doesn't want me."

“Sister Qingyue, I’ve thought things through these past few days. I know you’ve tried your best to help me, but I can’t force His Majesty, can I?”

“His Majesty only has you in his heart. Over the years, he has never touched any other woman in the palace. He wants to keep his body for you, and his heart is only filled with you. If I were to force him, wouldn’t that hurt the bond between us sisters?”

"Don't worry, I'll talk to my parents at home."

"Father, Mother... I'm entrusting this matter to you. These are all Consort Yue's handwritings. You must have a master scribe make a copy of that letter so that His Majesty cannot distinguish the real from the fake."

"Father, Mother, His Majesty believes it! He believes it!"

"Father, Mother, don't worry. Once His Majesty no longer has Zongzheng Qingyue in his heart, I, Zhuang Ling'er, will become the most special person in His Majesty's heart."

"Sister Qingyue, come with me quickly! His Majesty is coming to kill you—"

"It's true! I saw him carrying a sword, slicing all your letters to shreds, and now he's heading towards Guifu Palace. Sister Qingyue, I don't want you to die, sob sob sob..."

"Sister Qingyue, it's not my fault."

"Who told you to monopolize His Majesty's favor and never share any of his grace with us? In the end, it's because His Majesty doesn't love you enough."

"Zongzheng Qingyue, I don't want to meet you again in the next life."

A bucket of ice-cold water was poured over my head.

Consort De jolted awake from her reverie.

Li Qingluo threw down the bucket and then dragged the soaking wet Consort De backward and pressed her down.

"Your name is Zhuang Ling'er, right?"

"What exactly happened to Consort De back then? Even now, you still won't tell us?"

Consort De: "No... I can't say..."

"Even if I told you, it's still the same deadly fate..."

"They still won't let us go..."

She muttered to herself, her expression turning terrified.

She looked up at Duan Rongshi in front of her.

That face gradually overlapped with the person in my memory.

She screamed, clutched her ears, and slammed her head against the ground: "It was my fault, I'm so sorry to Sister Qingyue, it was Ling'er's fault—"

"Please spare me, I didn't want to, I didn't want to—"

"Over the years, even though I have deliberately impersonated Sister Qingyue, I can never compare to her former beauty and charm."

"I was just imitating others poorly; this is all my retribution."

"She's a cold, aloof fairy, and I'm just a fool who acted so convincingly that I even believed it myself—haha, hahaha—"

"Sister Qingyue, sob sob..."

"Sister Qingyue died such a tragic death."

"On that day, which of the concubines, the Empress Dowager, the Empress... was not present?"

"They deliberately delayed Ah Shi in the Imperial Study, and then... everyone together killed Sister Qingyue!"

"She has a child in her belly."

"That child, although she is a little princess, Sister Qingyue has already chosen a name for her."

"Haha, they all died together."

"The mother and daughter, along with their unborn child, died as a result of being driven to their deaths by everyone—"

"Haha, hahaha..."

Consort De sang, laughed, and cried, then suddenly raised the osmanthus hairpin in her hand and stabbed it hard into her own neck.

puff--

Fresh blood gushed out like a jet of water.

She fell into her own pool of blood.

He died with his eyes wide open, unable to rest in peace.

Seeing this scene, Li Qingluo felt a deep fear of the treachery and intrigue within the palace.

Duan Rongshi grabbed her hand and quickly hid to the side.

When Eunuch Wang and the others woke up, they were all horrified to realize they had been ambushed and quickly got up.

"Who is it? Show yourself! How dare you attack this eunuch in this cold palace? Are you tired of living?"

"Ah! Father-in-law, look—"

When the eunuchs saw that Consort De was dead, and that a golden osmanthus hairpin was still stuck in her neck, they were so frightened that their faces turned deathly pale.

"She, she's dead."

"Was he forced to his death?"

"No, she committed suicide. She stabbed herself."

"Pah! What bad luck!"

"Since she's already dead, let's hurry up and leave!"

"Wait, this hairpin... Father-in-law, that's pure gold, pure gold!"

Little Eunuch Wang: "Are you going to die? You dare to take something like that? Didn't you see clearly? That's a osmanthus hairpin!"

"If you want to be haunted by a vengeful ghost, then go and take it!"

After saying that, Eunuch Wang scurried out of the Cold Palace.

With one hand, after hesitating for a long time in a panic, he still managed to pull out the hairpin, then quickly wiped it on Consort De's corpse and hid it in his bosom.

...

Li Qingluo accompanied Duan Rongshi back to Guifu Palace.

She held onto his arms with both hands, but his tall figure was already swaying and about to collapse.

Just before he stepped into the main hall, he turned around and sat down on the roadside, unable to move any further.

"Your Highness."

"The ground here is damp and warm at night, shall we get up and go inside to sit?"

Duan Rongshi stared blankly, neither nodding nor shaking his head, yet he couldn't get up no matter what.

Li Qingluo tried her best but couldn't hold him back.

With red eyes, she knelt down and cupped his face in her hands: "I know you're heartbroken. I don't know how you've managed all these years... but at least one person died, right?"

"Your mother would be very pleased to see you living such a good life."

Duan Rongshi shook his head, lowered his head, and remained silent.

Li Qingluo: "Okay, okay... If you don't want to move, then sit here and I'll go get you a blanket."

She got up to leave, but Duan Rongshi grabbed her wrist tightly.

"Don't……"

"Luo'er, don't leave."

"Don't go."

With a slight pull, he drew Li Qingluo into his arms.

His broad arms almost pulled her into his embrace.

She didn't even utter a muffled groan.

She just sat quietly with him, her eyes red.

She would pat his back gently from time to time, without saying a word or daring to move.

However, the silence at this moment had already gently fallen into his heart like a soft rain.

"My mother is the gentlest woman in the world."

"Yet her gentleness is also very powerful; she is the strongest person I have ever met."

Everyone says she is a fairy descended from heaven, aloof and ethereal. But no one knows that her beauty is merely the least significant thing about her.

"When I was young, I was the most beloved son in my father's arms."

“My father will lift me up on his head, and he will also let me ride on his back.”

"He was the emperor... yet he taught me patiently and accompanied me gently, just like an ordinary father. Even though this made me ostracized and isolated by my older brothers in the Imperial Study, I was truly the happiest child in the palace when I was young."

“My father also doted on my mother. He respected her as if she were his wife, and even told her that he would gradually dismiss the harem, and even depose the empress, so that the three palaces and six courtyards would only have my mother from now on.”

“My mother knew that this was a ridiculous and outrageous thing that would cause upheaval in the court, so she immediately stopped my father, saying that it was absolutely forbidden to do such a thing.”

"She knew she had the emperor all to herself, so she often advised him to go to other palaces to see the other concubines."

She said that even if her father favored other women, she wouldn't mind. Because that's what her father should do.

"For the sake of national stability and court harmony, Father should also favor them."

“My father used to be angry with my mother because of this, feeling that she was pushing him away and didn’t want him.”

"My mother can always appease my father with just a few words."

"Luo'er, you may not know, but the me of my childhood and the me of today are completely different people."

"Because of my mother's teachings, I loved to laugh when I was young and I didn't like killing. Even if I stepped on an ant on the roadside, I would feel guilty."

"Until... when I was six years old, the day I was left at school by the Grand Tutor."