Chapter 405 The Death of Consort Yue, the Secrets of That Year

"The Grand Tutor said that my handwriting was crooked and messy, that I had missed a chapter in my lesson, and that the article I had just learned to write was completely incomprehensible."

"Therefore, I will rewrite, memorize, and relearn everything in front of the Grand Tutor."

“But Luo’er, I started learning to write at the age of two. My writing was taught to me stroke by stroke by my mother. The Grand Tutor used to praise me for my amazing calligraphy at such a young age, saying that I would surely achieve great things in the future. How could it have become so crooked and messy one day?”

"I've already memorized my lessons perfectly, I remember which word is in which line, how could I have missed a chapter?"

"Even my mother said my writing was very good, so how could it be completely incomprehensible?"

"He was intentionally slowing me down, but I was too young to notice at the time. I just felt extremely discouraged and actually did everything over again."

"When I was finally able to leave school and go back with the eunuch who came to pick me up, I found that everyone in the palace avoided me like the plague."

"All the flattery and friendliness of the past have turned into cold, indifferent scrutiny in an instant."

"They not only dared not approach, but also pointed at me and whispered among themselves. I overheard a piece of information: Guifu Palace had been burned down."

"At this moment, the chief eunuch of the Empress Dowager's palace stopped me halfway and wanted to take me to the Palace of Tranquil Longevity."

"I would rather die than submit, and in the struggle, I turned and ran toward the firelight."

"I didn't see anything."

"Guifu Palace is no longer accessible."

"Only Qinyu was carried out from inside while unconscious, and they said she still had a faint breath."

"As for the others in Guifu Palace, including my mother, none of them survived the fire."

"But when I dragged my heavy steps to go in, I was held down by the Queen's men. They pressed me, a six-year-old, to the ground with the same brutal force as if they were pressing down a bastard."

"I begged my father, the emperor, to save my mother, but he stared at me with a cold look I had never seen before, as if I were the culprit who killed my mother."

"Everything changed after that."

Li Qingluo felt something wet on her neck.

Her heart was also in turmoil.

Just like in her previous life when she was abandoned by everyone in a dilapidated house, and she realized that she was truly dead, she could understand Duan Rongshi's despair and pain back then.

However, Duan Rongshi was only six years old when he faced all of this.

At six years old, he was still an innocent child.

But they are forced to face everything overnight, lose everything, and grow up suddenly.

He watched as his beloved mother was murdered in that fire.

He accepted his father, the emperor, and no longer loved him.

What Consort De said today suggests that the murderer is not just one person, but a group of people...

In this entire palace, perhaps no one's hands are clean in the face of what happened back then.

Li Qinglu felt a dull ache in her heart.

"And what about your father? Has he changed too?"

Duan Rongshi: "Yes. From then on, he became a completely unfamiliar person to me."

"It's like I've been possessed. I even suspected that he was no longer my father, but unfortunately... after several tests, it turned out that he had simply changed."

Li Qingluo suddenly remembered something.

"Your Highness, you once said that the current Qinyu is not the real Qinyu. What exactly did you mean by that?"

Because of her own and Nan Jia's experiences, and the existence of soul-shifting techniques, Li Qingluo couldn't help but think of a possibility.

Duan Rongshi gently released Li Qingluo and looked down into her eyes.

"After Qinyu was rescued from that fire and woke up, she was no longer normal."

"She is clearly only three years old, but her eyes have become worldly and cunning, and she speaks like an adult."

"That's fine, but she has completely changed her personality and often says things and words that I don't understand."

"She had a very high opinion of herself. At first, she told the servants that they should be treated as equals, but later, anyone who accidentally offended her would suffer her cryptic and sarcastic retaliation."

"She knows a lot of new and interesting things."

“She even started doing business at the age of ten, accumulating her own power.”

"I admire her, but as time goes by, I am more and more certain that the person inside her is no longer my timid and innocent cousin."

"Her soul should not belong to this place."

Li Qingluo's heart trembled violently.

Could it be... a rebirth as well?

Or something else?

Did they come from a place where men and women are equal, a place where there is no rigid class system?

She was actually a little envious of this place.

Li Qinglu shook her head: "So you've been dealing with her all this time because you want to know if she actually saw the truth back in Guifu Palace?"

Duan Rongshi: "...Yes. But I've come to realize the truth now. If she were really someone else, she probably wouldn't even know."

"In that case, there is no need for her to live any longer."

His eyes suddenly turned cold.

Li Qingluo held his cold hand tightly.

Back then, he not only lost his mother, but also his beloved younger sister.

Over the years, he could only hide in a dark corner and lick his wounds that never healed.

She felt a pang of heartache as if she were experiencing it herself, but all she could do was look at him and wait for him to continue.

"Over the years, I've uncovered quite a bit of information."

"Just as Consort De said, no one in the palace has clean hands. It's even possible that my father was the real culprit who killed my mother."

Li Qing found it hard to believe.

Looking up at this strange sky, a wave of sorrow washed over me.

"Your Highness, if you wish to take revenge, I, Li Qingluo, will risk my life for you."

After Duan Rongshi spoke these words that had been buried in his heart for seventeen years, he felt much more relieved.

Moreover, how could he bear to take her life?

He smiled and stroked her face.

What would I do with your life?

"I only wish for you to stay with me for a long, long time; that would be a blessing I have prayed to the gods for."

With reddened eyes, Li Qing took the initiative to look up and kiss his cheek.

"good."

She finally understood why, even though she was clearly poisoned by a bloodthirsty toxin, he still cut himself to bleed her to save her life.

He couldn't grasp anything else anymore.

Perhaps only he himself can make him live like a human being again.

"Your Highness, may I ask about those mute slaves?"

"After the Empress's accident, I heard that all the palace staff in Guifu Palace were massacred, and then a fire burned everything to the ground."

"But those mute servants in Guiyuan look like people who used to work in the palace?"

Duan Rongshi propped himself up and stood up.

He took Li Qingluo's hand and walked back.

After the two entered the hall, he said, "Those mute servants, the older ones, are former servants of my mother."

"It was only two years after my mother died, when I was eight years old, that they carefully delivered the news to me."

"In this world, apart from them, no one knows that Guiyuan was the house that Consort Yue bought for them to live in before she died."

Li Qingluo was taken aback: "Did Her Majesty buy these for them before she passed away?"

"Then Your Highness, didn't you already know all along...?"

Duan Rongshi nodded: "Yes, my mother probably foresaw that she would meet with misfortune back then."

"So, when she became suspicious, she had the tongues of the mute slaves pulled out one by one half a month in advance, and then gave them a fake death drug so that they could be transported out of the palace and settled down in the appearance of being tortured to death."

"She has brought in some new people around her, all of whom are spies from various palaces."

"That bloodbath at Guifu Palace was just a matter of eliminating the spies from all the palaces."

Li Qingluo was breathing heavily. With such a big move, wouldn't Consort Yue's final days be ruined, and she be seen as a cruel and tyrannical concubine?

"But since she has a drug to fake death... why doesn't she use it on herself?"

Duan Rongshi gripped the edge of the table tightly.

Li Qingluo saw a crack extending from his side to in front of him.

She was horrified and had a guess.

"As a princess of the Great Chu, Her Majesty cannot directly divorce and extricate herself. She must maintain the dignity and honor of being a princess of the Great Chu, so she can only wait for those intrigues and schemes to come her way."

"But she still has you..."

"If she could save those old people she brought from the Great Chu, why didn't she think of a way to save herself?"

"So perhaps she also took a drug to fake her death?"

However, a great fire burned down the entire Guifu Palace.

Even Consort Yue was burned to ashes.

The truth remains unknown.

But Emperor Yan was truly a ruthless man.

The person you cherished and loved for six years can turn on you in an instant, and be more ruthless than anyone else when it comes to being heartless.

He truly possessed the mindset of an emperor.

Seemingly affectionate, but actually the most heartless person.

Duan Rongshi gently closed his eyes, stroking the thumb ring on his hand: "Starting with Consort De, they have all taken turns repaying my mother's life."

Two days later, Li Qingluo left Guifu Palace.

She followed Ling Fengzi to the former dynasty and paid her respects to the Immortal Yunhe.

"So you are my little disciple?"

Immortal Yunhe looked at Li Qingluo with some disdain.

He's short, and his face is just average.

Immortal Yunhe was somewhat disappointed.

However, since he had been entrusted with a task, Immortal Yunhe had no choice but to suppress his grievances and reluctantly accept it.

"Since you're here, you may leave the palace with me today."

After he finished speaking coldly, he turned around, picked up Fuchen, and walked away first.

Qingyangzi gave Li Qingluo a look, and the two of them quickly followed one after the other and climbed onto the carriage.

On the way, they encountered Princess Qinyu's sedan chair.

The carriage of Immortal Yunhe was bestowed by Emperor Yan.

It is wide and large, and extremely luxurious.

Even Princess Qinyu's sedan chair had to pull over and wait for the carriage to pass first.

To avoid getting in the way, Li Qingluo consciously sat cross-legged on the carriage shaft outside the sedan chair.

She saw Qinyu gently lift a corner of the curtain and look in their direction.

It seems she is completely healed.

After the two sides had finished exchanging information, Li Qingluo watched Princess Qinyu's sedan chair leave in a hurry, so she asked Sha Jiu to find out where Qinyu had gone.

Sha Jiu returned quickly: "They went to the Empress's palace."

Li Qingluo instantly perked up.

However, touching her face, which was about to recover, she could only regretfully instruct Sha Jiu: "Go and find out what she wants to do when she goes to see the Empress."

Sha Jiu disappeared down the street in the blink of an eye.

The Immortal Yunhe inside the carriage half-opened his eyes: "You've got quite the nerve."

Soon, they left the palace.

Li Qingluo did not immediately get off the carriage and leave, but instead followed the master and disciple directly to the Imperial Preceptor's residence.

As soon as they entered, the young Taoist priest at the gate came over with a red invitation card and said, "Master, we received more than twenty invitation cards today. Among them, the Pan family, which is the same family as the Grand Prince Consort, sent a wedding invitation card."

"They say Miss Pan is getting married, and they would like to invite you to her wedding banquet if you have the time."