Chapter 292 The Deposed Queen in the Cold Palace

In the blink of an eye, it is the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

Inside and outside the palace walls, the New Year's bustle of the past half month has not yet dissipated, and the aftertaste of pepper wine and firecrackers is still everywhere.

The lights are on, the sound of stringed instruments is faint, and the atmosphere is peaceful and prosperous.

However, the dead silence of the cold palace was made even more depressing by the sporadic sound of firecrackers outside the window.

Xie Zhenrong was only wearing a thin white nightgown and stood in front of the dilapidated wooden window for a long time.

The cold wind blew in unhindered, lifting her scattered long hair and sleeves.

She stood motionless, her withered gaze fixed on a few twisted and gnarled dead branches in the courtyard.

In just half a month, she had become so thin that she was out of shape.

His cheeks were deeply sunken, his face was a pale, almost transparent color, and his lips had lost their color and were cracked and flaky.

This frail and emaciated body seemed oblivious to the bone-chilling cold.

No matter how the biting wind scraped across her skin like a knife, she remained like a wooden stake deeply driven into the frozen soil, or like a leaf hanging on a dead branch by the last thread of tendons, ready to be blown away by the wind at any time.

In the dark corner of the palace, there was also a thin figure standing there - the palace maid Bai Tong.

The palace maid who originally served the queen had already been imprisoned for the "New Year's Eve poisoning case".

Bai Tong was originally the lowest-ranking maid in Fengyi Palace. Only after it was found that she had nothing to do with the case was she sent to this gloomy cold palace by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to serve the deposed queen, whom everyone now avoids.

She had been standing with the figure in front of the window for who knows how long, so long that the biting cold penetrated her thin palace dress like ice needles, freezing her limbs and even her fingertips.

Bai Tong finally couldn't help it, dragged his frozen legs to a wooden cabinet in the corner, and took out a heavy cloak from it.

She held the cloak and walked carefully behind Xie Zhenrong.

After hesitating for a moment, he mustered up the courage and very lightly and slowly put the cloak on those frighteningly thin shoulders.

"My Lady, it's cold..."

Before he could finish his words, Xie Zhenrong shuddered as if he was burned by a branding iron, turned around fiercely, and pushed Bai Tong away with force!

The force was so great that Bai Tong staggered back several steps and almost fell.

"How dare you!" Xie Zhenrong shouted, a fierce light of surprise and doubt flashing in his turbid eyes.

"Who are you? How dare you come near me! Get out! Call the wet nurse! I need the wet nurse to serve me!"

Bai Tong was so frightened that his whole body trembled, his lips stammering, and he wanted to explain something, but when his eyes met the almost crazy and fierce look in Xie Zhenrong's eyes, all the words of comfort were stuck in his throat, and he dared not utter a word.

She didn't say anything, and the dead silence only irritated Xie Zhenrong even more.

Her chest heaved violently, her skinny fingers curled nervously, and her voice suddenly rose with a hysterical sharpness.

"Why don't you answer? Are you deaf? I'm asking where your wet nurse is! Go! Go get her for me right now! I want to see her! Now!"

That look was like a poisoned hook, biting into Bai Tong.

Bai Tong subconsciously turned around and tried to escape, but was suddenly grabbed by the back of his collar by a cold hand!

Xie Zhenrong's voice sounded right behind her ear, with a creepy urgency.

"And my mother! Where is my mother? Go... go and invite the wife of Duke Rong to the palace! I want to see her! Go quickly!"

Bai Tong was pulled so hard that he couldn't move, and was forced to turn around and face those eyes burning with chaotic flames.

She knew she couldn't avoid it, so she lowered her head and spoke in a voice as thin as a mosquito, with a tremor.

"Your Highness... the wife of Duke Rong... she's been divorced by the Duke... because it was confirmed that she had smuggled the poison in the imperial wine into the palace... She's still incarcerated in the Dali Temple and hasn't been released yet..."

This sentence was like a huge rock thrown into a stagnant pool, or like a rusty blunt knife, suddenly splitting the gray veil in Xie Zhenrong's mind that was deliberately covered with chaos and oblivion!

In an instant, several suppressed, bloody scenes surged in her mind, tearing apart her fragile disguise.

Luo Zhaona's silhouette was burnt black and twisted, no longer a human form;

The nurse lay on the cold tile floor, a pool of glaring, sticky dark red blood spreading beneath her.

The emperor's condescending, icy, all-seeing eyes...

That look was like a solid icicle, piercing through her last bit of hope.

Fear! The overwhelming fear instantly rushed over her like ice water, drowning her mouth and nose and suffocating her.

But at the brink of drowning, a more violent and crazy flame exploded from the bottom of his heart with a "boom", instantly burning away the ice of fear -

She can't die! She can't die here!

Yes! She can't die!

She is the queen of the Great Yan Dynasty! The most noble woman in the world!

Her son is the legitimate son and will definitely become the crown prince and the future emperor!

And she will be the Queen Mother of Dayan! Above all others!

Those who harmed her! Those who wanted her dead! They all deserved to die! They all deserved to go to hell! Cut into pieces!

"Luoxia! Caixia!"

She suddenly shook Bai Tong off, running and turning in the empty hall like a headless fly, shouting at the top of her lungs.

The voice had long lost its former elegance and grace, leaving only the ferocious roar of someone forced into a desperate situation.

"Where are the people? Where did they go? Get out! All of you, get out!"

The empty palace was filled with only her own shrill echoes, with no one answering.

Xie Zhenrong's gaze finally refocused, fixed on the little palace maid shivering in the corner.

"You!" She pointed at Bai Tong, her tone of command leaving no room for questioning.

"Dress me! At once! Now! Bring me the red gold headpiece with nine phoenixes holding pearls! And also the newly made black gilded phoenix robe embroidered with hundreds of birds paying homage to the phoenix! Put them on! I'm going to see the Emperor!"

Bai Tong was frightened by the light in her eyes, his legs went weak and he almost fell to his knees.

How could the gorgeous clothes and head ornaments that the queen mentioned appear in this dilapidated cold palace?

Where could she go to look for him? In panic and fear, Bai Tong's mind was blank, and the only thought in her mind was to escape.

She didn't even dare to look at Xie Zhenrong again. She used her hands and feet to get up from the ground and stumbled out of the hall.

In a flash, Xie Zhenrong was the only one left in the hall.

Deathly silence descended once again, but with an even more oppressive and frantic atmosphere.

Xie Zhenrong no longer paid attention to the escaping palace maid, and rushed straight to the bed as fast as the wind.

She roughly brushed aside the rotten gauze curtain.

She lay prone on the cold, hard floor tiles, stretching her hand under the bed.

The fingertips soon touched a hard object, a small ebony box the size of a palm, completely black and cold to the touch.

She was kneeling on the ground, and in the box was a very small, neatly folded baby underwear.

The fabric should have been soft, but now it was stiff and hardened, showing a frightening dark brown almost black color.

There were large patches of blood that had long since dried and solidified. Under the dim light in the hall, the blood seemed to have absorbed all the vitality, and a strange and eerie glow flowed through it.

"child……"

Xie Zhenrong's voice suddenly became extremely low, like the mumbling of a sleepwalker, ethereal and broken.

Her skinny fingers, with an almost morbid tenderness, carefully stroked the blood-stained dress over and over again, as if she were touching a baby's delicate skin.

However, when she raised her eyes and looked into the void, her gaze was filled with the deepest resentment and deep madness.

"Child...don't worry...Mother will avenge you soon! No one...will escape!"

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