Chapter 784 The Truth Part 2

Actually, she found it strange that after the late emperor's death, the emperor granted Consort Chang permission to leave the palace and live with the Fourth Prince, but Consort Chang refused. If she and Shu Lang really had feelings for each other, wouldn't it be more convenient for her to leave the palace and meet with Shu Lang?

Furthermore, if Consort Chang only wanted to seek revenge against Empress Dowager Cheng, she had decades in the palace to kill Empress Dowager Cheng, but she did not do so.

That day, she and Shu Lang put on an act in front of them. Shu Lang's expression was very strange. How could Consort Chang like such a cowardly, weak, and incompetent man who relied on his first wife to gain a foothold in the officialdom, and like him for a lifetime?

If Consort Chang had to choose between the late Emperor and Shu Lang, and instead chose Shu Lang, she was either blind or blind in her heart.

However, she was able to move to the Cold Palace by herself. A woman who could resist the temptation of imperial power must have a very strong heart. She did not really want to support the Fourth Prince to become emperor, but wanted to help the Kang Prince seize the throne of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

She would even use her son for a man.

Jiang Fenghua continued, "There's one more thing I don't understand. If you want to help Prince Kang seize the throne and avenge him, why don't you just stay in the harem as Consort Chang? That way, you'll have more opportunities to get close to the late emperor and have even more chances to kill him and avenge him."

Consort Chang said, "It's because he doesn't want me to have anything to do with Xie Jing anymore."

Jiang Fenghua asked in confusion, "Does the 'he' the Dowager Consort refer to mean Prince Kang? Prince Kang doesn't want you to continue being the late Emperor's woman." In that sense, Xie Kang is quite manly. If it were Shu Lang, he would probably have Chang Mingxiu seduce the late Emperor to gain benefits for himself.

“Back then, you could have left here with Prince Kang. As long as there was love, it would have been good for you two to run away together,” Jiang Fenghua sighed.

Consort Chang said, "It's not that easy. Women who marry into the royal family are trapped in this 'walled city' for life. It's either life or death. No one is as lucky as Consort Lan to meet the kind-hearted Empress Jiang."

Jiang Fenghua said, "So the news that Consort Lan is still alive was really revealed to Prince Kang by the Dowager Consort. You want to threaten Shang Hong into working for you."

"Shangs would never betray the court, and Xie Kang also knows he can't turn the Shang family against him. The matter of Shang Hong and Consort Lan was an accident." Consort Chang didn't hide anything, because Xie Shang already knew that Xie Kang and the Empress Dowager wanted to seize the throne.

"I just don't understand how you knew that Xie Kang was the one manipulating all of this behind the scenes, since he had hidden himself so well and hadn't revealed any flaws." Consort Chang said.

"Didn't Xie Shang tell you?"

Consort Chang shook her head. "When the Emperor came to see me, he only asked me about Xie Kang's whereabouts and didn't say anything else. How would I know where Xie Kang is? I have never left the palace."

Jiang Fenghua then asked, "Is the Fourth Prince your child with the late Emperor, or with Xie Kang?"

Consort Chang sneered, "You also think I lied? The crimes I accused Cheng Langjin of are not true. I have said that she caused me to lose my virginity to the late Emperor, which led to Yang'er. She ruined my life. It is true that she plotted against the princes of the concubines in the harem. I did not fabricate these things to slander her. The Emperor may not be able to accept that his mother is such a vicious person."

When it comes to Empress Dowager Cheng, Consort Chang's emotions are very unstable; she has hated this person her whole life.

Suddenly, tears welled up in Consort Chang's eyes as she began to tell Jiang Fenghua about their past. "Xie Kang and I met at the Lantern Festival. He was incredibly talented and handsome. We went boating on the lake together to see the lanterns and make wishes. He promised to come to my house to propose marriage and marry me. Everything was so wonderful and blissful. I thought I would be the happiest woman in the world."

Actually, I compromised too. I hate them, but I also love my children. I didn't use Yang'er for revenge, as you might think. I thought about letting it go for the sake of the two children. At least God was only unfair to me; Yang'er and Yan'er could at least live in the sunlight. But then Xie Kang suddenly came back.

Jiang Fenghua softened again; she felt some sympathy for Consort Chang. "Actually, you could have escaped back then."

"Do you think I didn't escape?" Consort Chang said coldly. "Before I entered the palace, Xie Kang had already been placed under house arrest by Xie Jing. I asked Shu Lang for help to rescue Xie Kang. I did see the late emperor, but it also ruined my life. Later, he was sent to the Northwest, while I entered the palace and became a concubine."

"Ten years later, I saw Xie Kang again. He had secretly returned. Shu Lang brought him to see me..." Consort Chang sneered, "I thought he would come to take me away, but he had already married and had children in the Northwest."

Jiang Fenghua frowned. "You never thought that you were chosen by the late emperor and lost your virginity because of him, that you were plotted against by Empress Dowager Cheng and forced into the palace, that you even moved from the inner palace to the West Palace for him, that you didn't want the late emperor to touch you, but in the end he had already married and had children, and you were the only one who was devoted to him."

After you met, you had his child, but then he disappeared again. You asked Shu Lang for help. What is your relationship with Shu Lang, and why was he willing to help you?

Hearing these words from Jiang Fenghua, Consort Chang felt a pang of sadness. Although she didn't want to admit it, what Jiang Fenghua said was true.

“Shu Lang and I are from the same hometown. It’s true that he likes me, but I’ve never liked him. Shu Lang knows that the person I like is Prince Kang. At that time, he was working in the Hanlin Academy and was chosen by the Yang family to be their son-in-law. In order to meet Xie Kang, he helped me get in touch. The Yang family held a banquet, and Xie Jing and Cheng Langjin both came. You can probably guess what happened after that!” She never wanted to recall it.

“It is I who have implicated Shulang,” said Consort Chang.

Jiang Fenghua continued, "So it was Xie Kang who made Shu Lang admit that he had an affair with you, and Xie Kang was also in the palace on the night of the family banquet?"

"Yes," said Consort Chang. "He was in the West Palace. Ever since you found out that Shulang and Yang'er had been seeing each other, he had already prepared an excuse to say that I had an affair with Shulang, so he orchestrated all of this."

"So it was he who spread the false news that the Fourth Prince had rebelled, in order to distract us, and he escaped," Jiang Fenghua said.

Jiang Fenghua simply couldn't imagine how a man could hurt a woman who had loved him her whole life like this, forcing her to admit to having an affair with another man.

“King Kang hasn’t returned to the capital for decades, yet you gave birth to his child. How did he manage to be with you right under the late emperor’s nose?” Jiang Fenghua asked.

“Xie Jing banished him from Shengjing, which doesn’t mean he can’t come back. It’s just that it will take a long time. He has made me wait for too long. It could be a lifetime. I want to help him, but he doesn’t want me to take any risks,” said Consort Chang.