"Zhu Heng, you dare to force the emperor to abdicate and rebel! Who gave you the audacity!" the old emperor roared, his icy eyes fixed on Zhu Heng.
Zhu Heng fiercely wiped the blood from his face, his eyes filled with intense hatred fixed on the old emperor, as if he wanted to materialize and tear the man in front of him to pieces: "You dog emperor, is the snow heavy on Longshan Mountain!"
He said this out of the blue, leaving everyone completely confused.
Only the old emperor's face suddenly turned deathly pale, and he could barely stand. He stared at Zhu Heng in astonishment: "You, what did you say?"
Zhu Heng looked up at the sky. The sky, which had been clear and sunny in the morning, was now gloomy, with dark clouds rolling in on the horizon. A heavy rain was probably coming soon.
He turned to look at the pale-faced old emperor, his voice calm: "My mother said that twenty-seven years ago, the snow in the capital was really heavy, covering everything. In just a few days, the entire city of Shengjing was covered in white, and the air was bitterly cold. The Longshan Mountains were covered with a thick layer of snow."
At this point, Zhu Heng suddenly shouted angrily, "Zhu Lin, you dog emperor, it was you who pushed my father off the cliff of Longshan Mountain with your own hands, and it was you who buried my father alive in the avalanche of Longshan Mountain! You heartless bastard, you will stop at nothing to seize the throne!"
Everyone was almost stunned. Did Zhu Heng mean that he was not the emperor's biological son?
When Lu Xiaoyun first transmigrated here, she had read the history of the Great Zhou Dynasty. Zhu Dan and Zhu Yu naturally knew that Zhu Heng's birth mother, Consort Xian, was originally the principal wife of Zhu Zhen, the eighth son of the late emperor.
Zhu Zhen died twenty-seven years ago in an avalanche at Longshan outside Shengjing City.
Just one month after Zhu Zhen's death, Consort Xian remarried to Zhu Lin, who had been made crown prince.
So, he was actually killed by the old emperor?
"I'm going to kill you, kill you!" Zhu Heng roared as he charged toward the old emperor, but Feng Yan kicked him in the knee.
Zhu Heng felt a sharp pain and his legs buckled, causing him to kneel down. But he stubbornly tried to stand up again.
He was pinned down by Feng Yan and Qi Yu, one on each side.
Zhu Heng stared intently at the old emperor, whose face was ashen, with his bloodshot eyes.
Lu Xiaoyun glanced at Feng Yan, who then tied Zhu Heng up with a rope and threw him to the spot. He and Qi Yu then led a group of Northern Army soldiers away, escorting the surrendered Imperial Guards.
After all, these are royal secrets, so it's best for them to hear as little as possible.
Zhu Heng laughed loudly: "Zhu Lin, you didn't expect this, did you? I'm not your son at all! You killed my father and took my mother into your backyard. At that time, my mother was already pregnant with my father's child."
"Hahaha, how about it, Zhu Lin? It's not a pleasant experience raising someone else's son, is it?"
The old emperor trembled with rage, pointing a finger firmly at Zhu Heng's nose: "Zhu Heng, what nonsense are you spouting! You were born ten and a half months after Zhu Zhen died, how could you possibly be his son!"
Moreover, Zhu Heng was extremely weak when he was born. Imperial Physician Jiang diagnosed that it was because the Second Prince was born half a month prematurely, and also because Consort Xian was depressed during her pregnancy.
He could distrust anyone, but he couldn't possibly distrust Physician Jiang.
Besides, everyone knows that a woman's pregnancy lasts a maximum of ten months, so how could he possibly be Zhu Zhen's son?
Lu Xiaoyun looked at Zhu Yu and Zhu Dan and saw that their faces were extremely ugly. Perhaps they did not expect that the second brother they had been calling for more than 20 years was actually their cousin.
Zhu Heng laughed until tears streamed down his face: "My father's body is barely cold, and you want to forcibly take my mother into your harem? When she refused, you forced yourself on her! You dog emperor, you will die a horrible death! I curse you to die a horrible death!"
"Nonsense, Zhu Heng, shut up! Shut up!" the old emperor roared.
“He’s not lying.” A cool female voice rang out from behind the crowd.
Lu Xiaoyun, Zhu Yu, and the others turned around and saw Consort Xian walking slowly towards them, her hand resting on a palace maid's wrist. Her gait was dignified, her steps unhurried, as she strolled among the corpses and blood, even the pearl hairpin in her hair swaying only slightly. She crossed the high threshold of Chaoyang Palace and entered, as if nothing in this world could stir any emotion within her.
The Consort Xian wore a light blue palace dress with dark embroidery. Her long, soft black hair was styled in a bun, with only a white jade hairpin inserted in her delicately gathered hair, which made her neck appear slender and her skin even whiter.
The magnolia petal on the white jade hairpin was missing a corner, yet when worn on her head, it possessed a strange, broken beauty.
Time seems to have left no trace on her.
Previously, Lu Xiaoyun did not understand why Consort Xian, who also had a son, did not compete or fight in the harem and remained calm and indifferent, unlike Consort De who always wanted to compete with others.
Upon seeing the white jade hairpin, the old emperor's face immediately turned sinister: "Xie Lilan! You vile woman! Have I not been good enough to you, or have I not given you and your son enough dignity? To utter such absurd words! And now you dare to bring this white jade hairpin out? Smash it, smash it!"
"Your Majesty, things have come to this, are you still going to deceive yourself?" Consort Xian's gaze swept across the faces of Lu Xiaoyun, Zhu Dan, and Zhu Zhi.
She smiled faintly and said, "It's good that everyone's here today. Except for the third son, all your sons are here."
He turned to look at the old emperor, who was trembling with rage: "Zhu Lin, Heng'er is not your son. Otherwise, do you think I would have only put up a token resistance and given in to you when you came to the Eighth Prince's residence to coerce me that day?"
“You may find me disgusting, but I am carrying Zhenlang’s child. He is gone, and this is his only child with me. I must save him. But I am just a woman who has just lost my husband and has no ability to save the baby in my womb.”
The old emperor said viciously, "So you thought of me! It was you, you vile woman, who deliberately led me to the Eighth Prince's residence. You plotted against me!"
Consort Xian chuckled softly: "Plot against you? Ha, Zhu Lin, if you hadn't coveted your brother's wife, would I have been able to plot against you?"
This was the only time in her life that the old emperor had ever been intimate with her.
Later, when Zhu Lin ascended the throne, he did visit Qinghua Palace, where she lived, but he never allowed her to touch his body.
"Is Jiang Lianying also one of your people? That bastard dared to deceive even him! I will tear him to pieces!"
The Consort Xian said coldly, "Zhu Lin, only incompetent people blame others for all their mistakes, and only incompetent people are wary of others being better than themselves. And you are that incompetent person!"
"What did you say!" The old emperor's eyes flashed with a fierce light, his lips trembled and his whole body shook, like a withered leaf that was about to fall in the wind and rain.
Consort Xian's expression remained unchanged: "Don't forget, my Xie family is a family of doctors. I'm just prescribing some medicine to change the pulse. What does it have to do with Imperial Physician Jiang?"
She remembered it clearly: twenty-seven years ago, that winter was much colder than the previous year. The heavy snow fell for seven days and seven nights. Her husband was ordered to inspect various parts of Shengjing with Zhu Lin.
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