Chapter 216 Show Them How Crazy
Old Madam Huo clenched her teeth tightly, her wrinkled face full of calculation and ruthlessness: "What else can we do?"
"The most urgent task is to get you out of this mess cleanly!"
She stepped forward, gripping Huo Yunzhan's arm tightly, her voice low and commanding: "Once you enter the palace, you must act like a victim! Act as if you are... astonished, grief-stricken, and incredulous!"
“No need to pretend,” she sneered. “In truth, you knew nothing about this matter.”
“But,” her voice suddenly turned sharp, “you must let His Majesty know that you know nothing! Don’t let him suspect that you… ordered it!”
Huo Yunzhan's face instantly turned a deep liver color!
He roared in a fit of rage, "Am I insane? To instruct my own wife to seduce His Majesty? To make a fool of myself in front of the entire capital?"
Madam Huo seemed not to hear his roar at all, and continued to emphasize: "Right now, His Majesty and Liu Ruolan have had relations! No matter what, His Majesty slept with your wife, that's a fact! The squeaky wheel gets the grease, so you have to cry and make a scene!"
"Now, your joke is destined to be seen and laughed at!"
"You have to make everyone sympathize with you! You have to occupy the moral high ground! You have to make everyone know that you are innocent, that you were framed! That it was Liu Ruolan... who was vain and did such a shameless thing!"
“Then,” her eyes flashed with a chilling light, “you will say that Liu Ruolan has committed such a shameless act, and you want to… divorce her! You will request His Majesty to issue a decree!”
"His Majesty might take pity on you and give you some rewards, or... promote your official rank to appease you."
Upon hearing Old Madam Huo's last words, a fleeting, irrepressible flutter of emotion flashed in Huo Yunzhan's eyes, which were red with anger!
He hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded slowly, his voice full of determination: "Mother, I know... what to do."
However, knowing it was one thing, but when he thought about what Liu Ruolan had done, he still couldn't help but get furious!
He kicked over the chair next to him and cursed, "That bitch Liu Ruolan! She has no shame whatsoever! She has no regard for the reputation of the Huo family!"
“Shen Qingci wouldn’t do that!” He blurted out, his voice filled with endless regret and longing. “Back then, even though she was heartbroken, she still… waited until the hundred-day mark of my death as ‘Huo Yunzhan’ before marrying someone else!”
Huo Yunzhan stood up cursing and stormed off.
Only Old Madam Huo remained, slumped dejectedly into her armchair, muttering to herself, "What a tragedy... What will become of the Huo family now..."
Ye Lan once again took Shen Qingci into the palace, where they changed into palace servants' clothes and went to the Taiji Hall together.
The Prime Minister's wife had already arrived and knelt in the center of the main hall with Consort Shu and Liu Ruolan.
Emperor Yongming paced back and forth in the hall in a fit of rage, pointing at them and shouting, "The fine daughters your Liu family raised! Is that all they've taught you to do? Poisoning!"
"The eldest daughter is skilled at drugging people, and now the second daughter has also resorted to such despicable methods!"
He slammed his fist on the table and roared, "You Liu family, you really have some nerve! You actually... toyed with me!"
The Prime Minister's wife was already ashen-faced, and could only cry out repeatedly, "Your Majesty, please forgive me! There must be some misunderstanding! Someone must have... plotted against my daughter!"
"Ruolan and Marquis Yongning have always had a good relationship. She... she couldn't have done something like this for no reason! She must... she must have been bewitched by someone!"
Upon hearing this, Emperor Yongming laughed in anger.
He looked at Liu Ruolan, who was clutching her stomach and trembling on the ground, and his voice was full of sarcasm: "Who bewitched you?"
Liu Ruolan suddenly fell to the ground, her voice filled with innocence and fear: "This humble woman knows nothing!"
Meeting the warning look in the Prime Minister's wife's eyes, she quickly continued, "Your Majesty... Your Majesty only wanted to tell His Majesty about my sister. But I never expected... His Majesty suddenly seemed to have lost his mind and... he lunged at me! I... I couldn't break free, and that's how things... that's how things turned out!"
The Prime Minister's wife immediately seized the opportunity, her voice filled with certainty: "Your Majesty! Someone must have... poisoned you!"
"Your Majesty, I urge you to thoroughly investigate those around you!"
On Emperor Yongming's forehead, veins bulged!
He stared intently at the mother and daughter who were turning black into white, his heart filled with rage!
Just then, a eunuch's high-pitched voice came from outside the hall to report:
"Your Majesty, the Marquis of Yongning has been summoned and is waiting outside the palace for your instructions."
Emperor Yongming took a deep breath, forcibly suppressing his anger, and coldly ordered the eunuchs outside the hall, "Summon them!"
"yes!"
No sooner had he finished speaking than Huo Yunzhan strode in.
His eyes were bloodshot, and his face was filled with grief, indignation, and humiliation.
After bowing to Emperor Yongming, he could no longer control himself. He suddenly turned around and slapped Liu Ruolan hard across the face!
"Smack!"
"What exactly do you want?" He pointed at her nose, his voice filled with the pain and despair of betrayal. "Wasn't I good enough to you? Why... why did you do such a shameless thing?"
After questioning her, before Liu Ruolan could speak, Huo Yunzhan suddenly turned around and knelt down in front of Emperor Yongming with a "plop"!
"Your Majesty!" His voice was hoarse, each word stained with blood, "I am guilty!"
"I have failed in managing my household and in disciplining my wife, which has led her to commit such a disgraceful and morally reprehensible act! I deserve to die a thousand deaths!"
He kowtowed heavily to the cold gold brick!
"Your Majesty, I... I truly do not understand why Ruolan... she would do such a thing!" His voice was filled with endless pain and incomprehension. "We have been married for several years, and I have treated her well, always going along with her wishes. Yet she is still not satisfied! She even dares... she even dares to harbor such filthy thoughts towards Your Majesty!"
"She has done such a shameless thing, not only ruining her own reputation, but also trampling on the century-old reputation of my Huo family!"
"Your Majesty..." His eyes were filled with absolute resolve, "I humbly beg Your Majesty to issue an imperial decree, granting me... a divorce from Liu Ruolan!"
"From this day forward, whether Liu Ruolan lives or dies, whether she is honored or disgraced, has nothing to do with my Huo family!"
Emperor Yongming looked at the group of people kneeling in the hall with a cold gaze.
Great, excellent!
On one side were the mother and daughter, who insisted that he had been drugged first and then forced himself on Liu Ruolan.
On one side, the seemingly wronged Marquis of Yongning immediately wanted to use this incident as a reason to divorce Liu Ruolan!
This puts him, the emperor, on the hot seat!
If he were to admit it against his will, he would be unable to clear his name of the crime of "being drugged and forcibly abusing the wife of a subject"!
After Liu Ruolan divorces Huo Yunzhan, she will definitely take the opportunity to cling to him!
What a pathetic emperor he was!
but……
Who gave these people the illusion that he was easy to talk to and could only swallow their pride and accept such a humiliating disgrace?
Everyone knows he's a madman!
Since these people have all forgotten, then he'll go crazy and show them!
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