Unexpectedly, when the eunuch who delivered the imperial decree arrived at Consort De's palace, he found that Consort De had already hanged herself, and all the servants in the palace were either dead or insane.
Consort De left a will, saying that she was a sinner for all time and hoped that His Majesty would not take his anger out on Prince Qi, since he knew nothing.
In her will, Consort De lamented that she had lived in constant fear and trembling in the palace for decades. Ever since Prince Qi became mentally impaired, all the other concubines had been trying to belittle her, wishing that Prince Qi's entire family would be wiped out.
She hated the cannibalistic harem and the princes who were neither friendly nor respectful to their brothers.
So they killed them...
"The assassins don't seem to come from a unified background. Some are ruthless bandits, while others are top-notch assassins. There are also some whose identities are yet to be determined. One of them has Wei Jingzhong's assassin mark on his collar."
Xie Anfeng said that the chief investigator was working day and night to verify the identities of the murderers.
Consort De's family members knelt outside the palace, utterly distraught, begging His Majesty not to implicate their entire clan or to take his anger out on Prince Qi and his four sons.
In just a few days, Emperor Hui's hair turned completely white, and he became so weak that he wore a long padded jacket even in the middle of summer.
He was heartbroken by the deaths of his sons, but the dead cannot be brought back to life.
The day after Consort De's death, His Majesty issued an edict:
#Consort De is utterly wicked and deserves to die; her entire maternal clan has been exterminated. Prince Qi has bestowed upon her the fief of Tianshan Prefecture in Yuzhou; she must depart immediately and is not permitted to return to the capital without imperial decree.#
Yuzhou Tianshan Prefecture is the poorest and most remote western barren prefecture in Dagan.
However, Zhang Hexuan has improved a lot since he spent three years there.
“King Qi is mentally challenged, but his eldest son, Zhou Huan, is already thirteen years old and fully capable of managing his fiefdom.”
The entire Qi family was exiled, forever removed from the center of power. Xie Anfeng and Grand Secretary Liu couldn't bear it, so they pleaded with His Majesty to secretly see them off.
When Emperor Hui left the capital, he did not see anyone from Prince Qi's residence, but stood silently in the Zhaixing Pavilion, watching Prince Qi's carriage leave through the west gate.
This was probably the last time Prince Qi would see him in this life.
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