Lu Ming's heart was pounding. She stood there watching Xiao Lingshou's tall figure disappear in front of her, completely unaware that someone had silently stepped out beside her.
Seeing her bright smile, Chu Huan whispered, "Don't believe him, he's using you."
The palace was in complete chaos. The bloodstains on the ground had just been wiped clean. The Emperor and Empress sat upright with displeased expressions, while Consort Lan was being supported by others, choking back tears.
Just now, Xu Tong was about to stab Consort Lan to death, but fortunately a eunuch stopped her, preventing her from bleeding on the spot. She only pierced the eunuch's arm, and blood splattered all over Xu Tong's face. Coupled with her resentful face, she looked like a vengeful ghost, which was chilling to behold.
"Your Majesty," a palace maid entered from outside, kneeling cautiously, "the Princess requests an audience."
The emperor was already having a headache, and since family scandals shouldn't be aired in public, he said directly, "Let the eldest princess go back first."
He then calmed his breathing, looked at Xu Tong and frowned slightly: "I said I would make the decision. Your repeated impulsiveness will only harm you."
Xu Tong said, "This servant has waited for four years! Every day I think of my sister's unseeing eyes after her death, and my poor little nephew. Every day I wish I could skin them alive!"
She was clearly driven mad by hatred, and everyone who saw the madness in her eyes felt a chill run down their spine.
The emperor was keen to investigate what happened back then, but Xu Tong's behavior displeased him. He then turned to the unusually calm empress and asked, "Empress, do you have nothing else to say about what happened back then?"
The Empress said calmly, "I have said everything I need to say. This is just the one-sided opinion of a madman. I have no fear."
Dissatisfied with the Empress's dismissive attitude, the Emperor turned to Consort Lan and asked, "Where is Consort Lan?"
"Your Majesty, I am innocent!" Consort Lan looked at the Emperor with tears streaming down her face, her expression filled with fear and shock. "I did not do those things. It was all this person's slander. Even if Consort Xu was disrespectful to me, I did not blame her on the spot. Why make things difficult for her in the middle of the night? I remember that I caught a cold that night. It was such a cold day. Your Majesty knows that I have always been in poor health."
After speaking, Consort Lan coughed twice.
The emperor, unable to bear it, wanted to reach out and help her up, but ultimately restrained himself and asked with a stern face, "And then?"
"Many of the imperial physicians accompanied Your Majesty out of the palace that day. Doctors from the Imperial Hospital came to treat me. As for the palace gate being locked, you cannot blame me."
"Shut up! It was clearly you who deliberately made my sister kneel in the snow, that's why..."
Consort Lan interrupted her: "Consort Xu clearly fell on her own! Why are you accusing me? If I had made him kneel in the snow, were you the only one in the palace who saw it?"
Xu Tong froze on the spot, speechless for a moment, whether from choking or some other reason. She stared at Consort Lan with bloodshot eyes, then shouted sharply, "You're lying! You're the one who's covering up everything!"
Consort Lan had lived in the palace for nearly ten years. After the initial panic, she quickly realized which situation was most advantageous to her and immediately said, "This palace belongs to His Majesty. You overestimate me."
"Jing Ronglan! You despicable scoundrel! It was clearly you who..."
"You lowly servant!" The Empress slapped her across the face. "Consort Xu has committed insubordination. Should Consort Lan be made to apologize on her behalf? She can't even take good care of the imperial heir, and now she dares to bring it up again!"
The room was silent.
Consort Lan looked at the Empress as if she were a completely different person, while the Emperor frowned deeply at the Empress's uncharacteristic behavior, wondering what she was up to.
The Empress knelt down again: "Your Majesty, since I am the Empress, the harem should be managed by me. The appearance of a villain like Xu Tong, who is full of deceitful words, is my oversight. I beg for forgiveness."
Not only Consort Lan, but even the Emperor was slightly taken aback.
Consort Lan pondered inwardly and realized that the Empress's move was a clever tactic of "switching the crown prince with a cat" to avoid the main issue. She also knelt down and said, "Your Majesty, I am also guilty. If I hadn't been a bit willful at the time, there wouldn't have been these rumors."
The emperor was already troubled by these true and false reports and was very angry, but he held back his anger. However, a palace maid came in and said hurriedly, "Your Majesty, the Grand General requests an audience."
There is only one general in the Yun Kingdom, so what is Meng Yuxiu doing here?
"The General has come to see the Princess, but the Princess requests to see you."
The Emperor roared, "Let them go back!"
It's still a mess here.
To everyone's surprise, Xiao Shu'er walked in directly, followed by Meng Yuxiu. After paying her respects to the emperor, she asked, "What's going on?"
The emperor said, "How could you be so reckless?"
Xiao Shuer looked directly at Xu Tong: "I heard someone is causing trouble in the palace, so I came to share His Majesty's burdens. You're the one causing trouble, aren't you?"
The emperor found her attitude rather strange, and noticing the oddities of the day, he looked at Meng Yuxiu and asked, "What is it, General?"
Meng Yuxiu knelt down, supporting himself on his knees: "Your Majesty, I have come to see the Princess and have something to ask you."
"General, you have no connection with me, so what business do you have asking me?" Xiao Shu'er smiled coldly. "Why don't we resolve the current matter first? What exactly happened to His Majesty that made the Empress and Consort Lan act this way?"
Xiao Shu'er deliberately ignored Meng Yuxiu, knowing that he would not refute her in front of the emperor, and a faint smile played on her lips.
The emperor had no choice but to speak briefly, but to his surprise, Xiao Shu'er was not at all surprised and said, "There is such a thing."
The emperor looked at her suspiciously: "Do you know something?"
Before Xiao Shu'er could speak, Meng Yuxiu had already observed his surroundings. Of the three people kneeling on the ground, apart from the palace maid who was being held down, the others were all unusually calm: the composed Empress, the composed Consort Lan, and the unhurried Xiao Shu'er.
Xiao Shu'er was very calm outside and even invited him to come in.
This is very unusual.
What exactly brought these three people together?
"You are Consort Xu's sister? If I remember correctly, His Majesty has been very kind to the Xu family, and your family should have left the capital by now. You should have left the palace long ago too. Who sent you into the palace?"
Xu Tong's teeth chattered.
"Everyone in this palace has to be registered. Whose name did you use to get in, or who brought you in?"
"I have my own ways of avenging my sister, otherwise how could I have gotten close to you!"
"If you want to avenge your sister, why wait so many years? You've been in the palace for so many years. If you hate Empress Lanfei so much, you've had plenty of opportunities to poison her. Why endure so much and risk your life in the end? You were probably only recently sent to the palace!"
His words shocked the entire room!
The emperor also sensed something amiss and frowned as he looked at Xu Tong.
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