Chapter 312 Jue La Yun Dan's Suicide
“But at least…” Huang Mian’s eyes turned cruel again, “At least His Majesty’s favor towards me back then, perhaps for a moment, was genuine. But His Majesty’s favor towards you…”
"From the very beginning, you were only meant to be used. Now that Tibet is gone, you're no longer of any use!"
With each word Huang Mian spoke, Jue La Yun Dan's face paled a little more.
Finally, he broke down and screamed, "Shut up!"
He gripped the edge of the table tightly with both hands, his body trembling violently, his blue eyes filled with despair, anger, and sorrow at his faith being utterly shattered.
After a long pause, he looked at Huang Mian and said, "You bitch, what exactly do you want to do by telling me all this today?"
Huang Mian was not afraid of his anger at all, and said, "I don't want to do anything. I'm just showing you the way out because of our past friendship in the harem."
He adopted a serious and earnest demeanor, saying, "Do you know what's all the commotion outside? It's said that General Shen's death was caused by your maternal clan, the Meilu family, betraying you! Now, everyone in the court and the public is calling for your execution. Civil and military officials have repeatedly submitted memorials, forcing His Majesty to kill you to appease General Shen's spirit in heaven, to quell public anger, and to reassure the army!"
Jue La Yun Dan shuddered, her lips trembling, but she couldn't utter a single word.
Will Li Yuanzhao really kill him?
Huang Mian observed Jue La Yun Dan's expression and coaxed her gently, "Beauty Chen, you are a smart person. Now that things have come to this, don't you understand?"
"You have nothing now, your country is destroyed and your family is gone. Even the favor you thought you had is nothing but a mirage. Staying in this palace is just a way to prolong your life and eke out a living."
"Her Majesty has long since lost all affection for you. The only reason she hasn't issued an edict to kill you is because she's afraid of gaining a bad reputation."
He leaned closer, lowering his voice, "But for His Majesty, your existence is an inescapable problem. Every day you live, His Majesty's predicament increases, and the calls for your severe punishment grow louder. How agonizing must it be for His Majesty to be caught in the middle?"
Jue La Yun Dan asked, bewildered, "What do you want me to do?"
"I will end my own life. I will atone for my sins with my death." Huang Mian finally revealed his true intentions, "I will tell the world that I committed suicide because my mother's clan was guilty of grave sins and I had no face to live, and I felt deeply ashamed of failing His Majesty's favor and did not want to be a burden to His Majesty any longer."
“Suicide?” Jue La Yun Dan repeated the word, as if he didn’t understand what it meant.
Huang Mian continued, "Consort Chen, this is the last thing you can do for His Majesty right now."
"If you take your own life, you will not only relieve His Majesty's immediate crisis and free her from further trouble, but you will also silence the gossip of the world. In this way, perhaps His Majesty will still have a last bit of... pity and guilt towards you in his heart."
Huang Mian added fuel to the fire, "More importantly, you can preserve your last shred of dignity and avoid having to endure the infamy of being a treacherous minister or a rebellious traitor every day..."
Jue La Yun Dan asked softly, "What if... I insist on not dying?"
“If you insist on not dying, and His Majesty really can’t withstand the pressure and orders your execution, then the word ‘dignity’ will not be enough to describe it! After all, you are the former Tibetan prince. Wouldn’t such an end be more shameful than suicide? And your clansmen who are still living in Tibet might also be implicated.”
Jue La Yun Dan stared at him blankly, her face expressionless.
Huang Mian looked at the lifelessness in his eyes and knew that he had already fallen for her, so she said no more.
"I have said all I have to say. The path you have chosen is your own. Whether you choose to live a miserable and humiliating life or to commit suicide with dignity, leaving behind a complete body and a good reputation, you should think it over carefully."
After a long silence, Jue La Yun Dan finally spoke and asked, "Is this your intention, or His Majesty's?"
Huang Mian didn't say it explicitly, only asking, "Does it matter whose meaning it is?"
Jue La Yun Dan understood.
I see……
In her heart, she felt the same as those others, wanting him to "atone for his sins with his death."
Even when it came to forcing him to die, she refused to do it herself and instead had to rely on someone else.
He chuckled self-deprecatingly.
All the stories in the novels about the emperor's great favor, vows of life and death, and oaths of eternal love... were all lies.
It's ridiculous that he actually believed it!
“Okay…okay…” he said with a smile, “Tell Li Yuanzhao for me that regardless of whether she ever truly cared for me, I did…have feelings for her. So, I don’t want to put her in a difficult position.”
He raised his eyes and looked at the still gloomy sky outside the hall, his voice carrying a sense of determination.
"But if this is how it is in this life, then in the next life... I only wish that we will never meet again!"
After saying that, he turned around and drew the beautifully decorated, gem-inlaid longsword that Li Yuanzhao had once given him from the weapon rack.
"Huang Mian, thank you for coming to see me off, but I also have something to tell you: spring flowers bloom and autumn flowers fade, you and I are no different."
"You—!" Huang Mian was horrified. He had thought that Jue La Yun Dan would choose poison or white silk, but he chose such a tragic way.
But it was too late.
Jue La Yun Dan gripped the sword in reverse, the blade pressed against his neck, and a relieved smile appeared on his lips.
Then, with all his might, he slashed his wrist hard!
Blood spurted out, instantly staining his round-necked robe red, and also splattering onto Huang Mian's face, body, and mouth, who was standing right next to him!
The warm liquid, with a strong smell of rust, made Huang Mian scream in terror. She stumbled back several steps, slipped, and collapsed to the ground.
Jue La Yun Dan's long sword fell to the ground with a clang, and his body fell straight backward, crashing heavily to the ground with a dull thud.
Blood spread rapidly beneath him, like the Gesang flowers that had once bloomed in the Imperial Garden.
Huang Mian slumped down not far away, her mind blank, only a belated sense of fear gradually seeping into her limbs.
The death of Jue La Yun Dan instantly quelled the most intense disputes and anger in the court and among the people, and also solved a major problem for Li Yuan Zhao.
Upon hearing of his suicide, she said nothing, only instructing, "According to the rites due to a noble servant, make proper arrangements for his funeral. The coffin... need not be placed in the Great Qi Imperial Mausoleum; send someone to escort it back to his former homeland in Tibet for burial."
This woman, who was once the most favored concubine, vanished in less than three years, a truly lamentable situation.
However, the attention of everyone in the palace was quickly drawn to the good news of the victory banquet, and they turned their backs on the matter.
Only Huang Mian was truly haunted by the horrific scene that day in Ningxiang Palace.
For more than ten days, he hid in the palace and refused to go out.
When he closed his eyes, all he saw was splattered blood, a fallen body, and those empty, blue eyes that remained open until death.
Fear, lingering dread, and a vague sense of guilt that he himself was unwilling to acknowledge tormented him day and night, making him unable to eat or sleep, and causing him to quickly become haggard.
Li Yuanzhao naturally knew the key to it.
She was fully aware of Huang Mian's "contribution." And she was probably not entirely unaware of the person behind it all.
However, she never liked people making decisions on their own, and in order to give the Tibetan people an explanation, she directly issued an edict to demote Huang Mian to the lowest rank of Cai Ren in the imperial harem.
After that, he never set foot in his palace again.
Huang Mian was thus effectively banished to the cold palace.
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