Fengque Qing
September 15th, the 23rd year of Yongxi's reign.
What should have been the crown prince's coronation day had instead become a day of national mourning. Inside and outside the imperial palace, a blanket of white, a gloomy atmosphere. Yet, beneath this mourning, a more turbulent undercurrent surged.
In the Golden Palace, all officials stood in mourning, heads bowed. The dragon throne hung empty, symbolizing the vacuum of supreme power, attracting countless greedy and ambitious eyes.
Suddenly, a solemn and dignified sound of bells and drums echoed from outside the palace, a sound completely out of place during this period of mourning. All the officials looked up in astonishment, only to see the palace door open wide. Princess Huixi, dressed in a bright yellow robe with phoenix patterns and a crown with nine dragons and four phoenixes on her head, slowly entered the palace, surrounded by a group of eunuchs and palace maids.
Her face was solemn, but her eyes were as sharp as an eagle. She swept across the ministers below with different expressions, and finally landed on the empty dragon throne, without concealing the passion and desire in her eyes.
"Your Highness the Princess! This is a period of national mourning, what are you doing..." An old minister could not help but step forward and question in a trembling voice.
Princess Huixi stopped and cast a cold gaze upon him, "The country cannot remain without a ruler for a single day. The late emperor passed away suddenly, the crown prince died abruptly, and the royal family's legitimate bloodline has withered. As the only surviving legitimate bloodline of my father, I have an unshirkable responsibility to step forward and temporarily take charge of state affairs to ensure the safety of the country and the comfort of the people!"
Her voice was clear and melodious, with an unquestionable strength and even a hint of imperial majesty!
"Absurd!" another minister retorted sharply, "Since ancient times, has it ever been legal for a woman to ascend the throne? Where are our ancestral family laws? Where are the principles of propriety and morality?!"
"Ancestral family rules? Etiquette and moral principles?" Princess Huixi sneered, stepping closer to the dragon throne. "If we cling to outdated rules and regulations and sit back and watch the country fall, we will be the greatest disrespect to our ancestors! In extraordinary times, extraordinary measures should be taken! I ask you, besides me, who else can stabilize the situation in this court? Uncle Jing? He is, after all, a vassal king!"
Her words, like a heavy hammer, struck everyone's heart. Yes, although Prince Jing had great achievements, he was still a vassal prince entering the capital, and his status was not legitimate. And Princess Huixi was the only adult legitimate bloodline of the late emperor...
Some officials who had been secretly wooed by Huixi or frightened by his ruthless tactics began to speak out:
"Her Royal Highness the Princess possesses both talent and virtue. Accepting this mission in a time of crisis is truly a blessing to the nation!"
"Your Highness second this motion! Your Highness, please obey the will of heaven and inherit the throne!"
It seemed that the situation was about to be reversed by Princess Huixi!
"Wait a minute!"
A cold and calm female voice suddenly sounded outside the palace gate. It was not loud, but it was clearly heard by everyone, instantly suppressing all the noise!
Everyone looked in the direction of the voice and saw Xu Xianyue, dressed in a simple, moon-white dress, without any makeup, and wearing only a strange, black jade bamboo hairpin in her hair, slowly walking in. In her hands, she held a humble black lacquered wooden box. Her posture was as straight as a bamboo, her expression as indifferent as snow, completely out of place in this magnificent hall filled with the lust for power.
Following behind her was Su Mo Miao, who had been under house arrest for many days, looking haggard but with a determined look in his eyes!
"Xu Xianyue?! Su Momiao?! You..." Princess Huixi's pupils suddenly shrank, and a strong sense of unease rose in her heart! Why are they here?! Where are the guards?!
Xu Xianyue ignored her and walked straight to the center of the hall. His eyes calmly swept over all the officials present, finally landing on Princess Huixi, whose face was ashen.
"Her Royal Highness the Princess keeps saying she wants to stabilize the situation and inherit the throne," Xu Xianyue said, her voice as clear as a mountain stream, cold and clear. "But what kind of virtue and ability does someone who poisoned her own mother, murdered her brother and imprisoned her uncle, whose hands are stained with the blood of her loved ones, have to dare to speak of 'heaven's will'?!"
"You are talking nonsense! You are slandering me!" Princess Huixi screamed and tried to stop her.
"Whether it is slander or not, we have evidence." Xu Xianyue slowly opened the black lacquered wooden box in his hand and took out a few things - a piece of bright yellow silk fragment, a few pages of confession densely written, and a small bag of strangely colored powder wrapped in oil paper.
She held up the bright yellow fragment and spoke aloud, "This is what the late emperor clutched tightly in his palm before his death! It's a fragment of the torn imperial decree of succession! The word 'transmission' and half of the imperial seal are clearly visible! In his dying moments, His Majesty personally identified the word 'rebellion'. The princess knows exactly who he was referring to!"
She picked up the pages of confession again. "This is the signed confession of the surviving old maid in Cining Palace, and the palace maid who was revived by Imperial Physician Lin and who had prepared the 'Soul-Calming Soup' for the eldest princess! They accuse the eldest princess of conspiring with the empress dowager to poison the late emperor with hooked kisses, and then to kill the empress dowager with a siphon to silence her!"
Finally, she pointed at the packet of powder and said, "This was found in the secret compartment of the Princess's bedroom. It's the same deadly poison used to kill the Third Prince and the Crown Prince!"
Each piece of solid evidence exploded in the Golden Palace like thunder!
All the officials were in an uproar! Their eyes looking at Princess Huixi were filled with shock, fear, and contempt!
"No! No! They are the ones who framed me! It was Xie Wuqi! You all conspired to frame me!" Princess Huixi's face was as pale as paper, and she denied it like crazy, but her trembling voice and panicked eyes had already betrayed her.
"Framed?" Su Mo Miao suddenly stepped forward. She looked at the high-ranking Princess Hui Xi, her eyes filled with deep hatred and a kind of almost liberated madness. "Your Highness, Princess, do you still remember how you coerced and bribed my Su family into providing you with financial resources, contacting court officials for you, and doing all the dirty work for you? Do you still remember how you promised that after the deed was accomplished, my Su family would be rich for generations and my daughter would be made queen?!"
She suddenly ripped open her clothes, revealing a strange, blackening, festering wound on her chest. She sternly shouted, "But how did you treat me, a forsaken child?! Seeing that I knew too much, you sent someone to silence me! This stab in my heart and this poison in my tarsal bone are all thanks to you!"
She turned to the officials, her voice tearful and bloodshot: "My Lords! I, Su Mo Miao, stand up today, not to seek my own life, but only to seek justice! I only ask that the true face of this vicious woman be revealed to the world! I am willing to sacrifice my remaining life, and the blood of my entire Su family, to identify Princess Huixi as the one who murdered her father and mother, slaughtered her brothers, and committed heinous crimes that are condemned by both humans and gods!"
After saying that, she suddenly pulled out a dagger from her sleeve, and in front of everyone's horrified gaze, she stabbed it into the festering wound on her heart without hesitation and twisted it hard!
Blood splattered!
Su Mo Miao wore a twisted yet pleased smile as she stared intently at the pale-faced Princess Hui Xi and screamed with all her strength, "Hui Xi... I'm waiting for you in... hell!"
The body fell to the ground with a loud bang, and she died.
This tragic and decisive scene completely shocked everyone!
There was deathly silence in the Golden Throne Hall.
Princess Huixi looked at Su Mo Miao's body lying in a pool of blood, and her eyes that were wide open and full of resentment until her death. Finally, she could no longer hold on, staggered back, and bumped into the armrest of the dragon throne. Her phoenix crown was tilted, and she looked in a mess.
"No...it's not like that...it's not..." She muttered to herself, her spirit almost collapsed.
Xu Xianyue watched all this quietly, her face expressionless. She put away the evidence and said loudly to the outside of the palace, "The truth has been revealed. Your Highness Prince Jing is invited to enter the palace and take charge of the situation!"
The palace door opened again.
Dressed in a dark-colored prince's robes and with a longsword at his waist, Xie Wuqi, escorted by Jingzhe and a group of black-armored personal guards, strode into the palace. His gaze, like lightning, swept across the chaotic, panic-stricken officials, finally settling on the distraught, bewildered woman beside the dragon throne, completely bereft of her charm.
"Hui Xi," he said in a cold voice, without a trace of emotion, "What else do you have to say?"
Princess Huixi raised her head and looked at Xie Wuqi who was approaching step by step. She looked at his eyes that seemed to see through everything and contained thunderous wrath. She then looked at Xu Xianyue who was standing beside him, as cold as an immortal and seemed to be in control of everything. Suddenly, she burst into a shrill and desperate laugh.
"Haha...hahaha...Xie Wuqi! Xu Xianyue! You won! You won!" She pointed fiercely at the supreme dragon throne, her eyes filled with madness and unwillingness. "But so what?! None of you can sit safely on this dragon throne! The Great Zhou is doomed to fall apart in your hands! I'm waiting! I'm waiting down below to see what happens to you!"
Before she finished speaking, she suddenly took out a wax ball that had been prepared long ago from her sleeve and quickly stuffed it into her mouth!
"Stop her!" Xie Wuqi shouted!
Jingzhe attacked with lightning speed, but was still a step too late!
Princess Huixi's body twitched violently several times, black blood flowed from the corners of her mouth, her eyes quickly dimmed, and with endless resentment and curses, she fell softly under the dragon throne that symbolized supreme power.
On September 15, the 23rd year of the Yongxi reign, Princess Xie of Huixi committed suicide by taking poison in the Golden Palace, and her dream of usurping the throne was finally shattered.
The huge changes in the palace that lasted for several days finally came to an end with the death of Princess Huixi.
Xie Wuqi stood in the center of the Golden Palace, looking at Hui Xi's still cold body at his feet, looking at Su Mo Miao's broken body beside him, and looking at the still gloomy sky outside the palace. There was not much joy of victory in his heart, only a heavy fatigue and deep thought about the future.
Xu Xianyue walked up to him and stood side by side with him, her cold eyes also looking into the distance.
The old era came to an end with blood and conspiracy.
And a new era, an era that they will end the chaos with their own hands and will soon create with their own hands, is waiting for them to write.
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