Chapter 71 He's in so much pain, he needs to find some amusement...
The dragon returned to heaven, the death knell tolled, a new emperor ascended the throne, and the era name was changed to Jing'an.
At the Hall of Supreme Harmony, where the late emperor's body lay in state, members of the imperial family, concubines, and civil and military officials were dressed in mourning clothes. White banners fluttered like snow in the cold wind, and the sound of mourning echoed endlessly.
As the new emperor's birth mother, Consort Zhuang was obliged to enter the palace to mourn, and even though the Empress of Kunning Palace was ill, she could not be absent from the national mourning.
The mourning lasted for three days. That evening, after the mourning ended, Yan Xue dismissed everyone, leaving only the Empress and Consort Zhuang in the Hall of Supreme Harmony.
Some debts must be settled face-to-face.
Yan Xuecui placed the wooden box containing the Buddhist prayer beads in front of the Empress, "Does Mother recognize this?"
The Empress knelt before the coffin, dressed in pure white. Due to months of mental torment, her face was as pale as paper, and her body appeared even thinner and weaker, like a withered leaf in the wind.
From the moment the gloomy wooden beads appeared out of nowhere in Kunning Palace, she knew that this day would come sooner or later.
Tormented day and night by the ever-present wooden bead, she even harbored murderous thoughts. In front of the late emperor, she deliberately spoke of how Prince Zhao's cruelty was not what it used to be, how the late emperor was suspicious, and how all the affection between father and son combined could not compare to his throne. She wanted to use the late emperor to get rid of this scourge, Prince Zhao, but she did not expect that the late emperor would pass away so suddenly, and in the end, it was still Prince Zhao who ascended the throne.
The tide had turned, the dust had settled, and the Empress was now at peace. "It was my doing."
Yan Xue smiled, but her voice was icy cold: "So, as early as six years ago, the Empress Dowager had already shown me favor, and even went so far as to poison my mother. Over the years, the Empress Dowager has watched her suffer from frequent hysteria, hurting herself and others. Has she ever felt even a little regret?"
When Consort Zhuang saw the Buddhist prayer beads she hadn't seen in so long, she realized that her years of hysteria were actually caused by something strange—the Empress had poisoned her!
The Empress looked up at Yan Xuecui, her voice trembling and hoarse: "I watched you grow up. You are exceptionally talented and outstanding. How I wished you were my child... But I couldn't give birth to such an excellent prince, while Consort Zhuang gave birth to two! I was bewitched, thinking that Consort Zhuang had lost her mind, so I could raise you on her behalf..."
Her slightly hunched body trembled uncontrollably; she didn't know whether to cry or laugh.
Consort Zhuang clenched the handkerchief in her hand tightly, still unable to believe it: "When we were in the palace together, I always thought that everyone else had different thoughts, but you were kind and gentle, treating my two children as your own. You deserved to be called the Empress of the World. I never thought that you would harbor such a vicious heart!"
Yan Xuecui's face was cold and sarcastic: "If it weren't for this Soul-Separating Pill, I would also respectfully call you Empress Dowager, but alas..."
"Your Majesty!" Before the words were finished, Princess Yuxi suddenly rushed into the hall, knelt before the Empress, and pleaded, "Your Majesty, please forgive Mother! Mother already knows she was wrong..."
She was worried about the Empress's health and waited outside the palace, but she never expected to hear the truth about Consort Zhuang's hysteria.
It turned out that her mother had always wanted a prince, and even went so far as to kill Consort Zhuang, who had already lost her brother, Prince Ding. She couldn't believe it, but her mother admitted it herself.
If she could still regard Prince Zhao as her elder brother and chat with him in the past, now that her father had passed away and the court and harem had been ravaged by blood, she had heard some rumors that he harbored hatred, that he had not ascended the throne properly, that he was tyrannical and cruel, and that he had murdered the emperor and usurped the throne by stepping on the corpses of her father and brothers... But within a few days, all the dissenting voices were suppressed by force. Her once gentle and refined elder brother had become a figure that made people tremble with fear, and no one dared to utter a word.
But she never expected that Consort Zhuang's hysteria was actually caused by her mother.
Given my elder brother's decisive, ruthless, and merciless nature, how could he possibly let Mother go?
Not knowing what to do, she could only kneel on the ground and plead bitterly: "My mother has always loved my brother. Over the years, she has only made this one mistake. Please, my brother, show leniency and forgive my mother!"
Yan Xue remained unmoved, her eyes filled with only indifference.
If everyone can be forgiven so easily, who will compensate for the five years of suffering that his mother endured? He used so many guards and tried so many methods to protect her and keep her alive through such pain and hardship until today.
Knowing she was powerless to change the situation, the Empress turned to Yan Xuecui one last time, "I admit I have brought this upon myself. But Yu Xi is kind-hearted and knows nothing of this. I only beg you... for the sake of our years of sibling bond, please spare her..."
Her gaunt face was cold and lifeless. Her gaze fell on the late emperor's coffin in the center of the mourning hall. Suddenly, she stood up and resolutely rammed into it.
The incident happened so suddenly that Consort Zhuang was terrified. Yu Xi had no time to stop her and could only watch helplessly as she crashed into the coffin.
A dull, heavy thud echoed throughout the mourning hall.
Yu Xi staggered forward, embracing the Empress's body and sobbing uncontrollably, "Mother! Mother!"
The empress's hair was disheveled, her hands hung limply at her sides, and she slowly breathed her last.
Yan Xue turned around indifferently, walked to the corridor, and whispered, "The late emperor passed away, and the empress was so grief-stricken that she committed suicide in front of the mourning hall and has gone with the late emperor."
Yuan De was stunned for a moment, then immediately accepted the order and asked officials from the Ministry of Rites and the Imperial Household Department to come and handle all the matters.
...
On New Year's Eve, Yan Xuecui stayed up with the Empress Dowager at Cining Palace to celebrate the New Year.
Consort Zhuang is now the Empress Dowager, and her health is improving. The people in the palace are taking good care of her. The only things she can't let go of are her daughter-in-law who is far away in the palace, and her son who is now in front of her. He is a ruler who is worshipped by thousands of people, but since A-Ying left, he has never smiled sincerely.
"It's been almost two months, and there's still no news from Aying?"
Yan Xuecui shook her head. The tea in her hand had gone cold, and when she poured it down her throat, she felt a chilling coldness like a knife.
The Empress Dowager pondered, "The snow in the south has stopped. If they travel quickly, they should have already reached Southern Zhili."
Sitting in the dim light, Yan Xuecui spoke in a hoarse voice: "Yes, we have already sent more people to search along the way and in Southern Zhili."
But the weather was freezing cold around the end of the year, and bandits were rampant. There had been no news for so long, and even the inns and clinics in various places had no clues. He even had a thought that he dared not even think about.
"Mother, is God punishing me?" he suddenly asked with a bitter smile.
Along the way, his hands were stained with too much killing and bloodshed. Sometimes he wondered if those sins would be punished on her.
Seeing his dejected and weary appearance, the Empress Dowager felt really bad. "Seventh Prince, my son and I have suffered too much in our lives. Believe me, God will not treat you badly again. Ying will definitely come back."
Yan Xuecui remained silent for a long time before finally letting out a wry smile: "Okay."
The bells rang outside the palace, and firecrackers crackled, signaling the start of another year.
But Yan Xuecui felt that this year had been incredibly long.
From being ordered to marry her, to their intimate and passionate relationship, to the subsequent change of regime and the life-or-death struggle, he ascended the cold throne amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood, only to find her nowhere to be found...
Her heart ached as if a piece had been ripped out, and her internal organs felt completely drained. Yan Xuecui clenched her fists, her silent breaths trembling slightly.
He closed his eyes and whispered, "Your Majesty, I wish you good fortune and long life every year."
The Empress Dowager watched him rise to take his leave, leaving only a dejected figure in the vast snowstorm outside the palace, as if he might be swallowed up by the wind and snow at any moment.
Yan Xue returned to the Prince Zhao's residence.
The Chi family members were still in the secret dungeon below Yan Gui Tower. Apart from Chi Yingyue and the Changyuan Earl and his wife, the entire Chi family was interrogated by him one by one. Those disrespectful and unkind servants who had been disrespectful and unkind to her were all imprisoned there and severely tortured.
It's so easy to kill them, simpler than crushing an ant.
But with Ah Ying not around, and him in so much pain, he had to find some way to cheer himself up.
Inside the dungeon, the Chi family members trembled uncontrollably upon hearing the footsteps that seemed to come from the King of Hell's palace.
He was like a bloody nightmare hanging over them, bringing them hellish torment every time he came.
In this dark and gloomy dungeon, they would endure torture every five days. Then he would treat them with the best medicine and keep them alive with ginseng soup. Just as their wounds healed, a new round of torture would begin.
The Earl of Changyuan, Lady Yin, and Chi Yingyue, all covered in blood, were dragged out. A guard standing nearby bowed and reported, "Your Majesty, the people have been brought."
The word "Your Majesty" was like a thunderclap, and everyone was immediately filled with shock. They looked up in disbelief and saw the five-clawed dragon pattern on his black robe, and their legs went weak as mud.
He actually became emperor!
Unable to tell the time from day to day in the dungeon, they could only rely on the torture they endured every five days to estimate the time and guess whether Chi Ying had returned to the capital.
But in just over a month, the world outside had changed dramatically. Emperor Yongcheng suddenly passed away and passed the throne to Prince Zhao!
The three members of the Chi family were shocked, filled with hatred, pain, and regret. Their family had gone from being a family of honor to being prisoners because of a single wrong decision!
Yan Xuecui looked somewhat tired, with a hint of fierceness in her eyes, but her voice was still relatively calm as she spoke, "Today is the first day of the new year, and I have come to chat with you about family matters."
Seeing everyone tense and trembling, he smiled slightly and said, "Relax, just treat it as a game."
No one dared to relax, because every time he spoke so gently and smiled, he was suppressing a deeper violence in his heart, and any slight dissatisfaction would result in torture.
Sure enough, the next moment he laughed and said, "I want to ask each of you a question about A-Ying. If your answers satisfy me, you will not be punished today. If they do not satisfy me, the punishment will be doubled. How about that?"
The three members of the Chi family immediately felt a chill run down their spines, as if they were walking on thin ice.
Yan Xuecui stroked the thumb ring, her gaze falling on Madam Yin: "Let's start with Madam."
Yin felt as if she had been called upon by the King of Hell, and hurriedly prostrated herself in agreement, "This sinful woman will certainly tell you everything she knows."
"Tell me the truth about your miscarriage back then," Yan Xuecui said gently. "Was it really Aying who pushed you?"
Yin was struck dumb. Back then, Chi Ying and her daughter had been whipped forty times for this. No matter how she answered this question, it would never satisfy him!
“Your Majesty…” she began, her teeth chattering, “It was indeed her back then…”
Yan Xue Cui gently reminded her, "If you don't tell the truth, you can forget about having this tongue."
Madam Yin was terrified, her face drained of color. Her lips trembled as she confessed, "It was me...it was me. This pregnancy was already unstable, and back then I wanted to drive them out of the manor, so...that's why I framed her..."
Changyuan Earl had heard Chi Ying's explanations about this matter many times and had some doubts, but at that time, Lady Yin had miscarried and was in a bad mood. In order to keep the peace of the household, he simply sent Aunt Xue and her daughter away.
Yan Xuecui said, "Aying doesn't like being wronged."
Upon hearing this, Lady Yin felt as if she had fallen into an ice cave, trembling like a leaf. "Your Majesty, spare my life!"
Yan Xuecui: "We still need to be punished today."
He raised his fingertip slightly, and immediately a jailer stepped forward, gagged Yin Shi's mouth, and forcibly tied her to the rack.
Yan Xuecui turned to Changyuan Earl with a smile: "It's my father-in-law's turn."
Changyuanbo knelt on the ground, trembling uncontrollably.
Yan Xuecui: "Every year during the Spring Festival, ordinary officials would gather with their families and have a meal together. I would like to ask my father-in-law, in previous years, did A-Ying have any favorite foods on New Year's Day?"
Marquis Changyuan's mind raced. Aunt Xue and her daughter hadn't been in the manor for many years, and he had never paid attention to Chi Ying's preferences before. He could only make up a food that wouldn't go wrong: "She...she likes to eat glutinous rice balls, the kind with sesame filling, soft, sticky, and sweet..."
Yan Xue Cui coldly curled her lips: "Nonsense."
Changyuanbo broke out in a cold sweat instantly, his heart sinking.
Yan Xuecui: "She doesn't like eating glutinous rice balls."
That month at the hot spring resort, she had her period and lost her appetite. He went down the mountain and bought her all sorts of food. She ate quite a lot, finishing all the wontons, but she only ate a few sips of the sweet soup before putting down the bowl of brown sugar glutinous rice balls with little interest.
Yan Xue's Adam's apple bobbed slightly. "She likes dumplings, whether they're filled with wild vegetables or scallions and meat. She likes them too, scooped out, cooled, and then pan-fried into potstickers. She also likes wontons, with a little chili oil floating on top of the hot soup, she can even finish the soup..."
Marquis Changyuan nodded frantically: "Yes, she likes potstickers and wontons, this humble servant almost forgot..."
Yan Xue waved her hand indifferently: "Initiate the torture."
The jailer immediately stepped forward and put Changyuanbo on the rack.
Hearing the sounds of chains tearing and flesh burning behind her, Chi Yingyue trembled all over. She had been tortured several times, and there wasn't a single piece of good flesh left on her body. The pain from her wounds kept her awake at night, and she wished she were dead! But this person wouldn't even give her a chance to be free!
I just hate that that bitch Chi Ying has disappeared somewhere, why hasn't she come back yet! Could she have died on the way?
In her extreme fear, Yan Xuecui spoke softly: "You watched her write down everything about me. What were her feelings that day?"
Before Chi Yingyue could answer, Madam Yin had already fainted under the branding iron. Chi Yingyue cried with tears streaming down her face and gritted her teeth, saying, "What could she possibly be feeling? She just wants to leave as soon as possible!"
Yan Xuecui's face was ashen: "Is that so?"
She doesn't love you at all!
Chi Yingyue decided to go all out. Since she was going to die anyway, she might as well provoke him completely and ask for a quick death!
"She wanted to leave from the very beginning, but I refused to change her identity then. She was afraid you would discover her wrong status. For the past six months, she's been hypocritical and feigning affection. Do you think she loves you? If she truly loved you, why wouldn't she tell you the truth? Why would she willingly leave the capital and return the title of Princess to me? Because she's afraid of you, she hates you! She wants to be as far away from you as possible! You can't find her because she never intended for you to find her! She's probably already dead on the road, her body left to rot in the wilderness..."
Yan Xuecui stared silently at her distorted face until he heard this sentence. Finally, the deep anger in his eyes surged up uncontrollably, and his aura instantly became as cold and sharp as a knife.
His knuckles clenched until they turned white, and a cold laugh escaped his throat: "Don't worry, as long as she doesn't return, I will make you wish you were dead."
A scream rang out behind her, and Yan Xuecui indifferently got up and left.
The vast palace was covered by a blanket of snow, but it could not conceal the traces of her existence.
He carried her along every path here, and she had carefully tended every flower in Shuyuzhai.
He had the bedroom rearranged to look exactly as she had left it. It was as if nothing had changed. She was still there, drawing her eyebrows and doing her makeup in front of the mirror, sitting on the couch embroidering his nightgown and eye-curling silk. The wardrobe was full of her clothes, and the mother-of-pearl box was piled high with gold and jade jewelry. Even the crossbow was there. She left so suddenly, without taking a single thing with her…
Where is he? Why can't I find him anywhere... Is it really as Chi Yingyue said, that she fears him, hates him, even more than she loves him, which is why she doesn't appear?
Even he wasn't sure anymore.
Yan Xue raised her head, her eyes, which had recovered several months ago, once again filled with a heart-wrenching pain, and two lines of bloody tears silently slid down her pale and thin face.
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