This mother and daughter are none other than Guo Wenlong's wife and daughter.
Wei Maozhen, however, remained remarkably calm. She turned to the Minister of War and said, "Close the main gate tightly, and shut all the windows. No one is to enter or leave without my permission!"
"What about the late emperor's concubines? And the princes?" the Imperial Guard couldn't help but ask. "They..."
"What do they have to do with me?" Wei Maozhen said coldly. "They are the sons of the late emperor, not mine. Perhaps the late emperor, if he is watching from heaven, will protect them."
"Where is my princess? Go find her at once!"
Upon hearing this, everyone was astonished.
"Your Majesty, I have already made myself very clear, the princess..." The Minister of War couldn't help but remind him again.
"Stop wasting your breath on me, I'm telling you to go find him!" Wei Maozhen stood up. "Am I really the Emperor of Great Xia? Are you still my subjects?"
"Yes!" the Imperial Guards announced helplessly.
"Then let's prove it with actions. What are you standing there for? I told you to leave immediately."
Left with no other choice, the Minister of War had to run out with the Imperial Guards.
Many female officials and eunuchs also secretly slipped away. Some were crying, some were praying to the gods and Buddhas in heaven, and some simply stayed by Wei Maozhen's side to drink with her.
"Your Majesty," the old eunuch who had served the Empress for over a decade advised, "you should know very well that this is not the time to seek out any princess, but rather..."
We should break out of the encirclement and summon the generals around the capital to come to the emperor's aid.
"Get out!" He slapped the old eunuch across the face. The eunuch cried out in pain and nearly fainted. Wei Maozhen then strode away without even glancing at Guo Wenlong's wife and daughter.
She has forgotten me. Guo Wenlong's wife thought to herself, even if I leave, she won't care at all.
“Oh, God above,” a female official cried out, “we’ve lost! The Imperial Guards have lost! His Majesty has fled! Lin Mo, that evil Lin Mo, he’ll surely tear us to pieces!”
Several children joined in the crying. They sensed fear.
Guo Wenlong's daughter, Guo Yuan, finds herself sitting alone on a high platform. Should she stay here, or go after the Empress and beg her to take her with her?
She didn't know why she stood up, but she did. "Don't be afraid," she announced loudly, "this is the safest place in all of the capital."
"What exactly happened?" asked a woman she knew somewhat; she was one of the late emperor's concubines. "Has the Imperial Guard been completely wiped out? Is His Majesty injured? Has the palace fallen?"
"Tell us the truth!" the crowd demanded. A female official inquired about Guo Yuan.
Guo Yuan raised her hand to signal for silence. "His Majesty is unharmed. As far as I know, the battle is still ongoing, our army is fighting very bravely, and His Majesty will be back soon."
The last sentence was a lie, but she had to reassure everyone.
The torches burned shorter and shorter, and one or two had already gone out, but no one was in the mood or too lazy to replace them.
"Someone will come looking for me," Guo Yuan thought. "Father, you will come, won't you?"
Is it the same man who called himself Tang Feng from last time?
He seemed like a nice person; he had studied swordsmanship and martial arts, and offered to take me and my mother away.
But he hasn't shown up for a long time...
She desperately wanted to run out the door, but she managed to control herself with all her might.
Looking out the window at the sky, the raging fire below was reflected in the sunlight, its colors constantly shifting in vivid hues. An eerie orange-red flowed through the clouds, while orange light spread across the horizon.
Ordinary flames, some red and some yellow, compete with each other, waxing and waning, giving birth to countless fleeting shadows.
The air itself smelled burnt, like simmered meat broth. The embers danced in the night sky like swarms of fireflies.
"Is it on fire?" Guo Yuan began to panic.
She soon learned the truth.
His Majesty has returned, accompanied by dozens of wounded Imperial Guards.
Wei Maozhen's face was contorted with rage; he had completely descended into madness.
She opened her mouth, then shouted, "It's all over, but Lin Mo, I won't leave you anything. Haha, burn them, burn them all to death!"
"Your Majesty?" Everyone in the Golden Palace was taken aback. "What are you doing?"
"Burn! Burn down the Golden Palace, burn down the entire palace! I will destroy everything here. What I cannot keep, Lin Mo will not get either."
The deputy commander of the Imperial Guard, whose arm was injured, looked at the deranged Wei Maozhen in astonishment. "Your Majesty, have you gone mad?"
However, no sooner had he finished speaking than the deputy commander discovered a dagger protruding from his abdomen.
Wei Maozhen gripped the hilt of the dagger in his right hand, staring at him with a ferocious expression.
"Your Majesty..." the commander cried out his last words, his eyes wide with disbelief, "You..."
"Burn, burn all of this!" she ordered again, then grabbed a torch nearby. "Burn! Burn you all to death, hahaha!"
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