On that day, the emperor was assassinated at the royal hunting grounds, but was rescued by the imperial guards who arrived at the scene and took him to the dense forest.
The emperor was seriously injured, and the court and the public were shaken.
It is said that the virtuous concubine dressed up in the emperor's clothes to lure away the assassins for the emperor, and was forced to jump off a cliff.
Below that cliff is a bottomless abyss; jumping down means certain death, leaving no trace of one's remains.
After the emperor awoke, he immediately dispatched troops to search the area below the cliff.
Unfortunately, after searching for three days and three nights, we still found nothing.
In the end, they found only a tattered piece of clothing at the foot of the cliff, stained with blood.
Some speculate that the body of this virtuous concubine was probably carried away by a tiger in the deep mountains.
Opinions vary.
In short, they all lament the tragic fate of beautiful women and praise their loyalty and affection, acknowledging that the emperor's favor towards them was once unparalleled.
Later, folk opera troupes even created and performed a play called "The Legend of the Emperor and His Consort" to commemorate the tragic love between the virtuous consort and the tyrant, a love that was separated by death.
The common people had never seen with their own eyes how cruel and tyrannical the current emperor, Jun Chenbi, was. For example, they heard stories about him skinning beautiful women to make drums, or cutting off people's hands, feet, and gouging out their eyes. Although they privately called him a tyrant, they even used him to scare disobedient children at home. He was known as a fierce demon who could stop children from crying at night.
But it was only "heard of".
At least, although the people called him a tyrant, they lived a fairly comfortable life, unlike in times of chaos when they couldn't even get enough to eat.
Now that we have rice to eat and clothes to wear, it seems too much to say that their emperor is a tyrant...
Especially after the opera troupe made "The Legend of the Imperial Concubine" a hit among the people, it moved countless people to tears.
Waaah, Consort Xian is so kind and righteous, His Majesty is so affectionate, the love between the Emperor and Consort is truly touching...
Surprisingly, it served to clear Jun Chenbi's name among the common people.
…
Ordinary people still had the leisure to watch opera troupes and listen to "The Legend of the Imperial Concubine," because the turmoil in the imperial court and the harem was still very far removed from them...
Only those at the very heart of this dynasty's power could truly feel the bloodshed and the palpable sense of unease it evoked.
After the death of Consort Xian, the emperor resumed his previous tyrannical and cruel style of conduct, no, he became a hundred times more cruel than before.
He first identified all those behind the assassination attempt at the royal hunting grounds, and then implicated their entire families, imprisoning and beheading three generations of their clans, and exiling nine generations to the frontier...
In short, during those six months, the guillotine at the Meridian Gate outside the palace beheaded countless people, staining the ground with an indelible crimson of blood.
This event is known in history as the "Qingjia Rebellion".
Knowing that those beheaded were criminals who had murdered the emperor and caused the separation of the emperor and his consorts by death, the people no longer felt that the emperor was cruel. Instead, they threw rotten vegetable leaves, rotten eggs, and spat at these treacherous officials who had rebelled against their lord.
It was because of these traitors that Consort Xian was indirectly killed, preventing them from shipping the Emperor and Consort Xian as a couple!
You have to understand, people in ancient times didn't have cell phones, computers, or Wi-Fi. They couldn't access the internet, and they didn't have much entertainment. It wasn't easy for them to even ship a couple, and to be forced into a tragic ending is simply infuriating!
…
Has Qin Ge really died?
Of course not.
That day, he put on Jun Chenbi's clothes, disguised himself as him to lure away the group of relentless assassins, and ran all the way to the edge of Fengtou Cliff before revealing his identity and jumping off.
Before jumping off the cliff, he deliberately threw his cloak on the ground to create the illusion that he had been there before and was forced to jump.
In reality, that cliff was Qingzhu's escape route for him to fake his death; even if he jumped off, he wouldn't die.
At this point, Qin Ge finally shed her identities as the "Fourth Miss of the Prime Minister's Mansion" and the "Virtuous Consort of the Palace".
Oh, and there's that girl Qingzhu too.
She was also very clever. The group of assassins' target was not a maid, but the emperor. She pretended to be killed by the assassins, and took the opportunity to lie down. Only after the assassins chased Qin Ge and Jun Chenbi far away did Qingzhu limp away, clutching her wound.
With such a momentous event as the assassination attempt on the emperor, the life or death of a mere maid like Qingzhu seemed insignificant, which allowed her to escape.
However, Qingzhu's disguise skills were not good, and many people knew that she was the maid of the deceased Consort Xian and had seen her face, so Qingzhu could no longer appear openly in the capital.
Even Qin Ge only returned to the center of power in the Great Yong Dynasty after half a year, once everything had calmed down.
This time, he went to the capital to take the imperial examination as Mu Xiange, a student from Qingzhou.
His maid, Lan Ye, was by his side.
Qin Ge reverted to his male attire, dressed in brocade robes with an exquisite white jade pendant at his waist, his every move exuding the air of a scion of a noble family.
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