The iron gate clanged loudly, startling the drowsy Consort Li awake.
She brushed aside the messy hair that covered her eyes and jumped off the cold iron bed. Forgetting that she was shackled and handcuffed, she fell flat on the floor, which was covered in vomit and urine.
Ignoring the stench that covered her, she pushed herself up and scrambled to the heavy iron gate, reaching out her urine-soaked hands to grab it. The heavy handcuffs clanged against the gate, making a loud noise.
"Is this Eunuch Yang? Is this Eunuch Yang? Will His Majesty pardon me?"
The small window on the iron gate popped open, and a small iron basin was brought in, filled with cold, dry, yellowish rice, which no one knew had been scraped from the bottom of some pot.
"Don't be delusional," a gruff male voice said. "This is a death row. No one who's been imprisoned here has ever come out alive."
Another voice said, "Why bother telling her all this? She's going to be beheaded in a couple of days anyway."
Consort Li trembled all over. She felt as if she were standing naked in the snow, and her teeth started chattering involuntarily.
He was to be dragged out into the public eye and executed in front of layers of civilians tomorrow.
The executioner chopped off her head with a single stroke, and it fell to the ground, rolling in the mud, utterly devoid of dignity and respect. People might even spit on her corpse. Worldly riches, power, and status were no longer relevant to her; she died like a stray dog on the roadside, forgotten and ignored.
A loud bang startled her, and she looked up.
The jailer slammed the food bowl against the iron gate and said impatiently, "Are you going to eat or not? If you are, take it quickly."
She hesitated. Fear and exhaustion, coupled with not having slept at all, tormented her, leaving her ravenously hungry. But the prison food was rotten and stinky; even her old dog ate better.
While she was still in a daze, the large hand that was outstretched in the air slammed down, and the iron basin hit her forehead with a thud, scattering rice grains all over her.
"I thought you were Consort Li, being so picky and pretentious," the jailer said viciously. "Give up that idea as soon as possible."
After saying that, the jailer slammed the small iron window shut again.
She collapsed to the ground, touching her throbbing forehead. It was badly swollen, a result of her frantically kowtowing the night before.
I still remember the scene of myself desperately pleading in Emperor Kangping's room. This scene keeps replaying in my mind, refusing to leave.
She remembered Yang Yaozu kneeling and pleading for her life. She couldn't remember what he said; she was gripped by the fear of death and couldn't hear anything clearly. She only remembered Emperor Kangping picking up a pillow and throwing it at Yang Yaozu, saying that anyone who dared to plead for her again would be executed along with him.
Just when she was in despair, the goddess Qiu Jie whispered a few words to Emperor Kangping. She was then dragged out by the imperial guards like a dead body and imprisoned in this death cell.
Although he was still imprisoned in a death row cell, he was not like Imperial Physician Chai. Imperial Physician Chai concocted poison and was executed by slow slicing that very night. His entire family of more than twenty people was also wiped out, and even the newborn baby did not escape.
She is at least still alive.
She never expected that Qiu Jie would report her to Emperor Kangping, nor did she expect that Qiu Jie would save her at the critical moment.
She couldn't understand it.
Leaning against the iron gate, I don't know how much time had passed before I heard footsteps coming from the corridor outside.
She thought it was Yang Yaozu, who at least had pleaded for her. Clinging to a sliver of hope, she pounded on the iron gate with both hands and cried out, "Is that Eunuch Yang? Save me, I don't want to die."
The small window on the iron gate suddenly opened again, and a ladle of hot water splashed in, splattering her face.
"If you keep banging on the door and yelling like that, you bitch," the jailer's fierce voice boomed into the cramped cell from the other end, "believe me or not, I'll cut your tongue out right now!"
She quickly withdrew her hand and said in the most humble tone, "My lord, I dare not do it again, I dare not do it again."
"How annoying," the jailer snorted and closed the window again.
She wiped her face; the smell was pungent, seemingly the jailer's foot-washing water.
The jailer, a lowly person, was usually not even qualified to see her. Now, however, he had become a god who could arbitrarily decide her life and death. The jailer could insult her and beat her at will. She cried out to heaven and earth in vain.
Even if the jailer really cut off her tongue, no one would know.
She shakily climbed back into bed.
The iron bed was covered with only a thin layer of dry straw, topped with a tattered sheet. It had been slept on by countless death row inmates and reeked of a foul stench. She vomited several times from the smell.
She didn't care about any of that; all she wanted was to survive. Crying, she curled up into a ball and cried, "I can't take it anymore! Someone, please save me!"
It seemed that the only person they could count on was their son, Wei Shao. But Wei Shao was far away in Xiping Pass; how could he possibly know what was happening here?
This despair before death drove her almost insane.
She cried for a while, then laughed for a while. She drifted in and out of consciousness, not knowing how much time had passed, when footsteps echoed in the corridor outside, as if someone was approaching.
This time she learned her lesson; she huddled in the corner, not daring to make a sound.
The window of the iron gate was opened again.
She screamed in terror, covering her face with her hands: "My lord, spare me! I didn't knock on the door, I didn't shout... please don't cut out my tongue."
“Consort Li,” Yang Yaozu’s voice came from outside the small window, “It’s me, Yang Yaozu.”
She opened her eyes, her fear instantly turning into ecstatic joy. Like a madwoman, she jumped off the bed and rushed to the iron gate: "Eunuch Yang, you've come to save me? Will I survive? Has His Majesty granted me a pardon?"
Yang Yaozu's face appeared outside the window: "Your Majesty, whether His Majesty can spare you depends on whether the Goddess will agree."
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