Chapter 1 Tyrant Listens to My Heart
"By the providence of Heaven, the Emperor decrees: The evidence is irrefutable that the Yun Guogong Mansion has colluded with the traitorous king and is plotting evil! Yun Chongshan is hereby stripped of his title, stripped of his wealth, and his entire household... imprisoned in the Heavenly Prison to await his fate!"
The eunuch's sharp and cold voice of the decree was like a poisoned ice cone, piercing Yun Zhao's eardrum and exploding!
A huge force pulled her back from the chaos and nothingness, and she suddenly opened her eyes.
What she saw before her was no longer the gloomy other side of the underworld, but the flower hall she was familiar with - but at this moment it was like purgatory!
The torn veil fluttered across the cold iron armor, and the rough pushing and fierce scolding of the royal guards made her ears buzz.
Her mother's desperate sobs and her father and brother's suppressed breathing formed a web of despair that instantly wrapped her up.
It's this day!
She was reborn into the moment when the Yunguo Mansion was completely overthrown!
Memories of the hellish past life, tinged with the smell of blood, flooded into my mind:
Her father and brother were unjustly beheaded, their execution grounds stained with blood; her mother hanged herself in despair in the cold prison; and she and her younger siblings were thrust into the bottomless abyss of the Jiaofangsi, a place that devoured their dignity...
The overwhelming hatred instantly tore through her lungs, and the pain almost suffocated her!
His gaze, like a sharp, tempered blade, was fixed on the main seat.
A man wearing black clothes and with black hair, whose face is as cold as the abyss of ten thousand years, the emperor of Daye, Xiao Jin!
It was this tyrant who crushed all her light!
[The Yun family was framed! This tyrant emperor issued an order without even investigating!]
[Tyrant! Just wait! Three months after the Yun family's demise, your good brother, the Prince of Jin, will force you to abdicate and drink a cup of poisoned wine to your death!]
[Alright! On the road to the underworld, I'll drag you, the dog emperor, along with me to be buried with me!]
A deep curse churned in her heart like magma.
In a flash of lightning——
Xiao Jin, who was sitting as upright as a mountain, paused slightly, almost imperceptibly, with his fingers holding the cup.
A clear, young female voice filled with deep hatred suddenly penetrated the hustle and bustle of the flower hall and pierced his mind!
who? !
Who dares to be so rebellious?!
A cold light suddenly condensed in Xiao Jin's eyes, and his sharp gaze like an eagle swept across the entire audience in an instant.
Everyone looked ashen and silent.
The only one was... the girl who was pinned to the ground by two soldiers, Yun Zhao.
Her eyes, burning with the same angry flames as the voices he "heard", almost pierced through him!
"Your Majesty!" A lieutenant of the Imperial Guards stepped forward quickly, presenting a thick stack of banknotes. "We've found irrefutable evidence! A full two hundred thousand taels hidden in the cracks in the wall of Duke Yun's study!"
Xiao Jin took the stack of banknotes, which seemed to still be covered in dust. His fingertips turned white from the force he exerted. A violent aura surged through his body, and his voice was as cold as iron: "Yun Chongshan, what's your explanation?!"
My father was forced to his knees, his hair disheveled, his black hat, a symbol of his status, rolling down in the dust. Blood stained the corners of his mouth, but he still stood up straight and roared, "Your Majesty! I am innocent! This is a frame-up! Please investigate!"
Yun Zhao's heart was bleeding.
[No official shall be punished! The Yun family has been loyal and brave for generations, yet they are being humiliated like this!]
[Fool! What corrupt family would stuff brand new banknotes into a crack in the wall and wait for them to be searched? There's a traitor in the Imperial Guards! Do you think you can hold on to the throne?]
Kill them! Kill the entire Yun family! Let the world see how a tyrant like you destroys his own Great Wall! Three months! You only have three months to live!
It's that voice again!
Xiao Jin's gaze was like an ice cone, fixed on Yun Zhao.
He stood up suddenly, his black dragon robe blew a sharp breeze, and he walked in front of her in a few steps.
The cold knuckles lifted her chin with irresistible force, forcing her to look up at those bottomless eyes that seemed to see through everything.
He didn't see her open her mouth.
"Do you have something to say?" The voice was low and dangerously inquiring, and each word fell like an ice bead.
Yun Zhao clenched his teeth, pursed his lips until they were deathly pale, and looked back stubbornly without saying a word.
[Stupid ruler! Tyrant!]
[It's the Su family! For the jade mine! To eliminate dissidents!]
[A man is innocent but guilty of possessing a treasure! ]
Xiao Jin examined her with cold eyes, and pressed his finger harder: "I'll give you one chance to live! Speak!"
[My father is upright! My brother fought bravely on the frontier! How can I be disloyal? I cannot accept my fate!]
"Your Majesty!" Yun Zhao broke free from the restraints and kowtowed heavily, her forehead hitting the cold and hard bluestone slab. "I'm so bold! The Yun family is innocent! Someone coveted our Yun family's jade mine and framed our entire family! If your words are false, I am willing to be torn apart by five horses and have my tendons pulled out!" Her voice was filled with a desperate determination.
Duke Yun was horrified and quickly knelt to protect his daughter: "Your Majesty! Ah Zhao is so rude! The crime is solely the fault of this humble servant! My family is innocent!"
[Father! The tyrant emperor wants to eradicate the root of the problem!]
[Evidence! Inside the "Map of Mountains and Rivers" in Su's study is a map of the jade mine! Also, the Su family colluded with the Cao Gang to smuggle military equipment, but they framed the Yun family!]
[Just check! Just check and you can overturn the verdict!]
Yun Zhao remembered it clearly! That was the Su family's eldest daughter, Su Mingli, who was showing off viciously before her death!
Xiao Jin's gaze lingered on her face for a few breaths.
A flash of extremely fast and sharp light flashed across the deep pool of eyes.
Deathly silence, like thick ink, enveloped the hall once again. Everyone held their breath, awaiting the emperor's wrath.
After a few breaths.
"bite--"
The jade ring in his hand made a crisp but heart-stopping sound.
He didn't look at Yun Zhao again, as if the conversation just now was just an illusion.
His cold and calm gaze turned towards Fu'an, the eunuch chief steward standing beside Ruying, and he gave the order in a tone that showed no emotion:
"Propagate my oral order. All the people in the Yunguo Mansion will be temporarily taken back to their respective residences and placed under strict guard. No one may move or bring them to trial without my personal written order. Anyone who violates this order—" He paused, then spoke in cold words, "will be executed immediately."
"Your Majesty?!" The captain in charge of the escort cried out in disbelief.
The hall fell into an eerie silence. Yun Chongshan and his eldest son, Yun Zheng, looked up in shock, their eyes filled with the bewilderment of someone who had just survived a catastrophe.
Xiao Jin's gaze finally swept over Yun Zhao, who was lying limp on the ground.
Those eyes were deep and difficult to read, with cold scrutiny, sharp inquiry, and... a hint of creepy interest, as if discovering a very interesting prey?
Yun Zhao felt as if all his strength had been drained away. Cold sweat soaked through his heavy clothes, and his heart was beating so wildly that it almost burst out of his chest.
The gamble won…for now.
But the feeling of being stared at by the tyrant for the last time was like having a cold poisonous snake wrapped around her neck, and the chill seeped into her bones, making her shudder.
Why did the tyrant suddenly change his ways? Does he have other plans? Will he really conduct a new investigation?
Xiao Jin did not stop and strode towards the door with big strides, his black sleeves fluttering, leaving the room filled with dead silence and suspicion.
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