Chapter 391 Killing the Cat in Front of the Princess
Seeing that she still dared to obstruct her, Granny Cao sneered, "This beast has harmed several princes; it deserves to be torn apart by five horses. Could it be that you, Princess, ordered it to offend the ladies?"
"It wasn't me, I didn't! It can't even understand human speech, how could I command it? It must be a misunderstanding..." Zhao Zhenrou felt that Tuantuan was being wronged. "Tuantuan wouldn't go to crowded places, it wasn't it, Granny must have made a mistake..."
"Dozens of eyes are watching, does the princess think everyone is blind?" Granny Chang ordered her to be pulled away and gave the order to take action.
"Slap slap slap!!!"
The two maids each struck her with a stick, dozens of times in total.
Tuantuan was already on the verge of death. After being hit a few more times, her abdomen was shrunken, blood was increasingly seeping from the corners of her lips, and she was choking on blood, letting out painful whimpers of "hoarse!"
Zhao Zhenrou's two maids were grabbed by the arms, and she was so anxious that she burst into tears. She tried to shake her arms and break free from the maids' grasp, but she was too weak and could not break free.
"Let go, let go of me! Stop hitting me, Tuantuan! It's a good dog, it won't hurt anyone! Please stop hitting it, please stop, boohoo..."
She struggled and begged them to let Tuantuan go, until Tuantuan was beaten to death, at which point the palace maid released her.
When Zhao Zhenrou saw the blood all over the ground, she thought of the women in the enemy camp who had been raped in turn, covered in wounds, and with blood all over their bodies.
Terrified, she crouched down, curled up, covered her ears, and shook her head, screaming, "Ah! Blood, so much blood! Don't come any closer! No! Ah!—"
She screamed, her eyes rolled back, and she fainted.
Granny Cao sneered, "What a coward! Guards, take him back and await the Emperor's judgment."
Zhao Zhenrou dreamed of meeting Tuantuan for the first time.
It barged into her palace, filthy and dirty, and the maids serving her chased it away with sticks.
She came out after hearing the noise and saw a thin, small, furry thing. Feeling sorry for it, she took pity on it and kept it with her.
I bathe it frequently and feed it every day.
It followed her wherever she went, and there were some things she couldn't tell anyone, not even her personal maid.
She then spoke to Tuantuan, who nestled obediently in her arms and listened to her vent.
She missed Furou, missed her sisters outside the palace, and wanted to go out and see them, but she couldn't go out.
Tuantuan noticed her sadness.
He rubbed his head against her arm.
The scene shifts again, showing Tuantuan's gruesome death, covered in blood, her once-grown body now thin and small again.
"Tuantuan, please don't hit it, I beg you..."
She tried to rush over to save it, but hadn't even touched it yet.
Both arms were grabbed and lifted up.
She opened her eyes and saw Granny Cao's wrinkled, sharp-tongued face.
This face gave her nightmares for several nights, and she was afraid to blow out the candlelight to fall asleep at night.
Zhao Zhenrou shrank her shoulders, her voice trembling, "Granny, where are you taking me?"
"Where are you going? Your cat killed several princes, and you, the culprit, are still sleeping so soundly?"
"Let go of me! I'm a princess! I'm a princess! You can't pull me like that..."
Granny Cao said, "So what if you're a princess? You've caused the deaths of several princes. The Emperor and the Imperial Concubine won't let you off the hook. The Emperor wants to interrogate you..."
Zhao Zhenrou was taken to the Qin Zheng Hall. As soon as the palace maid released her arm, she knelt down on the ground.
She tried to stand up, but a piercing pain shot through her feet. She wasn't wearing shoes, only white socks, which had been torn by pebbles as she dragged herself there, and blood stained the white socks red.
When Granny Cao saw that she was about to stand up, she gave a signal to a palace maid. The maid stepped forward, pressed down on her shoulders, and forced her to kneel down.
"ah!"
"It hurts, don't grab me..." The maid's fingernails dug into the flesh of her shoulder.
"Zhenrou, tell me honestly, did you instruct that beast to kill my son?"
"Your Majesty... Third Brother, I did nothing. I did not instruct Tuantuan to kill the prince. You know me, I am timid and dare not kill, so how could I dare to kill someone?"
When Zhao Zhenrou met Zhao Xuan's cold, gloomy, and murderous gaze, she trembled with fear, and tears streamed down her face.
She vehemently protested, "Your Majesty, it wasn't me, it really wasn't me, and it wasn't Tuantuan either. It's innocent, it wasn't it, please don't kill it..."
Zhao Xuan's mother died early, and Zhao Zhenrou's mother, Consort Xu, raised him for a period of time when he was a child.
He only recognized his own mother and was unwilling to recognize anyone else as his mother.
The emperor did not force him to admit it.
Consort Xu didn't mind at all; on the contrary, she appreciated his filial piety and continued to treat him as her own child.
Zhao Zhenrou had no older brother, and she liked to follow him around and play when she was little.
She was gentle by nature and was often bullied by other princes and princesses. It was Zhao Xuan who helped her drive those people away.
He didn't leave the palace and establish his own residence until he was fifteen years old.
Later, Zhao Xuan was exiled for treason, and she went to her father, the emperor, to plead for his pardon.
But my father disagrees.
After she escaped from the enemy camp, she saw Zhao Xuan only a handful of times. She had been captured by the enemy and lost her chastity. The palace maids in the harem were all talking about her, saying that she had been captured by the enemy, was no longer pure, and was an ominous person.
They could not attend palace banquets, not even when the empresses and concubines were enjoying flowers in the imperial garden.
She tried to go up and greet them, but they sent their maids to chase her away. Only Consort Liu and Consort Su didn't mind her and would send people to give her things and talk to her.
Zhao Xuan's face was ashen, a layer of gloomy ruthlessness shrouding his cold, handsome brows. His voice was low and menacing, "Zhen'er, tell me, who exactly ordered you? Was it the Great Jing that instructed you to persecute my prince? Just tell me the truth..."
Should we spare her life?
He won't let her off the hook.
She did it. Kill her to avenge his four sons.
Zhao Zhenrou shook her head, "Brother, I didn't, no one really instructed me, I really wouldn't harm anyone, Tuantuan is very well-behaved, it wouldn't harm anyone..."
Granny Cao said, "It's not uncommon for animals to bite their owners. How can the princess be so sure it won't harm anyone?"
The concubines' personal maids and eunuchs who had suffered miscarriages were also in the hall.
They had already interrogated her once, and they did see the cat suddenly pounce on Zhang Ping, startling her so much that she fell off the stone bench and then darted around on several other concubines.
The concubine was frightened and then clutched her stomach, crying out in pain.
Consort Zhang's personal maid, Cai'er, said, "Your Majesty, I saw with my own eyes that it was that beast that knocked our Consort down. Consort was looking forward to the birth of the little prince day and night, and made many clothes for him in advance. When Consort learned that the little prince was gone, she cried bitterly and begged Your Majesty to severely punish the murderer."
Several other concubines' personal attendants also knelt down and begged, "Your Majesty, please severely punish the murderer and bring justice to the Empress and the young prince."
Zhao Xuan rubbed his throbbing temples. "Zhenrou, out of consideration for our sibling bond, I allowed you to stay in the palace, where you are well-fed and cared for. How have you repaid me? You caused the deaths of four imperial sons, four of them! Do you know how much I longed for their birth? Huh?"
He slammed his hand on the table, "Bang!"
Zhao Zhenrou was timid and easily frightened. Her small body trembled. Everyone said that Tuantuan had killed several princes. Tuantuan was her pet cat, and she was guilty.
Daring not to argue any further, she knelt on the ground, kowtowing and begging for mercy, "Your Majesty, Zhenrou knows she was wrong, Zhenrou didn't mean it, Zhenrou deserves to die..."
Soon the Minister of the Court of Imperial Clan Affairs arrived, saying, "Your humble servant greets Your Majesty."
"Investigate thoroughly! Use whatever means necessary to find the culprit who killed my son!"
"Your Majesty, I will obey your decree and do my utmost to thoroughly investigate this case."
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