Chapter 64 I killed him!
The entire palace was shrouded in a gloomy and grim atmosphere.
Inside the Funing Palace, the servants were busy moving around, but no one dared to approach the inner room.
This was because everyone who had tried to enter before had been kicked out by Ning Wujie.
Li Dequan stood outside the palace gate, looking at the figures hugging each other on the bed inside. He wiped the tears from his eyes and turned to Ning Zheng beside him and said, "Duke, please persuade Lord Ning quickly. It's been three days. His Majesty must be buried."
"Besides, how can Lord Ning hold on if he doesn't eat or drink?" The old eunuch couldn't help sobbing after he said this.
Ning Zheng closed his eyes, suppressed the pain in his heart, and tentatively walked in. But as soon as he took a step inside, he heard a hoarse shout from inside: "Get out!"
Ning Zheng sighed, "Wujie, it's time for His Majesty to be buried!"
"roll!"
At this time, Ning Buhuo came back from outside, wearing armor. "Dad, the mansions of all the princes, nobles, and generals in the city have been secured."
"But..." Ning Buhuo paused, feeling somewhat worried. "If we don't quickly let the new emperor take over, I'm afraid something will happen sooner or later. The capital is relatively safe, but the princes in various places are all eyeing us covetously. Do we really have to follow the imperial edict..."
Ning Buhuo still couldn't help feeling absurd when he said this.
"Our last name is Ning! If this name is not legitimate, even if we take the seat, we will inevitably be criticized."
"Also, we just received news that someone has let Prince Xiang go and has already fled the capital. I'm afraid there will be chaos!"
Ning Zheng heard this, and a hint of determination flashed in his eyes: "Now this position, Wujie has to sit down, otherwise..."
"Do you think that if we retreat now, the world will let us go?!"
Ning Buhuo was stunned when he heard this, then he said with a stern look, "Since that's the case, let's do it once and for all!"
He glanced into the inner room and saw Ning Wujie still lying on the bed as before, with his arms around Wen Xing's waist, hugging him from behind, his nose buried in the man's hair, like a sculpture, motionless.
Ning Buhuo was heartbroken.
When you love someone the most, that person dies in front of you. How painful it is.
As for that person, not only did he decide to die, but he also threw the heaviest burden in the world onto his lover.
Your Majesty has a very cruel heart.
He tried to step forward to dissuade him, but was stopped by Ning Zheng.
Ning Zheng shook his head at him and turned to Ning Wujie, "Wujie, have you forgotten what His Majesty said? If you don't pull yourself together, the world will be in chaos. How are you going to explain this to His Majesty?!"
He took a tentative step forward as he spoke, and the person inside remained silent.
Ning Zheng's eyes lit up slightly and he quickly walked to the couch.
He saw Ning Wujie burying his head deeply in Wen Xing's neck, unspeakably quiet, but he vaguely heard suppressed sobs.
Ning Buhuo also followed and said hoarsely to the person on the couch, "Wujie, let His Majesty be buried."
Ning Wujie still didn't move, but uttered very softly, "His body is soft..."
"What?"
Ning Buhuo moved closer and asked, "What did you say?"
Ning Wujie turned his head suddenly, his eyes bloodshot and moist, but his eyes were full of paranoia, "It's been three days, and his body is still soft."
Ning Buhuo was stunned.
Ning Wujie sat up, gently lifted Wen Xing's wrist, and showed it to Ning Buhuo, "Look."
"Brother, you have seen a dead person."
Ning Buhuo's eyes fixed.
Ning Zheng also stepped forward, lightly pressed his fingertips on Wen Xing's shoulder, and then raised his eyebrows slightly.
As if inspired by the two people's reactions, Ning Wujie's empty eyes suddenly lit up, and his dead heartbeat suddenly became violent.
His voice was filled with uncontrollable emotion. "It's been three days. Your Majesty's body is soft, without any wounds or odors, and clean, as if he were asleep."
He looked at the two of them, his eyes filled with uncontrollable ecstasy, "Your Majesty may not be dead."
Ning Zheng looked at his son's almost crazy expression in disbelief. His heart suddenly sank. He suppressed his rebuke and said with pain, "Wu Jie, have you ever seen anyone survive after their heart meridian was cut off for three days?"
Ning Wujie's expression froze.
Li Dequan also came over and checked on Wen Xing. He suppressed the heat in his eyes and said, "Lord Ning, I have lived for over fifty years and have seen a lot. Some blessed people die in such a dignified and clean way. That means our Majesty..." His voice choked, "Our Majesty has gone to heaven."
"This is good news, Master Ning, you should be happy."
The sparkle that had just ignited in Ning Wujie's eyes suddenly died out. He clenched his fists tightly under his sleeves and said in a cold and stubborn tone, "I don't believe it."
He stared at Wen Xing's sleeping face and ordered coldly, "Zhai Yuanqing must have misdiagnosed him. Call all the imperial doctors from the Imperial Hospital!"
"Wu Jie!" Ning Zheng finally couldn't help but burst into anger and shouted, "Pull yourself together! The news of His Majesty's death has spread. There's chaos out there at any moment. You can't mess around!"
"You want to summon the imperial physician, right? Fine, the Imperial Hospital belongs to the royal family. You must ascend the throne now according to the imperial decree! Then the entire Imperial Hospital will be at your disposal!"
Ning Wujie's pupils shrank drastically. The word "ascend the throne" was like a curse, nailing him firmly to the spot.
Ning Zheng ordered, "Come here! Cleanse His Majesty and change his clothes!"
The attendants filed in.
Ning Wujie was in a trance. Seeing someone trying to touch Wen Xing, he instinctively pushed the servant away, then held Wen Xing tightly and refused to let go, shouting angrily: "Get out of here!"
Li Dequan knelt on his knees, trembling, and kowtowed three times to Ning Wujie, weeping, "Sir Ning, please, His Majesty is just too tired, please let His Majesty rest in peace."
Ning Wujie's pupils shrank.
Tired...
He remembered that when he questioned His Majesty why he wanted to use the dragon robe to frame him, the other party had answered him like this -
"I am tired and don't want to be emperor anymore."
He didn't believe it at that time.
He couldn't understand why, if he wanted to abdicate, he didn't abdicate to someone from the same clan, but chose him?
Now he understood.
Because His Majesty said that he only trusts him.
Thinking of this, his whole body began to tremble violently uncontrollably.
If he had believed Your Majesty's words at that time and fulfilled Your Majesty's wishes.
Your Majesty, does this mean...you don't have to die?
As soon as this thought arose, he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar, as if thousands of ice blades had pierced his body, and the biting cold spread throughout his limbs and bones, freezing him to the bone marrow.
"I killed him...it was me!"
He muttered to himself in a trance, holding his head with both hands, his fingertips digging into the flesh at the back of his neck, and drops of blood slid down his jade-white neck.
Ning Buhuo hurriedly grabbed his hands to prevent him from continuing to hurt himself.
“No disaster!”
But Ning Wujie struggled violently and almost broke free. Ning Zheng rushed forward to help. The two of them pressed down on one of Ning Wujie's shoulders and threw him against the wall beside the couch, while holding his wrists at the same time.
"Calm down!"
The two men exerted force at the same time. Ning Wujie struggled in vain and finally stopped moving. He just hung his head dejectedly, and big tears fell silently on the quilt.
Seeing Ning Wujie being controlled, Li Dequan quickly waved to his attendants.
The attendants came forward, changed Wen Xing into funeral clothes, and lifted him up.
Ning Wujie struggled hard to try to stop them, but his body was pinned to the wall by his father and brother, unable to move. He could only watch as the servants carried Wen Xing out of the inner room.
"Let me go!"
He struggled so hard that Ning Buhuo was afraid he would hurt himself, so he loosened his grip suddenly. Ning Wujie took the opportunity to break free, pushed Ning Zheng away, and quickly chased after him.
However, when they chased to the outer room, they saw a coffin parked in the main hall.
The white curtains fell silently, and the spirit flags fluttered.
Looking at the glaring mourning clothes, his brain was buzzing and his feet felt like they were filled with lead, and he couldn't take another step.
He just stared blankly at the servants busying around in front of him.
At this moment, Wu Jing rushed in from outside, "Court officials have gathered outside the palace, demanding the announcement of His Majesty's will! Wu Jie, we can't delay any longer!"
"Your Majesty has not yet appointed a crown prince. If you do not issue an edict, I am afraid that chaos will arise!"
Ning Wujie stood there for a long time, his empty and dead eyes closed deeply, and his fists hitting the door frame tightened inch by inch.
When he opened his eyes again, a cold light flashed in his eyes.
He gave the order coldly and with difficulty: "Tomorrow there will be a grand funeral. Order all civil and military officials to come and listen to the announcement!"
*
White banners hang down outside the Funing Palace.
The eunuch in charge of ceremonies stood on the high steps in front of the palace and announced in a loud voice: "Kneel down - bow - to bid farewell to the late emperor!"
All the officials were dressed in coarse linen mourning clothes, and knelt down one by one, performing the ritual of three kneelings and nine kowtows towards the coffin in the hall.
The rustling sound of clothes rubbing against the ground as he kowtowed was intertwined with suppressed sobs, and the air was filled with a dead silence as if a storm was about to come.
Wang Jiang stood in the crowd in a daze, looking at the gaunt figure in the mourning hall, tears in the corners of his eyes, feeling sad and unbelievable.
He had just left Funing Palace that day when His Majesty passed away.
Is this what Your Majesty calls a situation?
What kind of situation requires the life of Your Majesty to be involved?
What should he do?
He was still confused between sadness and confusion, but the whispers around him flooded into his ears like a tide.
"...Your Majesty was in the prime of life, how could he pass away so suddenly?"
"The Imperial Hospital's medical records say it's a heart attack."
"I don't think so. Didn't you see that the Imperial City has been taken over by the Three Thousand Battalion? Could it be a palace coup..."
Wang Jiang's pupils trembled violently, and he hurriedly shouted, "Everyone, be careful with your words!"
At this time, a white figure passed through the officials standing on both sides and walked to the front of the mourning hall.
Ning Wujie was dressed in plain white clothes, like frost and snow covering a pine tree, with a thin white ribbon tied on his forehead, which made his eyebrows and eyes look even more elegant.
However, this otherworldly appearance could not conceal the stern and murderous aura emanating from his bones, especially those scarlet eyes and the dark shadow under his eyes, which were full of sinister hostility and made people dare not look at him directly.
He lifted the corner of his robe, knelt on his knees, and kowtowed three times to the coffin.
After standing up again, he glanced coldly at the officials, then nodded to Li Dequan.
Li Dequan spread out the yellow scroll——
"The Emperor, by the grace of Heaven and the Mandate of Heaven, proclaims: Since receiving the Mandate of Heaven, I have diligently and diligently guarded my position day and night... However, the Mandate of Heaven is unpredictable, and I am ill, unable to bear the heavy burden of the ancestral temple..."
"...I advise you, Ning Wujie, to maintain order within the court and pacify the world. Your achievements are unparalleled throughout the world... I dare not remain in the supreme position for too long and thus mislead the affairs of state. Therefore, I shall study the precedents of the past and follow the example of Yao and Shun, abdicating the throne in favor of the virtuous. I hereby abdicate the throne to Ning Wujie."
After he finished speaking, the whole hall was first silent, and then there was an uproar.
"Abdicate?!"
"Even if I were to abdicate, I should abdicate to someone from the same clan. How could I give it to someone from a different clan?"
"Impossible! This decree...where did this decree come from?!"
Amidst the voices of doubt, Wang Jiang recalled His Majesty's instructions—
"...at this critical moment, support all my wishes...and prevent all officials from criticizing me."
He gathered himself, stepped out of the line and said loudly, "This decree is indeed from His Majesty himself!"
He faced countless horrified glances with a firm gaze, "Three days ago, it was His Majesty who ordered me to draft the decree, and it was approved with the imperial seal. It is absolutely true!"
All the officials still looked suspicious, each with their own ulterior motives.
Some censors even dared to question, "How could His Majesty issue such an order? We are officials appointed by Dachen, and Dachen's influence is well-known throughout the world!"
Wang Jiang's eyes darkened, and he shouted in a trembling voice, "This is His Majesty's personal decree, written by me personally. It's on file in the Cabinet and the Six Departments! How can you question it?!"
The censor froze for a moment, his voice weakening slightly as he muttered, "How absurd."
He thought his voice was low enough, but he didn't know that it all fell into Ning Wujie's ears.
Ning Wujie's eyes turned cold and he just raised his hand slightly.
Then the clanging sound of armor was heard, and soldiers rushed in like a tide, surrounding the mourning hall in an instant.
"Anyone who disobeys the order will be killed immediately."
When the officials saw this, their faces turned pale and they were silent as a mouse.
At this moment, an official's eyes flickered slightly, and he suddenly stepped out of the line, shouting to all the officials, "My fellow officials, why should we be so bound by outdated conventions? As long as it benefits the country, the wise should take the position, and that is the right way!"
"Lord Ning... Oh no, now I should call you Your Majesty! Your Majesty is a man of great talent and vision, a hundred times better than that lazy and incompetent emperor!"
As he spoke, he glanced at Ning Wujie and saw that he was staring at him coldly and walking slowly towards him. He couldn't help feeling proud, and secretly cursed his colleagues for being idiots.
The Ning family has a large number of troops under their command, but can their arms twist against their thighs?
Even the news from Tingchaoyuan said that Ning Wujie rebelled in anger because he could not bear the humiliation he suffered from the tyrant emperor.
If you trample on the late emperor as much as you can at this moment, you will surely win the favor of the new emperor!
There was a hint of deliberate disdain in his tone, "That tyrant emperor indulged in sensual pleasures and extravagant things. Under his rule, our Dachen was declining..."
“Ugh—!”
All his subsequent words were strangled back in his throat. A huge force clamped his jaw tightly and lifted him off the ground.
His legs kicked in vain, a strange "gurgling" sound came from his throat, his cheeks turned red, and he was almost suffocated.
In his terrified pupils, Ning Wujie's face was reflected so close to him. His usually handsome face was now filled with madness and violence. His eyes seemed to be burning red with anger, dyeing them to the corners of his eyes. His extremely fierce gaze made him shudder.
"Who allowed you to?" Ning Wujie's voice was low and hoarse, filled with murderous intent, "to speak ill of the late emperor?"
The next moment, there was a crisp "crack" sound, and the larynx was crushed.
The official didn't even have time to scream before his head tilted and drooped in a strange posture.
Ning Wujie, still holding the man's jaw, dragged the corpse step by step to the outside of the hall and threw it out like garbage.
Then he took the wet handkerchief handed to him by the waiter and slowly wiped his fingers one by one, his eyes full of disgust and manic anger.
"Drag him away," he ordered coldly, "and hang him at the Meridian Gate as a warning to others."
The whole hall was dead silent, with only the rustling sound of corpses being dragged outside the door.
All the officials turned pale and trembled like sieves. No one dared to make a sound.
Ning Wujie threw the handkerchief he used to wipe his fingers back to the servant without even looking up.
"Any objections?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he heard the sound of people kneeling one after another. All the officials kowtowed tremblingly and said in unison: "We have no objection!"
"Long live the Emperor, long live the Emperor, long live the Emperor!"
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The author has something to say: Ahhhhhh~~ Can you please let them meet quickly? Okay!
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