As soon as Chen Xiao finished speaking, everyone's eyes turned to Yu Yan. Yu Yan slightly raised her eyes, not looking at anyone, but only at the floor in front of her, and slowly told them everything:
“A week ago, I overheard Yuyao talking to someone at my residence. They mentioned that Lord Xu had gone to the Dark Pavilion. That’s when I learned that Yuyao had been sending people to follow Lord Xu.”
I sensed something was wrong, so I sent someone to investigate Yuyao, only to discover the despicable nature of the Iris Company. But I dared not act rashly, so I could only send someone to secretly protect Lord Xu.
Knowing that Lord Xu had visited the Dark Pavilion again today, I sent Yu Yao away so I could inform him about the kite incident. Since His Majesty is also present, I will now explain everything in its entirety.
As Yu Yan recounted her story, the hidden secrets surrounding the kite flight were revealed to everyone.
It turns out that the matter of the kite flight was not only known to a few people, nor was it something that only existed in the Night Dynasty, as they thought.
Rather, it was an atrocity that spanned dynasties.
At the end of the Rong Dynasty, the emperor fell seriously ill, and the crown prince acted arbitrarily, committing all kinds of evil deeds, and the people suffered oppression for a long time.
The kite flight began at this time.
The Crown Prince, together with several princes and princesses with whom he had a good relationship, created the Iris Pavilion. At that time, the Iris Pavilion was not called the Iris Pavilion, but the Thousand Illusions Realm. It was an openly known, lewd and extravagant place with a powerful backer.
Countless men and women revelled in it, while countless others suffered torment and ultimately died.
Later, this Thousand Illusions Realm was destroyed by Princess Rongchao, and the princess also lost her life as a result.
Emperor Wende then overthrew the Rong Dynasty and established the Night Dynasty, unaware that the Thousand Illusions Realm was making a comeback in other ways.
Empress Wende was the first initiator of the kite-flying movement.
The husband of the General of the Cavalry was the first participant.
Upon hearing this, everyone was shocked.
What?! Chu Qiaoling's empress and Li Qian's husband?!
Even Chen Xiao, who had read about Chu Qiaoling's past, found it unbelievable.
Although she had found Chu Qiaoling's empress somewhat strange during the Li family army incident, she never expected him to be so bold as to do such a thing right under Chu Qiaoling's nose.
And then there's Li Qian's husband, Yu Hang. This is the second time he's been mentioned in other people's mouths. Deceiving someone into marriage and treason are enough to warrant his death eight hundred times over, and now he's involved in the kite-flying incident.
Yu Yan was interrupted by gasps of astonishment from the crowd as she spoke. She then looked up at them, seeing their incredulous yet somewhat doubtful gazes, before looking directly at Chen Xiao and saying:
"Your Majesty must be wondering why I know these things, and why I took the initiative to tell Your Majesty, or whether I am lying and deceiving Your Majesty with the secrets of the kite business."
It must be said that Yu Yan had a very good grasp of what she was thinking. Chen Xiao glanced almost imperceptibly at Yin Yuyao, who was unconscious beside her, and then looked back at Yu Yan. "Miss Yu is absolutely right. We can only trouble Miss Yu to answer our questions."
Yu Yan didn't notice Chen Xiao's subtle actions, and instead said very sincerely, "You may have guessed that I was also one of the participants in the Kite Journey, but I swear to God, I knew absolutely nothing about the Kite Journey's private affairs at the time..."
It turns out that Emperor Wende's empress was originally named Zhao Siyuan, and she was a major contributor to Emperor Wende's overthrow of the Rong Dynasty. Because of her participation in the rebellion, Zhao Siyuan's entire family was killed, and Zhao Siyuan was seriously injured and feared that she would not live for many more years. Her only wish was to become someone by Chu Qiaoling's side, so Zhao Siyuan became Chu Qiaoling's empress.
However, Zhao Siyuan was not as gentle as he appeared. Due to his impending death and the inability to win the heart of his beloved, he harbored resentment and used the Empress's power to secretly create a drug lab. He gathered many strong and healthy people to be used as test subjects for his medicine, which resulted in the deaths of many people.
If the Yuanxing was built only for testing medicines at this time, it gradually began to change its nature after Yu Hang joined in. Yu Hang was infatuated with Li Qian, and he plotted to marry her and even arrange to share a room with her, but he did not make Li Qian fall in love with him. On the contrary, Li Qian developed a habit of rubbing mirrors and ended up with Emperor Chu Qiaoling.
This infuriated Yu Hang. He was jealous of Chu Qiaoling's identity and also afraid of it. After hearing the rumors of the Emperor and Empress's affection, he found Zhao Siyuan and told him about Chu Qiaoling and Li Qian.
Thus, the two men, in the same predicament, began to conspire to commit treason and collusion with the enemy.
In order to live longer, Zhao Siyuan told Yu Hang about the kite-flying incident and asked Yu Hang to help him collect more strong people, regardless of gender or age.
During the war, all the strong men were on the battlefield, so there weren't many left to collect for the kite-making business. But Zhao Siyuan was pressing hard, and Yu Hang, under pressure and driven by his own dark side, began searching for young orphans and beautiful men and women in orphanages or on the streets.
The young orphans were used as test subjects; though not very strong, their youth made them more sensitive to the drugs. As for the beautiful men and women, they were subjected to various forms of abuse, and some were even sold to the homes of high-ranking officials and nobles as part of his network of connections.
Zhao Siyuan initially disagreed, but as Yu Hang said, the young body made it easier to see the effects of the drugs, and the sale of beautiful women brought him many conveniences, so he naturally turned a blind eye to Yu Hang's actions.
Later, after Zhao Siyuan passed away, the Iris Company was completely taken over by Yu Hang. It stopped conducting drug trials and instead focused on collecting beautiful women, training them, and sending them to various mansions to win people's hearts. It officially became a powerful tool in Yu Hang's hands.
Yu Yan spoke very briefly about this secret, but everyone couldn't help but think of the tragic scenes hidden beneath her words.
After a moment of silence, Chen Xiao asked, "You said you didn't know about the kite's flight at the time, so when did you find out? And what is your relationship with Yu Hang? Father and daughter?"
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