"My father told me far more than you can imagine..."
Consort Zhu spoke coldly, thinking that this might prevent the Emperor from easily harming her. However, to her surprise, the Emperor's next words made her expression change drastically...
"On the night my beloved concubine entered the palace, it wasn't you who consummated your marriage with me, was it?"
After saying this, the Emperor looked at Consort Zhu's expression and knew from her reaction that he was right...
"I might as well make a bold guess: your father, who is fond of his daughter-in-law, is already licentious and immoral, capable of forcibly taking his daughter-in-law. Faced with his daughter's stunning beauty, he probably couldn't resist either. So, you were no longer a virgin when you entered the palace..."
To dispel my doubts, you had your personal maid consummate the marriage with me while I was drunk, making me mistakenly believe that the bloodstain on the white cloth was yours, right…”
Consort Zhu's eyes already showed signs of panic; clearly, everything the Emperor said was true…
"Although you didn't say it, you only felt disgust towards Xian'er because you didn't want to have her with me. That's why, the first thing you did after Xian'er died was to use her death to make a fuss and try to make the Crown Prince take the blame. But I don't understand how you persuaded the second and third princes, or rather, how they persuaded you?"
"Do you want to know? But I'm not going to tell you..."
Consort Zhu believed that everything was under the Emperor's control. When the Emperor admitted that there were things he didn't understand, Consort Zhu's instinctive reaction was to remain silent, leaving this self-righteous man to live a life of suspicion...
"You've already told me..."
The Emperor looked at Consort Zhu meaningfully and said something that greatly alarmed Consort Zhu. Although she had been married to the Emperor for more than ten years, this was the first time she had felt how terrifying the Emperor could be.
"Consort Zhu, we were husband and wife, yet you have truly failed as a mother..."
The Emperor looked at Consort Zhu coldly and said, his eyes devoid of any pity...
"Lock them up first; they can't die yet. I'm sure Yang Shihou and Zhu Wen would be happy to hear they're still alive..."
The emperor waved his hand. Even though they hadn't said anything, their behavior had already given him a pretty good idea of what was going on, so there was no need to continue the interrogation…
"Ha ha…"
Consort Zhu suddenly burst into wild laughter, looking at the Emperor with pity in her eyes…
Then he said somewhat maniacally
"I never imagined that you, Li Qi, as the emperor, were nothing more than a pitiful man. I suppose your good son, Li Zhu, didn't tell you anything?"
"Consort Zhu, are you testing my patience?"
The emperor stared at her with icy eyes, barely able to suppress his urge to kill her…
"Yes, I'm testing your patience. Go ahead and kill me! Your good son saw me cheating on him, but he didn't tell you. What do you think he's trying to do?"
Consort Zhu's words were like a bolt from the blue, exploding throughout the imperial study and leaving everyone stunned and speechless. It was the first time they had ever seen someone speak of adultery so brazenly...
But the thought of her actually cuckolding the emperor made him inwardly give her a thumbs up and praise her, saying, "You're really something else..."
The important thing is that the other party doesn't even care about ethics and morality; whether or not they have any sense of shame seems to be irrelevant...
The Emperor was also furious. This single sentence contained a wealth of information: first, Consort Zhu had cuckolded him; second, Li Zhu had witnessed the incident but hadn't told him; third, how did Li Zhu end up in the palace? Did he also have some unspeakable secret? Fourth, Consort Zhu had done this deliberately to provoke him. If he killed her, her father would have no more scruples and might raise an army and march straight for Luoyang…
Do you think such a simple provocation will work on me?
The Emperor stared at Consort Zhu with a dark expression!
"Whether it's useful or not, you know yourself. Your desire to kill me is incredibly strong right now. If I were you, I would do it right now. Otherwise, I would become the biggest stain on your path to becoming a wise ruler. Entering the harem as a concubine with a defiled body, and even taking the opportunity to have an affair with someone else, you can't hide this history even if you want to. Because the crown prince you appointed witnessed me having an affair with someone outside the palace. You treated him so badly, I believe he would never hide this history for you..."
Consort Zhu continued to provoke the Emperor. She knew that if she died at the Emperor's hands, her father, Zhu Wen, would have an excuse to raise an army and replace the new Tang Dynasty with a righteous force. Moreover, with her death, the Emperor would lose his leverage against his father, achieving multiple goals at once.
"You're right, your death would benefit both me and Zhu Wen, but like I said, you can't die now. Take them away..."
The Emperor ultimately restrained his temper and did not actually kill Consort Zhu, but his desire to kill her only intensified…
He looked out of the palace towards the residences of the second and third princes. These two princes, one hiding in a corner waiting to reap the benefits, and the other attacking the Eastern Palace instead of coming to the emperor's aid, were engaging in fratricide. Neither of them gave him any peace of mind...
He watched the first light of dawn appear on the horizon and knew that it was all about to end…
The Eastern Palace!
After several hours of recovery, Li Zhu's injuries had stabilized, and he was able to continue fighting...
That first strike was a blow he delivered with hatred in his heart. Even he himself couldn't bring himself to deliver a second strike like that. Moreover, that strike also brought him an unimaginable burden, causing him internal injuries!
However, the mysterious black power actually accelerated his powerful recovery, which delighted him, making him feel that this black power was truly his lucky star…
What he regretted was not being able to break through to the Ming Jin level directly. If he could become a Ming Jin master, he might be fearless in this power struggle. Even if he couldn't win, he could still escape...
Suppressing his complex emotions, Li Zhu led the Imperial Guards away from the Eastern Palace, and in the distance, he could see the black-clad men still attacking the city...
Both the Imperial Guards on the city walls and the men in black below were at their last gasp; now it was a matter of who could hold out until the very end…
"General Wang, where is Nazha?"
Li Zhu asked in confusion, wondering where the reinforcements he had called for had gone. If cavalry had led the charge at this moment, the effect would have been unimaginable. With the cavalry charging ahead and them mopping up the rest, these people would have collapsed in less than half an hour…
"Your Highness, Nazha said she had important matters to attend to and wasn't with us..."
Wang Yanzhang quickly replied, a response that made Li Zhu frown. He had an inexplicable feeling, sensing that the other party's behavior was strange, but he didn't have time to think about it at this moment...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
