Chapter 294 The Dowager Princess's Secrets Exposed
She examined Daiyu thoroughly, from head to toe and left to right. Daiyu was still wearing the same clothes she had worn when she entered the palace, and there was not a single sign that she had been tortured.
"Miss, where have you run off to? We were so worried about you!" Zijuan could no longer hold back her tears, which welled up even before she reached Daiyu.
She's probably so frightened this time that she'll be traumatized by ever entering the palace again.
"I'm fine," Daiyu said with a smile.
"Good Zijuan, thanks to your courage and resourcefulness in drawing away the villains, I was able to escape. Sister Susu, please stop digging! Are you really planning to grow vegetables in the palace?"
“Miss, Lan Su isn’t growing vegetables. She said she’d dig three feet into the ground to find you.” Xueyan quickly explained on Lan Su’s behalf.
Lan Su looked ashamed. If she hadn't been so careless, the girl would have almost been in serious trouble this time.
I heard that the old concubine specifically persecuted pretty young girls, and many of them were bewitched by her and suffered miserable lives.
Fortunately, the girl had no contact with that old witch.
"Lan Su stays by the young lady's side and is not allowed to leave her side for even a moment," Yuan Hongqu instructed. "Take the young lady home first."
It's best to avoid coming into the palace too often from now on. If you need anything, send someone to deliver a message, or talk outside the palace.
"Granny, aren't you going back?" Daiyu didn't want to leave yet. Hearing all the commotion inside, she knew there must be something interesting to see.
She was really eager to see it, her heart was in turmoil.
And that young man in brocade robes, she just found a secluded place to release him.
Who is that boy, and why is he being chased and beaten?
With her nanny by her side and Lan Su following along, Daiyu wasn't afraid of anything and just wanted to stay and watch the excitement.
"You go back first, I'll go and tell Her Majesty the Empress. We can't just leave without saying goodbye."
“Then I must go and say goodbye to my senior sister,” Daiyu said matter-of-factly.
Just by listening to the sounds, Yuan Hongqu felt that the scene inside must be quite bloody, and that such a scene was not suitable for children, as it would give them nightmares!
“Go home obediently. Children shouldn’t watch the scenes inside.” Yuan Hongqu told Daiyu the truth. If she had given any other excuse, Daiyu might have pressed for details. So she just said it directly: it was not suitable for children to watch. Daiyu knew her limits and naturally didn’t ask any more questions.
Daiyu nodded obediently, "Granny, I'll be going now. You should go home soon too."
“Okay,” Yuan Hongqu agreed, and then Daiyu led Lan Su, Zijuan, Xueyan and the others out.
The Emperor and Empress inside had already heard the commotion outside and knew that Daiyu was safe and sound, so the Empress was somewhat relieved.
Today, she invited Daiyu into the palace. If something goes wrong in the palace, her relationship with Mr. Yuan, which had just been eased, will probably plummet to rock bottom again, probably even lower than the last time!
The Dowager Empress was still sitting on the ground when she heard these words, and she struggled to get up.
"Where is that brat? I want her dead! Even if I wasn't the late emperor's woman, just an ordinary old woman from a peasant family, I should report this to the authorities for being beaten for no reason. Your Majesty, you are the highest official in the land, will you uphold justice for me today?"
The Emperor stared intently at the Dowager Consort, making her feel extremely uneasy.
"You still want justice? Those women you persecuted also want justice! I have indulged you for so many years, and you think I don't know about those things and don't care that you used your words as knives to harm one vibrant life after another."
The Dowager Empress took a step back, bumped into the corner of the table, and the tea set on the table fell to the ground.
"You...you knew everything. You weren't avenging Xuan Ning, you weren't looking for Princess Jiangzhu, you were..."
The Dowager Consort finally remembered that the Emperor's biological mother was a lowly concubine of the lowest rank. She wasn't even qualified to raise the son she gave birth to, yet she was still regarded as a thorn in everyone's side.
She missed her child so much that she secretly went to see him again, but was discovered and died in the well not long after.
Before her death, the person she had the most contact with was the Dowager Consort.
After learning about the Dowager Consort's peculiarities, the Emperor investigated for a long time and inadvertently discovered that his own biological mother had also been killed by the Dowager Consort.
Moreover, his own mother was the first person the Dowager Empress killed.
After that, the Dowager Consort went completely out of control until the Emperor ascended the throne a few years ago, at which point she began to restrain herself.
However, when she accidentally saw Daiyu, the evil thoughts in her heart resurfaced.
She and Daiyu had no conflict of interest, nor any deep-seated hatred.
The Dowager Consort was simply driven by her nature; she habitually disliked pretty girls.
She thought that God should be fair; since He had already given the beautiful girl a stunning appearance, He couldn't give her a perfect life as well.
Therefore, the Dowager Empress relied on her status to influence those women, or to arbitrarily matchmake couples and create unhappy couples.
None of the women who were close to her lived happily.
Using Daiyu's disappearance as a pretext, the Emperor was not prepared to let the Dowager Consort off easily.
Looking at the knowing and disgust in the Emperor's eyes, the Dowager Consort felt even more frightened than when Lan Su had threatened her earlier.
All her contemporaries had died, yet she still believed that it was because she had upheld "justice" that Heaven was reluctant to take her away.
Unexpectedly, the Emperor had no evidence, which was why he had temporarily ignored her.
Now that the Emperor has some free time, the first person he wants to deal with is her!
When Yuan Hongqu walked in, she happened to see the Dowager Consort pick up a shard of porcelain from the ground and suddenly slash it across her neck.
Although the old lady's movements looked intimidating, the force she used was actually quite light. Besides, she was old after all, and the skin and flesh on her neck were loose. Even though the porcelain shards were sharp, they wouldn't be able to cut open the carotid artery so easily.
This is probably an act for the emperor, an attempt to avoid punishment.
However, since Daiyu was not harmed, the Dowager Consort should not have been able to withstand any punishment either. Why did she choose to die to avoid punishment?
Could it be that young man in brocade robes?
When the Empress saw Yuan Hongqu enter, she quickly came over and pulled her aside, blaming herself.
"Sir, how is Daiyu? Alas, if I hadn't let her enter the palace today, this wouldn't have happened."
"Daiyu is fine, so let Lansu go back first."
As expected, the Dowager Consort's suicide attempt was stopped. The Emperor didn't even glance at her before speaking again.
"The Tenth Prince's birth mother was framed by you many years ago. She later became a nun to prove her innocence, but was brutally murdered by robbers. The Tenth Prince has confronted you many times, and yesterday he came to me saying he found evidence. He asked me to come here so that we could expose your true colors together. Where is the Tenth Prince?"
"Your Majesty, I am here." A person covered in blood rolled out from an inconspicuous corner. It was the young man in brocade robes that Daiyu had just saved.
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