Those two lines of blood-red text, like a judgment from hell, were fiercely imprinted on Lin Wanwan's retina, freezing the blood in her body into ice in an instant.
I see!
This meticulously planned "fall from a horse" farce, this ruthless "self-inflicted injury" ruse, was not a simple diversionary tactic at all! It was a series of traps, a scheme within a scheme! The real danger did not lie with the emperor at all!
Lin Wanwan snapped back to her senses, and almost instinctively she was about to warn Xiao Che. However, before her words could even leave her throat, the rapidly changing situation before her made her swallow all her words!
Not far away, the white horse that had just thrown Consort Su Jinxiu off its back did not run away like other frightened animals. Instead, it seemed to be controlled by an invisible hand and suddenly turned its head around!
It pawed at the ground, letting out a sharp and frantic neigh. Its normally docile eyes were now bloodshot, burning with madness and violence, like a nightmare bursting out of hell!
And its crimson eyes were fixed on none other than the Queen, Lin Wanwan, who sat on horseback and seemed to be the safest in this chaos!
"Hercules—!"
With a long, mournful neigh, the mad horse's hooves flew off the ground like a white arrow released from a bow, carrying an unstoppable, violent momentum as it charged straight toward Lin Wanwan!
All of this happened so fast that the imperial guards and palace servants, who were in complete chaos, had no time to react!
The narrow mountain path and the chaotic crowd provided it with perfect cover!
With a loud bang!
It was as if a thousand thunderbolts exploded simultaneously in Lin Wanwan's mind, and a cold bolt of lightning cleaved through all the fog!
She understood instantly!
What kind of scheme was it to lure the tiger away from the mountain and assassinate the emperor? Wrong! Completely wrong!
From the very beginning, their target wasn't Xiao Che! It was her!
Their target was the Empress, who had just gained a foothold in the harem and even started to interfere in the court, repeatedly thwarting their plans!
What a vicious and ruthless move to kill someone by destroying their spirit!
They wanted to kill her, the empress, right in front of the emperor and all the civil and military officials, using the most irrefutable "accident" to run her over and kill her under the hooves of a horse!
In this way, her death was "reasonable," leaving no room for investigation. The emperor, who witnessed the empress's tragic death, even if harboring suspicions, could only swallow his grief and bear the pain of losing his wife. This blow would be enough to throw any emperor into disarray, giving them an opportunity to seize power!
This is not an assassination attempt; it is a battle to destroy one's spirit!
In a flash, Lin Wanwan understood all the key points, but the shadow of death had already loomed over her like a dark cloud!
The mad horse was incredibly fast, its hooves pounding the ground with heavy, dull thuds, like the drumbeats of death, drawing ever closer. She could even see the white foam spewing from its mouth and smell the strong, metallic stench emanating from it!
She wanted to hide, but there were people all around her on this narrow mountain path, and she had nowhere to hide!
It’s over!
In Lin Wanwan's pupils, the image of the mad horse, growing ever larger and closer, was reflected. Her body stiffened with extreme fear, and even her breath seemed to be taken away from her.
At that critical moment, when life and death hung in the balance!
A figure moved at a speed almost imperceptible to the human eye!
Beside him, Xiao Che, the "sickly" emperor who would show signs of fatigue after reviewing memorials for a while, and the "lazy" monarch who performed poorly in archery competitions and even drew ridicule, made a move that left everyone present, including Lin Wanwan, dumbfounded!
He is no longer that sickly man who needed someone to help him up and who needed a savior to prolong his life!
Suddenly, he moved, leaping off his horse like a cheetah awakening!
The movements were not sluggish or weak in the slightest; instead, they were full of explosive power and astonishing agility! Fast! Extremely fast! So fast that it left only a faint afterimage in place!
The expressions on everyone's faces froze. The panic, confusion, and schadenfreude were all replaced by an indescribable shock and astonishment.
Lin Wanwan, as the center of this storm, felt it most acutely.
She only felt a blur before her eyes, and a dark figure carrying the familiar scent of ambergris rushed towards her with an irresistible force.
Before she could even see his movements clearly, she heard a roar in her ear filled with extreme fear and anxiety—a roar she had never heard before:
"Wanwan, don't be afraid!"
That voice was no longer the usual cold and indifferent tone, but was full of power and hoarseness, like the roar of a wounded lion in a desperate situation, every word hitting her heart hard!
The next second, a huge, irresistible force slammed into her.
Lin Wanwan felt dizzy and was violently thrown off the horse by a tremendous force. Her world instantly lost all color and sound, leaving only the whistling wind in her ears and the increasingly strong and reassuring ambergris in her nostrils.
She fell into a strong and warm embrace.
This embrace was doing everything in its power to shield her from the impending, fatal impact that would crush her into dust.
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