The night was as deep and still as the water of an ancient well.
Inside the Kunning Palace, the lights were bright, but the atmosphere was so heavy it seemed like water could drip from it.
Lin Wanwan sat upright on the phoenix throne, holding a cup of tea that had long since gone cold, her gaze calmly fixed on the direction of the palace gate. Ever since that day in court when Xiao Che swiftly reclaimed his military power, she knew that this long-running covert war was about to reach its bloodiest and most insane end.
Even a cornered beast will fight back, let alone a ruthless hero like Xiao Yuan. Driven to the brink, he will undoubtedly launch a desperate counterattack.
Meanwhile, the intelligence network established by Lin Wanwan, which spans both inside and outside the palace, is operating with unprecedented efficiency, like a giant spider web, sensing even the slightest vibrations from the direction of the Regent's Palace.
The palace door was gently pushed open, and a breeze blew in, causing the candlelight to flicker slightly.
Qin Zheng, the head of the female officials, strode in, dressed in a sharp and practical outfit. Her face was unusually pale, and her eyes held a lingering sense of horror; even her usually steady steps seemed unsteady.
"Your Majesty." Qin Zheng's voice was a little hoarse, clearly indicating that she had traveled a long way.
Lin Wanwan put down her teacup, looked up at her, and calmly asked, "What's he doing?"
Qin Zheng took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down, and took out a piece of intelligence that had just been risked to be delivered by a secret agent who had infiltrated the Prince's mansion. She handed it over with both hands.
"Your Majesty, the Regent... has gone mad."
Lin Wanwan took the intelligence report and unfolded it. The handwriting on the paper was hasty and scribbled, revealing the terror the person who delivered it must have felt. The contents confirmed her suspicions—Xiao Yuan had summoned all his loyal followers and issued a mad order to massacre the palace, assassinate the emperor, and seize the throne at the palace banquet on the Emperor's birthday three days later.
"A desperate gamble, a do-or-die situation..." Lin Wanwan murmured to herself, not surprised at all. This was exactly the kind of choice Xiao Yuan would make when he was at his wit's end.
However, Qin Zheng's next words caused a huge uproar to rise in Lin Wanwan's calm eyes.
"Your Majesty, this isn't the worst part." Qin Zheng's voice trembled uncontrollably. "We...we were all wrong. The Regent's real killing move isn't those assassins, it's not swords..."
She took out a larger, older roll of blueprints from another sleeve and slowly unfolded it on the table in front of Lin Wanwan.
"This was made by our people, who were planted in the Imperial Household Department, at great risk, from an old craftsman in the Ministry of Works. That old craftsman had participated in the renovation of the Palace Banquet Hall."
Lin Wanwan's gaze fell on the blueprint.
This is no ordinary architectural drawing. It is covered with a dense array of symbols and lines marked with vermilion and ink, so complex that it is dazzling.
"Your Majesty, please look." Qin Zheng pointed to a corner of the drawing. "Do you remember the batch of tung oil and cloth that we found out before, which was transported to an abandoned warehouse in the Northwest and exceeded the normal usage limit?"
Lin Wanwan nodded. She had always assumed that those were used by the Regent to manufacture weapons privately or as military supplies.
"We were wrong." Qin Zheng's voice carried a hint of lingering fear. "Those things weren't meant for war at all. They... they were made into this."
Her finger pointed to a mark circled in red ink on the drawing: "Oil-soaked hemp".
"All of this tung oil and cloth was made into the most flammable kindling!"
"Moreover..." Qin Zheng's face grew even paler. Pointing to the dense red lines on the blueprints, she said, word by word, "Moreover, they were cleverly arranged in every beam and pillar and the ceiling layer of the main hall for the Longevity Festival banquet through the channels of the Imperial Household Department responsible for procurement and repair, without our knowledge!"
"boom!"
A thunderclap seemed to explode in Lin Wanwan's mind. She instantly understood everything!
It turns out that the abandoned warehouse was not an armory, but a huge gunpowder barrel!
It turns out that Xiao Yuan's real killer move wasn't a palace coup involving swords and spears...
It was not a meticulously planned inescapable inferno... but a fiery hell!
“His ‘grand gift’…” Lin Wanwan looked at the detailed and chilling “arson map” and felt a bone-chilling cold rush from the soles of her feet to the top of her head, making her feel cold all over. “…He actually wants to set off a raging fire at the palace banquet and burn the entire hall, along with all the civil and military officials, His Majesty… and me, to ashes!”
At this moment, she finally understood the true meaning of Xiao Yuan's words, "Let the entire palace be buried with him."
This is no longer treason.
This is destruction! It is utter destruction that leaves no room for mercy and leaves no one a way out!
He knew he was likely to fail, so from the very beginning, he never intended for anyone to emerge alive from that palace banquet! He wanted to use the most dazzling and devastating fire as a sacrifice for his power!
How insane! How vicious!
Even though Lin Wanwan had lived two lives and was used to the wickedness of people's hearts, she was still deeply shocked by Xiao Yuan's inhuman and insane plan.
Compared to this sea of fire, the assassins about to storm the palace seemed like children playing. Everyone thought it would be a battle of swords, but little did they know, they were about to step into a meticulously prepared, enormous incinerator!
"Your Majesty..." Qin Zheng's voice trembled, and she asked with a sob, "Should we inform His Majesty immediately about this? We...we must cancel the palace banquet! This is too dangerous!"
Cancel the palace banquet?
The thought flashed through Lin Wanwan's mind, but she immediately extinguished it without hesitation.
Cancel?
Canceling the attack would be tantamount to telling Xiao Yuan that his plot had been exposed. Given his madness, he would undoubtedly launch other, even more unpredictable attacks immediately. Moreover, letting him go this time would mean never having such a good opportunity again to wipe him and his cronies out of the woods!
Lin Wanwan's gaze was fixed on the arson map. Her eyes swept over the deadly red trails of fire, finally settling on the bottom of the map, a place carefully circled in ink and marked with the character "生" (life).
It was an extremely hidden secret passage located behind the throne in the main hall, seemingly an escape route left over from the construction of the palace, and almost no one knew about it.
This is the only way out.
It is also... the only trap.
Lin Wanwan slowly raised her head. All the shock and coldness in her eyes faded away at this moment, replaced by an unprecedented, cold and firm determination!
She looked at Qin Zheng, whose face was filled with fear, and slowly shook her head.
"No."
Her voice wasn't loud, but it carried an undeniable power.
"The banquet must proceed as scheduled."
Qin Zheng stared wide-eyed in disbelief: "Your Majesty! But..."
“He wants everyone to be buried with him,” Lin Wanwan’s lips curled into a chilling smile, her eyes burning with two raging flames that seemed to outshine even the fire on the blueprints. “I will make him watch with his own eyes how he is imprisoned in this tomb he built for himself!”
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