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Chapter 799: You Are Not Worthy
In the twenty-third year of Youning, the Crown Prince passed away.
Regarding that chaotic night, the fog was heavy, and even those who witnessed the entire event or even participated in it could not see through this intricate assassination.
The Emperor was assassinated, and Jing Wang rebelled.
Why did Jing Wang rebel? Merely because of the failure at Min River, being severely punished by the Emperor and excluded from power? That alone did not seem sufficient to justify Jing Wang's rebellion. Jing Wang, barely twenty, still had countless ways to bide his time and make a comeback.
Moreover, when Jing Wang rebelled, he only mobilized the Feathered Guard Army. With just this amount of military force, did Jing Wang truly believe he could rebel? Was Jing Wang so naive? If so, how could he have guarded Annan?
On another note, the Feathered Guard Army would not move without the Emperor's command. How did Jing Wang mobilize them? Afterwards, Your Majesty punished the Feathered Guard Army's senior general and two lieutenant generals, claiming they were deceived by Jing Wang.
This was difficult for the civil and military officials to believe. There must have been hidden circumstances, but since Your Majesty explained it this way, the courtiers had no choice but to accept it.
Aside from the inexplicable nature of Jing Wang's rebellion, even the tragedy of the Third Prince was an unsolvable mystery.
How did the Imperial Guard, Feathered Guard Army, Golden Guard, and even the Five Cities Garrison become entangled in chaos and mutual slaughter when the Third Prince intercepted Jing Wang at the gate of Hibiscus Garden? This led to the Third Prince losing his life at the hands of the Feathered Guard Army.
How did the assassins infiltrate the Imperial Guard stationed at Hibiscus Garden? Why were there two groups of assassins?
Why did Your Majesty trust Jing Wang so easily when he arrived with his men shouting to rescue the Emperor, allowing him to approach without hesitation?
A series of bizarre and unsolvable questions made the civil and military officials dare not delve deeper. This was the royal family's internal strife, and it was not their place to comment.
The Crown Prince died while rescuing the Emperor, and Your Majesty ordered the Ministry of Rites to bury him with the rites of a state funeral and the ceremony of an emperor.
For three days, court was suspended, and the entire nation mourned.
Jing Wang, captured by the Northwest King and his son, was imprisoned in the Celestial Prison without trial.
Everything would be handled after the Crown Prince's burial.
White cloth fluttered in the Eastern Palace, and everyone in the Eastern Palace wore mourning attire. Shen Xihe wore a plain white dress, her black hair cascading like a waterfall, with a white silk flower pinned at her temple. She appeared cold, thin, and frail.
Today was the Crown Prince's burial, but she did not attend. Yesterday, she fainted while keeping vigil, and the Chief Imperial Physician said she needed to rest in bed.
Out of consideration for the child in her womb, neither Your Majesty nor the Censorate said much, so she remained in the Eastern Palace to recuperate.
"Your Highness, the Third Prince's Consort requests an audience."
Shen Xihe was folding Xiao Huayong's old clothes—garments he had worn in the past. After their marriage, she had made many clothes for him, and this time when he left, he took some that had never been worn in public.
Hearing Tianyuan's report from outside, Shen Xihe remained silent for a moment before saying, "Invite her to the Petite Elegance Pavilion."
During the Crown Prince's state funeral, Li Yanyan had also lost her husband. Once always dressed in bright reds and purples, Li Yanyan now wore plain white. She looked even more haggard than Shen Xihe, her eyes filled with tired red veins.
When she saw Shen Xihe, she still performed a courtesy.
Shen Xihe raised her hand slightly, not wishing to exchange pleasantries. "Third Sister-in-law, state your purpose directly."
Li Yanyan's lifeless eyes seemed hollow, devoid of their usual vitality. She went straight to the point: "Crown Princess, I came today to ask a favor."
Shen Xihe looked at her calmly, waiting for her to continue.
Li Yanyan handed Shen Xihe the note received during Shen Yingruo's wedding that day: "Crown Princess, could you help me find out who delivered this?"At this point, she shed her previous listlessness, her eyes fixed intently on Shen Xihe—suspecting Shen Xihe and thus coming to probe.
Shen Xihe lowered her gaze briefly: "Third Sister-in-law, do you believe the person who delivered the message to you caused the death of the Third Prince?"
"Isn't that so?" Li Yanyan's resentful gaze burned like a volcano on the verge of eruption, as if she wished to reduce someone to ashes.
She suspected Shen Xihe without any reason or evidence—it was merely an intuition.
Facing the ferocious expression of Li Yanyan, Shen Xihe's calm eyes gradually filled with mockery: "You are mistaken. The one who drove the Third Prince to his doom was you!"
"You're lying!" Li Yanyan shrieked in sharp rebuttal.
Shen Xihe remained composed, her expression unperturbed as she faced the enraged Li Yanyan: "The Third Prince went forth with the intent to die. The one who pushed him to it was you."
Xiao Changtian and Li Yanyan had tormented each other for over a decade. After enduring so much, Xiao Changtian was utterly exhausted in body and mind. He no longer had the strength to continue entangled with her, so he chose death.
Perhaps he had long harbored thoughts of suicide, but as a son of the imperial family, if he were to take his own life because of his wife, Your Majesty would not spare Li Yanyan, nor even the Li family.
He needed a method of release that would leave no blame upon anyone. This time, he seized the opportunity—he deliberately did not evade that fatal strike.
His thoughts were likely deeper than many realized. He must have known early on that this matter was connected to the Eastern Palace and guessed that the Eastern Palace would emerge victorious once again. Thus, he cooperated with the Eastern Palace as much as possible.
When the Eastern Palace wanted him to intercept Xiao Changyan, he went to intercept. When the Eastern Palace wanted the four armies to turn on each other, he cooperated with Xiao Changyan to stage a mutual slaughter, leaving no room for the Golden Guard, Imperial Guard, Feathered Guard Army, or Five Cities Garrison to ponder deeply.
Under Xiao Changtian's deliberate misguidance and "Xiao Changyan's" intentional creation of conflict, the four sides fought fiercely, locked in a deadly struggle.
Likely realizing that "Xiao Changyan" sought to escape, Xiao Changtian conveniently allowed it.
By facilitating Xiao Huayong's plan so perfectly and smoothly, he only asked Xiao Huayong to grant him and his wife a joint burial.
These words reached Shen Xihe after the person impersonating Xiao Changyan successfully withdrew.
Shen Xihe had been waiting for Li Yanyan to follow her husband in death, but to her surprise, there had been no movement for so long. It turned out Li Yanyan was simply unwilling to accept that her own delusions had worn Xiao Changtian down.
Watching Li Yanyan now—evading, blaming others, trying to find a self-deceiving excuse to shift responsibility and convince herself that she was not the one who destroyed her beloved—Shen Xihe thought of Xiao Huayong.
He had taken a sword strike for her sake, falling unconscious and being swiftly transported out of the capital. Clearly, he could have chosen another method to fake his death, just as Xiao Changtai had done years ago—vanishing in a great fire or flood, leaving no trace alive or dead, only to return once healed.
But he had severed his own path to the throne with his own hands. Even if he could recover, he could never return. There would no longer be a Crown Prince Xiao Huayong in this world—Crown Prince Xiao Huayong had been laid to rest in the imperial mausoleum.
"You are unworthy of the Third Prince's wholehearted devotion."
These words struck Li Yanyan like a thunderbolt, leaving her mind blank. Suddenly, she drew a dagger from her sleeve and lunged at Shen Xihe.
But before she could get close to Shen Xihe, a swiftly approaching figure kicked her away.Moyu stood before Shen Xihe, shielding her with his body, his gaze upon Li Yanyan as if looking at a corpse.
"Shen Xihe, if you don't kill me today, I will never let this rest!" Propping up her upper body, Li Yanyan glared at Shen Xihe with a ghostly, sinister intensity.
(End of Chapter)
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