Chapter 821: The Royal Family's Dark Secrets
"Your Highness, why would Prince Xin do such a thing?" Biyu couldn't help but ask.
As Shen Xihe's confidante, she naturally sided with Shen Xihe. She found it unreasonable that Xiao Changqing would frame his own birth mother for Shen Xihe's sake, worrying this might be a hidden trap Xiao Changqing was setting for Shen Xihe.
Although Xiao Changqing and Shen Xihe were currently cooperating, when imperial alliances faced the temptation of the Supreme One's power, how could one not remain vigilant?
Shen Xihe smiled at Biyu: "Prince Xin didn't do this because of me."
There was no personal affection between Xiao Changqing and her. They were merely temporarily allied because they currently had no conflicts and shared common adversaries.
He did this because he was tired of the Emperor using his birth mother to control him. Previously, he had already taken advantage of Shen Xihe's confrontation to have Noble Consort Rong demoted, but later the Emperor reinstated her under the pretext of Xiao Changqing's meritorious service, using this to warn him.
With the Emperor visibly declining, at such a critical moment, he didn't want his mother to become a liability.
By using the scented ink incident to let the Emperor discover that the ink had entered the palace during Noble Consort Rong's administration, even though she was unaware, she couldn't escape the charge of negligence in her duties. The Emperor suffered greatly because of this, and his remaining time was beyond recovery. Accumulated resentment would likely make him unwilling to see Noble Consort Rong again.
Death penalty was impossible - Shen Xihe was pregnant with the imperial heir, while Noble Consort Rong had two sons and a daughter. Moreover, negligence didn't warrant capital punishment.
However, Shen Xihe didn't expect that a few days later, the Youning Emperor would issue an edict ordering Xiao Changqing to take Noble Consort Rong out of the palace to be supported at Prince Xin's Residence.
According to dynasty regulations, when the emperor passed away, imperial consorts with sons would be taken by their sons to their princely residences for support. Those without sons would be sent to temples for religious practice. But there had never been a precedent of sending imperial consorts to their sons' residences while the emperor was still alive.
This was a tremendous humiliation for Noble Consort Rong.
"Your Majesty, does this mean he doesn't plan to pass the throne to Prince Xin?" Zhenzhu's first reaction was this.
After all, only imperial princes support grand imperial consorts - how could there be reason for an emperor and his birth mother to live outside the palace?
"Probably not just you think this way." Shen Xihe was doing needlework, making small clothes for her child.
"Isn't that the case?" Zhenzhu asked.
Shen Xihe paused her hands, thought carefully, but didn't give a definite answer: "I don't know His Majesty's intention either. Does he want to confuse everyone with this and eventually pass the throne to Prince Xin? Or is he testing me and the Prince of Yan to see if we'll make a move?"
The Emperor hadn't established an heir, nor would he establish one now. Whether he would pass the throne to Xiao Changqing, Xiao Changying, Xiao Changgeng, or even Xiao Changhong - Shen Xihe couldn't guess. In any case, it wouldn't be the child in her womb.
In this current chess game, she held the strategic advantage. She wasn't anxious, regardless of who the Emperor intended to pass the throne to, nor did she care whether Xiao Changqing and Xiao Changgeng would ultimately waver. For now, she remained behind closed doors, focusing on her pregnancy.
In Hanzhang Palace, Noble Consort Rong, upon receiving the news, seemed to have lost her soul. With a sweep of her sleeve, she knocked everything off her dressing table, still unsatisfied, smashing whatever she saw.
"What a fine son I have! Truly my son!"The Emperor's intention to punish Noble Consort Rong was unequivocally clear. She refused to believe it was due to her negligence or that the peculiar fragrant ink had entered the palace during her administration. Though she didn't handle every matter personally, she trusted the palace maids who had served her.
However, those very maids had been purged after their previous defeat by Shen Xihe.
Though she had lost her closest aides, after years of holding palace authority, she still retained some hidden influence. Xiao Changqing had acted covertly—the Emperor had uncovered nothing, yet she detected faint traces. It appeared as if Xiao Changqing was covering for her, but it felt more like he was eagerly building a case against her!
What "eliminating witnesses" or "destroying evidence" on her behalf?
She was innocent! By doing this, Xiao Changqing only made himself look guilty!
"He hates me! I never should have raised him!" Noble Consort Rong gnashed her teeth in fury.
"Your Highness, be cautious with your words!" her prudent maid paled and whispered a reminder.
"What is there to fear? I'm already a condemned criminal being banished from the palace to be supported by my son—what more can I fear?" Instead of lowering her voice, Noble Consort Rong raised it in anger. "If I had known I would have Ninth Prince, why would I have adopted him?
Tell me, does he know something? Does he know I'm not his birth mother?
Does he know I killed his real mother?
Does he know I took him in just to shield Ninth Prince?
Does he know I—"
Xiao Changqing stood hidden around a corner outside the room, listening to Noble Consort Rong's panicked, nearly delirious words. He froze in place.
Her fragmented revelations pieced together the truth of his origins.
He wasn't Noble Consort Rong's biological son after all. Since childhood, she had been strict with him while doting on Xiao Changying and Pingling. She always told him that as the eldest brother, in a palace full of intrigue and danger, he had to be clever and steady to protect her, his brother, and his sister—that it was his duty as the elder sibling.
But it turned out he was merely a child she had schemed to obtain after failing to conceive with the Emperor for years. His birth mother had even been killed by Noble Consort Rong!
She had raised him only to be a shield for Xiao Changying.
All these years, any plots against Hanzhang Hall had targeted him first.
Because he and Xiao Changying were believed to share a mother, and because he was seen as more threatening than Xiao Changying.
Everyone thought that to undermine Noble Consort Rong, they must first bring him down.
He had never resented this; he had even taken pride as the eldest brother in protecting his younger siblings.
"Mother—"
Princess Pingling's anxious call came as she rushed through the moon gate, unaware of Xiao Changqing lurking in the shadows.
She entered Noble Consort Rong's chamber to find chaos everywhere and her mother behaving like a madwoman.
"Pingling, Pingling, he knows everything! He knows everything! He's taking revenge on me! I can't go to Prince Xin's Residence, I can't go to Prince Xin's Residence!" Overwrought, Noble Consort Rong clutched Princess Pingling the moment she saw her.
"Mother, don't imagine things," Princess Pingling soothed gently. "Fifth Brother couldn't know. If he did, His Majesty wouldn't send you to his residence."
"No, the Emperor is doing this deliberately! He's angry with me—angry at my incompetence, angry that I harmed him..." Noble Consort Rong rambled incoherently. "He must know! He knows I killed his real mother, and he resents me even more for giving the medicine to the Gu family back then! It must be so! He hates me! If I go to his residence, I'll be tortured to death, Pingling!""Mother, please calm down, listen to your son..."
Xiao Changqing's mind went blank. He didn't know how he managed to move his feet and leave silently.
Not only did Noble Consort Rong know everything, but even the younger sister he had always protected knew the truth. He was the only one who had been a complete fool.
"Brother!" Xiao Changying, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, encountered the devastated Xiao Changqing at the main gate of Hanzhang Hall.
(End of Chapter)
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