Chapter 319: Pleading for Mercy from Her Majesty
After breakfast.
Yun Chu began having people pack their belongings.
By noon, everything was nearly sorted. The family of four boarded the carriage, leaving the Prince of Pacifying the West Manor and heading towards the estate in the outskirts of the capital.
The two children were extremely excited, unable to sit still in the carriage as they lifted the curtain to look outside.
Just then, another carriage passed by theirs, its curtain also open. Out of the corner of her eye, Yun Chu caught a glimpse of a familiar face.
She immediately looked up carefully and saw Yuan Shi’s increasingly aged face.
Yuan Shi seemed somewhat distracted and did not notice her.
The two carriages quickly passed each other.
“That’s the Gongsun family’s carriage.”
Chu Yi’s voice sounded beside Yun Chu’s ear.
After a moment’s thought, Yun Chu understood.
Xie Shi’an must have informed the Gong Xi Prince about Xie Ping becoming the Crown Prince’s low-ranking imperial concubine.
Instead of using Xie Ping as a spy, the Gong Xi Prince had used this matter as leverage to control the Empress.
The Gongsun family’s carriage soon arrived at the palace gates.
Yuan Shi alighted from the carriage, where Granny Yin personally greeted her and led her toward the Palace of Earthly Tranquility.
This was Yuan Shi’s first time entering the palace. She didn’t know where to place her hands, where to look, or what was even going through her mind.
Soon, they reached the Palace of Earthly Tranquility. At the sight of the majestic palace, her legs instantly weakened, and she couldn’t help but ask, “Could you tell me, Granny, why Her Majesty the Empress has summoned me?”
“When you are before Her Majesty, you must not refer to yourself as ‘I.’ You should say ‘this humble commoner’ or ‘this commoner’s wife,’” Granny Yin said softly as they reached the steps of the main hall, bowing her head. “Your Majesty, Xie Yuanshi has arrived.”
Yuan Shi then entered with her head lowered, immediately kneeling and kowtowing. “This commoner’s wife, Xie Yuanshi, pays respects to Her Majesty the Empress!”
The Empress spoke calmly, “Grant her a seat and serve tea.”
Yuan Shi sat down in a daze, barely daring to rest her weight on the seat. She didn’t dare drink the tea, keeping her head lowered and feeling uneasy.
“After the fourth prince’s death, it was your Xie family’s eldest daughter who guarded his tomb at the imperial mausoleum. Even if the Xie family has no merit, they have toil,” the Empress began. “Now that she has passed away unexpectedly, by custom, the court should grant the Xie family some compensation…”
“What?” Yuan Shi looked up abruptly. “Ping’er is dead?”
The Empress replied indifferently, “She has been dead for some time and has already been buried.”
Yuan Shi’s hands trembled violently, tears uncontrollably streaming down her face…
Just then, Granny Yin led a woman in through the door.
The woman was dressed in a rose-pink palace gown—it was Xie Ping.
When she first entered the palace, she had been terrified of being seen, afraid someone would recognize her face.
But during her time in the palace, no one had noticed her true identity, and she had gradually relaxed.
She entered the main hall, paid her respects to the Empress, and was about to speak when a voice, all too familiar, reached her ears.
“Ping’er… it’s you, Ping’er!”
The voice struck Xie Ping like a thunderbolt, causing her entire body to tremble violently.
She didn’t dare turn her head, her voice hoarse as she said, “I—I’m not. You’ve mistaken me for someone else…”
“It is you!” Yuan Shi sprang up excitedly from her chair, grabbing Xie Ping’s shoulders. “Ping’er, you are our Xie family’s Ping’er! It’s wonderful—you’re not dead!”
The Empress’s face darkened. “Guards!”The guards waiting outside strode in. Two of them seized Yuan Shi by the shoulders, gagged her, and dragged her out directly.
Yuan Shi was locked in a side chamber before she could even comprehend what was happening.
Meanwhile, Xie Ping was also forced to her knees by guards pressing down on her shoulders.
"Excellent! The Crown Prince and I have been thoroughly deceived by a mere girl like you!"
The Empress hurled a teacup that shattered before Xie Ping, porcelain shards flying and cutting across Xie Ping's face, the pain nearly making her faint.
"Your Majesty, I beg for mercy..." Xie Ping wept bitterly, crawling forward to clutch the Empress's trousers. "I truly love His Highness the Crown Prince and would never ruin his great cause. I beg Your Majesty..."
Overwhelmed with rage, the Empress lifted her foot and kicked Xie Ping over.
Taking the widow of one's own younger brother as a concubine would invite scorn from anyone, let alone the heir apparent of a nation.
The Crown Prince had taken his fourth brother's principal consort as a low-ranking imperial concubine, and this Xie Ping's background was particularly problematic—she was a descendant of the He family that had been purged years earlier. If this were discovered, the officials in the Censorate would surely condemn the Crown Prince for disloyalty, inhumanity, and injustice, urging the Emperor to depose him.
The Crown Prince was already mediocre; with this scandal, his position would become untenable.
"Speak! Who sent you to scheme against the Crown Prince?"
The Empress placed her foot on Xie Ping's chest, coldly demanding.
Gasping for breath, Xie Ping shook her head. "No, I didn't... I could never harm the Crown Prince. I beg Your Majesty to spare my life..."
Mid-plea, she keenly detected movement outside the hall.
Abruptly changing her tone, she continued, "I've always admired His Highness the Crown Prince, so I risked my life to save him. I never dared dream of entering the Eastern Palace... I don't know how I became intoxicated by his affection for me. I clung to this fleeting joy, unaware of the trouble it would bring him... Your Majesty, I was wrong. I cannot continue down this path. I am willing to die—please end my life."
She closed her eyes.
The Empress narrowed her eyes.
Why would someone begging for mercy moments ago suddenly seek death?
Suddenly realizing something was amiss, she looked up to see the door burst open as the Crown Prince stumbled in, shielding the woman collapsed on the floor behind him.
"Mother!" The Crown Prince knelt before the Empress. "Linglong, she..."
"Her name isn't Wu Linglong. Her real name is Xie Ping—your fourth brother's principal consort, a descendant of the He family!" The Empress enunciated each word sharply. "She killed the original Wu Linglong and staged a life-saving act just to enter the Eastern Palace! Even now, you still protect this scheming wretch? Do you no longer care for your position as Crown Prince?"
The Crown Prince lifted his head. "If I, as Crown Prince, cannot even protect my own woman, what use is this title?"
"You! You!"
The Empress trembled with fury, her head throbbing.
"Don't you realize it's because of this wretch that Chu Mo openly demanded thirty thousand taels of silver from me?"
Xie Ping's pupils contracted sharply.
Wasn't An Ge'er working for Gong Xi Prince Chu Mo? Could An Ge'er have revealed this to him?
Is that why the Empress summoned Grandmother to the palace—to confirm her identity?
Xie Shi'an... her own blood brother. Why would he betray her so utterly?
Xie Ping trembled uncontrollably, not only from fear of the Empress's death sentence but from the shock of being betrayed by her own kin...
"She must die!"
The Empress's words were ice-cold, her eyes filled with murderous intent.The Crown Prince shielded Xie Ping and raised his head defiantly. "Even her death cannot change this fact. Why must you go to such extremes, Mother, and risk damaging the harmony between us?"
Seeing his unwavering stance of resistance, the Empress laughed in sheer frustration.
It seemed she had protected this son too well, causing him to lose his most fundamental sense of vigilance.
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