Chapter 9 — Old Dreams on the Dragon Bed

As long as Lan He Xing truly never appears again, who else could possibly expose you?

The empress dowagers mouth twitched, and her entire body swayed uncontrollably. The truth, buried under decades of dust, was now laid bare before her eyes. After so many decades, she must have truly forgotten that her real name was Lan He Rui.

No! This palace is Lan He Xing!

The genealogy clearly states it in black and white, this palace is the real Lan He Xing!

Yuan Lang Zhao stepped even closer. Whether you are Lan He Xing or Lan He Rui, you know best in your own heart.

You resented Us for dividing the military power of the Lan family.

We ask you, after Lan He Xing died, did the Lan family ever win a single glorious battle?

If We had not divided the power, would you have waited until the border troops were turned into the private soldiers of the Lan family, and only then lamented a national crisis before your eyes?

You claim We favored the Shen clan. Do you need Us to remind you how the children in the wombs of those concubines—whose family backgrounds were inferior to yours in the inner courtyards back then—ended up losing their lives?

The celebratory music outside had stopped at some unknown moment. The empress dowager tilted her head back. The candlelight flickered unsteadily, yet the face of the man before her remained chillingly cold and resolute.

Ha.

So what? Did you come today to avenge her? Yuan Lang Zhao, do not act as though you are a man of such deep affection.

A mute child born unable to even utter a single cry, so what if you had met her?

What the Lan family needed was a crown princess, not some useless mute girl!

The only person who was a match for you could be none other than I, Lan He Rui!

The bowl of medicine in my hand had grown icy cold long ago, its bitter taste surging up into my nose in wave after wave. I rushed forward, grabbing the hem of her robe, almost pleading:

Aunt, please do not say anymore, quickly confess your wrongs to His Majesty.

She was already pitiful enough, having her identity stolen and usurped for all these years, I beg you to leave her with a shred of dignity.

The dark medicinal liquid stained patchy streaks across the hem of her skirt. The empress dowager looked down at me, her eyes filled with such venomous hatred as if she wanted to slice me into a thousand pieces right then and there.

Shut your mouth! You ungrateful wretch who bites the hand that feeds you!

This palace has wasted all those years of affection on you in vain!

She lashed out with her foot, kicking me away. My palm slammed down onto a sharp piece of broken porcelain on the floor, and blood immediately gushed out like a spring.

In what way was she pitiful?

She was ill-fated from the moment she was born, despised by her father, feared by her mother, and even the servants would take a detour just upon seeing her.

Yet she stubbornly kept stumbling upon good fortune! Hiding in her room to scribble a few measly sheets of paper, and the Lan family had to cater to her every whim.

She had never even laid eyes upon Yuan Lang Zhao, yet she managed to make him yearn for her for ten or twenty long years.

On what grounds?

The pain made the world turn completely black before my eyes. Weeping, I asked: So what? You killed her?

She was your own flesh and blood sister!

So what if I killed her! Who told her to stand in this palaces way! She deserved it!

I prostrated myself on the ground, watching the blood seep through my fingers. The dark color mixed with the crimson, looking utterly foul and tainted. The empress dowager perhaps had not yet realized in time. Just moments before, she had spoken out loud of the one thing that could never be mentioned in front of Yuan Lang Zhao. The flames within the Palace of the Empowered Phoenix had finally burned deep into the marrow to this very moment.

Yuan Lang Zhao finally spoke:

Lan He Rui.

You assumed a false identity to deceive your sovereign, murdered your own eldest sister, harmed the imperial bloodline, and colluded with remnants of the former Eastern Palace with the intent of regicide and usurping the throne.

You no longer possess the qualifications to sit upon this Phoenix throne.

The empress dowager wailed alone, nearly driven mad: No! This palace is the Empress!

This palace is the mother of the Crown Prince!

Yuan Lang Zhao did not spare her another glance: Guards, drag this lunatic wicked woman away to the Palace of Fragrant Exile and keep her under strict guard.

In and around the Palace of the Empowered Phoenix, leave no one out, place them all under arrest.

I prostrated myself on the ground, weeping as I tried to dissuade her: Aunt, plead guilty.

Zhan Xue does not wish to watch you continue down the path of error.

The empress dowager lunged forward, intending to tear my mouth apart. But this time, the imperial guards swarmed into the hall, twisting her arms behind her back and pinning her forcefully to the ground. Amidst her struggling, she seemed to suddenly realize something. Tonight's night patrols had already been replaced by men of the Lan family, and spies watched her every move closely from top to bottom. If not for someone within the Lan family secretly sheltering Yuan Lang Zhao, she would never have been kept in the dark to such an extent. Furthermore, the person holding the bowl of medicine was me, yet I had not been arrested at all. She finally understood that the Lan family was no longer hers to command. My father, her own eldest brother, was no longer a chess piece she could use at whim and discard at will. The empress dowager shrieked like a maniac toward me: Traitor!

Lan Zhan Xue, you ungrateful traitor!

You and your father are cut from the very same cloth, a pack of hounds that can never be fed enough! You are all nothing more than dogs raised by Lan He Xing!

I should have killed you both long ago!

Traitors!

The guards shoved a gag into her mouth, forcing the rest of her curses back down her throat. The empress dowagers vitriol faded into the distance. I knelt upon the cold earth, my shoulders still trembling uncontrollably. The tragedy that had just unfolded was simply too cruel.