Chapter 3 — The Day Chiêu Nhi Wore the Dragon Robe

Father, see this for yourself! This is the blood from the very heart that my mother vomited three days ago! She always kept it hidden from you. Her vital organs had long since been shattered by three months of merciless torment. That she could endure until this very day was entirely for your sake, and for mine!

Pei Jing trembled as he reached out to take the parchment. The handwriting upon it had blurred into illegibility, yet those dark crimson stains pierced his eyes with a blinding, agonizing pain.

It cannot be... On the day of the grand heavenly rite, she was still standing tall and resolute...

Jiang Yingxue snatched the medical diagnosis from his hand, a cold sneer curling her lips.

The medical arts of this era are so backward; a stack of diagnostic papers like this can be bought for mere copper coins. Pei Jing, you are a wise sovereign; you must not be deceived by such petty, deceitful tricks!

My mother trembled violently, consumed by a frantic, suffocating despair.

Your Majesty! Huan is truly at her absolute limit. I beg you to open the doors, I beg you to let this subject enter and look upon her just once!

Inside the chamber, several rough hands violently seized my hair, hauling my broken body upward from the floor.

Scream, then! Scream louder, so your dear parents outside can hear every word.

I gritted my teeth until they ached, my mouth flooding with the coppery taste of fresh blood. But my flesh and bone no longer obeyed my will. When the agony crested to its unbearable peak, a ragged gasp tore itself free from my throat. My father could finally endure no more, his voice booming with the fury of a tempest.

Someone there! Break down this door at once!

Hearing the sounds of violent skirmishing outside, I forced my failing strength to reach out toward the heavy wooden door.

Father... save me...

Yet instantly, the Imperial Guards drew their blades as one, forming an impenetrable wall to block their path. Pei Jing voice dropped into a chilling, pitiless abyss.

Xie Yuanshan, do you mean to raise the banner of rebellion?

My father laughed, a sound warped by a grief so profound it bordered on madness.

If this subject had wished to rebel, I would never have spent my youth carrying you to the Dragon Throne!

All I ask now is for the return of my own flesh and blood!

At that exact moment, someone released their grip upon me, stumbling backward a couple of paces.

Why has she stopped moving altogether?

Wait... could she actually be dead?

I lay sprawled prone upon the cold earth, my vision gradually drowning in a vast, encroaching gray, my physical vessel sinking as though into freezing waters. Every sound from the outer world began to recede into a distant echo. I heard my mother weeping with a grief so sharp it choked the breath from her throat; I heard my father crying out my name again and again through the barrier. But I possessed not an ounce of strength remaining. I felt only the cold. A biting, profound cold.

When I opened my eyes once more, I found myself standing upright, disembodied and light. Yet upon the floor below, a solitary figure still lay motionless. Her hair was matted into tangled ruins, her face stained with a mosaic of dried blood, and her garments were torn beyond all recognition of their former elegance. That was me. In that quiet instant, understanding dawned. I had perished.

The wretched men who had tormented me suddenly realized the gravity of their plight, their complexions draining to the hue of ash.

She has truly stopped breathing!

Flee! Quick, run for your lives!

Scrambling and tumbling like stray dogs, the scoundrels bolted toward the back exit, one even losing a shoe in his panic, yet none dared to pause and retrieve it.

More and more high officials arrived, having caught wind of the monstrous scandal. Such an absurd atrocity could no longer be swept beneath the imperial rug. Censors and ministers knelt across the courtyards in dense, overlapping rows, their voices rising in a ceaseless tide of condemnation against Pei Jing.

General Xie has rendered peerless service to the realm, yet his own daughter was cast into a hidden brothel. Such a deed by Your Majesty's hand turns the loyalty of every soldier in the empire to ice!

To publicly strip the Empress of her garments during the celestial rites was already an act devoid of virtue, and now to abandon her within a den of vice—where is the decency of the court left?

We implore Your Majesty to fling open the doors this instant!

I drifted toward the threshold, gazing upon the sea of petitioners kneeling beneath the open sky. Within Pei Jing breast, a mounting, suffocating terror began to swell. It was not the reprimands of his ministers that shook him, but rather the sudden, chilling realization that he could no longer hear the sound of my voice. The space behind those closed doors had grown terrifyingly still, every whisper swallowed by the void.

Driven by a frantic anxiety, he stepped forward, intent on tearing the portals open. In his heart, he thought that if only Xie Qinghuan would sit there safe and sound, he would willingly banish Jiang Yingxue and lavish his favor upon one alone. Yet the moment his fingers brushed against the heavy brass latch, Jiang Yingxue coiled her arms tightly around his waist.

Enough, stop putting on this farce. I knew from the start that the lot of you were merely conspiring to frighten me.

Pei Jing startled, a sharp pang of guilt flickering in his chest. Yet upon hearing her next words, his feet rooted themselves to the spot.

First it is the imperial physicians, then tales of a failing constitution, followed by ministers weeping for mercy, and now the Empress suddenly falling silent—feigning death, are we? This is all a grand collusion between her and your officials, is it not?

She cast a gaze of supreme arrogance over the sea of kneeling petitioners, letting out a light, mocking laugh.

What is this? An attempt to coerce the sovereign? Or perhaps a battle for favor, designed to depose me?

Pei Jing, if the Empress dares to summon the civil and military court today to pressure you, will she dare to wield military might tomorrow to force your abdication?

The moment those words left her lips, the atmosphere stretched taut to the breaking point. Pei Jing complexion turned the color of lead, and the entire courtyard plunged into a tomb-like silence.

Yet Jiang Yingxue was not yet finished. She tilted her head, a playful smile dancing in her eyes as if struck by a delightful fancy.

Though, to be fair, I might not be entirely unreasonable in the days to come. As long as she stays away from those shameful quarters, perhaps.

Since they are all so fond of playacting, let the Empress remain in there a little longer. We shall wait until they humble themselves before we finally let her out.

With that, she reached out, hooking her fingers into Pei Jing jade-studded belt, and drew her lips close to his ear.

Besides, listening to her cries just now has awakened a rather pleasant mood within me.

Come, let us retire to our chambers.