Chapter 17 — The Secret the Empress Dowager Concealed

Shen Huai Nian suddenly raised his hand. An arrow whistled in from outside the hall, striking true against the basin of water in Eunuch Chang’s hands. With a sharp crash, the jade-infused water splashed violently across the floor. The decorative screen caught fire, sending flames licking upward, and the gathered courtiers recoiled in terror. Through the flickering firelight, I saw Emperor Yuan Sheng standing there, his shoulder bared. The tattoo across his back revealed its final line, though only partially.

"Prince Yuan Sheng is not..."

The half-sentence—"Prince Yuan Sheng is not..."—cast the Eternal Brilliance Hall into a chaos far greater than the fire itself. The Emperor stood behind the charred screen, his expression terrifyingly cold. Eunuch Chang knelt on the ground, his voice cracking with desperation.

"Your Majesty!"

Suddenly, the Empress Dowager burst into laughter. It was the laugh of someone who had finally waited for this exact moment.

"Emperor, do you see it now?" she hissed. "This is the handwriting of your own imperial father. Prince Yuan Sheng is not..." Each word fell like a heavy nail being driven into a coffin. "Do you still dare to let them read the rest?"

The complexions of the imperial guards shifted in unison. Once the Emperor’s bloodline was cast into doubt, it became a matter of national catastrophe. Even though the preceding lines had clearly exposed the Empress Dowager and the Shen clan for murdering the late Empress, as long as this final line remained incomplete, she could twist every accusation into a muddy mess. The Emperor turned his gaze toward the Empress Dowager.

"Are you suggesting that I am not the late Emperor’s biological son?"

The Empress Dowager replied in a flat, chilling tone, "I said nothing of the sort. It is the imperial decree that says so."

Shen Huai Nian stood behind the glow of the flames, his voice remarkably gentle. "Your Majesty, why persist in trying to uncover the truth? Since the late Emperor himself wrote the words 'is not,' do you not feel a shiver of terror in your heart as you sit upon that throne?"

I stared at him intently. His goal was not merely to kill the Emperor; it was to dismantle the Emperor's legitimacy first. As long as Yuan Sheng began to doubt himself and the guards wavered, the Empress Dowager could use the Shen clan’s death squads to force an abdication. How vicious. I looked down at the jade-infused water spreading across the floor. It was all gone. The two halves of the Phoenix Feather Jade lay scattered near the fire, one piece crushed underfoot. Eunuch Chang was on the verge of sobbing. "The water is gone! The words haven't finished appearing!"

My father’s face went deathly pale. "It is finished," he whispered.

This was the first time I had ever heard those words from him. My heart sank. The Empress Dowager rose slowly. "Emperor, I raised you for so many years; I do not wish to see you deceived by villains. Abdicate today, and I shall grant you your life."

The Emperor laughed. Beads of water still clung to his bared skin, and his wound continued to bleed, yet his smile was a hundred times colder than that of the Empress Dowager.

"I am not yet dead, and you are already so eager to see me abdicate?"

The Empress Dowager smiled back. "Emperor, you have no road left to retreat."

Shen Huai Nian raised his hand. Another wave of death squads in gray armor surged into the hall. The imperial guards were pushed back, and some, gripping their blades, began to tremble. Xiao Zhi shouted in a cold, piercing tone, "Any man who retreats one step will be executed for treason!" The assailants pressed forward. The guards dared not retreat, but they dared not advance either. They were locked in a stalemate.

I stared at the half-finished line on the Emperor’s back, suddenly recalling the words of Nanny Chu before she died. The Phoenix Feather Jade did not protect the Empress; the Phoenix Feather Jade protected the decree. I remembered those men who had tried to kill me, yet had also tried to take me alive. They were not afraid of the jade; they were afraid of me.

I looked down at my hands. When I had fled earlier, a shard of porcelain had sliced into my palm. Blood was still oozing out. A wild thought flashed through my mind. I took a step toward the fire. My mother grabbed my arm tightly.

"Ming Duong!"

"Mother, I must try."

She saw my bleeding hand and her face turned ghostly white. "What are you intending to do?"

I looked at her. "If my life is truly bound to this, then I cannot just spend it waiting to be cut down."

I pulled away, reaching down to grab the crushed piece of jade. The jagged stone bit deeper into my palm, but I did not flinch. Blood dripped onto the jade. In the next heartbeat, the surface of the stone began to emit a faint, red glow. My father jerked his head up.

"Ming Duong!"

For the first time, Shen Huai Nian’s expression shattered. "Stop her!"

The assassins lunged, but Xiao Zhi beheaded the one in the lead with a single strike. My mother grabbed an incense burner from the floor and hurled it at the second man. Xie Xiaoman, having arrived at some point, ran in clutching a broken table leg, screaming, "Whoever dares touch my sister will face me!"

Xie Wencheng was being supported by two young eunuchs, hopping into the hall on one foot. His face was as white as paper, but his voice was thunderous. "The imperial decree is not yet finished! Any person who dares to discuss the bloodline of the sovereign shall be executed to the third generation under the laws of the Great Chu!"

I glanced at him. "Why are you here?"

He wheezed, gasping for air. "My leg is broken, not my tongue."

For some reason, those words gave me the courage I needed. I pressed the blood-smeared jade into the remaining pool of water and then smeared the blood directly onto the unfinished line on the Emperor’s back. The Emperor did not pull away. He simply turned his head to look at me.