Chapter 225: Endless Accusations

Wan Tang, at the right moment, with a hint of humiliation and sorrow, slowly raised her own hands.

The once delicate jade-like fingers were now covered with thin calluses from labor, tiny wounds, and indelible mud stains, which under the bright hall lights appeared especially glaring.

Chu Yunzheng's gaze fell on her rough hands; his pupils narrowed slightly, and his tightly pressed lips revealed a barely perceptible tremor.

The Imperial Concubine he once favored had fallen to the point of having to dig her own food to survive.

Xiao Mingshu, seeing the unfavorable turn, hurriedly shouted in a sharp tone, "Emperor, please discern!"

"I… I am also afraid someone might use this chance to convey messages to her, so I issued a strict order for guard."

"There is no such thing at all; this is a frame‑up, an injustice."

Xiao Mingshu felt a panic in her heart.

She shifted her argument, pointing again at the evidence, "Then what about those medicinal herbs?! Could it be that she herself failed to grow them?!"

Xu Yan, hearing this, let out an unabashed snicker, his tone laced with a few bits of rudeness and impatience: "Medicinal herbs? Is the Empress speaking of those trinkets?"

He waved his hand casually, "Virtuous Consort has a young eunuch who was near death recently; the Cold Palace isn't allowed to receive anything."

"Virtuous Consort threatens death; I can't just stand by and watch people die, can I?"

"Let them go to the courtyard themselves and see if there are any wild grasses that can save a life."

He said it lightly, as if discussing a trivial matter: "Anyway, the weeds and waste cleared from the palace have been piled behind the Cold Palace for a while now."

"It seems they have hard luck; they gnawed randomly and still didn't die."

"What, is this also a problem?"

Every sentence he uttered seemed to distance himself, even showing indifference to Wan Tang and others' lives and deaths.

Yet to Chu Yunzheng's ears, it painted a horrifying picture: strict orders to seal off, using weeds as medicine, self‑cultivation and self‑feeding…

This is no longer a Cold Palace; it is a living furnace!

And he had been kept in the dark all along!

Chu Yunzheng's complexion grew darker, his gaze complexly shifting to Wan Tang, then sweeping over the hastily defending Empress.

Xu Yan finally gave a lazy glance at those fabrics, a smirk at the corner of his mouth, his tone even more mocking:

"As for these fabrics… hehe, Empress, do you think you still need me to explain?"

"In this palace's practice of stepping low and bowing high, aren't you more aware than I am?"

Chu Yunzheng's face had become so gloomy it seemed it could drip water, his chest rising slightly.

Clearly, the "Cold Palace situation" Xu Yan described and the tragic state of Wan Tang he had witnessed had already stirred waves in his heart.

Xiao Mingshu keenly sensed the shift in the ruler's mood, an alarm bell rang in her mind, and she immediately—thud—knelt to the ground.

Tears welled before she could speak, her voice plaintive as she cried out, "Emperor, Emperor, please discern!"

"Please do not listen to their one‑sided words, which conspire to slander me!"

She lifted her tear‑filled eyes, looking utterly wronged, "I… I only followed the Palace Rules, letting her quietly reflect in the Cold Palace."

"Shei could have imagined she would be so restless, doing all these things to garner sympathy!"

Seeing Chu Yunzheng remain silent, she grew bolder, began to invert right and wrong, her tone turning sharp:

"Emperor! You have been deceived by her!"

"Do you know how 'comfortable' her life in the Cold Palace truly is?"

"She tends flowers and grasses, content with herself!"

"This is not reflection; it is sheer arrogance from favor, even after being sent to the Cold Palace she still does not restrain herself!"

She grew increasingly agitated, as if she had seized Wan Tang's biggest leverage, pointing at her loudly:

"Moreover, I suspect she is fundamentally unrepentant!"

"She deliberately incited, using Li Ping'er, to teach her your preferences, to lure Sheng Xin."

"She herself stays in the Cold Palace yet can remotely command those outside to vie for favor and secure position! Her heart is condemnable, Emperor!"

These words precisely struck the most sensitive nerve of Chu Yunzheng.

The possibility that he had been fooled and plotted against.

Especially when recalling Li Ping'er's perfectly timed "coincidences" and "affinities".

A sense of humiliation, being toyed with like a pawn, instantly shattered the faint doubt that had just arisen.

The chill in Chu Yunzheng's eyes reconsolidated, even stronger than before; he suddenly stared at Wan Tang, his gaze like a blade, as if to see through her completely.

"Is that so?"

Chu Yunzheng's voice was cold as ice; he stepped forward toward Wan Tang.

His gaze pressed upon her as if solid, laden with unabashed sarcasm and the pain of betrayal.

"Wan Tang, tell me, isn't it?"

Wan Tang lifted her head, meeting his almost‑flaming stare, stubbornly repeated, "It isn't."

"It isn't?" Chu Yunzheng raised his voice sharply, each word like a poisoned arrow aimed at her, "Then when you sent her to my side, didn't your heart ache?!"

"When you taught her, one by one, the tricks to please me, what were you really thinking?!"

His emotions completely unraveled, his voice bearing a near‑cruel analysis:

"Don't tell me you're afraid I would be lonely."

"I have heard such falsehoods far too often."

"You watch a person you fashioned, similar to you, replace your place, enjoy my knee…"

"Wan Tang, do you truly possess such generosity?"

"Or perhaps you merely treat me as a chess piece on your board, freely offering even your own substitute?!"

"Now," Wan Tang's voice was unusually calm, even tinged with a slight tremor of release, "Emperor, are you willing to hear my explanation?"

Chu Yunzheng saw that she still dared such "arrogance", his fury flared further, about to erupt.

But Wan Tang's smile deepened, filled with endless self‑mockery and sorrow.

She no longer spoke, but raised her trembling hand and began to untie the already filthy sash.

"How dare you! What are you trying to do?!" Xiao Mingshu shouted sharply, assuming she was about to commit some indecent act and immediately signaled the guards to intervene.

"Slow!"

Chu Yunzheng let out a sudden roar, like a trapped beast's scream, instantly freezing everyone.

His voice… was trembling.

Because his gaze was locked onto the arm and shoulder‑neck exposed as Wan Tang slowly shed her outer robe.

The skin that should have been fair and smooth was covered with a web of overlapping, old and new scars!

There were lash marks, bruises, scabbed wounds, and even burn marks!

Under the palace lanterns, they were especially shocking to the eye!

This was no work of a single day, nor could it have been done by her alone!

Chu Yunzheng's breathing suddenly halted, and all the raging fury was shattered at that moment by the sight of this battered body before him.

He stared at the scars in disbelief, then abruptly looked up at Wan Tang's terrifyingly calm eyes, a dreadful thought pouring over him like icy water.

"It's coming, it's coming—so this is why Wan Tang has been avoiding us all this time?"

"Ah, I recognize it—this is exactly the makeup technique I mentioned before! I'm a special effects makeup artist; I was just talking casually, never expecting she actually learned it."

"Well done, now go on and play the victim in front of the Dog Emperor."

"Emperor! I am guilty! I concealed the truth!" Li Ping'er rushed out from the crowd like a startled rabbit.

With a splash, she fell to her knees, tears streaming like rain, her voice hoarse as she pointed at the Empress:

"It's all the Empress!"

"The harsh treatment in the Cold Palace, the punishments, even… even arranging a vicious dog to tear at Virtuous Consort's sister, were all ordered by the Empress."

"I… I have long wanted to report to the Emperor, but I feared the Emperor would think I was stirring trouble, so I had to find a way for the Emperor to see it with his own eyes!"

"But Emperor… you won't even step through the door…"

She wept to the point of fainting, mercilessly splashing bucket after bucket of filthy water at Xiao Mingshu.

Wan Tang remained silent, slowly pulling her garments together to cover the gruesome scars, like a mute victim.

Chu Yunzheng's gaze changed completely; he recalled the fierce barking he had indeed heard outside the Cold Palace that day, and Li Ping'er's pleading at the time.

His cold stare fixed on Xiao Mingshu: "That day, I indeed heard a dog bark."

Xiao Mingshu was terrified, flailing her hands: "It wasn't me! That dog… that dog was always in the Cold Palace."

"It was… it was Xu Yanchuan! Yes! Xu Yanchuan let it in! Emperor, you see clearly!"

Xu Yanchuan, having been named, let out an icy snicker and clasped his fists: "Your Majesty, if I truly intended to harm her, why would I come before the Emperor to clarify?"

"I have no interest in the harem's women's squabbles, and I'm too lazy to resort to such underhanded tactics." He cleared himself completely.

Chu Yunzheng's complexion grew even more sullen, as the truth seemed to point toward the direction he most dreaded to believe.

At that moment, the inner palace physician rushed out, kneeling to report: "Your Majesty! We have discovered that the poison afflicting Consort Hui and the Princess is the lethal 'Zhen Poison'!"

"Zhen Poison?"

Xu Yanchuan raised an eyebrow, as if something suddenly came to mind, and replied evenly, "Oh, now I recall."

"A few days ago, while patrolling the Cold Palace, I seemed to see Virtuous Consort sneaking something into a corner of the wall… I didn't mind then, but now I wonder…"

He didn't finish the sentence, but the meaning was crystal clear.

He 'saw' evidence of Wan Tang hiding the poison!

This sudden 'accusation' instantly reversed the situation that had just favored Wan Tang.

Chu Yunzheng's suppressed anger and doubt ignited explosively, as if doused in oil.

The Empress, Xiao Mingshu, heard this and instantly broke into a maniacal, twisted grin; pointing at Wan Tang, her voice sharp with excitement:

"Hahaha, Wan Tang! You confessed with your own mouth!"

"Now what can you still argue about?!"

"Emperor, did you hear? This poisonous woman has confessed!"

The slight hesitation in Chu Yunzheng's eyes, sparked by those scars, was instantly shattered by this 'ironclad evidence' and Wan Tang's 'personal confession.'

He stared fixedly at Wan Tang, his gaze filled with raging fury and deep‑wounded betrayal, and forced two words through his clenched teeth:

"Wan, Tang!"

"I truly… underestimated your scheming!"

Yet, faced with accusations that could seal her death and the Emperor's wrath,

Wan Tang, instead of panicking, slowly and oddly began to smile.

In that laugh there was no fear, no despair, only a chilling blend of mockery and pity.

She lifted her gaze, her eyes passing over the raging Chu Yunzheng and landing directly on the smug Xiao Mingshu's face.

Her voice was clear and slow, bearing a deadly allure:

"Empress… do you truly not feel… this 'Zhen Poison'… is familiar at all?"