Chapter 240

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Protagonists:

Shaowei

Liu Qi

The Forbidden Army Commander who had come was the Emperor's confidant; today he was responsible for guarding and patrolling in the mountains. At this moment his face was grave to the extreme: "……The Crown Prince was carelessly bitten on one hand by a fierce beast, his whole body covered in blood. The severed hand was also retrieved. Given the gravity of the matter, we descended via a small path and did not dare to publicize it, coming first to report to Your Majesty!"

The Emperor's face changed, and immediately afterward the Crown Prince's close guard who came to report had much blood on him, trembling with fear and weeping, kowtowing as he presented the account.

"How exactly did you all guard the Crown Prince…… you all deserve to die!"

The Emperor rebuked in one sentence, then led people to drive the carriage to where the Crown Prince was staying.

Just as they neared the palace park where the Crown Prince was, they saw palace servants rushing about in panic, with eunuchs kneeling to wipe away the inauspicious bloodstains dripping on the ground.

Upon entering the originally pleasant palace park, they further heard maidservants sobbing; waiting until they reached the chaotic, spacious palace chamber, a stench of blood qi and the Empress Rui's crying voices assaulted the nose.

In the hurried chaos the crowd saluted the Son of Heaven; the Son of Heaven's gaze passed over the crowd and saw the bloody half-severed hand placed on a tray supported by silk fabric, as well as Liu Cheng temporarily leaning on the bedding, being urgently poured hemostatic decoction by a doctor.

Liu Cheng's hair bun was disheveled and stuck with disordered leaves, his face also had scratch bloodstains, his riding attire torn in many places, the right sleeve binding broken and scattered, revealing the inner layer of sleeve soaked through with fresh blood; the severed hand area was wrapped layer upon layer with bandages, bloodstains mottled.

The Sovereign Father arrived; Liu Cheng, face full of filth and tears, attempted to rise. The Emperor pressed down on his shoulder a step faster. Liu Cheng's whole body was trembling; besides blood and tears on his face, there was also cold sweat still continuing to emerge. When he opened his mouth his voice trembled: "Father, Imperial Father……"

"A bunch of useless trash!" The Emperor turned his head and glared angrily at those Crown Prince palace guards kneeling to beg punishment: "Come, drag them down——"

"Imperial Father!" Liu Cheng hurriedly pleaded in a trembling voice: "It's not their fault, Imperial Father…… it was your child minister whose riding skill was not refined, who carelessly fell from his horse during the hunt, and was injured by a wild boar gone mad from an arrow. If not for them risking their lives to save your child minister, your child minister would have no life left at this moment……"

Liu Cheng wept and begged: "Beg Imperial Father to spare them!"

The Emperor turned his head back, looking again at Liu Cheng.

In the eye contact, Liu Cheng's eyes flickered for an instant, as if wanting to say something, but for a moment only shed tears.

On the way here the Emperor had already learned from the guards that they had encountered a herd of wild boars, a full four heads. Wild boars easily gather and act in autumn and winter; this is not rare. But Liu Cheng claimed it was a careless fall from horse……

The Emperor knew clearly that Liu Cheng's horsemanship and archery could pass muster, and because of insufficient courage he was instead even more cautious. This fall and attack, was it because his mind was unsettled and he lost his composure, or…… was there a possibility of taking the opportunity to self-harm?

"Your Majesty, this cannot be blamed on anyone……" The Empress Rui, kneeling at the side, wept until her appearance was wretched, voice hoarse yet carrying certainty: "This is the Mountain God's manifestation, not human error!"

Knowing in his heart that Liu Cheng's injured hand must have been temporarily medicated and bandaged by the accompanying guards to stop the bleeding, the Emperor, who was just about to have the doctors re-treat the wound, heard the voice and looked toward the Empress Rui.

The Empress Rui raised both hands, crossed them before her forehead, wept and prostrated herself: "Cheng Er is not recognized by the Mountain God, causing his right hand to be mutilated, and he is no longer fit to serve as the nation's heir apparent. Please, Your Majesty, follow the divine will and depose his Crown Prince position!"

The palace chamber suddenly fell silent; no one dared raise their head.

The Emperor silently waved his hand, dismissing all people present, leaving only one of the Emperor's personal eunuchs, as well as the Empress's maidservant, to remain and attend to Liu Cheng.

The Emperor standing before the bedding slowly shifted his feet, looking straight at the prostrating, kowtowing Empress: "Rui Ji……"

The Empress Rui raised her head, revealing a pair of eyes filled with tears: "Your Majesty…… my elder brother committed a great error and suffered divine execution; that was his just deserts. But I swear to heaven, I and Cheng Er both knew nothing of it!"

Her voice had always been thin and weak; now it trembled so badly it was unseemly: "But I know that laxity and oversight are also a great crime. I and Cheng Er are not faultless; we equally have an enormous sin and responsibility to atone for……"

Finishing speaking, she suddenly produced from her sleeve a bronze dagger with coiled-head cicada pattern, prepared who knows when, closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, trembling yet extremely swift, and slashed toward one side of her cheek.

A long line of blood instantly appeared, fresh blood splattering.

"Rui Ji!"

"Mother Empress!"

"Empress!"

The short dagger fell to the ground; the Empress Rui, from the pain, lost strength and collapsed. Waiting for the maidservant to support her arm, she trembled and raised her head; the bloody wound on her face occupied the Emperor's gaze.

Fresh blood surged from the wound with flesh turned outward, flowing down along the jaw, faster and more torrential than teardrops.

Back then it was only because of this face that there was everything afterward; now with mother dead and brother gone, the Empress Rui's posture at this moment was not without a kind of resolute liberation.

"Your Majesty……" Her voice was broken by pain, but her eyes were determined: "Cheng Er's right hand severed and damaged, my appearance ruined, are inauspicious things…… henceforth I am willing to serve ghosts and spirits in atonement, or guard at the Mountain God Shrine in Shanglin Park, or go wherever Your Majesty decides, only wishing to serve the divine all my life, praying for eternal peace for the Sovereign Father and the Liu family's realm!"

The beauty self-destructs, leaving no retreat; both countenance and spirit are heart-shaking and shocking. In this instant, even the Emperor erupted with a dazzling, resolute, yet astonished tremor.

"Beg Your Majesty's mercy to permit!" The Empress Rui prostrated and kowtowed again, weeping and begging for fulfillment.

The maidservant was also crying, calling softly "Empress"; Liu Cheng shed tears trembling, unable to form words.

The Emperor silently let out a long sigh, turned his body: "First let the doctors enter, to stop the bleeding for the Empress……"

The chamber interior returned to a bout of chaos; supported by a eunuch, the Emperor walked toward the other low couch on the inner side, slowly sitting down.

At this time a eunuch announced that Prince Gaomi had come requesting an audience.

Because of the Rui Ze disaster, today during the mountain hunt no one actively followed or approached the Crown Prince's entourage. Prince Gaomi likewise kept a respectful distance; merely while chasing a wild deer, he was attracted by the commotion from the Crown Prince's entourage, hurriedly passing through the woods, only to see a ground full of bloody carnage. Knowing something was amiss, to inquire for firsthand information, he left the mountain early and pursued to this place.

Now seeing that one severed hand covered by a eunuch with silk fabric in the palace chamber, and seeing the Empress surrounded by doctors with a face full of blood, Prince Gaomi's mind thundered, only feeling a tremendous succession was right before his eyes.

Also thinking of some rumors heard, could it be that the Mandate of Heaven truly falls upon that lame child?

He, because of hatred and resentment toward that lame child's methods and attitude at the Zoujin Great Sacrifice, had repeatedly complained to the Emperor……

However, the lame one is inauspicious; how could he be fit as heir? At least with this pretext, this matter he and the various princes and nobles absolutely cannot loosen their mouths to agree!

Prince Gaomi's heart was apprehensive and scratching; even more he dared not leave the scene on his own. To stay and observe, he cried for his nephew's severed hand for a while, cried for his sister-in-law's face for a while, blowing his nose and wiping tears, sighing and groaning.

The lame child strictly guarded by Prince Gaomi was at this moment being stopped by a eunuch performing a salute.

"Finally found Sixth Prince!" The eunuch said: "His Majesty summons, please Prince hurry there!"

Liu Qi, leading a squad of Forbidden Army on patrol, reined in his horse and asked: "Wonder for what matter His Father summons?"

The eunuch glanced left and right, lowered his voice: "The Crown Prince suffered severe injury, not yet leaked or publicized. His Majesty specially summons Sixth Prince to go……"

Speaking, his voice even lower, yet revealing an extraordinary solemnity: "Perhaps to discuss a great matter……"

Liu Qi understood and nodded, looked back behind him, assigned twenty men to go together, ordered the remaining twenty to continue patrolling, not to be careless.

Deng Hu was also left behind, together with the remaining Forbidden Army responding "Acknowledged". After watching Liu Qi go some distance away, Deng Hu immediately turned his horse's direction.

The Crown Prince's lodging palace park in Shanglin Park sat west facing east, three sides embraced by mountain forests; within the splendor was also seen tranquility.

The guiding eunuch on the road told Liu Qi in a low voice in detail about the Crown Prince's injury. Liu Qi, slowly driving his horse along, listened, only letting out one sigh, with no other reaction of concern or pity for his elder brother's misfortune, nor hurrying to visit, giving people a cold-blooded, detached feeling of not even bothering to pretend.

Arriving before the palace park, Liu Qi dismounted with his men and stepped deep into the park grounds; the respectful eunuchs along the way suddenly fled in haste, crying out in alarm: "Guards! Protect His Majesty! Protect His Majesty! The Sixth Prince, armed with blade and armor, has led men to force his way in, intending to assassinate the Imperial Carriage and the Heir Apparent... Hurry, protect His Majesty!"

This one cry was like a sudden thunderclap in the clear sky, possessing the power to shatter stone and burn forests; it startled the flying birds, and in an instant forbidden guards surged toward Liu Qi and his party from several sides, and without a word, blades and spears clashed.

The forbidden army at Liu Qi's side was horrified, yet suddenly forced, they could only draw their blades to block.

That eunuch was still fleeing and shouting; the ten-odd forbidden guards who had come with the Emperor were stunned by this sudden situation, and the leader, in the very first moment, made the action most befitting his status, swiftly surging into the palace chamber to shield the Son of Heaven close at hand.

The Crown Prince's guards standing outside together made a similar move; they rushed into the palace chamber, encircling Crown Prince Cheng.

Amid the clamor and chaos, the spacious palace chamber suddenly filled to capacity, yet also seemed to split into two camps headed by the Emperor and the Crown Prince; only the weeping Prince Gaomi remained standing in the middle, his expression astonished and dumbfounded.

The Emperor had risen from the low couch: "What has happened?!"

The forbidden guards shielding the Emperor answered swiftly: "Outside there was suddenly talk that the Sixth Prince, armed with blade and armor, led men to force his way in, plotting to assassinate the Imperial Carriage and the Heir Apparent... the park's forbidden guards therefore immediately advanced to surround and kill!"

"Liu Qi—" The Emperor's face changed: "What does he bring men here to do..."

At once he ordered: "Convey Our command, tell them to cease at once, bring Liu Qi before Us, We wish to question him personally!"

"Yes!" The forbidden guards acknowledged the order and moved to go relay it, but because the Emperor was in the inner side of the palace chamber, the Crown Prince's guards on the outer side indirectly blocked the way, and with the Emperor's command issued, those guards made no move to yield passage.

The forbidden guards intending to leave sensed something amiss, their footsteps stalled, and they pressed hands to the blades at their waists.

Among those twenty-odd guards shielding the Crown Prince and Empress, many had blood on their persons, or torn robes, and wore wild boar bristles tied at their temples; at this moment each pair of eyes revealed a coiled readiness for action, and a certain hidden excitement.

The Emperor, who had sensed something when the order to halt was given, looked past those beast-like gazes, fixed his eyes on the figure on the bedding, and calmly asked: "Liu Cheng, what do you want to do?"

That bedraggled figure propped himself up with his heavily bandaged injured hand, shifting from a reclining lean to sitting upright, voice hoarse: "Sixth Brother wants to kill his father; your son is protecting the Emperor..."

The Empress Rui, her facial wound only barely staunched and medicated, not yet properly bandaged, was frightened—no, how could this be, how could this be, wasn't it agreed...

She trembled as she threw herself kneeling before her son, incredulously reaching to touch that thickly bandaged "severed hand," then desperately tore away layer after layer of bandage; the palm finally revealed was intact, tightly clenched, stained with blood not his own.

Empress Rui only felt her facial wound as if torn open by a blade formed from that hand, her entire skull split in two, her mind blank, soul departed, heaven and earth collapsing.

"Whose bewitchment have you fallen for? Even your Empress Mother can be used." The Emperor looked at the figure sitting behind the guards: "We taught you, have you forgotten? Anything others tell you to do is precisely what you must guard against—"

"No, this time is your son's own decision." Liu Cheng still had tears in his eyes, peering through the gaps between the guards' bodies and scabbards at his sovereign father: "Father Emperor also taught your son to be decisive... your son has remembered, this is precisely the first decision your son has made."

Tears rolled from his eyes, he still trembled slightly; fear and pain alike make one tremble and shed tears and sweat, so he appeared utterly flawless.

At this moment, shedding tears, he asked: "May I ask Father Emperor, with your son's such decisiveness, is he fit to be your Crown Prince?"

"Bastard!" The Emperor finally showed anger: "Rui Ze is already dead, where do you get the audacity to dare..."

"Precisely because Uncle is dead!" Liu Cheng interrupted his sovereign father's words for the first time in his life: "Everyone is certain I must be scared out of my wits, and would not dare any further act of defiance against the sovereign father, so only by acting now can I achieve surprise and attack unpreparedness... Father Emperor, this is what I learned after assuming the regency; I have already learned!"

"The position of Crown Prince was something You insisted on giving me; since You gave it, why do You always think of taking it back?" Liu Cheng abruptly stood up, questioning through tears: "Since You want to take it back, why must You make me pay the price of escaping this cage!"

His motion of rising resembled a beautiful beast that had been suppressed for who knows how long, suddenly breaking free of its cage; still trembling, yet also baring claws and fangs.

The manpower of both sides inside the palace chamber was equal.

The ones fighting outside were the Crown Prince and Empress's guard squads, numbering a hundred men; the twenty forbidden guards Liu Qi brought were insufficient to resist, but the sounds of slaughter did not stop within the expected time, instead intensifying, the momentum growing even more vast.

It was Deng Hu leading nearly a hundred forbidden guards who arrived close on their heels.

"Presumably the Sixth Prince was vigilant and made arrangements when he came... Please, Your Majesty, set your mind at ease!" The forbidden army commander shielding the Emperor observed the situation through the half-open window, then shouted sternly at the confronting parties: "The trend lies here; Crown Prince should quickly withdraw, why insist on dragging innocent people into losing their lives!"

Hearing this threat, Liu Cheng had a brief instinctive loss of composure, then immediately laughed, steadied himself, and said: "What if Sixth Brother has precautions? The forbidden guards he can mobilize are ultimately limited."

"He wants to kill his father; his cause is unjust." Liu Cheng still gazed at his sovereign father through the gaps before the guards, and said: "While I am the Heir Apparent who holds the Imperial Seal and acts as regent; this is orthodoxy... Father Emperor's voice cannot carry out; all the forbidden guards of the entire Shanglin Park must obey the Imperial Seal."

He had perceived Uncle's plan; he merely pretended not to know; all these years he had been very skilled at pretending not to know, muddleheaded and dazed, playing the puppet behind the great mountain...

Last night's bowl of tonic soup was the Middle Attendant's cry for help; at this moment, though it deviated somewhat from Uncle's original plan, the goal was the same—Liu Qi kills the ruler out of old hatred, and he executes the rebel Liu Qi.

He is not doing this alone; the task he was responsible for is already complete.

"Rebellious son of unknown measure... dares to wildly dream of killing Us!" The Emperor's eyes held a trace of tears, suddenly he seized a blade from a forbidden guard's hand, straightened his waist and back, and commanded Prince Gaomi: "Liu Yi, follow Us to kill our way out!"

Prince Gaomi trembled as he answered "Yes," still unable to react; he had only come to join the bustle and scout some news, how did he get dragged into such a perilous sudden reversal by his father!

The stern majesty the Emperor revealed in an instant roused the forbidden guards' blood qi; the guards before the Crown Prince also did not retreat a step; matters having come to this, one step forward means boundless wealth and honor; the deed is done, there is no reason to flee before battle, especially since reinforcements will arrive on their own.

Inside the palace chamber, blood light suddenly flared; father and son faced each other with drawn blades in the same room.

The doctor and palace maids hid in panic, huddled on the ground; Empress Rui sat dazed and terrified, suddenly clutching Liu Cheng's sleeve: "Cheng Er, why... who forced you? This is not something you would do; ultimately why must you..."

"What is something I would do?" Liu Cheng lowered his tearful eyes, looking at his mother: "Mother Empress, from childhood to now, every matter I've done was arranged by you and Uncle; what is something I would truly do? What is the true me? Mother Empress, do you truly know?"

"Even I myself don't know!" He suddenly raised his voice, yet trembled even more violently: "But I will find out, I will find it..."

"Mother Empress, just this once..." He bent down, tears flowing as he gripped his mother's arm in return: "Things having come to this, please also listen to your son once, and let your son make the decision for himself this once..."

"No." Amid the sounds of slaughter, Empress Rui shook her head, shook off his hand, and muttered: "You are not Cheng Er; you must have been bewitched by demon evil... Find the Great Shaman God, find the Great Shaman God to come!"

?? Good night, see you tomorrow.