Chapter 235

It was obviously such good weather in the daytime! Ten thousand li without clouds, the autumn air high and crisp!

How could it suddenly start snowing!

""Heaven wants to kill me! Heaven wants to kill me!!""

He clutched his head, thinking hard, but couldn't figure it out.

He spent his life in military campaigns, rising from a low-ranking officer in the Imperial Guards all the way to the supreme position of the Nine-Five Honor. He believed he had done right by the people under heaven, having ended the chaotic Five Dynasties period so that people would no longer be displaced.

What wrong has he done?

Why treat him like this!

Give him a whole day of hope, then, at his most triumphant, most relaxed moment, crush that hope brutally!

This is a hundred, even a thousand times more cruel than sentencing him to death from the start!

He sprang up from the ground like a fierce beast trapped in a cage, pacing wildly back and forth in the sleeping chamber.

No!

We can't just wait to die like this!

The Daoist still had a second half to his sentence!

""If the method is proper, perhaps we can still avoid it.""

Method!

Offer sacrifices to Heaven? Pray for blessings?

It's too late! The snow has already fallen!

Could it be……killing someone?

Eliminate those who might threaten him?

Zhao Guangyi?

That younger brother who is always humble in his presence but secretly consorts with the Wang Family's offspring behind his back?

But would killing him be of any use?

If he kills his brother, will the sky clear? After all, that's his own flesh and blood!

Zhao Kuangyin's mind was a tangled mess like porridge.

At times he thought of the Golden Coffin Alliance, at times of his mother's dying instructions.

At other times he thought about where Zhao Guangyi seemed most suspicious.

Trust and suspicion, affection and imperial authority, tore at him wildly in his mind.

""Your Majesty! Your Majesty, what's wrong with you?""

Wang Jieren of the outer hall finally heard the commotion inside, bringing a few little eunuchs, holding candle stands, he rushed in panic.

As soon as they entered, they saw the emperor barefoot, hair disheveled, standing in the center of the hall, his complexion ashen, his eyes filled with bloodshot veins.

""Your Majesty, you…… you are……"" Wang Jieren's legs went weak from fright.

""Get out!""

Zhao Kuangyin kicked over a nearby incense burner, scattering its ashes all over the floor.

""All of you, get out of my sight!""

He doesn't want to see anyone right now.

These servants know nothing and can't help him; they only look at him with fearful, pitiful eyes, as if he were a madman.

Wang Jieren and the others scrambled out in terror, closing the hall door behind them.

In the sleeping chamber, only Zhao Kuangyin's heavy breathing remained, along with the ever-louder wind and snow outside the window.

He felt an unprecedented loneliness.

A solitary lord.

Only now did he truly grasp the meaning of those four characters.

He is the emperor, the Son of Heaven, yet his fate is decided by the whims of Heaven.

Among the civil and military officials of the court and the beauties of the harem, not a single person could share this fear with him.

He needed someone to talk to.

Wang Xu.

That gentle, refined Hanlin scholar who could always soothe his agitation with music and brush.

Yes, summon him!

Let him play the qin, let him paint!

Let him use those flowery, moonlit sentiments and those frivolous tricks to numb himself!

Perhaps… perhaps the snow has stopped, the sky cleared, and that prophecy wouldn't count then?

That absurd notion became his sole hope at this moment.

He lunged to the door and flung it open.

""Summon!""

""Summon… summon who?" Wang Jieren asked in a trembling voice.

""Summon Wang Xu!" Zhao Kuangyin almost roared, "Let him come to my presence at once! Now! Immediately!""

Having said that, he slammed the hall door shut with a bang.

Wang Xu was awakened from his sleep.

The steward of his manor, holding a lantern, nearly burst open his door, voice choked with tears: "Scholar! Scholar! Wake up quickly! Someone's come from the palace! It's an emergency!"

Wang Xu snapped his eyes open and sat up.

Outside the window, the wind and snow howled, the sky still pitch black.

"In the palace? At this time?" He frowned, his heart skipped a beat.

Something's off.

He quickly dressed and went to the front hall, where he saw a palace eunuch covered in snow, anxiously stamping his feet.

Seeing Wang Xu come out, the eunuch, as if seeing a savior, shouted in a shrill voice: "Wang Scholar! You've finally come out! His Majesty summons you urgently—come to the palace at once, not a moment to lose!"

"What is it?" Wang Xu asked in a low voice while fastening the sash of his official robe.

"I don't know, sir!" the eunuch exclaimed, on the verge of tears. "All I know is that His Majesty flew into a terrible rage, shouting and screaming in the sleeping chambers, letting no one near, and only summoned you. Please hurry with me—if you're late, my head won't survive!"

At this time, in this weather, the emperor's behavior is so abnormal…

He recalled that Prince Jin Zhao Guangyi had once mentioned in private that his elder brother, while in Luoyang, seemed to have encountered some strange persons and marvels, after which he became unsettled.

It seems that those strange persons and marvels have come true today.

And this fulfillment is clearly bad, not good—some plans......

"Prepare the horse!" Wang Xu ordered the steward without further question.

Trudging through ankle-deep snow, Wang Xu followed the eunuch into the imperial palace.

The closer he got to the emperor's sleeping chambers, the more oppressive the atmosphere became.

When Wang Xu reached the door of the sleeping chambers, Chief Eunuch Wang Jie'en, upon seeing him, clung to him like a drowning man clutching at a straw.

"Wang Scholar! You've finally come!" Wang Jie'en lowered his voice, pointing at the tightly shut doors: "Your Majesty… Your Majesty's condition is dire; be careful what you say when you go in."

Wang Xu nodded, adjusted his attire, took a deep breath, and pushed open the heavy doors.

A warm wind mixed with the scent of alcohol and sandalwood, tinged with a hint of madness, blew over him.

Inside the hall, everything was in disarray.

Shattered porcelain, scattered memorials, overturned incense burners…

The emperor of Great Song, Zhao Kuangyin, paced barefoot amidst the chaos like a caged lion.

Hearing the door open, Zhao Kuangyin snapped his head around, his blood-red eyes fixed on Wang Xu.

"You've come."

"Subject Wang Xu greets Your Majesty." Wang Xu bowed.

In times like these, one must not lose composure.

"Greet? Greet what!" Zhao Kuangyin snapped, waving his hand irritably, then strode a few steps to Wang Xu and seized his wrist.

"Wang Xu, look outside!" he pointed at the window and shouted, "It's snowing! It's snowing! Do you know that?"

"I know." Wang Xu replied calmly, "The first snow of winter has fallen heavily."

"Heavily?" Zhao Kuangyin laughed as if hearing a great joke, his nerves on edge, "Not just heavily—this is going to be the death of me!"

Wang Xu's heart sank. Indeed, his guess was correct.

"Play the zither for me! Play 'High Mountains and Flowing Water'! No! Play 'Ambush on All Sides'! Let me hear the sound of golden halberds and iron horses!"

"Or paint! Paint for me a picture of 'Red Cliff Reminiscence'! Depict the mighty spirit of Zhou Lang's banners and oars, with ashes flying and smoke vanishing!"

Wang Xu did not move.

He merely gazed silently at Zhao Kuangyin and said softly, "Your Majesty, in this situation, music cannot dispel worry, nor can a brush dispel the chill."

"Then what do you suggest!" Zhao Kuangyin's patience had reached its limit.

"A heart ailment requires heart medicine."

"What troubles Your Majesty is neither music nor painting, nor this wind and snow, but a person."

Zhao Kuangyin's body shuddered.

He released his grip on Wang Xu's wrist, stepped back two paces, and regarded the young man before him with a scrutinizing, even murderous gaze.

"You… what do you know?"