Chapter 208: Detoxified

What, what did you say?

Shen Shuangning sat up, leaning against the headboard, one hand resting on her lower abdomen, her eyes slightly red as she looked at him and whispered, "You didn't hear wrong; I'm pregnant. Xiaoyu gave me the fetus‑protecting pill."

At that moment, Xiao Jingyuan's wild joy surged like a tide; the man who never showed his emotions lifted the corner of his mouth.

He quickly walked to the bedside, knelt down, and gently placed his hand over Shen Shuangning's hand; his palm was warm and strong, completely enveloping hers.

As if he wanted to feel, through these two layers of skin, the tiny life beating quietly beneath the flesh.

"Really?" he asked, looking up at her, his voice still tinged with disbelief, and asked again.

Shen Shuangning looked at his rare loss of composure, feeling more wronged: "Can I still fool you?"

The man's smile widened, his brows and eyes softening: "Ours?"

Shen Shuangning hummed: "Are you still leaving?"

Xiao Jingyuan hesitated not at all, pressing her firmly into his embrace: "I'm not leaving, not even if you beat me to death!"

Shen Shuangning let out a breath of relief in her heart.

But this joy lasted only a moment; Xiao Jingyuan suddenly seemed to recall something, his face turning deathly pale.

He released Shen Shuangning, the smile vanished from his eyes, leaving only deep worry and pain: "Ningning, no...... this child cannot stay."

Shen Shuangning blinked, then pressed her lips together.

Xiao Jingyuan gripped her shoulders tightly, his brows furrowed tightly, each word seeming to bear great pain: "Ningning, do you still remember what I told you, this child......"

"Enough!"

Before he could finish, Shen Shuangning violently shook off his hand, her eye sockets wet red yet filled with stubborn anger: "This is my first child, our child! Even if he really is different, I will never abandon him!"

"Ningning......"

Xiao Jingyuan watched her tears roll down, his heart clenching instantly, fearing her emotions would agitate the fetus; he quickly softened his tone, reached out to gently wipe her tears, his voice full of pity and compromise.

"Ningning, don't cry, it's my fault, I shouldn't have said that...... give birth to him, no matter what he's like, we'll raise him, raise him for a lifetime."

He just didn't know if he would still have a chance to see this little one born......

Xiao Jingyuan did his best to hide the sorrow in his eyes, pulling Shen Shuangning back into his embrace, gently patting her back, softly coaxing her for a while before her emotions gradually calmed.

Meanwhile, outside the bedroom, Emperor Xuwen stood silently, one hand resting on the door panel, his pale face full of smiles.

Ah Yuan has an heir, how wonderful.

The candlelight seeping from within the room was warm and tranquil, making the carvings on the door panel appear especially soft.

Emperor Xuwen hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not push the door open to disturb them.

He handed the item to Qingyun, took one last deep look, then turned and slowly departed, his silhouette appearing especially lonely in the night.

After the person had completely left, Qingyun whispered, "Your Majesty has arrived—why didn't you say so earlier?"

The lackey whose mouth was covered by Qingfeng wore an expression of utter hopelessness. "Come on! You didn't even give me a chance to speak!"

Qingfeng wondered, "How did His Majesty suddenly come over?"

Qingyun shook his head, his eyes full of puzzlement.

Muyu snatched the embroidered box from his hand, leaned in to sniff the medicinal pill inside, and it stank so badly it made her eyes water!

She couldn't help muttering, "Could this really be the antidote?"

Just then, Xiao Jingyuan pushed the door open; Qingyun and Qingfeng instinctively thought he was about to flee again, and immediately grabbed the rope and chains to lunge at him!

Xiao Jingyuan sidestepped, and the two collided, falling flat on their backsides, seeing stars.

Muyu: "...... I'm really impressed."

Xiao Jingyuan glanced at them, then noticed the dazed dark guard standing in the courtyard, and frowned: "What are you doing?"

Muyu: "It's just because we're afraid you'll turn into a shrinking turtle again!"

Xiao Jingyuan said: "Rest assured, I won't leave."

After the dark guard withdrew, Muyu told him what had just happened with Emperor Xuwen's visit and handed him the pill.

Muyu pinched her nose and said, "This smells strange; I don't know what herbs it's made of. Let me say first, I can't guarantee this is really the antidote."

The smell was incredibly pungent; just as Qingfeng had gotten up from the ground, a whiff made his eyes roll back, nearly fainting.

Muyu stood far away and said, "Although that old emperor has never done anything good, this time he specially sent medicine at midnight, so he surely doesn't mean to harm you. Treat it as a last‑ditch effort and give it a try."

At that moment, Shen Shuangning walked out of the room, her eyes full of worry.

Xiao Jingyuan glanced at her, then promptly swallowed the pill.

The pill dissolved upon entering his throat, a scorching surge instantly sliding down his throat into his dantian. Immediately after, intense pain spread from his five viscera and six bowels......

After just a few breaths, Xiao Jingyuan clutched his chest and spat out a mouthful of black blood with a 'wah,' then promptly passed out, his pale, handsome face revealing a hint of splendor.

"Jingyuan!" Shen Shuangning hurried to support him.

"Quick! Lift him inside!" Muyu also didn't mind the irritating smell of the medicine, stepping forward quickly, her voice urgent: "This is a sign of detox; we must lay him flat at once, lest we waste the medicine's effect!"

Qingyun and Qingfeng rushed forward, together lifting him into the room and laying him on the soft couch, but no sooner had they set him down than Xiao Jingyuan vomited several more mouthfuls of black blood in succession.

Seeing this, Shen Shuangning felt her heart torn apart, forgetting to cry, and frantically grabbed a handkerchief to wipe his blood.

Muyu placed three fingers on Xiao Jingyuan's wrist pulse, her brows tightly furrowed.

The room fell into dead silence, only Shen Shuangning's suppressed breathing and the tense stares of Qingyun and Qingfeng could be heard.

After a moment, Muyu's tightly furrowed brows suddenly relaxed; she lifted her head, her face lighting up with delight, and exclaimed loudly, "It's fine! It's fine!!"

Muyu said, then turned to Shen Shuangning and comforted her: "Don't worry, he's vomiting the stagnant toxic blood from his body; once it's out, he'll be fine! He may just be unconscious for a few days, and when he wakes, his body will gradually recover."

Everyone in the room wept with joy.

By the time Shen Shuangning remembered to go out and thank Emperor Xuwen, his silhouette had already vanished beyond the gate.

A carriage passed Chang'an Street, and suddenly fireworks burst in the night sky.

Emperor Xuwen flicked aside the curtain, glanced outside, his voice tinged with weakness: "What day is today? Why is it so lively?"

If the imperial physician were here, he could see that Emperor Xuwen was already at the point of exhausted oil and waning lamp.

Eunuch Hai outside the carriage replied, "Your Majesty, today is the Lantern Festival."

Emperor Xuwen's face showed a flicker of realization, not knowing what he had recalled, and he ordered, "Go buy a rabbit lantern."

Eunuch Hai respectfully assented and immediately went to handle it.

The night in Kunning Palace was especially quiet; a layer of jade-bead curtain hung down, slicing the light and shadow inside the hall into fragments.

Behind the jade-bead curtain, Empress Wang wore an elaborate and splendid palace robe, her cloud-like hair piled high, adorned with numerous vermilion hairpins; she sat upright behind the desk, holding a incense spoon, slowly stirring in the white jade censer.

In the vast palace, not a single attending palace servant was present.

Soon after, the sharp chant of a eunuch pierced the midnight silence.

"His Majesty arrives——!"

Empress Wang's hand holding the incense spoon paused, but she did not rise to greet him; she kept her eyes closed, continuing to swirl the ash in the censer.

Emperor Xuwen strode in, tossed what he held onto the desk before her, and said, "Tell me, is this the reason for your rebellion?"

Empress Wang then opened her eyes, saw the object on the desk—it was the last edict she had dug three feet underground and searched for long—the edict ordering her to die with the emperor!

Yet upon truly seeing this "death warrant," her face showed no trace of panic; instead, a faint sneer curled her lips.

"If Your Majesty wishes me dead, I cannot simply wait for death, waiting for you to bestow a white silk. Colluding with rebels or plotting treason—whatever it is—is merely a desperate path taken to survive."

Eunuch Hai behind Emperor Xuwen angrily retorted, "Since ancient times, when a ruler orders a subject to die, the subject must obey! As the mother of the nation, how can the Empress, for her own life and death, commit treason and disregard the realm and the altars of the state?!"

Empress Wang then lifted her gaze and glanced at Eunuch Hai, only to see him holding a brand-new rabbit lantern.

The lantern's body was made of white silk, its handle tied with red cord, and the embroidered scene of a jade rabbit pounding medicine on its surface was so vivid it seemed it might leap off at any moment.

She was born in the Year of the Rabbit; when the young emperor once took her out of the palace to play, he had bought her one. She had been delighted for a long time because of it.

Later, she stepped on and shattered that rabbit lantern.

Empress Wang stared at the rabbit lantern in Eunuch Hai's hand, her features subtly twisted.

Emperor Xuwen spoke with anguish, "We have been husband and wife for twenty years—how have we come to this?"

"Why?" Empress Wang snapped her eyes up, her voice suddenly rising, she spat hatefully, "Your Majesty, you should not be asking me this; you should be asking yourself! Everything I have done is because you forced me!"

She drew a deep breath, suppressed her surging emotions, and her face regained a layer of icy resolve: "Victory makes a king, defeat makes a bandit—I have lost and accept it. Kill or cut me as you wish! But if you wish to reminisce about old feelings, I find it repulsive; Your Majesty, please just leave!"

After a long while, Emperor Xuwen slowly said, "Very well, I will grant your wish."

As his words fell, he extended his hand to the side.

Eunuch Hai hastily set down the rabbit lantern, took from a young eunuch a jade seal carved with coiling dragon patterns, bowed, and presented it to Emperor Xuwen.

Empress Wang furrowed her brows slightly, looking at him with some confusion.

Only then did Emperor Xuwen take the jade seal, but instead of summoning scholars to draft a document, he bent down, picked up the scroll of bright yellow last edict on the desk, and with a gentle tug of his fingertips, fully unfurled the silk.

The characters on the edict were Emperor Xuwen's own handwriting; this was the first time Empress Wang could clearly see in full the decree announcing her own death.

But when her gaze swept to the end of the edict, she suddenly froze.

The edict bore no imperial seal.

As empress, she knew better than anyone that an edict without the imperial seal was a blank paper, devoid of any legal effect.

"How could this be?"

Empress Wang stared fixedly at that blank space; her former hatred and resolve collapsed completely in that instant, leaving only a tremendous sense of absurdity and bewilderment.

She had feared for years, resisted for years, even dared to stake her entire clan's lives, only to discover in the end that she had been living all along under the shadow of an ineffective last edict?

"This edict, from the moment it was drafted, has never borne the imperial seal," Emperor Xuwen said, watching her face gradually turn pale and distorted.

Empress Wang met his gaze, gradually calming down.

"What difference does it make that it lacks the seal? Since he has already established the edict, it proves he has long harbored murderous intent toward her."

"If he truly had no such intention, he should have destroyed this edict long ago! She has done nothing wrong!!"

Thinking this, Empress Wang's expression grew ever colder; her nails dug deep into her palms, drawing blood.

Just as the imperial seal was about to be affixed, Empress Wang suddenly spoke: "Please, Your Majesty, depose me as empress."

Emperor Xuwen's motion paused; he lifted his eyes to look at the empress.

Being deposed as empress meant she could not be interred in the imperial mausoleum; she did not want, even in death, to be buried alongside him.

"Xiuyi, you will forever be my empress."

Having said that, Emperor Xuwen, in her presence, steadily pressed the jade seal onto the blank space at the end of the edict.

After Emperor Xuwen and his retinue departed, they left behind that rabbit lantern.

Empress Wang reached out, lifted the light lantern on the desk, twitched the corner of her mouth—a smile that did not reach her eyes—and the next second, she flung it forcefully onto the gauze curtain!

The lantern shade rolled off, the candle flame shot out, instantly igniting the thin silk.

That night, the great fire in Kunning Palace lit up half of the imperial palace red.

The Empress immolated herself.

On the second day after the great fire in Kunning Palace, the national mourning bells tolled, and Emperor Xuwen passed away in Fengming Hall.

What is even more lamentable is that, on his deathbed, Emperor Xuwen, summoning his last breath, personally wrote a self-reproach edict.

First, he acknowledged his indulgence twenty years prior of a demonic Daoist that brought calamity upon the state, leading to the tragedy of the Medicine King Valley; second, he took upon himself the fault of the empress's alleged treason.

When this self-reproach edict was issued, the entire nation was shaken.

Seven days later, the thirteen-year-old Fourth Prince Zhai Ming ascended the throne, changing the era name to Yongxi.

Pei Zhi, in accordance with the late emperor's orders, assumed the role of Grand Tutor, head of the Three Dukes, overseeing all matters of state assistance, controlling governmental decisions, and aiding the new emperor in stabilizing the court.

He was truly worthy of the title of imperial preceptor.

Zhai Ji's death did not stir up a major uproar in the court.

However, on this day, someone secretly reported to Pei Zhi.

The informant was named Qin Jie, a notorious playboy scion of the capital, who, due to his indulgence in wine and women, happened to be staying next door that very night.

He personally heard the anguished cries issuing from Zhai Ji's room, and with his own eyes saw Xiao Jingyuan emerge brandishing a blood‑stained sword; afterward he suffered several nights of nightmares.

Later, Qin Jie learned that the current Grand Tutor Pei Zhi was on bad terms with the Duke of An'guo, so he harbored ulterior motives and went to the Pei Residence, hoping to trade this information for some favor—perhaps even to ingratiate himself with this important figure.

Pei Zhi had earned merit for his role in clearing names earlier; this residence was a gift from the late emperor, its surroundings arranged with exquisite taste, befitting the demeanor of the current Junior Tutor.

"...... Grand Tutor, I swear on heaven that every word I speak is true, without a single falsehood!"

Pei Zhi wasn't wearing court robes; a moon-white long robe made him look like a banished immortal, a faint smile playing at the corners of his mouth: "I naturally believe you, but words alone aren't proof—do you have any other evidence?"

Qin Jie hastily pulled a somewhat ugly-cute sachet from his bosom and held it up over his head.

"This is something I found at the Third Prince's; I've investigated thoroughly—this is the Duke of An'guo's personal item! With it, we can prove that the Duke of An'guo visited the Prince's Residence that night!"

Pei Zhi reached out his hand to him, his fingers long and clean.

Qin Jie hurried forward, placing the sachet gently in his palm.

For some reason, watching Pei Zhi's fingers rub the sachet gave Qin Jie the illusion that it was a precious treasure.

Qin Jie inexplicably felt a chill run down his spine.

"Besides you, who else saw it?"

Pei Zhi's voice interrupted Qin Jie's train of thought, and he quickly replied: "The servants and dark guards in the Third Prince's residence have all been silenced; that night, the Prince's Residence had no one else alive but me!"

Pei Zhi seemed to smile with satisfaction: "Very good."