Chapter 487: The True Story Behind the Moon Concubine

Yue'er, you and I were never meant to be separated.

You are mine.

No one in this world can take you away.

This is truly our home—

Zongzheng Qingyue was terrified, breaking out in a cold sweat.

Although she had long harbored a slight doubt, she still could not believe that her dearest brother could truly develop such thoughts that violated proper ethics toward her!

She knelt on the ground, repeatedly shouting, "Brother!"

"The Empress Mother's spirit still lingers here."

"I beg you, swearing by the Empress Mother's departed soul, to let Yue'er and her husband marry into DaLiang!"

"Yue'er is willing to share her brother's worries! She will fulfill her duty as a princess to Great Chu."

"She is willing to become the marriage‑alliance princess between DaLiang and Great Chu!"

Zongzheng Langri then shivered all over, standing rigid and numb in place.

He thought, "You dare not."

He thought, "Yue'er, are you also leaving your brother?"

But he also knew there was no better way than sending his beloved younger sister and her husband to DaLiang to halt the frontier war.

His eyes turned blood‑red as he stared blankly and despondently at his sister, remaining unresponsive for a full half‑day.

In the end, Zongzheng Qingyue resolutely left Great Chu.

She knew that Xie Huaiyuan had betrayed her, and that he himself had placed her on the cold palace's bed.

She also realized that perhaps all he did was forced by Zongzheng Langri.

Zongzheng Langri wanted Zongzheng Qingyue to be utterly disappointed in Xie Huaiyuan and to see what kind of unworthy man he truly was for lifelong trust.

She saw through it.

What saddened Zongzheng Qingyue even more was that she had never experienced a genuine, heartfelt love.

Even Zongzheng Langri had only cultivated a twisted possessive desire toward her over the long years.

His brother may have died long ago alongside the Empress Mother.

After leaving the cold palace, Zongzheng Langri never truly traversed his own heart.

He locked himself forever in the cold palace where the Empress Mother had passed.

Yet Zongzheng Qingyue lived very clearly.

Thus, before departing, she petitioned the emperor for an imperial decree.

She demanded that Xie Huaiyuan be confined forever in Ningyuan Temple, never to step out of the temple again.

This is the fate Xie Huaiyuan deserves.

After Zongzheng Qingyue married into DaLiang, her stunning beauty and gentle yet clear temperament quickly won Emperor Yan's favor and affection.

Emperor Yan adored her above all in the harem, and for years did not set foot in any other concubine's chambers.

Even the Empress, on the first and fifteenth days when she was to attend the morning rites, only ever ate a quick meal before resolutely and ruthlessly leaving.

Saying there are three thousand beauties in the harem yet he exclusively favored her alone is no exaggeration.

Even when Zongzheng Qingyue sincerely asked Emperor Yan to visit other consorts more often, it provoked his intense jealousy, as he thought she did not love her husband enough.

Soon under Emperor Yan's extreme favor and protection, Zongzheng Qingyue gave birth to a son.

That son was DaLiang's Fifth Prince, named Duan Rongshi.

In the following years, no other princes or even princesses were born in the palace.

Emperor Yan once said personally that after the Fifth Prince, all his offspring would come solely from the Moon Concubine's womb.

His particular indulgence made the Moon Concubine several times think perhaps she had truly found a sincere love.

Even though everyone in the palace hated her like a splinter in the eye and flesh.

She lived as if walking on thin ice, yet finally she perceived what happiness is.

But soon she once again witnessed the king's ruthlessness.

Li Qingluo looked at Duan Rongshi, "You should already know most of what happened later."

"Back then, the Empress secretly sought a go‑between, colluding with Zongzheng Zhiyuan to obtain Zongzheng Langri's handwriting."

"The expert beside her mimicked Zongzheng Langri's handwriting to write several unforgettable, heart‑breaking letters to the mother consort."

"Later, this filthy slander was all splashed onto the mother consort."

Duan Rongshi's face was shrouded in a shadow.

He was strenuously suppressing the turbulent, fierce emotions raging within him.

Li Qingluo could only tightly grip his hand, soothing him gently yet firmly.

After a long pause, Duan Rongshi finally continued Li Qingluo's words.

What he spoke of were the truths about the mother consort's death that he had uncovered in DaLiang over the years.

"Duan Changyan had sent people to Great Chu back then."

"The covert investigations among the people revealed stories of the Chu Emperor's earlier mad adoration of the mother consort."

"The truth and falsehood were mixed, and when DaLiang responded, it was clear beyond doubt that the siblings had long harbored an illicit affair."

"Duan Changyan, in extreme anger, felt humiliated and came to hate the mother consort he deemed already unclean."

"Thus, he began to indulge and even tacitly permit the concubines throughout the palace—who had long resented the mother consort's exclusive favor, including the Empress—to direct their schemes against her."

"During that period, the mother consort was arbitrarily punished to kneel or stand in the rain all night, transcribed forty‑two sutras, stayed up sewing robes, and with her own hands in the cold winter month she personally retrieved pearls the Empress had dropped into the lake."

"These filthy and covert methods were countless."

"Even everyone could, because of those increasingly false rumors, call the mother consort a shameless, disgusting whore."

The mother consort realized that the imperial favor had already run its course, so she secretly arranged for the loyal servants who had accompanied her when she first married into DaLiang to fake their deaths and leave the palace.

To keep the secret that they were still alive, she could only be ruthless and have someone cut out their tongues.

And with all her remaining power, she protected Guiyuan, this patch of pure land, hoping to leave me a memory for the future.

The mother consort could only allow the entire imperial harem to continually stuff people into her Guifu Palace.

But her own means and abilities were truly limited; in the end she exhausted herself, also to protect the purity of my background, and ultimately did not follow the fake-death escape from the imperial palace.

That year, at the full moon of Mid-Autumn, all the consorts from the various palaces, as if by agreement, each brought something and went to the mother consort's Guifu Palace.

I was deliberately kept in the school by Grand Tutor Su.

When Guifu Palace was set ablaze, the mother consort had already been thoroughly killed by them using every kind of poison, blades, venomous snakes… several steel nails, and even countless other vile and vicious methods, all acting together to murder her.

Duan Rongshi closed his eyes heavily.

His voice carried a slight tremor.

He had never been so fragile before.

Just because thinking of the mother consort who bore and raised him—so gentle, kind, yet steadfast—she had endured countless heart-rending, bone-piercing pains in her life.

Betrayed by those close to her, abandoned by those she loved.

Those who loved her ended up hating her to the marrow.

Even personally wielding a knife to slice her.

What crime could possibly deserve such an end?

After a long while, he slowly opened his misty eyes and looked at Li Qingluo.

"Luo'er, is the truth really like this?"

"The entire DaLiang harem includes Duan Changyan, the cold Empress Dowager who refuses to act, the Empress who abets and even frames the mother consort, the Virtuous Consort, the Beautiful Consort, the Harmonious Consort… each and every one of them is the true murderer who killed the mother consort back then."

"Is what I said right or wrong?"

Li Qingluo: "Yes."

"You already knew the answer, why ask me again?"

Duan Rongshi stared at the cliff below, his whole body emanating a chilling, blade-like aura: "Thus, when I someday return to slaughter my way back into DaLiang, that will be the day these people and their forces are utterly eradicated, root and branch."

However, before my eyes, in Da Chu, there is still another person who deserves to die.