Through the gaps in the bookshelf, Chu Zhao looked outside. Her gaze was focused yet empty, as if staring at Chu Lan, yet also seeming to look past Chu Lan toward the depths of the night.
So this was how she and her father had been toyed with in someone’s palm.
……
……
In the Imperial City shrouded in deep night, layer upon layer of high walls, hall after hall of palaces seemed to isolate everything.
In a hall in the deepest part of the inner palace, it was so quiet that even the candlelight seemed to stop flickering. The person lying on the wide dragon bed was like a stone statue.
Until he let out a long breath. In that instant, the atmosphere in the hall began to flow, the candlelight began to dance, the bed curtains swayed gently, and the eunuchs moved about softly.
“Your Majesty.” A eunuch said cautiously. “Would you like some refreshments?”
The Emperor made a sound of acknowledgment: “Bring some crispy yellow pastries.”
The eunuch was about to speak when the Emperor laughed at himself.
“I forgot—these are what the Noble Consort used to make.” he said. “Now the Noble Consort is dead.”
Just half an hour ago, the Noble Consort who had accompanied the Emperor for many years with her gentle charm had attempted to harm His Majesty and been strangled to death by the Emperor. She was still hanging from the beam in the room.
Not one person from the Noble Consort’s palace had been spared.
Thinking of the scene just now, the eunuch couldn’t help but shudder. Serving as a eunuch in the Imperial City, he prided himself on having seen all manner of wickedness, but this direct face-to-face slaughter and bloodshed—no matter how much one heard about it, witnessing it firsthand was still different in its impact.
“Your Majesty.” he hurriedly said. “Our imperial kitchen also knows how to make these.”
Only then did the Emperor make a sound of acknowledgment: “Then make some. The night is still long.”
The eunuch ordered someone to go while stepping forward to help the Emperor sit up. He didn’t know if it was because he himself was weak from shock, but he felt the Emperor was particularly heavy.
Alas, the woman who had been his constant companion wanted to harm him, and his two biological sons were slaughtering each other. Having such things happen, even if the Emperor didn’t say it, the shock and blow he suffered must be considerable.
After all, he was also a frail and sickly old man.
“What’s the situation?” the Emperor asked. “The Crown Prince is already dead—is it still not over?”
The eunuch lowered his head: “Not yet. The capital is still very chaotic, with burning and killing everywhere.”
“The Imperial City hasn’t been spared either, has it?” the Emperor asked again.
The eunuch dared not conceal it and acknowledged yes, then hurriedly added: “Your Majesty, though the outer city is a mixed jumble, the inner palace guards are all carefully selected and loyal to Your Majesty without question.”
The Emperor let out a laugh, strange and peculiar.
“I don’t trust them at all.” he said, then glanced at the eunuch. “Any of you.”
The eunuch’s scalp went numb at these words. He dropped to his knees with a thud: “Your Majesty, this old servant—”
But he couldn’t express his loyalty. The Emperor impatiently interrupted.
“Go summon Deng Yi.” he said.
Deng Yi? The eunuch was stunned. What was a Deng Yi?
The eunuch didn’t dare say he didn’t know. If he didn’t know, he could go ask—he certainly couldn’t ask His Majesty. He turned to leave, but was called back by the Emperor.
The Emperor pulled off his belt and tossed it over.
“Take this, in case he won’t listen.”