Xiao Hong—Prince Zhongshan was somewhat stunned. No one had called him by his name directly in so many years that he had almost forgotten it himself.
The girl before him stood up.
“Xiao Hong, do you think I came here to beg you for mercy?”
“Do you think I captured your son to threaten you?”
“I led two forces of troops to first kill your son, then kill you, then slaughter the entire Prince Zhongshan’s manor!”
“You, your son Xiao Xun, and all seven of your children, your multitude of concubines—all must die.”
Prince Zhongshan said: “Empress Chu talks big—just with those two forces outside—”
“Your Highness,” Chu Zhao interrupted him, her expression somewhere between a smile and something else. “What do you think I, Chu Zhao, have relied on to reach where I am today?”
Prince Zhongshan was slightly startled. She relied on—Chu Ling.
Chu Zhao looked at him with a smile: “Your Highness, you planned for many years, yet that night you were defeated at my hands. Have you never wondered why?”
Because of the Dragon Might Army.
Prince Zhongshan had long suspected that there was an unknown connection between Chu Ling and the Emperor, which was why after all these years of being cast aside, he hadn’t fallen into obscurity.
That night, when the young prince was escorted and fought his way out, the Dragon Might Army was also revealed to the world.
And Chu Zhao still asked why—
“That night the heir ran very fast and didn’t know the details. The one who controlled the Dragon Might Army was my father’s deputy general. That night he was in the capital and came to rescue me, but before he arrived, I had already killed the men the heir had surrounding my home and successfully escaped.” Chu Zhao looked at Prince Zhongshan and said, “Your Highness, what do you think I relied on to escape? My uncle and my cousin?”
Prince Zhongshan’s eyes narrowed slightly, but he said nothing.
“Your Highness, think about now—I’m in a border commandery, yet with a laugh and a word I control the heir’s life and death.” Chu Zhao smiled slightly. “Is that also because my cousin and uncle are divinely brave?”
Setting aside what happened before, and not even mentioning who helped Chu Lan’s family capture Xiao Xun, just the speed at which messages were transmitted back and forth—when the court’s official postal stations were either cut off or under surveillance—was enough to prove that this girl’s words were not empty bravado.
Prince Zhongshan looked at Chu Zhao and nodded: “I understand now.” He sighed lightly. “I truly never imagined that someone like General Chu Ling would also raise private troops.”
Chu Zhao said flatly: “What Your Highness can do, a subject can also do.” Without waiting for Prince Zhongshan to ask more, she continued: “Xiao Hong, as long as I, Chu Zhao, am alive, you cannot become emperor, nor can your son. And when I, Chu Zhao, die, you will all accompany me in death!”
Prince Zhongshan gripped his cane and watched her in silence.
The girl smiled again.
“If you kill me, you won’t survive either. My forces—the ones you can see and the ones you cannot—are spread everywhere outside. As soon as I die, they will use every means to kill you.”
“If I die, I will still be Da Xia’s Empress. If you die, you won’t even be a prince of Da Xia.”
“In this life, I, Chu Zhao, have obtained everything I wanted without the slightest regret. Even death is no loss to me.”
She looked at Prince Zhongshan, enunciating each word.
“So even if you’re willing to let your son die, even if you’re not afraid of death and want to perish together with me—this time, I still win.”