Na Yuan pointed at Concubine Wan and said earnestly, "Your Majesty still doesn't understand? This person is not Nalan Xing at all. She is Guo Mengxue from Changzhou. Because she looks very much like my mother, she and Xia Zixi planned years ago to kill my mother and replace her, so that Guo Mengxue could enter the palace and become Your Majesty's concubine. Xia Zixi was Your Majesty's personal bodyguard, and knew well that Your Majesty loved my mother. When he went to Changzhou to fetch someone, he happened to come across his childhood sweetheart Guo Mengxue, and seeing that she closely resembled my mother, he hatched this sinister plot to send his own woman into Your Majesty's palace."
The Tianqi Emperor angrily waved his hand and demanded, "Killed?!"
Na Yuan gave a mocking laugh. "That's right. To protect me, my mother fled for her life and was saved by a village woman. That woman died in a fire in place of my mother. The fire was set by this woman called Guo Mengxue."
The Tianqi Emperor's lips moved as if to speak, and he anxiously asked, "Then where is your mother now?!"
Na Yuan paused, then slowly said while looking sorrowfully into the Tianqi Emperor's pained eyes, "She's dead. To protect me, she was raped to death by some thugs..."
When the Tianqi Emperor heard that the woman he had loved all his life was brutally violated to death while protecting their child, his heart was seized as if by a giant hand. Feelings of rage, disbelief, and heartbroken grief surged through him at once.
He shook his head to clear it. "How could this be...?"
He had brought her back to the imperial palace, built her the most luxurious quarters, and bestowed on her all the imperial favor that any woman could dream of.
How could she have ended up wandering outside and getting raped to death by thugs?
She was such a beautiful, kind, and lovely young lady... How could she have not met a good end?
Na Yuan looked at him sarcastically and gave a hollow laugh. "What, does Your Majesty not believe it? Don't believe that the woman you've loved all your life was actually an impostor?"
The Tianqi Emperor's face turned ashen, and his whole body went cold. He began to tremble violently.
Over all these years, he had harbored suspicions...
He had always thought people's natures would change as they aged, and never imagined someone would kill his beloved, and the woman who had shared his bed for over a decade was actually that heartless murderer!
Unable to stand, the Tianqi Emperor hunched over and slowly knelt to the ground, pressing his forehead tightly to the cold floor. From his throat came a faint sob, followed by a long, agonized wail...
The vast, silent hall was shrouded in intense grief.
Before the Tianqi Emperor could react in rage, a shrill scream suddenly rang out from the meditation room next door.
"Come quickly!"
Zhao Changdu's eyes narrowed, his dark pupils instantly turning cold. "Your Majesty, Prince Shu is also at the Qingyun Monastery, and my wife Gu Ying is there too. I must go take a look right now."
"Men, tie up Concubine Wan--" the Tianqi Emperor's muddy eyes flashed with murderous cruelty as he gritted his teeth and ordered, "No, tie up Guo Mengxue and Xia Zixi and bring them to me to await my verdict! Do not let word of tonight's events leak out. Anyone who dares spread a single word will be executed immediately!"
Concubine Wan turned white with shock, while Xia Zixi's face was also bloodless. They were quickly gagged and trussed up by the imperial guards.
Zhao Changdu rushed to the adjoining meditation room, kicking open the door. Someone swiftly entered holding a torch, lighting up the dark room brightly.
The Tianqi Emperor grabbed Na Yuan's arm and followed closely behind, frowning.
With the door wide open, they saw Li Yang naked and entangled with a woman on the bed, the scene extremely lewd and lascivious. The air was still heavy with the smell of their intense lovemaking.
In a rage, the Tianqi Emperor stormed over and dragged Li Yang off the bed. "Wicked son! In this sacred Daoist sanctuary, you dare commit such licentious acts! Have you truly gone mad?!"
Li Yang's handsome face flushed red, his eyes dazed, as he slumped to the floor, completely confused about what was happening.
The woman on the bed had already been violated to within an inch of her life. Her snow-white body lay pitifully on the sheets, covered in large purplish bruises, with a sizeable pool of blood between her legs...
Everyone inhaled sharply at the sight, looking at the woman sympathetically.
Yet Li Yang was still panting with desire, turning to get back on the bed to continue his debauchery.
The Tianqi Emperor furiously slapped him across the face.
Only then did Li Yang come to his senses. Seeing the Tianqi Emperor's enraged, blackened face, he immediately knelt down in panic. "Father, what are you doing here?!"
The Tianqi Emperor said derisively, "If I hadn't come, how would I have witnessed this good show?"
Li Yang looked up and saw Zhao Changdu's cold, stern, handsome face. Hurriedly he turned to look at the bed, exclaiming, "Father, you've misunderstood! Your son didn't mean to... Your son didn't... It was Gu Ying! Gu Ying gave your son an aphrodisiac and seduced him, that's why your son committed this terrible mistake! Father, it's all Gu Ying's fault!"
"Ha, how can Prince Shu spew such baseless accusations?"
A soft voice sounded lightly from outside the meditation room.
Li Yang shuddered in shock and looked up sharply.
A peerlessly beautiful woman walked in from behind the crowd at the door.
One hand supporting her swollen belly and the other stroking her rouge pot, an exquisite smile played at the corners of her lips. "Your Majesty, as you can see, this afternoon I went with my maid to listen to the abbot's dharma talk. I didn't even see Prince Shu. I still don't know why Prince Shu would be in my meditation room... Could it be that the Prince harbored lecherous intentions toward me, but somehow ended up victimizing the general's wife instead?"
Only now did Li Yang realize that the woman he had ravaged half to death was not Gu Ying, but Lady Li!
He trembled with rage, looking resentfully at Gu Ying. After scheming for so long, how could he have ended up with nothing overnight?!
He had wanted her so badly...yet how did things turn out this way in the end?
Gu Ying smiled enchantingly. "Your Highness, what do you want from me?"
The color drained from Li Yang's face. "You... How are you here? And how did she end up in your room?"
Of course, Gu Ying wasn't about to tell him this was all arranged by her long ago.
She calmly walked to the Crown Prince's side, took his large hand in hers, and blinked innocently. "Shouldn't you be asking yourself that, Your Highness?"
Li Yang slumped dejectedly to the floor. Facing Zhao Changdu's icy, murderous gaze, he shuddered instinctively. "This prince..."
"Oh, that reminds me, Your Majesty," Gu Ying turned sideways to address the apoplectic Tianqi Emperor. "Today at Qingyun Monastery I met someone who said he was Your Majesty's old friend. He wanted to see Your Majesty but lacked channels to reach you before. Today he specifically asked to see me, so I took the liberty of bringing him along."
Na Yuan pointed at Concubine Wan and said earnestly, "Your Majesty still doesn't understand? This person is not Nalan Xing at all. She is Guo Mengxue from Changzhou. Because she looks very much like my mother, she and Xia Zixi planned years ago to kill my mother and replace her, so that Guo Mengxue could enter the palace and become Your Majesty's concubine. Xia Zixi was Your Majesty's personal bodyguard, and knew well that Your Majesty loved my mother. When he went to Changzhou to fetch someone, he happened to come across his childhood sweetheart Guo Mengxue, and seeing that she closely resembled my mother, he hatched this sinister plot to send his own woman into Your Majesty's palace."
The Tianqi Emperor angrily waved his hand and demanded, "Killed?!"
Na Yuan gave a mocking laugh. "That's right. To protect me, my mother fled for her life and was saved by a village woman. That woman died in a fire in place of my mother. The fire was set by this woman called Guo Mengxue."
The Tianqi Emperor's lips moved as if to speak, and he anxiously asked, "Then where is your mother now?!"
Na Yuan paused, then slowly said while looking sorrowfully into the Tianqi Emperor's pained eyes, "She's dead. To protect me, she was raped to death by some thugs..."
When the Tianqi Emperor heard that the woman he had loved all his life was brutally violated to death while protecting their child, his heart was seized as if by a giant hand. Feelings of rage, disbelief, and heartbroken grief surged through him at once.
He shook his head to clear it. "How could this be...?"
He had brought her back to the imperial palace, built her the most luxurious quarters, and bestowed on her all the imperial favor that any woman could dream of.
How could she have ended up wandering outside and getting raped to death by thugs?
She was such a beautiful, kind, and lovely young lady... How could she have not met a good end?
Na Yuan looked at him sarcastically and gave a hollow laugh. "What, does Your Majesty not believe it? Don't believe that the woman you've loved all your life was actually an impostor?"
The Tianqi Emperor's face turned ashen, and his whole body went cold. He began to tremble violently.
Over all these years, he had harbored suspicions...
He had always thought people's natures would change as they aged, and never imagined someone would kill his beloved, and the woman who had shared his bed for over a decade was actually that heartless murderer!
Unable to stand, the Tianqi Emperor hunched over and slowly knelt to the ground, pressing his forehead tightly to the cold floor. From his throat came a faint sob, followed by a long, agonized wail...
The vast, silent hall was shrouded in intense grief.
Before the Tianqi Emperor could react in rage, a shrill scream suddenly rang out from the meditation room next door.
"Come quickly!"
Zhao Changdu's eyes narrowed, his dark pupils instantly turning cold. "Your Majesty, Prince Shu is also at the Qingyun Monastery, and my wife Gu Ying is there too. I must go take a look right now."
"Men, tie up Concubine Wan--" the Tianqi Emperor's muddy eyes flashed with murderous cruelty as he gritted his teeth and ordered, "No, tie up Guo Mengxue and Xia Zixi and bring them to me to await my verdict! Do not let word of tonight's events leak out. Anyone who dares spread a single word will be executed immediately!"
Concubine Wan turned white with shock, while Xia Zixi's face was also bloodless. They were quickly gagged and trussed up by the imperial guards.
Zhao Changdu rushed to the adjoining meditation room, kicking open the door. Someone swiftly entered holding a torch, lighting up the dark room brightly.
The Tianqi Emperor grabbed Na Yuan's arm and followed closely behind, frowning.
With the door wide open, they saw Li Yang naked and entangled with a woman on the bed, the scene extremely lewd and lascivious. The air was still heavy with the smell of their intense lovemaking.
In a rage, the Tianqi Emperor stormed over and dragged Li Yang off the bed. "Wicked son! In this sacred Daoist sanctuary, you dare commit such licentious acts! Have you truly gone mad?!"
Li Yang's handsome face flushed red, his eyes dazed, as he slumped to the floor, completely confused about what was happening.
The woman on the bed had already been violated to within an inch of her life. Her snow-white body lay pitifully on the sheets, covered in large purplish bruises, with a sizeable pool of blood between her legs...
Everyone inhaled sharply at the sight, looking at the woman sympathetically.
Yet Li Yang was still panting with desire, turning to get back on the bed to continue his debauchery.
The Tianqi Emperor furiously slapped him across the face.
Only then did Li Yang come to his senses. Seeing the Tianqi Emperor's enraged, blackened face, he immediately knelt down in panic. "Father, what are you doing here?!"
The Tianqi Emperor said derisively, "If I hadn't come, how would I have witnessed this good show?"
Li Yang looked up and saw Zhao Changdu's cold, stern, handsome face. Hurriedly he turned to look at the bed, exclaiming, "Father, you've misunderstood! Your son didn't mean to... Your son didn't... It was Gu Ying! Gu Ying gave your son an aphrodisiac and seduced him, that's why your son committed this terrible mistake! Father, it's all Gu Ying's fault!"
"Ha, how can Prince Shu spew such baseless accusations?"
A soft voice sounded lightly from outside the meditation room.
Li Yang shuddered in shock and looked up sharply.
A peerlessly beautiful woman walked in from behind the crowd at the door.
One hand supporting her swollen belly and the other stroking her rouge pot, an exquisite smile played at the corners of her lips. "Your Majesty, as you can see, this afternoon I went with my maid to listen to the abbot's dharma talk. I didn't even see Prince Shu. I still don't know why Prince Shu would be in my meditation room... Could it be that the Prince harbored lecherous intentions toward me, but somehow ended up victimizing the general's wife instead?"
Only now did Li Yang realize that the woman he had ravaged half to death was not Gu Ying, but Lady Li!
He trembled with rage, looking resentfully at Gu Ying. After scheming for so long, how could he have ended up with nothing overnight?!
He had wanted her so badly...yet how did things turn out this way in the end?
Gu Ying smiled enchantingly. "Your Highness, what do you want from me?"
The color drained from Li Yang's face. "You... How are you here? And how did she end up in your room?"
Of course, Gu Ying wasn't about to tell him this was all arranged by her long ago.
She calmly walked to the Crown Prince's side, took his large hand in hers, and blinked innocently. "Shouldn't you be asking yourself that, Your Highness?"
Li Yang slumped dejectedly to the floor. Facing Zhao Changdu's icy, murderous gaze, he shuddered instinctively. "This prince..."
"Oh, that reminds me, Your Majesty," Gu Ying turned sideways to address the apoplectic Tianqi Emperor. "Today at Qingyun Monastery I met someone who said he was Your Majesty's old friend. He wanted to see Your Majesty but lacked channels to reach you before. Today he specifically asked to see me, so I took the liberty of bringing him along."
