Chapter 54#
Night fell, and the palace was under martial law.#
Lamps and candles burned brightly within the Eastern Palace, while palace attendants stood with heads bowed in silence. Suddenly, a fleeting shadow passed among the lamplights, a cold flash of steel tearing through the stillness. A dagger ripped through the bed curtains, and its chilling blade struck directly at the figure before the desk.
“Guards! Protect the Crown Prince!!!”
The Crown Prince stumbled back several steps in shock. The blade had already slit the throat of a palace attendant. The scream shattered the silence, alerting the Eastern Palace guards outside the doors.
A swift horse galloped at full speed. Qi Hanzhou rode to the city gates before switching to a carriage. He dismounted and reached out a hand toward Ying Fusheng, only to see his face pale. Ying Fusheng said nothing more, taking his hand to dismount, his steps slightly unsteady upon landing.
Without further words, he only said, “You go into the palace first. It’s not convenient for us to go together.”
Qi Hanzhou nodded. The matter of the thatched cottage involved secrets of the palace. In the distance, the carriage arranged by Shen Changcun had already arrived.
Before the two could part ways, a Jinyiwei officer came galloping toward them from afar. Ying Fusheng had just entered the carriage when he heard the urgent report: “Commander, something has happened in the palace—”
Cining Palace!? Ying Fusheng instantly gripped the carriage window, hearing the Jinyiwei continue, “The Eastern Palace was attacked. The Crown Prince is injured. His Majesty orders you to enter the palace at once!”
As the words fell, both their expressions shifted dramatically.
Within the palace, people rushed about. Imperial physicians and guards hurried toward the Eastern Palace.
A sudden upheaval had struck the Eastern Palace: assassins had attacked the Crown Prince. Fortunately, the palace guards discovered and subdued them in time. However, the Crown Prince suffered minor injuries. The Emperor was enraged upon hearing the news, plunging the palace into a state of tension.
The Eastern Palace was heavily guarded. The imperial guard had already surrounded it entirely. When Qi Hanzhou arrived, he saw chaos inside the hall. The assassins had been killed on the spot, their bodies dragged outside. The imperial guard and Jinyiwei were investigating the scene.
The Emperor suddenly turned to him, his expression grim.
After paying his respects, Qi Hanzhou quickly walked outside the hall to examine the bodies, his gaze darkening.
Someone had sent assassins to kill the Crown Prince, but they had failed. Unlike the previous assassination attempt by the young healer, these bodies bore signs of martial training. Once captured, they immediately committed suicide—clearly a well-prepared method.
The Eastern Palace was the residence of the heir apparent. First there was the attack on Cining Palace, and now the attack on the Eastern Palace.
If anyone dared to trespass against the Eastern Palace today, tomorrow that blade would strike the Qianqing Palace.
This directly touched the Emperor’s inviolable scale. Assassins had managed to breach the palace’s layered defenses and storm directly into the Eastern Palace. What Qi Hanzhou saw was the Jinyiwei and imperial guard on duty that night being individually questioned. The imperial guard commander’s face was especially grave. Since Ye Xuanjiu had reported on the Eastern Palace’s assassins, Qi Hanzhou had kept a close watch on the Eastern Palace. But tonight’s incident was sudden, suggesting it had been a last-minute decision. The Jinyiwei hadn’t even had time to relay the news to him.
Within the Eastern Palace, the attendants knelt on the ground. Soon, voices came from outside—
“Her Majesty the Empress Dowager has arrived.”
Ying Fusheng had just reached the palace when he arrived alongside the Empress Dowager.
As soon as he entered, he saw the mess on the floor. Bloodstains still lingered in the hall. Those involved had already been dragged away, leaving only the Emperor and the others inside. The imperial physicians were stationed in the bedchamber. The Crown Prince had half-removed his robes. His face was pale from excessive blood loss, a knife wound on his arm being treated by a physician. He leaned against Empress Xu’s arm, seemingly still in shock.
Outside the bedchamber, there was chaos. The Empress Dowager asked what had happened, and the other physicians explained the situation nearby.
The wound was somewhat deep, but fortunately, it had not damaged anything else. It required treatment and rest.
Ying Fusheng stayed close to her, casting his gaze slightly aside.
Empress Xu had just returned to the palace when she received news of the Crown Prince’s attack. She rushed over in haste and, upon seeing his injury, her expression seemed somewhat unnatural. She held the Crown Prince tightly, her gaze tense as she listened to the physicians’ diagnosis. Beside her, the female official Shuangyue stood with half-lowered eyes, her expression unreadable. She whispered words of comfort beside Empress Xu.
At first glance, there was nothing unusual.
Ying Fusheng fixed his gaze. But it couldn’t be a coincidence—the assassination had occurred precisely when the Empress returned to the palace. The assassins had gone to the thatched cottage to silence witnesses, and then the Eastern Palace incident happened, perfectly timed at every critical juncture.
This was no accident; it was a meticulously orchestrated “assassination.”
The Crown Prince leaned half against Empress Xu, his expression unreadable until the physicians finished bandaging him. Only then did he slowly come to his senses. His face bore all the marks of an injured man. When Empress Xu saw him stand, her expression shifted slightly as if to support him, but the Crown Prince forced himself to remain steady, rising to bow to the Emperor and Empress Dowager.
Seeing his condition, the Emperor’s furrowed brow relaxed somewhat. “Since you’re injured, rest well.”
Just then, a Jinyiwei officer hurried in from outside, stepping forward to report, “Your Majesty, poison has been detected in the food.”
When Empress Xu heard the word “poison,” her expression changed slightly. “What poison?!”
Her voice was somewhat shrill, drawing sidelong glances from those around her. Others assumed the Empress was overly concerned, but only the female official beside her noticed the shift in her expression and the sharp look in her eyes.
The Emperor ignored the Empress’s loss of composure, turning to the Jinyiwei and saying in a heavy tone, “Speak.”
“This poison evaded the silver needle test. Its nature is still unknown; it requires identification by the medical officers,” the Jinyiwei reported. So it wasn’t just the assassination attempt—the food also contained poison that had not been detected by the silver needle.
Several imperial physicians hurried over, each with a furrowed brow, looking deeply troubled.
The Empress’s face turned very ugly. She stared intently at the medicine that the physicians had prepared and brought before her. Seeing this, the physician quickly said, “Rest assured, Your Grace. This medicine is safe.”
Only after the physicians confirmed it multiple times did Empress Xu allow someone to administer the medicine.
Ying Fusheng said nothing. He stayed by the Empress Dowager’s side, quietly observing the unfolding events.
His gaze fell on the Crown Prince in the distance. While everyone else was shocked by the poison in the food, the Crown Prince’s reaction was a beat slower than the others, as if he had already known about the poison.
The Emperor saw Empress Xu’s pale face. He ordered the physicians to thoroughly examine everything and commanded the imperial guard to act. All palace attendants responsible for the Crown Prince’s meals tonight were to be detained. “Qi Hanzhou, I entrust this matter to your Jinyiwei.”
Qi Hanzhou entered from outside the hall. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
After speaking, the Emperor’s gaze hardened as he looked at the imperial guard commander. “Increase the Eastern Palace’s guard in the coming days. If anything else goes wrong, you can forget about being commander!”
A group of palace attendants knelt in terror, begging for mercy. The Empress Dowager gave a few instructions before ordering the attendants to handle other matters properly. The attendants who had delivered the food were all dragged away…
As Ying Fusheng left with the Empress Dowager, he saw the bodies on the ground. The clothing around the waist of one body had been torn open, revealing no insignia—clearly, Qi Hanzhou had already inspected him. This was a corpse disguised as an assassin. Who the dead man was didn’t matter. What mattered was that the Emperor saw it.
Qi Hanzhou had just uncovered the Eastern Palace’s assassins, and now, in a flash, an assassin lay dead within the Eastern Palace. This was no coincidence. If so, any further evidence of assassins in the Eastern Palace could be dismissed as more assassins.
Had the The man behind the scenes noticed Qi Hanzhou? Or was this part of a larger scheme?
As Ying Fusheng pondered, he observed the defenses outside the Eastern Palace. The assassination was too major—far more significant than the healer incident at Cining Palace. These were actual assassins. The Crown Prince, after all, was the heir to the throne. This incident was enough to make his father take the matter seriously once more.
The Crown Prince had been punished for mishandling court affairs, and his standing in his father’s heart had been shaken. Now, coincidentally, this event could soften the Emperor’s dissatisfaction with the Crown Prince, redirecting the issue to palace security… On the surface and behind the scenes, it was a move to bolster the Crown Prince.
Ying Fusheng recalled the expression the Crown Prince had given Shuangyue as they left. The Crown Prince couldn’t have been unaware of these matters.
A risky gambit, immediately cleansing those around him while also securing an increase in Eastern Palace guards… If the Crown Prince met with trouble, the Kunming Palace couldn’t ignore it. In this way, power would quickly converge in the hands of Kunming Palace—specifically, Shuangyue.
“Are you scared?” the Empress Dowager suddenly asked.
Ying Fusheng’s expression tightened slightly. Seeing the Empress Dowager’s kind eyes looking at him, he felt as if the dark thoughts churning in his mind had nowhere to hide.
The Empress Dowager looked at him seriously. Ying Fusheng averted her gaze. “I’m a little tired.”
“Don’t be afraid. What happened at Cining Palace won’t happen again,” the Empress Dowager said.
Ying Fusheng was slightly taken aback. Since the healer incident last year, the Empress Dowager had done a lot for him.
He said nothing. The Empress Dowager, assuming he was frightened, patted his hand reassuringly. Soon, they had reached Cining Palace.
The The man behind the scenes ’s actions in the harem were intensifying. Kunming Palace was consolidating power. With Shuangyue’s position, it was only a matter of time before she extended her reach back to Cining Palace… And there was likely more than just Shuangyue’s hidden piece in the palace. If the The man behind the scenes wanted to fully set foot in the palace, they would, as in the previous life, eliminate the Empress Dowager.
Ying Fusheng looked at her hand, recalling what Chen Xuqiu had said about the mother-child gu worms at the thatched cottage. The crops that could harbor the mother gu existed long within the palace, but the Empress Dowager had only fallen ill last year. The mother gu was probably hidden very deep, making it difficult to discover for now. That would leave him completely at a disadvantage.
The Empress Dowager could not leave the palace, and the mother gu was hard to find.
The failure of the assassins at the thatched cottage would soon be reported to the palace. Waiting was passive.
That meant he had to break the deadlock by striking first…
“Little Six?” the Empress Dowager said.
Ying Fusheng snapped back to reality, seeing the worry in the Empress Dowager’s eyes.
Since she had taken him in at Cining Palace, she had never been guarded around him. He suppressed the rising thoughts. “I just spaced out.”
Perhaps his face was too pale. Seeing him frequently lost in thought, the Empress Dowager’s gaze grew more concerned. She thought he had been frightened.
The Eastern Palace was covered in blood. The child had just returned from outside the palace for a walk today; seeing such a scene would naturally be unsettling. Thinking of all the things he had endured, her heart softened. She instructed Aunt Yu to make arrangements: “Stay here tonight. Don’t be afraid.”
The Sixth Prince would rest in the main hall of Cining Palace. Aunt Yu went to prepare, soon bringing his things.
“You did well on your errand outside the palace. I heard from the merchants about your sending them south,” the Empress Dowager said softly. “But that was a bit rash. This time, luck was on your side with Shen Changcun’s help, but luck lies with heaven.”
“Think thrice before acting. Sincerity is commendable, but recklessness is not.”
Ying Fusheng looked at her slightly.
The Empress Dowager said this without evasion, nor did she expose Ying Fusheng’s true intentions. She simply added, “If there’s something you don’t understand, you can come ask grandmother, understand?”
Ying Fusheng’s mind stirred. The Empress Dowager’s voice was gentle, as if she sensed his worries. Rarely talkative, she chatted a bit more with him.
“Your Grace, your attitude toward the Sixth Prince has changed,” Aunt Yu said.
Seeing Ying Fusheng close his eyes to rest, the Empress Dowager reached out to brush away the stray hair on his forehead, faintly feeling its warmth. She said nothing more, only replying, “I am old. There are few children left by my side. His maternal family does not protect him, so someone must. I do what I can.”
Aunt Yu attended the Empress Dowager as she rested.
In the dead of night, Ying Fusheng opened his eyes. He got down from the bed and walked toward the sleeping Empress Dowager.
Song’an, who was serving in the distance, approached. Ying Fusheng asked, “Arranged?”
The other attendants were all fast asleep. The Empress Dowager’s breathing had slowed, steady and normal. In the distance, the sleeping incense burned slowly. Unless something major happened, the night watchmen at Cining Palace would not wake up. Song’an quietly came over and handed Ying Fusheng a set of acupuncture needles. Ying Fusheng took them expertly, reached for the Empress Dowager’s pulse, and inserted the silver needles steadily.
Song’an was slightly startled, but Ying Fusheng turned and cut his own palm, suddenly letting blood—
“No one will know about tonight.”
…
At the Eastern Palace, outside the hall, people knelt in rows. Those who had been beaten to death were dragged away. Empress Xu watched the palace attendant who had delivered the food. The man kneeling on the ground had both hands broken. She looked at him calmly. The surrounding attendants were silent. The pleas for mercy grew faint. She glanced at him slightly. “You, continue.”
Her voice was gentle, yet it sent chills down one’s spine.
The palace attendants in the hall bowed their heads and said nothing. The food-delivering attendant cried out for mercy, “Mercy, Your Grace! I only delivered the food. I know nothing…”
Empress Xu looked at him. The female official Shuangyue waved her hand, and the begging attendant was dragged out, leaving a trail of blood.
Soon, another attendant hurried in to report that Imperial Secretary Xu had sent a message.
“Your Grace, Imperial Secretary Xu says to maintain the status quo. Though His Highness encountered danger this time, he has turned crisis into safety. If you leverage the assassination, you can make further plans for His Highness.”
Maintain the status quo…? Empress Xu raised her eyes, her gaze utterly flat as she looked at the attendant. “Is that what my father said?”
The secret medicines of the previous court—first the crushed red seeds, then the mother-child gu worms. Some people’s hands had reached into the harem. Now, even matters concerning the Empress Dowager could be tainted, and that would point toward her child.
Back when she had a difficult labor, the Emperor protected her, and even the Xu family had secretly instructed the physicians to save the mother if necessary.
She had almost lost this child back then. Even now, the Xu family urged her to prioritize the greater picture.
Thinking of this, Empress Xu seemed to see again that night of her difficult labor. As her consciousness flickered, she heard a faint, weak cry.
Even now, she still felt a shudder. Though she later woke to see the wrinkled infant in swaddling, she could never forget the moment her heart was moved.
Shuangyue watched the Empress silently, seeing her calm and indifferent expression, only showing emotion when the Crown Prince was mentioned. “Yes, the Imperial Secretary said everything is for the Crown Prince.”
Not long after, an attendant entered and reported, “Your Grace, the man is dead.”
“But before he died, he named someone.”
Empress Xu turned to look at him.
Shuangyue also looked at him. The attendant only then said, “He named…”
Empress Xu stared straight at him. “Who?”
The attendant knelt on the ground, trembling. Empress Xu kept looking at him.
“The Sixth Prince.”