Extra (3)
Under the moonlit night, two torches illuminated only a small patch of ground.
The jailer opened the iron door of the prison cell and was just about to step forward to lead the way when Lu Ronghuai spoke to stop him. “Wait outside. Without an order, no one is to enter.”
The jailer lowered his head and acknowledged the command. Pressing himself against the wall, he stood aside. Seeing this, the other jailers all retreated as well, leaving the corridor clear for Prince Li and his party.
The prison passageway was deep and dim. Xian Feng walked in front holding a torch. Lu Ronghuai took hold of Chu Yuan’s hand, then turned his head and asked once again.
“Do you truly wish to go in? The prison is foul. I fear it may frighten you.”
Chu Yuan was dressed in moon-white robes, like an immortal descended into the night. Elegant and removed from the vulgar world, his bearing was as pure as drifting clouds, wholly out of place in the dark and filthy prison.
He smiled faintly. “Your Highness will protect me.”
Those words were indeed soothing to hear. Lu Ronghuai’s brows lifted with delight, and his spirits immediately brightened.
The three of them came to the innermost cell on the eastern side. This was where the Empress Dowager was being held.
She had not been seen for many days. She was curled on a pile of dry straw, having refused food for days, her eyes vacant and dull, every trace of her former imperious bearing gone. Her hair hung loose and disordered, her eye sockets had sunk deeply, and her eyes were filled with bloodshot veins.
Hearing footsteps, her sluggish eyes moved with effort, and she saw two tall figures halt before the cell door.
At the sight of Lu Ronghuai, she immediately struggled for breath. Staring at him with venomous eyes, she shrieked, “Where is Rongbo? Where have you locked him away?!”
Lu Ronghuai said, “At death’s door, you should concern yourself with your own affairs.”
“Hah. Having lost to you, this Dowager has nothing to say.”
Chu Yuan curved his eyes. “The Empress Dowager did not lose to His Highness, but to your own son.”
Her own son...
The Empress Dowager’s gaze went blank for an instant, then she immediately thought of Lu Rongze.
Yes. Had he not written that abdication edict, how could she have fallen to such complete defeat?
The Empress Dowager’s face darkened with resentment. In her heart, she harbored many grievances against Lu Rongze. Yet Lu Rongze was already dead, and there was nowhere for her hatred to be vented.
“He was this Dowager’s child, yet he was never of one heart with this Dowager. This Dowager raised him all those years for nothing.”
Xian Feng brought over two chairs. Lu Ronghuai took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped them down before letting Chu Yuan sit.
He looked coldly at the Empress Dowager and spoke with ridicule. “When you were with child, you used him to compete for favor, even at the cost of letting poison enter him while he was still in the womb. He suffered under a sickly body for his entire life. Why was it that, at that time, you did not remember he was your child?”
The viciousness in the Empress Dowager’s eyes turned to shock. She could hardly believe what she had just heard. Then, meeting Lu Ronghuai’s frosty, cutting gaze, her heart gave a violent jolt, and the cloud of doubt that had long hovered in her mind finally split open along one seam.
Her fourth son had always been obedient, and especially filial toward her. He had never once thrown a temper before her. From the moment she had been thrown into prison until now, she had never understood why Lu Rongze had chosen to hand the throne over to Prince Li.
He had clearly known that the person she most feared was Prince Li. How could he turn and bite his own mother at the most crucial moment?
Unless... he had learned of the secret from years past.
The Empress Dowager cried out in alarm, “You are speaking nonsense! This Dowager does not know what you mean.”
“Whether you admit it or not is of no matter. Your good son Lu Rongbo will confess everything.” Lu Ronghuai rested his right hand against his chin. His left hand curved around the armrest and accurately clasped Chu Yuan’s hand.
The Empress Dowager’s eyes reddened with panic. “What have you done to him? Lu Ronghuai, he is your Father Emperor’s son. You cannot kill him.”
The torches on the wall cast their flickering light across the cold bars of the cell. The Empress Dowager rushed to the cell door and reached out to seize Lu Ronghuai’s robe hem. Yet the bars blocked her. Her face pressed into the gap in the door, but even so she could hardly touch his clothes.
Lu Ronghuai did not move in the slightest. He leaned a little closer toward Chu Yuan and said slowly, “Do not worry. This Prince will not kill him. This Prince will let all under Heaven know that he is the bastard born of the Empress Dowager’s illicit relations with a guard, living proof that the imperial bloodline was defiled.”
With a loud clang, the Empress Dowager collapsed onto the ground, all color drained from her face.
“No, that is not so, it is not so!” The Empress Dowager shook her head wildly. She was utterly flustered now. She bit her cracked lips until blood seeped out. “Rongbo is His Majesty’s child. You are not to slander this Dowager. For the sake of forcing us to our deaths, there is truly nothing you would not say.”
Lu Ronghuai said, “In this matter, This Prince must thank Fourth Imperial Brother. Had he not gathered all the evidence of your illicit affair with that guard, This Prince would indeed have had to spend some effort on you.”
“Wh... what?” The Empress Dowager’s pupils contracted sharply.
Lu Ronghuai pinched Chu Yuan’s fingers. A harmless smile rose on Chu Yuan’s fine and delicate face, and he took over the explanation. “In His Majesty’s study, I discovered a hidden box. Inside it was gathered all the evidence of the crimes the Empress Dowager has committed over the years, great and small, arranged in orderly fashion. More interesting still...”
He paused briefly before continuing, “Before I left the capital, I had secretly investigated a palace maid who left the palace more than ten years ago. Not long after I left, His Majesty had already become aware of the matter. Following the line of that palace maid, he investigated further, and only then traced it back to you, uncovering this exchange of the civet cat for the crown prince.”
“What exchange of the civet cat for the crown prince? This Dowager knows nothing of it!” The Empress Dowager still refused to yield.
Chu Yuan was not the least bit hurried. His tone remained clear and bright. “The palace records state that you and Consort Li were with child at the same time, and both gave birth on the same day. Your body had been weakened, and you gave birth to a stillborn child. Consort Li suffered a difficult labor, and after giving birth to a baby boy, her fragrance vanished and her jade was lost. At that time, Father Emperor saw that you were grief-stricken, and personally decided that Consort Li’s child should be entered under your name and raised by you, which would make him the present Seventh Highness.”
“Yet the truth is that your child did not die. The moment Consort Li’s child was born, he was strangled to death in his swaddling clothes by Fangzhu, the palace maid you had already arranged in advance. At the same time, you secretly switched your own child into his place, hiding the truth from others and stealing Heaven and changing the day.”
“Afterward, you feared Fangzhu would leak the secret, and intended to silence her forever. It was Fourth Prince who saved her and arranged for her to leave the palace. Only, at that time, he did not yet know what his own imperial mother had done behind his back.”
“After Fangzhu left the palace, she changed her name to Zhu Fang and married a minor official. Later, she followed her husband on reassignment to Ping Cheng. Fearing day and night that you would once again attempt to take her life, she left herself one final safeguard and hid the evidence away. Later, when she died, the evidence was taken with her into the coffin...”
“Fourth Prince had shown favor to her and to Zhang Ze. Fearing he would be implicated, they had never intended to make this old matter public. Yet Fourth Prince himself traced the matter to them, opened the coffin and dug up the grave, and obtained the evidence.”
After Chu Yuan finished in one breath, he raised his head and looked over. The Empress Dowager’s face was ashen. Under this succession of blows, her eyes rolled back and she fainted away.
Lu Ronghuai rose, still holding Chu Yuan’s hand.
“Come. Let us go and look at the other side.”
They had come to see the Empress Dowager today precisely to break the last sliver of luck that remained in her heart, so that she would know her present end, abandoned by all and betrayed by her own kin, was entirely of her own making.
In the long prison corridor, Chu Yuan walked for a while and suddenly let out a sigh.
“What is it?” Lu Ronghuai turned his head and asked.
Chu Yuan took the initiative to tighten his hold on that broad hand. “For the sake of imperial favor, the Empress Dowager did not hesitate to destroy her own child’s health for life. Consort Dowager Ning, trapped by love, was likewise cold and harsh toward Your Highness. Thinking on this, I feel somewhat pained for Your Highness.”
The instant the man heard these words, joy rose in his heart. He immediately followed the snake up the pole. Wrapping an arm around Chu Yuan’s waist, he leaned close to his ear and murmured, “If Ah-Yuan feels pained for me, then return to the residence tonight.”
Chu Yuan looked at him with a smile.
Lu Ronghuai wore a wronged expression. “You have already spent several days accompanying that wretched little whelp. He has grown so big already. He ought to have learned to sleep by himself. Come back and stay with me.”
Holding back his laughter, Chu Yuan raised a hand and tugged lightly at someone’s cheek, deliberately teasing him. “Your Highness is even older than Little Fish. Should you not be all the more sensible?”
“I do not care. You are my Prince Consort. You ought to be with me.”
“Very well, very well. I shall return to the residence tonight. Come, let us go.” With smiling eyes, Chu Yuan wound himself around his arm, coaxing a certain jealousy-stricken prince until his heart blossomed with delight.
The two then came to the western side.
Grand Tutor Xu and his family were imprisoned in one cell, from within which sobbing and weeping could be heard from time to time. The Deposed Crown Prince, the Deposed Empress, Liu Mingyue, and Lu Lingshuang were shut in another cell.
When the two of them arrived, there was a dead silence inside. The people in the cell were scattered into different corners, and no one paid heed to anyone else.
Lu Ronghuai let his gaze sweep around once, a wicked slant in his brows and eyes. “This Prince was kind enough to confine all of you from the Crown Prince’s faction together in one place so that you might reminisce. Why is no one speaking?”
Lu Lingshuang rushed to the bars. With a crazed look on her face, she shouted loudly, “Let me out! I can redeem my crimes with merit. I know all their crimes. I can tell you all of it.”
Hearing this, the others all revealed mocking smiles at the same time, laughing at her foolishness.
Feigning interest, Lu Ronghuai asked, “Oh? What crimes do you know of theirs? Speak, and let This Prince hear.”
Seeing this, Lu Lingshuang thought she still had a chance to leave this place. Her eyes brightened at once, and she immediately said, “I never wanted to make an enemy of you. It was all Lu Rongluo’s urging. He wrote to me and told me to persuade Yu Kui to send troops. He even promised that once everything was taken back, he would give half the realm to Yu Kui. It was all his idea. He colluded with the enemy and betrayed the kingdom.”
At these words, the Deposed Crown Prince Lu Rongluo’s eyes nearly split apart. Covering his blinded right eye, he would have slapped that vile woman twice had the Deposed Empress not held him down.
“Also, Lu Rongluo is a complete degenerate. From the time he was fifteen, he often toyed with palace maids until they died, and all the aftermath was cleaned up in secret by Mother Empress. In the dry well at Cuiqi Pavilion, many palace maids’ bones were thrown inside. You can send people to examine it this very moment.”
Lu Lingshuang said, “There is more that I know, too. Everything I have said is true. Third Imperial Brother... no, not that, Your Majesty, I beg you to spare me.”
Lu Rongluo shot to his feet. “Lu Lingshuang!”
The Deposed Empress Liu Jinglan rose as well. Looking at Lu Rongluo, her eyes were full of shock and full of disgust.
She ought to have seen through this hypocrite long ago. Back at the imperial mausoleum, she had been coaxed and deceived by a few of his words, willingly accompanying him through hardship and suffering. Yet this man’s heart had long since rotted black.
Lu Rongluo said, “Do not listen to her nonsense. Those things are all false.”
Liu Mingyue let out a cold laugh from the side. Bandages were wrapped around his face, and blood seeped from the place where his left ear had been. “Even now, not one true word comes from your mouth. Lu Rongluo, in this life you will never be able to surpass Prince Li.”
That final sentence was like a poisoned needle, stabbing viciously into Lu Rongluo’s heart. With reddened eyes, Lu Rongluo glared fixedly at Liu Mingyue. “Traitor. You deserve your death.”
Liu Mingyue did not fear him. At worst, it would only be that the fish dies and the net splits. Leaning against the wall, he sat cross-legged in the corner, his expression cold. “The Liu family helped you so much, yet you repaid kindness with enmity. Since matters have come to this, even if I die, I will drag you down with me.”
As he spoke, he turned his head again to look at Lu Ronghuai. “In my possession are the letters Lu Rongluo used to contact the Kingdom of Yu.”
Liu Jinglan said, “I have evidence of his demolishing the imperial mausoleum. Also, of the rumors spread in Ye Jing afterward concerning Prince Li and the Prince Consort, half were spread at his command.”
The two of them, one sentence after another, laid bare Lu Rongluo’s hidden dealings from top to bottom.
Lu Rongluo clenched his fists, his face turning livid with rage.
“Splendid.” After hearing it all, Lu Ronghuai gave sincere applause.
Lu Lingshuang clutched the prison bars and stared at Lu Ronghuai with a crazed expression. “Your Majesty, Your Majesty, let me go. I do not want to be beheaded. I am still young. I want to live.”
Lu Ronghuai walked up before her. A thin trace of mockery lay in his eyes. “You spread rumors everywhere about This Prince’s Prince Consort and heir. Did you truly think This Prince did not know?”
Lu Lingshuang denied it on instinct. “No, it was not me. Yu Kui had those things done. It had nothing to do with me.”
Lu Ronghuai said, “Stop pretending. Lu Lingshuang, you hate This Prince the most. Such clumsy tricks cannot erase the things you once did.”
For nearly a year, Lu Lingshuang had remained in just such a deranged state, one sentence not matching the next. One moment she cursed, the next she begged for mercy. Everyone regarded her as a madwoman.
With that said, Lu Ronghuai no longer paid her any mind. His gaze swept over Lu Rongluo and Liu Mingyue, and his tone carried no emotion whatsoever. “This Prince came today to ask whether any of you still have last words.”
The moment those words fell, even the faint sobbing inside the cell ceased.
When they had first been imprisoned here, everyone had known in their hearts that the odds were more grim than fair. Yet when the day truly arrived, terror still struck until their minds grew muddled and their eyes dim.
“Wuu, I do not want to die...”
With that one sob, the crying in the prison cell only grew louder and louder.
Lu Rongluo walked to the bars. With a desolate expression, he looked at Lu Ronghuai and Chu Yuan, his gaze circling over the two of them as many old matters from the dust of the past came to mind.
“My greatest mistake was agreeing, back then, to Mother Empress’s plan for your marriage alliance.”
“That was quite the mistake indeed.” Lu Ronghuai stood tall and straight, returning him a smile. “This Prince ought rather to thank all of you. Had you not been so insistent on pushing things forward, how would this prince ever have managed to marry such an excellent Ah-Yuan?”
“To show This Prince’s gratitude, when This Prince ascends the throne, I shall burn a string of spirit money for you.”
Lu Rongluo: “...”
✧ A Word from the Author ✧
Lu Dog: They are about to die, so I must hurry and go show off a round of lovey-dovey affection.
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