“Why?”

“Empress, have I ever wronged you in the slightest?”

In the middle of the night, Zichen Palace was still brightly lit. Watching the rebel troops charging straight in, meeting almost no resistance as they headed directly for him, even someone as obtuse and cowardly as Shangguan Hong had realized the situation by now.

Especially when he spotted that familiar figure behind the ranks.

At this moment, all the consorts and princes were supposed to be under strict guard, except for this person right before him…

Sure enough, ha! This was his good Empress, his lawfully wedded wife.

He never knew when even the person sharing his pillow had become a traitor!

The sounds of weapons clashing outside the window gradually ceased, but flames still raged everywhere. Yet, at this moment, nothing could compare to the boundless fury blazing in the eyes of the emperor before him.

“Empress, what a fine Empress! Since you entered the mansion, for decades you have not borne me a single son. In the early years, many princes in the mansion died young. A nation’s Empress failing in her duties to this extent.

Even so, whether during my time in the princely mansion or since ascending the throne, I have never treated you poorly! I still let someone as lacking in virtue and ability as you sit comfortably on the empress’s throne!

And how do you, Empress, repay me in return?”

Trembling, he pointed a finger at the person before him. Shangguan Hong’s face was flushed crimson, filled with extreme indignation now, his voice growing louder as he spoke.

It was particularly conspicuous in the originally quiet grand hall.

Yet, looking at the emperor before her with his twisted, ferocious expression, Empress Wang was exceptionally calm at this moment.

It was as if she had finally shed some heavy burden, achieving a rare, genuine peace and tranquility in this cold night filled with the sounds of battle—a feeling she had scarcely known in decades.

Even being pointed at and cursed, Empress Wang did not grow angry now:

“Lacking in virtue and ability, what fine words, ‘lacking in virtue and ability’…”

“To be honest, Your Majesty, since entering the mansion, these four words have accompanied your servant for far too long.”

So long that the initial resentment and pain had long since faded into complete indifference.

Outside the window, leaping flames illuminated the entire room brightly.

Raising her head to look at the man before her, dressed in bright yellow sleeping robes, his face twisted and disheveled, after a moment, the Empress softly laughed:

“Lacking in virtue and ability…”

“After marrying Your Majesty, for three full years, the rear courtyard produced no offspring—that was your servant’s fault.

Most of the children in the rear courtyard were frail and ultimately difficult to raise—that was also your servant’s fault. You were nearly thirty years old, yet still had no successfully raised prince at your knee—your servant’s crime was monstrous.

Even back then, due to Your Majesty’s suspicion, even the basic housekeeper’s authority over the rear courtyard was no longer in your servant’s hands…”

“Even so, these were still your servant’s faults. It was your servant’s dereliction of duty, your servant’s jealousy and incompetence.”

Amidst the firelight, seeing the other party still looking completely self-righteous, practically on the verge of saying ‘if not your fault, then whose?’, Empress Wang couldn’t help but laugh again:

“Your Majesty, oh Your Majesty, why must you deceive yourself like this even today!

You actually have some idea in your heart why most of your offspring were frail and died young, don’t you? If not, why would you so easily convict Worthy Consort, not only casually adopting away the healthy Second Prince, but also utterly destroying the entire Yang clan, hundreds of people.”

When the lips are gone, how can the teeth not feel cold? When the rabbit dies, how can the fox not grieve?

Thinking of how, even at the last moment of her life, she was still kowtowing and crying out her innocence, a rare moisture welled up in the Empress’s eyes:

“Your Majesty, do you know how Worthy Consort actually died? By your command, when your servant’s people brought the poisoned wine over, Shuhua was already gone.

The examiner said it was excessive blood loss. She had such a strong, proud nature, yet right up until her death, she remained kneeling on the ground, maintaining that humble posture…”

What a pity. Despite all that, she still never waited for the person she wanted to see!

In the grand hall, the Empress’s gaze, seemingly tinged with a hazy sorrow, was fixed intently on the person before her:

“Your Majesty, oh Your Majesty, you always say others are heartless and faithless, unable to give you loyalty. But I ask you, if you cannot give even a shred of trust to a consort who has accompanied you for decades and borne you two of your only princes, unwilling to listen to even one more word of explanation, and show not the slightest mercy to the family behind her…

Who would dare give their loyalty to you?”

“Your Majesty might as well ask, within the entire palace, how many truly believe Worthy Consort defiled the imperial harem?”

Empress Wang thought with a heart full of bleak sorrow, likely not even one in ten.

But the sorrow is, the one who should have believed her most, the one who could have given her justice—the person sharing her pillow—was the very one who believed it.

While speaking, the attendant responsible for grinding the ink at the imperial desk had finished preparing it and unceremoniously handed over the thoroughly soaked writing brush.

And on the desk now, the bright yellow imperial edict was already properly spread out, waiting only for someone to take up the brush and write the necessary contents upon it.

Not giving this “emperor” before her any chance to open his mouth and evade, from not far away, accompanied by a heavy scent of blood, the Grand Princess who had strode in first drew her blood-stained long blade and pressed it heavily against the neck of the person opposite:

The next second, the newcomer let out a clear laugh:

“Imperial Brother, you also know, in truth, I don’t necessarily need to obtain this abdication edict…”

Perhaps having come in haste, the blood on the blade in the Grand Princess’s hand had not yet dried.

The supremely sharp, top-grade famous blade, honed countless times, seemed to carry a chilling aura with just a glance.

As soon as the Grand Princess finished speaking, Shangguan Hong hastily reached out, firmly taking the writing brush from the attendant’s hand…

Everything that followed was only too logical and natural.

Taking one last look at the emperor, the moment she walked out of Zichen Palace, Wang Hengruo instinctively touched the position of her lower abdomen.

Childless for many years, those words from that person long ago still echoed in her ears.

That person probably forgot long ago. Back in the princely mansion days, even with scant favor, she had actually been pregnant once.

But back then, a Princess Consort who had long lost her housekeeper’s authority, a pregnancy that was inherently unstable from the start, and a rear courtyard full of concubines watching like tigers eyeing their prey…

The outcome for this child was already all too clear.

Empress Wang hadn’t been without regret and sorrow over it before. But now it seemed, perhaps it was for the best this child was gone.

A cold, heartless, and incompetent father who just happened to sit on a high throne, a body that was highly likely to be frail for a lifetime, suffering endless torment.

In this world, what was the point of coming into such an existence!

As for herself, after decades, it was also time to break free from this cage.

On the way back, glancing at Concubine Yu who had failed to escape and was captured and brought over, Wang Hengruo quickly averted her gaze again.

Actually, before this, even for the sake of her family, she had originally intended to endure.

What a pity. This person was too ambitious, yet her methods were too ruthless, too unpredictable, and His Majesty was truly too heartless and cruel.

Without a doubt, given the other’s ambition and ruthlessness, even if just for the sole position of Empress Dowager, she, the Empress, would inevitably become a thorn in the other’s side, a stumbling block in the future.

Rather than ending up like Worthy Consort with her nine clans completely exterminated, it was better to gamble everything on one move. Perhaps it could still win a sliver of survival for her family…

Fortunately, in this final game, she ultimately gambled and won.

For herself, and for the family behind her.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep