Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 156: Betrayal

   It turned out that the day before the Empress took her own life, Erqing had met with her once.

   At that time, Wei Yingluo was not present. The one serving tea and water was Amber. Amber had a bad habit of eavesdropping. While the Empress and Erqing were talking inside, her habit flared up again, and she hid outside the door to listen.

   “Wuwu… wuwuwu…”

   Hupo found it strange. The one who had lost a child was the Empress—why was it Erqing who was crying?

   The Empress, utterly exhausted in body and mind, still forced herself to gather her strength and comfort her: “Erqing, what’s wrong? Did something happen to you at home? Were you wronged?”

   “This servant just saw His Majesty,” Erqing said. “I couldn’t help but remember… couldn’t help but remember that night…”

   “That night?” The Empress was momentarily stunned.

   “It was the night you gave birth to the Seventh Prince. You ordered this servant to deliver a quilt to His Majesty. This servant went, but unexpectedly, His Majesty grabbed this servant’s hand and insisted that this servant… serve him in bed…” Erqing sobbed pitifully. “This servant didn’t dare resist, afraid that if anyone came in it would ruin the reputation of the Fucha family. Who could have known that later… this servant actually became pregnant!”

   Slap!

   The Empress struck her across the face with one sharp palm.

   “You wretch!” Already pale, the Empress now trembled with rage, on the verge of collapse. “You actually…”

   Erqing kowtowed frantically like pounding garlic, tears streaming endlessly, her voice broken and mournful: “This servant had long thought of ending her own life, but when mother learned of it, she believed it was the Fucha family’s bloodline and was overjoyed beyond measure! If this servant and her child were to meet with misfortune, the first one who could not bear it would be my mother. That’s why this servant has clung to life! Your Ladyship, as long as you give the word, this servant will die at once—to preserve the Fucha family’s honor!”

   The Empress trembled with fury. After a long while, she let out a mocking laugh: “What honor does the Fucha family have left? You’ve destroyed it all!”

   Erqing: “Your Ladyship, this servant deserves to die a thousand deaths. But the instigator of all this was His Majesty. This servant is merely a weak woman—how could she possibly resist imperial power?”

   Tears welled up in the Empress’s eyes as she murmured, “One after another… all the people closest to me… and it’s you of all people, joining hands to betray me! Get out—get out right now. For the rest of my life, I never want to see you again!”

   Erqing hurriedly rose to her feet: “Your Ladyship, you must take good care of yourself. The entire Fucha clan depends on you. This servant will return at once, confess my sins before my mother, and let her deal with me as she will!”

   The Empress practically spat the words through clenched teeth, her voice filled with hatred: “From this day forward, this matter rots in your stomach. You are not to breathe a single word of it to your mother, and you are never to enter the palace again!”

   Erqing tearfully bowed farewell. Once she stepped out of the bedchamber, she lightly smoothed her hair, straightened her posture, and put on a gentle, dignified, and serene smile. To anyone looking at her from the outside, no one would ever guess she was a woman who had climbed onto the Emperor’s bed and driven her own mistress to death. Smiling, she said:

   “Lead the way.”

   In the main hall of Changchun Palace, the silence was terrifying.

Erqing swallowed hard and said to Wei Yingluo, “You heard it too — I was forced. It was the Emperor who took the initiative…”

“That night the Emperor was drunk, and the one guarding the door was Li Yu,” Wei Yingluo said coldly. “Li Yu is a man who knows his place and his limits. You weren’t a palace maid of Changchun Palace — you were Lady Zhongyong. If you had shouted even once, Li Yu would have come in to help you and would have done everything possible to cover it up.”

But Erqing had never even thought of escaping. In fact, she had deliberately avoided Li Yu — slipping in secretly while he was in the privy. From the very beginning, that had been her plan!

“Her Ladyship had just lost her beloved son and was grieving beyond endurance. You should never, ever have delivered that final blow,” Wei Yingluo said, gripping the armrest tightly. “I don’t understand. You came from Changchun Palace, you were deeply favored by Her Ladyship, and you became the young madam of the Fucha household. Only if Her Ladyship prospers can the Fucha family prosper. What exactly were you after by doing this?”

“What was I after?” At this point, Erqing simply admitted everything. After all, she was now the honored young madam of the Fucha household — no matter how much Wei Yingluo hated her, what could she actually do? She laughed out loud. “Of course it was to take revenge on Fuheng!”

The man who once held her heart had now become a thorn in it, stabbing her until she bled. Very well — then she would make him bleed just as much!

“He never cared about me — only about other people. About you, about the Emperor, about the Empress!” Erqing said viciously. “Back then I couldn’t do anything to you, but that didn’t matter. I could make the Emperor my subject beneath my skirts and put an everlasting cuckold hat on Fuheng’s head. Ha! You should have seen his face when he found out — tsk tsk, it was absolutely priceless!”

“Just for that?” Wei Yingluo found it unbelievable. “Just for the sake of momentary satisfaction?”

“Yes.” Erqing let out a long, extremely satisfied sigh. “As long as I could see Fuheng cry, I felt satisfied.”

Wei Yingluo closed her eyes in pain. There are deaths as light as a feather and deaths heavier than Mount Tai. She would rather Erqing had been bought off by someone else than this…

“You made the Empress’s death look like a joke.” She opened her eyes; bloodshot threads webbed across them like spider silk. With a lift of her hand, Ming Yu brought forward a tray. From left to right lay: a dagger, white silk, and a bottle of crane-top red poison.

“Choose one,” Wei Yingluo said coldly. “Don’t force me to do it myself.”

The smile slowly faded from Erqing’s face. Her gaze shifted from the tray to Wei Yingluo’s face. Incredulous, she said, “Wei Yingluo, have you gone mad? I am a titled lady of the court — the wife of the first-rank Duke Zhongyong! How dare you carry out a private execution!”

Wei Yingluo: “Choose.”

Erqing finally began to panic. “Wei Yingluo, don’t be foolish! You have everything now — why would you destroy your own future like this? Are you insane?!”

“If you won’t choose, I’ll choose for you.” Wei Yingluo picked up the crane-top red — the most painful way to die.

She wanted to watch her guts burn and rot, to vent the hatred in her heart.

“No — no!” How could Erqing submit so easily? She shoved Wei Yingluo aside and bolted for the door. Several eunuchs immediately rushed forward and pinned her down.

Wei Yingluo steadied herself and bent to pick up the bottle of crane-top red that had fallen to the floor. But unexpectedly, Ming Yu darted forward in a flash, snatched the bottle first, then rushed to Erqing’s side. With one hand she pinched Erqing’s jaw open and with the other poured the entire contents of the poison down her throat.

“Don’t dirty your hands,” Ming Yu said coldly. “I’ll do it. I’ll send this wretched bitch down to the underworld myself!”

The poison took effect quickly. Erqing collapsed to the ground, clutching her stomach, blood seeping from her mouth and nose. She was in agony beyond bearing, yet death refused to come swiftly.

“Wei Yingluo!” In her dying moments, she roared like a beast on the verge of death. “I betrayed the Empress — but so did you! Don’t forget — you once swore to her with your own mouth that you would never be with the Emperor, that you would never steal her husband!”

Wei Yingluo froze.

At that very moment, Yuan Chunwang’s voice came from outside the door: “This humble servant respectfully greets Your Majesty!”

Hongli shoved Yuan Chunwang aside and strode swiftly into the main hall.

Just one hour earlier, Erqing had still been radiantly beautiful. Now she lay on the floor as a cold corpse, curled up, blood streaming from her facial orifices, staring at him with wide, unblinking eyes.

Wei Yingluo stood beside her, her face completely impassive. She even curtsied toward him. “Your Majesty, you have arrived.”

“Wei Yingluo!” Hongli erupted in fury. “The Xitara clan lady is a court-appointed noblewoman, the wife of a first-rank Duke of Loyalty and Valor—how dare you—”

“She is the murderer who killed the Empress.” Wei Yingluo’s expression remained utterly calm. “On the day Her Late Majesty passed away, she went to see the Empress and told her… that she was carrying Your Majesty’s child…”

Hongli froze at the words. “Yingluo, things are not what you think.”

Wei Yingluo neither cried nor laughed. Her excessive calmness looked less like indifference and more like complete despair. She stared at the corpse on the ground and said softly, “Then Your Majesty, tell me—what is the truth?”

“It’s…” Hongli had just begun to explain when someone hurried in from outside—it was the new Empress. The moment she saw the body on the floor, she staggered and steadied herself on the arm of a palace maid. “Consort Ling, what have you done?”

Before Wei Yingluo could reply, Hongli already spoke in a deep voice: “Empress, the wife of the Duke Zhongyong came to pay respects to the late Empress, but due to overwhelming grief, she unfortunately followed her former mistress in death.”

Wei Yingluo turned her gaze toward him. A faint spark reignited in eyes that had already turned to dead ashes. Even now, at this moment, he was still shielding her?

Hongli met her eyes; his gaze was extremely complicated. He had always despised women who used ruthless methods—once he discovered the truth, no matter how deep their past affection had been, he would never keep them. Only with Wei Yingluo had he repeatedly let her stay, repeatedly forgiven her. The taste of it was bitter; it even made him feel humiliated.

“Your Majesty, since the Lady Duke of Zhongyong is still a court noblewoman, allow this matter to be handled by me,” the Empress said. Her voice became his lifeline.

“Then I leave it to you, Empress.” Hongli gave the order with visible weariness. He glanced once more at Wei Yingluo—a look that could not be distinguished as warning or disappointment—then turned and swept out of the room.

“Consort Ling.” The new Empress slowly walked over to stand beside Erqing and sighed. “After all, the Lady Duke of Zhongyong is the wife of a first-rank duke. You dared to grant her death without even asking the Emperor’s opinion.”

Wei Yingluo replied indifferently, “The Xitara lady was His Majesty’s lover. Would His Majesty really bear to kill her?”

Moreover, this woman had borne His Majesty a son.

The Empress smiled faintly. “When it comes to decisiveness and ruthlessness, I have to admire you. It’s just a pity… was it really worth it to sever His Majesty’s favor for the sake of a mere Xitara Erqing?”

Hongli had already left and did not look back for a long time. Wei Yingluo slowly withdrew her gaze and said to the Empress in a flat voice, “Doesn’t this perfectly fulfill Your Ladyship’s wish?”

A mere Cleansing Division servant like Hupo could never have barged into Yanxi Palace to meet Consort Ling without an imperial summons—not with all the guards along the way. The only way she could have succeeded was if the Empress, who controlled the inner palace, had deliberately allowed it.

The Empress had long known what Erqing had done.

She also knew that with Wei Yingluo’s temperament, once she learned the full truth, she would decisively act against Erqing—before the woman left the palace and disappeared forever, beyond any chance of revenge.

“Truly impressive tactics,” Wei Yingluo said after piecing it together. “With Noble Consort Chun gone, it’s my turn now, isn’t it?”

The Empress smiled without answering, like a silent wolf. Extremely patient, lying low in the grass—even covered in winter snow it would not move an inch—waiting until the perfect moment, then leaping up to tear out its prey’s throat.

   The moment that smile appeared was the moment she bared her fangs.

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