Story of Yanxi Palace, Chapter 184: Crime

   The person who had rolled out of the water barrel was not Wei Yingluo, but Xiaoquanzi.

Xiaoquanzi gave an obsequious smile: “Your Majesty, please forgive this humble servant. This slave was acting on the orders of Your Ladyship Consort Ling and hid inside the water barrel.”

Hongli let out a long breath of relief. Seeing Li Yu and the others looking at him, he immediately put on a stern face again: “What on earth is she playing at with all this trickery!”

Xiaoquanzi cast a sidelong glance at Chenbi: “My master said that someone in the Forbidden City intends to harm her. To draw that person out, she had this slave hide in the water cart!”

Hongli: “Summon Consort Ling!”

Li Yu: “Yes!”

It took Li Yu some time to locate Wei Yingluo in Yanxi Palace. To deceive Yuan Chunwang, she had swapped clothes with Xiaoquanzi. Then she had him lie in the room pretending to be ill and refusing to come out. Only when Li Yu came searching did she push open the door. She asked Li Yu to give her a moment to prepare herself—coughing all the while, she dabbed rouge onto her pale face to add a touch of color, freshened her appearance slightly, changed into formal attire, and only then emerged from Yanxi Palace.

Like a warrior who has finished arming herself, she set out for the battlefield that belonged to her alone.

The moment Hongli saw her, his eyes lit up—only to quickly darken again as he schooled his expression: “What exactly is going on here!”

“Consort Rong first tempted me to elope, then staged a grand ‘catching in the act’ drama.” Wei Yingluo curtsied to him, a faint mocking smile playing at the corner of her lips. “Unfortunately for her, neither ploy deceived Your Majesty.”

“Yingluo, even now you still quibble.” Chenbi sighed, as though grieving over her stubborn refusal to see reason. “His Majesty has already sent people to Xizhi Gate to search. I’m afraid it won’t be long before they bring Master Fucha back…”

Before she could finish speaking, two guards requested an audience, and walking beside them was Fuheng.

When she saw him, the corner of Chenbi’s lips lifted for a moment before quickly falling again. She said sadly: “Your Majesty, look—they really had arranged to meet outside Xizhi Gate.”

Fuheng gave her a calm glance, then turned to the guard beside him: “Speak.”

The guard looked at Chenbi in bewilderment before kowtowing to Hongli: “Your Majesty, there was only an empty carriage outside Xizhi Gate. This humble servant encountered the master on the way back to the palace to report—at Shenwu Gate!”

Chenbi’s delicate brows slowly furrowed. Her gaze darted back and forth between Fuheng and Wei Yingluo.

Fuheng spoke with perfect composure: “Your Majesty, that day Consort Rong suddenly appeared and incited this humble servant to take Consort Ling and flee far away. This servant found it truly unbearable and wished to report the matter to Your Majesty. But on second thought, I had no evidence in hand. Openly accusing a favored consort without proof would be hard to believe. With no other choice, I decided to cast a long line to catch the big fish—I pretended to agree…”

Before he could finish, Chenbi suddenly burst into loud laughter.

“So that’s how it is. The two of you joined forces to stage this entire performance.” Chenbi extended a finger tipped with nail polish, pointing first at Fuheng and then at Wei Yingluo. Her tone was innocently sweet yet laced with faint bitterness: “Was it all to make His Majesty suspect me?”

“Consort Rong,” Wei Yingluo said, calmly returning the very words the other woman had once used against her, “even now you still quibble.”

“Emperor, do you really think I’m the one framing them?” Chenbi clung to Hongli’s arm, gazing up at him with innocent eyes. “Even if I wanted to frame Consort Ling, why would I drag Lord Fucha into it? He’s my lifesaver!”

In the struggles among the imperial consorts, court officials were almost never involved. Moreover, if Chenbi truly wished to deal with Wei Yingluo, there were far better and subtler ways—she had no need to make the matter blow up to such proportions.

Hongli lowered his head to look at her and suddenly smiled. The smile was so strange that a chill ran down Chenbi’s back.

“Li Yu,” Hongli said, “bring the box that Hailancha sent by eight-hundred-li express.”

“Yes!” Li Yu immediately withdrew. When he returned, he was holding a wooden box covered in dust.

Hongli: “Open it.”

Li Yu opened the box. Inside lay a set of old children’s clothing from the Huolan tribe, a silver necklace, and small wooden toys—a hobby horse and a wooden sword.

They were the most ordinary of objects, yet the moment Chenbi saw them, her expression changed completely.

Hongli: “Fuheng, this is the reason Consort Rong framed you.”

Fuheng was stunned. “Your Majesty, this is—”

Hongli: “I sent people to the Huolan tribe. The very first thing I ordered was to investigate Consort Rong’s past. Tuerdu claimed she had remained unmarried for so long only because of her extraordinary beauty—she had been consecrated as the Holy Maiden of the Huolan tribe and served the heavenly gods year after year. But according to Huolan custom, the Holy Maiden steps down at the age of twenty, to be replaced by a newly chosen woman, while she herself marries in accordance with tribal tradition. Tuerdu tried his best to conceal it, but I still uncovered the truth!”

With every word he spoke, Chenbi’s expression grew colder. By the time he finished, she was no longer the innocent, radiant young girl. Perhaps this icy, unapproachable woman—cold as frost and distant from all—was the true Holy Maiden of the Huolan tribe.

Chenbi said coldly, “When did you start suspecting me?”

Hongli’s reply was firm and decisive: “Wei Yingluo would never, in a moment of anger, impulsively harm someone.”

In other words, from the very beginning, Hongli had stood on Wei Yingluo’s side. He did not believe she would stab anyone with scissors. He did not believe a single word that came out of Chenbi’s mouth.

Such blatant favoritism could only stem from one reason…

A warmth bloomed in Wei Yingluo’s heart. Their eyes met, and in that single glance, it was as though they had gazed at each other for ten thousand years.

Chenbi scoffed with icy disdain.

Wei Yingluo snapped back to the present and looked at her. “Chenbi… you’ve been married? You’ve borne a child?”

“Yes.” Chenbi tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, exuding the languid air of a mature woman. “I was married. I gave birth to a child. And yet I was still sent into the palace—all to satisfy your Emperor’s lust. I was forced to be separated from my own flesh and blood.”

Fuheng suddenly understood. “That time you fell from the horse…”

“I did it on purpose,” Chenbi said calmly. Once the mask of innocence was removed, her true face revealed a faint weariness—an exhaustion with the world, with everyone in it, even with herself. “I wanted to die, but you wouldn’t let me. Do you know how much I hated you? I hated you so much I wanted to see you ruined and disgraced, so that in the end you’d do the same as me—jump from a cliff.”

“So that’s why you staged this entire elopement drama?” Wei Yingluo looked at her with complicated emotions. “You deliberately approached me, became my friend… all just to win my trust and then incite me to elope? I’ve never wronged you. You…”

“But he loves you.” Chenbi began to laugh. “The Emperor loves you too. Without you, how could the two of them turn against each other? How could they ruin their reputations? How could the whole world mock them? And how… could I ever vent this resentment?”

“Madwoman,” Wei Yingluo murmured. The same kind of madness—she felt she had only ever seen it in one other person: Erqing, that woman who, just to vent her own grudge, had caused countless innocent deaths.

“Yes, I’m mad. But this madwoman can’t go on the journey alone!” Chenbi suddenly raised her hand and yanked a long hairpin from her hair. The tip gleamed with cold light—it had long since been sharpened into a deadly weapon. Lowering her body, she charged straight toward Hongli, swift as an arrow loosed from a fully drawn bow.

“Your Majesty!”

Without a second thought, Wei Yingluo rushed straight toward Hongli.

But another figure moved even faster—almost in the blink of an eye, he placed himself between them. His broad, imposing back stood like the most loyal and unregretting shield.

…It was Fuheng.

Drip, drip, drip. Fresh blood fell from his horizontally outstretched arm. A hairpin was deeply embedded in his flesh.

“Seize her!” Hongli roared in fury, pointing at Chenbi and ordering the guards who had hurried in to protect him: “Lock her back in Baoyue Tower! Li Yu—where is Li Yu? Hurry and call the imperial physician!”

Before he could finish, he suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder.

“Yingluo?” He turned his head in shock. “Yingluo, what’s wrong with you?”

Wei Yingluo had already been frail and weakened by illness, compounded by days of insufficient food and water. Now, after such a violent shock, she couldn’t catch her breath and fainted right onto Hongli’s shoulder.

Only when she was this close did Hongli notice that the flush on her face was merely rouge hastily applied. Holding her in his arms, he could feel nothing but bones. Panic and anger surged within him. He shouted frantically: “Li Yu! Li Yu! Useless fool—why isn’t the imperial physician here yet?”

Your Majesty, imperial physicians can’t fly! Swallowing those words, Li Yu could only reply: “This servant will go urge them at once—this servant will go urge them right now…”

Yangxin Hall descended into utter chaos. Under Hongli’s repeated urgings, half the entire imperial medical bureau crowded into the hall.

Before they could even reach a diagnosis, the Empress Dowager entered Yangxin Hall, supported by Aunt Liu’s arm. The first words out of her mouth were: “Release Chenbi at once!”

Hongli glanced back at Wei Yingluo, who lay unconscious on the bed. Gritting his teeth, he suddenly lifted the hem of his robe and knelt before the Empress Dowager.

“Empress Dowager.” Afraid she would blame Wei Yingluo, he took all the responsibility onto himself: “Chenbi is not the reincarnation of He’an…”

He calmly recounted the entire sequence of events. When he finished, the Empress Dowager pointed a trembling finger at Wei Yingluo on the bed and said in a shaking voice: “She dared—she actually dared… Guards!”

“Empress Dowager!” Hongli would never allow her to arrest someone in front of him. “This matter… I forced her to do it!”

The Empress Dowager was stunned.

Hongli continued: “First, to protect Consort Rong, and second, to make you happy…”

“I’m not blind!” The Empress Dowager let out a short, incredulous laugh, cutting him off. “Clearly she started this, yet you’re shouldering the entire blame. Your Majesty… is this how deeply you love her?”

Hongli was silent for a very long time—so long it seemed he was questioning his own heart. Finally, he slowly arrived at an answer: “Yes. I love her.”

The Empress Dowager stared at him in disbelief. An emperor falling so deeply in love with one woman—was this a blessing or a disaster? Countless thoughts flashed through her mind in an instant. At last, her expression darkened, and she said coldly: “I am the Empress Dowager. I have been played for a fool for so long. Your Majesty, I can forgive your filial piety—but I cannot forgive her!”

“Empress Dowager…” Hongli was taken aback. Suddenly he saw the deep fear hidden in her eyes.

She feared he would become addicted to beauty, feared he would repeat the mistakes of countless past rulers. She intended to find any pretext to eliminate Wei Yingluo once and for all!

Hongli’s own expression gradually grew grave. Calmly, he said: “Yingluo has already suffered greatly. From this day forward, I will not allow anyone to harm her.”

The two of them stood in tense confrontation, the situation on the verge of becoming irreconcilable—when Li Yu led an imperial physician over: “Your Majesty…”

“How is she?” Hongli kept his eyes fixed on the Empress Dowager, sparing only a fraction of his attention.

The physician replied: “Consort Ling is with child. Judging from the pulse, she is already more than three months along.”

“What did you say?” Hongli froze for a moment. Then he rose abruptly, rushed to the bedside, and carefully took Wei Yingluo’s hand. The gaze he fixed on her was as precious and reverent as an emperor regarding his imperial seal.

Watching this scene, the Empress Dowager’s expression became complicated. She gave Wei Yingluo on the bed one last look, then turned and left without another word.

“This child has arrived at exactly the right moment,” Hongli murmured, gently holding Wei Yingluo’s hand. “Even the Empress Dowager cannot harm you now.”

He suddenly smiled and lightly pinched her cheek with his other hand: “All right—you can wake up now.”

Wei Yingluo sighed and slowly opened her eyes, gazing at him with a complicated expression.

She had already been awake for some time, but she hadn’t dared open her eyes because the Empress Dowager had arrived.

Though her eyes were closed, her ears were not. She had heard every single word he said—heard him take all the blame upon himself, heard him protect her regardless of the cost, heard him say… “Yes, I love her.”

“Your Majesty…” Wei Yingluo parted her lips, hesitating.

Hongli’s expression suddenly became extremely tense.

“I…” Wei Yingluo said slowly.

Hongli grew even more uneasy. Even from such a distance, one could almost hear the pounding of his heart. He was afraid—afraid that Wei Yingluo didn’t want this child, afraid that the moment she opened her mouth she would demand a bowl of abortion decoction.

“I… am ready.” A single tear suddenly slipped from the corner of Wei Yingluo’s eye. One hand slowly moved to rest on her lower abdomen as she smiled and said, “I’m ready… to love you wholeheartedly. And I’m ready… to bear children for the one I love.”

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