After a cup of tea.
Another fragment of the blood jade bracelet was found in Liu Meiren's dressing case.
"Your Majesty, this is also a fragment of the bracelet that Concubine Chen once wore. It has been soaked in safflower. Long-term wear would cause a woman to miscarry."
Imperial Physician Gao stated immediately after a careful examination.
"Liu Meiren, what do you have to say for yourself now?"
Upon seeing this, Empress Xue furrowed her brows and looked at Liu Meiren with a stern expression.
"…"
Liu Meiren's somewhat pale lips moved, but she only curled them into a cold smile. "With both witnesses and evidence in hand, what use is there in anything I say?
"Do with me as you will—kill me or flay me."
She had given up entirely, offering no defense for herself at all.
Empress Xue seemed angered by her attitude. She let out a cold laugh and looked toward Lu Yao. "Then let His Majesty decide."
"This bracelet disappeared after Concubine Chen's death. How did you come by it?"
Lu Yao did not immediately pass judgment but asked this instead.
"You are the Emperor—the supreme sovereign of this realm, the heaven of the women in the harem. If even you do not know, how could I, a mere Cong Wupin Meiren, possibly know?"
Such defiant words from Liu Meiren startled all the consorts present, their faces changing color in unison.
Lu Yao's handsome face immediately darkened.
He said, "If you are wronged, then say something useful! I will investigate the truth for you!"
"No need!"
At this moment, however, Liu Meiren seemed utterly resolved to die. She immediately sneered with pointed meaning, "If Your Majesty truly had such ability, then two years ago, Sister Concubine Chen would not have died unjustly!"
"How dare you!"
Hearing this, Lu Yao's expression shifted drastically. He slammed his hand on the tea table in fury. "What right do you have to question me?"
Hearing this, Liu Meiren rose straight up from the ground.
"I indeed have no right. But I know that Sister Concubine Chen's heart belonged only to Your Majesty. She died trying to bear you children!
"But what of you, Your Majesty? As the man she loved most, you could not even protect her or the child in her womb!
"And afterward, aside from executing an innocent imperial physician who was framed by assassins, you could not even catch the true culprit!
"With Your Majesty so unable to distinguish right from wrong, so muddled and incompetent, how could I possibly expect Your Majesty to uncover the truth and clear my name?"
At this moment, amidst Liu Meiren's tirade, the assembled consorts wore expressions of shock and fear, not daring to even breathe loudly, terrified of being implicated.
However, listening to this, Yun Wu could not help but lower her head, suppressing the hint of a smile at the corner of her lips.
This Liu Meiren, on the surface, was mocking the Emperor's incompetence, but in truth, she was cursing his heartlessness.
The true culprit behind Concubine Chen's death—he had not found them. It was not because he was truly incapable.
At the end of the day, it was simply that he had never held Concubine Chen in his heart.
Even though she had died trying to bear his child.
Because he was the Emperor.
He possessed the entire world.
What he least lacked was women.
Yun Wu silently warned herself—if a woman wanted to live well in the harem, she naturally had to compete for the Emperor's favor.
But if she wanted to avoid being killed by others, and instead of striving to stand on her own, she only thought of relying on a man—that would be the height of foolishness!
One must know that the male species was the most unreliable thing under heaven…
Liu Meiren's words plunged the entire Mingguang Dian into deathly silence.
"Your Majesty—my child!"
At that moment, Ning Changzai's shrill cry suddenly shattered the stillness.
Then, everyone watched as Ning Changzai, ignoring that she had just miscarried, dragged her frail body out!
She caught sight of Liu Meiren standing there confronting the Emperor, and a flash of fury appeared on her pale, pitiful face. She raised her hand, grabbed a nearby vase, and hurled it straight at Liu Meiren!
"Wicked woman! Give me back my child!"
With Ning Changzai's hate-filled curse—
Bang.
A bloody gash opened on Liu Meiren's forehead, and the vase shattered across the floor.
She raised her hand to touch it and felt the thick, sticky blood.
The next moment.
Liu Meiren picked up a shard of the broken vase from the ground and lunged at Ning Changzai!
"—I'll kill you!"
"Restrain her!"
Empress Xue reacted first.
She rose sharply to her feet, frowning as she gave the order.
Chaos erupted in the hall.
The palace maids and eunuchs inside scrambled to hold back Liu Meiren and Ning Changzai.
The guards stationed outside rushed in and forcibly pinned the seemingly maddened Liu Meiren to the ground.
"Liu Meiren! Have you truly had enough of living?!"
Empress Xue said with an expression of utter disappointment.
"Heaven is unjust! I would rather die than become a monster in this man-eating harem!"
With blood still pouring from the wound on her forehead, tears streaming down her face, Liu Meiren's voice was filled with despair.
"Very well then. I shall grant you your wish."
At this moment, Lu Yao, who had been silent for a long while, finally spoke. "Convey my decree—Liu Meiren, for conspiring to harm the imperial heir, for great treason, and for attempting to murder a fellow consort—drag her out and beat her to death!"
From Yun Wu's angle, she could only see the emperor's cold, indifferent profile.
He remained seated there, completely motionless.
Whatever Liu Meiren had done, he neither cared nor paid any attention.
So utterly heartless and unfeeling.
This, then, was the heart of an emperor?
Liu Meiren was dragged out by two guards like a lifeless corpse.
"Your Majesty! This concubine is wronged! This concubine is wronged! I beg Your Majesty to see clearly!"
Yet just as she reached the inner hall's entrance, she suddenly struggled violently, her voice shrill as she desperately begged for mercy.
The two guards hurriedly tried to restrain her again.
In the scuffle, Liu Meiren stumbled and fell to the ground, and as luck would have it, she landed right at Yun Wu's feet.
Yun Wu couldn't help but lower her gaze to look at her.
Liu Meiren abruptly grabbed her hand, her face covered in blood and grime, looking utterly pitiful as she pleaded with heartbreaking desperation: "Can you plead for me with His Majesty? I'm truly wronged! I know I was wrong! Everything I said earlier was just angry words! I don't want to die! I really don't want to die!"
Yun Wu was yanked by her and nearly stumbled as well.
In her palm, Liu Meiren forcibly pressed something—a smooth, rounded touch… like jade.
Yun Wu's gaze sharpened instantly as she stared straight into Liu Meiren's eyes.
Liu Meiren's eyes flickered away.
But then, her tear-filled gaze was full of desperate pleading…
She wasn't truly afraid of death—she wanted to entrust this object to someone.
Yun Wu realized she had been put in an impossible position.
With so many people watching, she didn't dare look at what Liu Meiren had pressed into her hand, but her intuition told her it should be a fragment of blood jade.
If she exposed the fragment, she would likely be suspected, and people might think she and Liu Meiren had some kind of connection.
Otherwise, why would Liu Meiren have secretly slipped it to her?
That would bring her endless trouble.
At this moment, Yun Wu could only clench her palm tightly and hide the object away.
She lowered her eyes, and on her delicate, beautiful face, a perfectly measured expression of fragility and helplessness spilled forth—pitiful enough to move anyone.
The moment Lu Yao came out from inside, he saw this scene.
He simply assumed Yun Wu was being pestered and harassed by Liu Meiren's unreasonable persistence…
His expression immediately darkened.
"Drag her out! Beat her to death with clubs!"
He gave the order on the spot.
The two guards dared not delay and quickly restrained Liu Meiren again.
Liu Meiren seemed to have lost her soul, no longer struggling, and was dragged away without resistance.
The dull thuds of clubs striking flesh soon echoed through the courtyard.
Before long, all sound from outside ceased completely.
"Your Majesty, Liu Meiren is dead."
At that moment, Chen Yu'an entered to report.
Lu Yao's face remained cold as he pinched the bridge of his nose.
"Convey my decree: from this day forth, Ning Changzai is promoted to Guiren. She shall rest and recuperate peacefully during this time, and no one is to disturb her."
At these words, the expressions of the consorts shifted in various ways.
For merely losing a child, her rank jumped directly from Congqipin Changzai to Cong Liupin Guiren.
The emperor truly valued her greatly…
After saying this, Lu Yao's gaze fell upon Yun Wu, who still appeared shaken and frightened.
He paused, then took a step toward her.
However, Consort Rong suddenly stepped forward to block his path.
"Your Majesty, let this concubine accompany you back to Zhongcuigong to rest for a while."
She said in a coquettish voice.
Just now, she had seen everything clearly.
From Ning Guiren smashing Liu Meiren's head with the vase, to Liu Meiren picking up the vase's fragments and going mad trying to kill Ning Guiren—the emperor had sat there the entire time, unmoving, never rising to protect either of them.
But when this Yun Cairen was merely pulled at twice by Liu Meiren, he couldn't bear it anymore, and actually intended to go comfort her?
Was she that precious to him?
Consort Rong naturally wouldn't let Yun Wu have her way.
She immediately clung tightly to the emperor's arm again, pressing her full bosom intimately against it… and deliberately raised her chin toward Yun Wu, her gaze full of provocation.