Chapters 8
Accompanied by falling snow, covered in blood, wearing light armor, the handsome young man strolled leisurely into the Weiyang Palace where the emperor and empress were present, just as if he were strolling in his own garden. But if one were to really talk about it, this imperial palace had indeed originally been his home.
Seeing the newcomer, Ying Xu blinked her eyes, looking at Xie Jingchen, who had been dead for several years without a single piece of news, suddenly appearing out of nowhere, and asked him, “How did you come back?”
Hearing Ying Xu’s question, Xie Jingchen revealed a smile, dazzling like a harmless young boy next door, his face full of innocence while saying words that were not at all innocent: “I came to start a palace coup.”
Upon hearing this, the palace maids in Weiyang Palace finally noticed that what came in with him was not just frost and snow on his body, but also the bloodthirsty aura covering him.
For a moment, everyone in the hall was frightened, none of them were calm, fearing that this was the cold-blooded King of Hell who had killed his way into the palace, ready to take their lives with the blood-dripping sword in his hand.
But only the empress, sitting in her main seat with her extraordinary beauty, was an exception.
Seeing Xie Jingchen suddenly appear, Ying Xu’s mind suddenly recalled that earlier the emperor had strangely asked her, “Have you contacted Xie Jingchen?” and at this moment, she naturally understood what he meant at that time.
—The emperor suspected her of colluding with an outsider.
Switching to this thought, Ying Xu’s dissatisfaction with the emperor immediately rose to another level.
Thus, the palace maids saw the usually troublesome and secretly cursing Ying Xu acting even more spoiled than usual, and with a tone of grievance she herself hadn’t realized, she commanded, “Xie Jingchen, these two scoundrels bullied me, you deal with them for me.”
Since the emperor indiscriminately wanted to pin this crime on her, why not solidify it?
—Since she had been wronged, she could not just suffer in vain.
As for being the empress of the current emperor, whether commanding Xie Jingchen, who obviously came to rebel, was inappropriate? Giving orders to her former longest-serving attendant, wasn’t this natural?
Xie Jingchen had always listened to her.
As Ying Xu’s words fell, the entire hall of palace maids knelt down, bowing their heads, no longer daring to raise an eye.
Not only because her words were a capital offense of great disrespect to the emperor—Ying Xu had spoken like this to the emperor before—but also because she was so rightfully commanding Xie Jingchen, the rebellious king returned from the northwest, and they were all terrified that if they angered him, they would be killed.
Yet just as the palace maids were nervously thinking about this, they saw the once reckless young man, who had entered with frost and snow, couldn’t help but reveal an even deeper smile.
—Surprisingly, he did not appear angry at all at the empress’s words, which were clearly commands, not requests, and were spoken in a very bad tone.
Immediately, before the maids could fully register their shock, Xie Jingchen walked toward Ying Xu, half-kneeling in front of her, and gently whispered in response to her previous words:
“Okay. I will help Ah Xu get revenge.”
Just as it was natural for Ying Xu, after a long separation, to naturally command him to kill the emperor, it was equally natural for Xie Jingchen to fulfill her wish.
—All of this was entirely reasonable.
And only at this moment, seeing Ying Xu issuing orders to him, did Xie Jingchen finally truly feel that Ying Xu was still here.
…Luckily, at this time, the proud little girl in his memory had not yet suffered irreparable harm.
However, the grievances inflicted on Ying Xu, he would not let go easily.
Thinking of the wrongs the emperor had done to Ying Xu, Xie Jingchen could not help but feel some pain, and immediately showed a smile with a trace of foolishness to the beautiful girl in front of him, as if telling her not to be afraid.
Almost in the next moment, Xie Jingchen’s expression suddenly changed, as if suddenly remembering something, vaguely recalling the snow and cold still covering him, and he slightly increased the distance between himself and Ying Xu, so that the surrounding chill would not make her uncomfortable.
Then Xie Jingchen turned his gaze, cold and without a trace of warmth, sweeping over the emperor and his little concubine, and casually said two words, “Take them away.”
After these words fell, several soldiers in iron armor immediately walked in from outside, dragging the emperor, who had been confronting Ying Xu, and the little concubine he was protecting. Their actions were rough.
In the end, the leading soldier, unsure of how to deal with the two, asked Xie Jingchen, “General, these two…”
Xie Jingchen did not answer directly, but instead looked back at Ying Xu and said gently, “Ah Xu, wait for me a moment.”
Ying Xu tilted her head, a little puzzled, and asked him, “What for?”
Then she casually said, “Just kill them.”
Her tone was as calm as if she were ordering the killing of some random cats or dogs, not her married emperor and his concubine.
Hearing this, the handsome young man smiled and said, “Even if we kill them, we cannot do it in front of Ah Xu. It would dirty your eyes.”
Satisfied with this answer, Ying Xu waved her hand and said impatiently, “Then hurry up.”
“Alright.” He responded patiently. Then Xie Jingchen stood up and walked outside. In the few steps, his gaze inadvertently fell on the palace maids kneeling in Weiyang Palace. He paused slightly, but since they belonged to Ying Xu’s palace, he decided not to act on his own, temporarily sparing this group of indecisive, disloyal people.
After leaving Weiyang Palace, Xie Jingchen gave his first command: “Kill. Leave none who are young.”
—These palace maids with shorter tenure had, to some degree, all caused problems.
It was unclear where they got these ideas, who had instilled these corrupt notions into them, thinking Ying Xu was bad, and praising the emperor’s blind affection for the “humane” lowly palace girl.
Recalling what he heard in the previous life in the palace, his dark eyes sank again.
If they thought Ying Xu was bad, then they had no reason to exist.
—He could only tolerate those who admired Ying Xu.
After issuing the first order, Xie Jingchen’s gaze moved forward, where a young man holding an umbrella led a group of soldiers carrying unknown items. The leader appeared listless and lazy, even resting the umbrella on his shoulder rather than holding it properly.
He raised his voice slightly, “Pei Xingzhou, stop slacking!”
“Yes, yes, yes.”
Caught red-handed slacking by his superior, Pei Xingzhou immediately raised his hands, signaling he would get to work, and then directed the men behind him to sprinkle the contents of their hands.
These soldiers were not holding just anything, but the “exorcism medicine” that Xie Jingchen had once refused to drink, which had been intended to save his chaotic mind. This time they held powdered medicine instead of liquid.
As Xie Jingchen had said before, upon returning to Jinling City, he was indeed performing an exorcism “ritual.”
Although Pei Xingzhou didn’t understand what exactly was evil in Jinling City—ever since that high fever, Xie Jingchen had been off in some way—but his boss had spoken, so naturally he followed orders.
Watching the soldiers with the exorcism powder move, Xie Jingchen withdrew his gaze, and looked at the emperor and his beloved, who were now being escorted out and still struggling.
He lightly turned the knife in his hand, the bones of his fingers sliding through the blood still dripping.
His pure black eyes looked at the two without any emotion, as if looking at two dead people.
His lips curled slightly in a somewhat pleased arc, “Ah Xu has always been kind, so I won’t make it hard for you. Chariot tearing or slow slicing, choose how you want to die.”
As his words fell, the palace girl favored by his elder brother widened her eyes in disbelief, “You’re going to kill me?”
Yun Wan struggled more fiercely against the soldiers restraining her, looking at Xie Jingchen as if grievously wronged, interrogating, “How can you kill me?”
Xie Jingchen was puzzled. This woman’s mind must be faulty. She dared hurt Ying Xu; how could he not kill her?
But what he didn’t expect was something even more disgusting.
The woman who had caused Ying Xu’s death in the previous life suddenly said, “You cannot kill me. I am your predestined wife!”
This sentence almost stunned Xie Jingchen into silence. A momentary daze was followed by an indescribable sense of disgust.
Just as Xie Jingchen felt extremely uncomfortable, a voice he was very familiar with suddenly came to his ears—
“Xie Jingchen, do not kill Xie Liu yet.” It was Ying Xu.
She had stepped out of Weiyang Palace and was now standing at the doorway.