The next day, news that the second prince had hanged himself in the Imperial Prison shocked the entire court and populace.
When the crown prince heard that the second prince had hanged himself, he shoved away the men and women around him, manic delight gleaming in his eyes.
Hahaha, my Second Imperial Brother committed suicide out of guilt. Heaven is truly helping me. I have won the struggle completely.
“Get out. All of you, get out.”
The crown prince was barefoot, his clothes disheveled and his long hair spilling over his shoulders. Like herding male escorts, he drove away the beauties around him.
The crown prince had no time to indulge in sensual pleasures. He now had to hurry to the imperial palace and put on a good performance before his imperial father.
Oh, no, that was not right. He still had to pretend to be a little more grief-stricken.
After all, his Second Imperial Brother was dead. Hahaha.
The crown prince changed into a crimson python-patterned robe and hurried toward the emperor’s imperial bedchamber. On the way, he encountered the Seventh Prince’s carriage.
Unexpectedly, after the Seventh Prince’s carriage stopped, it soon left again. From beginning to end, the Seventh Prince never came out. By rights, he should have taken the initiative to pay his respects to the crown prince.
Hmph. What a rotten attitude.
The crown prince snorted coldly, lowered the curtain, and signaled for them to continue onward.
The Seventh Prince and the second prince had been born of the same mother, so their bond was naturally deeper than that between the other brothers. Now that the second prince was dead, the Seventh Prince’s hatred for the crown prince had deepened.
When Xu Bao'er learned that the person behind everything was the second prince, she immediately thought of diverting the disaster elsewhere and throwing this hot potato to the crown prince.
Since you love snatching credit so much, I’ll let you snatch as much as you want.
The second prince was no ordinary figure. The interest groups behind him were enormous.
With the second prince dead, leaving aside everything else, his maternal clan would not let the crown prince off easily.
At this moment, the crown prince still felt pleased with himself and had not sensed the approaching danger at all. All he felt was that in the struggle for the imperial throne, one formidable competitor had been eliminated.
“Imperial father.”
The crown prince wore an expression of grief, wiping away his tears as he walked toward his imperial father. At that moment, the emperor had his back to him, his fists clenched tightly.
“Slap.”
A vicious slap struck the crown prince across the face. The emperor’s eyes bulged with fury as he strode forward, wishing he could strangle this rebellious son to death.
What a rebellious son. He had actually dared to come find him first. Was he very happy about the second prince’s death?
“Imperial father?”
The crown prince looked aggrievedly at his imperial father, but his heart jolted. Could it be that imperial father had blamed him for the death of the Second Imperial Brother?
“You rebellious son, you idiot!”
“You fell into someone else’s scheme without realizing it. You won’t even know how you died someday.”
The crown prince’s head buzzed from the scolding. He swallowed, unable to understand what the emperor meant. Whose scheme had he fallen into?
The emperor did not want to deal with the crown prince. Even if an idiot like him eventually ascended the imperial throne, that bastard would kill him sooner or later.
It seemed he had to strike first and kill that bastard to eliminate future trouble.
“Imperial father, the Second Imperial Brother intended rebellion. I was thinking of imperial father’s safety. In the urgency of the moment, I had no choice but to reveal the matter in the Imperial Court.”
Seeing that the crown prince was still trying to argue, the emperor was so furious that his heart spasmed. How could he fail to see through the crown prince’s petty schemes?
“Get out, you empty-headed fool.”
The emperor could not be bothered to say more to an idiot, lest he be angered to death by him.
“Imperial father, you are biased. The Second Imperial Brother committed such a heinous offense, yet you still want to protect him.”
“I refuse to accept this!”
“The Second Imperial Brother is dead, that much is true, but he committed suicide out of guilt. No one else can be blamed.”
The moment the second prince’s death was mentioned, the emperor grew even angrier.
Because the second prince had not committed suicide out of guilt at all. He had died at the emperor’s hands. In this world, only the dead could keep a secret forever.
The second prince was about to escape the emperor’s control. Fearing that he would reveal everything and endanger the imperial throne, the emperor had killed him with his own hands.
“Imperial father, you... your heart is truly ruthless.”
The emperor could not forget the despair in the second prince’s eyes before his death. The second prince had still been struggling, but once he realized that his imperial father was determined to kill him, he stopped resisting instantly.
He simply stared fixedly at the emperor.
The emperor did not regret killing the second prince. Without ruthlessness, one’s position could not be secured.
He had fought his way to the imperial throne by killing his way there.
Emperors were all heartless. Anyone who threatened the imperial throne deserved to die.
With a crash, the emperor smashed the cup.
“Get out!”
“If you do not leave, I will kill you.”
By now, the crown prince had been angered out of all reason by the emperor, still dwelling on his imperial father’s supposed favoritism. He did not take the emperor’s threat seriously at all.
He was the crown prince. How could the emperor bear to kill him?
The crown prince continued making a scene, raising his voice as he wailed, “imperial father, you are biased! Did you already want the second prince to become emperor?”
Enough!
The crown prince mentioned the second prince again, touching the emperor’s inverse scale.
The emperor immediately seized the precious sword from the wall, drew it fiercely, discarded the scabbard, and strode toward the crown prince.
Only then did the crown prince finally realize that his imperial father was not joking with him.
With a single stroke, the emperor viciously slashed the crown prince’s arm. Blood stained the scabbard crimson, and the crown prince cried out in pain.
“Imperial father, imperial father, spare my life.”
The crown prince finally came to his senses. He knew that his imperial father was serious and had truly developed murderous intent.
“I’ll leave right now. I’ll leave immediately.”
The crown prince scraped at the ground twice where he stood, then fled in terror, rolling and crawling away.
“Rebellious son.”
The emperor was nearly driven to internal injury by the crown prince. He was already suffering over the second prince’s death, yet that fool had repeatedly provoked him.
The emperor walked unsteadily. In a single night, he seemed to have aged greatly.
Suddenly, the precious sword was snatched from his hand. The emperor looked back in terror, thinking the crown prince had returned to kill him.
Yet he never expected a woman to be standing behind him.
The woman was breathtakingly beautiful. In all his life, he had never seen a woman so beautiful. Her beauty was stunning, like a hibiscus flower in full, dazzling bloom, hovering between purity and desire.
“Where did such a beauty come from?”
“Come here quickly and let Me take a look at you.”
The emperor knew that the other party intended to kill him. He planned to lower her guard first and then counterattack, but he did not know that she would not give him the chance.
Xu Bao'er was so disgusted she nearly vomited. He was already so old, with a ball stuffed in his belly, yet he still looked at her with such lecherous eyes.
To end things quickly, Xu Bao'er once again used her familiar slash across the throat, taking half the old man’s life.
Blood seeped from the emperor’s throat. He forced himself to remain upright before collapsing to the ground. He could not utter a word, and his throat hurt terribly.
Xu Bao'er controlled her strength. She did not want the emperor to die so quickly; that would have been letting him off too easily.
“Dead old man, do you know who I am?”
Lying on the ground, the emperor did not even have the strength to roll his eyes. If he had known, he would have immediately exterminated this vicious woman’s nine clans.
“I am the Princess Consort of Prince Duan.”
The Princess Consort of Prince Duan—the discarded wife?
“By the way, do you know why none of your imperial princes can produce offspring?”
Xu Bao'er knew that the dead old man valued offspring, so she would let him die knowing the truth.
“Because they were all drugged.”
Naturally, Xu Bao'er was not the one who had drugged them. She had not been here at the time.
“You absolutely cannot guess who that person was. Here is a hint: it was not Prince Duan.”
Although Zhou Jin’s methods were ruthless, he disdained using such sinister means against others.
The emperor breathed weakly. He also wanted very much to know who had poisoned his offspring in such a vicious manner.