In the dim, narrow side hall, the crowd had gathered, making it suffocatingly crowded.
Ji Renran was curled up to one side, her clothes disheveled, her messy hair obscuring her expression. Only the crisscrossing scars on her skin, glimpsed beneath her attire, revealed her condition.
Xie Jingzhou knelt on the ground, his head bowed, his entire body trembling uncontrollably.
Emperor Xiaochang sat on the Grand Tutor's chair, the rolling thunder overhead making hearts pound.
News had reached the throne that someone was causing a disturbance in Fenghuang Palace.
Under normal circumstances, Emperor Xiaochang would not have personally gone to the inner palace for such vague rumors.
However, with a group of young ladies still in the palace, if something truly scandalous were to occur, what would become of the royal family's reputation?
To maintain a low profile, Emperor Xiaochang had brought only Feng Gu and two personal eunuchs to Fenghuang Palace to investigate.
To his surprise, upon entering the courtyard, he heard the commotion from this direction.
Emperor Xiaochang had merely followed the sound and ordered the door kicked open to take a look, only to witness a scene that made his heart stop!
Fortunately, with Director Zhang's care over the years, his heart had been kept in good condition, otherwise, he might have fainted from anger on the spot.
A prince and a young lady in such an indecent situation.
What kind of conduct is this!
What about the dignity of the royal family!
His old face was likely beyond saving!
Under the Emperor's furious gaze, Xie Jingzhou's fear was genuine, as was his indignation.
He had come all the way here cautiously, worried that his birth mother might have been framed by the Empress.
Little did he know, when he reached the door, he found that Zuo Xiuhua, who was supposed to be guarding it, was nowhere to be seen.
But no matter how panicked Xie Jingzhou was, he wouldn't commit the foolish act of personally entering to investigate. Just as he was about to slip away unnoticed, he was kicked inside the room. Seeing only Ji Renran curled up alone, Xie Jingzhou knew he had been tricked.
However, the outer door was firmly shut, and even when he realized what was happening, he couldn't get out.
Xie Jingzhou knew that since someone had set him up to enter, they would continue to make trouble.
And if he wanted to escape, he absolutely could not be seen in the same room as Ji Renran.
But just as he was pulling at Ji Renran, trying to stuff her under the soft couch, the tightly shut door was kicked open.
Xie Jingzhou secretly glanced at the dragon boots on his father's feet, knowing it couldn't be such a coincidence.
But faced with the furious Emperor, he knew that it was better to wait to be questioned than to argue vociferously.
Empress Zhong, seeing the scene, was bursting with joy.
She intended to watch the show her son had delivered right before her eyes with great interest.
The atmosphere in the side hall was tense and oppressive.
Noble Consort Xi was racking her brains for a way to exonerate her son when she heard the Emperor ask, "What exactly is going on!"
Xie Jingzhou subtly glanced at Noble Consort Xi.
Noble Consort Xi, without showing any change in expression, used her eyes to convey something.
Seeing everything, Empress Zhong seized the opportunity to approach the Emperor, her voice tinged with urgency and self-reproach, "I know Noble Consort Xi has always preferred spacious and bright places, so I specifically had the side hall next to the main hall prepared in advance, so that Noble Consort Xi and the Fifth Prince could sit comfortably. It is my negligence that I didn't even know when the Fifth Prince arrived here."
Emperor Xiaochang knew that the Empress could not be blamed for this. He pulled the Empress to sit on a chair beside him. "Fenghuang Palace is neither too large nor too small, and it's not possible for the Empress to keep an eye on everything."
Empress Zhong actually didn't care about what the Emperor said. What she cared about was what she said that the Emperor would hear. So, she deliberately looked at Ji Renran and exclaimed with a "Yi," "This young lady looks familiar. She seems to be Miss Ji Renran from the Ji family, whose portrait Noble Consort Xi kept."
These seemingly casual remarks easily revealed Ji Renran's identity and implied that the Fifth Prince's presence here was to avoid everyone's notice.
Noble Consort Xi, who was already having a headache, couldn't withstand Empress Zhong's stabbing remarks, and her chest ached.
This old woman, the Empress, only knew how to talk!
Empress Zhong knew that Noble Consort Xi must be cursing her in her heart, but she didn't care at all.
Causing trouble in her Fenghuang Palace, she hadn't turned the idiom "beat a dog in the water" into a verb, and directly refrained from smashing a few pits in Noble Consort Xi's head with a stick out of consideration for her own Empress title.
Xie Jingzhou knew that he couldn't let the Empress continue speaking, so he urgently blurted out, "Father, please calm your anger. Your son doesn't know what happened. Your son was staying well in the side hall when a little eunuch came to find your son, saying that Your Majesty had an urgent summons. Your son dared not keep Your Majesty waiting and followed him here, and... and then..."
Before he could finish, Xie Jingzhou burst into tears in panic.
His ungraceful crying resembled his usual timid and cowardly self.
Noble Consort Xi, hearing this, also said to the Emperor, "Empress prepared a side hall for this concubine, but this concubine has always been in the main hall talking with the Empress. Everyone in Fenghuang Palace can testify to this."
One implicitly suggested that Fenghuang Palace was not clean.
The other claimed that the Empress had intentionally delayed her.
This was clearly an attempt to shift the attention to the Empress.
"If that is the case, it is easy to handle. Zhi Nan, go and summon everyone from Fenghuang Palace. Let the Fifth Prince identify them personally. If there really is a rat in my palace, I will punish it severely!" Empress Zhong spoke forcefully.
Noble Consort Xi looked at the Empress with surprise. "Regardless of who is right or wrong in this matter, once the Empress makes a fuss, it is the royal family's face that will be lost."
Empress Zhong rose and knelt before the Emperor, her eyes also reddening. "Noble Consort Xi speaks the truth. Once this matter is brought to light, there will be bloodshed. But as the mistress of the inner palace, if I am slandered, will the royal family's reputation be preserved? However, I absolutely cannot allow others to criticize Your Majesty. If one person must bear the responsibility for this matter, this concubine is willing to bear it alone for Your Majesty!"
Noble Consort Xi almost died of anger upon hearing this.
The Empress was not only taking advantage of the situation to extricate herself but also flattering the Emperor. Sultan Novel Network.
Shameless!
Empress Zhong knelt on the ground, looking at the Emperor with tear-filled eyes.
While she was still sitting here, they wanted to blame her.
Did this mother and son have any shame?
To deal with shameless people, one must use shameless methods.
Emperor Xiaochang certainly could not let the Empress suffer injustice. Behind the Empress was the Zhong family. Once the Zhong family knew about this, the matters of the inner palace would turn into matters of the court.
"Empress, what are you doing? I know you are devoted to me and this inner palace, but you shouldn't wrong yourself like this." Emperor Xiaochang said, personally extending his hand to the Empress.
Empress Zhong grasped his hand with apparent gratitude. As she stood up, she then said, "Since it cannot be publicized, it must be investigated rigorously."
Noble Consort Xi immediately knelt on the ground upon hearing this. "It was not easy for this concubine to give birth to a child. Even now, this concubine remembers how helpless I was at that time, only able to call out Your Majesty's name repeatedly to keep myself alive. For all these years, this concubine has only had this one son. I fear that even if nothing is found, the person might already have died under torture..."
Noble Consort Xi's words reminded Emperor Xiaochang of the past.
It was precisely because the Fifth Prince had been sickly since birth that he had often stayed by his side.
Rigorous investigation would inevitably involve torture. Who could survive such an ordeal without grave danger?
How could Emperor Xiaochang bear to see his son, whom he had doted on since childhood, suffer?
Empress Zhong watched the Emperor's hesitant expression and couldn't suppress a cold laugh in her heart.
Back then, her son had died in his swaddling clothes, and the Emperor hadn't seemed to care so much.
He can't even balance a bowl of water, and here he is pretending to be a loving father?
Damn bastard.
Pah!
However, Noble Consort Xi would not yield easily, and fortunately, Empress Zhong was no easy opponent either.
The Fourth Prince had painstakingly set the stage, and it was not impossible that Ji Zizhao also had a hand in it. As their mother, she had to see this play through to the end, even if it meant exhausting herself.
Consider it a wedding gift for the future daughter-in-law!