The Crown Prince had never felt such fury before. His bloodshot eyes glared at Liangdi Fan as he suddenly smiled, crouched down and seized Liangdi Fan’s chin with such force that even Zhou Weiqi standing nearby seemed to hear the sound of his mother’s bones cracking. He hastily knelt down crying as well.
Liangdi Fan was forced to lift her head and look at the Crown Prince. She only glanced once before involuntarily averting her eyes, not daring to look again. She had served the Crown Prince for too long—she understood all too well what that look in his eyes meant.
“I told you not to cause me trouble!” The Crown Prince looked at her with scarlet eyes, his gaze seeming as if it would devour her: “You’re always acting on your own authority!”
Time and again, the Crown Prince was truly enraged to the extreme. He stretched out his leg and kicked Liangdi Fan squarely in the chest, sending her flying far away to lie prostrate on the ground without moving for a long while.
Prince Dongping crawled over crying to check on his mother, while moving forward to embrace the Crown Prince’s legs and tearfully plead: “Father! Please spare Mother! Mother also did this for my sake—”
The Crown Prince had always been a loving father around Weiqi. He always had a different kind of patience for this child he’d raised in his arms from infancy. At this moment, even though he was furious beyond measure, he still steadied himself without venting his anger on the boy. Covering his chest, he retreated two steps to sit in an armchair, gasping for a long moment before giving a cold laugh: “What do you mean for your sake? Are you stupid or not? If she truly did this for your sake, how could she do something so foolish!” If this matter was investigated and discovered, what good would come to the Eastern Palace? He only had two sons in total, yet fratricidal strife had broken out. If he couldn’t even manage his own household affairs properly, who would believe he could manage all of Great Zhou?!
Moreover, given his usual favoritism toward the Fan mother and son, even his Emperor father would likely think like everyone else—that his indulging his concubine while neglecting his wife had allowed the Fan clan to cause this disaster! The Crown Prince was so angry that veins bulged on his forehead. He felt his heartbeat accelerate and breathing become difficult, covering his chest as a wave of suffocating tightness came over him.
Prince Dongping cried for a while. Seeing his father seemed about to be angered to death, he hurriedly came over to rub his father’s chest, rubbing while crying: “Mother Consort did wrong in this matter. Your son was also shocked and frightened when I learned of it today. But Father, what’s done is done. Huangjue Temple won’t implicate us. They have no evidence either. If you first do something to Mother, wouldn’t that make the whole realm know that our Eastern Palace has a guilty conscience?”
Liangdi Fan struggled to kneel properly again, prostrating herself on the ground drenched in cold sweat. Whether from pain or fright was unclear—she couldn’t say a single word. But though she couldn’t speak, in her heart she was pleased. The Crown Prince didn’t value her, but he ultimately valued Zhou Weiqi who’d grown up at his side from childhood. This was also what she considered her most successful achievement to date—affection was built up day by day through spending time together. Just like that one born to the Crown Princess—what did it matter how high his status or how legitimate his position? Having never spent a single day by the Crown Prince’s side, if the Crown Prince didn’t favor him, he simply didn’t favor him.
This time she’d made such a grave error. If the Crown Prince truly doted on their son, even if he worried about what would spread and cause suspicion, it wouldn’t be just this loud thunder with little rain—just an outburst and then it was over. She already understood this in her heart.
“Tell me everything in complete detail!” The Crown Prince snorted coldly, covering his chest as he stood up. He looked at the Fan woman with agitation, wishing he could kick her to death: “Don’t leave out a single detail!”
But in truth, Lady Fan really didn’t have many details to tell the Crown Prince. She’d only used Huangjue Temple and Old Master Chen, but she hadn’t personally handled the specific arrangements. She hadn’t even sent anyone to inquire about the progress, precisely to prevent being implicated by this matter in the future. Enduring the sharp pain in her chest, she bit by bit recounted how she’d approached Huangjue Temple, then how Huangjue Temple had joined forces with Elder Chen. She looked up earnestly at the Crown Prince: “As for other matters, I had no hand in them—” She didn’t mention that it was Prince Dongping who had Qian Ying go persuade the monks of Huangjue Temple to help with the deed—she couldn’t say that. Prince Dongping absolutely could not be connected to this matter in any way.
The Crown Prince gave a cold laugh, almost pointing at her nose to curse her stupidity: “Who is Old Master Chen?! He was formerly part of the Eastern Palace faction—” Seeing him growing somewhat delirious with rage, Liangdi Fan hurriedly moved forward to clasp his feet, shrilly reminding him: “Your Highness! Right now no one knows Old Master Chen is still connected to Huangjue Temple which assassinated the Grand Prince. His crime is framing an important minister!”
Only when she shouted at him like this did the Crown Prince come to his senses. Rubbing his temples, he lifted his foot to shake her off again, returned to sit in his seat for a long moment, then pointed at Zhou Weiqi: “Come with me to the study in the front courtyard.”
Nanny Fang, along with the half-dead frightened Lianqiao and Mushao, rushed in to help Liangdi Fan up. At a glance they saw her bloodied hand and couldn’t help saying in a trembling voice: “How can this be? How could the injury be so severe?”
Only at this moment did Liangdi Fan feel the pain. Looking down at her hand with its broken nail still bleeding, she actually smiled, the breath she’d been holding in her heart finally releasing.
What she feared was the Crown Prince not making a sound or losing his temper. The Crown Prince was accustomed to holding his anger inside. Over time, after holding it in for long enough, he’d settle all accounts with you at once. Now having it all burst out together, with their son there to mediate, was far better than having the Crown Prince brood darkly in his heart about how to eliminate her.
She let Nanny Fang lead Mushao in treating her wound. Covering her bandaged hand, she sat dully for a while, only feeling her head buzzing in waves. She truly hadn’t expected that even with Huangjue Temple exerting all their strength and bringing in the Chen family, it would still fall short at the last moment.
Sure enough, calamities lived longer than ordinary people. She cursed her bad luck inwardly, rubbing her eyes swollen from crying, her mind in complete chaos for the moment. Just now she’d been able to coax the Crown Prince through crying and pleading because, after all, she’d served the Crown Prince for so many years and understood him better than anyone. She’d taken advantage of understanding the Crown Prince. But if she waited until Zhou Weizhao returned…
Liangdi Fan clenched her fists, fury and bitter hatred surging in her eyes. The Crown Princess Lady Lu and the son she bore both had hard lives. After all these years they were still living perfectly well, always causing trouble for others.
After Nanny Fang finished bandaging her wound, she asked softly: “My lady, should we send someone to relay a message?”
Liangdi Fan covered her hand, her gaze cold as she shook her head. Last time when Zhou Weizhao was assassinated, the Imperial Guard themselves said it was done by bandits—they wouldn’t slap their own faces by implicating the Fan family now. At present, the Crown Prince had likely already redirected his anger toward the entire Fan clan because of her acting on her own authority. If they sent a message to the Fan family at this time, far from helping, it would only drag the Fan family into being targets of the Crown Prince’s displaced anger—more loss than gain. The Fan family was to be used, but not now.