We’re finished! This was their first thought.

Run quickly! This was the second thought that immediately followed. But Song Jue had obviously come prepared. On this gloomy day with the north wind blowing, they watched torches light up everywhere and didn’t feel the slightest warmth—they only felt bone-chilling cold spreading throughout their bodies.

“Quick—” The person who had just opened the door for them couldn’t even speak properly. Suddenly his voice rose: “Run quickly!”

He wasn’t ordering these people who had just entered to run—he was clearly notifying someone inside. Song Jue’s gaze suddenly turned fierce. With lightning speed, he flew forward and kicked at the man, then without stopping for even a moment, strode directly inside with large steps.

At the same time, Scholar Chen’s steward was also running heedlessly toward Scholar Chen’s study, his face pale and head covered in cold sweat. He couldn’t feel the cold wind at all—he only felt the fire burning up from the soles of his feet. This fire made his heart burn with anxiety. He didn’t dare delay for even a moment. With a bang, he pushed open the door and looked at Scholar Chen with wide eyes: “Master, this is bad! The Grand Heir Consort is fine…”

The assassination failed! Scholar Chen stood up and furiously grabbed the book in his hand to throw at him: “Useless! Useless! You can’t even handle such a small matter—what use are you?!”

The steward didn’t dodge. When the book hit his body, he didn’t feel any pain. He squinted at the furious Scholar Chen and lowered his head even further: “They also captured someone alive… There’s no word from that residence either… Something seems to have happened…”

Something happened? Scholar Chen snorted irritably: “What else could happen now?!” He sat down viciously, looking at the mouth-watering sweets on the desk, but had no appetite at all. However, he was merely in a bad mood—he wasn’t particularly frightened. Seeing the steward sweating profusely, he felt somewhat sympathetic. After all, the old steward had followed him for quite a long time. He sighed and shook his head at him: “Forget it, forget it. It’s not that serious. Once matters in the palace are settled, the Grand Heir will meet a bad end, let alone a mere woman. No matter how capable she is, can she overturn the heavens?”

The steward still felt something was wrong. After thinking about it, he realized what was wrong—they couldn’t contact those people who were captured alive either. The place Lord Xu had given them earlier was now impossible to approach, surrounded by many Golden Militia Guards…

He felt things were extremely wrong, but as to exactly what was wrong, he hesitated and opened his mouth: “But they seem to have followed that batch of people who attempted the assassination and went to that residence to arrest people.” Having said this sentence, he felt the pressure in his heart suddenly relax considerably, and continued: “Could it be—”

Scholar Chen became somewhat flustered by what he said, but only somewhat. To be honest, now that Old Kong and the others had already entered the palace, the matter would soon be finalized. The Emperor was also dead. From now on, everything would be up to them to decide. What difficulty was there in punishing the Song family and making a Golden Militia Guard chiliarch shut his mouth? Making the entire Earl of Changning’s residence disappear would just be a small matter.

He waved his hand: “Forget it, don’t talk about these things. Right now with all this chaos and turmoil, the Grand Heir and Grand Heir Consort are about to meet disaster. How could the Song family still care about such small matters? Don’t worry about this. Hurry and go out to search—see where on earth Lord Xu is. If you can’t find him elsewhere, go look at Chen Tingxuan’s place, or perhaps at Minister Zheng’s home…”

First find Lord Xu. Next, the Grand Heir and Grand Heir Consort would both meet misfortune, then they’d need to continue to the next step—they had to push out Prince Gong’s heir and let Prince Gong’s heir naturally become the acting emperor. Then everything would truly be worry-free.

But Lord Xu had no time right now to stroll around the streets. He had mixed into the pile of eunuchs from the Laundry Bureau delivering clothes and entered the palace, planning to personally go find Prince Dongping.

Now they had reached the final critical moment. He had to be on guard, lest the Crown Prince and Empress Dowager Lu push Prince Dongping out to be used as a weapon. Otherwise, if Prince Dongping was really pushed out to compete with Prince Gong’s son for this acting emperor position, wouldn’t it make things difficult for Han Zhengqing and cause Prince Gong’s heart to harbor resentment?

But though he had exerted enormous effort to sneak into the palace, it was completely useless—because Zhou Weiqi had already gone to Taiji Hall with Empress Dowager Lu.

He was scared out of half his wits, his heart palpitating violently. He covered his chest with his hand for quite a while before recovering.

This, this time, Empress Dowager Lu must be planning to push Prince Dongping out to become the acting emperor.

Empress Dowager Lu was indeed thinking this way, especially when she saw Old Kong truly kneel on the ground with an unchanged expression, neither servile nor overbearing in manner. She had already prepared for the worst.

She put away all these emotions and looked at Old Kong below, whose expression was calm, asking him: “You’re accusing the Grand Heir?”

Zhou Weizhao was also looking at him, his gaze as always clear and transparent, seeming to contain no emotion, yet also seeming to encompass all emotions within. When their eyes met, Old Kong slightly turned his head away.

He turned his head, then lowered it to answer Empress Dowager Lu’s question. His voice wasn’t particularly loud, but loud enough for people to hear: “Yes, this humble subject accuses the Grand Heir of deliberately ordering Zhang Tianshi to mix deadly poison into the tribute elixirs to murder His Majesty, intending to conceal his earlier actions of falsely accusing and framing Prince Gong!”

At this point, Empress Dowager Lu had nothing more to say. She knew Old Kong’s character all too well. From the moment he opened his mouth, she knew Old Kong would absolutely never change his testimony.

This person had been able to lurk like a venomous snake behind Zhou Weizhao for so long, deliberately planning and waiting until now to deliver this fatal blow. He had clearly prepared long ago, planned for a long time. Having such determination, how could he be willing to fail at the last moment?

There was no need to say anything more. She stared at Old Kong and suddenly smiled: “What evidence do you have?”

Everyone below held their breath and restrained themselves. All along, it seemed to have been only Daoist Ciyun saying so, Old Kong saying so, the common people spreading rumors. But as for substantive evidence? It seemed there was only the batch of elixirs Zhang Tianshi had presented as tribute, in which poison had been detected.

But this wasn’t ironclad evidence either—after all, these things could all be planted.

They waited for Old Kong to produce evidence and thoroughly end this chaos.

This was the current mentality of most officials—they really couldn’t wait any longer. How could they keep waiting? If they continued waiting, continued this chaos, the entire realm would descend into disorder.

Who became emperor was no longer that important. What was important was to quickly end all this, then help support someone of roughly appropriate status to ascend, so that all this could be concluded.

Liang Tong watched Kong Shun kneeling on the ground, gritting his teeth, his eyes shining with hopeful light.

Kong Shun was also gritting his teeth, grinding them with a crunching sound. After a moment, he firmly kowtowed.