Chen Xiang had never so desperately longed to live. She was still young, still had plenty of time to squander.

She couldn’t die!

She used all her strength trying to crawl outside, but her entire body was powerless—she simply couldn’t crawl out.

Watching this woman reduced to such a state before her eyes, Ji Muqing laughed loudly several times, then pulled down several curtains hanging in the room and flung them onto Chen Xiang’s body. Immediately after, she opened the two jars of wine she had brought and splashed them throughout the room and all over Chen Xiang’s body.

“Don’t, don’t!” Chen Xiang screamed frantically.

Ji Muqing paid no attention. She picked up a candlestick and walked over, looking down at her from above with a sinister smile. “When you treated me this way, did you feel any pity? Even the slightest bit?”

“Yes, yes I did.”

“Ha.”

“Sister, I’m begging you, please spare me. I truly know I was wrong. I’m begging you, I don’t want to die yet.”

“Heaven is fair to all. Whoever does wrong is destined to receive retribution. You are, and so am I. What we owe is destined to be repaid.”

“No! No…”

“Go die.”

That candlestick slowly fell from her hand, landing on the large curtain draped over Chen Xiang’s body.

Instantly—

The firelight penetrated Chen Xiang’s terrified eyes, magnifying endlessly.

“Ah!”

Boom!

The great fire suddenly ignited, instantly consuming her body.

The scalding flames grew more and more intense. She rolled continuously on the ground, her mouth emitting tragic screams without cease.

Soon, the entire room was engulfed in flames.

Ji Muqing watched the scene before her eyes, laughing maniacally, her laughter utterly crazed.

Then she turned and walked out of the room.

Behind her, fierce flames burned.

At this moment, she finally felt relief, finally felt her hatred released!

The heavy rain outside had finally stopped.

The sky had finally brightened!

Everything had returned to its starting point.

At this time, palace guards had completely surrounded Prince Yi’s Manor. Guards rushed into the courtyard and surrounded the nearly insane Ji Muqing in the middle.

Her hands hung powerlessly at her sides. The pouch she had been clutching tightly fell onto the waterlogged ground. Her legs went soft and her body collapsed to the ground, yet she still tilted her head back, continuing to laugh without stopping.

Those eyes filled with hatred gradually became vacant. She tilted her head and began singing a nursery rhyme her grandmother had taught her in childhood.

“Little person enters the room, flowers and birds chase colorful butterflies, one kind of grass grows, one kind of tree falls, there is summer and winter, you and I shall meet beneath the peach blossoms…”

“Little person enters the room, flowers and birds chase colorful butterflies, one kind of grass grows, one kind of tree falls, there is summer and winter, you and I shall meet beneath the peach blossoms…”

…

Over and over again.

Like the sound of death emanating from the abyss.

It echoed endlessly throughout Prince Yi’s Manor.

At the same moment, the Ji family’s General’s Manor was also completely surrounded.

Ji Shuhan knelt in the ancestral hall, looking at the Buddha statue before him with a bitter smile. He truly hadn’t expected that after scheming his entire life, in the end, he had still miscalculated that one step.

Not only had he lost, but the entire Ji family had lost as well.

How could he have the face to meet the Ji family ancestors?

He didn’t know how much time had passed when the tightly closed door behind him was pushed open by Ji Wanxin.

As the door opened, what she saw was Ji Shuhan’s body kneeling before the Buddha statue—already long cold.

Eh?

She froze, her legs going soft, her body heavily crashing against the door.

It took a while before she reacted.

“Father? Father!”

She rushed over, kneeling beside Ji Shuhan, screaming with heart-wrenching grief.

“Father…”

She embraced the corpse and wept aloud.

The guards outside came in. Originally fierce and menacing, when they saw the scene before them, they still felt some reluctance. Moreover, that beauty acclaimed as Jinjiang’s first was crying so pitifully.

She was truly worthy of pity.

But sympathy aside, the Ji family had indeed committed grave crimes.

In the end, Ji Wanxin was still arrested and thrown into the Ministry of Justice prison to await sentencing.

As for Ji Li, once the third quarter of the mao hour arrived, he was escorted into the palace, along with the arrow-wounded Jing Yi, and they knelt outside Fuyang Hall for a long time.

Emperor Qizhen’s heart was in turmoil. Though his illness had recovered, this anger ultimately caused him to collapse again. He didn’t want to see that beast anymore, so he issued two imperial edicts.

One decreed that in three days, Ji Li would be executed.

The other decreed that Jing Yi would be imprisoned in the palace’s inner dungeon, to be dealt with later.

Consort Xiao, equally guilty by association, was also consigned to the Cold Palace, never to step outside the Cold Palace for the rest of her life.

Almost everyone involved in the palace siege was thrown into prison. For a time, half of the court officials were dismissed from office.

As day broke, the heavy rain stopped. All the troops withdrew from the palace, and the closed city gates opened at the third quarter of the mao hour.

Everything returned to normal.

In the Cold Palace.

Consort Xiao wore a simple white robe. All the gold and silver jewelry from her body and hair ornaments were gone. Her face was bare, cold and sunken, her vacant, scattered gaze not knowing where it rested.

Fighting and scheming.

Unexpectedly… she had still lost.

Suddenly—

The tightly closed door opened.

Jing Xuan entered carrying an exquisite food box. She dismissed the palace maids by her side and closed the door.

She set down the items and took out all the dishes she had brought.

There were no delicacies from land and sea—only four vegetable dishes and a pot of wine!

She poured two cups of wine.

One cup she placed before her mother consort, one cup before herself.

“We mother and daughter haven’t sat down properly to share a meal in a very long time.”

Consort Xiao looked at her without speaking.

“Although these dishes aren’t abalone or sea cucumber delicacies, your daughter remembers that Mother Consort enjoyed eating them, so I had the imperial kitchen prepare some.”

“Take them away.” Consort Xiao spoke out.

Jing Xuan ignored her and continued, “There’s stir-fried seasonal vegetables, glutinous rice dumplings, and also…”

“I said take them away.” Consort Xiao raised her hand, knocking all four plates of food off the table onto the ground.

Shattered to pieces!

Yet Jing Xuan remained very calm.

Consort Xiao glared at her angrily, “Are you finally satisfied? Seeing this palace and your imperial brother reduced to this state—are you satisfied? If you hadn’t brought that fool out, your imperial brother would have already left the capital by now. Why would he have to be imprisoned in the palace dungeon, waiting for your father emperor to grant him death?”

Jing Xuan smiled bitterly, her eyes reddening, “Even now, does Mother Consort still not know her wrongs?”

“Wrong? What wrong has this palace committed?”

Hehe.

“Forget it. No matter how much I say, you won’t understand.” Jing Xuan took a deep breath, forcing herself not to let tears fall. “In a few days, your daughter must leave to marry into Huyi. On that day, Mother Consort probably won’t be able to see me off. After today’s parting, in this life and the next… I fear there will be no chance to meet again.”

“…”

She lifted that cup of wine, “Your daughter toasts Mother Consort.”

She drank it all in one gulp.

Consort Xiao also dissolved into tears.

Jing Xuan placed a piece of incense she had brought into the warming brazier on the table. “Didn’t Mother Consort say she loved the incense blend your daughter made? Today I’ve brought some. Mother Consort can smell the incense… and rest well.”

The fragrance spread from the brazier, permeating the entire room.

Jing Xuan couldn’t bear to look at her mother consort again. She bit her teeth and turned to leave.

“Xuan’er.” Consort Xiao cried in anguish. Watching her daughter’s figure grow more and more distant, she finally achieved complete enlightenment. “It’s Mother Consort who wronged you. Mother Consort was wrong… Pfft!”

She spat out a mouthful of blood!

She slowly collapsed to the ground.

Jing Xuan never turned back. Just as the door closed, two lines of tears finally fell.