When the Jinghu Guards shuttled through the city widely distributing leaflets, the guards standing on the walls saw everything clearly. They immediately “risked” opening a crack in the palace gates to go out and pick up a leaflet to bring back and deliver to Zhou Meng in the inner palace.
Zhou Meng looked at the news about the wedding between the “King of Xiyue” and the “divine maiden” on the leaflet and couldn’t help but clench his fists tightly, smashing them hard on the wooden table beside him, causing the tea bowls on top to tremble violently.
“This is complete nonsense! This king is right here, the wedding was already disrupted, where did another so-called King of Xiyue come from!”
The palace maids and guards nearby all couldn’t help but lower their heads in unison.
Zhou Meng had never been so disheveled as he was today. Since birth, he had been the king of Xiyue, the divine incarnation revered by the people. His existence was Xiyue’s greatest fortune and the master whom all Xiyue citizens respected and served.
Whatever he wanted, he could have. Even a beauty like Miss Pang had agreed to become his princess consort. The women in his harem, his children, as well as his ministers, all revered him like a heavenly god.
But such an unshakeable position had been completely undermined today in front of a group of outsiders. He had been driven into the palace in a panic, closing the palace gates tight and not daring to open them. He had also been shot in the topknot by that brute’s arrow, and even now he had much less hair on top of his head. Although he could hide the “bald” spot when combing his hair, he always felt that those palace maids and his consorts and concubines were all mocking him. Not to mention the ministers who were present at the time—they had personally witnessed him being pinned to the wall by an arrow!
Zhou Meng’s self-esteem had suffered unprecedented trampling. The only thing he wanted to do now was revenge! He wanted to capture that brute who had stolen the divine maiden, nail him to the execution platform, and whip him mercilessly! He would carve off his flesh piece by piece with a knife.
“How outrageous, outrageous!” Zhou Meng viciously crumpled and tore the leaflet in his hands to shreds, threw it on the ground, and stomped on it hard several times.
“Summon the Grand General to the palace! This king wants to see what those foreign tribespeople can accomplish! Distribute grain to the people? Without this king’s word, who dares touch this king’s grain!”
The palace maids had long been frightened nearly senseless by Zhou Meng’s appearance. Hearing his orders, they hurriedly withdrew.
Zhou Meng called the Grand General to the palace and inquired about the situation with the Minuo tribe. Learning that they were still stationed in the same place without any expansionist moves, he felt relieved.
“Tomorrow, mobilize all our troops in one place and teach them a harsh lesson for this king! The important thing is the grain supplies—absolutely cannot let them touch a single grain of the supplies in their desperation. Bring back every grain for this king without missing any!”
The Grand General cupped his hands and accepted the order. “Yes, Your Highness, rest assured!”
Zhou Meng waved his hand and dismissed the Grand General.
As darkness fell, Zhou Meng didn’t summon any concubines, nor did he dare let the guards around him leave even half a step. He arranged for over a hundred guards to surround his sleeping quarters tightly before daring to sleep with peace of mind.
The guards were also very dutiful and responsible, forming teams of ten, taking turns patrolling around the sleeping quarters without rest.
The first half of the night passed without any abnormalities. However, no one dared to relax.
No one noticed that at this time, a black shadow flashed into the hall like a ghost, and before long, taking advantage of the blind spot during the guards’ patrol intersections, departed from the sleeping quarters gracefully and silently left the palace.
The next day, after the hour of Chen had passed, the palace maids still hadn’t seen the prince get up. After calling several times outside the bed curtains without response, they felt something was wrong.
When they lifted the curtains, they saw the prince lying straight on the bed with his hands folded on his abdomen, but his face was deathly pale with a greenish tint, his lips colorless and bloodless, completely unresponsive no matter how they called.
A palace maid boldly touched Zhou Meng’s arm lightly.
“Your Highness, Your Highness, you…”
Ice cold to the touch!
“Ahh—”
The scream pierced the sky.
The guards were startled and rushed in panic. Upon examining the prince lying on his back on the bed, they were completely stunned.
“Quickly call the imperial physician! Summon the princess consorts! Quickly!”
Soon, the First Princess Consort, Second Princess Consort, and Third Princess Consort arrived in panic. When the three women surrounded the bed and looked, discovering that Zhou Meng was truly dead, they couldn’t help but wail loudly!
The First Princess Consort hurriedly ordered, “Call all the ministers to the palace to assess the situation! And you, examine carefully to see exactly how the prince died!”
Two imperial physicians approached with trembling hands, examining carefully, but surprisingly found no wounds, nor was it death by poisoning!
“This… there are no wounds on the prince’s body, no poisoning, and he wasn’t suffocated by having his mouth and nose covered. He just… naturally, naturally died, as if he fell asleep and suddenly died…” The imperial physician’s voice trembled.
The First Princess Consort angrily kicked out, “Nonsense! The prince was in his prime—how could he die in his sleep? You must be incompetent in medicine and unable to examine properly!”
The Grand General and several ministers were amazed by the imperial physician’s examination results and hurried forward to look.
As the imperial physician had examined, there were indeed no wounds, it didn’t seem like poisoning, nor suffocation.
“This… the prince’s passing is truly strange. Could it be that he was summoned by the gods…”
The Third Princess Consort suddenly screamed and shouted, “It must be that witch surnamed Pang! It must be her! She’s not a divine maiden, she’s a witch! She killed the prince! She definitely killed the prince!”
The Third Princess Consort’s screaming made everyone’s eardrums itch.
Several ministers couldn’t help but darken their faces and said, “Third Princess Consort, don’t speak nonsense! The divine maiden brought large quantities of grain and seeds to Xiyue, exactly as described in the holy book. It’s just that the marriage ceremony was suddenly interrupted and didn’t come to pass. I’d believe you’re an imposter Third Princess Consort before I’d believe the divine maiden isn’t the divine maiden. I’m sure all the people of Xiyue wouldn’t believe it either!”
“Exactly! If she weren’t the divine maiden, how could she cross such a vast desert and bring grain to our Xiyue land!”
The ministers spoke one after another, all with extremely serious expressions.
The Second Princess Consort frowned for a moment and also said, “This consort also feels this matter has nothing to do with the divine maiden. It’s just that the prince’s death is truly strange, as if he passed away naturally. Perhaps it was a divine summons?”
The First Princess Consort turned and pointed at the Second and Third Princess Consorts, scolding, “It must be you two who murdered the prince!”
With the prince dead, a successor must be chosen, and it definitely had to be her son! These two sluts must die!
The First Princess Consort’s thoughts were transparent to anyone with eyes.
Involving power succession, she no longer cared whether the deceased was her bedmate, thinking instead of quickly grasping power.
The Third Princess Consort was completely stunned by the First Princess Consort’s accusation. First she stood dazed, then burst into tears and pounced, grabbing the First Princess Consort’s clothes and scolding, “You’re slandering me! You’re the one who killed the prince! You are!”
The two women twisted together like a braid, wrestling on the ground.
Such noisy and absurd behavior made the ministers frown and shake their heads.
The Second Princess Consort was the most composed one. She frowned and said, “Separate the First and Third Princess Consorts immediately!”
The palace maids originally didn’t dare touch their masters, but now having received orders, they dared to act and hurried to pull the two apart.
The Second Princess Consort, regardless of the two women’s expressions, immediately said, “Now is not the time to fight over this. What’s urgent now is the situation. I heard that over fifty more people came from the divine maiden’s tribespeople. They’re all dressed in black, tall and mighty, brave and skilled in battle, each like heavenly soldiers and generals. Are they now stationed at the camp where the divine maiden’s tribe is located?”
Seeing this, the ministers all nodded. Under the chaotic crying of the First and Third Princess Consorts, the Second Princess Consort’s composure couldn’t help but be refreshing.
A minister replied, “The princess consort is right. The divine maiden indeed has over fifty guards who also came to Xiyue. Yesterday at noon, it was those black-clothed guards who rescued the divine maiden. One of the guards even shot an arrow that nearly killed the prince. Much of the prince’s hair was cut off.”
The Second Princess Consort felt fearful hearing this and hurriedly asked, “What do you think of these people’s origins? Are they really the divine maiden’s attendants? What do they want to do coming to Xiyue? Did the prince order anyone to investigate?”
The First and Third Princess Consorts had never considered these matters and were somewhat dazed hearing this.
The ministers admired the Second Princess Consort even more and hurriedly replied, “In response to the princess consort, those people are indeed the divine maiden’s attendants. They came to Xiyue perhaps not to be our enemies, because when the prince forcibly married the divine maiden yesterday, he sent troops to surround the divine maiden’s tribespeople’s camp. When the divine maiden’s guards arrived and clashed with our troops, although they were clearly superior in martial force to our men, they didn’t kill a single person.”
The Second Princess Consort was surprised to hear this. “They didn’t kill anyone?”
“Correct. Not only did they not kill our soldiers, they also didn’t go to citizens’ homes to plunder. They just stayed peacefully in their camp. However, they did come out once to distribute some leaflets everywhere.”
“Leaflets?”
“Yes.”
The minister took out a leaflet from his sleeve and presented it with both hands to the Second Princess Consort.
The Second Princess Consort took it and frowned upon reading.
“At noon today, the King of Xiyue wants to hold a wedding with the divine maiden and distribute seeds to the Xiyue people?”
Everyone looked simultaneously at the corpse lying stiff on the bed.
With the person dead, how could a wedding be held?
“They don’t kill people and want to give our people seeds. Clearly they have no hostility toward us. But what’s this wedding they’re talking about?”
The Second Princess Consort pondered for a moment and said, “I think, since they have no hostility, we’d better not rashly mobilize troops. I’m worried that if we anger the divine wrath, they’ll burn the seeds and not give them to us. Then wouldn’t it be the Xiyue people who suffer?”
“The princess consort is right.” The ministers all agreed, feeling the Second Princess Consort was more steady and reliable than the prince.
The First and Third Princess Consorts now fought to look at the leaflet, becoming even more confused.
The Second Princess Consort said with deep concern, “First have our troops prepare for battle, but don’t take the initiative to attack. We’ll observe the situation quietly from the palace. As for the prince’s funeral rites, I’m not experienced in these matters, so I’ll leave it to the First and Third Princess Consorts to handle.”