The First and Third Princess Consorts, having found no opportunity to assert themselves, naturally stepped forward when the Second Princess Consort spoke thus.
The First Princess Consort said, “With the prince already deceased, our Xiyue cannot be without a ruler for even a day. Who will inherit the throne must also be planned.”
The ministers felt this made sense upon hearing it and all nodded.
But the Second Princess Consort frowned, her slender fingers slowly sliding over the four characters “King of Xiyue” on the leaflet, saying quietly, “Don’t rush, let’s observe the situation first before deciding.”
The First Princess Consort didn’t appreciate this and sneered, “Regardless of how we rank by seniority, the new prince cannot possibly be your son, so save yourself the worry.”
Everyone looked at each other. The ministers all felt that with the First Princess Consort’s temperament, the son she raised might not necessarily be good either.
But no matter how they ranked, the Second Princess Consort’s son was indeed too young to rank highly.
The First and Third Princess Consorts busied themselves organizing the funeral, calling the prince’s children to mourn and keep vigil. The morning passed in a flash.
At noon, the guards on the palace walls suddenly discovered that the people in the square had begun gathering. And there was a trend of more and more people surrounding the area.
The guards were greatly alarmed and hurried to the inner palace to report.
Soon, the princess consorts, ministers, and Zhou Meng’s children who received the news all curiously gathered on the palace walls to look outside.
More and more people came—it looked like all the people of Xiyue had arrived!
Just then, a procession came from the distance, quite numerous in number. And in the middle of their formation, they seemed to be escorting supplies.
Everyone held their breath, watching that procession slowly approach, only then seeing the formation clearly.
Leading the procession were over fifty black-clothed cavalry, while a beautiful woman in red robes sat alone on a horse, riding alongside another imposing, extraordinarily handsome black-clothed young man. Behind them, under the protection of nearly a thousand people, carts carrying supplies rolled forward with wheels rumbling.
The scene fell completely silent. Seeing such a formation, and that the divine maiden sitting on horseback truly had a celestial appearance and had brought grain supplies, the Xiyue people parted like the Red Sea toward both sides. The people all knelt down, bowing and shouting loudly, “Divine maiden! The divine maiden has brought food! Long live! Long live!”
The cheers of several thousand people were like a landslide or tsunami, shaking people’s hearts!
The princess consorts, ministers, and princes on the palace walls felt as if the city walls beneath their feet were shaking.
The Second Princess Consort’s face was deathly pale as she gripped her sleeves tightly, craning her neck to look outside.
She saw the convoy enter among the people and slowly stop.
The divine maiden in red robes and that imposing young man climbed onto the high platform hand in hand. Her heart already had an ominous premonition.
Qin Yining pressed her lips together, slightly raising both arms and pressing downward, signaling for everyone to be quiet.
The people actually all fell silent together, no longer making noise and keeping quiet.
Qin Yining cleared her throat and said, “People of Xiyue, the heavenly god has heard your devout prayers day and night and specially sent me to this land to bestow upon you grain and seeds!”
“Good! Good!”
Upon hearing this, the people immediately cheered excitedly. Those in the back who couldn’t hear clearly what Qin Yining said were informed by those in front. Everyone clapped excitedly, and some elderly people and children were already moved to tears.
Qin Yining again raised her hand to signal for quiet, and the scene indeed became quiet again, with only the faint sound of people softly sobbing.
Qin Yining said, “Although I came following the god’s decree, the situation in Xiyue is truly unsatisfactory. The god’s decree says that the divine maiden brings seeds and must marry the King of Xiyue. But the King of Xiyue has been impersonated!
“Many people have already seen yesterday’s scene. The reason I didn’t marry Zhou Meng is precisely because he is not the King of Xiyue chosen by the god.”
The people listened with bewildered and horrified expressions.
“How could he be fake?”
“Impossible, the prince was born and raised on this land, he couldn’t be an imposter!”
…
Everyone spoke at once in rebuttal. Qin Yining listened calmly to what they said.
When the people’s voices died down, Qin Yining smiled lightly and said, “The Xiyue royal lineage has been passed down incorrectly. If not for this, why would the god not have arranged for messengers to bring grain and seeds to the Xiyue people for nearly a hundred years?
“You trusted a false prince. It was only after seeing the prince that I received the god’s instruction and learned that Zhou Meng was actually an imposter Xiyue prince.”
Speaking to this point, Qin Yining stepped aside and pointed to Pang Xiao beside her, “According to the god’s designation, this person is the true heir of the Xiyue royal lineage.”
Pang Xiao stood proudly with his hands behind his back, handsome in appearance, noble in bearing, and unattainably lofty.
Compared to everyone’s impression of the prince, the kingly aura on this person was a hundred times stronger.
—Those who have campaigned on battlefields and commanded armies for years naturally have different gazes when looking at people, naturally imposing in their presence.
Looking at Pang Xiao, the people couldn’t help but fall silent, feeling that under this person’s gaze, they only wanted to kneel and couldn’t say a word.
The ministers on the city walls looked at each other, and the Second Princess Consort’s face had lost all color.
Seeing someone actually wanting to seize her son’s inheritance position, the First Princess Consort screamed recklessly, “Impossible! You shameless woman! Why should we believe you just because you say so! If you say someone is the King of Xiyue, then he’s the King of Xiyue? Why should we listen to you! You witch with ill intentions! You must have killed the prince!”
Hearing the First Princess Consort clamoring like this, the Second Princess Consort’s heart skipped a beat. Silently cursing the First Princess Consort as a fool, she hurriedly pulled her two sons and retreated from the tower.
Indeed, the First Princess Consort angrily cursing the divine maiden as a witch and calling the divine maiden shameless truly made the people both angry and fearful, and they began condemning her one after another.
Some people were already asking in surprise, “You’re saying the prince is already dead?”
At this moment, the First Princess Consort couldn’t care about all that. Her ears were buzzing, and she couldn’t hear what the people below were saying. She only knew her husband was dead, and it should rightfully be her son ascending to the throne, but that suddenly appearing so-called divine maiden insisted the prince was fake.
If Zhou Meng was a fake prince, wouldn’t her children also be unable to inherit the throne?
She knew Zhou Meng had long lost any affection for her, and she felt no more than superficial attachment to Zhou Meng anyway. Even with Zhou Meng dead, the First Princess Consort didn’t feel particularly sad.
But if anyone wanted to take away the throne that belonged to her son, to take away the wealth and glory of her latter half of life, that was something she absolutely could not tolerate.
“You witch came to our Xiyue with no good intentions! I think you came with the definite plan to usurp the throne! Everyone shouldn’t believe this witch—she already killed the prince! Now she’s talking nonsense, wanting to randomly make some person of unknown origin the king of Xiyue. It’s pure wishful thinking!”
The First Princess Consort’s words stirred up many people’s suspicions, especially Zhou Meng’s concubines on the palace walls and several older princes who had chances to inherit the throne. Everyone indignantly accused Qin Yining, and their words became increasingly crude and unpleasant.
Pang Xiao frowned listening to this but didn’t immediately refute, lest he ruin the plan.
Qin Yining looked expressionlessly at the people below the high platform, ignoring how viciously those behind her were cursing, and raised her voice to ask, “Do you really think I’m impersonating the divine maiden?”
The people were all confused by the previous commotion, especially those in the back who had no idea what had been said in front. So most people remained silent.
Qin Yining nodded and said, “Very well, if the people of Xiyue don’t believe in the god’s instructions, I can only take my tribespeople and grain back. However, I must tell you all that those who impersonate the King of Xiyue will receive divine punishment—they will be summoned to the god’s side for judgment. As for the King of Xiyue, since you’ve determined the false King of Xiyue, I cannot interfere much. You can only arrange things yourselves.”
Qin Yining turned to leave.
Pang Xiao and the people behind them also cooperatively followed Qin Yining’s steps.
Only then did the stunned people completely come to their senses, frantically trying to persuade them to stay, “Divine maiden, please don’t be angry, we didn’t mean that. We certainly believe in the god’s instructions!”
“Yes, divine maiden! Please don’t be angry!”
“The insulting of the divine maiden was done by those fake royals! They have guilty consciences, which is why they spoke ill of the divine maiden!”
…
The people were all panicking.
Those carts of grain supplies were tightly bound and quite spectacular just sitting there. For Xiyue people who had long lived under the shadow of hunger, nothing was more important than having enough to eat.
Adults could still endure—they had lived this way their whole lives anyway.
But what about the children? They could make do now, but if this continued, their descendants might not even know what rice and flour taste like.
Under Zhou Meng’s rule, Xiyue wasn’t particularly prosperous either. Though their numbers weren’t many, exploitation wasn’t uncommon.
When people had no choice, they could only endure. Moreover, the Xiyue religion they believed in mentioned the heavenly god’s personally chosen royal family, which gave the Zhou clan a mysterious aura that made people feel convinced, so everything before could only be endured.
But now it was different.
Not only had the divine maiden mentioned in the Xiyue religion’s holy book appeared, she had pointed out that Zhou Meng’s impersonation of the prince would result in divine summons for interrogation. Combined with what the First Princess Consort had said earlier—that Zhou Meng was already dead—this further confirmed the people’s suspicions: Zhou Meng must have been punished by the god for impersonating the King of Xiyue. The First Princess Consort and those others were just panicking because they could no longer enjoy wealth and glory, and were trying to throw dirty water on the divine maiden!
The people’s emotions ran high. Not daring to block the divine maiden’s group, they could only surround the path, kneeling down and pleading desperately.
Some of the more hot-tempered ones looked up and began cursing the First Princess Consort and others, as if they wanted to rush up the palace walls and tear them all to pieces.
The people on the palace walls were panicking. In the mountain-like roar of curses, someone already said quietly, “The prince’s death—no wounds, no poisoning—was clearly divine summons. I think what the divine maiden said is true!”
“I think it’s true too. The divine maiden has a celestial appearance and brought us grain supplies. And the prince’s death was indeed sudden and without reason. If we obstruct this, will the god be angry and blame us?”