“He’s really strange. Not only did he stand all night yesterday, but today he’s still standing there.”
The Imperial Guard beside him responded: “Exactly. He already met the person he wanted to see, but I don’t know why he’s still standing outside the palace gate. Isn’t he tired?”
The previous Imperial Guard shrugged: “Who knows? Since he likes standing so much, let him stand.” While speaking, they saw Pei Qiantong approaching and quickly cupped their hands in salute.
Pei Qiantong nodded slightly: “From what you were just saying, someone stood outside the palace all night?”
The two Imperial Guards nodded: “That’s right. Just after nightfall yesterday, Secretary Du came to the palace gates, saying he had urgent business to see Princess Jinyang and asked us to let him in. Naturally, we refused, so he stood outside the palace all night, even getting rained on. As soon as the palace gates opened, he immediately went in. After about half an hour, he came out again, but didn’t leave—he’s still standing outside the palace gates. We don’t know what’s going on.”
Pei Qiantong frowned: “The Secretary Du you’re talking about—is it Du Ruhui?”
The Imperial Guards nodded repeatedly: “Sir is correct. It’s the Secretary Du who received His Majesty’s marriage decree to marry the Wang family’s daughter. He’s always been quite close to Princess Jinyang. I heard that marriage was even facilitated by the Princess.”
Pei Qiantong knew this matter even better than they did, because his only younger brother considered Du Ruhui a close friend and often mentioned his name at home. Pei Qiantong was forced to hear about it frequently.
“Do you know why he was so urgent to see the Princess?” At Pei Qiantong’s inquiry, the two Imperial Guards looked at each other and shook their heads: “We also asked Secretary Du, but he wouldn’t say. The strangest thing is that he clearly entered the palace and saw the Princess, yet he’s still lingering outside the palace gates instead of leaving. It’s puzzling.”
Standing guard at the palace gates all night without returning home obviously indicated extremely urgent business. But although Princess Jinyang had noble status, she was just a woman in the deep palace. What matter could be so urgent? Moreover, after successfully meeting Princess Jinyang, he still lingered outside the palace—this was truly unreasonable, unless…
Wait, Du Ruhui went to see Princess Jinyang early this morning, and immediately after, she went to Fengyi Hall. Empress Xiao even disguised herself as a palace maid to leave the palace, and Du Ruhui happened to be waiting outside the palace gates at this time. Could he have known this would happen and was waiting outside to receive them?
Furthermore, the matter of Jiangdu people starving to death and resorting to cannibalism hadn’t been a one or two-day occurrence. Why would Empress Xiao suddenly think of leaving the palace to investigate? Moreover, for an empress to leave the palace in such a manner really didn’t make sense.
But if it wasn’t to observe the people’s conditions, what else would she leave the palace for? She surely wouldn’t just have a sudden whim to take a stroll outside the palace. The people in the city now looked neither human nor ghost, and the tea houses and wine shops had long since closed—there was really nothing worth seeing.
Could it be… As soon as the thought surfaced, he dismissed it. No, that matter was highly classified. Currently, only a few of them knew about it. How could Princess Jinyang and Empress Xiao possibly know?
Just as Pei Qiantong was puzzled, Zheng Ying brought Yunyi to Chengxiang Hall, accompanied by Xiao Shi, who hadn’t had time to change out of her palace maid clothing.
Yang Guang’s pupils contracted sharply. The next moment, he rushed in front of Yunyi and raised his hand to strike. But when there was still an inch’s distance, he forcibly stopped the descending motion, because when he moved to strike, Xiao Shi immediately pulled Yunyi behind her. If this palm fell, it would land on Xiao Shi’s face.
“Move aside!” Facing Yang Guang’s shout, Xiao Shi said coldly: “If you want to punish someone, just punish me alone. This was all my idea and has nothing to do with Yunyi!” After Pei Qiantong discovered her identity, she anticipated he would tell Yang Guang. Sure enough, shortly after arriving at Feixiang Hall, Zheng Ying came. She was worried Yunyi would be punished, so she followed along.
Yang Guang snorted heavily and lowered his hand: “Speak! Why did you disguise yourself as a palace maid to leave the palace?”
Xiao Shi said calmly: “I heard that the people in the city couldn’t fill their stomachs and resorted to cannibalism. I felt sad, so I wanted to leave the palace to visit them.”
Yang Guang said coldly: “What does their hunger have to do with you? Why do you need to leave the palace to visit them? You simply wanted to take the opportunity to leave the palace. You want to leave me, don’t you?” Before Xiao Shi could speak, he said excitedly: “How have I treated you badly that makes you want to do this?” While speaking, he stared coldly at Yunyi, who hadn’t spoken since entering: “I know now—it must be this damn girl who instigated you to leave the palace. She wants to separate you and me, doesn’t she?”
“I already said it has nothing to do with Yunyi. Don’t wrongly accuse her.” Speaking thus, Xiao Shi took a breath: “Since you made me empress, they are my subjects. Seeing my subjects starve to death, how can I stand by and watch coldly?”
“Subjects?” Repeating these two words, Yang Guang suddenly laughed: “Weiyang, do you really think I’m foolish to this extent? In these thirteen years, when have you ever regarded them as your subjects? When have you ever cared about their life and death? What you care about…” He suddenly pointed at Yunyi: “Has always been only this damn girl.”
Xiao Shi’s face changed, and she said coldly: “In any case, everything I said is true. Believe it or not, it’s up to you!”
Yang Guang stared at her: “Which of your words have I ever not believed? But this time, I really cannot believe. If you truly pitied those unruly people, you should have come to beg me to open the granaries to distribute grain, not disguise yourself like this to leave the palace. Even if you saw them, what could you do? How much silver do you have, how much grain do you have, and how many people could you save? You’re simply lying to me.” After saying this, he pointed at Yunyi again: “For your sake, I’ve shown great tolerance toward this bastard, yet she repeatedly opposes me. This time she even did such things—she truly… deserves to die!” He said the last two words through gritted teeth, obviously his tolerance for Yunyi had reached its limit.
Yunyi couldn’t help but say: “You keep calling them unruly people, but do you know that everything you eat and use comes from their hard labor? You’ve scraped away all the people’s wealth without leaving them any way to survive. What right do you have to call them unruly people?” She hated, truly hated so much. If not for this person, how could she have lived so miserably all these years? How could the people of the world live so tragically and pitifully? Such a tyrant who corrupted moral principles—no wonder so many people wanted to rebel against him. He truly deserved it.
Yang Guang’s cheeks kept twitching, his voice ice-cold like deep winter: “If you want to die, I will certainly fulfill your wish.”
Xiao Shi heard the killing intent in his words and quickly protected Yunyi: “If you harm her in the slightest, I will fight you to the death!” Speaking thus, she turned back and scolded Yunyi: “Don’t speak anymore.”
“Fight to the death…” Yang Guang murmured, repeating her words. The next moment, he said fiercely: “When have you ever been at peace with me? All these years, I’ve treated you like a precious pearl and treasure. I am the Son of Heaven, yet I’ve compromised and yielded to you in every way. But what about you? You regard all this as nothing, always only remembering him, remembering his bastard child. Your eyes and heart cannot contain even a trace of me. Even Nanyang has suffered endless grievances. Now you even want to flee from my side. Xiao Weiyang, how cruel your heart is!”
Xiao Shi said coldly: “All of this is the evil fruit you sowed yourself. You can’t blame others.” After a pause, she added: “In any case, as long as you don’t blame Yunyi, you and I… are still husband and wife.”