“You deceiver!” Seeing the Head Eunuch dare to enter, Nanmen Ding looked ready to charge over and cut him down with a single blow.
That damnable wretch had actually lured them into the palace and then trapped them in this place.
Nanmen Ding had originally believed Emperor Qiwen would not have the nerve, and that these people would never truly dare to touch them — and so for a time he had considered making a break for it.
But he had not imagined they would truly dare to harm him.
“You dog-thief — do you think trapping us here means you can do as you please with the Nanmen family?”
Nanmen Rong sat on the ground nearby, bound in chains. It was not the Head Eunuch she hated — it was that dog-thief Emperor Qiwen.
Husband and wife for so many years, and in the end he used such methods against her!
The Head Eunuch said nothing. He had the three of them restrained, then stepped aside: “Welcoming His Majesty.”
Emperor Qiwen had arrived.
Nanmen Ding and Nanmen Rong both tensed. Nanmen Ye remained in his wheelchair, too weak even to rise. When he saw Emperor Qiwen enter, he was stirred to agitation and wanted to lash out. But in his current condition, even excitement was an exhaustion upon himself — he had barely begun to feel anger before a coughing fit seized him, so severe he could scarcely catch his breath.
“National Duke, in your current state, if you work yourself into a temper again, I fear not even a deity could save you.” Feng Jiu walked behind Emperor Qiwen and cast Nanmen Ye a glance as she passed, her tone mild.
This young person — how could he be walking alongside Emperor Qiwen?
“Who are you exactly?” Even Nanmen Rong lost her composure. She had already thought before that he bore an uncanny resemblance to Feng Jiu’er, and after that had not paid him much further attention — yet now, why had this person appeared again?
Could it be that this person truly was Feng Jiu’er?
Feng Jiu naturally had no intention of addressing these questions. She simply walked up to Nanmen Ye and crouched down to take his pulse.
“Do not touch my father!” Whatever resentment Nanmen Ding bore toward his father over the man’s favoritism of Nanmen Rong, in Nanmen Ding’s heart a father was a father — one whom no outsider was permitted to defile.
Feng Jiu still said nothing. After taking Nanmen Ye’s pulse, she had him carried into the inner chamber, though what she intended to do there was unclear.
Nanmen Ding said furiously: “If you so much as harm a hair on him, I will never let you go!”
As Feng Jiu went in, she could not help glancing back at him.
If there was anyone in the Nanmen Clan who still possessed something resembling a conscience, then besides Nanmen Xu, it was most likely this general, Nanmen Ding.
Yet the whole clan had long been accustomed to their arrogant and domineering ways. That they had come to this end was no one’s doing but their own — their own sins had caught up with them.
She had no wish to treat Nanmen Ye. But allowing a patient to die before her eyes when she could act was not in her nature.
Whatever punishment was to come would come regardless. For now, she was simply unwilling to watch a patient die in front of her.
After Feng Jiu had Nanmen Ye carried inside, Nanmen Ding, finding himself unable to call anyone back, could only fix his gaze on Emperor Qiwen, who was now seated in the jade chair.
“My Nanmen Clan has been utterly loyal to His Majesty. All these years, this general has toiled body and mind for the sake of Your Majesty’s realm, with both merit and hardship to show for it. For Your Majesty to treat a meritorious minister this way — is it not too cruel?”
“General, His Majesty has no intention of doing anything excessive. However, the evidence of Consort Rong conspiring against the Imperial Princes is conclusive. The Nanmen Clan naturally cannot escape its connection to the matter.”
The Head Eunuch stood at Emperor Qiwen’s side and was about to say more, but Nanmen Rong burst out furiously: “You dog of an Emperor — when did this consort ever harm your princes? How dare you slander this consort so!”
Nanmen Ding’s lips moved, yet he did not know what to say.
With the attitude his sister had taken toward Emperor Qiwen, no ruler of any realm could have endured it. His sister had spent her entire life in luxury and arrogance, yet even now, she could not read the situation before her.
And sure enough, Emperor Qiwen’s face went cold, and he said in fury: “For those words alone, We could sentence you to death this instant.”
“You dare—!”
“Someone, strike her mouth!” the Head Eunuch commanded.
Before Nanmen Rong could react, the sharp sound of blows rang out — the guards standing to one side raised both hands in alternating strikes, one heavy slap after another landing in quick succession.
Nanmen Ding fell quiet. The situation before him was one he was forced to confront.
He was not Nanmen Rong. From childhood, their father had favored his sister — and while he had wielded his own power outside the family, within it he had always been beneath others.
Nanmen Ding lacked Nanmen Rong’s pride. He could not help but exercise some caution.
Before long, Nanmen Rong was struck until she spat blood. Both lips swelled so badly she could not form a single word. Two guards still held her on either side, but she was so dizzy she could barely stand, presenting a thoroughly wretched sight.
It could be said that this was the first time in all his years that Nanmen Ding had ever seen his sister — that sister so accustomed to looking down on everyone — reduced to such a state of utter misery.
Emperor Qiwen truly intended to break with them. This was no joke.
Perhaps even Nanmen Rong had begun to feel despair. That spineless Emperor of former days — who had given him such nerve today, that he truly dared treat her this way?
Yet regardless of who had given it, he truly had that nerve now.
Nanmen Ding composed himself, raised his head to meet Emperor Qiwen’s gaze, and asked in a low voice: “What does His Majesty intend at this moment?”
Turning it over in his mind, this was plainly a scheme. Yet he still could not believe Emperor Qiwen had the courage to openly make an enemy of the Nanmen Clan.
Unless he had completely ceased to regard the Ninth Prince as a threat — but that was impossible. Emperor Qiwen watched the Ninth Prince with wary, jealous eyes at every moment!
Emperor Qiwen did not glance at Nanmen Rong even once. He looked only at Nanmen Ding, and said evenly: “A good many of Our Imperial bloodline have indeed been harmed by that vile woman. This, General, you surely know well in your heart.”
Nanmen Ding said nothing, unwilling to give his opponent anything in his words to seize upon.
Emperor Qiwen did not expect him to speak. He continued: “Out of regard for the Nanmen Clan’s care for the people of the realm, We have tolerated that vile woman’s conduct all these years. Yet now she has actually sent someone to assassinate Us. How, General, are We to go on tolerating this?”
“You — you actually—” Nanmen Ding’s face was filled with shock.
“Mmm — mmm—” Nanmen Rong’s mouth was so swollen she could barely make a sound, yet what she was trying to convey was plain enough to Nanmen Ding.
This sister of his, though willful and savage, had always been one to own what she did. She — was most likely being wrongly accused.
Yet now, whether it was a false accusation or not, what use was that?
Things had come to this pass. It remained only to see what Emperor Qiwen ultimately intended. To swallow the Nanmen Clan’s power in a single stroke was not so simple a matter.
If they were truly pushed into a corner, his sons knew what to do. The worst option available was to go and pledge allegiance to the Ninth Prince.
Emperor Qiwen’s manner was tolerable enough — toward Nanmen Ding, at least, his attitude was not poor.
“We have no desire to make things difficult for the Nanmen sons. But We are truly, deeply disappointed in you all.”
He pressed his lips together before saying: “If the Nanmen leadership were to change — should a capable individual be chosen from among the younger generation — We… would still be willing to move forward together with the Nanmen Clan.”