After the morning meal concluded.
Yun Chu began having people pack their luggage.
By around midday, everything was roughly prepared. The family of four boarded the carriage and left Prince Pingxi’s manor, heading toward the estate in the capital suburbs.
The two children were quite excited, unable to sit still in the carriage, lifting the curtain to look outside.
At that moment, a carriage drove past theirs. Its curtain was also open. Yun Chu’s peripheral vision caught sight of a familiar face.
She immediately raised her head to look carefully and saw Yuan Shi’s increasingly aged countenance.
Yuan Shi seemed somewhat distracted and didn’t notice her.
The two carriages quickly brushed past each other.
“That’s the Gongsun family’s carriage.”
Chu Yi’s voice sounded in Yun Chu’s ear.
After a moment’s thought, Yun Chu understood.
Regarding the matter of Xie Ping becoming the Crown Prince’s lesser consort, Xie Shi’an had likely already informed Prince Gongxi.
Prince Gongxi had chosen not to make Xie Ping his informant, but rather to use this matter as leverage to control the Empress.
The Gongsun family’s carriage soon arrived at the palace entrance.
Yuan Shi descended from the carriage. Nanny Yin personally greeted her at the entrance and led Yuan Shi toward Kunning Palace.
This was Yuan Shi’s first time entering the palace. She didn’t know where to put her hands, where to direct her eyes, or what to think.
Before long, they reached Kunning Palace. Looking at the imposing palace hall, her legs suddenly went weak. She couldn’t help but ask, “Nanny, can you reveal why Her Majesty the Empress has summoned me?”
“When you reach Her Majesty’s presence, you cannot refer to yourself as ‘I.’ You must say ‘this commoner’ or ‘this common woman,'” Nanny Yin said as she walked up the palace steps, lowering her head. “Your Majesty, Xie Yuan Shi has arrived.”
Yuan Shi then walked in with lowered head and directly knelt on the ground, kowtowing. “This common woman, Xie Yuan Shi, pays respects to Her Majesty the Empress!”
The Empress spoke indifferently, “Grant her a seat. Serve tea.”
Yuan Shi sat down in confusion, her buttocks barely touching the seat. She dared not drink the tea and kept her head lowered, feeling uneasy.
“After the fourth prince’s death, it was your Xie family’s eldest daughter who kept vigil at his imperial mausoleum. Even without merit, the Xie family has endured hardship,” the Empress spoke. “Now that she has died unexpectedly, according to protocol, the court should allocate some bereavement funds to the Xie family…”
“What?” Yuan Shi’s head snapped up. “Ping’er is dead?”
The Empress said calmly, “She died some time ago and has already been buried.”
Yuan Shi’s hands began trembling violently, tears streaming uncontrollably from her eyes…
At that moment, Nanny Yin led a woman in from the entrance.
The woman wore a rose-pink palace dress. It was none other than Xie Ping.
When she first entered the palace, she had been very afraid of appearing before others, fearing someone would recognize her face.
But during this period in the palace, no one had detected her true identity, so she had gradually relaxed.
She walked into the great hall, greeted the Empress, and was about to speak when suddenly an extremely familiar voice reached her ears.
“Ping’er… you are Ping’er!”
This voice was like a thunderbolt striking down upon Xie Ping’s head, making her entire body tremble violently.
She dared not turn her head. Her voice was hoarse. “I… I’m not. You’ve mistaken me for someone else…”
“You are!” Yuan Shi excitedly sprang up from her chair and grabbed Xie Ping’s shoulders. “Ping’er, this is our Xie family’s Ping’er. Wonderful—you didn’t die!”
The Empress’s expression darkened. “Someone come!”
Guards waiting outside strode in. Two guards pressed down on Yuan Shi’s shoulders, gagged her mouth, and directly dragged her out.
Yuan Shi had no idea what was happening before being locked in a side room.
As for Xie Ping, guards also pressed down on her shoulders, forcing her to kneel on the ground.
“Excellent! This palace and the Crown Prince were actually deceived by you, a little girl, running us in circles!”
The Empress picked up a cup and smashed it before Xie Ping. The porcelain shards flew, cutting across Xie Ping’s face, nearly making her faint from pain.
“Your Majesty, I beg Your Majesty to spare my life…” Xie Ping wailed and crawled over, embracing the Empress’s leg. “Your subject truly loves His Highness the Crown Prince and would never ruin His Highness’s great enterprise. I beg Your Majesty…”
The Empress’s fury reached its peak. She raised her foot and kicked Xie Ping over.
Taking in one’s own younger brother’s widow—this matter, placed on anyone, would invite criticism, let alone on the heir apparent of a nation.
The Crown Prince had taken the fourth prince’s principal consort as a lesser consort. Moreover, this Xie Ping’s identity was rather special—she was a descendant of the He family that had been purged years ago. If this became known, those ministers at the Censorate would definitely denounce the Crown Prince as disloyal, unbenevolent, and unrighteous, urging His Majesty to depose the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince was already mediocre. If this matter also came to light, the position of Crown Prince would definitely become unstable.
“Speak! Who exactly sent you to scheme against the Crown Prince?”
The Empress raised her foot and stepped on Xie Ping’s chest, coldly interrogating her.
Xie Ping gasped for air and shook her head. “No, I didn’t. I could never harm the Crown Prince. I beg Your Majesty to spare my life…”
Halfway through her words, she keenly heard movement outside the hall.
She suddenly changed her tone. “I have always admired His Highness the Crown Prince, so I used my own life to save His Highness. I never dared to imagine entering the Eastern Palace… I also don’t know why I sank into the Crown Prince’s favor toward me. I coveted this momentary pleasure but didn’t know it would bring such great trouble to the Crown Prince… Your Majesty, I was wrong. I cannot continue being wrong. I am willing to die. Please take action, Your Majesty.”
She closed her eyes.
The Empress’s eyes narrowed.
The person who had just been begging for her life—why would she suddenly seek death?
She suddenly realized something was wrong. Raising her head, she indeed saw the door burst open as the Crown Prince stumbled in and shielded the woman collapsed on the ground behind him.
“Mother Empress!” The Crown Prince knelt before the Empress. “Linglong, she…”
“Her name is not Wu Linglong. Her real name is Xie Ping. She is your fourth brother’s principal consort, a descendant of the He family from years ago!” The Empress spoke word by word. “She killed the real Wu Linglong and staged a dramatic rescue to enter the Eastern Palace! Even now, you still want to protect this scheming vile woman? Do you not want your position as Crown Prince anymore?”
The Crown Prince raised his head. “As Crown Prince, if I cannot even protect my own woman, then what’s the point of being Crown Prince!”
“You! You!”
The Empress was so angry her head throbbed.
“Do you know that because of this vile woman, Chu Mo has demanded thirty thousand taels of silver from me!”
Xie Ping’s pupils suddenly contracted.
Wasn’t Brother An working for Prince Gongxi, Chu Mo? Could it be that Brother An had revealed this matter to Prince Gongxi?
So the Empress had summoned Grandmother to the palace to confirm her identity?
Xie Shi’an… that was her own younger brother. Why would he do things so ruthlessly!
Xie Ping’s entire body trembled—not only from fear of the Empress ordering her death, but more from disbelief at being betrayed by her own family…
“She must die!”
The Empress spoke word by word, her eyes full of killing intent.
The Crown Prince reached out to shield Xie Ping, raising his head. “Her death still won’t change this fact. Why must Mother Empress take things to such extremes and affect our mother-son harmony?”
Seeing his posture of resistance to the end, the Empress actually laughed in anger.
It seemed she had protected this son too well, causing him to lose even the most basic vigilance.