Yufu Palace.
Without waiting to be announced, the Empress barged in with an overbearing, aggressive aura, her eyes chillingly cold.
"What is the Empress playing at? Does my Yufu Palace..."
Before Noble Consort Chen, dressed in all her luxurious splendor, could finish her sentence, she was met with a resounding slap from Nanny Qin.
"Feng Wan... how dare you let your dog of a servant strike me!"
"I am the Empress of this realm, what is there that I dare not do?" She swept a glance at a palace servant who was sneaking away, the corners of her lips curling upward.
Chen Yufu, holding her cheek with one hand and pointing at the Empress with the other, stared in shock, her eyes brimming with tears of rage. "Guards!"
The Empress's gaze was as sharp as a blade. She stood silently, the surrounding air seeming to freeze as the innate oppression of one in supreme authority naturally manifested.
The head palace maid who had stepped forward to strike Nanny Qin, along with all the other servants in Yufu Palace, instinctively dropped to their knees in a wave.
"You... you... you all..."
Chen Yufu was beside herself with fury. She kicked out at the kneeling head maid beside her. "Get up, you worthless wretch, and hit her back!"
The head maid dared not disobey her mistress and scrambled to her feet, but before she could even get close to Nanny Qin, she was sent sprawling to the ground by a kick from Qin Yunfeng, the Grand Eunuch of Fengyi Palace.
"Ah... You've lost your minds... Feng Wan, you've gone mad... Do you want to commit treason?"
Weak in the limbs, Chen Yufu never imagined that the Empress, who usually adopted a detached attitude towards everything, would come to Yufu Palace today to throw her weight around like a madwoman—and that her own people wouldn't even dare to fight back.
"Ha!"
The Empress let out a cold laugh. "Treason? Is it I who am committing treason, or is it your Chen family?"
Chen Yufu instinctively averted her gaze. Framing Princess Anyang had indeed been her eldest brother's idea, and originally everything had gone according to plan.
Yet early this morning, the Emperor had returned and publicly announced that Princess Anyang was innocent and had long since been sent away to the imperial villa.
And now, her own son, the Third Prince, had just been crippled by someone.
How could a crippled prince ever hope to inherit the grand succession?
She suddenly glared at the Empress. "It was you... You're jealous that I have a prince, jealous that the Emperor favors my son, so you had someone harm him! It was you... It was..."
The Emperor had promised her that he would make her son the Crown Prince. Her son would certainly be healed, he surely would...
"Your Chen family failed in your treason and instead dragged a prince down with you. You tried to steal a chicken only to lose the rice you used as bait—serves you right!" Feng Wan's tone carried a mocking edge.
Chen Yufu's eyes darted about as she shook her head repeatedly. "No, the Chen family has not committed treason! My brother did not commit treason!" Her brother had only wanted the Emperor to appoint the Third Prince as Crown Prince sooner.
"What, feeling guilty?" The Empress sneered.
Chen Yufu stiffened her neck. "Guilty? What is there for me to feel guilty about? The Emperor and I grew up together as childhood sweethearts, and my Chen family has always been utterly loyal. How could we possibly commit treason?"
The Empress remained standing, the corners of her mouth curling into an even colder smile. "Chen Yufu, your Chen family framed my Anyang and threw her into prison, and then you arranged for people to go to the cell and torture Anyang. Did you really think I would let you off?"
"No... I didn't arrange anything... Ah..."
Nanny Qin's hand struck another fierce slap across her face.
At the Empress's gesture, the Grand Eunuch Qin Yunfeng took a porcelain bowl from a palace maid and stepped closer, pace by pace.
"What are you doing? Feng Wan, you... Guards! Someone come..."
The servants of Yufu Palace all scrambled to their feet to protect their mistress, but a squad of guards accompanying the Empress stepped forward and ringed them all tightly in.
"Feng Wan... It seems your Feng family truly intends to... Sob..."
Qin Yunfeng kicked Chen Yufu to her knees, seized her chin, and forced the dark, murky medicine from the bowl down her throat.
"Cough, cough, cough... Feng Wan... What have you... what have you made me drink... Cough, cough... You'll come to a bad end... The Emperor will... will..."
"It's merely something to muddle the mind. Can't even stomach this much? When my Anyang was being tortured in that cell, did you ever stop to think you would face this day?"
"It wasn't me... I didn't... I didn't have anyone tortured... I didn't..."
Chen Yufu tried desperately to cough up the medicine she had swallowed while defending herself.
"Slap her face!" Murderous intent filled the Empress's eyes.
Disregarding everything, the Grand Eunuch ruthlessly rained slaps across Noble Consort Chen's face.
"Ah... Insolent... No matter what, I am the Emperor's woman, you wretched slave..."
"His Majesty has arrived!"
At this announcement, the Grand Eunuch withdrew his hand.
The guards surrounding Yufu Palace all retreated to the sides.
"Your Majesty... Your Majesty... You must uphold justice for your concubine... Your Majesty..."
A dark-browed Emperor walked in only to be greeted by a room overflowing with people, all kneeling on the floor.
He swept a glance at Chen Yufu, who was kneeling on the ground, beaten black and blue, weeping as she appealed to him.
A flash of disgust crossed the depths of his sharp eyes.
Then, he said darkly, "Does the Empress know..."
Before the word "guilt" could leave his lips, he was interrupted by the Empress.
"Your Majesty."
The Empress turned around, without a shred of guilt or fear. Instead, her voice carried a grievance: "The Consort here sent people to torture our Yuer. She is our only child, Your Majesty. Do you suppose I could let her go?"
"No... Your concubine is wronged... Your concubine is wronged..."
Chen Yufu scrambled frantically to the Emperor's feet, clutching the hem of his dragon robe, her face bathed in tears. "No... Your Majesty, your concubine never had anyone torture Princess Anyang! Besides... the Princess isn't even in the prison!"
The Emperor helped Noble Consort Chen to her feet. "Someone, take the Consort away to be treated by the imperial physicians."
"Your Majesty... The Empress... beat..."
Faced with the bruised and tearful Noble Consort pouring out her grievances, the Emperor gave her no opening.
His voice was devoid of emotion. "Take her down first and have the physician look at her."
The next moment.
Everyone in Yufu Palace withdrew, leaving only the Emperor and the Empress.
The Emperor walked over, his expression calm yet laced with coldness.
The Empress's phoenix eyes were red-rimmed as her slender, delicate fingers gripped tightly onto the lapel of his robe. "Your Majesty, I am terrified."
As she spoke, tears welled up and spilled over, her appearance truly pitiful enough to melt the heart. "I heard that someone acted on the Consort's orders to go to the dark dungeon and torture our Yuer. I couldn't bear to imagine it. If Yuer had truly been in that dark dungeon... then... then... Your Majesty... I have only you and Yuer... If any misfortune befell Yuer..."
The softly sobbing figure in his arms, coupled with the jasmine hair ornament on her head and the faint, delicate fragrance of jasmine emanating from her entire being, caused the coldness on the Emperor's face to dissipate.
So she had kept this hair ornament all this time.
The Emperor said, "I know you blame me for using Anyang as a ploy, but I never truly had Anyang locked in a cell. Our Anyang hasn't been harmed."
"Of course I believe Your Majesty."
It seemed her guess was correct. The Emperor had obtained information about the traitors from that band of outlaws outside the city, but he needed conclusive evidence.
Otherwise, a mere hair ornament and a few cheap tears would never have allowed the Emperor to turn a blind eye to Noble Consort Chen.
The Empress looked up, her tears falling like broken pearls, the lingering terror and panic still evident in her eyes.
The Emperor gently wiped away her tears, his brows softening. "Don't be afraid. Our Yuer is safe and sound, and I will have someone bring her back as soon as possible."
Watching the Empress's departing back, the Emperor's gaze grew profound. The thumb that had just wiped the tears from the Empress's face gently rubbed against his index finger.
His Empress—Feng Wan of the Feng family—hadn't lowered all her defenses and obediently leaned on him like this in a very long time.
She had finally shown her vulnerability to him.
The Emperor furrowed his brows slightly; he needed to produce a Princess Anyang as soon as possible.