Chapter 14: Are You Worthy?!
Madam He was like a corpse, only able to stare blankly.
He Jianzhong’s legs shook, and he actually knelt down with a thud!
Imperial Family secrets, how could just anyone be qualified to know them?
Yue Tang being able to say these things already proved part of it.
Looking at the two of them like this, she curled her lips again: “That monk said that if that calamity gained momentum, it would stir up a shocking bloody storm across the world.
“At first the Former Emperor didn’t believe in such things. Not only did he grant the Second Prince the title of Prince Jin at the full moon banquet, but he also granted Prince Duan’s youngest daughter the title of Princess Yongjia. And because she shared the calamity with the second imperial son, the Empress treated her as if she were her own.
“But that monk perhaps had some real cultivation. In the five years after that, Prince Jin and Yongjia kept having problems—one injured, the other falling ill.
“Finally that year Prince Jin unexpectedly contracted a plague, and at the same time Yongjia fell into the lake, leaving everyone exhausted.
“After some discussion, the Empress sent Prince Jin to the Imperial Father-in-law’s mansion in Jiangling.
“Meanwhile Princess Yongjia stayed a few more days in the prince’s mansion, but after Prince Duan’s Princess Consort passed away when she was six, under the protection of a group of guards transferred from the palace and personally selected by Prince Duan, she moved to her own imperial estate on the outskirts of the Capital to live.
“Until July 3rd three years ago, half a month before her sixteenth birthday, when you conspired to force her off the cliff.
“But you didn’t expect that having lived alone outside for so many years, how could I not have a few loyal people by my side?
“If you could guess that Wei Zhang didn’t die, you should have realized that I might still be alive too.”
After she finished speaking, a yam cake was also crumbled to powder by her.
She rubbed her fingers with slight disgust: “For pastries, you should buy from Bao Shan Tang. Besides them, no one else makes them as tasty.”
She took the silk handkerchief from Madam He’s bosom to wipe her hands, then turned her head back: “Now, how do you want to die?”
Sweat soaked the back of He Jianzhong’s clothes drenched!
He prostrated on the ground, several times trying to straighten up to look, but it was as if a thousand catties weighed on his back, and he couldn’t straighten up no matter what!
Since Princess Yongjia left the capital at six, no one had seen her face again!
So that’s how it was, so that’s how it was—the world’s amazement at her childhood appearance wasn’t baseless!
So that’s how it was, the woman who was peerlessly valiant in the darkness that night actually had such beauty!
So that’s how it was, so that’s how it was—she didn’t die, she was still alive!
Yue Family’s that one, held like the moon surrounded by countless stars from top to bottom, the Former Emperor personally named her, selected guards for her, the Empress personally prepared her full moon banquet clothes, yet three years ago when the Former Emperor was gravely ill on his deathbed, she was killed by the He Family and Zhang Family joining forces—the Princess Yongjia, she didn’t die!
The county princess attire, jewelry, or unique seal on the corpse at the bottom of the cliff were all deliberately left behind!
Falling off the cliff was just her desperate means of survival!
No wonder… no wonder Wei Zhang’s corpse couldn’t be found at the scene.
Everyone by her side was carefully selected; not one was disloyal to her!
If she died, how could her top close attendant survive alone?!
So He Xu’s death was because of this!
It was because she came back to kill them; she wanted to wipe out his entire He Family!
All his blood surged wildly through He Jianzhong’s body, making him numb all over, only able to open his mouth and gasp for air.
Then he suddenly knelt and crawled forward: “Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me! The one who ordered us was the Marquis of Guangling; we were just following orders! I can be Princess’s running dog; whatever you tell me to do, I can—”
Before he finished speaking, a slender pale hand, icy and powerful like an iron claw, had lightning-fast gripped his throat!
Yue Tang’s eyes were coldly chilling, right in front of him: “Are you worthy? Do you think I need a dog like you?”
Tears fell from He Jianzhong’s eyes like rolling beads.
That man who had been so aggressive just now was now terrified like a fallen leaf outside the window.
Yue Tang suddenly released her hand and reached out to Xiao Huo.
Huo Yun pulled out a knife gleaming with cold light, and handed it to her with both hands.
Yue Tang placed the dagger in Madam He’s hand, with the blade tip reversed, pointing at her heart.
“Don’t be afraid. What I suffered, and what my A Li suffered, was far more painful than what you’re suffering today. There were over a hundred of them, while we had only twenty-three at the time, including my three-month-old A Li.
“They shaved off my wet nurse’s head and chopped my favorite maidservant’s body into two pieces.
“They even stabbed a knife toward little soft A Li, who was my firstborn son, born after ten months of pregnancy and untold hardships.
“You know, my Father King only had my brother and me; my dragon-phoenix twin second brother left before he could even see this world.
“Mother suffered giving birth to us, so after that Father King didn’t let her have more children.
“Of course she couldn’t anyway. The year I was six, she passed away.
“Later my brother had just gotten married when he also fell ill and died.
“It was Imperial Uncle’s benevolence that allowed me to marry into the wife’s family and to bear offspring to inherit Father King’s nobility title.
“A Li was the heir of my Prince Duan’s Mansion. He was also the hope of Father King’s later years!
“He was so happy about A Li’s birth; he always said that was my daughter’s child, also this king’s heart and flesh and blood.
“During his lifetime he had already planned early to pass down his lifelong estate to him, to personally select famous teachers for him to make him accomplished.
“It was you who set up the heaven-net to make me die, and also let such a weak and tiny A Li die.
“You wounded him and let the horse carry the bloody him fleeing everywhere!
“My A Li had to endure such pain; how desperate he must have been then.
“And since you have been enjoying the wealth bought with their flesh and blood, tell me, at this point, what is there left to fear?”
Tears surged from Madam He like a spring, her throat rolling, completely unable to make a sound!
Several times she nearly fainted from Yue Tang’s words, but fearing a muddled death, she forced herself to maintain her posture!
With her sickly frail body, how could she endure such torment?
Moreover, these past two days her heart had been tossed from fire to oil.
All her nerves were taut like a straight line, but at this moment the hand Yue Tang used to grip her wrist suddenly twisted, holding her to stab toward He Jianzhong’s heart!
She immediately closed her eyes and screamed madly.
He Jianzhong shouted “Princess” in terror, but attacked from front and back, kneeling prostrate on the ground, his whole body like a wild dog under a stick, utterly unable to resist: “I’ll confess everything, everything! Ask me! Please ask quickly!…”
Yue Tang narrowed her eyes at him, baring a mouth of eerily white teeth: “Begging me to ask? Fine, then tell me, whose hand is my princess’s seal in?”
He Jianzhong’s eyes suddenly widened, then he rushed to say: “That year I took it from under the corpse and handed it to the Marquis! The seal is in his hand, definitely in his hand!”
Yue Tang’s blade tip pierced his lower jaw, watching the blood trace gradually thicken: “Still trying to be slippery? Where did the Du Family’s reward money to you come from? Don’t tell me you don’t know there’s someone behind them pulling the strings?
