Chapter 308: Exposed
“Stop! What right do you have to rummage through a young lady’s belongings?”
Ru Yi, both angry and anxious, lunged forward to protect the box, but was roughly pushed aside by a guard. She stumbled and hit a corner of the wall, her forehead immediately bruising.
“Search!”
“Dig three feet deep if you have to, and find the evidence for me!”
Ru Yi trembled with rage, biting her lip tightly.
Xiao Zhao stood coldly in the corner, silent.
Jinshu shook her head at her and Xiao Zhao, standing quietly.
“Boss! This box is strange. It’s locked tight…”
A guard, while searching an inconspicuous old wooden box on the inner side of Xue Sui’s bed, noticed the iron lock on it.
The leader strode over: “Smash it open!”
“Yes!” The guard drew his sash knife and struck the iron lock hard with the back of the blade.
“Clang—Clang—”
Two harsh metal impacts, and the iron lock fell off.
The box was violently flung open.
A musty smell of old paper mixed with a faint scent of herbs instantly diffused out.
Inside the box were neatly stacked scripture scrolls and yellowed medical case notes.
At the very bottom lay scriptures personally copied and annotated word-for-word by Xue Sui…
Jinshu frowned and gently reasoned.
“Officer, this box contains ordinary items. Life in the nunnery is austere; the young lady merely writes and copies scriptures to pass the time… I don’t know which law has been broken to warrant such a search?”
The leader sneered,
and without another word, roughly pulled out the scripture scrolls and medical notes.
Layer by layer, they were flipped until the bottom of the box was reached.
“Rustle—”
The medical notes and scripture scrolls scattered on the ground, and they frantically searched with hands and feet…
However, no suspicious items were found.
The captain’s face instantly darkened.
He was somewhat embarrassed.
“Search! Keep searching for me.”
“If you don’t find the evidence, you’ll be held accountable!”
The soldiers responded in unison and then, in a flurry, pounced on the messy pile of belongings.
Pillows were ripped open, bedding torn, and they tapped on the box panels and beams, the sound of “thump thump thump thump” echoing incessantly in the empty monastic room. They even searched under the brazier.
“Boss! Come quickly—there’s a hidden compartment under this box.”
A soldier suddenly lay on the ground, his fingers digging into the camphor wood box, shouting excitedly.
The captain’s eyes flashed with brilliance, and he stepped forward with his saber, slashing forcefully at the box.
The wooden surface cracked, revealing a lock with a brass hidden clasp.
“Chop it open!”
Violent dismantling; even the sturdiest box couldn’t withstand repeated blows…
The box panels splintered, and inside the compartment was waterproof oilcloth.
Lifting the oilcloth, a bound picture album with curled, yellowed edges was revealed.
On the cover, a few blurry but striking ink characters were faintly discernible—
“Yanluo Picture Album?” the captain exclaimed in disbelief.
He flicked his wrist.
The pages spread open, revealing delicate yet chilling illustrations one by one to everyone’s sight.
The men and women in the paintings, dressed in palace attire or magnificent robes, had faces that were clearly recognizable—
Princess Ping Le, You Zhimu, Guo Zhaohuai, Yao Wei, Xiao Qing’er, Xie Weilan…
They were standing or sitting, each with a different expression, but on the neck, chest, and other vital areas of each portrait, a large, ferocious, curse-like blood-red symbol had been fiercely marked with a cinnabar pen.
The ink penetrated the paper, the cinnabar bled, as if blood would drip at any moment.
Next to Xiao Qing’er’s portrait, a line of tiny regular script was written.
“This scoundrel deserves to die!”
The monastic room fell into dead silence.
A spark popped from the brazier.
Jinshu and Xiao Zhao exchanged glances.
The young lady had already moved other things, only this picture album had been kept with her…
She hadn’t expected anyone to break in today.
Looking at the familiar faces in the paintings, the captain’s astonishment slowly turned into a kind of ecstatic joy and excitement.
“Caught red-handed! What a wicked nun!”
He looked up abruptly, his lips curling into a smile as if he had struck gold.
“Good, very good. A place of Buddhist purity, harboring such filthy and malicious things. The ambition for rebellion is clear as day! Guards—arrest these demonic nuns and their accomplices. Escort them back to the Ministry of Justice to await the Prince’s judgment!”
“Yes!”
Several soldiers, as if they had found a treasure, pounced forward with fierce expressions.
At the critical moment…
Xiao Zhao suddenly lunged forward. Not only was she unafraid, but a hint of desperate ferocity flashed across her face.
“Trying to frame me? Not in this lifetime!” she shouted, and instead of retreating, she advanced, moving with a speed like a ghost, twisting her body and sliding between two lunging soldiers…
From her right sleeve, a dark gleam flashed.
“Swish!”
The dark short knife shot out like a snake from its hole, with a sharp whistling sound, and accurately struck the captain’s wrist, which was tightly gripping the picture album.
“Ah—”
The captain cried out in pain, the agony piercing him, and his fingers involuntarily loosened.
The picture album flew out of his grasp—
Xiao Zhao scooped up half a bucket of lamp oil from the monastic room with her left hand, swung her arm in a wide arc, and fiercely poured it towards the album still in mid-air.
“Splash—”
The strong smell of lamp oil instantly filled the air.
The picture album flipped in the air and landed on the scorching hot charcoal…
“Boom—”
Dry wood met fierce fire, and a blinding burst of flames erupted.
The glowing red charcoal, the scorching picture album, and the roasted chestnuts were instantly engulfed by the flames…
Blue smoke mixed with the smell of burning rose.
The charred paper pages curled madly in the flames, turning into flying ash.
Everything happened too fast.
In the blink of an eye, the soldiers didn’t even have time to cry out or stop her.
“What an unruly little thief, daring to destroy evidence?”
“Evidence? What evidence?”
Xiao Zhao stood innocently before the rising flames, a small face smudged with ash, wearing an almost provocative smile.
“Where is the evidence? Officer, show it to me? You all, so many of you, barged in rudely, bullying us few weak women, and now you want to twist black into white and frame us?”
“Damn it!”
The captain was enraged.
“Take them away! Take all of them away…”
–
Inside Baohua Palace, there was a deathly silence.
The air seemed to freeze, only Xiao Qing’er stared at the plain handkerchief in Xue Sui’s hand, her fingertips clenched, suppressing her breaths…
“You… Xue Liu, how dare you!”
“Does Consort Li wish to verify?” Xue Sui asked again.
Her voice was clear and calm, unhurried, her expression serene.
Xiao Qing’er clutched her aching lower abdomen, her voice a shrill cry that broke.
“Verify! Why wouldn’t I verify! It’s just…” She suddenly coughed violently, gritting her teeth, “If it’s verified that I am indeed carrying the imperial heir, then I ask Your Highness to grind this demonic nun to ashes…”
The words “grind to ashes” were laced with bone-deep venom.
They struck the ears of everyone in the hall, making them ring.
The nuns turned pale.
Li Zhao casually put down the broken porcelain shard, his gaze half-smiling.
He knew Xue Liu too well.
She never did anything without certainty, nor did she fear entering a situation alone.
This handkerchief was merely a catalyst; she must have a deeper strategy. Since she had acted, there must be a meticulously woven plan, sufficient to dismantle Xiao Qing’er’s schemes…
“Consort Li, rest assured. If it is verified to be true, I will certainly punish severely, to uphold palace rules and national law, and will not tolerate such acts of framing the imperial heir and desecrating the Buddhist Gate.”
His voice was clear and resonant, carrying the authority of the Crown Prince, echoing clearly in the hall.
“Miaozhen, are you willing to accept this?”
Xue Sui lowered her eyes slightly: “Then I ask Crown Prince to preside over justice.”
“Sixth Sister!”
Suddenly, a soft cry. Before Li Zhao could speak again, Xue Yuechen suddenly stepped forward from the crowd, bent down to support Xiao Qing’er’s arm, looked directly at Xue Sui, and with the anxious urgency typical of noblewomen, a mix of persuasion and instigation, loudly reprimanded.
“Sixth Sister, Her Ladyship is carrying the imperial dragon’s descendant, how precious! Why must you push so hard? If Her Ladyship’s imperial body is startled, and the imperial heir is harmed, can you bear the responsibility?”
“Princess Consort.” Xue Sui’s expression remained unchanged.
Her gaze met Xue Yuechen’s in the air for a brief moment.
“Precisely because the imperial heir concerns the national foundation, it is even more important to distinguish right from wrong and set the record straight. This nun merely seeks justice for the people of Shui Yue Nunnery, how is that pushing too hard? Does the Princess Consort believe that royal dignity is built upon concealing the truth?”
Her final rhetorical question hit the mark.
Xue Yuechen was choked by her words, her expression slightly changing, her eyelashes trembling imperceptibly.
“You are truly ungrateful and stubborn. Even if you don’t think of yourself, you shouldn’t implicate the Xue family…”
“Princess Consort, please rest assured. Since Xue Liu cut her hair to become a nun, she is an outsider. Life and death, honor and disgrace, are unrelated to the Xue family.”
“You are simply blinded by greed…”
Xue Yuechen was very anxious, shielding Xiao Qing’er in front of her, her wide palace robe sleeves brushing against her collar, she whispered solicitously.
“Your Ladyship, your body is precious, you must prioritize the imperial heir, there’s no need to argue with this madwoman…”
Xue Sui, however, did not yield an inch, her tone firm, “Consort Li, please.”
“I refuse!” Xiao Qing’er had hesitated for a moment, but Xue Yuechen’s words enlightened her.
She was Consort Li.
She was the Emperor’s favored concubine,
and a daughter of the Xiao family—
why should she be forced and humiliated by a nun from an empty gate?
Even if Xue Liu held her handle, with just her words, who would believe her?
“This is outrageous…”
With an angry cry, as if driven to madness, she erupted with astonishing strength, violently breaking free from Xue Yuechen’s support, and regardless of the shocked gazes of everyone in the hall, she threw herself to the ground, crying out piteously on the gold brick floor in her magnificent palace robes.
“Her handkerchief must have been soaked in poison. They want to harm me, harm the imperial heir! Empress Dowager! Empress! You must be my judge…”
“Your Majesty… Your Majesty save your concubine… Hurry and save your concubine…”
She was throwing all pretense of dignity aside, trying to get away with it by throwing a tantrum, rolling on the ground, and falsely accusing.
This outburst of wild behavior finally alerted the Emperor.
Hurried footsteps suddenly sounded from outside the hall, accompanied by the sharp announcement of an eunuch.
“His Majesty arrives—”
