Who Is The Traitor

Empress Chen’s words were brave and selfless as she seemed to have no concern for her own wellbeing. Her words seemed even more noble amidst the violent killings occurring around her.

Many people had tears in their eyes as they exclaimed inwardly that this was indeed the attitude that the mother of the nation ought to have. Some even disregarded the danger as they fell to their knees and bowed to her, “May Her Majesty live long and prosper!”

Empress Chen had a kindly look in her eyes as she declared loudly, “Assassins have come to attack and the emperor is in great danger! Those who can, go ahead and join the fight, the royal guards and I will support you! Those who cannot fight or those who are too far away, please take care of yourselves. Pray for our nation’s peace, but do not do anything rash!”

What she said really touched everyone’s hearts and they listened to her.

But even so, they still called out to her, “Your Majesty, do not worry about us lowly subjects! Please take care of yourself!”

In just a few moments, they all felt like they were in this life and death situation together. Everyone instantly became a supporter of Empress Chen.

Zhao Zhi and the crown prince were focused on fending off their attackers, so they didn’t have the time or energy to listen to what Empress Chen was saying, but the emperor’s eyes narrowed slightly as they glared daggers at the empress.

The man protecting him from the front was Zhao Zhi, while the other man protecting him with his body was the crown prince. Both of them were important figures in this country! Both of them were fighting a dangerous battle in order to protect him! Both of them were in a life and death situation with everyone else!

Empress Chen had used just a few words to turn everyone’s attention toward her, to boost her own reputation…

What a great plan!

The assassins had arrived in a huge group and their target was the emperor. Those standing closest to the emperor were in the greatest danger, while those who were far enough were actually perfectly safe.

Empress Chen was, as she had always emphasized, an exemplary but physically frail woman who relied on men, so naturally, she was whisked away by the crowd to somewhere safe.

Nobody noticed that the empress was secretly watching the battle. As she watched, her lips began to curl up slightly at first into a pleased smile, but her smile slowly faded as a look of puzzlement appeared in her eyes.

Today seemed to have gone…especially smoothly.

The number of men in black increased and they moved with excellent coordination. The sound of a horn playing a song of victory could even be heard.

Zhao Zhi and the crown prince were keeping the emperor safe, but they were moving along very slowly. A lot of royal guards had either been badly hurt or killed, and it looked like they were about to be outnumbered by the men in black…

Everything was going well. Nobody was interfering either. The whole thing was going as planned.

Could it be…

Song Caitang had not lied to her? Killing Nanny Sun had been the right thing to do?

She had just woken up in shock that stormy night because she was overthinking it?

But after worrying about this for a moment, Empress Chen shook her head and smiled again.

It was best that she killed that traitor. Even if she made a mistake, it didn’t matter. The fact that she had made it this far meant that she had won!

Some lives were not worth keeping.

Just when her confidence was at its peak and she thought everything was within her control, one of the men in black who had been captured below the platform was especially afraid to die and he suddenly cried out, “Don’t kill me! I’ll confess! Empress Chen was the one who instructed us to do this! If you spare me, I’ll tell you everything! I have evidence!”

It was as though lightning had struck the land.

Even the fighting paused for a moment.

“Your Majesty, look! This is a token from Her Majesty!”

The man in black suddenly pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and threw it onto the platform.

The handkerchief was only as large as a palm, squarish in shape and entirely white except for a red stamp in the middle. The red stamp was bright and clear, so everyone could see it even from a distance.

It was the gold seal of the empress!

Only one such seal existed in the country and only the official empress of the time was allowed to safekeep it. It was impossible to make another one of these.

After the man in black said all that, before the royal guard holding him down could react, another man in black leaped toward the first man with his sword to silence him.

Zhao Zhi flung a sword in his hand toward that second man, stabbing him in the shoulder and making him crash to the ground.

The royal guards surrounded the second man and captured him.

The battle wasn’t over yet because the assassins did not retreat. Zhao Zhi had no time to think about anything else. He grabbed a new sword from the royal guard next to him and continued fighting the assassins to make sure the emperor and crown prince were safe.

The crown prince glanced past the crowd toward the empress, shut his eyes and sighed heavily.

The emperor had a fierce look in his eyes. “Liu Fang!”

The leader of the royal guards fell on one knee. “Yes, Your Majesty!”

“Bring the empress here!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!”

The tables had suddenly turned. All the officials present were too shocked to react.

What was going on? Wasn’t the empress courageously trying to protect the emperor just now? Why was she a rebel now?

Was that man in black a traitor? He betrayed the empress and revealed the truth? Or was he trying to frame the empress in order to cause chaos within Da’an?

But if the man in black was trying to frame the empress, why did another assassin try to silence him? It must have been because the man in black was speaking the truth!

Everyone began to stare at Empress Chen suspiciously.

As the leader of the royal guards marched toward her and forced her to go to where the emperor was, Empress Chen was still trying to understand the situation.

Something wasn’t right here…

This plan had been made very carefully. Even if something was to go wrong, it shouldn’t have gone wrong at this juncture. She wouldn’t be exposed this quickly.

The final result should have been that both the emperor and crown prince were killed by assassins, then as the empress, she would bring her biological son in to be the emperor. She would say that she had done everything to support the crown prince, going so far as to secretly send her own son out of the palace after taking so much effort to give birth to him…

With the image she had carefully built up over the years and the fact that there were no other suitable princes to ascend the throne, the court officials might find it difficult to accept at first, but they would eventually trust her and support her. Everything would eventually go her way.

To have her plan go awry now…was too early!

Once she was labeled as a treasonous woman, how was she supposed to make her next move? What should she do next? This was big trouble.

Who in the world had been so careless and ruined her plans? But she was too far to see the face of the man in black clearly. She began to wonder if that man was really one of hers, or if he had been planted by someone else.

In an instant, all sorts of thoughts filled her mind and threw her heart into turmoil.

But she was a woman who had hidden her true thoughts for years. Despite her rage, she was still able to command herself to calm down and think quickly.

It didn’t matter. It was just a little hitch in the plan and it would be a little more troublesome to fix later on.

So what if her reputation took a hit? The most important thing was to end up the winner! History was written by the victor, after all!

If she was arrested now and brought to the emperor, then that would really be the end of things…

After quickly making that decision, she refused to follow the leader of the royal guard and boldly commanded the men in black closest to her protect her before declaring, “So what if I did that! Today, all of you must die! You have to abdicate the throne and give it to someone more suitable!”

With her support, the men in black attacked even more viciously. The royal guards could barely protect themselves, never mind bring the empress to the emperor. They had no choice but to keep fighting and protect the emperor as best as they could.

The situation instantly became clear as the soldiers began fighting the assassins. The officials were horrified but they quickly took the emperor’s side too.

The empress turned out to be a traitor! She had been pretending all along! They were just a bunch of blind bats all this time!

Empress Chen sat on her high chair, her gaze filled with confidence.

Since the battle started, her team of assassins had the upper hand. Zhao Zhi and the royal guards suffered greater losses and they seemed to be losing morale. Even though her team had not managed to kill the emperor and the crown prince yet, she was certain they would get there.

But even though it looked like she would definitely win this battle, for some reason, Empress Chen still had some doubts in her heart.

After being in this position for a long time, she had become extremely familiar with the emperor, the crown prince and Zhao Zhi. While she couldn’t claim to know them inside out, she knew how they normally handled crises and was able to predict their actions quite reasonably. They would never be defeated easily. In such a situation, even though they were pushed into a corner, they wouldn’t be so resigned to their fate. They would go all out and fight, even at the expense of their own life…

Zhao Zhi especially. He had barely survived his time along the border. Despite having only a small group of soldiers with him, he dared to lead them in battle and killed an entire calvary unit. What was death? He had never feared it!

So, what in the world was he doing now?

Why was he fighting like a coward? His hesitation and constant dodging was abnormal.

That shouldn’t be the case.

Also, why did one of hers make a mistake?

More people should have joined the fight by now. Where were they?

As her thoughts moved quickly through every step, she suddenly understood something. The traitor was not Nanny Sun! Song Caitang had tricked her, and she had been too confident! Everything had gone smoothly today perhaps because Zhao Zhi and his team had discovered something and was hoping to trap her. And that unknown traitor would definitely try to hide themselves in the chaos and get away with it!

Very well, she thought. We’ll see who has the last laugh!

Empress Chen raised her hands and clapped twice to summon an aide.

She needed someone to find out who wasn’t where they were supposed to be, and everything would be clear! Once she found out who was behind this, she could continue with her plans! A naughty little chimp was hoping to get through a fence made by a goddess? No way!

Meanwhile, Wen Yuansi, who had been quietly hiding among the crowd and keeping an eye on Empress Chen’s movements, saw all of this. He snapped his fingers and got one of Zhao Zhi’s secret guards to follow the person sent by Empress Chen, then got someone else to fire a whooshing arrow.

That was the signal that he and Zhao Zhi had agreed on beforehand.

Once the battle started, Zhao Zhi would be too far and too busy to take notice of everything happening around him. As someone working in the shadows, Wen Yuansi was to use different signals to inform Zhao Zhi of where they were in their plan.

So while Zhao Zhi couldn’t see, he could hear.

The sound of a whooshing arrow was loud and unique. Zhao Zhi heard it immediately.

Wen Yuansi was not trained in martial arts or how to even fight in a war, but he was a meticulous man with excellent observation skills. He could stay far from the main battle and help Zhao Zhi to adjust the plan anytime, as well as to make up for any holes in the plan.

As long as he did not go near the fight was the fiercest, he would be the most useful or even the key to winning this battle. If he went too close, his life would be in danger and he wouldn’t be able to help Zhao Zhi.

He understood his role well and would not do anything rash…

Empress Chen had made a good decision and her actions made sense, but she did not realize that someone else had already predicted all of this. The one in the middle of everything would never be able to see who was truly in control of the situation until everything was over.

And just when the empress’ aide had found the supposed traitor and was about to silence him, Zhao Zhi’s guard appeared and protected him.

When Zhao Zhi’s guard brought the man to Wen Yuansi, Wen Yuansi’s eye twitched. Song Caitang’s bold guess had been correct. It was really him!

It was really Zhou Tongxing from the Ministry of Rites!

Zhou Tongxing looked confused. “Mr. Wen? It’s so chaotic here. Instead of protecting the emperor, you’ve chosen to capture me? Why?”

Wen Yuansi had no evidence and could not make Zhou Tongxing admit to anything, so he just waved his hand and the guard immediately tied the man up and sent him to Empress Chen.

Something would come out from their conversation for sure!

Empress Chen was informed that Zhou Tongxing had been captured, and even after he was brought to her, he was kept a good distance from her. She stared at Wen Yuansi who was standing even further away and figured things out.

Zhao Zhi, you’re really quite capable. But…

She turned to look at the battle. Her men were still winning, so she didn’t have to worry.

She could take her time to play with these people.