The End (1)

“Oh, are you referring to the little bottle that was simply labeled “antidote”?” Song Caitang looked amused. “It’s such a pity that you’re not well versed in medicine.”

Empress Chen’s face fell. “You found it?”

Song Caitang’s eyes lit up this time. “That’s right. I found it.”

The empress’ reaction proved that whatever she found was definitely the antidote!

But Empress Chen realized she shouldn’t have reacted that way and quickly put on a straight face again. “No, no, that bottle isn’t the antidote.”

“Sure…if you say so.” Song Caitang smiled merrily as she fluttered her eyes at Zhao Zhi.

Zhao Zhi understood that his aunt was safe.

That was something he had overlooked.

Once he confirmed what was really going on in his house, he managed to have a proper conversation with Consort Ping in secret. That was the first time they both spoke honestly, and that was when they came up with this plan as well. But he did not know that Empress Chen had fed Consort Ping poison, and Consort Ping had not told him about that either.

If not for Song Caitang…

It would have been too late for regrets by now.

Thinking about it sent a shiver down his spine.

Song Caitang didn’t want to argue with Empress Chen over this, so she moved on. Seeing that Empress Chen had become angry and uncooperative, she took two steps forward and changed the topic, “Your son. Do you know where he is now?”

Empress Chen’s pupils constricted suddenly.

And she also glanced fearfully at the emperor.

The emperor had a grim look on his face and didn’t look surprised. Either he knew about this matter but did not know the details, or this matter wasn’t important to him at all.

“What are you talking about…I don’t understand…” Empress Chen’s voice was a little hoarse and she couldn’t look Song Caitang in the eye.

Song Caitang took another step forward. “What I really want to ask is, how many times have you actually seen your son? When was the last time you saw him? Are you certain that’s the son you gave birth to?”

Empress Chen paled and didn’t know how to respond. “What…wh-what do you mean?”

Song Caitang smiled. “You don’t understand? Do you want to ask someone who would?”

Empress Chen turned to look at Wen Yuansi.

Next to Wen Yuansi was Zhou Tongxing, who was still tightly bound so that he couldn’t run away.

Zhou Tongxing looked confused. “I’m not the one who had a child with you. Why are you looking at me?”

“Why, you—”

“Your Majesty, calm down,” Song Caitang shifted slightly to block Empress Chen’s view. “Why don’t I tell you a long story, then if I miss anything out, you help me to fill in the blanks?”

Without waiting for a response from Empress Chen or from anyone else, Song Caitang began in a loud voice, “Let’s start with what happened more than 20 years ago, the death of the previous empress!”

Instead of going through this long and painful back and forth, it was better to just present the truth in front of everyone directly, along with all the evidence gathered. That way, nobody, including the ones involved, would be able to defend themselves.

“The previous empress suddenly went into labor before a royal banquet and had trouble delivering. Unfortunately, there just weren’t enough midwives around. The current empress, who was still unmarried at that time, realized this was an emergency and was kind enough to offer a trusted auntie who had served her for a long time and knew how to deliver babies, Auntie Liang.” Song Caitang spoke a little slower, “Everything was moving along alright and all of this seemed to have gone normally. There were no points of suspicion and His Majesty didn’t notice anything. But a long time later, someone realized there was something wrong with what happened then.”

Then, Song Caitang looked toward Zhao Zhi. “Actually, I don’t know much about this part, but Prince Ping has conducted a detailed investigation.”

Zhao Zhi bowed toward the emperor. “The evidence is culpable. His Majesty has already been fully informed.”

The emperor nodded. “Yes. The previous empress was actually murdered.”

The crown prince shut his eyes as pain and regret filled his heart.

This was the outcome he wanted the least. Zhao Zhi and his father did not give him any stress and did not tell him most of what happened, but the truth had been revealed now and he had no choice but to face reality.

Empress Chen was shocked. “That’s…that’s impossible!”

She had not left any clues behind and anyone who even knew a little about what happened had all been killed. It was impossible to investigate!

Zhao Zhi smiled faintly as he said, “Yuli.”

Empress Chen was too stunned to react.

Yuli had been one of her palace maids back then. She wasn’t a trusted servant and didn’t know about this at all initially. But after Empress Chen had entered the palace and became empress, she had spoken to Nanny Liang about this matter and Yuli had overheard them. Empress Chen immediately tried to kill Yuli, but Yuli turned out to be a clever one and disappeared without a trace the next day. The maids who shared a room with her said that she had offended someone and thrown herself into a well. And because an unrecognizable body wearing Yuli’s clothes had been found shortly after, Empress Chen had assumed it was really Yuli and didn’t pursue the matter. So it turned out… Yuli had not died!

Song Caitang did not give Empress Chen too much time to defend herself and went on, “You put in a lot of effort to prove yourself and get what you wanted. After becoming empress, you spent the first two years truly taking good care of the crown prince. You wanted to make sure he grew up to become a good emperor and you really tried to be a good empress. But life played a prank on you.”

“That year, the second prince of Liao, Yeluzong, secretly entered Da’an. Nobody knows what his aim was, perhaps he was just trying to understand the situation here, perhaps he had crossed the border by accident. The border was heavily guarded, so once he had come in, it was hard for him to leave, so he had to find a chance to get out, and while he was here, he wanted to settle a few other things. While doing that, he arrived in Bianliang and by some coincidence, you met him.”

“Perhaps it was because he had ill intent, or perhaps it was just fate. But regardless of whether you were a consenting party or not, you became pregnant with his child.”

Song Caitang’s voice was slow and clear, like the stream water in the moonlight. It wasn’t especially bright, but enough to strike each person’s heart.

The words “you became pregnant with his child” sent an uproar through the crowd. All the officials were flabbergasted.

Empress Chen kept her head bowed so that nobody could see her expression.

Song Caitang came closer and stared at her. “You had fallen into a lake as a child during winter, no less, so your constitution was badly affected and many, many doctors said you would have a lot of trouble getting pregnant, and that you might never have children at all. At the same time, you had used this to your advantage, successfully becoming the empress and foster mother to the crown prince. But the heavens pitied you and allowed you to become pregnant.”

“This child was not the emperor’s and had come at a bad time. But it was possibly the only chance you had to have children. You didn’t want to get rid of it because you couldn’t bear to. So, you started to think of a way and came up with a plan to leave the palace and give birth to the child.”

“And the place you chose was a place not far from Beiqing Mountain. Huangci Temple.”

Song Caitang went on, “The timing of everything was bad back then. The emperor was worried about the state of the country and on edge all the time, so as the empress, you took up the responsibility of fasting and praying for the country by heading for a secluded, exclusive temple. Everyone was so touched by your actions, but they didn’t know you doing this for another reason – you just wanted to give birth to your child.”

“As for why you didn’t just claim the child was the emperor’s…my guess is that it wasn’t possible.”

Empress Chen bit her lower lip hard and glared nastily at Song Caitang.

Qi Yan took a step forward and stood in her way. “What are you staring at! Are you saying she’s wrong? That was a bad year. The citizens were suffering, the officials were tearing their hair out and the emperor paid himself no attention and focused his energies on how he could save his country. Everyone was trying to help. You are the empress, the mother of the nation, yet you were seducing some other man and giving birth to his bastard child! You are guilty of it, yet you don’t want others to talk about it?”

The emperor was busy for several months in a row and did not spend any time in the harem or sleep with any of the women in the palace. Empress Chen could not claim that the child was the emperor’s at all. It was possible to bribe a palace doctor into fudging the records, but Empress Chen back then was nowhere as powerful as she was now, so it would be too hard to cover this up.

And as long as she couldn’t ensure that this secret never got out, both herself and her child faced the possibility of being sentenced to death.

Empress Chen’s eyes glowered menacingly. “Based on your conjecture, the child is supposed to belong to the second prince of Liao, Yeluzong. But I headed for Huangci Temple slightly over a month after Yeluzong and his team of diplomats visited, then stayed there for just two months before returning to the palace. If I gave birth in Huangci Temple…that wouldn’t make sense. The timeline doesn’t make sense.”

Qi Yan yelled back, “You gave birth early! I asked the doctors about this – women with a poor constitution like yours often have trouble getting pregnant, but once they’re pregnant, they usually suffer a lot through their pregnancy and often give birth earlier than expected!”

“You’re an unmarried man with no children, and it really shows,” Empress Chen scoffed. “It’s very hard for a child to survive if their mother gives birth at the eighth month mark, and seven months is the minimum. I’ve never heard of anyone who can give birth to a child just after four or five months! I don’t think the baby is even fully formed yet!”

Song Caitang remained calm even after Empress Chen’s arrogant outburst. “So, actually, that second prince of Liao had not come to Da’an with that team of diplomats.”

Empress Chen narrowed her eyes.

“I suppose you’d formulated this argument beforehand already, so you spoke so confidently,” Song Caitang sighed. “Unfortunately, Prince Ping has already confirmed that Yeluzong had come to Da’an to escape an assassination by another prince in Liao. But he did not come with that team of diplomats. On the contrary, the diplomats had come so that they could find a reason to bring him home.”

Zhao Zhi clapped his hands at this point and a subordinate brought a box forward.

There were some letters and a few items.

After the emperor looked through everything, he passed it to the crown prince. After the crown prince passed it to the officials next to him.

The officials passed the things to each other and realized what these were.

These were Yeluzong’s things.

The truth was difficult to refute. This man had really arrived in Da’an before the team of diplomats did, and he had written letters to the empress too. His letters had plenty of actual details, mushy words and also talked about “their son”. And Empress Chen…had replied to his letters too!

Zhao Zhi had a frosty look in his eyes as he sighed quietly inside.

He had discovered these things purely by accident. Besides getting help from the crown prince, it was mostly because Song Caitang had been held captive within the palace, so he had looked into every nook and cranny. The spies along the border had also helped to gather good evidence and sent it back to him as quickly as possible…

Thankfully, everything had come back in time.

Song Caitang was not done. “That night, the authorities sent officials and soldiers to raid Beiqing Mountain, while you gave birth in Huangci Temple. Beiqing Mountain was engaged in full battle and it was an accumulation of big and small issues. A number of them were even started by Yeluzong. Back then, the two countries had agreed to stop fighting, but the situation along the border was still tense. Yeluzong was part of the diplomatic team, so he dared not go overboard with his actions. But causing a little trouble and making things more chaotic was definitely something he didn’t mind doing.”

“It would be too difficult for both of you, given your statuses, to become an official couple, and he might not even have been sincere toward you either. It could have been just a coincidence. He must have known that you were already pregnant, so he wouldn’t want to, or allow his child to remain in a foreign country, so he decided to snatch it away from you. But it had been so hard for you to have a child, so you weren’t going to let him snatch it away. It’s hard to prevent an accident in such a situation – so, you lost your child that day, didn’t you?”

Song Caitang had been very kind with her words already. Yeluzong might have never considered getting together with Empress Chen and might never have been smitten with her in the first place. Calling it a happy coincidence sounded nice, but Yeluzong might have just thought that it would be fun to sleep with one of the Da’an emperor’s women.

After all, being able to embarrass and cuckold the emperor of Da’an was something that would have made an enemy prince gleeful.

Empress Chen did not speak, but her trembling fingers showed her emotions.

Song Caitang sighed inwardly. “And back then, the emperor had no idea what happened.”

The crown prince was very young and the country was in trouble, so things were unstable. The diplomats from Liao were also very pushy and nasty, so the emperor did not have the time or energy to pay attention to any of these things.

“The Liao people are ambitious and have plotted against Da’an for decades. How could they give up such an opportunity? So before you could be sad for too long, you received news about “your son”, didn’t you?” Song Caitang pointed at Zhou Tongxing and suddenly raised her voice, “He was the one who came to you and said that the child was with him, and also passed you letters from Liao with official seals that said that he would help you to secretly raise the child, correct? And because you and him shared this secret, no matter what happened, you never suspected him!”

If her guess was correct, someone close to Zhou Tongxing was from Liao, or perhaps he had an ancestor from Liao to begin with.

Empress Chen stared at Song Caitang in shock.

Song Caitang continued, “Was that when you started thinking about betraying the country? Yeluzong wanted money and to bring harm to Da’an, while you didn’t want this secret to be uncovered and you hoped that your child would one day ascend the throne and become ruler over this vast land… So, both of you instantly became partners and began your two decade long plan?”

“After what happened at Beiqing Mountain and your child was found, this thought seeped into your mind and after you began communicating with Yeluzong, you formulated a plan and began this long chain of events that would lead to today. Zhou Tongxing was the middleman, the messenger. But he was also the reliable man who would help you to bring your child up. Your father was very ill, so you took over all the networks and resources he left behind. You looked through everything and picked out the ones that were most suitable to become part of your plan…”

“Including Prince Ling, the one you purposely supported to go against the crown prince. He was one of your pawns too, wasn’t he!”

The whole place fell silent after her long speech.

Everyone was so stunned by these revelations. So, that was what happened?! This was an insanely complex but ambitious plot!

Empress Chen had dreamed really big, and she had done such unbelievably wicked things!

The empress did not speak.

It seemed like saying anything at this juncture was pointless.

Song Caitang went on, “What happened on Beiqing Mountain that night, including the death of the previous empress, didn’t look suspicious at all. But to make sure that nobody found out, besides not committing these crimes in the first place, you realized that you had to root out everyone who might know a thing or two. Otherwise, something was bound to happen sooner or later. So, after your organization began to take shape, you began your next plan to silence everyone.”

“The death of the older Madam Liang, who was the auntie who took care of you, and the death of her younger sister, and even Auntie Huang, the one who worked for the younger Madam Liang – Auntie Huang was sent by you to watch the younger Madam Liang and family too, right? You found that silencing the people around yourself wasn’t enough, because you were afraid that the people around those people might have guessed a thing or two. So, you instructed these spies to immediately kill their targets once they noticed anything amiss, correct?”

Besides the younger Madam Liang, there was also the Wei family of Madam Wei from the Count of Peace’s case.

Madam Wei had attended the banquet that occurred at the same time the previous empress gave birth, but she was not sharp enough and had no idea what happened, so she was left alive. But her brother’s concubine, Wei He’an’s biological mother, was silenced because she had figured out something from Madam Wei’s boastful talk about that banquet.

And there was also Song Caitang’s own father.

Song Yi had been a coroner for the bodies found on Beiqing Mountain after that raid. Perhaps he had been too clever and discovered something he shouldn’t have, so he just kept running further and further away. Empress Chen might not have noticed initially, but once she did, she acted swiftly.

Some of the dangers Song Caitang went through had come from living near the border, but some might have been planned by Empress Chen!

Because Empress Chen desperately needed to get rid of absolutely everyone who might be a threat to her.

As for Linglong, that was even easier to explain. Besides being someone who was actually on Beiqing Mountain when it happened, she had become close to Jing Yan, an Eagle Guard. Of course Empress Chen became suspicious.

With that in mind, Song Caitang continued, “You were carrying out your operations in secret and while the emperor didn’t notice anything at first, he began to notice something when you started silencing people and he ordered the Eagle Guards to intervene. They worked in secret, but they still suffered quite a bit. You had been wary the whole time, so you discovered them very quickly. That pushed you to not just silence the people you deemed suspicious, but to do something else that was very important – frame someone else for it.”

“You were very clever – you thought that since the emperor had noticed something, he wouldn’t just sit there and do nothing. He wouldn’t let things slide and he would definitely want to make sure this problem did not continue. You didn’t want to be discovered, so you had to find someone else to take your place.”

“Back then, you indirectly fed Millet’s Dream to Zhao Zhi. So, this time, you decided to make use of it again. You allowed someone from the martial arts world to get hold of it and made use of the Night Sanctum, because you knew this place would attract someone important – the prince of Western Xia, Li Yuanfeng!”

“He’s not from this country, and he’s also the most likely prince to ascend the throne, plus he has fought very fiercely along the battle with our troops. That made him the perfect scapegoat, right? Of course, a foreigner wouldn’t be able to accomplish so much by himself. You needed a senior court official with sufficient power and influence, so you chose the Yuns, Yun Nianyao’s grandfather, a count who gained tremendous recognition for protecting the emperor in battle. Isn’t that so?”

Yun Nianyao’s case was the first one that Song Caitang worked on after waking up in Da’an. That was also the case where she got to know Wen Yuansi and Zhao Zhi.

Back then, Zhao Zhi was a surveillance commissioner. He and the emperor had pretended that Zhao Zhi had fallen out of the emperor’s favor and demoted to an official who had to move from state to state instead of being allowed to stay in the capital city, but it was actually a plan to secretly investigate this treasonous activity.

Yun Nianyao had gone all the way to Luanze because of what was happening to her grandfather. She didn’t intend to die at all. Thinking about it now, Yun Nianyao had gone to beg Lu Guangzong for help, a pacificist commissioner back then who eventually died. Yun Nianyao had no idea, but Lu Guangzong was actually one of Empress Chen’s, a member of this treasonous organization…

What a tragedy.

But they had too little information on hand, so neither Song Caitang, Zhao Zhi nor Wen Yuansi were able to see what was happening beneath the surface, and definitely had no idea that something like that was even going on…

Thankfully, while truth and justice were sometimes late, they were never absent.

“It’s too bad – you underestimated the emperor’s Eagle Guards, you underestimated the people around them, and you underestimated Zhao Zhi.”

Some people were really outstanding, regardless of whether they were dead or alive, or whether they had forgotten their past or were faced with complete strangers. As long as they remained true to their beliefs and stood strong for what was important, they could attract others like themselves by just existing.

Groups that were formed through sincerity, honesty and a shared belief were always more resilient and stronger than any group that was formed through just promised benefits. The former would be a group that would continue to survive no matter how much time had passed and how things had changed.

Song Caitang did not speak for a while and seemed to be tired, so Qi Yan took a step forward and helped to continue, “You started getting worried, or perhaps this was your plan in the first place. You chose to execute your grand plan today. Your father’s illness was the escape plan you had set up beforehand. After all, if everything went well, that would be fine. But if things didn’t go well, you could just claim your father was behind it. He was going to die anyway, so why not make his death a little more worth it?”

“But you shouldn’t have killed him!” Qi Yan pointed a finger at Empress Chen. He was really angry this time. Nobody who killed their own father was a good person anyway, so he didn’t see any need to be polite. “You even thought so highly of yourself, even though you were foolish and didn’t know it. You thought it was Nanny Sun who betrayed you, but you didn’t even consider this man who had been by your side all this time!”

He was referring to Zhou Tongxing.