tallest building

Chapter 390 Calculating the General Ledger
After Wei Fu finished explaining the whole story, Qi Yu entered the hall and reported, "This servant has important matters to report to the Emperor."

"Speak," the emperor said, his expression stern and unreadable.

"This servant was ordered to thoroughly investigate the poisoning of the second son of the Prince of Chu, Ying Shan, and now I have the results to report to Your Majesty. According to the confession of Yu Lu, the chief eunuch of Yongfu Palace, he was ordered by the Empress to poison Gong Chang'an, but Ying Shan accidentally ingested it," Qi Yu said.

"Summon Yu Lu to the palace," the Emperor commanded.

Yu Lu then entered the palace. Everyone saw that he did not appear to have been tortured, so there was no possibility of him being subjected to torture to extract a confession.

Yu Lu knelt there, weeping bitterly: "Your Majesty, this servant was ordered by the Empress to poison the young master. Originally, I intended to kill the Fourth Young Master of the Palace, but the Second Young Master of the Prince of Chu accidentally ate it. These past few days, this servant has been filled with regret and hatred, but time cannot be turned back, and the terrible mistake has already been made."

"Why did the Empress ask you to poison Gong Chang'an?" the Emperor asked.

"This servant doesn't know either. Her Majesty the Empress only asked me to do this, but she didn't say why. She is the mistress, and I am the servant. The mistress only gives orders, how could she explain to the servant?" Yu Lu was telling the truth.

Everyone understood that the Empress must have known Gong Chang'an's true identity before she poisoned him.

Otherwise, there would be no need to risk harming people.

Now that Yu Lu has confessed, he must know about other shady things the Empress has done. Sure enough, once the Dong family falls, the Empress can no longer be protected.

Meanwhile, the Empress was still under house arrest in the inner palace. Chunying brought in a copper basin and asked her to wash up.

The Empress asked her, "Has the Prince of Zhao arrived in the capital yet?"

She now places all her hopes on Prince Zhao. As long as Prince Zhao leads his army into the capital, the emperor, for the sake of the greater good, will treat the Dong family and herself well.

"Your Highness," Chunying said with her head bowed, looking very embarrassed, "you should wash up first!"

The Empress, who had been in a volatile mood lately, flew into a rage upon hearing this and yelled, "You little wretch! You dare to contradict me? You're asking for trouble!"

Startled, Chunying immediately knelt down: "Your Majesty, please calm down. I didn't tell you because I was afraid you would be upset."

"Heartbroken? What happened to the Prince of Zhao?! Did His Majesty strip him of his military power?" The Empress's breathing suddenly became rapid.

"King Zhao died in battle yesterday." Chunying prostrated herself on the ground, not daring to look up at the Empress.

"Died in battle?" The Empress's eyes widened. "Where did the battle begin?"

Could it be that the King of Zhao staged a coup? No, that can't be right. If a coup had really happened, there would definitely be commotion in the palace. Even if she was under house arrest, it's impossible that she wouldn't have noticed.

"It happened at Xuling yesterday, from noon until nightfall. The army of King Zhao and the army of King Chu fought a great battle, and they... they were all killed in action." The news spread throughout the palace, and Chunying naturally heard it as well.

Only the Empress didn't know.

"King of Chu? Wasn't he guarding Longxi? Why has he come to the capital again?" The Empress felt that all was lost. King Zhao was their last trump card. If he died in battle, who could they rely on?
But then she raised her voice and questioned, "Xu Ling?! That Grand Tutor..." "Grand Tutor... the Grand Tutor was mutilated by the King of Chu... the Princess Consort of Zhao and the Crown Prince of Zhao were also killed by the King of Chu..." Chunying simply mustered her courage and told everything she knew in one breath.

With a thud, the Empress fell backward. He couldn't bear any of these things, let alone all of them at once.

Chunying and several other palace maids and eunuchs rushed forward to help the Empress up, pinching her philtrum and patting her back.

But nothing worked. Finally, having no other choice, he scooped up the water from the copper basin and splashed it on the Empress's face.

The Empress jolted awake. She wailed, but no tears fell. Instead, she demanded sharply, "What about the Prince of Chu? He's rebelling! Hasn't His Majesty punished him?"

"Your Majesty, the King of Chu has also died in battle. It was the Prince of Changliu who cleaned up the mess. Please don't get too agitated," Chunying pleaded, weeping.

"He dared to kill my sister and mutilate my father's body! My father was a veteran of three reigns and a high-ranking official, Grand Tutor! How dare he do this!" The Empress was now filled with nothing but hatred. "Your Majesty! I demand an explanation from Your Majesty!"

As she spoke, she struggled to get up and walk out, but now that the Emperor had issued a decree, she was under house arrest in the palace and could not leave at will.

Chunying and the others immediately knelt in front of her to block her from leaving.

"Get out of my way, all of you!" The Empress's eyes were bloodshot with rage, as if she wished she had a knife in her hand to kill anyone who stood in her way.

"Consort Wen is here, make way!" Zhao Changming and the others followed Wen Mingqian, escorting her into the Empress's palace.

Upon seeing her, the Empress immediately sneered, "You shameless woman! How dare you come to see me?"

Wen Mingqian bowed to her as usual and said, "Your Majesty, I pay my respects."

"Hmph, why bother with this pretense?" the Empress sneered. "Aren't you just here to watch the show?"

"Your Majesty, doesn't this outfit look familiar?" Wen Mingqian ignored her sarcasm. "This is Sister Shen's outfit from back then. I've treasured it all these years. I wanted to wear her old clothes to see you on this day, so that we could settle our score."

The Empress hadn't noticed Wen Mingqian's clothes before, but after hearing her say that, she took a closer look and they did indeed seem somewhat familiar.

"That vile woman Shen Fu is like a persistent ghost!" Even though Consort Shen was no longer alive, the Empress still spoke of her with deep resentment. "I truly regret killing her so late. I should have killed her as soon as she entered the palace!"

“You should indeed regret it,” Wen Mingqian said, unperturbed by the Empress’s vicious words, for in her view the Empress was merely making a death throes. “Yu Lu has already confessed in front of all the civil and military officials that you ordered him to poison Ying Shan to death. Prince Fenye has also accused Prince Zhao of plotting a rebellion, colluding with Dong Shou, and disrupting the court. Several people have also testified to your plot to murder Consort Shen and the imperial heir in her womb.”

Now that everyone in the Dong family who isn't dead is in prison, you might as well guess what your fate will be.

"Wen Mingqian, I have treated you well! I have done everything I could to help you succeed, but you have repaid kindness with enmity. I may have wronged many people, but you have wronged me the most." The Empress looked at Wen Mingqian with contempt. "Even if I become a ghost, I will not let you go."

"Sister Shen and I have known each other since childhood, that's affection; she saved my life, that's loyalty. You, Dong family woman, have turned black into white and harmed the Dragon Clan, and you still have the nerve to say you've been kind to me?"

You let me into the palace because the incense I made could alleviate your insomnia; frankly, it was just a mutually beneficial arrangement. As for making me a noble person, wasn't that just to protect you from disaster?
"You are so selfish and self-centered. You have no reverence and no concern for the country. Do you even deserve to be the mother of the nation?!" Every word Wen Mingqian said was like a sharp knife piercing Dong Xiangning's heart.