Killer Queen: Tyrant, prepare to die!

Chapter 104 Mad Talk from the Cold Palace! Consort Liu Shatters Her Last Glory: Why Isn't She Dead Yet?!

March 18th, 7 PM.

Huayang Palace—now known as the secluded palace where Consort Liu was confined—was shrouded in a suffocating silence.

The palace gates were locked from the outside, leaving only a side gate for the lowly eunuchs who delivered meals each day to enter and exit.

Most of the palace servants who used to serve us so meticulously have already been replaced.

The remaining few were also trembling with fear, hiding far away under the corridor, not daring to approach the main hall.

There were no lights on in the main hall.

Only the cold moonlight, filtering through the cracks in the window, cast dappled and fragmented shadows on the floor, barely illuminating the messy room.

Broken porcelain shards, torn curtains, overturned tables and chairs, and ripped valuable paintings and calligraphy... were everywhere.

The air was thick with the smells of alcohol, perfume, and a strange, cloying, and pungent odor of something rotten.

Consort Liu—Liu Ruyan, with disheveled hair, wore only a thin, wrinkled nightgown.

Barefoot, stepping on cold gold bricks and broken porcelain shards, yet feeling no pain whatsoever.

She clutched a half-empty wine jug in her hand, her eyes unfocused.

Her delicate makeup had long since become a mess, mixed with tear stains and wine stains, making her look particularly grotesque in the moonlight.

"Gone...all gone..."

She muttered to herself, her voice hoarse and cracked.

"The Imperial Concubine... is gone... Brother... Father... Your Majesty..."

She took a big gulp of the liquor, and the spicy liquid made her cough violently.

The liquor dripped down his chin and neck, soaking his clothes.

"Shen Qingci!"

She suddenly screamed, her voice so shrill it almost pierced eardrums.

"You bitch! How are you still alive?! How did you manage to come back?! Huh?!"

She stumbled and spun around like a mother beast trapped in a snare, amidst the chaos.

Barefoot, I stepped over the broken porcelain, leaving behind blurry bloodstains.

"Even the fire in the Cold Palace couldn't kill you... even the poison from Zhu Yanmo couldn't kill you... even the people I sent..."

She slammed the wine jug in her hand against the wall!

"Bang—crash!"

The wine jug shattered, scattering the remaining wine and fragments everywhere.

"Useless! All of you are useless!"

She screamed hysterically, lunged at the dressing table, and swept everything off the table with her bare hands.

Pearls, jade hairpins, gold hairpins, rouge and face powder... tinkled and fell to the ground.

She grabbed a bronze mirror and looked at her reflection—a disheveled woman looking like a madwoman.

He paused for a moment, then burst into even more desolate, maniacal laughter.

"Hahaha... Is this me?"

Is this Liu Ruyan? Is this the once most favored concubine in the palace, the one who shielded His Majesty from arrows?!

She glared fiercely at herself in the mirror, her eyes filled with such venom that they seemed to bleed.

"It's all your fault! It's all your fault, you bitch!"

You stole my seat!

They stole my emperor! Now they're even trying to steal my last hope!

She recalled the look of shock, ecstasy, and anguish in His Majesty's eyes as he looked at Shen Qingci and that little bastard in the Taiji Hall yesterday…

She had seen that look in his eyes before, on a rainy night at the Jiangnan Imperial Palace, when he held her, who was injured.

He had also caught glimpses of her every time she acted coquettishly or displayed her talent in his eyes.

But now, that gaze will never linger on her again.

It was all given to that scumbag who "came back from the dead"!

And that child… that face that’s cut from the same mold as His Majesty’s!

That should have been her child!

It was her biggest bargaining chip in ascending to the position of empress and consolidating the power of the Liu family!

"Mine...that's mine!"

She frantically tore at her hair, her fingernails scratching her scalp until it bled.

"His Majesty promised me! He said he would let me have children!"

He said the throne would be mine sooner or later! Liar! They're all liars!

She stumbled and lunged toward a celadon vase that was about half her height in the corner.

That was a gift from Nangong Ye when she was promoted to the rank of Imperial Concubine; it was adorned with gold and painted with colorful designs and was priceless.

"A reward for me? Hahaha..." She laughed loudly, and with all her might, she pushed the heavy vase over!

"Boom—!"

The loud crash echoed through the empty hall. The vase shattered into countless pieces, and the withered flower branches and stagnant water spilled all over the floor.

"Give me a reward! Give me another one!"

She screamed into the void, as if Nangong Ye were right in front of her.

"Look at me! Look at how I look now! Who gave me this mess?!"

It's all Shen Qingci's fault! It's all that persistent, despicable woman's fault!

She collapsed onto the cold shards and sewage, finally exhausting all her strength, leaving only suppressed, intermittent sobs.

"Why isn't she dead yet... How can she come back in such a glorious way..."

I've become a concubine... confined to this awful place...

Father and brother too... His Majesty... he wouldn't even see Father today...

Extreme fear and despair, like an icy tide, slowly overwhelmed her.

She suddenly raised her head, a fierce glint of death flashing in her eyes.

"No... I can't let it end like this... The Liu family can't end like this..."

She murmured to herself, struggled to her feet, stumbled to the palace door, and pounded on the heavy door panel.

"Guards! Guards at once! I need to see His Majesty!"

I have something important to report to Your Majesty!

It's about Shen Qingci! It's about that child!

She screamed at the top of her lungs, her fingernails scraping against the door with a harsh sound.

However, there was only deathly silence outside the door.

Even the palace servants who usually stood guard under the eaves were nowhere to be seen.

Only the moonlight coldly illuminated her frantically pounding on the door.

---

at the same time.

In a low-ceilinged side room at the back corner of Huayang Palace, where miscellaneous items were piled up.

A tiny oil lamp illuminated two pale, paper-white faces.

These were Chun Tao and Xia He, the two most trusted and trusted palace maids of Consort Liu.

Their hands were tied behind their backs, their mouths were stuffed with rags, and they huddled in a corner, their eyes filled with boundless fear.

Before them stood two silent men in black, like shadows—Xuan Ying's bodyguards.

"Has Consort Liu done anything unusual today? Who has she been in contact with?"

Did you say anything special?

One of the bodyguards asked in a flat, emotionless voice.

Chun Tao was so frightened that she trembled all over, shook her head desperately, and made sobbing noises.

The guards stepped forward and ripped the gag out of her mouth.

"This servant...this servant doesn't know...Her Majesty...she's been in the palace the whole time."

"I didn't see any outsiders... I just... I just threw things, cursed people... cursed Shen... the deposed empress..." Chun Tao stammered incoherently.

"What did he say? Be specific," the guard pressed.

"Curse...curse her for not dying yet...for stealing her empress's position and His Majesty's..."

She also said... she also said the child should have been hers... Chun Tao blurted it all out.

Another guard walked up to Xia He and tore off the cloth.

Xia He was calmer than Chun Tao, but her voice was still trembling:

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty seemed a little off after returning from the palace banquet yesterday."

This morning I heard that after the master went to the palace and was reprimanded by His Majesty, he went completely mad.

She...she even secretly asked me to find a young eunuch I used to know at the Imperial Hospital, it seems...it seems she wanted something...

"What is it?" The guard's eyes flashed with anger.

"This servant...this servant didn't hear clearly, it sounded like some kind of medicine that 'makes people tell the truth'..."

Or it could be a medicine that 'makes the illness worse'... The Empress was already quite confused at the time, and her words were indistinct..."

Xia He's face turned deathly pale.

"This servant dares not go, nor have I found an opportunity..."

The two guards exchanged a glance.

One of them took out two small porcelain bottles from his pocket, pried open Chun Tao and Xia He's mouths, stuffed the pills inside, and forced them to swallow them.

"This is the 'Seven-Day Intestinal Destruction Powder.' The antidote must be taken once every seven days."

The guard said coldly,

"From today onwards, you will return to serve Consort Liu as usual."

Every day at 9 PM, she would go to the third cypress tree in the northeast corner of the Imperial Garden to report in detail on her every move.

If you dare to conceal anything, or attempt to pass on a message—”

The guard's voice was as cold as ice.

"Then he would wait for his intestines to rupture and his stomach to rot, suffering for seven days before dying."

Chun Tao and Xia He were so frightened that they collapsed to the ground, only able to nod.

The guards said no more, untied them, and vanished silently into the shadows of the side room like ghosts.

Chuntao and Xiahe helped each other up, and it took them a long time to get up. Their faces were already streaked with tears, and their eyes were filled with only desperate obedience.

They knew that from this moment on, they were no longer Consort Liu's confidantes.

Rather, it is His Majesty… or rather, the eyes and ears and puppets that control His Majesty with that invisible hand.

---

The main hall of Huayang Palace.

Consort Liu pounded on the door until her hands were red and swollen, her voice hoarse, and finally, exhausted her last bit of strength, she slid down the door and sat on the ground.

The hall fell silent once more.

Only her heavy, desperate breathing could be heard.

The moonlight moved, illuminating a patch of sharp, broken porcelain at her feet, and also the mad and venomous light that gradually gathered in her eyes.

"Shen Qingci..."

She stared at the shards of porcelain, as if they were the very woman she hated to the core.

His voice was hoarse, yet carried a chilling calmness:

"You think you've won?"

"No……"

Even if I go to hell...

"I want to drag you along too."

She reached out, her hand trembling, and grasped the cold, broken piece of porcelain.

The sharp edge cut her palm, and blood slowly seeped out.

She seemed oblivious to the pain, gripping tightly with a burning, all-consuming flame in her eyes.

Outside the palace, the night was deep and the dew was heavy.

An owl swooped over the palace wall, letting out a mournful cry.

It was as if foreshadowing an even bloodier storm brewing within the depths of the palace.