Killer Queen: Tyrant, prepare to die!

Chapter 107 Your Love Disgusts Me! The White Moonlight Turns into a Rotting Viper

The deepest solitary cell in the prison was cold and damp, filled with the smell of mildew and a faint stench of blood.

The torches on the wall flickered, casting distorted shadows onto the mottled stone wall.

Liu Ruyan—formerly Consort Rou, now Consort Liu,

He was wearing a rough gray prison uniform, his hair disheveled and loose.

Curled up in the corner on a stone bed covered with a thin layer of dry grass.

She stared blankly at the dimly lit passageway beyond the iron bars.

My body was trembling uncontrollably, partly from the cold and partly from a deep-seated fear.

The sound of footsteps outside made her tremble and raise her head in fear.

The iron gate was opened by the jailer with a grating creak.

A figure in bright yellow walked slowly into the passageway against the dim light.

Behind him followed Xuan Ying, and behind that were two eunuchs carrying a small table and chairs.

Nangong Ye.

His face was still pale, even worse than when he was in the imperial palace, and there were dark circles under his eyes.

But those eyes were like a frozen pool, devoid of any warmth.

He didn't even glance at Liu Ruyan in the corner.

He sat down on the chair that the eunuch had arranged, while Xuan Ying stood silently to his side.

The jailer tactfully withdrew, and the iron gate closed again, isolating this small area from the outside world.

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty..."

Liu Ruyan grasped at the last straw like a dying person.

He scrambled off the stone bed and landed at Nangong Ye's feet.

She reached out to grab his shirt, her voice trembling and filled with a heartbreaking sob.

"Your Majesty! You've come! You've finally come to see me!"

I am innocent, Your Majesty!

Those are all smears!

"Someone is trying to harm me, to harm our Liu family, Your Majesty!"

She looked up, tears streaming down her dirty cheeks, trying to evoke even the slightest bit of pity from the man before her.

She was still Liu Ruyan, the frail woman who shielded him from arrows at the Jiangnan Imperial Palace.

She was the favored concubine who smiled shyly in his arms.

Nangong Ye lowered his eyes and looked at her face, which, even though it was haggard and dirty, still showed traces of its former beauty.

He once thought this face was beautiful and refined, gentle and understanding.

It offered him a sliver of comfort during countless weary nights spent reviewing memorials.

But now, it just seems fake, just... disgusting.

He didn't speak, he just raised his hand.

Xuan Ying understood, stepped forward, and placed several items one by one on the ground in front of Liu Ruyan.

The first item was a confession with bright red handprints on it.

Liu Ruyan only caught a glimpse of the name at the top of the page—"Chuntao," one of her most trusted head palace maids!

The densely written text on it clearly detailed how she instructed Chun Tao to tamper with the pastries given as rewards to the other concubines.

How to forge menstrual records and how to secretly send cotton wadding out of the palace for destruction during her "pregnancy"!

"No...this can't be real!"

Chun Tao must have been tortured into confessing! She framed me!

Liu Ruyan denied it in a shrill voice, but her voice was already starting to weaken.

The second item was another confession, signed "Zhang Jinghe," the imperial physician who had forged her medical records!

The above details how she used coercion and enticement, promising large sums of money and high-ranking positions.

How can we threaten his family's lives to force him to stage a "pregnancy" drama?

Liu Ruyan's face paled, and her lips trembled as she said, "He...he's lying! I didn't..."

The third item was a small white porcelain bottle decorated with delicate willow leaf patterns. The stopper had already been removed.

Xuan Ying tilted the porcelain bottle expressionlessly, pouring out the small amount of dark red powder that remained inside.

In the dim firelight, the powder gleamed with an ominous, sticky sheen.

At the same time, he threw a report on the drug's properties in front of Liu Ruyan.

The label prominently displays the three alarming words "Zhu Yan Mo" (朱颜殁), along with information on its toxicity, origin, and symptoms of long-term use.

It was exactly what Shen Qingci had shown when he was in the Cold Palace!

"This...this isn't mine! I don't recognize this!"

Liu Ruyan's pupils contracted sharply, and she recoiled as if burned.

He shook his head frantically, his face covered in tears and snot.

"Someone framed me!"

It must be Shen Qingci! She hates me, she's taking revenge on me!

"Your Majesty, please believe me!"

"frame?"

Nangong Ye finally spoke, his voice hoarse like sandpaper scraping against a stone.

The calm was chilling.

"This willow leaf pattern is a common mark used on the personal belongings of the women in your Liu family."

This porcelain vase, identified by artisans from the Imperial Household Department, was a special supply from the official kilns.

Only twelve pairs were made in the fourth year of the Jinghe era, and one pair was bestowed upon you, who were promoted to the rank of Imperial Concubine.

He leaned down, looking closely into Liu Ruyan's suddenly dilated, horrified pupils, and asked, word by word:

"The family of Physician Zhang was found by Xuan Ying three days ago and is safe and sound."

Why would he risk his entire family's lives to frame you?

"Chuntao and Xiahe, your most capable palace maids, have each revealed the details of your false pregnancy and framing."

They corroborate each other perfectly, without the slightest discrepancy.

Why would they frame you?

"The nephew of Wang Shun, the eunuch who delivered meals to the Cold Palace"

Why would a commoner from outside the palace want to hold onto the remnants of "faded beauty"?

To frame the high and mighty Consort Liu?

With each question he asked, Liu Ruyan's face grew paler and her body trembled more violently.

"besides……"

Nangong Ye straightened up and took the last item from Xuan Ying's hands—

It was an old, slightly yellowed handkerchief embroidered with crooked green bamboo.

He threw the handkerchief at Liu Ruyan's face.

Do you recognize it?

Liu Ruyan picked up the handkerchief with trembling hands, and after just one glance, she froze as if struck by lightning.

This is... this was embroidered by her when she had just entered the Prince's Mansion and was then the Prince, Nangong Ye.

The embroidery was poorly done, but she blushed and said it was a "heartfelt gift," so Nangong Ye kept it.

Later, as her skills improved, she long since disdained such crude items and forgot about the existence of the handkerchief.

"This handkerchief was found in a hidden compartment in your bedroom in Huayang Palace."

Nangong Ye's voice was as cold as ice.

"What's wrapped inside is another kind of medicine."

The imperial physician examined it and determined it to be a slow-acting poison that damages a woman's uterus and makes it difficult for her to conceive.

It's not heavy, but prolonged contact with it...

He paused, looking at Liu Ruyan's face, which had instantly turned ashen and lifeless, and uttered the cruelest guess:

"You're talking about those children in the Prince's mansion who couldn't be saved back then..."

Later in the palace, besides you being "pregnant,"

The other concubines also failed to produce offspring... Could it all be related to this handkerchief, or something similar?

"No--!!!"

Liu Ruyan let out a piercing scream.

That scream was filled with fear and despair, as if their disguise had been completely stripped away.

All her defenses, all her luck,

At this moment, all of this was shattered by the irrefutable evidence and Nangong Ye's cold words!

She collapsed to the ground, as if all her bones had been removed, and she didn't even have the strength to cry.

Only tears flowed silently, washing away the grime on my face.

it's over...

It's all over...

Everything she did has been discovered...

She trembled as she looked at Nangong Ye again, her eyes filled with only a last, humble, and twisted plea.

She crawled over on her hands and feet.

She gripped the corner of Nangong Ye's dragon robe with all her might, her fingernails almost digging into the fabric.

"Your Majesty... Your Majesty..."

She sobbed uncontrollably, her voice broken and fragmented.

"Your Majesty, I confess... Your Majesty has done wrong... Your Majesty was bewitched..."

But Your Majesty!

Everything I've done... is because I love you!

She raised her tearful eyes, trying to find a trace of emotion in that cold face:

"I love you so much... I can't bear anyone taking away your attention!"

What makes Shen Qingci so special?

She's nothing but a cowardly and useless woman!

What makes her worthy of being empress?

By what right do I have you?

"Your Majesty, I only... I only want to stay by your side forever, to be the most important person to you!"

Her words were filled with self-indulgent madness and possessiveness.

"Love me?" Nangong Ye repeated these two words as if he had heard the most absurd joke in the world.

He looked down at Liu Ruyan's hand, which was tightly gripping the hem of his clothes.

That hand was once soft and boneless, used to play the zither for him and grind ink for him.

Now, however, it only makes him feel dirty.

He reached out and, one finger at a time, slowly and firmly pried Liu Ruyan's fingers off his dragon robe.

The actions were not violent, but they carried an absolute, unquestionable indifference and disgust.

Liu Ruyan felt the irresistible force from his fingertips, and the icy coolness of his fingers.

When she felt him looking at her, there was no trace of the warmth he once had in his eyes.

All that remained was a feeling of disgust, like looking at something filthy.

"Liu Ruyan".

Nangong Ye pried open her last finger, as if shaking off something dirty, and even took out a handkerchief to wipe his hands.

He stood up and looked down at the woman who was slumped on the ground, utterly distraught.

His voice was calm, yet every word was like a knife, slowly severing her last shred of hope.

"Your love..."

He paused, then clearly uttered the last three words:

"It disgusts me."

After saying that, he didn't look at her again, turned around, and walked towards the prison door.

Xuan Ying followed closely behind.

The iron gate opened again, then slammed shut again.

This completely locked Liu Ruyan and her twisted "love" in this cold, dark, and desperate prison.

She collapsed to the ground, motionless.

Those three words kept echoing in my ears—

It disgusts me.

Nausea……

It turns out that what she had gone to great lengths and resorted to any means to obtain was...

Her self-righteous affection, in his eyes, was, from beginning to end,

It's just disgusting entanglement and poisoning.

"Haha...hahaha..."

She suddenly chuckled softly, the laughter growing louder and louder.

It became increasingly frantic, eventually turning into hysterical wailing.

What white moonlight?

What kind of deep affection is this, shielding someone from harm?

What do you mean by "the emperor's exclusive favor"?

It was nothing more than a ridiculous drama she directed and acted in, deceiving herself and others!

Now the stage has collapsed, the makeup is ruined, revealing the true face beneath—a face filled with insane jealousy and utter ugliness.

Even the only thing she could hold onto—the excuse of "love"—was discarded by him, trampled underfoot, and crushed to pieces.

The torchlight flickered in her frantically weeping eyes.

It felt like many years ago, on that rainy night at the Jiangnan Imperial Palace, he held her injured body, his eyes reflecting the candlelight.

So warm.

So bright.

Now, all that remains is a cold, dark, suffocating despair.

White Moonlight?

Broken.

It's rotten.

It smells bad.

Even she herself felt disgusted.