Killer Queen: Tyrant, prepare to die!

The public trial lasted for three full days after it concluded.

Nangong Ye locked himself in the Hall of Mental Cultivation and refused to see anyone.

The food that was sent in was brought out untouched.

The memorials were piled up like mountains, but he didn't even glance at them.

The palace servants remained silent, trembling with fear.

Even when walking, they tiptoe—

Everyone can feel it.

The heart of this palace,

That once tyrannical and easily angered emperor,

We are currently in the eye of a silent, devastating storm.

The fourth day, night.

The third quarter of the hour of Zi (11:45 PM).

Shen Qingci had not yet rested,

He was reading through the secret report sent by Tingfenglou under the lamplight—

The progress of the purge of Prince Jing's remaining followers, the turmoil in the court, the military situation on the border...

Suddenly, hurried footsteps came from outside.

"Your Majesty!" Jinshu's panicked voice rang out, "His Majesty...His Majesty..."

Before he could finish speaking...

"Clang—!!"

The door to the sleeping quarters was violently kicked open!

The night wind, carrying the smell of alcohol, swept in.

Nangong Ye stood at the door.

He looked noticeably thinner and his eyes were sunken after three days apart.

His stubble was messy, and his bright yellow casual clothes were wrinkled and clung to his body.

Her neckline was open, revealing her prominent collarbones.

He was carrying an empty wine jar.

A pair of scarlet eyes stared intently at Shen Qingci under the lamp.

That look in his eyes was crazed, broken, yet terrifyingly empty.

"Your Majesty..." Shen Qingci put down the secret report and stood up.

Nangong Ye stumbled and fell in front of her.

He didn't fall.

But -

"Thump."

He knelt down, completely upright.

He knelt at her feet.

Shen Qingci's pupils suddenly contracted.

"Your Majesty!" Jinshu exclaimed in surprise, but was stopped by a look from Eunuch Li.

Eunuch Li quietly waved his hand, leading all the palace servants out of the hall and gently closing the door.

Only the two of them remained in the bedchamber.

The candlelight flickered, casting swaying shadows on the wall.

Nangong Ye looked up at Shen Qingci.

Looking at the woman he once discarded like trash, but now held in high esteem and became his final salvation.

He stared at it for a long time.

Then, I laughed.

That smile, pale and broken, held a strange sense of relief.

"Qingci..."

He spoke, his voice hoarse as if sandpaper were being scraped:

"Today, I... went to see the family genealogy."

"From the founding emperor to me... there have been thirteen generations in total."

"I looked at them one by one, examining their lives, their merits and demerits, and how they...became emperors."

He paused, a layer of hazy tears welling up in his eyes:

"Emperor Taizu conquered the world on horseback, and was decisive in killing, yet he treated the people kindly."

"Emperor Taizong pacified all directions and expanded the territory, but in his later years he became superstitious about elixirs and almost destroyed the country."

"Emperor Renzong was weak, his power was usurped by influential ministers, and he lived a life of frustration..."

"To my father, the Emperor..."

His Adam's apple bobbed, and his voice choked with emotion.

"In his later years, he became senile, favoring his concubine and nearly deposing me, the crown prince..."

"But in his youth, he was also a diligent and hardworking ruler, and was praised by the people..."

Why?

He gripped Shen Qingci's skirt tightly, his fingertips turning white with force:

"Why is it that the men of the Nangong family... after sitting in that chair, all of them... become less than human?"

Shen Qingci remained silent.

She looked at the emperor kneeling at her feet, at this man who was once arrogant but was now as fragile as a child.

The frozen fortress in my heart has cracked a few more times.

"Because that chair was too high."

She said softly

"So high that... you can't see the people below, only the clouds and the wind."

"It was also because of that chair, it was too cold."

She paused.

"It's so cold... if you sit for too long, your heart will freeze."

Nangong Ye stared at her blankly.

for a long time.

He loosened her skirt and slowly raised his hands.

Those hands had reviewed countless memorials.

I once wielded a sword and slew my enemies.

He once... personally wrote the edict to depose the empress.

At that moment, she trembled and cupped her face in her hands.

"But I...I'm different..."

His voice trembled, and tears welled up in his eyes.

Finally, large tears rolled down from her bloodshot eyes:

"I didn't become this way by sitting on it..."

"I was poisoned when I was twelve years old... when I was still a child..."

"They gave me a 'heart-corroding powder'..."

Make me irritable, make me suspicious, make me... little by little turn into a monster...

He clutched his chest suddenly, as if a knife were twisting inside.

"Over the years... those uncontrollable rages I've had..."

Those midnight awakenings of fear... that suspicion of not trusting anyone...

"I thought... I was born a tyrant..."

"I believe... that the 'mad blood' of the Nangong family flows in my veins..."

"I even... I even hated my mother..."

He looked up, tears streaming down his face.

"I hate her for giving birth to me in this cannibalistic palace..."

"I hate her for putting me on the throne as crown prince..."

"I hate her... she made me live a life that's neither human nor ghost..."

"But now... now I know..."

He gave a bitter laugh, tears and snot mingling, looking utterly pathetic.

"The Empress Dowager is saving me..."

"She risked her life to put me on the throne."

It wasn't to make me emperor...

It was so that I... could survive!

"Because only by becoming emperor can I have imperial physicians examining my pulse day and night, and only then can I possibly discover the poison in my body..."

"Only by becoming emperor can I mobilize resources to investigate the truth of what happened back then..."

"Only by becoming emperor..."

He wept uncontrollably:

"It is only because of this that I have lived to this day... that I have lived to... know that all of this was a conspiracy... today..."

Shen Qingci slowly squatted down.

Squat down in front of him and look him in the eye.

The candlelight danced in her eyes, reflecting a deep, complex tenderness.

"Your Majesty," she asked softly, "now that you know the truth, what then?"

Nangong Ye was stunned.

"Are you planning to... kneel here forever, weeping and lamenting your misfortunes?"

Shen Qingci looked at him and said, word by word:

"Or are you planning to use this truth to excuse all your past atrocities?"

Nangong Ye was startled.

"No... I didn't..."

He shook his head frantically.

"I'm not trying to excuse myself... I just..."

"Just what?"

Shen Qingci interrupted him.

"It was just a sudden realization that I wasn't born a bad person."

Or was it that he was harmed by someone, and that's why he felt relieved?

So I think...

His harsh treatment of his subjects over the years,

His ruthlessness towards the harem, his cruelty towards me... can all be forgiven?

"Because you are the victim, right?"

Nangong Ye's face turned deathly pale.

He wanted to say "no".

But deep down, there was indeed... a shameful sense of relief.

It turns out I wasn't born a tyrant.

I was once a normal child.

So it turns out... I'm just a pitiful creature being toyed with by fate.

"His Majesty."

Shen Qingci reached out and gently stroked his face.

The movement was very light, yet it made Nangong Ye's whole body stiffen.

"You are indeed pitiful."

She looked at him, her eyes devoid of mockery, only offering a calm statement.

"She was poisoned when she was twelve years old"

Schemed against by his own uncle

Suspected by his father,

Forced to grow into someone you hate...

"But Your Majesty—"

She paused, her voice turning cold:

There are too many pitiful people in this world.

"Aren't those concubines who were unjustly ordered to commit suicide in the Cold Palace pitiful?"

"Aren't those ministers in the court who were dismissed and exiled because of your momentary rage pitiful?"

"Aren't those soldiers on the border who died needlessly because of your flawed decisions pitiful?"

"And me—"

She pointed to herself:

"I was deposed by you, poisoned, and left to fend for myself in the cold palace. I almost lost even my child—"

"Isn't it pitiful?!"

Nangong Ye was struck as if by lightning, his whole body trembling violently!

"I...I..."

He wanted to say something, but he couldn't utter a single word.

Only tears flowed incessantly.

"So Your Majesty, stop comforting yourself with 'pity'."

Shen Qingci withdrew her hand, stood up, and looked down at him:

"You deserve to die."

"That Crown Prince Nangong Ye, who was poisoned but didn't realize it and vented all his pain on innocent people—he deserves to die."

"That tyrant Nangong Ye, who became paranoid after ascending the throne, indiscriminately killed loyal officials, and almost destroyed the country—he also deserves to die."

With each word she spoke, Nangong Ye's face paled a little more.

But strangely—

The heavy burden on my heart seemed to have lightened a little.

"but."

Shen Qingci changed the subject:

"Nangong Ye, the one who rushed in from the fire to save me and Bao'er—"

"That Nangong Ye who trusted me during the war in the North and entrusted me with the Tiger Tally—"

"That Nangong Ye who, in the Fengxian Hall, held the imperial seal and said, 'This empress was chosen for me by my mother'—"

She looked at him, and finally a faint, yet genuine, smile appeared in her eyes:

"You can still live."

Nangong Ye looked up at her, stunned.

Looking at her calm yet resolute face in the candlelight.

for a long time.

He slowly stood up.

He staggered for a moment, but then regained his footing.

He looked down at his hands, at those hands that were once stained with blood but were now empty.

Then he smiled.

That smile, still pale, was no longer broken.

Instead, it gives one a sense of...relief after washing away the superficiality.

"Qingci."

He spoke, his voice still hoarse, but much calmer:

"I, this 'tyrant'..."

He paused, then slowly exhaled:

"Shouldn't he... have died long ago?"

Shen Qingci looked at him but did not answer.

She simply nodded slightly.

Nangong Ye smiled too.

He turned around, walked to the window, and opened it.

The night wind rushed in, dispersing the smell of alcohol and tear stains that filled the room.

In the distance, palace lanterns twinkle, and the Milky Way hangs low.

"Then..."

He spoke softly, as if talking to himself:

"Let him die."

"From today onwards—"

He turned back to look at Shen Qingci, his eyes filled with the shadow of a lifetime that had shrouded him.

Finally, it gradually dissipated, revealing the clear, unwavering light beneath:

"I am merely Nangong Ye."

"Your husband."

"Bao'er's father."

"and--"

"The gatekeeper of this land..."