Killer Queen: Tyrant, prepare to die!

Chapter 33 A Stare Across the Sea of ​​Fire! He saw with his own eyes that my child looked exactly like him.

"Your Majesty! The head is out! Push harder, Your Majesty—!"

Jinshu's cries were torn apart by the flames.

Shen Qingci bit down hard on a wooden stick—a piece that had broken off from the bed leg, already marked with deep teeth marks. Sweat, blood, and tears mingled together, covering her face.

Modern childbirth breathing techniques were running wildly in her mind: inhale—hold your breath—push down—exhale…

But reality is a hundred times crueler than training.

The thick smoke stung her lungs, the heat made her skin burn, and the blood flowing from her lower body was increasing. Worst of all, Bao'er seemed to be choking!

"Your Majesty... my shoulder..." Jinshu's voice was filled with desperate sobs, "It's stuck..."

Difficult birth!

Shen Qingci's vision blurred. She knew that in ancient times, when medical conditions were scarce, a difficult childbirth was almost a death sentence.

But that won't work.

Never die here!

She took a deep breath—even though it was all hot smoke—then bit down on the stick and pushed down with all the strength she had!

"Ugh—!"

A beastly roar burst from his throat.

In that instant, she felt as if her body was being completely torn apart.

Then--

"Wow--!!!"

A loud and startling cry exploded amidst the crackling of the flames!

gave birth!

Jinshu hurriedly caught the small, sticky, blood-covered bundle of flesh, tears streaming down her face: "Your Majesty! It's a baby! A little prince! Look! Look!"

She quickly wiped the baby's face with her still relatively clean clothes and presented it to Shen Qingci.

Shen Qingci weakly opened her eyes.

In the firelight, the wrinkled little face was flushed red, the eyes were still closed, but the mouth was wide open, and the crying was deafening. The little hands and feet waved wildly in the air, full of vibrant life.

That was her precious baby.

She gave birth to her child in the fire.

"Bao'er..." Her hands trembled as she tried to touch the child, but she found that she didn't even have the strength to lift her hand.

The blood was still flowing beneath him.

She knew this was a sign of impending postpartum hemorrhage.

"Jinshu... umbilical cord..." she said weakly.

Jinshu then realized what was happening and hurriedly went to find scissors—but there were no scissors, so she could only grit her teeth and bite off the umbilical cord, and then tie it up with the burnt cloth strips as Shen Qingci had taught her before.

Throughout the entire process, Eunuch Li kept his back to them, his palms firmly supporting the precarious internal energy shield.

Outside the protective shield, flames had already engulfed most of the room. The roof beams were crackling and could collapse at any moment. Waves of heat, like solid walls, crashed against the edges of the shield.

Eunuch Li's hunched body stood ramrod straight, but his entire body was trembling violently. The sweat had long since dried, and now what seeped from his pores was a faint mist of blood.

His inner strength was burning wildly, like a candle flame that had run out of oil, just to fight for a chance of survival for the mother and daughter behind him.

"Master..." Shen Qingci looked at the old man's trembling back, her voice choked with emotion.

"Your Majesty...please don't speak..." Eunuch Li's voice was hoarse like a broken bellows, "Conserve your strength...this old servant...can still hold on..."

But everyone could see that he wouldn't last much longer.

---

Meanwhile, in the Hall of Mental Cultivation.

Nangong Ye had just finished approving the last memorial and rubbed his throbbing temples.

Outside the window, the rain poured down and thunder rumbled. For some reason, starting half an hour ago, he felt a tightness in his chest, as if a stone was pressing down on it, making him restless and unable to sit still.

"Xuan Ying," he called out.

A dark figure appeared silently in the hall: "Your Majesty."

"What's going on at the Cold Palace?" Nangong Ye himself didn't know why he asked this.

He hadn't been to the Cold Palace in a long time, and he had already assumed that woman was dead.

But tonight, that inexplicable palpitation just won't go away.

Xuan Ying paused for a moment before saying:

"An hour ago, Eunuch Liu from Huayang Palace led a group of people to the vicinity of the Cold Palace."

The rain was too heavy, so the guards didn't dare get too close, but they saw that they seemed to be...pouring something.

"Splash something?" Nangong Ye frowned. "Splash what?"

"It's like... oil."

Boom—!

Another thunderclap boomed outside the hall.

Nangong Ye suddenly stood up, his expression changing drastically: "Energy oil?!"

Before the words were finished, a bodyguard, soaking wet, rushed into the hall and knelt down with a thud:

"Your Majesty! The Cold Palace...the Cold Palace is on fire!"

Fire broke out simultaneously on three sides, and the flames were extremely large!

Nangong Ye felt a buzzing sound in his head.

fire?

A fire broke out in the Cold Palace?

On this stormy night?

"Prepare the carriage!" He grabbed his cloak and rushed out. "To the Cold Palace! Now!"

"Your Majesty! The rain is too heavy! Your health is of utmost importance!" The chief eunuch hurriedly stopped him.

"Get out of my way!" Nangong Ye kicked him away, his eyes bloodshot. "I said go to the Cold Palace! Don't you understand?!"

At that moment, he himself did not know why he was so furious.

But the dull pain in my chest suddenly turned into a sharp panic.

It's like something very important... is about to be lost forever.

---

The rain was torrential.

The imperial carriage sped through the rain, but Nangong Ye found it too slow. He jumped down, snatched a horse from a guard, and whipped it towards the Cold Palace.

The closer you get, the more blinding the firelight becomes.

That was no ordinary fire—the entire palace was ablaze, and towering pillars of fire twisted and roared in the rain like fiery dragons.

Rainwater poured onto the fire, causing billowing white steam to rise, but it did nothing to quell the flames.

"Your Majesty! It's too dangerous ahead!" Lu Zheng, the commander of the Imperial Guards, spurred his horse to catch up and tried to stop him.

Nangong Ye ignored it, lashed the horse's rump with his whip, and charged into the fire zone.

A wave of heat hit us, mixed with the pungent smell of oil and sulfur.

His pupils suddenly contracted.

This was not an accidental fire.

This is arson! This is murder!

"Fire! Put out the fire for me!" he roared hoarsely. "Where are the people inside?! Where are the people in the Cold Palace?!"

Several eunuchs scrambled to their knees and pleaded, "Your Majesty... the fire is too big, we can't get in..."

"Useless!" Nangong Ye kicked one of them over, grabbed a bucket of water and poured it on himself, about to flush it inside.

"Your Majesty, you mustn't!" Lu Zheng held him tightly. "The fire is wrong! There's too much oil! Going in is suicide!"

"Let go!" Nangong Ye's eyes were bloodshot. "I command you to let go!"

Just as the two were pulling at each other—

boom!

Half of the roof of the main hall of the Cold Palace has collapsed.

Sparks and splinters of wood flew everywhere.

In the collapsed ruins, through the raging flames, Nangong Ye witnessed a scene he would never forget.

Amidst the sea of ​​fire, there was a strange "safe zone".

A hunched old eunuch stood with his back to the outside, his palms pushing forward. He was covered in blood, yet he managed to use his internal strength to create a fireless area about ten feet in diameter.

And behind him—

A woman sat leaning against a crumbling wall, covered in blood and dressed in rags, clutching a... baby tightly in her arms?

The woman raised her head.

The firelight illuminated her face.

At that moment, time seemed to stand still.

Nangong Ye's breathing suddenly stopped.

Shen... Qingci?

The woman he had banished to the cold palace and hadn't seen for a long time?

Is she still alive?

And...she had a child?

Eyes facing each other.

Separated by a sea of ​​fire.

Shen Qingci's eyes were as cold as a frozen pool, yet burning with boundless hatred.

The hatred was so intense and sharp that it caused Nangong Ye to feel a pang of pain in his heart.

The baby in her arms seemed to sense something, suddenly stopped crying, and opened its wet eyes.

As the firelight flickered, Nangong Ye got a clear look at that small face.

Wrinkled and red, it looked like a newborn baby.

But those eyebrows and eyes...

That nose bridge...

Those pursed little lips...

Like.

so similar.

Like the portrait of himself when he was a month old that he saw in his mother's treasured picture book when he was a child.

Every outline and every detail looks like it was carved from the same mold.

"Bastard"?

Fuck that bastard!

This is clearly his flesh and blood! It's his son, Nangong Ye's son!

boom--!

It wasn't thunder; it was the sound of something exploding in Nangong Ye's mind.

The long-standing indifference, suspicion, and deliberate forgetting were shattered at this moment by the child's face.

The witchcraft case...

evidence……

Consort Rou's tearful lament...

Advice from courtiers...

Everything, in the face of those eyes that resembled his so much, became a ridiculous and laughable joke.

He wronged her.

He crippled her.

He threw her into the cold palace to die.

She conceived his child in the cold palace, gave birth to his son in a sea of ​​fire, and now looks at him with the eyes of an enemy.

"Qingci..." Nangong Ye opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

He wanted to rush in.

I want to hug her.

I want to see the child.

But it felt like my feet were rooted to the ground, and I couldn't move.

In the sea of ​​fire, Shen Qingci looked at him and suddenly tugged at the corner of her mouth.

That was a smile.

Cold, sarcastic, and tinged with the smell of blood.

With her last bit of strength, she pulled the child closer to her chest, then slowly raised one hand and mouthed something in Nangong Ye's direction.

No sound.

But Nangong Ye understood.

She said—

"Nangong Ye".

"Look carefully."

"This is your son."

"This is your retribution."

Boom—!

Thunder roared and torrential rain poured down.

The fire reached its peak at this moment.

The internal energy shield that Eunuch Li was maintaining finally began to crack.

The old man, covered in blood, still stood upright, and cried out hoarsely, "Your Majesty—! Hold the young master tight—!"

Shen Qingci took one last look at the stiff figure outside the fire, then lowered her head and pressed her face against Bao'er's little face.

Baby, don't be afraid.

Mother is here.

If I'm really going to die here today—

Mother will hold you and walk with you.

The firelight engulfed her figure.

Nangong Ye finally broke down and roared:

"Save them! Save them for me!!"

[End of Chapter]

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Next chapter preview: Redemption in the fire! Nangong Ye rushes into the flames like a madman, cradling his dying wife and child in his arms—their hands are ice-cold! Eunuch Li is dying, Jinshu weeps blood, and the newborn Bao'er triggers the strange phenomenon of a hundred birds paying homage to the phoenix! Consort Rou's conspiracy is completely exposed, and the tyrant's heart begins to shatter from this moment on…