That Imperial Concubine is both wicked and cunning! Your Majesty, wake up!

Consort De opened her mouth, but her throat tightened, and she couldn't utter a single word for a long time.

The candlelight flickered twice in the hall, making the pearl hairpin at her temple tremble slightly, and her panic was evident in her eyes.

Xiao Yan's gaze was icy, devoid of any warmth as it fell upon her face.

She clenched the handkerchief in her sleeve, her fingertips digging into her palm until it ached, and stubbornly argued, "Your Majesty, what do you mean by that? I do not understand Your Majesty's meaning."

Xiao Yan raised his eyes, his gaze filled with a deep, imposing imperial majesty that seemed to suffocate the air in the hall.

"Whether you admit it or not, it doesn't matter."

His voice was calm. "Over the years, you've planted your confidants throughout the palace, from the Imperial Kitchen to the Department of Punishments, infiltrating every vital area. Now they've all been captured. The instruments of torture used by the Department of Punishments never wrong anyone. Your dowry maid, Xueqing, couldn't withstand the torture and has already confessed. Whether you admit it or not, it doesn't matter anymore, Consort De."

Consort De closed her eyes, her long eyelashes trembled, and a faint bitter smile appeared on her lips.

Xueqing was someone she had grown up with since childhood and knew her best. Now that even Xueqing had confessed, she had no room for further rebuttal.

The outcome is already decided.

"I suppose this was Consort Yuan's idea."

She gazed at the emperor before her and slowly said, "Consort Shu and Consort Yuan acted so convincingly, even Your Majesty cooperated in the charade, proceeding step by step with meticulous planning. It turns out everyone was playing along with me in this charade. From the very beginning, Your Majesty knew it was me who orchestrated this, didn't you?"

She hoped to find a hint of denial on his face, even if it was just a fleeting hesitation.

But Xiao Yan merely scoffed, the contemptuous smile that flashed across his lips being the most straightforward answer.

Consort De was completely exhausted, her legs went weak, and she collapsed to her knees.

"Your Majesty, please tell me, where is my mother?"

With a sob in her voice, she pleaded, "She's just a woman who knows nothing and has never been involved in anything. I beg Your Majesty to have mercy and spare her life."

"Your father, as the Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, abused his power for personal gain and committed numerous misdeeds."

Xiao Yan's voice was completely calm, "At daybreak tomorrow, the Lu family will be removed from the capital."

He abused his power for personal gain and committed numerous misdeeds, and was expelled from the capital.

A buzzing sound filled my ears, and a deafening roar filled my mind.

These twelve words were like heavy hammer blows, striking her heart again and again.

A buzzing sound filled my ears, and a sudden roar went through my mind.

It turns out that the Emperor had already calculated everything, from her crimes to the fate of the Lu family, leaving the Lu family no mercy or way out.

Even if the father did act out of personal favoritism, and even if the Lu family was at fault, why did they have to suffer the fate of being completely destroyed?

She suddenly understood.

The Emperor wanted to use the Lu family to establish his authority and make an example of them, and the root of all this lay with her.

It was her obsession and her greed that dragged the entire Lu family into the abyss.

She shouldn't have schemed against Consort Yuan.

Consort De bit her lip hard, forcing back the tears welling up in her eyes.

I feel like I've never really understood this emperor.

He is heartless and cold-blooded.

He had his moments of tenderness, but that tenderness never belonged to her, nor to the Lu family.

"Your Majesty, you truly show no mercy whatsoever... and offer no way out whatsoever..." Her voice was hoarse.

"When did you begin to doubt me?"

With his back to her, Xiao Yan said, "From the time you conspired with the Lu family to frame Consort Xian as the Zhaoyang Demon, you were too eager for quick success and your actions weren't clean enough."

"You've been suspicious of me since then?" Consort De said with a bitter smile.

From the Zhaoyang incident onwards, she gradually walked into the trap set by the emperor.

She was the one who gave the Emperor the opportunity to deal with the Lu family, and she was the one who pushed the Lu family into the abyss.

She is the one who sins against the Lu family.

Xiao Yan slowly turned around, his gaze falling on her gentle yet pale face.

"Why poison the Empress? And why did you orchestrate the difficult childbirth of Consort Shu?"

With no way out, Consort De simply stopped hiding it.

She raised her hand to wipe away the tears from the corners of her eyes, her face no longer showing any sorrow, only a desperate hatred.

The hatred clung to her eyes like vines.

"Back then, the Empress secretly sabotaged my pregnancy with Hongyu, causing him to be weak and frail from a young age, constantly needing medicine and suffering greatly."

Her voice was filled with resentment and bitterness, "She can poison people, so why can't I give her a taste of her own medicine? The Empress's poison was hidden in her daily cosmetics and perfumes, day after day, silently seeping in. Now that the poison has seeped into her bones, she deserves it."

"For so many years, she pretended to be gentle and virtuous, like a virtuous empress, but in secret she was extremely vicious. She caused my son to suffer and he ended up like this, it's all her own fault."

Her tone became even more contemptuous, and a cruel smile curled at the corner of her lips: "As for Consort Shu, she's nothing but a stupid and incompetent piece of trash. I thought that by scheming to make her have a difficult childbirth, I could kill her and her unborn child, and then frame the Empress, killing two birds with one stone. I never expected her to be so lucky, actually crawling back from the brink of death."

"She was lucky last time, but she won't be so fortunate this time."

A ruthless glint flashed in her eyes. "There is no antidote for the poison that the Third Princess has been given. It will haunt her for the rest of her life, making her wish she were dead."

Finally, she looked up at Xiao Yan, a hint of almost maniacal smugness on her face: "And then there's Consort Yuan, her strange ailment of increased appetite is strikingly similar to Consort Shu's. There's no antidote for this medicine, and it's difficult to control once it takes effect. Even if it's discovered in time, she'll still suffer for a while, hahahaha..."

Her laughter was sharp and piercing, echoing in the empty hall, sounding particularly mournful.

Xiao Yan glanced at her frantic appearance, his thin lips slightly pursed, and uttered two words: "Wrong."

Consort De's laughter stopped abruptly.

The smug look on his face froze.

"An'er was not poisoned."

"Consort Shu is meticulous and noticed the wet nurse's strange behavior early on, so she took precautions in advance. Even the wet nurse was just putting on an act with you. Consort Xian does have a strange condition of increased appetite, but she has already controlled it and is fine. As for the Empress, she secretly plotted against Hongyu back then, and I will make sure she receives the punishment she deserves. Even if you plotted against her, it would be meaningless."

He paused, then asked, "When you did all these things, did you ever think of Hongyu?"

"Hongyu, Hongyu..." Consort De murmured her son's name, her eyes gradually becoming unfocused.

"If Hongyu knew how vicious his mother was, how would he answer questions about her when he grew up and people asked him who she was or why his maternal grandfather's family had ended up like that? How ashamed would he feel?"

These words were like a sharp dagger, piercing through Consort De's last line of defense.

She broke down instantly, crying her heart out, her sobs filled with regret and despair.

Everything she did was for Hongyu!

The Empress deserved to die!

Consort Yuan is currently enjoying great favor. If the child in her womb is a prince, then Hongyu's path to the throne will face another obstacle.

Hongyu is intelligent and quick-witted, making him the most suitable candidate for the position of heir apparent.

She just wanted to clear the obstacles for her son.

But she was blinded by her obsession and blinded by jealousy, forgetting the most fatal point—

Now that the scandal has come to light, how should it be handled?

What will her actions ultimately bring to Hongyu?

Yes.

When her Hongyu grows up, people will gossip behind his back, saying that he has a wicked mother and a treacherous maternal grandfather.

How could Hongyu possibly bring it up then? How embarrassed and ashamed he must have felt?

Consort De crawled forward on her knees, clutching Xiao Yan's robe tightly, her forehead pressed against the cold ground:

"Your Majesty, I know I was wrong! I beg you to have mercy and not implicate Hongyu. He did nothing wrong; it's all my fault. I will bear all the blame and let Your Majesty decide my fate. I only ask that you protect Hongyu..."

Xiao Yan coldly pulled back his robe, took a half step back, and avoided her touch:

"Hongyu is my son, and I have my own considerations. Naturally, I will also erase this stain on your reputation so that you will not affect Hongyu's future."

*

On the fifteenth day of the sixth month of the third year of the Xihe era, Consort De accidentally fell into the Hibiscus Pond in the palace and died from her injuries.

When the news spread, there was discussion throughout the palace, but no one dared to say anything.

In the same month, the case of the Lu family, the Marquis of Yongning, came to light.

An investigation revealed that Lu Yuan, the Marquis of Yongning, abused his power for personal gain and accepted bribes during his tenure as Vice Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate, and his misconduct was notorious.

Even worse, some fabricated unusual celestial phenomena related to the Zhaoyang Sha constellation, spread rumors, and attempted to disrupt the court and mislead the people; their crimes deserve execution.

The Emperor was furious and issued an edict stripping the Lu family of their title of Marquis of Yongning, stripping them of their original post, demoting them to the position of registrar in a remote county, revoking their Beijing residency and relocating their entire family to another post, and prohibiting them from ever being transferred back to the capital or promoted again, as a warning to others.

The eldest prince, Hongyu, was born to Consort De. Out of consideration for their father-son relationship, the emperor did not demote Consort De's rank. However, Consort De's funeral was kept simple, and she was not given a posthumous title or posthumous ancestral rites.