eurekapd Chapter 423 Zhao Ji is dead
Chapter 423 Zhao Ji is dead
The eunuchs sensed some anger in Long Mohan's tone. No one dared to speak and they retreated timidly.
Prince Ming, who was finally free, rushed to Long Mohan and repeated his previous question: "Father... why didn't you save mother? Why didn't you save her?"
Long Mohan pulled Prince Ming's hand away and picked him up. "It's not that I don't want to save him, it's that I can't."
Prince Ming was stunned for a moment, then he shouted, "Liar! The Imperial Master clearly said that he could save my mother! As long as... as long as..."
"He is trying to harm you." Long Mohan interrupted Prince Ming with a serious face, "No matter what happens, you must not go to the Demon Temple to see the fox demon."
There is a lot of evil spirit there, even adults cannot withstand the invasion of evil spirit, let alone Prince Ming.
"As long as I can save my mother, I... I'm not afraid." Prince Ming's eyes were firm, with a heroic demeanor.
"Ming'er, listen carefully." Long Mohan placed Prince Ming on the edge of the bed and squatted at his feet so that their eyes were on the same level. "Your mother is dead. She died long before she entered the palace... Do you understand?"
"No... Impossible..." Prince Ming's voice was soft. Long Mohan's serious expression prevented him from refutating loudly.
"Ming'er, if you don't recognize the current situation, you will continue to be deceived and used." Long Mohan's thumb slid across the corner of Prince Ming's eyes and wiped away the tears in his eyes.
Then, Long Mohan slowly told Prince Ming about the relationship between Ji Anni and Zhao Ji. Prince Ming listened quietly, his eyes, which were covered with a thin layer of tears, opened wide in surprise and then closed slightly in disappointment.
After Long Mohan finished speaking, Prince Ming still sat blankly on the edge of the bed, like a porcelain doll without the ability to think.
"Tomorrow..." Long Mohan covered his hand with heartache.
Prince Ming's lips trembled slightly, and after a long while he finally said in a sobbing voice: "Mother is dead... Mother is dead?"
His grief-stricken look made Long Mohan a little soft-hearted. But at this time, any softness would make it impossible for Prince Ming to completely sever his relationship with Ji Anni, so Long Mohan had to tell him again in a very clear manner that no doubt was allowed: "She is dead. The mother you see now is just a body possessed by someone else."
"But... Mother is so good to me..." Prince Ming's little face wrinkled.
Recalling every detail of his life with Ji Anni, Prince Ming could not define Ji Anni as a bad person.
"But she is not your mother." Long Mohan said affirmatively, "No matter whether she is good or bad to you, she is not your mother anymore."
"What should we do? Father...won't you save her? Even if she is not my mother, she is someone who takes care of me and cares about me, should we just watch her die?" Prince Ming suddenly grabbed Long Mohan's sleeve, raised his little face and asked.
This question actually made Long Mohan speechless. He took a deep breath, rubbed his aching temple, and said, "Ming'er... you don't need to take risks for an irrelevant person. Do you know how important you are?... You are a prince, the only child of your father... In the future, you may become the crown prince, the emperor, and rule the world and own the country."
There was a hint of reprimand in Long Mohan's stern tone, and Prince Ming lowered his head sadly.
"I don't want the kingdom... I want my mother, I want my mother..." Prince Ming started to act coquettishly.
Just as Long Mohan was about to criticize, there was a sudden sound of hurried footsteps outside the door, as if someone was running towards him in a hurry.
Along with the footsteps, there was a shout that resounded through the sky: "Your Majesty! Your Majesty!"
The voice was hurried and panicked, causing Long Mohan to frown.
With a loud "bang", the door was knocked open by Eunuch Hua.
Prince Ming shrugged in fear. Long Mohan turned around and shouted at the panting Eunuch Hua: "Didn't I tell you to wait outside?"
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty..." Eunuch Hua didn't even bother to wipe the sweat off his face. He knelt on the ground with a thump. "The Empress Dowager... The Empress Dowager has passed away!"
The Queen Mother died from a poisonous snake, and there is no doubt that Yuan Rong was the murderer.
Of the guards who escorted the Queen Mother out of the palace, only Kang Xiaorong survived.
Why did he bring the poisoned queen mother back to Kang Mansion and let her die there? Even the general could not get a reason out of him. He did not want to tell Kang Qingyuan about the real and fake princesses because he did not want Kang Qingyuan to know what happened to Tianning outside the palace - because he had decided to marry Tianning and would not allow any rumors that might cause Kang Xiaorong to oppose the marriage.
The Kang family temporarily placed the Queen Mother's body in the ancestral hall dedicated to the Kang family's ancestors.
The news of the Queen Mother's death had just been spread, and mourners had not yet arrived, so the ancestral hall was still very quiet.
"What did the Queen Mother say before she died?" Kang Qingyuan asked Kang Xiaorong. Seeing that Kang Xiaorong didn't say a word, he raised his voice a little more seriously, "Why did you bring her back? Did you know how much gossip this would cause?"
Kang Xiaorong still did not answer, his lifeless eyes cast on the grass in front of the ancestral hall.
Seeing that Kang Xiaorong ignored him, Kang Qingyuan finally couldn't bear it anymore.
"Don't think you can do whatever you want now that you have grown your wings!"
Following this thunderous shout, there was a loud "pa" sound, and Kang Qingyuan's slap landed hard on Kang Xiaorong's face.
Kang Xiaorong was sitting upright on a chair, but Kang Qingyuan's slap knocked him off the chair and onto the ground. The palm print on his face was as red as blood, and his eyes were full of stars. He couldn't even stand up, let alone crawl.
Kang Qingyuan, who was angry, didn't feel any pain at all. He rushed over and kicked him hard in the stomach.
"Master, Master, stop fighting!" The servants who just reacted rushed forward to stop the fight. Some people stopped the furious Kang Qingyuan, and some people helped Kang Xiaorong who was curled up on the ground.
Kang Xiaorong was kicked in the abdomen and almost fainted from the pain. With the help of everyone, he finally stood up shakily, but everything in front of him was dark and he couldn't even see where Kang Qingyuan was.
"You little bastard!" Kang Qingyuan flicked his sleeves, turned his back to Kang Xiaorong, and deliberately avoided looking at Kang Xiaorong's miserable condition.
The servants wanted to help Kang Xiaorong away as quickly as possible, but Kang Xiaorong refused to leave. He stood there motionless until his vision and consciousness fully recovered. Then he stared at Kang Qingyuan's back and said, "Go ahead and beat me to death. I will never be your son again if I am reborn!"
Kang Qingyuan had just calmed down, but after hearing Kang Xiaorong's words, he immediately became so angry that he trembled all over. He turned around abruptly and raised his right hand high.
Seeing that another slap was about to fall, Kang Xiaorong not only did not dodge, but even opened his eyes and stared straight at Kang Qingyuan, as if he wanted to see what expression would be on his face when the slap came down.
At the critical moment, a loud shout of "The princess has arrived" was heard.
Everyone was stunned for a moment and turned to look at the door. They saw Princess Tianning, dressed in mourning clothes, already arrived at the door, followed by Yuemao and five guards, all with sad expressions.
"What did the prince consort do wrong to deserve such punishment from the general?" Tian Ning glanced at Kang Qingyuan proudly.
Kang Qingyuan was not a person who had not seen big scenes, but he was shocked by Tian Ning's eyes.
"This mourning hall is where my mother rests. This princess doesn't want to hear anyone making noise in there." Tian Ning brushed past Kang Xiaorong and Kang Qingyuan, and finally walked to the coffin where the empress dowager rested, gazing calmly at the body covered with white silk.
Kang Xiaorong stared at Tianning's every move, thinking that this princess must be Yanniang, otherwise Tianning would not be so imposing.
Princess Tianning, who lost the protection of the Queen Mother, was just a fledgling whose beak had not even grown hard, and was not to be feared at all. But it was really beneath the dignity of a great general to get angry with a little girl. In the end, Kang Qingyuan had no choice but to angrily throw his sleeves and leave without looking back.
Tian Ning didn't even look at him, her eyes were fixed on the body of the Queen Mother. Although she didn't say a word or shed a tear, her standing still alone showed the sadness in her heart.
Do Yan Niang and the Queen Mother also have such a deep relationship?
Kang Xiaorong frowned slightly, always feeling that there was a vague shadow of the real Tianning in this Princess Tianning.
But reason told him that this princess from the palace was definitely Yan Niang and could not be Tian Ning.
Kang Xiaorong, who had nothing to talk about with Yanniang, turned around and was about to leave. Just as he reached the door, he heard Tianning's voice behind him: "Brother Xiaorong, can you accompany me?"
Kang Xiaorong suddenly stopped and subconsciously called out "Tianning..."
The tone and emotion that Tian Ning used when he called him just now were definitely not Yan Niang!
Kang Xiaorong turned around suddenly and stared at Tianning vigilantly, not daring to approach easily.
Tian Ning's eyes seemed to be attracted by the remains of the empress dowager, not moving an inch. When the general left just now, and now when Kang Xiaorong turned around, she did not raise her head, but only uttered a normal but heart-wrenching voice in a gentle tone.
Kang Xiaorong made a gesture and sent the others away, leaving only himself and Tianning.
"Fox demon, what do you want to do?" Kang Xiaorong came behind Tianning and asked in a tense tone.
Tian Ning replied: "I am not a fox demon, I am the real Tian Ning..."
After saying this, he smiled sadly, with unspeakable sorrow, which made people feel pity for him.
"Tianning?" Kang Xiaorong looked at her carefully, not daring to believe it easily.
Tian Ning did not explain much. He quietly took out a golden talisman, pried open the Queen Mother's hand, and stuffed the golden talisman into the Queen Mother's hand.
Kang Xiaorong recognized at a glance that it was the golden talisman to ward off evil spirits that the Queen Mother had given him last night and that he had then given to Tianning.
"Are you really Tian Ning?" Kang Xiaorong finally believed it a little, "How did you get back with the fox demon?"
Tian Ning said, "I was resting in my room when suddenly a red fox came running into the room and told me everything."
It turned out that after Yanniang received the news of the death in the palace, she immediately took Yuemao and the guards out of the palace and rushed to Kang Mansion. Yanniang said that she wanted to see Kang Xiaorong alone and did not allow Yuemao and the guards to follow her. After getting rid of her followers, she immediately turned back into a fox, found the real Tianning, explained to Tianning what happened, and switched back with Tianning without anyone noticing.