Chapter Eighty-Six: A Change of Heaven and Earth in Li Yue

Lu Yanran’s expression froze. For one fleeting moment, she truly felt that she ought to have killed this woman. Yet when she lifted her eyes to look at her, she saw no contempt, no hostility at all.

The woman merely smiled. “You want to kill me? What a pity. So many chances stood right before you, and you still couldn’t bring yourself to strike.”

Lu Yanran stiffened.

The woman went on slowly, “When you came to the War Prince’s residence to seize the position of War Princess, I wanted to kill you too. From now on, let us love and slaughter one another, my... dear sister.”

Lu Yanran’s whole body jolted. From now on? She was letting her go?

“Members of the Lu family will protect you. There’s no need to leave.” She left behind that airy sentence and turned to walk out of the courtyard.

In that instant, Lu Yanran seemed to understand those words. It was as though this woman was also one of the Lu family.

She stepped out of Lu Yanran’s courtyard, then at once felt a surge of irritation. Since when had she become so merciful? That dart ought to have left a hole through Lu Yanran’s body.

The rain in Guanlin City had come and gone for several days. Feng Jinye had remained dejected in his tent, not once stepping outside.

When the rain finally stopped, Lu Liyuan had no choice but to come and discuss countermeasures with him.

He had not expected that as soon as he entered the tent, Feng Jinye would ask, “What are your intentions?”

Lu Liyuan found Feng Jinye far more strange than before. Why would he ask him that?

A few days earlier, Lu Liyuan had been beaten for no reason by Feng Jinye and was still nursing his anger. After a pause, he answered with grave formality, “We will see how the War Prince handles it. This general merely obeys orders...”

Feng Jinye raised his eyes and gave Lu Liyuan a cool glance, then said lightly, “She was injured... If it was your Lu family’s doing, then one day we shall settle the score in full.”

At the news that the woman had been hurt, Lu Liyuan’s face darkened. He reprimanded him, “How can you call yourself her husband and still let her be injured!”

Inwardly, Lu Liyuan seethed. If it was indeed the Lu family, then without question it must have been Lu Yanran!

Feng Jinye’s eyes held an unreadable emotion as he said without ripple, “Aside from her, there is truly not a single decent person in your Lu family.”

Lu Liyuan was instantly at a loss for words.

After the most recent hypnosis, Feng Jinye had remembered many things, including having ordered Night Eleven to investigate every member of the Lu family thoroughly.

“Except for Lu Yanran, I have investigated every one of your Lu family members in meticulous detail,” Feng Jinye said softly.

“You...” Lu Liyuan faltered.

In this world, there were only two places the War Prince’s residence could not see through: the Twilight Pavilion and Cloudsun Mountain.

Feng Jinye frowned slightly, recalling there was one exception as well: his own princess consort. On their wedding day, he had asked Night Eleven to investigate Lu Qianyu, but he did not know how Night Eleven had gone about it.

Feng Jinye suspected that Lu Yanran had some connection to the Twilight Pavilion, and he also suspected that when Lu Qin had brought up the marriage between Lu Liyuan and the woman, he had done so with some hidden purpose.

The Lu family of three generations all knew the prophecy that “once in a hundred years, the Tsoche family will produce a heavenly maiden.” Elder Marquis Lu and Lu Liyuan also knew full well of Feng Jinye’s ties to the imperial house. Half a year ago, it should have been Lu Liyuan who insisted that the woman marry into the War Prince’s residence...

Feng Jinye once again lifted his gaze and glanced at Lu Liyuan, inwardly acknowledging him as that woman’s elder brother.

Lu Liyuan pondered for a moment, then asked, “Why did the Empress Dowager do this in the end? Wasn’t the emperor already beyond saving?”

He too was vexed, perhaps because women by nature brought endless trouble.

“The military tally, I suspect, is already in her hands. If I am not eliminated, then the tally is useless to anyone,” Feng Jinye said calmly.

He could guess this was one reason, but he did not know what the mastermind behind it truly sought.

Hearing him speak of military power, Lu Liyuan suddenly thought of Feng Jinye’s origins and asked, “Are you really not tempted by that seat?”

Feng Jinye lifted his teacup and replied with detached ease, “If she is not tempted, then neither am I.”

Lu Liyuan had just taken a sip of tea and nearly spat it out.

“At the very least, the throne belongs to someone of your Feng family. Are you truly willing to let it be changed to another surname?” He knew the relation between the Feng family and the imperial house.

“At the beginning, it wasn’t even the Feng surname,” Feng Jinye said.

In the Kingdom of Liyue, there had once been an empress from the Feng family. That emperor had died without a son, so a child was adopted from the Feng family and given the surname Yun to inherit the throne. That child was Feng Jinye’s grandfather.

At that time, the Feng family had only one direct heir in that generation. Feng Jinye’s grandfather had two sons, so Feng Jinye’s father was made to return to the Feng surname in order to inherit the family line. Now the Empress Dowager had adopted a son of the Yun family, following the example set by the Feng family’s ancestral empress dowager long ago...

By blood, Feng Jinye was the true imperial heir.

“Qianyu doesn’t know your background. If she did, perhaps she would support you instead.”

Lu Liyuan tried to sound him out. Right now, they truly needed a capable man to steady the situation.

Feng Jinye remained unmoved, clearly seeing through Lu Liyuan’s nonsense, and instead said, “You are not tempted? You don’t want this world to change its surname to Lu?”

Lu Liyuan’s expression instantly froze. “You... what did you say?”

Feng Jinye said this because the Lu family had once been entangled in a marriage alliance with the Tsoche family, and the Tsoche family had that prophecy of producing a heavenly maiden once in a hundred years. The Lu family knew it perfectly well, which only deepened suspicion of their ulterior motives.

Looking at it this way, it seemed as though Marquis Lu and Lu Liyuan had long intended for Feng Jinye to become emperor, and that was why they had let the woman marry into the War Prince’s residence...

Feng Jinye paid no mind to Lu Liyuan and strode out of the tent, mounted his horse, and rode straight toward the outskirts of the city where Yun Ming had died that day.

Night Eleven appeared and reported, one by one, the circumstances he had uncovered that day. Without doubt, all clues pointed to the enchantress, Ji.

Feng Jinye ordered Night Eleven to take men back to Yue Capital and search the mountains outside the east gate. They must find the little bamboo grove from back then, and even if they had to turn the earth over, they were to bring Feng Qingxuan back.

Before leaving, Night Eleven heard the weathered edge in Feng Jinye’s voice and received four words as his final instruction: Protect the princess consort.

Three days later, news finally reached Yue Capital that the crown prince Yun had been slain by the War Prince.

“It was the enchantress Ji. A dart left at the scene was hers, as though she intended to take Princess Xuan away. Young Lord Yun tried his utmost to protect Princess Xuan, and so he was killed...”

Tsoche Qianyue stood rooted to the spot. As she listened to what Dong Nuan said, she tried desperately to think it through, but still could not understand.

“Impossible!” Only after a long while did Dong Nuan hear those three words fall from Tsoche Qianyue’s lips.

Then Tsoche Qianyue cried out in agitation, “Yun Ming cannot be dead!”

“Where is Feng Jinye? I have to find him!” She turned to leave, but Dong Nuan blocked her firmly. “My lady, you cannot go!”

“The War Prince’s residence has already been surrounded. The moment you appear, the Empress Dowager will seize you and use you to threaten the prince!” Dong Nuan said sharply.

“How could this happen? Of all people, it had to be Feng Jinye who appeared outside Guanlin City!”

Tsoche Qianyue was beginning to lose control. Then suddenly she gave a bitter laugh. Such was fate; they would inevitably step by step into someone else’s trap.

Who was it?

Back then, they had used her to have Feng Jinye ambushed and assassinated on the road from Qu Capital back to Yue Capital.

And now they had used Feng Qingxuan to lure Feng Jinye from Yue Capital to the outskirts of Guanlin City and cast him into another snare.

Tsoche Qianyue remembered that more than ten days earlier, when Night Ten had come to report Feng Qingxuan’s disappearance, she had been the one to tell Feng Jinye to go!

At that time Feng Jinye had already ordered Night Ten and Night Nine to lead two squads of hidden guards in pursuit, but she had assumed he could not set aside concern for her injuries and had taken it upon herself to say she would return to the Marquis’s residence, so that Feng Jinye would personally go looking for Feng Qingxuan...

It was all her fault. Knowing full well that the Empress Dowager had been plotting in secret, she should have gone with him then!

Tsoche Qianyue was filled with remorse...

Feng Jinye, far away in Guanlin City, was equally regretful. He should have taken her with him that day. He could not rest easy about Qingxuan, nor could he rest easy about Tsoche Qianyue...

Tsoche Qianyue could not help thinking again of that dart from Lu Yanran. Its purpose in hurting her was not only to interrupt Feng Jinye from remembering what followed, but also to separate her from him.

She could not understand it. Back when the Empress Dowager wanted to take Yun Ming as her adopted son, she had needed Feng Jinye’s status as War Prince to suppress the court officials. Yet now, by what means had she managed to surround the War Prince’s residence?

Nor could she understand this: her staying in the Marquis’s residence was no secret. If it were dragged out into the open, would it implicate the Lu family as well?

In an instant, everything seemed to slip beyond control. Tsoche Qianyue could not make up her mind.

At noon the next day, after court, Lu Qin hurried back to the Lu Marquis’s residence.

The whole Lu family gathered in the main hall, waiting for Lu Qin to return...

“Today the court was presided over not by the Empress Dowager, but by His Majesty!” Lu Qin’s words exploded in everyone’s minds.

Tsoche Qianyue straightened, trembling, and asked, “Was anything said in court?”

“The Empress Dowager has died!” Lu Qin shook his head and said.

The court that day was already in chaos because of the War Prince killing the crown prince. Last night the Empress Dowager had sent troops to surround the War Prince’s residence. After hearing this, the ministers were all stunned. Yet even more shocking was that the emperor had recovered; upon attending court, the very first thing he did was declare that the Empress Dowager had died.

Liyue was about to change.

But had Huangfu Chen not said that even with an antidote, the emperor’s poison was beyond cure?

Tsoche Qianyue returned in desolation to the courtyard where she was staying temporarily, when Dong Nuan rushed in and said:

“My lady, the hidden guard tower has learned that the Empress Dowager slit her own throat and saved His Majesty by exchanging blood!”

“The entire House of Western Marquis has knelt outside the palace gates, demanding that His Majesty render justice for the crown prince Yun!”

“His Majesty, together with the imperial city guards, is on his way to the Marquis’s residence!”

One after another, the messages Dong Nuan brought detonated in Tsoche Qianyue’s mind...

The Lu Marquis’s family hurried to Tsoche Qianyue’s courtyard. Marquis Lu pushed Lu Yanran and her child over to Tsoche Qianyue’s side.

“You must all leave together!” The marquis’s voice had suddenly aged.

Tsoche Qianyue and Lu Yanran both stood there, numb.

The Lady Lu was the first to recover. Without thinking, she blurted out, “Why must Yanran leave? To go die with Tsoche Qianyue?”

“Shut up!” the marquis roared.

“Qianyu, do you still remember that your mother was the one who named Yanran?” the marquis asked.

Tsoche Qianyue nodded blankly.

“Please, for the sake of your mother’s affection for Yanran, protect her well!”

This sentence from the marquis shattered in Tsoche Qianyue’s mind. Lu Yanran, even more so, seemed unable to hear what the marquis was saying.

Before Tsoche Qianyue could fully grasp the marquis’s implication, she heard the pounding of the imperial city guards at the gates outside the mansion.