Chapter 21 Chapter 21 Thunderstorm makes tender intestines

Inside the palace.

"The unfilial daughter Wei Huai'en deceived the emperor and pretended to be the prince, and asked the emperor to punish her."

Wei Huai'en knelt down on the ground without even looking at Emperor Yonghe's face.

"Bang!"

The jade pen holder was shattered not far to Wei Huaien's right, and the fragments hit her body. Her expression remained unchanged and she repeated:

"Father, please punish me."

A pair of dragon boots suddenly appeared in front of her, and Emperor Yonghe's tired voice sounded above her head:

"Where are you buried, your brother?"

"The palace, the back mountain."

Wei Huai'en paused for a moment to stop crying, but there was still a layer of mist in his eyes that would not fall away.

"Why don't you tell me?"

Emperor Yonghe did not blame him, but Wei Huaien raised his head and looked at him in disbelief.

Two pairs of similar tearful eyes met, and the sadness caused Wei Huaien's suppressed resentment to be released at once.

"Tell you? Can I get my brother back by telling you? I have told you and my brother to be careful, but my brother was still tricked!

My brother is dead, and you only have an adult son, Prince Duan. Wouldn’t you make someone else the crown prince for our sake? Wouldn’t you spare the life of Marquis Dingyuan just to save his face?

When my mother passed away, you told us not to think too much about it, but now I have grown up! I want to avenge my brother myself!"

"Crack!"

Wei Huai'en was knocked down on the broken jade, and his palm was cut and he could see blood.

Upon seeing this, Emperor Yonghe quickly helped her up and wanted to take her hand to see how serious the injury was. But Wei Huai'en put his hands back on his sleeves, knelt back and prostrated again.

"Please, Father, punish me!"

"You! Do you really want to hurt my father's heart like this?"

Emperor Yonghe had already learned the cause and effect of today's incident, and he could no longer say a single word about Wei Huai'en's alienation.

"When did my father say that I would punish you?"

He seemed to have suddenly become much older, and even his movements when standing up were extremely slow.

"I just found out what Yan Weiguang did to Huaide, and he deserves to be killed. But why don't you believe that father will give Huaide justice?"

Wei Huaien fell to the ground, but her hands were clenched into fists. The wound was pulled deeper, but she felt no pain at all.

Because it wouldn't hurt more than her heart felt right now.

"What if I didn't ask Xiao Qi to check? What if you knew from the beginning that your brother died?

I have no power, no strength, and the truth about my brother’s murder will never be revealed!”

Emperor Yonghe was speechless for a long time, staring at his daughter as if he had known her for the first time.

After a long time, Wei Huai'en heard his footsteps walking away and back to the imperial court.

"In the final analysis, you are just unhappy that you are a princess and do not have the right to enter and leave the court like your brother.

You look down on King Duan, I know.

Your other brothers are too young, and your brother is gone. You are afraid that you will have no one to rely on, and I know that.

In the past two months, you have done very well, even better than your brother. I even think that Huaide has grown a lot since he came back from the palace..."

Wei Huai'en raised his head and knelt on the ground. When Emperor Yonghe stopped talking, he looked at him and there were some words that no longer needed to be said.

"If your mother knew that you were so good, she would definitely be pleased.

Go back to the palace, I won’t kill Xiao Qi, but he can’t stay in Xuan Yu Division any longer.”

"Father..."

Wei Huai'en did not expect that his affairs would be put down so gently, and he wanted to say something more, but Emperor Yonghe wiped his tears and raised the imperial pen again.

"My son, please retire."

She lowered her eyes and retreated silently.

Eunuch Le came in later and was about to ask someone to come in and clean up the mess on the ground, when he heard Emperor Yonghe speak.

"How do you think Wynn does compared to Huaide?"

"Back to the emperor, how could I know this? It's just that Xiao Qi. I heard that it was His Highness Jia Rou who single-handedly promoted him."

"In that case, let's spare his life."

Le Gonggong looked at Emperor Yonghe's expression and saw that he didn't want to say anything anymore, so he made a gesture to the outside.

The palace staff quietly cleaned up the fragments and blood stains, and a new identical pen holder was placed on the imperial desk, as if nothing had happened.

"Xiao Qi, let's go."

Another slap mark appeared on Wei Huaien's face. Xiao Qi looked at her worriedly, but Wei Huaien waved his hand and walked towards her Qingluan Palace.

Shui Jing was still at Huang'en Temple and had not returned. Xiao Qi saw the lonely Qingluan Palace and asked Wei Huai'en if he wanted to send a message to Shui Jing.

"No, we'll stay here tonight, and we'll go to Huang'en Temple tomorrow."

Wei Huai'en was very tired and didn't say a word again. But Xiao Qi was particularly worried and even hoped that she would cry out the depression in her heart.

She didn't have dinner and lay on the bed after taking a bath. Xiao Qi knew that he couldn't persuade her, so he stayed alone in her bedroom to keep vigil for her.

Wei Huai'en was unusually quiet.

Xiao Qi always stayed with her. After she went to bed, he only left her side slightly when he went to take a bath.

He didn't know what conditions Wei Huai'en negotiated with the emperor in the study, let alone how his life was saved by Wei Huai'en.

Eunuch Le kicked him with a lot of force. The slave was the best at guessing his master's thoughts. He knew that Emperor Yonghe must have had murderous intentions towards him.

Because as a slave, you can do wrong things and be unintelligent, but you can never be disloyal.

No one in the palace can be disloyal to the emperor.

But he, Xiao Qi, was only loyal to Wei Huai'en.

She saved his life again, but now, he couldn't even help her relieve her pain.

The only thing that gave him some comfort was that although he could no longer work as an errand in Xuanyu Division, he could legitimately stay with her for a long time.

That's fine, because without power, he will no longer be a thorn in anyone's side, nor will he be stripped of his official uniform and imprisoned in prison because of the complicated relationship between Xuan Yu and Sizhong.

She said she would not allow him to leave her side, so does this mean that she already has a solid position in her heart?

As if his chest was still wet with her tears, Xiao Qi quietly walked to the end of Wei Huaien's bed and looked at a small round bag on the bed through the layers of curtains.

He knew that Wei Huai'en always slept well, and like most people who had no haze in their hearts, he liked to lie flat with his limbs stretched out.

But today was the first time he saw her sleeping so restlessly and defensively, as if she was still uneasy in this absolutely safe palace.

He understood why she was like this.

Killing Yan Weiguang, or killing everyone involved in the prince's assassination case, would not be able to erase the bloody words that Yan Weiguang's poisonous snake carved in Wei Huai'en's heart.

Nothing can make people remember it forever more than guilt and self-blame. Wei Huai'en could not put Yan Weiguang's words behind him because it was an unverifiable pain.

It was impossible for Wei Huaide to live and tell her to comfort her, to tell her that his departure was not painful at all, nor was he unwilling at all.

Because no one can come back from the gate of hell after experiencing the poison of cessation and tell the world whether there is such a feeling that it is like death but not death, and like life but not life.

But the closer we are to each other, the less likely we are to dismiss such strange things as a joke.

Stop, it poisons the hearts of both the living and the dead.

Wei Huai'en did not fall asleep immediately.

She just covered herself up and cried silently because she didn't want to see anyone and didn't want anyone to see her pain again.

She no longer wants to review this conversation with Emperor Yonghe as anxiously as any other time before, and is eager to recall the meaning of every word and look in Emperor Yonghe's eyes.

It's not important anymore.

She is too tired.

She couldn't help but think about what if: if she hadn't wanted to pretend to be her brother and become the prince, maybe her brother wouldn't have been hastily buried in the palace before his death.

How disappointed and resentful he should be towards her.

Even in her perception, which she didn't know whether it was a dream or hallucination, she saw her brother who was pale, with an arrow in his chest, spitting out black blood and questioning her:

"Why? Wei Huaien, why do you do this to me?"

"Boom!"

A thunder shook the night, and lightning illuminated the room pale.

Wei Huai'en was brought back to reality from the nightmare, but the dark room could not bring her back to consciousness from the lingering fear.
To be continued...