Chapter 183 - Beacon in Troubled Times 33 (1/2)

Yu Hanjiang brought back both Concubine Xian and Qi Fenghua.

The concubine was suspected of murdering the crown prince, empress and two concubines 13 years ago. Perhaps she was also related to the serial poisoning murders in the capital. There were too many cases she was involved in. In addition, QI Fenghua joined with the second prince of Zhao to rebel. In ancient times, the crime of rebellion was to behead the entire family!

Yu Hanjiang couldn’t decide on his own how to deal with the two people. He had to send a letter to the emperor to seek the emperor’s opinion.

In order to avoid having a group rescue the two people, Yu Hanjiang specifically empties a back room and secretly imprisoned Imperial Concubine Xian and Qi Fenghua. He personally guarded them while he asked Long Sen to go to the capital to meet the emperor.

However, before Long Sen had set off, Old Mo came to find Yu Hanjiang with a gloomy expression. “Concubine Xian committed suicide.”

Yu Hanjiang’s pupils shrank. “What? I just checked and her teeth didn’t hide any poison. I also had Liu Qiao personally watch her. How did she kill herself?

Mo Xuemin held his head like he had a headache. “She took advantage of the time Liu Qiao went out to get food to smash her bracelet. I didn’t expect her bracelet to have a compartment inside that contained a highly toxic substance… alas, it’s really unpredictable.”

Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other and immediately followed Old Mo to the scene.

The concubine was lying on the bed with her eyes closed, hands lightly placed on her abdomen and face calm. It was as if she was only sleeping.

She should’ve been dejected in her heart. From the moment she was caught by Yu Hanjiang, she planned to commit suicide so she died peacefully.

There was a letter on the table that she had written.

Yu Hanjiang immediately picked up this suicide note and read it carefully.

In the letter, the concubine confessed everything.

Her real name was Zhao Qingyan and she was the daughter of a n.o.ble of the Zhao state. Her father raised her as a boy and let her read books from an early age. Her mother was heir to a famous doctor and taught her medical skills, wanting to train her to be the empress of Zhao.

The power of their family was huge and they had a close relations.h.i.+p with the Zhao family. The Zhao emperor was also interested in her and wanted to make her the empress.

At the age of 18, she was young and playful. She secretly ran to the neighbouring country of Daqi, wanting to see the legendary scenery of Jiangzhou. Then she accidentally got separated from her guards and maids on the road and was taken into captivity by bandits. The bandits wanted to make her into the camp’s madam and she managed to escape on the knight she was supposed to do the ritual kneeling to heaven and earth. At that time, the late emperor had come to Jiangzhou for a private visit. He saw her when she was running away from the mountain and covered in bruises. He was fascinated by her beauty and rescued her.

She woke up in Daqi.

The emperor had people heal her wounds and took the opportunity to possess her. She didn’t know martial arts and was alone in a foreign country. She naturally didn’t dare to fight rashly against the emperor. Although she was reluctant in her heart, she could only like that both her parents had died and she had no relatives. She was brought into the harem by the late emperor and became one of his concubines.

By the time she entered the palace, the emperor had four sons. The oldest was five years old and the youngest was just born.

The emperor’s favourite was the empress and the eldest son of the empress was naturally established as the crown prince. She could see that the other concubines were actually not convinced but didn’t dare do anything. In the harem, the group of women had their own thoughts. In order to protect herself, she had to find the most secluded place, pretending to be aloof from the world, praying to Buddha and making tea every day.

The emperor didn’t love her but when he was upset, he liked to sit with her and drink tea. Compared to a husband and wife, she was more like a friend he drank tea with and chatted with.

One year after entering the harem, an envoy of Zhao came to visit. She heard from the envoy that the daughter of the Zhao family went missing and the family couldn’t find her. They thought she had died in the hands of a bandit so the emperor of Zhao married her younger sister!

She had been secretly drinking a medicinal soup after entering the harem to avoid giving the emperor a child. She was still holding onto hope that she could return to Zhao one day but the news brought by the envoy made her completely desperate. Her younger sister was the crown princess and would become the empress of Zhao one day. Her younger sister had never found her pleasing to the eye. What if she returned to the Zhao state?

The n.o.blewoman called Zhao Qingyan completely died on this day, leaving on the woman of the emperor of Qi.

She couldn’t go back to Zhao at all and needed to make a plan for herself.

Thus, she stopped using the medicinal soup and tried to seduce the emperor. She was soon pregnant and gave birth to the eighth prince. The emperor was very happy. After the child was born, she was officially named Imperial Concubine Xian and she was on equal status with Imperial Concubine Shu and Ming.

However, there was the empress above her. Every time she saw the empress, she had to kneel.

On the Zhao state’s side, the crown prince soon ascended to the throne and her sister changed from the crown princess to the empress respected by thousands of people—the position that should’ve been hers!

How could she remain a concubine here?

Thus, she started to plan carefully.

As the crown prince grew older, the forces in the harem started to move. Over the years, she had gradually raised some of her own confidants in Qi. The eunuch and maids in the harem were all her confidants. There was a royal doctor who listened to her, some martial artists and members of the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Rites were controlled by her through various means.

The opportunity finally arrived.

She learned from spies in the palace that the third prince and crown prince had a dispute a few days ago and next month was the time for spring hunting. The crown prince liked hunting the most and often went to the royal hunting grounds at this time of year.

She immediately handed her self-made poison to a eunuch to take out of the palace. Then it was handed to a guard she trained in advance, so that the other person would dress up as the guard of the third prince.

Once the culprit was captured, he refused to confess at first. Finally, under severe torture, he said he was sent by the third prince. The dispute between the third prince and crown prince was discovered and poison found in the third prince’s home.

The moment the poison was discovered, it was said that the third prince was so scared he almost p.i.s.sed his pants.

The witnesses and material evidence was complete. The emperor was full of anger and immediately gave the third prince a gla.s.s of poisonous wine.

On the day the third prince died, Imperial Concubine Xian was in her residence, writing down the names of the crown prince and third prince. Then as she made tea, she burned the names of the two men to ashes.

One arrow killed two birds. The success of this strategy gave her confidence.

After killing the crown prince and third prince, she aimed at the women in the harem.

She bought out a lady in Imperial Concubine Shu’s palace. Once Imperial Concubine Shu went to deliver food to the empress, she secretly sprinkled a layer of the colourless and odourless poison onto the empress’ favourite fruit.

The empress ate the grapes and died on the spot.

The emperor found Imperial Concubine Shu and she pleaded that she wasn’t guilty. She kneeled on the ground and slammed her head into it until she was bleeding. She said that she was innocent. No matter how courageous, she would never dare to poison the empress.

The palace girl had already been released from the palace by Imperial Concubine Xian in private. She deliberately kept Imperial Concubine Shu in order to drag Imperial Concubine Ming into the water.