Chapter 637 (1/2)

These words caused the Emperor to freeze. He did not understand and loudly shouted: “If you didn’t find her, just keep searching for Us!”

The guard said it once more, “Your Majesty, we really did not find imperial concubine Yun!”

Once these words were spoken, more and more people began to run out of the palace. All of them arrived before the Emperor and said the same thing: “Your Majesty, we could not find imperial concubine Yun inside Winter Moon Palace.”

Immediately following this, a large group of palace servants came outside. There were also some of Winter Moon Palace’s hidden guards helping the palace maids out of the sea of flames. The Emperor watched this, his eyes turning red. Taking a few steps forward, he grabbed a hidden guard and loudly asked: “Where is your master?”

The female hidden guard’s face was bright red and hot from the flames. At this moment, she did not know how she should respond to the Emperor. She was still supporting the head palace maid of Winter Moon Palace, Su Yu, but Su Yu was also very hesitant, lowering her head even further.

The Emperor furrowed his brow tightly, as a bad premonition filled his heart. He did not pay any more heed to Zhang Yuan’s tugging. Exerting his strength, he pulled himself away from Zhang Yuan and charged toward the sea of flames.

Zhang Yuan was given a fright and quickly shouted: “Hidden guards! Stop him!”

The Emperor’s hidden guards were not there for nothing. Even if a portion had charged into the fire to save people, the remainder would not take even half a step away from the Emperor, even if they ended up dead. Seeing that the Emperor was about to charge into the fire, countless hidden guards appeared before Zhang Yuan even shouted. In an instant, they stopped the Emperor.

However, the Emperor had already exerted his strength. He was desperate to break free from the hidden guards. Having a breakdown, he shouted: “Let go of Us! Let go! Do you servants no longer want to live! Guards, take these people away and have them executed! Let go. We must go inside to save them. Pian Pian! Pian Pian!”

The people were scared stiff. The Empress was the most affected by this. Kneeling in front of the Emperor, she grabbed his robe with both hands and begged while crying: “Your Majesty, calm down. You are the world for Da Shun. Your life is not just your own, nor does it just belong to imperial concubine Yun. It belongs to all of the citizens in Da Shun! There are already so many people working to put out the fire. If you charge inside, it would not be the slightest bit helpful to this effort. Instead, it will cause even more disorder for those trying to put out this fire. If you really want the best for imperial concubine Yun, you should wait outside and wait for her properly. Like this, the servants can focus on going in to save them. Your Majesty, this wife begs you to calm down!”

With the Empress kneeling and begging, the imperial concubines also kneeled. For a while, their cries filled the air.

The Emperor was shaking with anger; however, he had managed to calm down a little. He asked Su Yu: “When the fire started, who was with your master?”

At this moment, Su Yu had also calmed down. She arrived in front of the Emperor and replied: “Replying to your Majesty, before the fire broke out, imperial concubine Yun had already gone to bed. When imperial concubine goes to bed, she does not keep someone nearby. That is why there are no servants inside the bedchamber to take care of her. But the servants did not go far. There were people just outside the door and in the yard. This fire started in the front yard, but a fire also started in the back shortly after that. The servants were in a rush to put out the fire. When this servant went into the bedchamber to wake up the imperial concubine, I found that the bedchamber was already empty.”

After she finished speaking, she gave a look to the female hidden guard at her side, and the hidden guard immediately said: “This subordinate guesses that imperial concubine definitely noticed the fire and avoided it on her own.”

“Where could she have gone to avoid it?” The Emperor stomped his foot and immediately ordered the palace servants: “Continue searching. Go look in places to hide!”

Fortunately, the fire had begun to die down at this point. The guards soaked themselves in water and were fine when charging inside. After a bit of time passed, the imperial guards that had rushed inside to search charged back out; however, they reported the same thing to the Emperor: “Your Majesty, imperial concubine Yun could not be found inside Winter Moon Palace.”

At this moment, there was finally a voice that came from the group of imperial concubines that asked: “Could it be that imperial concubine Yun isn’t in the palace at all?”

Everyone followed the voice and looked over. It was an inconspicuous woman, and her status was not great; however, the Empress immediately recognized her and asked: “Concubine Jing, what do you mean by that?”

The person that had spoken was concubine Jing. They just saw her raise her head and look at the Emperor with a greedy expression, as though she would be missing out if she looked away for even a moment. It was as though she wanted to engrave the image of this man into her eyes.

The Empress saw that she was only focused on staring at the Emperor without replying, her expression became cold. She stood up and took a couple steps toward the imperial concubines, saying once more: “It seems that concubine Jing is feeling unwell today. Servants, send concubine Jing back to her palace.”

Before servants could move, imperial concubine Yuan Shu suddenly raised her voice; however, she scolded concubine Jing: “Concubine Jing, you can eat your food messily, but you must not speak nonsense. What do you mean by saying that imperial concubine Yun is not in the palace? If she’s isn’t in the palace, where could she be? Do you think that she fled the palace?”

These words, however, pushed the location of imperial concubine Yun back as the main topic of discussion.

The Emperor listened to all of this in a daze. He suddenly felt his heart tremble. It was as though this thought could be seen vividly. It was as though concubine Jing and imperial concubine Yuan Shu’s words were like confirmation.

He did not dare continue thinking about it, nor did he dare call for people to continue going inside to search. He just blankly asked Zhang Yuan: “Is what they said true or false?”