abcnovels
Chapter 195
Chapter 195
Jiang Xinyue's guess was correct. The Empress had already invited people into Yikun Palace, reasoning that the Fifth Prince hadn't seen his father for a long time and missed him dearly.
Wang Dequan had no choice but to remind the Emperor, "Your Majesty, today is the fifteenth."
On the first and fifteenth of each month, the Emperor was expected to stay overnight at Yikun Palace.
The Xuanwu Emperor frowned, extremely unwilling to go to the Empress's quarters.
The Fifth Prince was just over a year old, raised by her to be overly well-behaved and mature, leaving him as a father with no joy in familial bliss.
Unlike their little dumpling, who was so sweet and adorable, crying with a scrunched-up face when unhappy, causing everyone to panic.
He would even poop, and Yue said that him pooping on his father was a sign of bringing wealth, predicting that the national treasury would be very prosperous this year.
What was Yue doing now?
Was she waiting for him?
However, he had already sent Tang Shiliang to Hexi Palace to explain the situation. It wasn't that he wanted to break his promise, but palace rules dictated it. Even if he didn't care about the Empress's face, he couldn't disregard the Fifth Prince's.
The Empress said that lately, she felt the Fifth Prince looked more and more like the late Crown Prince Duanhui, their first child whom he had loved deeply but couldn't keep.
"Your Majesty? Your Majesty?" The Empress called several times before the Xuanwu Emperor reacted, "Hm?"
"Your Majesty, look quickly, the Fifth Prince can walk now."
Fen Yun was originally holding the Fifth Prince, but the young prince, sharp-eyed, had spotted the imperial couple from afar.
Though still small and not often seeing the Emperor, he remembered that his father looked like this. So he struggled out of Fen Yun's arms and toddled towards the couple, his face bearing an excited smile, babbling as he went.
"Mo... Mo... Fa... Fa..."
He called for his father and mother unclearly, only able to repeat syllables as he couldn't yet speak fluently.
But this was already considered speaking quite early.
The Xuanwu Emperor now found all of his children adorable, of course, with the Sixth Prince being the most adorable. It was because of the Sixth Prince that he found his other princes cute as well.
"Sheng'er, come to Father."
"Ya ya ya! Ya..."
"Your Majesty! Your Majesty! The wet nurse in Hexi Palace... she's been burned to death."
Tang Shiliang shouted as he ran, "Hexi Palace is in chaos. This slave heard screams from inside, but the palace gates were tightly shut. This slave saw flames reaching the sky and heard agonizing screams..."
"Bang!"
Before his confused words were finished, the Xuanwu Emperor had already rushed out. The Fifth Prince, who had just reached the Emperor's feet, ready to be embraced, fell face-first onto the ground, landing hard.
"Sheng'er!"
"Fifth Prince!"
The cries of alarm from the Empress and Fen Yun failed to make the Emperor look back even once.
In this palace, were Concubine Zhenxian and the Sixth Prince the only ones worthy of his panic and fear?
"Your Highness..."
Fen Yun sympathetically helped up the crying Fifth Prince and looked at the Empress, who was staring at the entrance of Yikun Palace. "The Fifth Prince's palm is bleeding from the fall."
The Empress closed her eyes briefly. For the first time when a concubine was in trouble, she didn't rush over immediately. Instead, she picked up the Fifth Prince and carefully blew on his palm. "Summon the imperial physician to clean the Fifth Prince's wound."
"Concubine, this is..."
"Yue!"
"Yue, open the door! Are you alright? Is the little dumpling okay?"
Yan the Imperial Physician heard the Emperor's voice and paused, intending to wait for the Emperor to enter before reporting together.
"What is this?" However, Jiang Xinyue seemed not to hear and continued to ask, "What's on this clothing?"
Yan the Imperial Physician could only try his best to ignore the Emperor's calls from outside and continued, "It's phosphorus powder, and it's the most easily combustible white phosphorus powder. Even without fire, when the air temperature reaches a certain heat, it can ignite on its own. Moreover, cotton fibers were sprinkled on these clothes. This servant just dissolved a bit with water and found that these cotton fibers had been soaked in flammable liquid, which is why Wet Nurse Cheng was engulfed in towering flames in an instant."
When she reached over to touch the clothes, the cotton fibers in the tray stuck to her hands and clothes.
Those cotton fibers were almost invisible to the naked eye, but each had been soaked for a very long time. Yan the Imperial Physician pointed to the cup of yellowish hot water and said, "Your Highness, these cotton fibers must have been soaked for over a month, prepared since the Sixth Prince was just born. Combined with the white phosphorus powder, if the Sixth Prince had come into contact with it, the consequences would have been unthinkable."
Wet Nurse Cheng was an adult, so when the fire started, it burned for so long without consuming her completely. Fortunately, Xiao Xuanzi and the others poured seven or eight buckets of water all at once; otherwise, if they had poured one bucket at a time, Wet Nurse Cheng would have burned to ashes before the fire was extinguished.
And the Sixth Prince, being so small, would have turned to ashes in an instant.
This method could be described as extremely vicious.
Yan the Imperial Physician had been an imperial physician in the palace for decades and had never seen such a cruel and vicious method used in the rivalry between concubines.
Not even leaving a complete corpse behind.
The Xuanwu Emperor called out at the entrance of Hexi Palace for a long time, with no one paying him any attention. Thinking of Tang Shiliang's words about the towering flames and tightly shut palace gates, his heart raced uncontrollably. "Wang Dequan, go find someone to break down this door for me."
A small palace maid hid behind a corner, constantly peering towards Hexi Palace. Seeing the miserable screams and flames had stopped, she originally wanted to go back and report. But when the palace people from Hexi Palace rushed out calling for Yan the Imperial Physician, she feared the Sixth Prince might not be dead and didn't have the confidence to go back and report.
If it turned out to be a false alarm, her master's actions would be exposed.
"Sneaking around like a thief, you're the one we're after."
Two guards behind Jiang Chuan grabbed the small palace maid by the collar and lifted her up. "Take her back and hand her over to Concubine Zhenxian for punishment."
Meanwhile, Xiao Xuanzi quietly led people to the back door of Hexi Palace and caught two young eunuchs trying to secretly pass messages out of the palace.
The person receiving the messages was also caught red-handed.
Whether they were related to this incident or not, it wasn't up to them to decide. They were all to be thrown before Concubine Zhenxian.
At the main entrance, the Xuanwu Emperor had already called for guards and was about to forcibly break down the door when it was pushed open from the inside. Jiang Xinyue, crying her eyes out, rushed out and was about to fall to the ground when the Emperor quickly reached out to catch her. "Yue, you... what..."
The smell of burned flesh had not yet dissipated inside, and Wet Nurse Cheng's charred body lay in the courtyard. Jiang Xinyue trembled in his arms, "Your Majesty, Your Majesty, please let this concubine take the little dumpling out of the palace. This concubine begs you. This concubine has never asked for wealth and glory in this life. Being loved by Your Majesty, this concubine's life is already without regret. This concubine can die, but the little dumpling is innocent. Why... why would someone be so vicious as to want him dead?"
She sobbed painfully, "Yan the Imperial Physician said, said the phosphorus powder and cotton fibers soaked in flammable liquid... those people wanted my son to be burned to ashes!"