Chapter 46: The Incident

Tang Zhaozhao looked coldly at Li Xueying's wretched behavior.

"My elder sister was murdered by you."

Just these seven words were enough to drain all the color from Li Xueying's face.

Yet she quickly reined in her guilty conscience.

"Tang Zhaozhao, without any evidence, this is nothing more than slander!"

Unwilling to watch her act any longer, Tang Zhaozhao spoke bluntly.

"Shall I recount every single detail of your colluding with Murong Tian?"

How clever Li Xueying was; the moment she heard those words, she realized the matter might have been exposed.

"You were tailing me?"

"If I hadn't followed you, how else would I have discovered that the seemingly gentle and frail Miss Li is actually the real culprit who murdered my elder sister?"

Suddenly, Li Xueying burst into a wild, unhinged laugh.

"So what if it was me? She deserved it entirely!

Who told her to catch the Second Prince's eye?

That bitch dared to compete with me for the Second Highness, she deserved to die!"

At that moment, madness filled Li Xueying's eyes.

Ignoring her, Tang Zhaozhao asked, "During the palace banquet three years ago, it was you who suggested taking my elder sister to view the flowers.

Yet she left midway.

Tell me, was the person she met Murong Tian, and what did he do to my elder sister?"

Li Xueying curved her lips into a smile.

"Tang Zhaozhao, since you already have your suspicions in your heart, why don't you go ask the Second Highness yourself?

Oh, that's right, he is the Second Prince after all!

Even if he did something to your sister, what can you possibly do about it?

Do you dare to kill him?"

Tang Zhaozhao narrowed her eyes, her hands clenching tightly into fists.

Seeing her reaction, Li Xueying laughed even more merrily.

"Tang Zhaozhao, ever since you arrived in the capital, haven't you been acting quite arrogant?

What? So you have moments of fear after all?

That's right, if you kill an imperial prince, not only will your Tang family fail to protect you, but even your maternal grandfather's family will likely not escape the wrath of His Majesty."

Tang Zhaozhao lunged forward and seized Li Xueying by the throat.

"But I can kill you!"

Feeling the sudden deprivation of air, Li Xueying opened her mouth, gasping for breath.

However, Tang Zhaozhao's grip tightened rapidly.

Just as it seemed the other woman was about to draw her last breath, Tang Zhaozhao released her hand at the very final moment, saying coldly,

"Whether it was Murong Tian or not, even if you refuse to speak, I will uncover the truth sooner or later.

Miss Li, you should now taste the pain that my elder sister suffered!"

After coughing violently for a long while, Li Xueying suddenly heard those words.

She jerked her head up, her eyes filled with terror.

Catching sight of what Tang Zhaozhao held in her hand, she instinctively began to struggle fiercely.

"No!

Tang Zhaozhao, kill or dismember me however you please.

Just take that thing far away from me."

Tang Zhaozhao twirled the ox-hair silver needles in her palm and curved her lips.

"Rest assured, once you die, I will hang your head right outside the mansion of your most beloved Second Prince.

I won't let you die without finding him."

What surprised Tang Zhaozhao was that even after all thirty-six ox-hair needles were pierced into Li Xueying's body, the woman still refused to mention whom she had met back then.

The next day, a bloody human head was hung outside the Second Prince's Mansion.

Before Murong Tian could even process the shock upon learning it was Li Xueying, a summons arrived from the palace.

Emperor Kangjian ordered him to enter the palace immediately.

Half a day later, Tang Zhaozhao and her parents were also summoned into the palace together.

Looking at Murong Tian kneeling on the dragon-paved hall, Tang Zhaozhao's hands turned white from the force of her grip.

Tang Wu gently patted her shoulder before paying his respects to Emperor Kangjian.

Inside the grand audience hall, they were far from the only ones present.

Nearly all officials of the third rank and above had arrived.

Among them was Li Xueying's father, Li Mingyang, the Minister of Works.

Upon seeing Tang Wu, he immediately stepped forward and cupped his hands in a salute.

"General Tang, I was completely unaware of the grave mistake my foolish daughter committed. I accept whatever punishment, whether beating or reprimand, you see fit.

The Second Highness is innocent, I beg you not to vent your anger on him."

Tang Zhaozhao cast a cold glance at Minister Li; it was clear these people already knew everything.

Hearing this, Emperor Kangjian's face was written over with rage.

He drew the imperial sword from its scabbard at his side and strode directly down from the dragon throne.

"It is all because of you, unfilial son, that I shall slay you today!"

At his thunderous roar, all the officials present immediately dropped to their knees.

"We beg Your Majesty to calm your wrath!"

Minister Li had already stepped forward to block the blade for Murong Tian.

"Your Majesty, everything was the fault of my lowly daughter alone, the Second Highness is truly innocent!"

Emperor Kangjian pointed the sword at Murong Tian in fury.

"If not for his duplicity—flirting with the Li family's daughter on one hand while harboring affections for the Tang family's daughter on the other—how could such a tragedy ever have occurred!"

Hearing this, Minister Li sank directly to his knees.

"Your Majesty, it is entirely the fault of this humble subject for failing to discipline his daughter. This subject is willing to resign from office and return to our ancestral home with the whole family, so as to appease General Tang's grief over the loss of his daughter."

What a magnificent performance.

Tang Zhaozhao almost wanted to laugh at the spectacle, yet the resentment in her heart had reached its absolute peak.

Although she had executed the murderer with her own hands, many questions remained unanswered.

Whom exactly had her elder sister met within the palace three years ago?

This remained the greatest doubt in her mind.

The most likely culprit was the Second Prince Murong Tian, but why would Li Xueying take that secret to her grave?

There was one matter she had never shared with a soul.

On the day Tang Zhaozhao opened her elder sister's coffin to perform the autopsy, she discovered that the sister's cinnabar mark of chastity was gone.

Who on earth was the person that had sullied her sister's purity?

Was Murong Tian not currently the prime suspect?

Such a beast had actually defiled a sister who had not yet reached womanhood.

How could she ever forgive such an act?

Calculated properly, Murong Tian was now twenty-two years old, and nineteen three years ago, meaning he was fully capable of committing such a deed.

His goal had been to force her sister into absolute compliance.

That was why Li Xueying had harbored such consuming jealousy and murdered her sister in secret.

Li Xueying was merely seventeen years old now.

In the State of Kang, after maidens reached the age of fourteen and performed their capping ceremony, they spent a few years at home while their marriages were discussed, awaiting marriage upon turning seventeen.

Meanwhile, men generally did not enter into marriage talks until after turning twenty.

For Li Xueying to harbor such venomous malice at the tender age of fourteen—from where had she obtained an accomplice?

Yet despite employing every conceivable method, Tang Zhaozhao had failed to pry open the dead girl's mouth.

Empress Duanmu hurried in, and upon seeing her imperial son targeted by the emperor's sword, she threw herself forward.

Weeping bitterly, she cried, "Your Majesty, how can this matter be blamed on Tian'er? It is merely a squabble of jealousy between young women. Besides, hasn't the Second Miss Tang already executed the murderer?

Surely that is more than enough?"

Tang Zhaozhao had never intended to conceal that she was the one who hung the head.

Yet Empress Duanmu's remarks provoked extreme dissatisfaction from Song Rongzhi.

"Empress, a life for a life is only right and natural. Zhaozhao slaying the murderer was due retribution for the criminal.

How can you speak of it being 'enough'?"

Empress Duanmu had never been openly rebuked in such a manner before, and just as she was about to voice her reprimand, Emperor Kangjian spoke first.

"The Madam of Tang speaks well. Minister Tang, how do you propose this be handled?"

Tang Wu swept his gaze across the assembled courtiers, understanding well that today's proceedings were merely a play orchestrated for him by Emperor Kangjian.

Yet what could he do?

Just as he was about to relent, a cold, clear male voice suddenly rang out from the entrance of the grand hall.

"Although Murong Tian is not the direct perpetrator, he is the root cause.

To go unpunished would be to lose all imperial dignity!"

Everyone turned their heads in unison.

Ah Nan slowly pushed a wooden wheelchair into the hall, the rolling of the wheels sending a shudder through everyone present.

Why had this exalted personage arrived as well?

"Greetings to Your Highness, Prince Lin!"

Emperor Kangjian shifted his brow slightly.

"My younger brother speaks sensibly. Then how does my brother believe he should be punished?"

Prince Lin's eyes were cold, devoid of the slightest trace of warmth.

"Such a scandalous disgrace occurring within the imperial family must be severely punished; otherwise, once word spreads, it will become a laughingstock!

In this subject's view, since Minister Li has failed in his governance, he should be permitted to resign and return home.

As for Murong Tian, let him be confined to his prince's mansion to reflect upon his faults."

Murong Tian looked at his imperial uncle in utter disbelief.

Was this not tantamount to casting him into cold palace confinement?