Chapter 740 The End (Part One)
Yan Empress heaved a sigh of relief. Seeing Lan Yanwen looking calm, she said politely, “That’s right, that’s right. I can’t stay here any longer. I’ll leave this to you.” She was still the dignified Empress of the Yan Kingdom.
“Goodbye, Your Majesty!” Lan Yanwen lowered his head and bowed respectfully, which was no different from his usual att.i.tude. Yan Empress waved her hand with satisfaction, took her people to get on the carriage at the back door and returned to the deep palace.
Yan Empress left, surrounded by a large group of people. Lan Yanwen slowly raised his head, and his beautiful eyes were inexplicably deep in the flickering light. He stared at the back of Yan Empress and walked to Princess Royal’s body that was lying on the ground, speechless for a moment.
The night was very quiet, as if the sound of people’s breathing could be heard!
After a long time, Lan Yanwen ordered, “Somebody, take Princess Royal Mingzhu out! Along with this nanny!” His eyes became as light as clean water, and his voice was gentle.
“Yes.”
“Send her to the path leading to the Lan Manor. There is a forest behind the manor, where there are some stones.”
“Get it. I’ll do it right away!”
In the dark, Mo Xuetong choked up. She bit her lips and suppressed the sadness in her heart, listening carefully to the voices outside. When all the sounds were gone, she still did not dare to make any noise. This was the Lan Manor. Lan Yanwen, who became Minister of Public Works at a young age, was definitely not an ordinary person. As Yan Empress went out of control and behaved excessively, he just stood aside in an indifferent manner.
He didn’t seem to be impulsive, nor did he seem to believe what Princess Royal said!
It was as if he truly thought that Princess Royal wanted to bite Yan Empress back before she died. However, Mo Xuetong knew that Princess Royal had succeeded. She had successfully aroused the Lan family’s suspicions of Yan Empress. If Lan Yanwen was truly loyal to Yan Empress, he should have been the one to come out and question Princess Royal earlier instead of allowing Princess Royal to die at the hands of Yan Empress.
To throw the corpses on Yan Empress’s way to the palace was to make people suspect Yan Empress. No matter how Bai Yihao and Yan Empress fought in the end, it had nothing to do with the Lan family. The Lan family was wary of Yan Empress, or perhaps the Lan family had to rethink their partner. Yan Empress was completely ignorant of this. On this point, Yan Empress had already lost.
The disaster had been diverted. Even if Bai Yihao found out that Princess Royal did not die in that forest, he would only think that she had met Yan Empress by chance, and gotten into an argument with the latter and died in the hands of Yan Empress. Then, Yan Empress threw the body into the forest. Everything was natural, as if Lan Yanwen had thought about it beforehand!
He was unfathomable!
Holding the letter handed to her by Princess Royal tightly in her hand, Mo Xuetong was now absolutely sure that Princess Royal had seen her just now. Although she hid very well, Princess Royal was very close to her. Especially when Nanny Qin was. .h.i.t to death, she was only one step away from her. Then, when Princess Royal rushed over, she must have found her.
Later, Princess Royal silently held Nanny Qin in her arms and took several steps to one side, s.h.i.+fting everyone’s attention to her. So others didn’t find Mo Xuetong.
“Tong’er, move quickly. Hold me tight!” Feng Yuran’s voice suddenly rang in her ears. Mo Xuetong did not even have time to react before she was picked up. She wrapped her arms around his muscular waist subconsciously and did not dare to move. She heard the noise outside the rockery as someone yelled, “There’s a thief, quick. Thief! Catch the thief!”
However, when she heard the yell going away, she was held to jump out of the rockery by Feng Yuran and taken to the backyard wall. She looked up and saw that there was a faint light in the distance and heard the shouting of the crowd, but it was different from the direction she and Feng Yuran were heading to. She realized that it was Feng Yuran’s diversionary strategy.
The wind whistled in her ears. Mo Xuetong did not dare to think of anything else and she only snuggled tightly in Feng Yuran’s embrace.
As expected, Feng Yuran had really gotten the ancestral root of the Yuxiao Flower, which was deeply hidden by the Lan family. In fact, he came at a good time. Because of Bai Yihao’s departure, the Lan family let down their guard. He appeared at their weakest point of defense. Feng Yuran had his people watch here all the time. With a swift strike, he got what he wanted and then left. The Lan family could not catch up with him even if they wanted to.
Feng Yuran did not wait for Bai Yihao to return. In the end, he left a letter in Bai Yihao’s study and then brought Mo Xuetong back to the Qin Kingdom. The Lan family had also known that their ancestral root was missing and followed him all the way. At the intersection to the Qin Kingdom, Qin Yufeng sent someone to stop them and come to Feng Yuran’s aid. Qin Yufeng was now an official at the border of the Yan Kingdom. Feng Yuran and the others rested for a while before heading to the capital.
The capital was in chaos because Feng Yuran had sneaked away. Emperor Zongwen sent someone to quickly chase Feng Yuran back to the capital. Mo Xuetong naturally followed him back.
The two returned to King Xuan’s Manor together. After a while, Feng Yuran left Mo Xuetong to rest in the manor and he took advantage of the night to enter the palace to discuss matters with the Emperor. It was late when he returned to the manor. Furthermore, it was the same every day in the next few days. On the surface, Consort Xuan was seriously ill and King Xuan had no intention of dealing with politics.
What happened next was abrupt and dramatic.
Imperial n.o.ble Consort Wen’s case was dug out. It turned out that King Yan, Feng Yulei, was her son. The Empress took out the evidence she searched. The evidence was as solid as a mountain, making the whole court in an uproar. With such a vicious mother, King Yan was badly discredited. Imperial n.o.ble Consort Wen hung herself in the palace. King Yan was forced to take the risk and rebel with Mingguo Manor and some people from Ding General Manor. He wanted to use the people arranged by Imperial n.o.ble Consort Wen back then to force the Emperor to abdicate.
The palace was in chaos. Emperor Zongwen was ill in Qianqing Palace because of anger. The Empress Dowager was frightened and died in Cining Palace. King Ning was almost killed. King Yan’s people caught the Empress and strangled her to death in Tianfeng Palace to avenge Imperial n.o.ble Consort Wen. Consort Zhao, Consort Yu, and the others in the palace were all beheaded. Blood flowed like a river.
Fortunately, King Chu and Ding General Manor had settled the chaos. King Yan had been defeated; his t.i.tle had been stripped; and he would be imprisoned for the rest of his life.
Mingguo Manor was seized and all the family members were executed.
Ding General Manor took part first in the rebellion and then in putting it down. Their fault outweighed their merit. The hereditary duke’s manor was degraded to an earl’s manor. After this battle, Ding Earl Manor was in civil strife. Some of the rebels fled from the Qin Kingdom and went straight to the Yan Kingdom; they wanted to seek refuge with Yan Empress. Ding Earl Manor could no longer have the status of a super aristocratic family as before. With the death of the Empress Dowager and the Empress, the largest family of the Empress in the Qin Kingdom had fallen.
One of the two super families perished and the other declined. They became the loser of a new round of fighting for the throne.
When King Chu rescued Emperor Zongwen, many ministers asked the Emperor to confer the Crown Prince upon King Chu. However, some ministers produced evidence that King Chu’s arm had been disabled. Later, there were rumors that King Chu was the one who killed his original wife, Ling Fengyan. The personal maidservant who served Ling Fengyan escaped from death back then. In the golden palace, she pointed out that King Chu was vicious and forced Ling Fengyan to die; she even took out Ling Fengyan’s last words written before her death.
King Chu’s right arm was severely injured and would never recover. Feng Yuxuan had lost an opportunity to get the throne close at hand; Coupled with Ling Fengyan’s incident, everything indicated that Feng Yuxuan had evil intentions and was fierce and heartless. He was stripped of his t.i.tle of King Chu and was demoted to be King of Chu; then he was banished to the border of his land and could never return to the capital unless he was summoned.
Feng Yuran was appointed as the Crown Prince and Mo Xuetong was appointed as the Crown Prince’s consort. They were ranked in the East Palace! King Xuan’s Manor had picked out some trusted subordinates and chose an auspicious day to move into the East Palace. The fight for the throne of the Qin Kingdom had come to an end. The officials were not optimistic about the new Crown Prince and thought that he could not control the chaos for a while.
However, they did not expect Feng Yuran to be so decisive and ruthless that he had managed to control the situation within a few days. The officials could not help but sigh that they misjudged him. Therefore, they grew more and more careful with their work. Feng Yuran seemed to be truly sly and unfathomable. He had been wild and arrogant in the past, but now, people realized that he was only acting on the surface.
Remainders of Ding General Manor fled to the First Prince of the Yan Kingdom and asked him to incite the Yan Emperor to fight against the Qin Kingdom in order to seek revenge for the Empress Dowager, the Empress, and Ding General Manor. After a few decades of peace, the Great Qin and the Great Yan started a war again!
In the main hall of the Crown Prince’s wife in the inner courtyard of the East Palace.
Mo Lan looked at Mo Xuetong who was looking out of the window from time to time and said with concern, “Your Highness, His Highness has not returned yet. You can eat by yourself first!” Ever since they entered the East Palace, Feng Yuran had been too busy to be seen. Her mistress was getting more and more worried and could not even eat. It was already late and she still wanted to wait for the Crown Prince to come back and have dinner with him.
“I’m not hungry anyway. I just ate some,” Mo Xuetong replied with a smile. Looking at the dishes on the table, she added, “Mother Xu’s cooking skill is getting better and better. They look so tasty even though I haven’t eaten yet.”
“If you could have more, Mother Xu would be even happier,” Mo Lan uttered helplessly. Mother Xu had been sent to the palace by Mo Huawen a few days ago.
“Don’t worry. I will definitely eat more when His Highness comes. Don’t mind me eating too much then,” Mo Xuetong teased. Even though she was still very weak, she was much better than before. After all, Bai Yihao had given her the right medicine and his medical skills were superb.
“What do you mean don’t mind you eating too much? Are you talking about me?” Feng Yuran’s voice came from outside, sounding lazy and devilish. Then the door curtain lifted and Feng Yuran, dressed in purple robe embroidered with dragons, walked in. He wore a half smile on his handsome face, looking enchanting and attractive; his eyes were deep and charming. Mo Xuetong could not help but sigh. He was so busy every day, but he was still handsome and refres.h.i.+ng.
However, she had been weak all day long. She felt more and more unfair. She pouted unhappily and said, “I just feel that you’ve eaten too little. Where did you eat these days? You looked so full every day when you came back.”
Her words sounded jealous and coy. Mo Xuetong also sensed it herself, so she blushed immediately. She sat down at the table and got the maidservants to serve dishes.
“Tong’er, I haven’t had enough to eat these days. I usually skipped meals, and couldn’t eat any hot food. Your place is so good. I can finally have hot food.” Feng Yuran heaved a long sigh of relief after saying that. Not caring if others were around, he went straight to hold Mo Xuetong in his arms, leaned against her neck, and took a deep breath. Then he sighed with satisfaction.
Mo Xuetong’s heart ached when she learned how busy Feng Yuran was. She cast a glance at the maidservants who had left with smiles on their faces and their heads down as her face was still red. However, she could not help asking, “Why isn’t there any warm food in the palace? Why didn’t you order a hot meal to be served?”
“How could there be no hot meals? But I was so busy that I didn’t even have time to eat. After being hungry for too long, I didn’t want to eat anymore. So I just had some food casually,” Feng Yuran smiled. He approached her and kissed her cherry-like lips. Then, he took the chopsticks beside him, picked up a piece of mushroom and put it in her mouth.
Mo Xuetong chewed it twice, swallowed it and asked hurriedly, “Is Father still ill?” Feng Yuran had been helping the Emperor deal with the memorials to the throne these days, which was why he was so busy. However, he had been secretly doing this before, and he was not so busy. Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind. She instantly grabbed his hand and anxiously asked, “Is there anything else?”
“It’s not a big deal. The two countries are at war. Bai Yihao has come to the front, and I have to see him no matter what.” Feng Yuran wrapped his arms around her slender waist and said casually with a lazy smile.
Fight with Bai Yihao? Mo Xuetong’s body shuddered and then stiffened. She lifted her head and looked at Feng Yuran carefully. Then, she bit her lips and asked, “Has it been decided? Do you have to go?”
The opponent was Bai Yihao. How could she not be frightened?
In her past life, Bai Yihao had gained his reputation as the iron-blooded Emperor from wars. Even though Feng Yuran was powerful, he had disappeared after he went to the Southern Barbarian Lands in her past life. She did not know how he was at war. Thinking of Bai Yihao’s ill.u.s.trious fame in her past life, Mo Xuetong was a little worried.
“Fu General Manor has its own troops and the King of Xian is too far away. Most of the original troops of Ding General Manor are in the Qin Kingdom. Even though Qin Yufeng is capable, he does not have much power. People who don’t have much power would not be able to suppress them. It would be most suitable for me to go.” Feng Yuran looked at her in the eye. His eyes were as deep and dark as the light in the night sky. However, one could not look at him for too long, afraid that they would out of sorts under his gaze.
Looking at Mo Xuetong’s worried eyes, he kissed her forehead and told her seriously, “Don’t worry. I will be fine.”
Mo Xuetong closed her eyes. She knew that this was the only way to deal with the current situation. His gentle voice gave her a great sense of security, and she was willing to trust him.
“I’m going to leave in a few days. If you feel bored, ask your mother to come and accompany you.”
“I’m okay. Who will go to war with you?”
“Don’t worry. Qin Yufeng has already made plans. He is willing to fight alongside me this time.”
“Qin Yufeng?”
“Yes. Don’t worry, Tong’er. I know that he used to work for Elder brother. However, he has been working for me after you were kidnapped. He was the one who investigated the ancestral root of the Yuxiao Flower and guessed where it might be. Furthermore, he asked to go to the borders to help me out. That was why I managed to succeed with one strike and took the ancestral root of the Yuxiao Flower away,” Feng Yuran smiled devilishly when he saw how worried she was. He picked up the pair of chopsticks, placed some food in Mo Xuetong’s mouth and leisurely watched as she ate.
Mo Xuetong swallowed hard and asked in surprise, “Qin Yufeng works for you now?”
“Yes. You don’t have to worry about me now that I have such an omnipotent talent to be with me,” Feng Yuran said with a smile; his eyes were as gentle as water.
Mo Xuetong was slightly stunned. She thought of the dream that she had been having recently, and a complicated smile appeared on her face!
Perhaps it had really been destined since her last life. Once the two of them missed each other, they could only miss each other again and again!
He had caused her to die and then tried every means to resurrect her. After they had met again, neither of them remembered the other.
Well, no matter if it was revenge or grat.i.tude, let it be!