She was so brazen, leaving the door wide open and bringing out Xiao Ronghua, who was tortured to the point of being unrecognizable, as if she wanted everyone to find out quickly, wasn't she?
Relying on his affection, she was becoming more and more… more and more…
Words like ruthless and vicious, he really didn't want to use them to describe Jiang Xinyue.
But she had brutally killed a concubine in the palace, her actions becoming so extreme. What exactly had triggered her?
"Xinyue, what happened to you? Tell me, and I will definitely…"
"Your Majesty, I suspect… Luyin might already be dead."
"What?"
Not only did she kill concubines, but now she's targeting palace maids?
In the entire palace, the one who was most considerate towards the servants wasn't Consort De, but Jiang Xinyue.
Anyone who had served her or witnessed how much she doted on her subordinates wanted to come to Hexi Palace.
How could such a person…
"Your Majesty, are you even listening to me?"
The Xuanwu Emperor's mind was fuzzy: "I'm listening, go on."
"When I was at the summer palace, Jiang Chuan mentioned that Luyin had come. She brought Xiao Ronghua and asked Jiang Chuan to hide her. Just now, when Consort De came, Luyin was missing, and I'm afraid…"
"Luyin brought her here?"
The Xuanwu Emperor let out a long sigh of relief. Fortunately, Jiang Xinyue wasn't the one who killed Xiao Ronghua; otherwise, he would have to spend a long time accepting this reality.
"Xiao Ronghua, was it Consort De who did this to you?"
The words "Consort De" seemed like a curse, endlessly looping in Xiao Ronghua's ears. She was hallucinating, seeing Consort De everywhere.
One moment, it was Consort De pulling out her nails with pliers, then Consort De whipping her with a pepper water-soaked whip, and next, Consort De scratching her face with a knife.
It was all Consort De, everywhere.
"Don't come near me… stay away, all of you…"
Xiao Ronghua suddenly went mad, pulling out a sharp golden hairpin and pointing it at the emperor and Jiang Xinyue. She wasn't just targeting them; anyone who tried to approach her was forced back by the hairpin.
"I was wrong, I really was wrong. I know I was wrong. Please, forgive me! I will never argue with the Imperial Noble Consort again. I won't dare anymore. Don't cut out my tongue!"
These words made everyone think that Jiang Xinyue was the one who had tortured Xiao Ronghua.
Jiang Xinyue, mentioned in Xiao Ronghua's words, widened her eyes and immediately understood.
Xiao Ronghua was deliberately sent to Hexi Palace by Consort De!
She had known all along that Luyin was going to betray her!
After Xiao Ronghua was imprisoned, Consort De must have visited her every day, torturing her and repeating over and over that she was being treated this way because she had disrespected the Imperial Noble Consort and argued with her.
At first, Xiao Ronghua probably didn't believe it, thinking that Consort De was just trying to frame Jiang Xinyue, even finding her methods crude and ineffective.
When people are awake, they believe they are the smartest. Moreover, Consort De's approach, in Jiang Xinyue's professional knowledge, is known as the Goebbels effect—a lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth.
In reality, it's a psychological accumulation of suggestion.
This wouldn't work when Xiao Ronghua was sober, but when she was weakened and on the verge of collapse, every lie Consort De told would become the truth, embedded in Xiao Ronghua's mind.
Now, she firmly believed that she was suffering because she had offended the Imperial Noble Consort.
Consort De was indeed a formidable opponent. If Jiang Xinyue had acted hastily from the start and gone to Yanqing Palace to search loudly, she would have fallen into Consort De's trap.
But Jiang Xinyue believed that anything that could be handled by the emperor should never be done personally. No matter how many traps Consort De had set, Jiang Xinyue would always drag the emperor to back her up.
"Your Majesty, I don't know what Consort De told Xiao Ronghua, but I haven't been in the palace for the past few months. The injuries on Xiao Ronghua have been accumulating over the past few months. If you don't believe me, you can summon a few skilled gardeners from the greenhouse. I'm more interested in food than in torturing concubines. Consort De… she knew all along that Luyin was going to betray her and deliberately had Luyin bring Xiao Ronghua to me."
She was so anxious that tears streamed down her face: "This morning, I only pretended to punish Luyin to make Consort De behave. You were there, Your Majesty. Luyin was walking briskly and even thanked me for being lenient, right? If Luyin really dies, Consort De could blame it on me, saying I beat her to death. I would be completely innocent but still unable to clear my name."
The emperor patted her hand, about to speak, when suddenly loud noises came from outside: "Help! Help!"
"What's going on? Wang Dequan, go check!"
As soon as the doors of Hexi Palace opened, Consort De, covered in blood, stumbled in and, upon seeing the Xuanwu Emperor, crawled over desperately: "Your Majesty, save me! Mute Slave… he's gone mad."
Before she finished, a disfigured middle-aged eunuch, holding a dagger, charged in with a twisted expression, aiming the blade at Consort De.
Consort De collapsed at the emperor's feet, and the guards wouldn't let the eunuch get near the emperor. They kicked him away with a flying kick.
"Take him alive!"
The emperor shouted, and the sword that was already at Mute Slave's neck didn't swing down.
The palace attendants scrambled to help Consort De, only to find that she had been stabbed in the abdomen and was losing blood rapidly, becoming weaker.
She clutched the emperor's sleeve: "Your Majesty, Mute Slave… he was in charge of… cleaning the lotus pond in my palace. Luyin… Luyin discovered he was raising man-eating fish in the pond and was killed to silence her. I saw him push Luyin off the rockery and was… stabbed by him… I…"
Her wound was excruciating, making her face pale and drenched in sweat. She clutched her bleeding abdomen, unable to finish her sentence before fainting from exhaustion.
Wang Dequan came in from outside: "Your Majesty, we found Luyin's body near the rockery outside Hexi Palace. She had a hole in her forehead, likely caused by being pushed forcefully and hitting the sharp rocks below."
The palace architecture emphasized beauty, with large rockeries below smaller ones, creating a layered effect. Luyin must have fallen and hit the sharp rocks below, resulting in such severe injuries.
Everything seemed to align with what Consort De had said.
The Xuanwu Emperor immediately ordered Tang Shiliang to fetch the imperial physicians, skipping the usual procedure of arresting and interrogating later, and had Consort De treated in the side hall of Hexi Palace. Meanwhile, he sat with Jiang Xinyue in the main hall, waiting for Mute Slave to wake up.
Jiang Xinyue also thought that direct interrogation was better. Who knew if the cunning Consort De would send someone to assassinate Mute Slave?
