Upon entering the main hall, Concubine Liu knelt down below the hall after exchanging a glance with Xiao Jingheng.
The powerful aura of the emperor oppressed her invisibly,
she no longer smiled,
Endless fear welled up, swallowing her and forcing her to tremble.
Xiao Jingheng only asked her one question, and she shuddered and confessed everything,
“This concubine was muddled for a moment and made a big mistake. I hope Your Majesty can forgive this concubine and give me a chance to redeem myself.”
Xiao Jingheng frowned, full of puzzlement, and asked in a deep voice, “Why?”
Concubine Liu cried and said, “Li used to be favored and would often beat and scold me, treating me like a servant. I couldn't stand the humiliation and was really driven desperate by her, which led me to think of that scheme to frame her!
At that time, I didn't consider anything, I just thought that if she could be relegated to the Cold Palace, then no one would bully me anymore in the future. I didn't mean to harm her...”
Faced with her confession, Xiao Jingheng still maintained a skeptical attitude.
He asked in a deep voice, "Could someone have instigated you to do this? Or... did someone threaten you to come before Us and say these things?"
Concubine Liu immediately shook her head and denied, "No, this was entirely my idea."
Later, she argued more, but because her crying made her words indistinguishable, Xiao Jingheng stopped listening.
Until a moment ago, he had actually suspected Song Zhao.
He wondered if Song Zhao had pushed Concubine Liu out to take the blame in order to exonerate herself.
But when he thought about it, this was completely impossible.
Song Zhao's maternal family had all gone to the underworld, and there was no one behind her to rely on. Who could still help her use Concubine Liu's family as a threat?
It seemed that this time, he had really wrongly accused Song Zhao, and hurt Song Zhao's heart.
Xiao Jingheng's thoughts were in turmoil, and Concubine Liu kept crying endlessly below, making him even more annoyed,
So he said, "Since you have pleaded guilty, Li was killed by Us in the past, so We will also grant you an intact corpse."
Concubine Liu turned pale with fright. She cried and begged Xiao Jingheng to spare her life, and said, "I did serve His Majesty once, how can His Majesty be so ruthless? I didn't mean to harm Li, I really didn't mean to!"
She thought that because she had served Xiao Jingheng once, it would make Xiao Jingheng remember her a little bit of goodness.
But she was completely unaware that if it weren’t for this incident today, Xiao Jingheng would have completely forgotten that there was someone like her in the harem.
Even if he remembered, he probably only remembered that she didn't even moan when she was in bed with him.
Xiao Jingheng completely ignored Concubine Liu's pleas for mercy, and only faintly said,
"We will not involve your family because of this."
Concubine Liu was dragged away that night and forced to drink poisoned wine, dying by the palace walls.
After her death, Xiao Jingheng only said in the harem of the previous dynasty that she had suddenly died from a terrible illness, concealing all the evil she had done.
Of course, Xiao Jingheng did this not to preserve Concubine Liu's reputation after her death.
It was just that the messy things Concubine Liu had done could not be made known to the previous dynasty.
If it got out, wouldn't everyone in the world laugh at him, the emperor?
And if Concubine Liu's crimes were confirmed, it would mean that Li had been wrongfully killed in the past, which would prove that Xiao Jingheng had judged the case wrongly and killed the wrong person.
Xiao Jingheng was the emperor, how could the emperor make mistakes?
Therefore, this matter could only end like this.
On the night Concubine Liu died, Song Zhao had just finished washing up in the palace when Xiaofuzi hurriedly came to report,
"Lady, Concubine Liu is dead."
Hearing this, Song Zhao's expression was extremely complicated.
She closed her eyes for a long time before helplessly sighing,
"I always said that the women in this palace would stop at nothing for their own favor, and I really look down on them. But now? Now how am I any different from them?"
Xiaofuzi heard the hurt in her words and hurriedly comforted,
"My Lady need not think like this. This matter was not arranged by you in the end, you don't need to bear any responsibility for Concubine Liu's death.
Besides, that Concubine Liu was not a good person to begin with. This servant heard Yunshan say that when My Lady first entered the harem and was a Promise, Concubine Liu colluded with Li to overtly and covertly make things difficult for My Lady.
If not for My Lady's composure and resourcefulness, I'm afraid she would have been harmed by them long ago. Furthermore, later when she lost favor, did she become well-behaved?
This servant heard that she and Concubine Hui lived together in Zhaochun Palace. She took advantage of Concubine Hui's young age and ignorance to put on airs even in front of the Primary Consort, directly asking for any jewelry she fancied from her.
A mere Concubine Liu daring to be so arrogant, if she had been favored, she surely would have been a disaster."
Xiaofuzi said all this in one breath, just wanting to comfort Song Zhao.
Song Zhao also knew that Concubine Liu was not a good person,
But not being a good person, was that enough reason to be denied the right to even live in the palace?
After a long silence, Song Zhao waved her hand and said,
"I'm tired, I want to rest first. You go down for now."
Xiaofuzi said, "This... My Lady is suffering injustice and it should be redressed. His Majesty's imperial carriage must be on the way to Changle Palace now. My Lady..."
Song Zhao cut him off, "If he comes, just say I'm asleep. Don't worry about anything else, let him do as he pleases."
Xiaofuzi obeyed and exited the inner chamber.
After he left, Song Zhao added a cup of clear water to the teacup by herself, took a pinch of salt and put it in, stirred it with a hairpin until it completely dissolved in the water.
After doing this, she got up and went to the edge of the bed, and poured all the water onto the pillow in one go.
Then she tidyed up the teacup, lay down on the damp pillow, and closed her eyes.
She listened quietly,
listening to the noise outside, listening to the eunuchs respectfully saying "Long live the Emperor",
listening to the door of the bedroom being pushed open,
listening to those familiar footsteps getting closer and closer to her bed.
The tear contained in her eyes finally slid precisely from the corner of her eye at this moment,
falling onto the pillow, blending seamlessly into the water stains.
At this moment,
Xiao Jingheng stood in front of the bed,
looking at Song Zhao's flawless sleeping face, looking at her still tightly knitted brows even in sleep, and the tears wetting the pillow,
his heart felt as if it had been hit hard by a blunt object.
It was heartache, and remorse.
