Chapter Title: Consort Hui's Revelation
"Going somewhere?"
The Empress did not understand. Seeing Consort Hui's bizarre expression, she felt a chill down her spine for no reason. "Where are you taking Me?"
"Why is the Empress pretending to be confused? What road is left for You to take?"
Consort Hui stroked the black gauze on her arm and said lightly: "The only road left for You is the road of no return to the Yellow Springs, isn't it?"
"How dare you!"
The Empress did not know what madness had come over Consort Hui. She actually dared to curse her with such words of doom.
She yelled towards the door:
"Come quickly! Lock Consort Hui in solitary confinement this instant! Beat her severely for Me!"
As soon as she finished speaking,
her furious shouts echoed around the empty Hall of Earthly Tranquility.
"Come quickly? Hahahaha~" Consort Hui suddenly laughed. "This concubine could openly walk in. Where could people possibly come from outside?"
"You must be raving mad!"
The Empress strode angrily toward the doorway. As she passed Consort Hui, she made sure to push her forcefully.
Yet in that moment they brushed shoulders, she suddenly felt a tearing pain on her scalp.
"Ah!! Wei Linlan! What are you doing!?"
Consort Hui violently pulled the Empress's hair at the back of her head, messing up her coiffure and dislodging her phoenix crown, sending it crashing to the ground.
The Empress cried out in pain, struggling as she shouted: "Let go! I am the Empress! How dare you attack your superior?"
But Consort Hui was quite strong. The more the Empress struggled, the more heart-piercing the pain.
After a brief stalemate,
Consort Hui suddenly exerted force with her wrist, pulling the Empress in front of her, staring face to face,
she smiled, "Empress? You need the Emperor's recognition to be Empress. His Majesty has been quite dissatisfied with You for some time. Yet to get the Crown Princess back by your side, you dared to publicly humiliate His Majesty in Suzhou in front of all the civil and military officials! Tsk tsk..."
Consort Hui clicked her tongue and shook her head. Her tender, petite left hand gently slapped the Empress's cheek as she mocked:
"Tell Me, weren't you asking for death?"
"What I do has nothing to do with you! Let Me go!"
But instead of letting her go, Consort Hui complied by roughly pushing the Empress to the ground, aided by momentum.
The Empress fell hard on her coccyx, the pain bringing instant tears to her eyes.
"Vile woman! Just what are you trying to do!?"
"I'm a vile woman? Then what exactly is the Empress? A noble lady often forgets what she has done. I fear you've forgotten many things after doing them. Let this concubine help remind Your Ladyship."
Consort Hui pulled over a chair and primly sat down in front of the Empress. Smiling, she said:
"Back then, Noble Consort Yang relied on You, and you ordered her to offend Consort Yu, angering Consort Yu enough to slip Noble Consort Yang a maddening drug. Afterwards, you had people drown Noble Consort Yang to death, making it seem like she had committed suicide herself, in order to wrongly accuse Consort Yu of murder to silence her. Do you recall this event?"
Facing the Empress's shocked gaze, her smile grew even more relaxed:
"It matters not if you don't remember. Then there's you colluding with the Imperial Physician, making Consort Shu think her dragon seed could not be preserved in her womb, forcing her to kill her own flesh and blood. You should have fresh memories of this, no? If not, then you faking illness to deceive His Majesty for years, using foul means to secretly harm the favored consorts. Surely you still remember all this? There's much more. Does this concubine need to enumerate for You one by one?"
"You know everything?" The Empress was shocked beyond belief. A chill crept down her spine and she even stammered as she spoke: "Just who are you?"
Consort Hui only smiled, not answering. Instead she continued: "In fact, what truly angered His Majesty wasn't even those things, but you using the Empress Dowager's hand to scheme against the Heir Apparent, and in Suzhou you gave all the consorts and concubines plum soup laced with Nine Yin Powder, even causing Concubine Tong to miscarry. Harming the imperial heirs one after another, that was why His Majesty could no longer tolerate you."
"I never did those things!" The Empress denied. "I never committed any of that!"
"Oh? It wasn't you?" Consort Hui sneered. "So you were confident that His Majesty would not depose the Empress, which was why you tacitly acknowledged those matters, allowing His Majesty to suspect you but not letting him investigate further. You were also trying to conceal the truth for the real mastermind, making use of her tactics to get rid of your biggest threats?"
She clapped suddenly, entirely inappropriate to the situation.
"Marvelous! As expected of the remarkable woman who occupied the central palace for so many years. Your methods are truly ingenious!"
The Empress' heart pounded wildly, her chest tight and suffocating, almost choking off her breath.
She looked at Consort Hui in utter panic, but no matter how she looked, she could not see through this little girl with the childish features. Just who was this celestial being before her?
How did she know every single one of the Empress's evil deeds so clearly?
Even accurately guessing her innermost thoughts?
"Just who are you?"
"If the Empress asks this, I can only be confused."
Consort Hui pouted her pink lips, looking rather aggrieved. "I have served beside the Empress day and night for many years. The Empress has rewarded me with so many exotic delicacies, and said I was like a younger sister to You. Yet now, at this critical moment, You still ask who I am?"
She leaned in, drawing close to the Empress's ear, lowering her voice:
"However, there is one thing for which I must thank You. If not for you readily admitting to all those crimes, I would have feared exposing myself through clumsiness, arousing His Majesty's suspicions!~"
"So it was you!" The Empress violently shoved Consort Hui aside, pointing a trembling finger at her as she gaped in shock:
"It was you all along!"
