With a single order from Ning Wanshuang,
Kang Yubin brought three guards and escorted a man with a sack over his head into the hall.
After forcing the man to kneel down, Kang Yubin removed the sack from his head, and everyone was shocked to see that the man Ning Wanshuang had 'treated' this way was none other than Tan Yuezhi, the deputy chief officer of the Imperial Astrology Agency.
When Tan Yuezhi had entered the palace that morning, he had been grabbed out of nowhere, a sack put over his head, and brought to Yonghe Palace. At this moment, he was completely bewildered.
"Esteemed Consort, what is the meaning of this?"
Xiao Jingheng's expression also darkened. "Esteemed Consort, why did you bring him here? Could it be that the eunuch who bumped into the attendant delivering food to Zhaojun Palace yesterday was him?"
"No," Ning Wanshuang lightly shook her head, her gaze drifting to settle on Tan Yuezhi. "But he is not without connection to the incident."
As she finished speaking, two eunuchs escorted in another bloodied man who stumbled into the hall.
The man was thrown to the floor, but struggled to crawl toward Tan Yuezhi, grabbing his robe and pleading in a hoarse voice,
"Master...save me..."
Only when he got closer was Tan Yuezhi able to make out his features from his filthy face and recognize his identity.
"Liu Chong? What has happened to you?"
Ning Wanshuang gently said to Xiao Jingheng, "Your Majesty, this man is called Liu Chong. He is the sole personal disciple of Tan Yuezhi and has followed him for over a year."
Xiao Jingheng leaned forward slightly to examine Liu Chong, then slowly said:
"He seems somewhat familiar."
Ning Wanshuang's voice became grave. "Liu Chong, you have murdered the imperial heir and caused the unjust deaths of two innocent lives. You cannot escape death. However, if you confess everything frankly, We may ask His Majesty to show mercy and grant you an intact corpse for burial."
Upon hearing this, Liu Chong's pupils violently trembled, seemingly panicked to the extreme.
He slowly loosened his grip on Tan Yuezhi's robes, an absent look on his face, murmuring to himself:
"Dead? How could they be dead? Didn't you say it would only make the imperial heir uncomfortable? How could they have died?!"
He became agitated for a moment, fiercely pouncing at Tan Yuezhi.
Fortunately the guards were quick to pull the two apart.
Xiao Jingheng discerned the implications from his words and sternly questioned:
"What did you mean by saying it would only make the imperial heir uncomfortable? Explain yourself."
It was as if Liu Chong's soul had been extracted. His legs suddenly weakened and he collapsed on the ground, weeping:
"Your Majesty! This lowly one had no malicious intent... Yesterday, this lowly one deliberately bumped into the eunuch delivering food to Zhaojun Palace. While he was distracted, I slipped a packet of powder into the teapot. That powder..."
He tremblingly raised his hand and pointed at Tan Yuezhi accusingly:
"That powder was given to me by Master. I didn't know that it could lead to the imperial heirs losing their lives..."
"Liu Chong!" Tan Yuezhi angrily shouted. "When have I ever instructed you to do such things?"
Liu Chong shook his head in bewilderment. "Was it not Master who said that you had memorialized to His Majesty that the pregnant consorts in the harem would suffer miscarriages, and that you must cause this accident to happen in order for His Majesty to further believe in the credibility of the Imperial Astrology Agency?"
Grieving in distress, he tearfully cried, "I only thought the powder would cause some discomfort to the imperial heir at most. I never imagined... Had I known early on that the drug would cause the two Imperial Concubines to miscarry, even if I had the guts of a bear and leopard, I still wouldn't have dared help Master do something so damaging to the yin!"
By now, Tan Yuezhi finally understood that he had fallen into a trap set by someone else.
Just as he had conspired with Consort Hui to frame Song Zhao in the past,
Someone with malicious intentions had carefully orchestrated things in the shadows, waiting until this scheme was foolproof before inviting him into the pot, leaving only one path of death for him to take.
If he hadn't guessed wrongly, from the moment Liu Chong came to serve him, this pit had already been dug.
He stared fiercely at Liu Chong. "You falsely accuse me of things I never instructed you to do. Just who ordered you to do so?"
"Falsely accuse you? Was ordered to do so?" Liu Chong gave a miserable, cold laugh. "I have always loyally carried out tasks for you. I didn't expect that when things came to light today, you want to completely disassociate yourself!
In spring, snakes were released; in summer, the well water surged; in autumn, the golden carp flipped belly up... Ever since you entered the palace, the strange omens happening frequently, which one was not carried out by you, only for you to later hypocritically report these inevitable incidents to His Majesty in advance, so as to curry favor?"
Hearing this, Tan Yuezhi had already lost all color. His heartbeat became chaotically erratic.
All the chaos Liu Chong spoke of had been secretly arranged by Consort Hui. Liu Chong shouldn't have known about these things.
Yet how could he state them so clearly and completely?
Right now, the look Xiao Jingheng gave Tan Yuezhi was filled with murderous intent.
Tan Yuezhi desperately tried to calm himself in order to defend himself, but then heard Liu Chong cry out loudly:
"I followed you for a year, respecting you inside and out as Master, but what did you teach me? You never taught me divination, only asking me daily to think of ways to cause trouble, saying that only when the state was unstable would the Imperial Astrology Agency continue to be valued highly by the court, allowing you to continue reaping benefits!"
As he spoke, he suddenly turned back and deeply kowtowed to Xiao Jingheng, choking with sobs:
"This lowly one has killed the imperial heirs and knows his crimes cannot be pardoned. I also cannot face begging Your Majesty for leniency anymore. I will end this worthless life now and accompany the two young masters below the Yellow Springs to apologize!"
After saying this, Liu Chong decisively smashed his head against the nearby phoenix-carved gold pillar.
He died violently on the spot.
Xiaoyinzi quickly removed the corpse.
This time, it was Tan Yuezhi who was rendered speechless.
It was just like how he and Consort Hui had conspired to frame Song Zhao in the past.
With the key witness dead from his own testimony, nothing could be extracted from a dead man's mouth.
Therefore, the injustice that Song Zhao once suffered would have to be endured by Tan Yuezhi today as well.
Ning Wanshuang coolly questioned: "You stirred up these troubles in the palace yourself, proving that your so-called divination skills are nothing but nonsense. In that case, We are very curious to know, since you do not actually possess the ability to accurately predict destiny, how did you foretell back then that His Majesty would encounter an assassination attempt in Jiangnan? And how did you predict that Jiangnan would suffer a devastating flood?"
She paused for a moment, as if a thought had just occurred to her. Her expression changed to one of astonishment as she hurriedly said:
"Or could it be that His Majesty's assassination attempt and Jiangnan's floods were also disasters stirred up by you?"
Ning Wanshuang's speculations were somewhat unreasonable.
With Tan Yuezhi's strength alone, there was no way he could accomplish so many things.
However, her words sparked associations in Xiao Jingheng's mind with Xiao Jingyan's past advice.
Back then, Xiao Jingyan had said the Jiangnan floods were entirely caused by the breach of the Chidong Dam, and there was a high probability that the dam breach was man-made.
Connecting these events together in his mind, the suspicions crystallizing in Xiao Jingheng's heart gradually became clear.
"Relying solely on your own strength, you would absolutely be unable to do all this. Speak, just what sinister force sent you here as their spy!?"
