Chapter 89 – Thunderstorm (above)

As the sky dawned, the clouds gradually converged right above Kyoto, turning even the dull brightness into dusky blackness. The eunuchs and palace maids who were resting in the cluttered complex at the back of the palace were still turning over in their sleep, yet some of these people had already woken up long ago.

Hong Zhu strengthened his spirit and slapped his own ears one by one, trying to use such actions to keep himself calm. He wasn’t on duty in the Eastern Palace today, so he wasn’t killed and silenced by those eunuchs and guards, yet even though he was living in the courtyard of the Raccoon House, he still felt scared and didn’t know what he was going to face next.

Outside the courtyard suddenly came a sound, although did not wake up those sleeping people, but scared Hong Zhu immediately rushed to the window, the hand in the sleeve tightly gripped a Fan Xian gifted him with a poison feeding dagger for self-defense, always ready to fight with those who came to silence you to death.

If he fought, naturally he would not be able to escape death, but if he didn’t fight and was caught with his hands tied, Eunuch Hong, who was as stubborn as a scholar at heart, would not do it.

His hands were shaking, his ears were pressed against the door, listening to the sounds outside the courtyard, from time to time, there were miserable grunts and cries, only those sounds only sounded for a few moments, and then immediately disappeared.

His face is incomparably white, knowing that there are people outside killing people, the eunuchs and palace maidens living in this part of the Raccoon Square are basically serving the East Palace and Guangxin Palace’s subordinates, of course Hongzhu knows in his heart, what is the purpose of what is going on outside, he gripped the dagger tightly, biting his lips nervously, so much so that he didn’t notice his lips had broken into a small cut.

He didn’t know when those people would come to kill him.

Not knowing if he could fight one to death.

Hong Zhu nervously waited for death to come.

However, I do not know how long, there is still no one to knock on the door of Hongzhu’s courtyard, gradually raccoon workshop in the movement also disappeared, outside the courtyard to return to a calm.

Hong Zhu swallowed a mouthful of slightly fishy saliva, nervously looked out from the doorway, and found that there was no one outside. He wanted to push the door and go out to see what had happened, however, his body had long since been made stiff by fear, and he could not move his steps for a long time.

He squatted down and rubbed his ankle, gathered all his courage, pushed the door and walked out onto the street of the Raccoon House, looking around somewhat disoriented, and found that not far away the small eunuchs and palace maidens’ residences had their doors closed tightly, and there didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary.

He walked outside a courtyard and cautiously reached out to push.

The door was not bolted and opened with a push.

Hong Zhu looked at the courtyard in front of him, and the miserable white color on his face intensified, even his lips began to glow blue.

He didn’t see a courtyard full of corpses, but he saw a few streaks of blood in an inconspicuous corner. And this courtyard was already empty, not a single person existed.

It must be the same in the other courtyards, the eunuchs and palace maidens in these courtyards had all been killed by His Majesty’s decree, and even the corpses had been dragged under the cover of the pre-dawn darkness and burned in some hidden place.

His Majesty’s hand, really bloody.

Hong Zhu somewhat foolishly exited that empty small courtyard and stood in the deserted alley of Raccoon House. He didn’t understand why those people didn’t come to kill themselves, a kind of touched and fear after the robbery intertwined in his heart, making his entire body tremble.

There was a click!

A bright light shone from the depths of the layers of dark clouds in the sky, and in an instant, the sound of thunder rumbled through Kyoto and the countryside in the four fields of Kyoto, followed by a gale, and countless raindrops were showered on the ground in the accompaniment of the wind and thunder.

Hong Zhu stood in the heavy rain, letting the rain wash his face and wet his thin clothes, only after a long time did he come back to his senses, clutching the dagger like a life-saving straw, he returned to his own small courtyard, closing the wooden door tightly, never daring to open it again.

“Father, this is why!” With a kind of anger that was extremely difficult to see on a normal day, the Crown Prince angrily stared at his father and roared, “Why!”

The Emperor of Qing did not answer his words, but only stared at the Empress’ disoriented face, put his hands behind his back, slowly lowered his head, and pressed his face next to the Empress’ face.

The empress’s body was shaken for no reason, looking at this middle-aged man whom she was most familiar with, loved and hated the most came close to herself, saw clearly the black bordered gold and yellow faience of the dragon robe on his body, saw clearly the pattern of the gold lines on the dragon robe, smelled the flavor of the other party’s body, but could not see clearly the expression on the man’s face, could not see clearly the mood that was hidden underneath that expression.

Many years had passed, and the Empress had never actually seen the Emperor clearly.

Her body trembled again, and it was clear that this Empress felt fear from the depths of her bones regarding His Majesty the Emperor.

The Emperor attached himself to her ear and whispered, “You taught a good son.”

The Empress was stunned for a moment, she was not at all sure why such a terrible thing as the Qing Palace would occur today, and it was only when she heard the Emperor’s words that she realized that it had something to do with the Crown Prince, but the Crown Prince had been so peaceful and decent lately, what kind of things could he have caused? Especially hear the emperor said this sentence, a kind of female unique emotion let the empress excited up, pointed voice yelled: “my son? Is it not your son?”

Answering the empress with a crunching sound, the emperor slowly withdrew his palm, looked at the empress who covered her cheeks in front of him, looking at herself with disbelief, and said indifferently, “If you don’t want me to abolish the empress, don’t yell here.”

Although the words were soft, they held a chillingly cold intent.

The empress’s eyes flashed a flash of despair, looking at the emperor nervously crying and laughing: “You hit me …… you actually hit me? This more than ten years …… you don t even bother to look at me, this time actually hit me? Am I …… supposed to thank you?”

At this time, the crown prince watched his mother being humiliated, and had long since roared furiously and rushed over, stopping in front of the empress, staring angrily and helplessly at the emperor, shouting, “Father, that’s enough!”

However, although he stopped between the Emperor and the Empress, the Emperor’s deep eyes looked as if they didn’t see the Crown Prince at all, directly passing through his flesh, staring at the Empress who was sobbing behind him, and faintly said, “Do not lose your decency. Do you know? Empress.”

The Empress raised her head in awe and glanced at the Emperor through the Crown Prince’s not-so-broad body, biting her lip and not speaking for a long time.

Seeing that she did not reply, the Emperor frowned slightly and took a step forward.

One more step forward and it was going to directly hit the Crown Prince’s body.

The crown prince’s heart was already cold at this time, he knew how his father was a mean and ruthless character, a generation of monarchs, never have any women’s benevolence, especially at this moment, his father slapped his mother’s mother, but at least it proved that, he still regarded his mother as a human being.

But the emperor’s gaze directly penetrated through himself, as if he didn’t exist, what did this show? It showed that the emperor no longer saw himself as a person!

The crown prince didn’t understand what his father was so angry over, so intolerant of himself, suddenly thinking of a Tsubaki thing, his face became more and more pale, yet he still blocked in front of the empress, because he wanted to protect his mother.

Although the emperor only stepped forward, but the prince felt a big east mountain over the top and came, a forceful momentum from the front of the man wearing dragon robe body erupt, directly pressed on his body.

The crown prince seemed to be able to hear the sound of his knees creaking, he was afraid, he wanted to retreat, but he could not retreat, because he knew that the emperor was in the midst of his anger, he did not know what kind of things the emperor would do to the mother in the midst of his anger.

So he stood between the emperor and the empress without letting him take a step, and tried his best to resist the compelling aura, his heart was in a bit of a trance, thinking, could this be the aura possessed by an overlord of a generation? Does someone who is able to sit on the dragon chair have to be this iron-blooded and ruthless?

“Why?” The crown prince struggled to support himself under the strong pressure, veins popping up on his neck as he roared shrilly, “Father, why!”

This time, the Emperor finally looked squarely at the Crown Prince, looking at this young man who dared to stop in front of him, the pupils of his eyes glowing with a ghostly light, his voice sounding as if it was squeezed out from the cracks of his lips as he cursed in a low voice, “Disgusting!”

The Crown Prince understood, the Crown Prince confirmed his suspicions, the Crown Prince collapsed, the Crown Prince’s legs went weak, all of a sudden he fell down and sat in front of the Emperor’s body, and began to howl, tears and snot coated his entire face.

The emperor did not look at him again, walked to the empress’s side, indifferently waved his hand, and slapped out another slap!

The Empress let out a miserable cry, and by this slap, she tumbled to the ground, lying on top of the short couch.

The Emperor lowered his head, attached himself to the Empress’ ear, and said in a voice that gritted his teeth, “I handed this child over to you, and you brought him up like this?”

The emperor raised his body and indifferently walked towards the outside of the Eastern Palace, and when he was about to leave the palace gates, he turned back to give a cold and disgusted look at the crown prince who was sitting paralyzed on the ground, and said contemptuously, “If you had dared to stand before me all the time earlier, I might have even given you some respect.”

After saying this, this exceptionally cold and ruthless Qing emperor whisked his sleeves away, his figure appeared to be so upright, so cold, not at all like a husband or a wife, but …… just a monarch.

The door of the East Palace was slowly closed, the smell of blood in the hall still remained, but except for the Empress and the Crown Prince who were crying in pain, there was no one, it seemed so silent and clear.

The crown prince suddenly stood up slowly, somewhat woodenly helping his mother to sit up.

Snapped, the empress slapped him. The crown prince is not even dodge, eyes filled with despair and struggle eyes, a hand raised to hold his mother’s wrist under the second slap, said fiercely, “Mother …… if you do not want to die, hurry to think of a way to notify grandma!”

The Empress was stunned at once.

East Palace and Guangxin Palace, inside and outside the palace, inside and outside the Raccoon Square, just in half an hour, any eunuchs and palace maids who had ever served inside the two palaces had been killed as many as they could at this point, leaving not a single survivor except for Hongzhu, and hundreds of wronged souls were sacrificed just for the sake of the Emperor’s efforts to cover up the royal family’s scandals.

Perhaps it was not until this moment that this Emperor of Qing, began to gradually reveal his most iron blooded, cold, and also the most powerful side.

This middle-aged man wearing a dragon robe came outside Guangxin Palace by himself.

He was not followed by any of the eunuchs.

When Eunuch Hong saw him coming, he bowed deeply and then disappeared without a trace like a ghost.

This entire Guangxin Palace was left with only the Princess inside the palace, and the Emperor outside the palace, the two of them standing apart from the thick palace door, not knowing what each other was thinking about. The next is death, or memories? Is it more than ten years of knowing each other, or is it a moment of separation? Is it a ruler and a subject, or is it a brother and sister?

The wind was picking up.

The dark clouds over Kyoto grew thicker and thicker.

A bolt of lightning struck down, and countless rains poured down.

The eldest princess sitting on the short couch slowly raised her head and looked at the palace door with a cold and ridiculous gaze. The palace door was slowly pushed open with a creaking sound, and a middle-aged man who was soaked to the skin and had long hair spread out behind him slowly walked in, and the dragon painted on the dragon robe on his body seemed to be struggling in the wet water, wanting to rush out and tear down everything on this earth.

The eldest princess, Li Yunrui, looked at him indifferently and said, “As it turns out, you will also be in such a sorry state.”

There was a ching! The sky was filled with thunder and lightning, and the electric light shone on the dimly lit imperial palace, illuminating everything with light in a very short period of time.

Especially the figure of His Majesty the Emperor, that angry and oppressive, lonely and domineering figure.