Chapter 83
None of them had truly understood Qi Junmu. These past days, Qi Junmu's subtle coldness toward the Lin family had all been attributed to Shen Nian. None of them had realized that the source of it all was Qi Junmu himself.
With that thought, Lin En turned to Shen Nian, who had been standing quietly behind Qi Junmu all along. "When the rabbit is dead, the hound is boiled," he said. "Marquis Zhenbei, seeing all this today—aren't you afraid?"
[兔死狗烹 (tù sǐ gǒu pēng): lit. When the rabbit is dead, the hound is boiled; fig. Trusted aides are eliminated after they outlive their usefulness.]
"Not at all." Shen Nian smiled lightly, his tone open and frank. "My loyalty to His Majesty is as clear as the heavens. Even if His Majesty were to do such a thing, I would accept it willingly."
Lin En: "..."
He had meant to sow discord between the loyal minister and the Emperor, but somehow, Shen Nian's words made it sound rather... odd.
Qi Junmu spoke up at that point. "Twin sons are seen as an ill omen. At birth, one is cast away. Most people choose to abandon the weaker one. You may resent your fate, you may cry injustice—but that has nothing to do with me. You shouldn't lay that blame at my feet."
Lin En let out a bitter laugh at the Emperor. "It's easy for Your Majesty to speak so casually, since you never had your face stripped from you as a child. If the face had truly been ruined, that would be one thing—but it wasn't. It was never destroyed, yet it could never be shown to the world. Don't you find that laughable, Your Majesty?"
Qi Junmu replied flatly, "No."
Lin En fell silent. He was the loser. He had nothing left to say.
In the silence, Yue shi spoke up. She looked at the Emperor, her voice anxious and urgent. "Your Majesty, Fuhua—"
She didn't even know how to finish. She was no fool. What she had just witnessed left her dazed—but the moment Lin Xiao's illegitimate son came to light, along with everything the Emperor had said, she understood: Lin Xiao had never truly cared for Fuhua.
She had been waiting all this time for Fuhua to marry Lin En, so that she could return to her side properly.
Everything the Emperor had revealed tonight was beyond anything she had ever imagined. Even Lin Xiao, standing beside her, now felt like a stranger.
Lin Xiao, met with Yue shi's look of utter disappointment, opened his mouth—but in the end, said nothing.
The Empress Dowager looked from Qi Junmu to Lin En, her eyes full of confusion and sudden clarity—as if she understood everything and nothing at the same time.
Having laid everything bare, Qi Junmu felt utterly drained. He no longer wished to see any of these so-called family members.
As Qi Junmu seemed about to speak, the Empress Dowager hurriedly asked, "What does Your Majesty intend to do?"
"What does Imperial Mother think I should do?" Qi Junmu cast a slanting glance at her. "What would Imperial Mother think Imperial Father would have done, had he faced such a thing?"
At the mention of Emperor Jing, the Empress Dowager's expression darkened considerably. "You are not the late Emperor," she said.
"How am I different?" Qi Junmu said coolly. "Imperial Father was the Emperor, and I am the Emperor. When an Emperor is plotted against, it is the same for any of them."
At these words, the Empress Dowager understood: he would not let the Lin family off lightly today.
She looked at Qi Junmu and said, "Your Majesty, your uncle did help you in the past."
Qi Junmu let out a scoff. He stared at the Empress Dowager, his eyes utterly devoid of emotion. "And I gave them chances. There are few in this world more ambitious than my uncle, and even fewer who would dare try to usurp the Emperor's place."
The Empress Dowager fell silent. She knew this matter was a great humiliation for the Emperor. If it had been her, she would have had the schemers chopped to pieces and their ashes scattered to the winds.
But the Lin family was her family. Lin En was her child…
She wanted to say more, but Qi Junmu cut her off coldly: "The matter of the swapped children means nothing to me. You are the Empress Dowager—you should have already thought through the consequences of all this."
In one sentence, Qi Junmu forced the Empress Dowager to choose: keep her title, or keep Lin En as her son.
Her body swayed. She looked at Qi Junmu, then at Lin En. Finally, she shook her head and stepped back, refusing to make a choice.
In that instant, Qi Junmu felt it all seemed utterly meaningless.
These people before him—they were the ones he had hated most. Just thinking of them made his chest ache. Now they had all fallen before him, yet he felt not a shred of joy.
If Lin Xiao had been ignorant of the plot, it would not have hurt so much—but Lin Xiao had known.
If the Empress Dowager had tried to see things from his perspective, he might have felt some comfort—but even at the very end, her thoughts were still with the Lin family and with Lin En.
He had never once been in her consideration. And all of this weighed heavily on him.
In this vast palace, with so many relatives, there was not a single person standing by his side. The Emperor stood as solitary as the silent, endless night.
But then Shen Nian spoke up. "Your Majesty, it is getting late. The ministers are still waiting."
Shen Nian's voice was gentle, and it warmed the lonely heart of Qi Junmu in an instant.
He thought to himself: Yes. Even if there is no one else, I still have Shen Nian. This man is warm, and he will never leave me.
At that thought, a faint smile tugged at the corner of Qi Junmu's mouth, and a glimmer of light returned to his eyes. Then he looked at Lin Xiao and said, "Uncle, why?" He truly wanted to know—had all the affection and care from before all been a lie?
Lin Xiao glanced at Yue shi, then closed his eyes. His face seemed to age by years in an instant. Finally, he said, "Your Majesty, all these years I have never appeared before Lin Jiu. He knows nothing of any of this. I beg Your Majesty, for the sake of his innocence, to show him some leniency."
It wasn't that Lin Xiao hadn't considered denying everything, or even using Lin En to make a scene—to at least let the world know of Lin En's existence and pressure the Emperor. But Lin Jiu had already been found by the Emperor.
Yue shi's weakness was Fuhua. The Empress Dowager's weakness was Lin En. Lin En's weakness was Wen Wan.
Every one of their vulnerabilities was in the Emperor's hands. That was exactly why the Emperor had dared to lay everything bare tonight.
His stance was clear: he would not acknowledge Lin En's existence, and he would show no mercy to the Lin family.
At this point, perhaps they had truly aimed too high and thought things far too simple.
But no one had expected that Shen Nian would stand with the Emperor through it all—and that Qi Junmu, the Emperor himself, had never once doubted the man commanding such vast military power.
Lin Xiao did not give a reason, and Qi Junmu did not press further.
He had asked that one question, perhaps out of lingering resentment, perhaps to make a clean break with the past. Since things had come this far, there was no need to say more.
---
The ministers who had been watching the song and dance grew uneasy. The Emperor had been gone for quite a while, and the Left Chancellor and the others were also absent.
Something about the Emperor's conduct tonight felt deeply strange. Some even kept casting glances toward Qi Junyan and the others.
To all of this, the three of them remained expressionless and unmoved.
Their little schemes had already been seen through by the Emperor. There was no use saying anything more.
Before anyone knew it, some time had passed. Ruan Jiqing arrived, and for the first time, his usually gentle, handsome face bore no smile. He announced that the Emperor was feeling unwell and would not be appearing, and that all the officials should take their leave.
The officials were at a loss, sensing something amiss.
Still, they knew that the Emperor had always been close to Lin Xiao, so they did not dwell on it too much. One by one, they rose and took their leave.
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