Chapter 23: The Tyrant Appears! Overbearing Husband, Fierce Protection

Watching the scrap of robe beneath Zhu Wuhuan’s foot and hearing her say that from this day on there would be nothing left between them but the hatred of a clan’s extermination, the Jin Prince felt completely at a loss.

How did it…end up like this?

This was nothing like what he’d envisioned before he came!

He looked at Zhu Wuhuan with a complicated gaze.

This woman whom he used to toy with at will with the slightest bit of effort—when had she become so sharp, so astute?

No, this wasn’t the Zhu Wuhuan he knew…

But if she wasn’t Zhu Wuhuan, who could she be?

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Wuhuan, who told you these things? Do the years we’ve known each other really count for less than a few words of provocation whispered in your ear?”

Zhu Wuhuan sneered. “I’ve said this much and you’re still putting on an act? Isn’t that a bit pointless?”

Seeing he was about to speak, she cut him off, domineering. “I am tired. Prince Jin, withdraw!”

The Jin Prince, incensed, said, “Zhu Wuhuan, I haven’t finished speaking—”

Wuhuan thought, Who cares if you’ve finished? I’ve said what I wanted, I feel great—that’s what matters. If you choke on your words, even better!

“As the Empress, my rank stands alongside the Son of Heaven. When I tell you to withdraw, do you not understand?”

She pointed at the moon gate, blunt and unceremonious. “Or must I summon the Imperial Guards to escort you out, Prince Jin?”

The Jin Prince glared at her, face ashen. “Zhu Wuhuan, you’re actually putting on the Empress’s airs with me?”

“As the Empress, I should display an Empress’s dignity! I was courteous to you before and you took it to mean I had no temper?”

After snapping at him, Zhu Wuhuan raised her voice. “Attend me!”

Seeing that she truly dared to call the Guards regardless of consequence, the Jin Prince’s expression darkened.

He knew there was no way to continue speaking with her today. He flung his sleeve in anger and turned to leave.

“Zhu Wuhuan! You’ve believed someone else and misunderstood me so deeply—you’ll regret this sooner or later!

Whether you believe it or not, my feelings for you have never changed from beginning to end!”

He had meant to toss out these two lines to disturb Zhu Wuhuan’s mind and then go back and slowly plot how to explain himself.

He hadn’t expected that, in order to make those words sound forceful and resounding, he would raise his voice just a bit…

And so, the two people in the pavilion—Feng Changye and the Empress Dowager—heard every word clearly.

The Empress Dowager clutched her chest, heart pounding!

She hadn’t heard what Jin’er and Zhu Wuhuan said earlier—they were too far away—but those last two lines were far too loud!

She heard them; how could the Emperor not?

She hurriedly turned to look at the Emperor.

At a glance, her heart almost leapt out of her chest!

The Emperor’s face was thunderous!

Feng Changye ignored the Empress Dowager’s look and slowly stood.

With a domineering motion, he ripped down the sheer gauze hanging from the pavilion, revealing his and the Empress Dowager’s figures.

Hands clasped behind his back, he stood high above, looking down over the garden at the Jin Prince, his gaze icy. “Come, tell Us—what feelings for the Empress have remained unchanged from beginning to end?”

“—!” At that familiar voice, the Jin Prince’s back stiffened in an instant.

He froze mid-step and lifted his head toward the sound.

When he saw Feng Changye standing in the nearby rockery pavilion, his face went deathly pale, and the fingers at his side trembled.

Damn it!

Why hadn’t his men told him that Feng Changye had left the palace today as well?

He abruptly turned back to stare at Zhu Wuhuan, his expression dark.

“Zhu Wuhuan—it was you!”

He ground out the words through clenched teeth. “You actually colluded with my royal brother to set me up!”

“…” Zhu Wuhuan felt wronged!

She hadn’t known that the tyrant Feng Changye had left the palace, much less that he was sitting in the pavilion of the neighboring residence!

When she’d come to the garden to meet the Jin Prince, she had looked around and noticed the rockery pavilion next door, but it was veiled by gauze and she couldn’t see who was inside. How could she have known Feng Changye was there?

She glanced at the Jin Prince glaring at her with bared teeth, then at Feng Changye up in the high pavilion.

Her mind spun at high speed!

She had to protect herself—she couldn’t let the tyrant, in a fit of rage, depose both her and the Jin Prince. Otherwise, wouldn’t this transmigration be for nothing?

What could make a tyrant accept, after personally seeing his Empress meet an old flame, that he shouldn’t depose her?

Zhu Wuhuan’s eyes flashed—an idea!

She immediately lifted her head toward Feng Changye on the rockery and raised her voice.

“Your Majesty! Did you not wish to see how loyal the Zhu family truly is to you? This concubine did not hesitate to tarnish my own feathers, to risk myself and personally test the Jin Prince’s wolfish ambition for you!”

She pointed at the Jin Prince. “Your Majesty, the Jin Prince harbors disloyalty and covets your throne. This concubine can testify!”

She brought her joined hands up and bowed deeply. “Please grant this concubine a chance to recount today’s entire course of events. I will make you see clearly the Jin Prince’s wolfish ambition!”

“Royal Brother!” The Jin Prince panicked as well!

He hadn’t expected Zhu Wuhuan to actually dare tell his royal brother everything!

This heartless woman—she meant to sell him out in exchange for her life!

Damn it—he would never allow it!

Even if he died, he would drag her down with him!

He hurriedly faced the pavilion, lifted his robe, and knelt, speaking urgently. “Royal Brother, do not listen to the Empress’s one-sided words! Your younger brother has always kept his place and never dared harbor disloyalty. I beg Royal Brother to discern the truth!”

He then lifted his eyes to the Empress Dowager. “Mother, Jin’er truly has not!”

The Empress Dowager had been somewhat displeased with her younger son for entangling himself with the Emperor’s woman—it was far too improper.

But seeing her most-favored younger son collapse to his knees in fright, her heart ached at once.

She shot Zhu Wuhuan a vicious glare.

“Emperor, do not believe Zhu Wuhuan! In this widow’s view, all of today’s matter stems from that woman’s failure to keep the ways of a wife!”

She said angrily, “The Zhu family was to be executed to the last—she did not want to die, so she had someone send word to Jin’er and used her beauty to seduce him into saving her entire clan!”

In the garden, Zhu Wuhuan suddenly looked up at the Empress Dowager—

She practically wanted to curse!

【This Empress Dowager is far too biased! Feng Changjin is her son—but I’m also her eldest son’s wife. How can she start off by taking sides?】

【Saying I’m unchaste? Oh? As a mother, she claims her eldest daughter-in-law is unchaste—how does that make her eldest son look?】

【She only thinks of her younger son and is trampling her elder son’s face right into the ground!】

“…” Hearing Zhu Wuhuan’s inner voice, Feng Changye frowned slightly.

As an onlooker, he hadn’t realized—until this woman spelled it out—that his mother’s words so clearly favored the Jin Prince and slighted him.

She had successfully stirred a touch of displeasure in him.

He looked coolly at the Empress Dowager.

“Mother, if you place all the blame upon the Empress, do you know that We never issued any decree to depose her?”

He curved his lips faintly. “The Empress’s position is perfectly secure. Why would she summon the Jin Prince to save her?”