Chapter 562: The Truth from Back Then
"Consort Li must have fallen into a deep sleep after the medicine took effect. Fengxi stayed before the late Emperor for a long time. At that moment, I thought he would definitely make a move to kill the late Emperor. I was a bit scared, but I didn’t leave. What I didn’t expect was that he came towards the place where I was hiding. He pulled me out, and only then did I realize he had always known I was hiding there. I looked at him without speaking, fearing to alert anyone outside. Instead, he gently asked me if I was willing to do him a favor."
"At the time, I was still hesitant. Although I despised what the late Emperor had done, he was still my father. I was very worried that the favor Fengxi would ask for was to kill my father, which I absolutely couldn’t do. To my surprise, Fengxi merely handed me a medicine pill and asked me to feed it to my father, telling me that the pill had no harmful effects. Fengxi had saved my life, so I trusted him. I took the pill and fed it to my father. Then Fengxi laid my father on the bed and took me back to the palace."
When Qin Shutong reached this point, he couldn’t help but laugh: "It was only later when Xichen told me that you cultivators must not harm the human Monarchs or disturb the peace in the world that I understood why Fengxi, despite having the opportunity, never did anything to the late Emperor. At the time, I didn’t know what the pill I fed my father was, but he showed no signs of abnormality, which reassured me. However, in those few days, he frequently summoned people to his chambers and later flew into a rage, even my mother was restricted, punished because of it. I accidentally overheard a conversation between my mother and her trusted maid, saying that the late Emperor could no longer perform, it was useless. My mother even remarked that it was a blessing in disguise, preventing another tumultuous scandal in the harem because of Consort Li."
Qin Shutong sighed: "But the harem still couldn’t escape its bloody fate. After that, my father’s temper became exceedingly violent, resorting to execution at the slightest provocation, even targeting Consort Li at his most frenzied. Not long after, Consort Li became pregnant, which delighted my father as he believed it to be his child. He was so excited that he claimed if Consort Li gave birth to a son, he would make him Crown Prince. Consort Li’s pregnancy slightly tempered my father’s temper, and he worshiped her like a deity, not tolerating a single bad word against her. Anyone who dared speak ill of Consort Li would be executed without hesitation. The palace was filled with terror, and no one dared to trouble Consort Li anymore, let alone harm the child in her womb. Consort Li also changed her usually cold demeanor and became much gentler towards my father. At that time, everyone believed that Consort Li would surely ascend in status."
"However, unexpectedly to everyone, after my father began to trust her, Consort Li started to poison him. By the time she was about to give birth, my father was bedridden. Consort Li made a deal with my mother, asking for nothing else but for my mother to help her leave the Capital City upon my father’s death. My mother agreed, promising to send her away as long as she left. On the day my father passed away, my mother used her connections to quietly send Consort Li out of the city, but she did station assassins at the city gates. If Consort Li really left, she would be spared, but if she dared to return, she would meet her end with no place for burial."