A piece of Japanese incense

Chapter 251 Going abroad

It was in Xuanzheng Hall. This palace and Concubine Xin both saw it. If this palace had not been on the battlefield with my father and had seen the heroic General Xiqi from afar, this palace would not have dared to believe that the prisoner with a fine steel chain piercing his scapula, imprisoned like an animal in a dark and dark secret room, with a emaciated body, neither human nor ghost, was actually Princess Zhaoren's consort—!

"Shut up!" The emperor's expression turned extremely ugly after hearing the queen's words. The sword in his hand pointed directly at the queen, almost stabbing her in the heart!

"Confer him upon Chu!" the Empress roared, forcing the Emperor to freeze. Facing his ferocious face, the Empress taunted him sharply, "Are you imprisoning him because he's a remnant of the previous dynasty, or because he saved you from danger in Xiqi and saw you at your most vulnerable? Or perhaps, is it because of the unspeakable hatred and fear you harbor deep in your heart for a truly heroic figure? You simply don't deserve to rule this world! You don't deserve anyone's loyalty or love!"

"Unworthy?!" The emperor took a step forward, the tip of his sword almost piercing the bleeding lapels of the queen's clothes, "Everything I do is for the country and the people! How can I allow you, a vicious woman, to have your say!"

He seemed to have found an outlet to vent his emotions, pushing all the darkness and hypocrisy under a high-sounding excuse, and his voice was full of self-proclaimed sense of justice.

"What about Brother Jing Mo? He treated you like a brother. Not only did he go with you to Xiqi as a hostage, but he also saved you from danger every time you fought in the four directions! Sanshengtang is his wife's hard work! You coveted other people's property, and when you failed to seize it, you killed them!"

"You think I don't know? Yun Jingmo, that scoundrel!" the emperor gritted his teeth. "He's just a mere attendant, yet he's pretending to be my brother. He's just relying on his wife, who comes from a wealthy family! He's using Xiqi's money to own the Sanshengtang, a wealthy place in Dongli. I've repeatedly hinted that Sanshengtang should be returned to the national treasury to supplement military pay and benefit the people! But what about him? He's been so evasive, so ungrateful!"

All of Xiqi belongs to me, including the money! How can a woman like her deserve such great wealth? I am only making this money play its due role! I am acting on behalf of Heaven! If he refuses, then he is harboring evil intentions, harboring ill intentions, and intending to use wealth to disrupt the country! I am only taking the initiative to eliminate this hidden danger in advance! Let him know who is the true master of Dongli!

"You are shameless!" The queen trembled with anger.

The emperor snorted coldly, a sinister glint in his eyes. He then changed the subject and pointed the finger at the empress: "I'm after money? What about you? Your Yan family has guarded the border for generations, loyal to the emperor and patriotic? Then let me ask you, why is your brother Yan Shaoyu so close to the powerful prime minister Chi Ganmian in Xizhe, and why are they exchanging letters?! Xizhe and our country are constantly at odds on the border, and Chi Ganmian is even more ambitious! What is your intention in being so close to him?!"

"Prime Minister Chigan is an upright man who values his word! He governs the West and governs the people with wisdom. The unrest on the border between the two countries is mostly caused by scoundrels, and he has been working hard to suppress it! Being friends with him is like being a hero! It's all about peace on the border! How can a filthy villain like you, who only knows how to play tricks behind the scenes and is suspicious of loyal people, understand that?"

"Heroes cherish each other? Hahaha! What a hero cherishes each other! Honest and aboveboard?" The emperor laughed so hard that he fell backwards. After finally stopping his laughter, he pointed the tip of his sword at the queen: "Is this the reason you let your precious daughter get pregnant with Chi Ganmian's son before marriage? Huh?! My queen?!"

"Shut up! You're slandering me! You're spitting blood!" The queen struggled to get up, but because of her injuries, she could only claw at the blood-stained ground in vain.

"Slander?" The emperor looked down at her utterly miserable appearance, and slowly put away his smile: "How could I have said such nonsense without any real evidence! Back then, you ignored the fact that Yi'an already had a wife and daughter and still asked me to grant you a marriage. I realized something was wrong. Yan Yingyi, this is the good daughter you have raised! She even gave up the dignity of the royal family and her own innocence, just to give birth to an heir for a dead man!"

The queen completely collapsed to the ground. After a moment, she suddenly let out a creepy laugh. She raised her head, stared at the emperor, and said word by word:

'Hehe... Hahaha! My Yan family has been loyal and brave for generations, and we are worthy of heaven and earth. I never thought we would end up like this. Today, I, the daughter of the Yan family, would rather die than be humiliated by you, a tyrant! What you did today will be punished by heaven! The loyal souls of my Yan family, as well as those who have been harmed and died in vain by you, we are all waiting for you on the road to the underworld!'

Before she could finish her words, the Queen stabbed herself in the abdomen with the blood-stained sword in her hand.

"Even if I die... I will keep my eyes open and watch you fall into disgrace, your country be destroyed... your family be annihilated..."

The Empress fell at the Emperor's feet with her eyes wide open.

"Incompetent Emperor!!" Yan Shaoyu had originally wanted to find an opportunity to lead everyone out, but he witnessed the tragic scene of the Empress committing suicide. He immediately lost his mind and no longer had any respect for the emperor and his subjects. He drew his sword and rushed towards the emperor, roaring in grief and anger: "Yan Family Army! Follow me and kill us! Even if I die today, I will not let this incompetent emperor tarnish the reputation of my Yan family's century-old loyalty and bravery!"

However, the reality is cruel.

In order to "rescue the emperor," most of the Yan family's elite soldiers had already been killed or wounded when they stormed the palace and broke through the numerous blockades. Now, the remaining soldiers were all injured and exhausted.

The emperor's personal guards and the imperial guards that were subsequently dispatched came from all directions, and the archers occupied the commanding heights.

"Shoot! Kill without mercy." The emperor gave the order.

Whoosh!Whoosh!Whoosh!

The rain of arrows came like a swarm of locusts, overwhelming the sky! The soldiers of the Yan family army brandished their weapons to block the arrows, but they kept falling down. Yan Shaoyu led the charge, desperately blocking the arrows for the remaining guards.

Swords and swords flashed, flesh and blood flew everywhere.

Under the desperate protection of my personal guards, I watched him fighting bloody battles, getting up again and again, being shot again and again, and falling to the ground.

Before he died, he turned around and glanced at me.

He mouthed to me, 'Live!'

Afterwards, in order to protect a young bodyguard behind him, he turned sideways and used his chest to meet an even denser wave of arrows!

Dozens of sharp arrows pierced his heavy armor, but he still held on to his sword stubbornly and did not fall down immediately.

He threw himself towards me again, his lips moving as if he wanted to say something, but only large mouthfuls of blood gushed out.

I regret it so much! I regret that I haven't even officially called him 'father' yet...

I was thrown into a pile of corpses, and when the emperor's men set fire to clear the area, a small team found me from the sea of fire.

Yan Shaoyu and Xizhuo State Minister Chi Ganmian were close friends. When the Yan family army marched into the capital to "rescue the emperor," Chi Ganmian, though far away in Xizhuo, was well aware of the dangers involved and secretly dispatched a detachment of his most elite soldiers to accompany them, just in case, he could give his old friend a glimmer of hope.

It was these fearless Western warriors who fought through blood and paid a heavy price to rescue me, who was seriously injured, from a sea of corpses and blood.

Prime Minister Chigan mobilized the entire nation, invited renowned doctors, and used precious medicinal herbs to finally bring me back from the brink of death. I spent over a year recuperating in the west before I could finally walk. Since then, I've been hiding in the Prime Minister's mansion, not daring to show my face. Until recently, I heard about you..."

Yu Nian's voice finally stopped, and the only sound in the room was the occasional crackling of candlelight.

The overwhelming amount of information repeatedly assaulted Zhiyi's numbed nerves. The Empress's resolute suicide, General Yan's tragic death in battle, Yu Nian's narrow escape, and the deaths of his grandfather and maternal grandfather, imprisoned in the secret room of Xuanzheng Hall, their lives unknown...

Prime Minister's Mansion... West of... Prime Minister?!

The points that she had previously overlooked were connected one by one:

dry air,

The sand under your feet,

The vast, empty atmosphere outside the fence,

There was even the exotic scent that permeated the room, a mixture of strange spices and leather...

"Wait..." Zhi Yihe was shocked. "Brother Nian, you just said, 'West?' Chigan Xiangguo? Then, where are we now?"

Yu Nian replied, "Ah He, we are in the west, at the Prime Minister's villa."

She actually... went abroad?! She had always thought she was still at a beach somewhere in the east, but the sand beneath her feet wasn't a beach, but a desert?!