Priceless: A widow with a baby asks the prince to marry again

Chapter 285 Jade Fall 22 Whipping the Dragon Robe

As the sky brightened, the breathtaking silence along the Qinhuai River was broken by the clanging of horses' hooves and footsteps.

The two armies faced each other, but the real bloody battle did not break out as King Kang's subordinates had expected.

When King Kang appeared in front of the battle and raised a white jade board, the obviously well-trained army on the opposite side retreated to both sides, leaving a clear path.

The tiger talisman can mobilize all the troops of Daxia, including the imperial guards. After Chu Shiqi ascended the throne, these imperial guards fulfilled their duties and accompanied the new emperor south, but at this moment they easily gave way.

This puzzled Qin Tao who was standing behind him. Why would the order of a stone be above the emperor's will?

However, the chill emanating from King Kang at this time made Qin Tao dare not ask.

King Kang put away the jade token without saying a word, tapped the horse's belly with his calf, and the horse walked forward slowly.

The personal guards around him, the soldiers behind him, and the independent entourage all performed their duties. Some followed him on the left and right, some occupied the positions vacated by the Royal Guards, and some followed closely behind to act as his mouthpiece at any time.

The heavy, vermilion-lacquered gate of the palace was flung open with a thud, its hinges groaning harshly like the last gasps of a dying man. The courtyard within, once paved with mirror-like tiles, was now covered in dust and scattered fallen leaves, exuding an unspeakable bleakness and deathly silence in the twilight.

King Kang rode his horse into the gate. Every step he took on the bricks made a heavy sound of horse hooves. Behind him were his guards who were as fierce as wolves and tigers and full of murderous intent. Their swords were half an inch unsheathed, and the cold light was sharp, completely tearing apart the last bit of false tranquility in the front hall.

Right in the middle of the white marble imperial road leading to the main hall, a lone figure stood there, blocking the way.

He is the prime minister of the current dynasty and the grandfather of the eighth prince.

He was wearing a purple dragon robe that symbolized a high position of power, but the luxurious fabric made his face look as pale as gold paper, without a trace of blood.

His usually carefully groomed hair and beard were a little disheveled. He tried to straighten his back, trying to maintain the last bit of composure, but his slightly trembling hands and the unconcealable panic and despair in his eyes had already betrayed the devastation in his heart.

He watched King Kang approach from above, his gaze indifferent as he passed over him, as if he were looking at a dead object. A deep fear gripped him, but he knew there was no way out. He drew in a sharp breath, hoarse as a broken bellows, as if he had exhausted all his strength.

"Your Highness, Prince Kang!" The Prime Minister's voice was sharp and abrupt, breaking the dead silence with a kind of mad desperation. He suddenly pulled a bright yellow scroll from his wide sleeves and held it high in his hands. The scroll swayed in his trembling hands, as if it would drop at any moment.

"Here is the late emperor's will!" he shouted, his eyes fixed on Prince Kang, trying to find a trace of hesitation on that icy face. "The throne is passed to the eighth prince, Chu Shiqi! It's written in black and white, with the imperial seal and red seal! The evidence is as strong as a mountain!"

He unfolded the scroll slightly, revealing the bright red seal and the familiar imperial calligraphy. His voice rose in pitch, carrying a final gamble and a hint of morbid enthusiasm: "Your Highness! You are the late emperor's legitimate son, renowned throughout the world for your loyalty and filial piety! How could you...how could you disobey the late emperor's will and commit such a heinous act?! Please withdraw your troops immediately and obey my orders!"

His words echoed in the empty courtyard like a dying wail. He was betting on King Kang's reverence for the four words "the late emperor's will," betting on whether loyalty and filial piety would become shackles that bound King Kang! He hoped that King Kang would pause, hesitate, and consider this fabricated "legacy"!

As expected, the horse's hooves stopped a few steps away from the prime minister.

What delighted the Prime Minister and disturbed the officials accompanying Prince Kang was that Prince Kang actually dismounted and reached for the imperial edict adorned with pearls and jade!

As the Prime Minister stood there in shock and bewilderment, the accompanying official shouted, "How dare you mention this forgery! We have complete and tangible evidence that you and the Eighth Prince poisoned the late Emperor! We've also recently located the ghostwriter who forged the imperial edict by imitating the late Emperor's handwriting!"

"This is the handwriting of the late emperor! How can there be someone who wrote it for him?!" The prime minister retorted angrily, but the cold sweat on his forehead showed that he had already known the truth. The poisoning of the late emperor was known to the world, and now that the army was defeated, the authenticity of the will was probably not important... But this was the only thing he could still fight for.

King Kang seemed oblivious to the clamor and debate surrounding him. He slowly opened the bright yellow scroll he had longed for countless times, his hand pausing as he revealed the name of the successor...

Her delicate eyes were dazed as she looked at the three characters Chu Shiqi...

...

A sparkling and tranquil lakeside, with rockery, flowing water, pavilions and towers around, it feels indescribably leisurely and comfortable.

But if you take a closer look and see the exquisite materials and delicate carvings, you can tell that this is not the home of an ordinary family.

In a pavilion with a gentle breeze, a man wearing a jade crown held a book and casually flipped through it. A child in brocade clothes held a brush in his small hands and slowly wasted time at a low desk...

The charcoal-black ink fell on the snow-white paper, forming horizontal, vertical, left-falling, right-falling and right-falling strokes into childish characters.

After adding a few lines to the paper, the boy suddenly thought of something and turned to the man reading and asked, "Dad, why did you give my third brother the character 'Yu' with the character 'gold' on the radical?"

The man didn't even take his eyes off the book, and replied in a cold, natural voice, "If jade is not polished, it will become a useful object."

The boy understood the answer for a moment, but then pouted in dissatisfaction and said, "Dad, I'm asking why my third brother's name is different from mine and my second brother's."

"Same, both are nicknames for jade." The man perfunctorily replied without even looking up, turning a page of the book in his hand.

The boy became even more dissatisfied. He put down his brush and moved closer to the man. While rummaging through the book that occupied his father's attention, he continued to argue, "I'm asking why ours all have the character "王" on the radical, while your third brother's has the character "金" on the radical?!"

The young, delicate hand dipped in ink and left a mark on the book. The man closed his eyes and took a deep breath impatiently, then sighed helplessly. He looked at the boy who was standing even taller than him and corrected him, "That's the character for jade, but yours is on the left and Shi Yu's is on the right."

The boy paused, then said with a puzzled look on his face, "The character for jade...shouldn't there be a dot added to it?"

"It doesn't need to be added as a radical." The man looked away from the boy and wanted to pick up the book again.

The boy tugged at the man's arm, shaking it and making a scene. "Since it's both jade, why are they different?! Without the dot, wouldn't it just be the character for 'king'?!"

The man put the book down again and said reluctantly, "Then add a little bit."

The boy stopped fidgeting, but his mouth was still pouting in dissatisfaction. "But... the book always says it has the character for 王 (king). If we add a little more, won't that make it wrong?"

The man lowered his eyes in a trance after hearing this. After a few breaths of silence, he said calmly, "Characters are man-made and change over time. How can there be right or wrong? It's just that everyone in the world uses them that way, so we call it right."

The boy tilted his head, trying to understand his father's words. However, at such a young age, he could only see what was happening in front of him. "But if I write like this, the teacher will definitely criticize me for writing wrong..."

The man chuckled, stood up, walked to the low desk, took the brush the child had just used, dipped it in ink, and then took a step forward. Next to the low desk was a desk of normal height, with blank rice paper spread on it.

Seeing this, the boy knew that his father was going to write, but he was only slightly higher than a normal desk and could not see his father clearly. So he anxiously shouted "Dad" and grabbed the jade belt around the man's waist, trying to climb up.

"Ah..." The man sighed helplessly, leaned over, reached out his hand, and picked up the boy steadily with one arm.

The boy's perspective was level with his father's, and he finally calmed down, watching his father calmly write with his other hand.

He took up his brush and wrote the word "Kun" on the rice paper. Then he added a dot on the "Wang" radical of the word "Kun", making it a real "Yu" radical. At first glance, it looked like a return stroke, but if you looked closely you could see that it was an extra dot.

"Hang it up in the school, and no teacher will tell you you have made a mistake."

The boy questioned for a moment why his father would not be told that he was wrong if he wrote something wrong?

But then he understood. How could his father be wrong? It must be that everyone else had written it wrong, and he had discovered the problem, so his father had corrected it. Thinking of this, the boy smiled triumphantly.

"Is it okay?" A slightly cold voice was heard close to my ear.

But the boy, who was still being held in his arms and feeling the warmth of his chest, didn't notice the coldness. He was still looking at the word "Kun" on the table, smiling with satisfaction, and replied with a spoiled tone: "That's enough~"

A large hand brushed the boy's face, revealing the sternness in Ruifeng's eyes. The man asked coldly, "I'm asking, can you continue practicing calligraphy?"

The boy was a little timid at his father's stern attitude, but more of an embarrassment at being caught being lazy. The boy blushed and whispered, "Okay..."

...

Her pretty eyes stared at the word "Qi" on the imperial edict, and the corners of her lips unconsciously curled up, revealing an inappropriate smile.

But it was just a blink of an eye, and the passage of twenty years had added a touch of loneliness to this smile... After regaining his composure, Chu Shikun put away the faint smile and the imperial edict in his hand.

He handed the imperial edict to the personal guard behind him and signaled him to keep it. Chu Shikun's face was already indifferent. He did not say a word about the authenticity of the imperial edict. He asked directly: "Where is Chu Shiqi?"

The prime minister was pinned down by two personal soldiers who understood what was going on. However, King Kang's strange attitude gave him a slight illusion. He struggled and roared, "The imperial edict is true! Why doesn't King Kang dare to admit it!", but was roughly dragged to the side hall. His voice quickly faded away and was drowned out.

Chu Shikun didn't even glance at the struggling figure, his indifferent eyes fixed on the wide-open main hall door. He stepped forward, his armor clanging, each step shattering the palace's last vestiges of tranquility. His personal guards followed closely behind, the chill of their blades spreading throughout the air.

Inside the main hall, the scent of incense lingered, yet it couldn't suppress a sense of decadence and death. The magnificent golden beams and pillars, the dragon-shaped caisson ceiling, and the draping bright yellow curtains all seemed hollow and ironic.

In the center of the hall, on the large and heavy chair, sat a man wearing a bright yellow dragon robe.

It was the eighth prince Chu Shiqi.

However, the dragon robe did not remove the majesty of an emperor when worn on him. Instead, it was ill-fitting, loose and cumbersome, making him look ridiculous as if he was wearing an adult's clothes.

Chu Shiqi's face was ashen, his eye sockets sunken. His former domineering aura was gone, replaced only by a lost and dejected look. He didn't even glance at the incoming Prince Kang, his gaze fixed empty on the cold tile floor before him, as if his soul had been drained away. He sat slumped in the dragon throne, like a costumed puppet drained of all life.

Chu Shikun stopped at the bottom of the stairs, his gaze instantly like a cold blade, slicing through the dazzling yellow of Chu Shiqi's body inch by inch! The familiar dragon pattern! Now worn by this patricide and usurper!

The anger that had been suppressed for who knows how long erupted like a volcano!

"Chu Shiqi!"

Chu Shikun's voice was low and powerful, like a muffled thunder rolling in the hall, shaking the candlelight!

Chu Shiqi's body trembled imperceptibly, and his hollow eyes finally regained a glimmer of focus. He slowly raised his head and looked down the stairs at his brother, clad in black armor and looking like a god of war. There was no fear or pleading in his eyes, only a dead numbness and a sense of despair.

He twitched the corners of his mouth, revealing a smile uglier than crying, one filled with self-mockery and despair. His voice was hoarse and dry, like sandpaper rubbing against the flesh: "Heh... Big Brother... You win."

"The winner will be the king and the loser will be the bandit. You can kill me or chop me up. It's all up to you." Chu Shiqi even raised his hand lazily and symbolically, as if to say: It's up to you.

This attitude of accepting his fate but showing no regrets, and still wearing the dragon robe, completely ignited the most violent anger in Chu Shikun's heart!

"As you wish?" Chu Shikun laughed in anger. His laughter was icy and piercing, filled with murderous intent. "Do you think that you can atone for your sins by dying?! Take off your dragon robe! Take off this filthy dragon robe!"

"Take it off!"

He practically roared the last two words, the sound echoing in the empty hall, making people's eardrums hurt.

Chu Shiqi was startled by this thunderous roar, but then it was replaced by a twisted, final stubbornness! Instead of standing up, he subconsciously grasped the wide cuffs of the dragon robe and shrank further into the spacious dragon throne, as if this piece of clothing was his last comfort! He roared out in the same voice: "I won't take it off! I am the emperor! I will die wearing the dragon robe!"

"emperor?!"

The rage in Chu Shikun's eyes almost turned into reality! He stepped forward quickly! He raised his arm suddenly!

"Snapped!!!"

The tough horse whip, soaked in wind, frost, blood and sweat, was like an enraged black poisonous dragon, tearing through the dull air and emitting a shrill scream that made people's scalps explode! The whip tip was wrapped in a thousand pounds of force, and it hit Chu Shiqi's forearm and shoulder tightly grasping the cuffs of the dragon robe!

"Ah!" A shrill and distorted howl burst out from Chu Shiqi's throat!

The resilient whip ripped the bright yellow brocade! The golden thread, the product of countless skilled craftsmen's labor, snapped like fragile spider silk! A rapidly swelling, purple-black bloodstain was left on the delicate flesh! The searing pain, like a venomous snake bite, made Chu Shiqi leap up and tumble off the dragon throne!