33: Chapter 33 The Last Dance of the Lü Family

Lady Lu was terrified, stumbling backward repeatedly. The short sword in her hand hit the floor with a clang.

"You... how could you... how could you have been prepared so early?!"

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong finally stopped clapping. He tapped his knee gently with his folding fan and smiled.

"My dear mother, you don't really think that the smooth sailing along the way was Heaven helping you, do you?"

His voice was very soft, yet it struck Lady Lu's heart like heavy hammer blows.

"That was the road to the Yellow Springs that I specifically left open for you."

"If I, this Crown Prince, hadn't cleared the way, how could I let the people inside and outside the palace, and the people of the entire Great Ming Empire, see clearly how the noble Crown Princess of our Great Ming Dynasty led a group of eunuchs to cause chaos in the dead of night and armed themselves to murder the legitimate grandson of the current dynasty?"

"Murdering a legitimate mother?" Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong stood up and walked toward her step by step. The firelight cast flickering shadows on his face, and his eyes were like bottomless cold pools.

"No, from the moment you stepped into this great hall, it ceased to be about murdering a mother."

"It is suppressing a rebellion."

"It is... pacifying the troubles!"

He said the last two words very softly, yet they struck Lady Lu like a thunderbolt. Her whole body trembled violently, and unable to catch her breath, she fell backward stiffly.

"Take her down." Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong waved his hand, not even bothering to look at her again.

A group of ferocious Embroidered Uniform Guard officers swarmed forward, pinning down the eunuchs and palace maids who had already collapsed on the floor in terror.

Lady Lu had completely lost her mind. As she was hauled up from the ground, she continued to shriek, her voice so shrill and wretched that it didn't sound human.

"Kill him! Kill him for me! You bunch of useless trash!"

However, the only response she received was the cold, rasping sound of xiuchun blades being unsheathed.

Very quickly, the dozens of eunuchs and palace maids who had participated in the night raid were tied up tightly with ox-tendon ropes by the Embroidered Uniform Guard, their mouths stuffed with rags, kneeling in the courtyard outside the hall like pigs and sheep waiting to be slaughtered.

Inside the great hall, Lady Lu was pinned firmly to a chair by two Embroidered Uniform Guard officers, unable to move. She was no longer shrieking, but her whole body was trembling, and her eyes were fixed on the young man not far away, filled with fear and an intense, unmelting resentment.

She couldn't figure out where she had gone wrong.

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong seemed to see through her thoughts. He didn't rush to deal with these people; instead, he pulled over an embroidered stool, sat down leisurely in front of Lady Lu, and even had Eunuch Sanbao pour him a cup of hot tea.

Steam curled up, and the fragrance of tea wafted through the air.

He took a sip before speaking slowly, "Are you wondering how I, a fifteen-year-old boy, managed to scheme against you to this extent?"

Lady Lu gritted her teeth and said nothing.

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong didn't mind and continued on his own: "You thought your greatest reliance was the civil official faction your father, Lv Ben, had cultivated in the court, or the connections in the Eastern Palace you had managed for years? You were wrong."

He held up two fingers.

"Your true reliance was only two things. First, human nature. You bet on The Emperor being sentimental, you bet on the civil and military officials not daring to challenge the dignity of the Crown Prince, and you bet on me, this cowardly grandson, not daring to fight to the death."

"Second, intelligence. You thought you knew the Eastern Palace like the back of your hand, that you knew exactly how many people were around me and what I did every day. And that I knew nothing about you."

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong set down his teacup, making a soft sound.

"Unfortunately, you miscalculated both."

He stood up, paced over to Lady Lu, and looked down at her.

"Human nature is the least reliable thing. As for intelligence..." He smiled, with a hint of pity in it, "From the moment I walked out of the Eastern Palace to see my great-uncle, you were already blind and deaf."

"The messengers you sent to the Lv residence for help—their confessions should already be on The Emperor's desk by now."

"The little eunuch you planted by my side to monitor my every move was discovered by Eunuch Sanbao three days ago, tied hand and foot, and sunk into the palace's lotus pond to feed the fish."

Every sentence, every word, was like a heavy hammer, shattering Lady Lu's last line of psychological defense.

She suddenly raised her head, her eyes full of disbelief.

"No... that's impossible, you're just a piece of trash!" She finally broke down, her voice shrill.

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong finished speaking, ignored this woman who had completely collapsed, and turned to walk back to the main seat.

Just then, a sound of neat and heavy footsteps came from outside the hall.

The footsteps came from outside the hall, heavy and uniform. This sound seemed to have a magical power, causing even the Embroidered Uniform Guard—fierce men accustomed to life and death who prided themselves on having hearts of stone—to subconsciously restrain their killing intent and lower their heads.

The doors of the great hall were pushed open silently. Firelight poured in, illuminating figures clad in heavy armor and holding long halberds—the Imperial Guards. They lined up on both sides, forming a solemn and murderous passage leading into the hall.

A slightly hunched figure wearing bright yellow casual robes walked in slowly, surrounded by a crowd of people.

The old man walked very slowly, even needing the support of the head eunuch, Eunuch Wang Fu, beside him, as if a gust of wind could blow him over. Yet the moment he appeared, the air in the entire hall solidified. It was a supreme majesty born from slaughtering his way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood, one that could make people unable to breathe without a single word.

"Your subjects pay respects to Your Majesty! Long live, long live, long, long live Your Majesty!"

The Embroidered Uniform Guard officers, led by Jiang Wan, knelt down in a clatter, their movements uniform, their foreheads pressed tightly against the cold gold bricks.

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong also stood up from the grand master's chair, walked down the imperial steps, and performed a standard junior's salute to the old man walking in, bowing his head without saying a word.

The part he had to play in tonight's drama was finished; it was time for him to take a bow.

Because the real protagonist had already arrived.

Zhu Yuanzhang's gaze slowly swept across the scene: the expressionless Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong, the chaotic mess on the floor, the eunuchs and palace maids tied up like dumplings and trembling like chaff, and finally, his gaze landed on the bedraggled Lady Lu, who was being pinned down firmly.

There was no expression on his face. No anger, no surprise, not even a ripple. In those cloudy old eyes, there was only a bottomless abyss of dead silence.

Being watched by this gaze, Lady Lu miraculously calmed down. She stopped trembling, stopped shrieking, and even broke free from the Embroidered Uniform Guard officers holding her.

Lady Lu slowly stood up, casually smoothed her disheveled hair with her hand, and straightened her wrinkled clothes. She raised her head, meeting Zhu Yuanzhang's gaze. On that pale, haggard face, she actually squeezed out a smile—a smile that was uglier than crying.

"Your subject pays respects to Your Majesty."

Her voice was hoarse but exceptionally clear.

At this moment, she seemed to have transformed back into that dignified, proper Crown Princess of the Great Ming, the mother of the Eastern Palace.

Zhu Yuanzhang still didn't speak, just watched her quietly.

This silence was more terrifying than any thunderous rage.

Lady Lu took a deep breath, as if using all her strength, knelt down stiffly, and kowtowed heavily to Zhu Yuanzhang.

"Your Majesty, everything was done by this subject alone."

She raised her head; there were no tears in her eyes, only a kind of uncanny calmness.

"This subject was jealous of Lady Chang, jealous that she gave birth to a legitimate son, jealous that she could receive the sincere affection of His Highness the Crown Prince, so this subject hated her!"

"Three days ago, this subject was possessed by a ghost and ordered people to hold Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong underwater. Tonight, it was also this subject who, resentful that he was forcing the Grand Imperial Heir from his position, gathered palace people with the intent to assassinate him..."

Word by word, she clearly took all the blame upon herself, clearing Imperial Grandson Zhu Yunwen completely.

"Imperial Grandson Zhu Yunwen is kind-hearted by nature and treats Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong like his own brother. These filthy deeds were all done by me, his mother, behind his back."

"This subject knows she deserves to die ten thousand times over and dares not beg for Your Majesty's forgiveness. I only ask that Your Majesty, for the sake of Imperial Grandson Zhu Yunwen being the orphan of the Crown Prince, do not vent your anger on him."

"Whether you want to kill me or slice me up, this subject will bear it alone!"

After speaking, she bowed again, her forehead hitting the floor heavily with a dull thud.

Inside the great hall, everyone held their breath, waiting for the final judgment from the one who held the supreme power.

Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong stood to the side, eyes on his nose and nose on his heart, as if everything before him had nothing to do with him. He had to admire that even at this dead end, this woman could still use her own life to pave the final path for Imperial Grandson Zhu Yunwen.

As long as Imperial Grandson Zhu Yunwen was defined as an "unaware victim," his status as Grand Imperial Heir still had room to be salvaged.

After a long while, Zhu Yuanzhang finally moved.

He did not look at Lady Lu, but turned his head to look at the grandson who had been standing there with his head bowed.

"Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong."

"Your grandson is here." Crown Prince Zhu Yuntong replied.

"How do you think she should be dealt with?" Zhu Yuanzhang's voice was dry and hoarse.