After dinner, the couple went to the front hall. When they saw Huangfu Xu offering one hundred thousand taels of silver without blinking, Zhao Jiaqi was taken aback.
"Your Highness, this is all the money I have on hand right now. If it's not enough, I'll gather more and send it to your residence once I return to my fief!"
He spoke very humbly and sincerely, seemingly very fond of this coral.
Zhao Jiaqi waved her hand. "I'm not greedy. This is enough. Just take the coral tree with you when you leave!"
Huangfu Xu nodded, sitting there feeling quite awkward. Fan Zehao, however, understood his predicament.
Looking at the Prince of Xiaoyao like this, Zhao Jiaqi didn't know whether she felt happy or sad. This didn't affect her much, but one thing had been weighing on her heart for a long time.
"Huangfu Xu, why did you conspire with so many ministers to impeach my husband back then? Why did you target my husband!"
Suddenly hearing the Princess ask him this question while he was in a somber mood, he looked up in surprise, his startled eyes meeting Zhao Jiaqi's.
"Your Highness... why are you asking about this? Hasn't it already passed? There's no point in asking about it now!"
After a brief moment of surprise, he calmly replied to her.
"Since you were dissatisfied with my husband, why were you still close to him? Shouldn't you be mortal enemies? Isn't it a life-or-death situation?"
Huangfu Xu listened to the Princess's pressing words, feeling both helpless and bitter.
"Others might not know, but Your Highness should know that the Prince once saved my life. How could I bear a grudge against the Prince?"
He spread his hands, knitted his brows, and continued, "Yes, I contacted ministers in the court to impeach the Prince, but I only wanted the Emperor to recall his military power. I had no intention of harming the Prince. Even if I hadn't impeached him, someone else would have. The Prince should have been able to sense this."
"I actually had a selfish motive. I originally wanted to send the Prince to his fief, to keep him from participating in the succession struggle. I knew that once the Prince knew I wanted to seize that position, he would protect the Emperor. Only by sending the Prince away could I proceed smoothly."
"Unfortunately, I underestimated the Emperor. The Emperor held all the handles of the court ministers, so they dared not act rashly. Only the Prime Minister and General Fang were not under his control, which is why they ended up in such a situation!"
The reason Huangfu Xu knew this was because someone had told him. Otherwise, if Huangfu Yifan wanted to secure the throne, it wouldn't have been so easy.
From his intermittent words, Zhao Jiaqi caught a hint. The Prime Minister and General Fang weren't dismissed because of their own actions?
It was because of this!
Zhao Jiaqi exchanged a look with Fan Zehao. They both found it unbelievable, yet they couldn't find any reason for Huangfu Xu to lie.
If that were the case, then the Emperor knew about Huangfu Xu colluding with ministers to impeach Fan Zehao, but he hadn't stopped it.
Perhaps it could be said that the Emperor allowed it, and was even happier to see this situation!
However, these were all Zhao Jiaqi's speculations. Even if she wanted to verify them now, there was no way to do so, and it was no longer necessary.
As they were chatting, the sound of bells echoed from the direction of the palace, striking one after another.
Zhao Jiaqi and Fan Zehao were puzzled by the sound of the bells, wondering who was ringing them for no reason. The next moment, Huangfu Xu grabbed Fan Zehao's hand and asked nervously, "How many times did it strike?"
As he finished speaking, Fan Zehao gestured a nine. "Nine times!"
Fan Zehao confidently gave the number. Seeing him tremble slightly and wear a strange smile, his actions intrigued the couple.
"Husband, could this Prince Xian have epilepsy? Why is he trembling? Should we find him an imperial physician?"
Huangfu Xu waved his hand, his face a mixture of tears and laughter, his mouth stretched into a wide grin, a smile that seemed like crying. "Doesn't His Highness know what these nine bells signify? That's right, you weren't here when my father passed away, so of course, you wouldn't understand!"
His words sent chills down everyone's spines. He was talking about the late Emperor's demise... Could it be that the current Emperor had also gone to join his father?
Had he... also passed away?
Fan Zehao's face immediately turned grim. He gripped Huangfu Xu's shoulder and asked, "Tell me, is this the bell of mourning? Does striking nine times mean the Emperor has passed away?"
Huangfu Xu's smile faded. He let out a cold, light laugh, stood up, and looked directly at Fan Zehao. "Yes, this is the Emperor's funeral bell. In a short while, the royal temple will strike thirty thousand times!"
"You... you've completely lost your mind!" Fan Zehao didn't know how to describe Huangfu Xu.
Upon hearing of the Emperor's death, everyone was shocked and began contemplating the future. Yet, he first cried and then laughed, acting like a lunatic.
Soon after, the Empress Dowager sent an imperial decree, summoning the Prince of Zhenguo and his consort to the palace.
The couple changed into somber attire. As they left the residence, they met Fan Lao Er and Pingting and took a carriage to the palace.
As for when Huangfu Xu left, they had no inclination to care about it.
In the carriage, Pingting held her hand, her face filled with fear and worry. "Sister-in-law, the Emperor is dead. What shall we do?"
"Let's go to the palace and see the situation first!" Although Zhao Jiaqi felt uneasy, she couldn't show it to Pingting, lest she become even more worried and panicked.
The palace was just ahead, but the entry was now strictly controlled. All weapons were forbidden.
From small daggers to large swords, anything that could cause harm was not allowed into the palace.
The palace guards seemed to be targeting Fan Zehao, searching him four or five times. Just as he was about to fly into a rage, the guards finally let him through.
He glanced coldly at the guards. They weren't the usual ones; they were unfamiliar faces. He didn't have time to bother with the gatekeepers.
The group hurried towards the inner palace, their destination being Qixia Palace, the Empress Dowager's residence.
Inside the palace, Yao Jingyun dismissed the eunuchs and maids. Seeing them arrive, her panicked heart slowly settled.
"Mother Consort."
"Your Highness, what is going on?"
Fan Zehao, being direct by nature, got straight to the point.
After they were seated, Yao Jingyun comforted Pingting for a while and then recounted what she knew: "Last night, the Emperor was wedded. Perhaps due to being too tired, he... drank a cup of deer blood. He didn't expect that the rim of the wine cup was smeared with poison. After drinking it, the Emperor fell into a coma!"
"The Empress, upon seeing this, immediately sealed the news and summoned imperial physicians overnight for treatment. On the other hand, she sent people to find the poisoner. Unfortunately, the palace maid who administered the poison died, and the Emperor was beyond help."
Zhao Jiaqi sighed.
The Emperor was also a high-risk figure, constantly being assassinated or poisoned. In the end, he died in the arms of a beauty.
Could this be considered dying gallantly even in death?
Fan Lao Er listened to the Empress Dowager's account and merely snorted coldly, "All show and no substance. If he hadn't drunk that stuff, would he have gone so soon?"