Jing Yuan reluctantly stabilised his mind and walked feebly towards the harem at night. The big eunuch knelt at this point.
“Your Majesty, Mu Chi, the Shadow Guard chief, has died. He appears to be someone from the Empress Dowager’s palace,” Zhang Qingning said quietly. “What should we do with his remains?”
Shadow guards, this type of guy who appears and disappears without a trace, even if he is the chief administrator, are much lower in rank than the imperial guards, and they were not seen on stage. Jing Yuan appears to have met this person when he was young in the palace of his mother, Consort Xiao, but so what? It is just for a servant to be born to die for his master. Jing Yuan waved his hand casually and let him handle it on his own.
“Where has Prince Xuan gone?” he inquired.
“The Prince is tired of crying this afternoon and is resting in Jinghe Palace’s side hall.” Zhang Qingning spoke cautiously, as if he feared Jing Yuan’s next order would be to sever Prince Xuan’s head.
Jing Yuan remained silent. He thought he had a gold heart the first time he saw him, and many people still believe he will do something to Jing Xuan. The two brothers get along better than one mother and one child.
Jing Xuan cannot be dull because the Mother Consort is so intelligent. Jing Yuan entered the side hall, seeing his brother still dressed in a red robe, but no image of the proper prince lying on the bed, his face buried in the bedding, and the same as when he was a child, with a sad and angry expression. It’s a pity that there will no longer be a gentle woman to coax him.
Jing Yuan gently sat on his side, and Jing Xuan raised his head, his red eyes wide with tears, to look at Jing Yuan. After the grief, Jing Yuan realised that Jing Xuan had figured everything out.
“Why did you do this, Father?” Jing Xuan murmured, his lips pale.
“Because he despises both me and Mother Consort. So, step by step, he was eroding his power and exploiting the situation.” In low voices, Jing Yuan stated, “He despises the fact that it was I, the most despised son, who was given power. So he wants to exact revenge, to take away the most important person in our lives, to torture us for the rest of our lives, and to provoke the relationship between us even before the next person dies.”
“He’s a ruthless tyrant!” Jing Xuan was in anguish, and he buried his face in Jing Yuan’s embrace.
Jing Yuan stroked his brother’s hair gently as he lowered his head, eventually unable to control his expression as a trace of sadness crossed his eyes.
“You still have me, Jing Xuan. We must keep the world that Mother Consort created for us together. Mother Consort’s nurturing kindness. We can only repay it in the next life,” he murmured quietly.
“If there is an afterlife,” Jing Xuan’s fingers on his brother’s back waist tightened into full, the young prince gritted his teeth and held back tears, “I only hope that in the next life I won’t be born to the emperor’s family, without the need for fighting.
It is good to be an ordinary person and to be happy with the Emperor Brother and the Mother Concubine!”
“Emperor Brother promised you…,” Jing Yuan said quietly.
Jing Yuan’s gaze deepened over time.
Yes, if there is an afterlife…
