Chapter 23: Chapter 11- Closing the Net (Part 2)

Chapter 11- Closing the Net (Part 2)

After listening to what Butler Wang said, Qiu Chen raised a corner of his mouth in a smirk. “Bring me some paper, brush and ink,” he leisurely asked the butler while supporting his lower back which was getting sorer by each passing day. His belly was even bigger now at seventh month of pregnancy.

After he wrote a specific note, he sent Shen Qing to deliver it to the Fragrance House. In the afternoon Shen Qing silently entered the Palace with some more martial artists from the association. They disguised as palace guards to be posted around the Emperor.

Next fifteen days was relatively tranquil. The streets were busy as usual, no one, except for some servants to go grocery shopping, was seen to be entering or exiting the General’s Mansion like past two months, the Emperor was attending the morning courts as usual. The only different thing was that several family members of some important offocials in the court were going away from the capital with different excuses. But at the end of the day, nothing seemed out of place.

On the seventeenth day since the Second Prince held a secret meeting, when the sun was yet to rise, when let alone people, even roosters did not wake up, a large group of people marched towards the Imperial Palace. Soldiers suddenly surrounded the palace like they had emerged from air, and through them the group walked towards the Emperor’s sleeping chamber with Zhao Yirong, the Second Prince leading them.

When Zhao Yirong entered his father-emperor’s sleeping chamber, he saw the guards were already ‘subdued’. The Emperor was sitting on his dragon bed, disappointment written all over his haggard face.

“Second child, do you really want to rebel?” The Emperor asked in a tired tone.

“Or should I wait for you to abdicate the throne to Zhao YIchen?” Zhao Yirong held an unseathed sword in his hand. “Zhou Gonggong,” He looked at Chief Eunuch Zhou who was kneeling beside the old Emperor, “Bring the equipments and the dragon seal. Father-emperor will abdicate the throne to Gu*.” (*this lonely one)

“The ministers, have zhen ever treated you wrong? Why are you doing this? Right Prime Minister? Duke Song? Generals?” The Emperor asked the people following the prince.

They all looked down. The Right Prime Minister opened his mouth, “Your Majesty is wise. He knows what to do.”

“Good,” The Emperor sounded like he surrendered to fate, “Since you all think this way…..Bring the things.”

After Chief Eunuch Zhou brought the equipments over the Emperor wrote a decree with vigorous characters. Zhao Yirong’s eyes glared with vicious smile. But it soon went away. He raised his sword.

“Why does it say Zhao Yichen! Father-Emperor is still confused!” he gritted his teeth.

“No, he is not!” A familiar voice rang in the room. Several people rushed into the imperial bed chamber. Zhao Yichen’s soilders were soon taken in control by the ‘subdued’ guards. All these things happened so sudden that Zhao Yirong did not even have time to react.

Zhao Yirong looked at Zhao Yichen in disbelief, “Why are you here!”

“Why can’t I? You can rebel and I can’t protect father-emperor?” Zhao Yichen mocked.

“So you think you won? Haha!” Zhao Yirong suddenly laughed like a madman. With his sentence another person came in. It was Butler Wang, who was dragging a ‘scared’ Qiu Chen with a knife on his throat. “If you dare do anything to me, your wife will be gone.” Zhao Yirong’s eyes were shining with madness at this point.

Zhao Yichen looked at qiu Chen. He hasn’t seen him for almost three months. He was dying to see him. But for Qiu Chen to appear here at this time, his little devil must have wanted to watch the fun. Zhao Yichen felt really distressed. But he did not forget his duty. His raised sword was pressed against Zhao Yirong’s throat. A drop of blood came out, “The punishment of rebellion, do I need to remind you?” Zhao Yichen’s tone was cold.

Zhao Yirong did not feel threathened, “It seems like you don’t value your little wife that much. But what about the thing in his stomach? Don’t care about that either?”

Qiu Chen’s mood of watching fun vanished hearing this. The scared look on his face also went away. His face turned cold with suppressed anger. He pushed away the knife held by Butler wang who obediently lowered it. Qiu Chen stepped forward unflinchingly towards Zhao Yirong. He kicked his knees without any mercy. His kick kick was so strong that it did not look like that he was almost eight months’ pregnant.

“How dare you call my baby a ‘thing’? How dare you!” Qiu Chen lost any control on his mood. He basically screamed at Zhao Yirong.

Zhao Yirong was shocked. He was kicked to kneel by Qiu Chen. He felt the deep martial arts from the hit. He looked at Butler Wang, and knew from a glance what happened. They had a rat. He laughed again, but this time in frustration. He looked at Zhao Yichen, “Kill me!”

“The rebels will be punished by His Majesty,” Zhao Yichen spoke without any feeling.

When the sun rose that day, a public trial was held by the Emperor himself. People saw with astonishment that the Second Prince rebelled, and it was the Fourth Prince, and Imperial Son-in-law, General Yan who saved the day. Zhao Yirong was punished to have a public execution. The officials and generals who helped him were sentenced to be annihilated with their nine generations. The only exception was the Duke Song. He was sentenced to be banished to the barren most lands of the country with his nine generations. The Emperor declared Zhao Yichen as the next monarch, not the crown prince as he planned to abdicate the throne to him just after this trial. And the Song JIa cannot be executed as, although they severed the relation, Duke Song is still the next Empress’s father. The next Empress cannot afford to have the curse of being unfilial on his head. The people from Song Jia were also sentenced that they could not be officials or marry officials in later generations that were yet to come. The Empress was banished to the Cold palace. The people who helped Zhao Yichen subduing the rebellion were also rewarded heavily by the emperor.

In this whole situation the people that were at the worst situation were the people from Song Jia. They could not climb the high branch, even had to be banished. Song Yutong was dying from hatred, and surprisingly she hated Song Yuxuan no less than she hated Qiu Chen. Song Yuxuan’s usual calm façade also nowhere to be seen. The situation became ‘dog biting dog’ in the far far away residence in the barren lands.

Whereas they were thinking about killing each other, the date of Qiu Chen’s delivery was coming nearer and nearer.

A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, but I am really exhausted.