Chapter 123:

Layue woke up in a daze during the twelfth lunar month, moving her hands and feet slightly. Where was her child? Why was there no one around to attend to her?

Although her body was somewhat weak, she didn’t feel as if she had just given birth. Confused, she looked closer and suddenly turned deathly pale.

What was this?

She hurriedly got out of bed and looked around. At this moment, Layue’s face had no trace of color.

This wasn’t the Qing’an Palace.

This was, this was her former palace, her palace in her previous life?

How could this be? How could this be?

Panicked and turning around in circles, Layue eventually found herself at a loss.

“Jinxin, Jinxin…” No one responded.

Layue rushed to the dressing table and looked at her reflection in the mirror. This was not the sixteen-year-old Shen Layue who had just given birth; this was clearly her at twenty-three.

How could it be like this?

Could it be that everything before was just a dream?

Zhuangzi’s dream of being a butterfly?

Layue couldn’t believe all of this.

She continued shouting: “Xing’er—”

Still, no one responded.

The entire palace seemed like a deserted island; no matter whom she called, no one answered.

At this moment, Layue was already bewildered. If everything was just a dream—the emperor, the Shen family, her child—then why didn’t they let her continue living in that dream?

Why bring her back to reality?

Why?

At this point, Layue was already somewhat mentally collapsing, wandering out of the palace in a daze.

Where was her child? Where was her child?

After leaving her palace, she found many people outside.

“You, where is Xing’er?” she asked.

But no one answered her.

Two young eunuchs were carrying a food tray and looking at the palace, lamenting: “Look at this palace, once so grand, now burned like this. Tsk tsk!”

Layue didn’t understand what was happening and followed their gaze, suddenly startled.

The palace she had just walked out of, which seemed intact moments ago, was now a ruin ravaged by flames.

Everything looked desolate.

Layue was shocked but managed to compose herself.

Looking at the two eunuchs, she raised her voice slightly.

Yet she noticed they still seemed not to see her.

Layue bit her lip, unsure of what was happening.

At this point, she wasn’t entirely clueless, after all, she had experienced a rebirth before. Although the current situation was extremely strange, she was no longer as panicked as she was earlier.

Why had she returned? Why?

Was this a dream?

Or was the previous rebirth the dream?

Layue didn’t know anything for sure, but she followed this obsession to Xuanning Hall, where no one could still see her.

She saw Lai Xi standing at the door, his face appearing older than before.

Layue walked directly past him, but he remained unaware.

Tilting her head slightly, she entered the emperor’s Xuanning Hall.

She didn’t know why she had come here, but despite feeling weak, she didn’t need to rest.

Inside the inner chamber, the Jing Emperor wasn’t alone. As Layue stepped across the threshold, she saw Lai Fu kneeling below.

Lai Fu, unlike his usual cheerful self, was reporting with caution and respect.

“The Sixth Prince has gone to see the Empress Dowager. It should be about proposing to Yue Feng.”

The Sixth Prince wanted to marry Yue Feng?

Layue was startled and looked at the Jing Emperor.

But obviously, neither of them was aware of her presence.

“Kill her and have the secret guards impersonate Yue Feng to marry him,” the Jing Emperor decided immediately.

But Layue felt a chill in her heart. No, not her cousin again.

“What about the Yue family?”

The Jing Emperor sighed: “Since I have already released them, let them go. They won’t cause much trouble. Still, you should arrange for someone to monitor them. After all, they are Shen Layue’s relatives.”

Layue looked at him, puzzled and with a complicated expression.

So decisive in killing her entire family, indifferent about killing her cousin, yet now calling them her relatives.

Yan Che, how utterly ridiculous you are.

Layue stood there biting her lip.

“What about the Empress Dowager?”

Layue didn’t know why this matter involved the Empress Dowager.

The Jing Emperor stood up and walked to the window.

As if thinking for a long time, he sighed again.

“Since the Empress Dowager hates Yue Qingcheng, the Shen family, and the Yue family so much, and the Shen family has already fallen, let the Empress Dowager rest and recover. Her health isn’t good either.”

“Boom!”

The Jing Emperor’s words were like thunder, completely shattering her.

The Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager hated the Shen family? Why? Why?

She had considered many reasons why the Shen family had gotten into trouble, many people who might have plotted against them, but she had never imagined it would be the Empress Dowager!

That kind old lady, why, why?

Tears streamed down Layue’s face. She crouched down, covering her mouth and sobbing quietly, but eventually couldn’t suppress her sorrow, crying louder and louder.

But even so, what could she do?

No one noticed her. No one.

Until she collapsed from crying, Layue heard the Jing Emperor say: “Actually, I still have some feelings for Shen Layue. But she was too stubborn, too stubborn. She wouldn’t forgive me for what happened to our child back then.”

Layue sat on the ground, staring blankly at the Jing Emperor.

Then she saw him shaking his head: “Everything is in the past. Since things have come to this, let it be.”

Lai Fu left briskly.

Layue continued staring at him.

Then she saw him cover his face with his hand.

After a long time, she heard him murmur: “I miss you, Layue. I miss you. Why did you have to die…”

Except for that year, the Jing Emperor had never shown her any extra care. Even raising her status was merely the result of a general promotion in the harem. But what was he doing now, all alone?

He said he missed her?

He missed her?

Shaking her head, it was just loss, nothing more.

If he truly had feelings for her, if he truly missed her, how could he have ordered the execution of the entire Shen family and ignored her?

Layue no longer wanted to look at this man, not even once.

Stumbling to her feet, she only wanted to go to the Huici Palace, only wanted to ask the Empress Dowager why she did this, why she ruined her family so thoroughly?

This path to Huici Palace was the most familiar to Layue in the palace, but today it felt unbearably long.

Layue stumbled into the palace and saw the Sixth Prince there as well. Thinking that his pursuit might harm Yue Feng, Layue hated these brothers deeply.

At this moment, the two were arguing.

“Mother, no matter what you say, I will marry her.”

Layue looked at the Empress Dowager. Her complexion was very poor at this moment.

“No, you are the Sixth Prince, a noble title. Marrying the daughter of a merchant, and a daughter of the Yue family? Not unless I’m dead. Don’t even think about it,” the Empress Dowager said sharply.

For the first time, Layue saw the Empress Dowager so emotionally exposed. She had always known the Empress Dowager wasn’t as gentle as she appeared. However, since she entered the palace, the Empress Dowager had always been kind to her. She never could have imagined that the Empress Dowager was the one who ruined the Shen family.

“Mother, the Shen family, the Shen family is already dead. What else do you want? What else do you want?” the Sixth Prince murmured in pain.

The Empress Dowager slapped the table: “The Shen family is dead, but what about the Yue family? Compared to the Shen family, the Yue family deserves death just as much. Besides, what did you promise your elder brother? Or did you send that little harlot to talk to him? Why did he spare the Yue family?”

The Sixth Prince looked at the Empress Dowager for a moment and knelt down: “Mother, please spare the Yue family. The Shen family has already fallen, and even Shen Layue is dead. Please spare the Yue family, I beg you.”

The Empress Dowager was breathing rapidly, and a nursemaid nearby quickly helped her calm down.

Pointing at the Sixth Prince, the Empress Dowager rebuked: “The Yue family raised a harlot like Yue Qingcheng; they all deserve death. Don’t think I don’t know your thoughts. I framed the Shen family, and you didn’t stop me; instead, you pushed things forward. You also hated the Shen family for marrying the woman you loved, didn’t you! You hated the Yue family even more for marrying Yue Qingcheng into the Shen family. If you hadn’t discovered that Yue Feng was a girl, if you hadn’t found out she looked exactly like Yue Qingcheng, would you have pleaded for mercy for the Yue family? Would you!”

Upon hearing this, Layue was shocked and took several steps back. She never imagined that the Sixth Prince, the Sixth Prince actually loved her mother?

How could this be? How could they!

Yan Lie didn’t refute but only murmured: “I beg you, Mother. I’ve never asked you for anything. This time, this time, I beg you, please let Yue Feng marry me!”

“Bang!” A teacup smashed on Yan Lie’s forehead, and blood began to seep out.

Seeing the blood, Layue felt even weaker.

She swayed a few times and finally couldn’t stand anymore, collapsing there.

The women of the Yue family are all fox spirits reborn. She bewitched you when you were still a child. If not for fighting over her, would you have coveted the throne? Would you have attempted to assassinate Che? Did you think becoming emperor would let you take an official’s wife without restraint? Do you imagine I don’t understand? But don’t you know both of you are my very life? Don’t you know how it tore my heart when you did this? I blamed my own neglect, only to discover it was all for that enchantress.

She’s dead, yet her kin remain. The Shen family, the Yue family—I never wish to lay eyes on anyone connected to her again. Since she escaped punishment in life, let all her relatives bear it in her stead. My entire life has been marked by suffering, tears, and laughter, and now I stand at death’s door. There’s nothing I cannot forgive—except this. Had it not been for Yue Qingcheng, how could you and Che have fallen to this? Now you wish to wed her niece? Don’t even entertain the thought. Don’t you dare.

Layue grew more dizzy and confused but still understood everything.

No wonder the Jing Emperor treated the Sixth Prince like that. It turned out he had tried to assassinate him.

It turned out the Empress Dowager blamed everything on her mother. Since her mother was already gone, she wanted to exterminate the Shen and Yue families completely?

How ruthless, how ruthless their hearts were.

“Mother, I admit it, I admit I was jealous of the Shen family, but I promised Yue Qingcheng I wouldn’t harm anyone in the Shen family or the Yue family. But all these years, do you know how much pain I’ve endured? After so many years of suppression, I couldn’t resist the darkness in my heart, so I told you everything. I knew you wouldn’t let them go. It was all my fault. I wanted to use you to kill them, thinking this way they would die and I wouldn’t have broken my promise. But Mother, I truly love Yue Feng. From the moment I first saw her, I knew Yue Qingcheng had returned, she had returned. Mother, I beg you, I beg you…”

Hearing his words, Layue was filled with hatred.

How despicable, how could there be such a despicable person.

Her mother was seven years older than him. How could she have seduced him?

Was it just because they were of the royal family that her family deserved to die?

Why?

Why, why?

Layue hated with all her heart. Just because of his jealousy, his twisted love, did everyone have to suffer such devastation?

He deserved to die too. He deserved to die.

Layue felt extremely weak, but even if she had to crawl, she wanted to reach him. She wanted to strangle him, strangle him…

Although weak, she still stretched out her hand. But the moment she touched the blood, her body went limp, and then she lost consciousness.