Chapter 5

Chapter 5

The physician was dead. No one knew who he was or how he had entered the palace.

After all, those who knew the truth would never admit it.

Like every assassin who had failed to strike within the imperial palace, his corpse was hung outside the palace gates as a warning.

The Noble Consort was furious. She punished the palace maids of Huaqing Palace severely.

In her eyes, they were the ones who had ruined her plans.

But she would not pursue the matter of the physician any further. He was no longer a physician, but an assassin guilty of treason.

She could not afford to be linked to an assassin in any way.

Xu Anping wanted to take further action, but the Noble Consort refused.

She knew that regardless of the Fourth Prince’s true identity, from this day forward, he could only be her son, the prodigy prince she had carried for ten months and given birth to herself.

Their fates were bound together now.

…

I was punished over the incident with the physician as well. After several hard strokes of the disciplinary paddle, it took me three days before I could walk properly again.

Great-grandfather summoned me for a talk.

“Are you afraid?”

“I am.” I paused. “I even dreamed about that physician in a nightmare last night.”

“Qingzhi, being afraid is a good thing.” His voice was young and childlike, yet it brought a brief moment of peace to the heart that had been gripped by fear all this time. “Fear means you still have a conscience.

“It means you’ll have reservations and think things through before you act.”

When Father was alive, he often sought out Great-grandfather for a conversation. Sometimes, he would stay for the entire day.

He said Great-grandfather was a man of profound wisdom.

He was always telling me to speak with Great-grandfather more often.

I had been unwilling then. Never had I imagined that by the time I finally had the chance, everything would have changed and those days would be gone forever.

I closed my eyes, then kowtowed to Great-grandfather.

“Qingzhi is afraid, but she has no regrets.”

On the way back, I kept thinking about what Great-grandfather had just told me.

He said it was time for us to move against the Xu Family.

“Chancellor Xu has disciples throughout the land, and his prestige at court is immense. Xu Anping guards the border and commands an army, while Xu Ling’er enjoys the Emperor’s favor in the harem. The Xu Family has grown too powerful for the Emperor not to be wary of them.

“And as long as he remains wary, I will never become the crown prince.”

Great-grandfather said that if he wanted justice for everyone in Half-Ghost Village, he had to keep climbing.

He had to climb all the way to the most exalted seat in the realm.

Therefore, the Xu Family had to be eliminated.

Only by staking our lives could we find a path to survival. It was the sole way forward left to us.