Big Moon Ballad

Chapter 2655 Forced into the Palace
"This old servant doesn't know," the old woman said slowly.

Jiang Yuanyuan slumped down on the low couch, saying dejectedly, "I never imagined that you would betray me."

If his wet nurse hadn't given him muscle relaxant in his midnight snack, he wouldn't have watched helplessly as the imperial seal was taken away by a traitor, and Li Jinniang wouldn't have been tricked into being imprisoned by the imperial edict.

“This old servant cannot stand by and watch her only son die,” the old woman said expressionlessly. “His lowly life is no match for His Majesty’s. It is one thing for him to die, but to be tortured by the Gu poison into a state that is neither human nor ghost is something this old servant, as his mother, simply cannot bear to see.”

The old man's wrinkled face showed a sense of relief after being tormented by pain for too long.

"Your Majesty, rest assured, this old servant has betrayed his master and committed an unforgivable crime. Whether Your Majesty wishes to tear him apart by chariots or to subject him to slow slicing, this old servant is prepared."

"Granny, you..."

Jiang Yuanyuan couldn't understand what kind of threat could make Granny Fang so fearless of death. "Why didn't you tell me your son was poisoned by Gu? The Imperial Hospital has many famous doctors who can cure him!"

The old woman gave a hoarse laugh. "That's Gu poison, Your Majesty. No one in the world can cure it except the Gu Mother, and the Gu Mother is only in that person's hands."

Her entire family had served the royal family for generations, but if you threatened her with her son's life, she would kill her own son to prove her loyalty.

She wasn't the kind of person who was easily swayed; neither torture nor money could shake her loyalty. But after being threatened by that person, she realized that there was a kind of pain in this world that was more terrible than death.

Her son won't die; he won't even be killed by swords piercing his body.

Having seen and experienced much in her life, she knew how cunning that person was, far beyond what a young monarch like Jiang Yuanyuan could contend with.

Jiang Yuanyuan was like another son to her, and she didn't want him to suffer the same fate.

“Your Majesty, you are too young,” the old woman crawled to Jiang Yuanyuan’s side, her withered hands smoothing the hem of Jiang Yuanyuan’s disheveled clothes. “You can’t defeat those old monsters.”

"Rather than being turned into a living puppet, you might as well step down. The Regent is, after all, an elder of the Jiang family; he will spare your life."

Jiang Yuanyuan was utterly devastated. "He would spare my life? Granny, you've been in the palace longer than I have. Have you ever seen anything like this?"

The victor is king, the loser is villain; which king who abdicates can still live?

Even if we don't kill him, he'll be kept in captivity for life like a dead dog!

“Even if the Regent wanted to kill you, it wouldn’t be now,” the old woman earnestly advised. “The Prince of Linjiang should at least consider his reputation and the hearts of the court officials.”

"Your Majesty, as long as we stay in Qingshan, we'll never run out of firewood."

"But if this continues, even the green hills will be gone!"

Jiang Yuanyuan snatched the teacup from the old woman's hand and smashed it on the ground. "Do you think Uncle Wang is usurping the throne now for the sake of the Southern Chu throne?"

"If not for the throne, what else could it be for?"

The old woman blinked slowly.

"If the Prince of Linjiang wanted the throne, he would have made his move long ago!"

Jiang Yuanyuan tugged at her hair, "He could have made his move before I even got back!"

While it's possible to feign a life of purity and detachment, if his uncle truly desired the throne, then the Prince of Linjiang could have made his move before his father and elder brother passed away.

He was still beyond the Great Wall at the time and couldn't return immediately. The Prince of Linjiang could have easily struck first; wouldn't it have been easier to usurp the throne then than now?
Why wait until he returned to Southern Chu and had been on the throne for almost half a year before having a posthumous child to replace him?
"Perhaps the Crown Prince's child hadn't been born yet at that time, and we didn't know if it was a boy or a girl?" the old woman murmured.

"What does it matter whether it's a boy or a girl?" Jiang Yuanyuan sneered. "A little child, we don't even know if he'll live to adulthood, he can be easily replaced."

"Then why..." The old woman hesitated completely. "Perhaps she was possessed by an evil spirit while cultivating Taoism in the mountains," Jiang Yuanyuan sighed deeply, looking wearily at her most trusted wet nurse, "just like you."

He is able to silently harm those closest to him, possessing a way of controlling people's minds that ordinary people do not have.

Such a demon could not possibly have originated from Southern Chu.

"Then Your Majesty, what do you intend to do?" The old woman's eyes showed deep fear.

"How to do?"

Jiang Yuanyuan looked up at the window. The night was deep, and the bright moonlight was covered by dark clouds.

All his trusted confidants had been replaced by the Prince of Linjiang, making it impossible for him to send any information out. With the Imperial Seal in the Prince of Linjiang's hands, he must have already issued numerous imperial edicts to transfer away all the ministers and generals who had previously been loyal to him.

Li Jinniang was imprisoned and became a pawn in his scheme. At the same time, because Li Jinniang's fate was unknown, the Li family dared not make a move easily.

The two powerful families that supported his rise to power were the Li family and the Chen family. The Li family was controlled by others, while the Chen family, father and son, were both leading troops in the field.

The Imperial Guard's military tally has been seized by the Prince of Linjiang, and now the only one who can save him is the border garrison army led by Chen Yan.

“I’m afraid the Prince of Linjiang has already ordered the Chen family father and son to stay on the border and not return,” Chen Zichu murmured. “He will only allow Chen Yan to return to the capital once he has completely taken control of the court and the country.”

The Prince of Linjiang will set up an inescapable trap, and as soon as the Chen family father and son enter the city, he will immediately kill them and seize military power.

By then, it will be too late to save him; his life will probably only last until then.

Once the Prince of Linjiang has completely seized military power, he can send Jiang Yuanyuan to meet his ancestors with a cup of poisoned wine.

However, if he were to act rashly, firstly, he would have no trusted confidants around him to mobilize, and secondly, he might threaten Li Jinniang's life.

Once a person has a weakness, they become powerless.

Jiang Yuanyuan looked out the dark window, as if she were seeing her hopeless future.

……

……

After spending an unknown amount of time in the darkness, on the seventh day of his confinement, Jiang Yuanyuan suddenly noticed something unusual happening in the cold palace where he was imprisoned.

The number of guards increased overnight, and the number of high-level cultivators also increased from five to ten.

These cultivators were all raised by the Prince of Linjiang's mansion. Jiang Yuanyuan didn't know exactly how many there were, but he thought there were at most ten. The cost of cultivating high-level cultivators was not low, and the possibility of having more than ten without being discovered was extremely low.

Given the current situation, Prince Linjiang and his posthumous child still need guards, so why would he send all the experts around him to his side at once?
Jiang Yuanyuan became extremely nervous.

Could it be that someone is coming to rescue him?
However, half of his bodyguards died mysteriously during the previous palace coup, and the rest were killed by the guards of the Prince of Linjiang.

Most of the ministers in the Southern Chu court were opportunists; who would come to his rescue at this time?
"His Majesty!"

Just then, Fang, the wet nurse, whom we hadn't seen for a few days, suddenly sneaked in from outside the door.

"What happened?"

The wet nurse looked somewhat complicated and confused. "I heard there's been fighting outside."