son, don't mess around

Chapter 833 Deceased Friends

The old eunuch, with a hunched back, stood in front of the hall, his face aged, his head bowed, and he remained silent.

The entire hall fell into a deathly silence.

Outside the window, the wind was calm and the rustling of the trees had long since disappeared. It seemed that only this scene inside the main hall remained in the world.

Li Cining sat on the dragon throne, calmly gazing at the old eunuch before her.

After a long while, the old eunuch slowly raised his head, revealing a pair of sharp eyes that were far beyond his years, beneath his aged face.

He gazed silently at the emperor before him, his deep eyes seeming to gleam with intense light.

"Your Majesty is indeed wise."

It was still his deep, hoarse voice.

His face showed no panic or unease at being exposed; instead, he remained remarkably calm: "Then Your Majesty should already know what this old servant has come here for today?"

"You've come to kill me?"

A smile appeared on Li Cining's pale face: "You've been plotting in secret for so long, isn't this what you've been doing all this time?"

The old eunuch's gaze was profound: "His Majesty already knew?"

Li Cining coughed suddenly, his face turning even paler: "I don't have much time left, and I didn't expect that you wouldn't even be willing to wait a little longer?"

"Are you so eager to assassinate me?"

The old eunuch did not answer the question; his sharp eyes were fixed on Li Cining. He was calm, without a trace of murderous intent.
However, the invisible oppressive aura emanating from this old eunuch was enough to make people tremble with fear.

Li Cining seemed oblivious to the tense atmosphere in the air, his gaze shifting from the old eunuch in front of him to the outside of the main hall.

Then he asked, "What about Steward Chen? What did you do to him?"

"Probably dead."

The old eunuch said calmly.

A hint of dazedness appeared in Li Cining's eyes, as if he were somewhat heavy-hearted. Chief Steward Chen had been by his side for many years, and was more than family to him.

For him, the death of Steward Chen was undoubtedly a heavy blow.

Li Cining's gaze gradually turned cold as she stared at him: "So, what exactly is your purpose? Do you want to replace me? Or do you want to overthrow my Great Ning Dynasty?!"

"Since Your Majesty already has the answer in your heart, why ask again?"

The old eunuch still stood hunched over in front of the main hall, yet he exuded an increasingly powerful aura of oppression.

His calm tone and icy gaze seemed to have already sentenced the emperor before him to death.

Li Cining looked at him quietly, smiled, a smile that seemed both bitter and sarcastic.

"You've racked your brains to hide by my side, plotting in secret for so long, and setting up such a grand scheme. It seems you really are after my Great Ning Kingdom?"

"You've been planning this for so long, you've been so patient, and you've kept it so well hidden—you've really got some impressive skills!"

Li Cining's tone was full of emotion. At this moment, facing a life-or-death crisis, there was not a trace of tension or fear on his face.

"It seems I am doomed to die tonight?"

The old eunuch did not answer, but the composure in his eyes already answered Li Cining's question.

At this moment, the night was deep and quiet. The imperial guards outside the palace had long been withdrawn by him, and now the palace was deserted inside and out.

Inside the vast Hall of Mental Cultivation, only the two people before him stood. And tonight was destined to be the death day of this new emperor of the Great Ning Dynasty.

As expected, Li Cining smiled self-deprecatingly: "Since tonight is my death day, before I die, could you let me see your true face?"

"who are you?"

The old eunuch's voice was as low and hoarse as ever, devoid of any emotion: "There are some things Your Majesty doesn't need to know too clearly. Knowing too much is not good."

"But I don't think so."

Li Cining stared into his eyes: "Although you have changed your appearance, voice, and even temperament... your eyes have not changed. I am very familiar with them."

"I am reminded of an old friend..."

Li Cining stared intently at him, her voice slightly somber: "An old friend who has long since passed away!"

"..."

Inside the main hall, as Li Cining finished speaking, silence fell once again.

The old eunuch stared calmly at Li Cining, the two locked in a stalemate.

Finally, the 'old eunuch' spoke, breaking the deathly silence.

"Your Majesty is even more intelligent than this old servant expected!"

His voice was still deep and hoarse, but this time the tone had changed.

Li Cining also sensed something amiss in his voice, and his eyes suddenly narrowed.

Familiar voice!
Then, the 'old eunuch' slowly reached out and touched his face, and soon tore off a disguised human skin from his face.

As the human skin was torn off, a familiar face was revealed.

It had been a long time since I'd seen him, and this familiar face seemed to have aged considerably, its wrinkles making him look old and frail.

But his familiar, gleaming eyes and his familiar hunched posture clearly indicated the identity of the person before him.

"Chen Zhao!"

A sharp glint flashed in Li Cining's eyes, followed by an undisguised look of astonishment.

He stared at the old eunuch in front of him and slowly uttered the name.

A familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar name!
What was familiar was that he had heard this name for many years. From childhood to adulthood, as the Crown Prince, Li Cining was often overshadowed by this familiar name.

It even cast a shadow over the place at one point!
What's unfamiliar is that this name has long since disappeared since the death of the emperor.

Now that it has reappeared, it instantly stirred up many memories for Li Cining!

"You really didn't die!"

At this moment, the hunched figure appearing before Li Cining was none other than Chen Zhao.
The familiar appearance, the familiar temperament, and those familiar eyes... all proved it was him.

Chen Zhao!

The most trusted eunuch of the former emperor!

At the same time, he was also the murderer who plotted to kill his father!

He is indeed not dead!
"Your Majesty, it seems you're not as surprised as I imagined?"

At this moment, Chen Zhao, who had regained his original appearance, quietly looked at the young emperor of the dynasty before him.

That hunched yet composed demeanor clearly indicated his identity... a powerful eunuch who once held immense influence in the dynasty!
Li Cining concealed the astonishment in her eyes and calmly asked, "That night a year ago... weren't you already dead?"

"Why are you still alive?!"

A year ago, he witnessed Chen Zhao being surrounded and killed by the Imperial Guards. He eventually died, and his body was hung at the south gate of the capital to be exposed to the sun.

But why is he here now, completely unharmed?

Chen Zhao's eyes were cloudy: "The one who died a year ago was nothing more than a scapegoat for this old servant."

Upon hearing this, Li Cining understood.

Sure enough...

A year ago, it wasn't him who died.

No wonder Chen Zhao was so calm when he died a year ago... It turns out, that wasn't him at all.

"So, for the past year you've changed your identity, hiding in the palace under a false name, hiding by my side?"

In response to Li Cining's question, Chen Zhao calmly nodded: "That's right."

At this moment, Li Cining understood many things. His eyes were deep: "The assassination of the Prince of Lin and Princess Xu in Jiangnan, was it you who secretly planned it?" "And my third brother, was it you who rescued him from the imperial mausoleum?!"

Chen Zhao's gaze was deep as he calmly said, "That's right, it was all done by this old servant."

When Chen Zhao appeared before her, many of the questions that had troubled Li Cining were immediately resolved.

No wonder Lin Jiangnian personally came to the palace to question Jiang Nan about the assassination attempt on the Prince of Lin.

He was indeed involved in planning the assassination attempt in Jiangnan!

Chen Zhao hid in the deep palace under an assumed name, and was resurrected in another body. With the help of the palace's influence, he secretly orchestrated all of this.

If Lin Jiangnian follows the clues, he will surely find a connection to the palace's power. Therefore, the only one he can suspect is him.

After all, only he has this ability!
However, Chen Zhao managed to deceive everyone and hide in the shadows to avoid all suspicion.

After all, he's already dead!

What everyone witnessed a year ago.

What alarmed Li Cining the most was that all of this was being planned right under his nose, and he was completely unaware of it.
A cold sweat broke out in Li Cining's heart. Just how much of Chen Zhao's influence remained in the palace?

When his father, the emperor, was still alive, Chen Zhao wielded immense power. Relying on his father's favor, he controlled the court. At that time, almost half of the court officials were Chen Zhao's people, and the palace was full of his spies.

Not to mention that he also controlled the Secret Observatory, an intelligence agency. It can be said that when his father was still alive, no one in the world had more power than him, and even Prime Minister Zhao had to give him some leeway!

Even after his father's death, Chen Zhao faked his death and escaped. Over the past year, Li Cining has been trying his best to eliminate Chen Zhao's influence in the court and gradually uproot Chen Zhao's power over the years.

Even so, he still didn't know how many spies Chen Zhao had planted, or how much power he still controlled. But what he could predict was that Chen Zhao's influence in the palace was still no less than that of the emperor himself.

Even more terrifying is the Chen Zhao hidden in the shadows than the Chen Zhao in the open.

If he hadn't shown up tonight, it would have been almost impossible to find his whereabouts.

Thinking of this, a hint of apprehension flashed in Li Cining's eyes: "I really underestimated you."

"The Emperor's favor towards you in the past allowed you to control the entire court. If you weren't a eunuch, the throne of our Great Ning Dynasty would probably have changed hands by now, wouldn't it?"

Chen Zhao calmly looked at the young emperor before him: "Your Majesty misunderstands. This old servant has never thought of coveting the throne of the Great Ning Dynasty."

"The throne of the Great Ning Dynasty will forever belong to the Li family!"

"Is this why you infiltrated the imperial tomb and rescued my third brother?"

Li Cining stared at him.

Previously, Li Yuan disappeared from the imperial mausoleum. Li Cining ordered a thorough investigation, but even after searching almost the entire mausoleum, they still couldn't find Li Yuan's whereabouts.

The next news I heard about him was that Prince Xu Hong, along with the Third Prince, had raised an army to march south and purge the court of corrupt officials.

At that moment, Li Cining realized that there was an inside agent in the imperial tomb.

Looking at it now, there are probably very few people in the world who could have sneaked into the imperial mausoleum and rescued Li Yuan without a sound, except for this old eunuch who once held sway in the court.

Faced with Li Cining's questioning, Chen Zhao did not deny it.

"Why are you doing this?"

Li Cining asked in a deep voice, "Why did you plot to murder my father?"

"Your father has treated you well, giving you everything you wanted... Why did you do this?!"

This is the thing that Li Cining has never understood the most!
At that time, Chen Zhao had already obtained all the honors that a eunuch could have. Power, wealth... he had obtained everything he wanted.

Why would he still plot a rebellion and try to murder his father?
Li Cining couldn't understand why Chen Zhao, who was already so powerful, had to avoid the old eunuch even when he was the crown prince.

Chen Zhao's risky plot to murder his father and disrupt the court could only mean that if he went any further, he would be trying to seize the throne of the Great Ning Dynasty.

But why would a eunuch like him plot to seize the throne?
That's obviously unrealistic!

Or……

Was Chen Zhao not a eunuch?

However, the idea was rejected by Li Cining as soon as it came to mind.

The fact that the Emperor trusted Chen Zhao so much back then must mean he knew his background. If Chen Zhao weren't a eunuch, the Emperor would never have trusted him so much.

So, what exactly is the reason?
Chen Zhao seemed somewhat dazed. After a long while, he said in a deep voice, "The late emperor did treat this old servant well, but there are some things that this old servant has no choice but to do."

"This is my mission, nothing else!"

Li Cining stared intently at him: "Are you one of Xu Hong's men?"

"Xu Hong arranged for you to be placed in the palace, planning for more than ten years, all for this day?"

This was the only possibility Li Cining could think of!

He was Xu Hong's man. Xu Hong arranged for him to enter the palace in preparation for a rebellion one day, making him a key pawn.
Besides this, Li Cining could not think of any other reason why Chen Zhao would go to such lengths to rebel.

Chen Zhao's tone was slightly somber: "It doesn't matter whose man this old servant is. A year ago, the late emperor passed away, and this old servant has been hiding in the palace ever since, waiting for the opportunity tonight."

Li Cining stared at him: "Over the past year, you have had countless opportunities to attack me, why have you never done so?"

"The time has not come yet."

"So, tonight is the right time?"

Chen Zhao remained noncommittal.

"A year ago, you plotted to murder my father and also wanted to get rid of me. I suppose you wanted to install a puppet emperor on the throne?"

After a moment of silence, Li Cining suddenly spoke.

Chen Zhao said in a deep voice, "If Your Majesty had been willing to listen back then, this old servant wouldn't have ended up like this."

"really!"

A look of realization dawned on Li Cining's face: "So a year ago, you chose the third brother. This time, you chose my sixth brother?"

Chen Zhao did not speak again.

He strode closer to Li Cining.

Everything that needed to be said has been said; it's time to send this new emperor on his way!

Li Cining watched Chen Zhao's movements and suddenly spoke: "Aren't you curious why I knew in advance that you would be coming tonight?"

Hearing this, Chen Zhao's gaze sharpened slightly. He recalled that when Li Cining first appeared, she didn't show the shock he had expected.

This is indeed a bit strange!
"I didn't expect this either, but just recently, someone informed me."

Li Cining stared at him and said, word by word, "Someone reminded me that there might be danger around me."

"Perhaps someone wants my life!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Zhao remained unmoved; he did not care who had tipped off Li Cining.

The result was the same for him!
Li Cining is doomed to die tonight, and no one can stop her.

"Your Majesty, are you confident that you can survive this old servant's clutches by waiting for me here tonight?"

Chen Zhao's voice remained low and hoarse as he spoke, continuing to walk closer to Li Cining.

One step, two steps...

His hunched figure looked extremely frail, yet every step he took was filled with oppressive power.

Li Cining remained seated, his face pale, but there was no trace of fear on his expression. It was as if he had long since seen through life and death and faced it with equanimity.

With each step Chen Zhao took, his aura grew stronger and stronger.

In the end, the murderous intent that had been hidden for so long slowly emerged and spread.

"A year ago, this old servant personally ended the life of the late emperor. Now, this old servant will escort Your Majesty to reunite with the late emperor!"

"..."

(End of this chapter)