I became the tyrant's only belief.

Chapter 483 Deliberately doing it
Prince Cheng was brought in by two eunuchs and made to kneel on the ground.

After hearing the whole story, Xiao Jingfan asked the Imperial Physician Li, who was standing nearby, "Has Prince Cheng ever bit anyone in the Imperial Hospital?"

“No,” said Physician Li. “His Highness Prince Cheng has always been very… quiet and doesn’t like to move. Apart from calling everyone ‘beauty,’ he has no tendency to harm anyone. It is quite… unexpected that he would run out and hurt Her Majesty the Empress.”

Upon hearing this, Xiao Jingfan glanced at the Empress and, seeing that she remained calm, pointed to Prince Cheng, who was staring intently at the Empress, and asked Zhou Yuande, "Who has he met today?"

"Your Majesty, I just sent someone to the Imperial Hospital to inquire," Zhou Yuande said. "The palace servants who serve Prince Cheng closely said that, in addition to the imperial physicians and pharmacy staff, Prince Cheng also met a palace maid named Caizhu from Qiushuizhai."

[Isn't Qiushuizhai Consort Zhu's territory? I remember Caizhu was her head maid, so how is this related to Consort Zhu?]

Chu Liuzheng sensed a conspiracy, opened the system, and started searching!
Xiao Jingfan said, "Bring the person here."

"Yes, sir." Xiao Anzi accepted the order and went to fetch the person.

While waiting for others, Xiao Jingfan looked at the Empress, and his first words made everyone in the hall wish they could go deaf on the spot.

"Does the Empress have a past relationship with Prince Cheng?"

Empress Zhong: "...What does Your Majesty mean by that?"

“I’m very curious,” Xiao Jingfan pointed to Prince Cheng, who was kneeling there obediently and had no other reaction except staring straight at the Empress, “why is Prince Cheng biting you and not others?”

"I also want to know," Empress Zhong said with a bitter smile. "I believe I have never had any enmity with Prince Cheng, so why did he have to come and hurt me?"

Of course, it's because Prince Cheng both loves and hates you.

Prince Cheng believed the Empress was deeply in love with him and never doubted her messages. Little did he know the Empress was also hedging her bets, and he was merely one of her options. After all, in the eyes of the Empress and the Duke of Zhong's family, what were romantic feelings compared to the undisputed position of Empress?

Prince Cheng harbored resentment over this matter and blamed the Empress for not ascending the throne. Even in his madness, he remembered it, snatching the purse Caizhu wore upon seeing it and rushing out so fast that I almost thought he wasn't mad at all.

Chu Liuzheng flipped through the system.

[Tsk tsk, success is due to one's own ability and competence, but failure is blamed on women. Such a fragile trait! Please use your brain; their goal has always been the Empress's throne, okay? If you can't give it to them, they'll find something else that can.]

[Speaking of which, is the tyrant blind? Princess Cheng and the Empress look so alike, they could easily be mistaken for sisters. Didn't the tyrant ever suspect anything?]

Xiao Jingfan, who had never suspected anything: "..."

He's not just bored and has nothing better to do than neglect state affairs and find himself cuckolded.

Besides, before Prince Cheng went to his fiefdom, he had only met Princess Cheng twice. He couldn't very well stare at his own brother's wife like a lecherous scoundrel, could he?

However, now that he knew, he casually recalled the appearance of Princess Cheng, and then glanced at the Empress, thinking to himself that Princess Cheng was so thin that she looked like a skeleton, how did she resemble the Empress?

[Wow! I thought Princess Cheng had become haggard because of her love for him, but it turns out she knew about Prince Cheng and the Empress's past, and also knew that she and the Empress looked alike. So she deliberately made herself look extremely thin before meeting the Emperor!]

[He thought of everything so thoroughly to save his life; he's truly a ruthless person who dared to burn an imperial edict!]

Chu Liuzheng clicked his tongue in admiration, looking at Princess Cheng's broad-mindedness with new respect.

If she were Princess Cheng, and knew that the man she had borne children for married her because she looked like another woman, she would at least have Prince Cheng torn apart by five horses, if not completely destroyed, and his ashes scattered.

*
"This servant, Caizhu, greets Your Majesty." Caizhu knelt down. "May Your Majesty be well."

Xiao Jingfan asked, "Have you met Prince Cheng today?"

Caizhu replied, "Your Majesty, this servant went to the Imperial Hospital to fetch medicine and saw His Highness Prince Cheng sitting in the courtyard, so I went in to pay my respects as per protocol."

Palace rules state that ignoring a noble person is considered a great disrespect and should be punished by being sent to the Department of Cautious Punishment.

Although Prince Cheng had gone mad, the emperor had not stripped him of his title, so it wasn't unusual for Caizhu to go and pay her respects. Xiao Jingfan asked, "Besides paying your respects, have you done anything else?"

Caizhu thought for a moment, then looked hesitant.

Zhou Yuande said in a shrill voice, "Nothing must be hidden from His Majesty."

"This servant wouldn't dare," Caizhu hurriedly replied. "After I paid my respects, I was about to leave when His Highness Prince Cheng suddenly snatched my purse."

Empress Zhong asked, "What kind of purse?"

Cai Zhu truthfully replied, "It's sky blue, with a pair of gourds embroidered on the front."

Upon hearing this, Chu Liuzheng stole a glance at the Empress's reaction.

In the purest days of their love, Prince Cheng once embroidered a gourd-shaped purse for the Empress, filled with little notes filled with love messages. On her very first day in the palace, the Empress threw it into the fire and burned it, leaving not even a wisp of ashes.

Xiao Jingfan suddenly felt like he was being utterly cuckolded, but strangely, he wasn't angry at all. Could he possibly get used to this?

No, I'm still angry.

Empress Qi and the Duke of Zhong's mansion are both betting on each other.

A cold glint flashed in the emperor's deep eyes. "Just you wait!"

The Empress, who was being closely watched by Chu Liuzheng, showed little reaction, at least not outwardly. After asking that question, she picked up her tea and drank it, without saying another word.

Caizhu had explained everything, and Zhou Yuande was about to take her away when Chu Liuzheng, who had stumbled upon some interesting gossip, suddenly asked, "Did you embroider that gourd-shaped purse yourself?"

Caizhu was taken aback, glanced at Chu Liuzheng, and shook her head. "No."

Chu Liuzheng pressed further, "How did it come about?"

“Yes…” Caizhu pursed her lips, her voice a little softer than before, “It was bestowed upon me by Consort Shu.”

Chu Liuzheng then asked, "Why did Consort Shu bestow a purse upon you?"

Caizhu replied, "A few days ago, I accompanied my mistress to Zhaoyang Palace to pay my respects to Consort Shu. When the consort saw that the purse I was wearing was torn, she gave me a new one."

[Tsk tsk, now that the Empress has given birth to a prince, even Consort Shu can't sit still. The purse she bestowed upon her, besides having better stitching, has the exact same color scheme and embroidery pattern as the one Prince Cheng made back then. No wonder Prince Cheng reacted so strongly upon seeing it.]

Is it wrong to give someone a purse? No, it's not. Does the Empress dare to say that? No, she doesn't.

This is true murder without bloodshed; the Empress can only suffer in silence.

Chu Liuzheng didn't ask any further questions, but the Empress, who had been quiet for a long time, glanced at her. Her gilded nail guards scraped against her skirt, leaving a mark.

Upon hearing that the Empress had been attacked, the Emperor personally arrived. Consort Shu and Consort Chun, who were temporarily in charge of the six palaces, came together, only to see the departing entourage.

The attack on the Empress resulted in her injury, and Prince Cheng was punished with twenty lashes. The blood fell onto the snow, resembling newly blossoming plum blossoms.

Prince Cheng, unable to withstand the torture, fainted and was carried back to the Imperial Hospital covered in blood.

Just when everyone thought the emperor would make amends to the empress, he didn't even bestow a box of ointment upon her. Instead, he appointed Consort Shu to take over the imperial seal and asked the Empress Dowager to temporarily take care of the young prince.

Rumors circulated in the palace that Prince Cheng and the Empress had a past relationship, which the Emperor found out and greatly disliked.

(End of this chapter)