Female Consort Chapter 89: The Imperial Jade Seal

“Eunuch Fu, what are you doing here?” Li Qingwu’s face was half hidden in shadow, half illuminated by the flickering lamp. The interplay of light and dark made her expression eerily unsettling.

“Your Highness, the Eldest Princess...” Fuzi raised both hands to show he meant no harm, his tone oddly strange. “You are sneaking into His Majesty’s bedchamber at this hour... I haven’t even asked why.”

“Just answer when I ask,” Li Qingwu said sharply. A year spent with the army had taught Yu Yan how to wield intimidation like a weapon. She pressed down the dagger in her hand as a threat. “Cut the nonsense.”

Fuzi fell silent for a moment, then gave a bitter smile. “I was merely attending His Majesty as usual. When I heard noises on the roof, fear seized me, so I hid…”

“You serve Father,” Li Qingwu said quietly, glancing toward the shadowy figure of the emperor lying on the couch behind the curtain. “If you suspected an intruder, possibly an assassin, shouldn’t you have called out immediately to summon guards to protect His Majesty?”

Fuzi laughed nervously. “I… forgot for a moment…”

“Really?” Li Qingwu rolled up her sleeves and took a few steps, holding her candle aloft. “I think you were just too afraid to make a sound, worried whoever was coming might be your master’s people, and you didn’t want to ruin their plan.”

Fuzi’s face turned pale, terror-stricken. “Your Highness, I don’t understand what you mean. My master… His Majesty is the only one I serve…”

“I’m not here to waste time with you,” Li Qingwu said coldly. “Stop pretending. Tell me, what else has your master arranged? I might spare your life for all the years you’ve carefully served the emperor.”

Tears welled up in Fuzi’s eyes. He opened his mouth to speak, 

Suddenly, a knife flashed from his sleeve, stabbing fiercely toward her.

Leaning forward, Li Qingwu’s neck collided with the blade resting on Yu Yan’s shoulder, leaving a long, bleeding gash.

Li Qingwu had been trained by Qiu Che many times on how to react in emergencies. Though Yu Yan restrained Fuzi, she stayed alert.

But inexperience and the shock of Fuzi’s deadly resolve caught her off guard, so he was willing to trade his life for hers.

The blade aimed for her left heart chamber, and though her timely dodge shifted it slightly, it still pierced her left arm.

Pain shot through Li Qingwu, causing her to tremble and stumble back two steps.

Blood quickly soaked her clothes.

Yu Yan immediately withdrew the dagger and widened his eyes in alarm, stepping forward to support her. “Your Highness!”

Li Qingwu shook her head and gritted her teeth as she painfully pulled the dagger out, tossing it aside. “It’s nothing… Why did you try to kill me?”

Fuzi lay on the floor, clutching his bleeding neck, his expression dazed.

After a moment, a hoarse, blood-tinged laugh escaped his lips.

“No... there’s no reason.”

“In the palace, we slaves do only what our master's command.”

“I once served His Majesty, then the Crown Prince, then the Third Prince...”

“I didn’t want to kill you,” Fuzi smiled painfully. “But it’s the Third Prince’s order. If I don’t kill you, I’ll die.”

“If death is certain either way, no one will have an easy end.”

“Your Highness, you princes and princesses are born with golden branches and jade leaves. You don’t know how hard it is for us slaves just to survive... It seems survival is just a mercy you casually bestow on us lowly people.”

Fuzi laughed bitterly. “But now... I want to die.”

Yu Yan glared at him fiercely. “If you want to die, then just die! Why drag our princess into your mess?”

Then Yu Yan plunged another dagger straight through Fuzi’s left heart.

Fuzi’s twisted, almost manic smile lingered as he stared slowly at the ceiling, then finally went still.

Yu Yan turned back to see Li Qingwu’s stunned expression, and hesitated.

“Your Highness, don’t listen to his nonsense. The situation is indeed harsh. But some choose to be slaves. If they don’t want to be, there are ways out, they just lack the courage to leave their old roles behind... You owe them nothing.”

Li Qingwu gave a bitter smile and patted Yu Yan’s hand. “I know.”

Just like Yu Ming and Yu Yan themselves, who, under Qiu Che’s influence, gradually replaced the word ‘slave’ with ‘subordinate.’

But it had been a path they chose themselves.

Every step was their own choice.

“Do me a favor,” Li Qingwu said, calming quickly. She looked around, then raised her head. “Go and fetch the Empress Dowager.”

“Oh, right, the Empress Dowager,” Yu Yan slapped his forehead. It wasn’t that he forgot, but lately, the Empress Dowager had become a shadow in the palace and court.

“What about you?”

“There’s a medicine chest in the bedchamber,” Li Qingwu recalled. “Qiu Che taught me how to dress wounds. It’s fine, just go quickly and come back soon.”

Yu Yan nodded and locked the door behind them before jumping out the window.

Li Qingwu cautiously checked the emperor’s breath behind the curtain to confirm he was still alive, then found the medicine chest and bit her lip to tend her wound while contemplating the situation.

She glanced toward Fuzi’s body and was moved to the shadows by Yu Yan, guessing he was here most likely because of the Imperial Jade Seal.

The laws of Great Xia stated that anyone without the Imperial Jade Seal could not inherit the throne.

She and Qiu Che had long suspected why the Crown Prince kept the emperor imprisoned yet never took the throne or killed him.

The answer was simple: he hadn’t gotten the Imperial Jade Seal yet.

So the emperor could not die.

But why were they suddenly trying to force a coup tonight?

The Crown Prince would never act so boldly. Even if he was confident, a coup was a scandal.

Someone was pushing him behind the scenes, and he finally lost patience.

The Third Prince surely hadn’t revealed his true intentions, so the Crown Prince didn’t see him as a threat.

The coup was a scandal, and it might not even reveal much. The Imperial Jade Seal wasn’t in hand yet, so there must be a reason forcing the Crown Prince’s hand.

Perhaps the chaotic times made him restless and helpless.

Perhaps his ambition had outgrown his current impotence.

Perhaps, 

He didn’t have the real Imperial Jade Seal, only a fake.

It sounded reckless, but if everyone who knew the truth died, no one would know the seal was false.

But the Crown Prince hadn’t heard the story of the praying mantis stalking the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind.

Because he was the mantis.

And the Third Prince was the oriole.

Imagine this: the Crown Prince imprisons the emperor. Months later, his true colors emerge as he attempts patricide.

At this moment, the Third Prince Li Hengyu, the only surviving royal son, appears with officials to expose the Crown Prince and save the emperor.

The Crown Prince’s reputation is ruined, his claim lost, and with the emperor barely alive, the Third Prince naturally ascends.

Fuzi’s presence here was likely the Third Prince’s last chance to interrogate the emperor and force him to reveal the Imperial Jade Seal.

Li Qingwu took a deep breath, recalling the hardships they’d endured over the past two years because of this hidden enemy.

She looked again at the unconscious emperor on the couch.

Such a pity.

It was destined to disappoint Li Hengyu.

According to their original plan, this should have all been done by Qiu Che, but now, Qiu Che was probably still outside the city...

Li Qingwu lowered her eyes, hiding the worry deep inside, then firmly tied a knot in the bandage over her wound.

If Qiu Che couldn’t come, then she would do it herself.

“What do you want, ”

The young eunuch at the door was startled awake by the sounds of clashing swords. Before he could finish speaking, a royal guard’s sword swiftly silenced him with a deadly strike to the throat.

“Your Highness the Crown Prince,” the guard whispered as he approached, “everyone around has been dealt with.”

“Hmph,” the Crown Prince waved his hand impatiently, “Where is Mr. Yu?”

The guard hesitated, stammering, “When we were at the palace gate, Mr. Yu was still there. Perhaps after entering, the crowd dispersed…”

“Forget him.” The Crown Prince’s expression hardened. “Go in and bring that old emperor out to me.”

The guard saluted, but before he could speak again, a voice rang out sharply from inside the room:

“Who is out there?!”

A man’s voice.

The Crown Prince frowned and glanced at the guard.

The guard quickly turned around, suspicious and unsettled. “Impossible! Weren’t all the emperor’s close attendants withdrawn? Who is inside?! Identify yourselves immediately!”

“How dare you!” A loud bang sounded as the half-open window was pushed aside. Holding a sword, a cold voice demanded, “The Princess Royal and the Empress Dowager are discussing state matters. Who are you? Without the emperor’s permission, how dare you trespass in the palace! Do you not fear the emperor’s wrath?”

The Crown Prince laughed bitterly and drew a sword from a nearby guard’s waist, pointing it at the man. “I am the Crown Prince of the East Palace. And who are you? You speak of discussions as if you decide the matters of state. How come I didn’t know the Empress Dowager and Princess Royal came to the palace tonight?”

He didn’t notice the cold sweat forming on the captain of the royal guards standing beside him.

“Seize him!” the Crown Prince ordered sharply.

“Stop.”

The Empress Dowager appeared at the window.

Dressed in splendid robes, her brow furrowed as she looked out at the guards armed with swords. Her voice was stern:

“Mao’er, what are you doing?”

“Are you planning a rebellion?”

The Crown Prince’s face turned pale. “Grand Empress…”

He instinctively straightened but then hesitated, suspicious. “Why are you here?”

Could it be true, what the youth said earlier?

The Empress Dowager replied coldly, “The emperor is gravely ill and urgently summoned me. Do you expect me to report to you on my whereabouts?”

Though the Crown Prince hated the emperor for the death of his mother, he had always respected his grandmother... though that didn’t stop him from trying to wrest power from her.

His face stiffened. “That’s not true, Grand Empress…”

Someone nearby tapped him on the arm with a fan, interrupting, “Your Highness, are you getting soft?”

The Crown Prince hesitated, then spotted Yu Zheng arriving late among the crowd. Suppressing his anger, he said, “I’d also like to ask you why you’re so late!”

Of course, it was because Yu Zheng didn’t want to be implicated.

Yu Zheng, who had come to observe the situation, now had to step forward once more as the Crown Prince wavered again.

Though furious inside at the Crown Prince’s weakness, Yu Zheng’s expression remained calm as he glanced briefly inside the hall.

He raised his feather fan to partially cover his face, speaking quietly to the Crown Prince:

“Your Highness, now is not the time for hesitation. Don’t forget your great cause is about to succeed. You can’t afford to be kind-hearted and hold back.”

“No matter why they came here... they must die.”

The Crown Prince’s eyes flickered with doubt. “But Grand Empress, besides my mother, she’s been the kindest to me.”

Yu Zheng rolled his eyes internally but forced himself to remain composed. His tone twisted slightly as he said, “The throne... The throne! Once you become emperor, what reason will there be for anyone not to treat you well? The whole world should bow to you!”

The Crown Prince still hesitated. After a moment, Yu Zheng closed his fan and shouted:

“Everyone, go in! Kill them!”

The Empress Dowager’s eyes darkened. “Crown Prince, are you truly going to rebel?”

The Crown Prince was silent for a moment, avoiding her gaze, then gritted his teeth:

“Listen to Mr. Yu.”

Yu Zheng smirked with satisfaction.

At least he was still teachable.

The Empress Dowager sneered coldly. “Good. No wonder your father refused to hand over the imperial seal to you when he died, you really are a heartless traitor.”

The Crown Prince’s heart tightened.

But the window was slammed shut by the cold-faced guard, and no one could see inside.

The guards outside hesitated on both sides, but when the Crown Prince gave the order, they finally relaxed and charged in, swords drawn.

But the moment the leader stepped inside, an arrow pierced his forehead on the spot.

Straight through the center of his brow.

“Let’s see who dares!”

A figure stepped out of the hall, flanked by Fu Feng’s guards.

She held an intricately carved golden bow, her arm wrapped in bandages, lips pale, but her grip on the bow steady.

No one noticed that her wrist was trembling slightly.

This was her first time killing.

Luckily, she kept her composure, and the overwhelming aura of authority she exuded made the charging guards hesitate.

Fu Feng stepped forward, handing a freshly written imperial edict to Li Qingwu.

Li Qingwu took the edict in one hand, flicked it open, and read aloud coldly:

“The late emperor’s will: The current descendants are foolish and unworthy. Fearing no one will be able to succeed the throne after my passing, I have considered deeply and believe the Empress Dowager Fu, noble in character, is fit to assume the mantle. By imperial decree.”

“Impossible!” The Crown Prince’s face turned iron cold as he shouted, “How could father pass the throne to Grand Empress! You must be lying!”

“I also thought it impossible,” Li Qingwu said calmly, “But to be honest, father’s heart was broken by you all. Brother, you should know what you’ve done.”

“The emperor originally intended to pass the throne to me,” she paused to catch her breath, “but I considered myself unfit, so I recommended Grand Empress instead...”

Yu Zheng hadn’t expected this turn of events.

They had guarded against Qiu Che, yet failed to anticipate the Princess Royal.

With time running out, he whispered urgently:

“Your Highness, don’t hesitate. Kill them now!”

Right.

Kill them all, then it wouldn’t matter whether the will was real or not.

The Crown Prince snapped back to himself, gritting his teeth:

“Father overthought this... he was poisoned by schemers... Now seize them all for me!”

“Yes!”

“The imperial seal is here!” Li Qingwu called out, raising a box.

It was given to her by Consort Xu before she left.

Li Qingwu scanned the room with a cold glare and said clearly, word by word:

“Whoever dares to step forward will be deemed a traitor to the Empress... No mercy!”