Rebirth: The Journey of an Heiress-Chapter 1543 - 1538: On the Brink of Peril

"You all heard what His Majesty implied just now. It’s as if the Regent Prince is his only true kin, while none of us, not even the Empress Dowager, matter! Only the Regent Prince truly cares for him and for Yan!" The relatives became increasingly furious, slapping their chests in anger. "We’re all heartless traitors! His Majesty only listens to the Regent Prince now, ignoring our earnest advice. I foresee that soon the entire royal court will be under the Regent Prince’s control!"

The Empress Dowager of Yan nearly collapsed—was it... A Yan?

Did A Yan instruct Ah Li to send her away?

"The fault lies with the Empress Dowager trusting the Regent Prince too much before. Who’d have thought the Regent Prince was the snake in the grass, ready to seize power even at the cost of betraying his own sister-in-law! And to manipulate His Majesty against the Empress Dowager—it’s a cruelty worse than murder! Forcing a son to exile his own mother from the Imperial Palace—how will the world see His Majesty decades from now? How will they view my Murong Imperial Family? It’s outrageous!"

The last trace of color faded from the Empress Dowager’s face; it truly was A Yan!

A Yan... Why would he treat her like this! She was his sister-in-law!

A Yan had promised before, to protect her, to protect Ah Li. But why incite discord between her and her son! Why coerce Ah Li into insisting she leave the palace!

She is Ah Li’s mother! She gave birth to Ah Li... she gave him life!

It was just once, that one time she gave Ah Li medicine, merely to weaken him physically, not to harm. She believed Ah Li’s soft heart and filial nature wouldn’t let him cruelly send her away on such a snowy night. Ah Li, who was so filial, dependent on her—how could he bear to part from her?

The Empress Dowager recalled how Murong Li, soft-hearted during the previous year, allowed her to stay in the palace for New Year, yet today... by no means would he let her stay. He insisted she leave amid the snowstorm!

This incident was so sudden; it must be Xiao Rongyan... it must be because of the letter he sent to Ah Li yesterday. Xiao Rongyan must have known she was staying in the palace for the New Year, which is why Murong Yan urged Ah Li to send her away! It must be him!

She looked up at the imposing palace gate, her eyes reddened, her gaze furious...

Everything she did was for Yan, but why did Xiao Rongyan treat her like this? Was she not good enough to him? Even though she was also a Regent Dowager, since Ah Li ascended the throne, she hadn’t opposed any decision Xiao Rongyan made, trusting him wholeheartedly! 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Why was he so eager to rid himself of her?

Could it be, because she once conspired with Xiliang to betray Zhou, causing the rift between Xiao Rongyan and Bai Qingyan, leading to his estrangement from his flesh and blood, and now Xiao Rongyan seeks revenge, to make her estranged from her own blood too?

That’s it! It must be!

How vicious of Xiao Rongyan!

He is a man, different from women... A woman can have only a few children in her lifetime, but a man can have many. He ultimately must choose between familial love and the realm, and he chose the realm... Could it be she, as his sister-in-law, would watch him grow old alone without a family? She had to help him find a wife and bear children!

She is his elder sister-in-law, which is like being a mother!

She did everything for Yan, yet Xiao Rongyan, to vent his personal grievances, intends to forcibly separate her from her bloodline, sowing distrust and abandonment from A Yan...

How cruel...

She is filled with hatred!

"Empress Dowager..." The maidservant beside the Empress Dowager called her softly, already in tears, knowing how much the Empress Dowager hoped the relatives were here to invite her back to the palace!

"The Regent Prince has always been ruthless; is this the first time we’ve realized it? After conquering the Wei Kingdom, why did the people not fully submit to Yan? It’s because the Regent Prince dealt with the Wei royal family and nobility with such cruelty that they were terrified but unable to truly submit!"

"Indeed, from the beginning of His Majesty’s reign, the Regent Prince targeted our Imperial Clan, exiling many back to Liyi. Those who didn’t leave had no choice but death! At that time, we realized this Regent Prince recognized no familial bond!"

"And regarding the gambling of the state, let’s discuss... His Majesty was young and oblivious, but was the Regent Prince also unaware? Yan’s circumstances, against the might of Zhou in its prime, gambling the state was surely a loss! If His Majesty didn’t understand, did the Regent Prince not know too? This clearly was a ploy to hand over our Murong family’s prosperous land to Zhou!"

The Imperial Clan relatives discussed without mentioning Yan’s plight, as if, without gambling the state, peace with Zhou would have been assured, as if Zhou hadn’t been ready to wage war, awaiting the Emperor of Zhou’s command before placing Yan in jeopardy.

"Handing over to Zhou"—those four words struck a nerve with the Empress Dowager of Yan.

The Empress Dowager’s pupils trembled violently, terrified that Xiao Rongyan might indeed hand Yan over to Zhou... to Bai Qingyan.

"Empress Dowager... Empress Dowager!" The maid saw the Empress Dowager trembling with restraint and was startled, "Empress Dowager, don’t frighten this maid!"

Initially appearing drained, filled with helpless rage, the Empress Dowager suddenly stood upright, grasping the maid’s hand with such force it seemed she might crush the bones.

"Empress Dowager?!" The maid gasped in pain as her fingers turned white.

She understood, finally she understood...

Now Bai Qingyan, this Emperor of Zhou, was on Yan’s territory. Xiao Rongyan claimed he was inspecting towns stricken with illness to calm the populace, but truly... he was meeting Bai Qingyan in secret!

Xiao Rongyan likely wanted to reconcile with Bai Qingyan, hence intending to hand Yan over to Bai Qingyan!

No, perhaps much earlier, Xiao Rongyan had already conspired with Bai Qingyan to gradually take Yan!

After all, those two children of Bai Qingyan’s are also Xiao Rongyan’s children. With rumors that Bai Qingyan is unlikely to bear more children, given the natural limits on a woman’s offspring, if Yan were to fall into Zhou’s hands... it would effectively be in Xiao Rongyan’s children’s hands! For Xiao Rongyan, there’s no loss!

Otherwise, as these royal relatives claimed, when Ah Li was unaware of the gravity of gambling the state, was it possible Xiao Rongyan didn’t know? Why didn’t he desperately restrain Ah Li, if not for the sake of his two children!

No wonder Xiao Rongyan insisted on her being expelled from the palace at night. It was clearly some arrangement with Bai Qingyan to hand over Yan!

What about her Ah Li?

"What a Regent Prince! What a Xiao Rongyan!" The Empress Dowager’s heart burned with fury, "Claiming to lead Ah Li forward while actually planning to hand over our Yan to Bai Qingyan, to his children! We’ve been deceived, all of us—late emperor, Ah Li... I, the mourning widow, were all deceived!"