Chapter 38

“All right.” Helian Jue said with a wave of his hand, “If you want to talk about the imperial edict, let’s talk.”

Helian Jue lost his mood to enjoy and said with coldness in his eyes.

Tang Xia bowed to the emperor slightly, wearing an indistinct, mocking smile on her lips. As a breeze swept her hair into the air, Tang Xia appeared more charismatic, like a beauty in a painting.

“I’ve been busy asking for information about the executioner with Guard Chu these days. However, that executioner is hidden in the imperial harem so it took some effort.”

Tang Xia said with such a cold voice that it seemed that she was talking about something irrelevant to her.

Such a tone made Helian Jue frown with displeasure.

It was Tang Xia who guided the topic to this matter, but it was she who talked about it so indifferently.

“When did my Yue Ji become so aloof that she no longer cares about me anymore?”

Helian Jue frowned his eyebrows with sullen antagonism. In the candlelight, he hid his look in the dark so that no emotions could be seen.

“My beloved imperial concubine, you talk too slowly, let me have someone else help you.”

As the emperor waved his big sleeves, Shun Decai obeyed and took someone into the hall.

That woman who wore a prison uniform with multiple whip prints on her body walked into the center of the hall wearing a pale face, then went down on her knees suddenly.

“I’m the sinful slave girl Huangye, I greet Your Majesty.”

With her hair hanging in front of her, Huangye bent her head so low that Tang Xia could not see her face.

What Tang Xia could see was only her body shaking with fear on the floor.

“Huangye.” Helian Jue tapped his hand on the table regularly, “Tell me, how did you make trouble in the imperial harem by pretending to be the executioner?”

Huangye quivered then replied with a tremor in her voice, “Yes, Your Majesty.”

Just like a marionette in the hall, Huangye maintained an emotionless expression with her dull eyes as well as her dry and cracked lips. However, her forehead was filled with cold sweat.

“I’ve been Faner’s friend since I was a little girl. And I bore a grudge against Yue Ji who framed Faner to death so that I planned to play a trick – pretending to be Faner’s ghost to act as the executioner in the imperial harem.”

“The scars on their backs are caused by the medication I’ve mastered since I was a little girl and will fade away in three days. I wanted to frame Yue Ji and get attention from Your Majesty through this opportunity, then put Yue Ji to death for Faner.”

Tang Xia opened her cherry lips and wore a look of surprise.

She did know that the person behind the executioner was Huangye, but she did not figure out why she admitted it.

Helian Jue wore a poker face with indistinct irony as if he had already known that.

“It was Yi Jiazi who murdered Faner. Why don’t you blame Yi Jiazi but get revenge on Tang Xia?”

Helian Jue said in a colder voice suddenly, which made Huangye quiver again.

“Because Yue Ji is the cause of all the troubles. If Yue Ji did not disturb Yi Jiazi, Yi Jiazi would not make this unwise decision. This is all Yue Ji’s fault, it is she who disturbed Yi Jiazi and murdered Faner!”

Huangye’s words made Tang Xia frown, but she said nothing. As Chu Tiankuo behind her back touched her slender fingers with his big hand vaguely, Tang Xia turned her head around and saw Chu Tiankuo’s handsome face with a look of haughtiness as well as slight worry.

“He is comforting me.” Tang Xia thought.

“So what you mean is,” Helian Jue frowned, with a cold curve in his mouth, “That it was Yi Jiazi who framed Yue Ji but Yue Ji protected herself successfully, which disturbed Yi Jiazi. That’s why she murdered Faner, right?”

Helian Jue’s words attracted everyone’s look back to his face.

Some were surprised while others were panic-stricken.

Huangye did not expect Helian Jue to trace the cause back to Yi Jiazi, so she kowtowed hard on the floor several times immediately, making her forehead bloody.

“Your Majesty! It is none of Yi Jiazi’s business! It is all because of me! I went astray, I just wanted to avenge Faner, but I should not have framed Yue Ji, Your Majesty!”

Huangye kept on kowtowing hard so that the floor of Hecheng hall roared slightly.

Helian Jue asked with emotion flickering in his eyes, “What made you think that you can frame Yue Ji? You’ve changed your mind so quickly to declare now that it is you who should be blamed. What a loyal servant to Yi Jiazi!”

Huangye was so terrified that she kowtowed more quickly, just repeating, “Your Majesty! Your Majesty!”

However, Helian Jue could not be deceived so easily. Disgust flickered in his eyes, making the air around him colder.

“Men, take Yi Jiazi here!”

Shun Decai obeyed and took Yi Jiazi into the hall in fifteen minutes. Spreading her hair on her shoulder, Yi Jiazi wore a fabulous purple dress with a red hairpin in her chignon, jingling as she walked.

As she stood in the hall, Yi Jiazi raised her hands folded together over her head, “Your Majesty.”

Helian Jue wore a cold curve in his mouth with some emotion flickering in his eyes, “Yi Jiazi, check it out. Do you know the woman kneeling beside you?”

Yi Jiazi raised her delicate chin then turned her head around, glancing at Huangye who was curled up and replied calmly, “I know her. She is my servant girl Huangye.”

Helian Jue raised his head haughtily, “In that case, your slave girl said that you had colluded with her to frame Yue Ji up, do you admit it?”

Yi Jiazi froze for a second, then glanced at Huangye with a fleeting look of maliciousness in her eyes, then bowed to Helian Jue, “I have no idea what you are talking about.”

Helian Jue raised his chin, “Then let Huangye explain it for you.”

The Huangye who was called was curled up on the ground, with blood from her forehead spreading over the floor, making her somewhat coquettish.

Yi Jiazi bent her knees and squatted beside Huangye with a trace of a smile in her mouth, then touched Huangye’s back with her slender fingers as if she was comforting her.

“Huangye, we are from Southland, so the mutual affection between us is known to all. Now, I don’t understand what the emperor is talking about, could you please explain it again for me?”

Yi Jiazi said it in a voice as gentle and pleasant as a yellowbird. However, Huangye regarded her voice so fearfully that she quivered.

Yi Jiazi’s gentle touch on her back intensified Huangye’s fear so that her thin body kept on trembling.

Tang Xia frowned her eyebrows, not knowing why Huangye was so scared of telling what she had already said. It was clearly her only way to survive.

“Your Majesty, I should not have blamed Yue Ji. I’m too stupid, this is none of Yi Jiazi’s business. I beg you to investigate this matter thoroughly.”

“It is suspicious that Huangye keeps on claiming that it is none of Yi Jiazi’s business.”

Tang Xia frowned and instinctively felt that there must be something wrong.

“So do you admit your guilt?” Helian Jue asked with laziness in his voice. What replied him was the sound of Huangye kowtowing hard.

“I admit my guilt. Please trust that Yi Jiazi is innocent, Your Majesty.”

Yi Jiazi fixed her eyes on Helian Jue in the high platform with increasing gloom in her eyes.

“I just knew of what had happened. I don’t understand why you are suspicious of me, Your Majesty.”

Yi Jiazi raised her chin haughtily and said softly. However, her actions showed her dissatisfaction.

Helian Jue frowned, with some emotion flickering in his eyes, then said calmly, “In that case, it was the sinful slave girl who made trouble.”

Helian Jue said with eyes looking down, “Then sentence her to the steam punishment according to the law.”

Helian Jue waved his hands disgustedly. Then imperial soldiers standing aside stepped forward calmly, and intended to pull up Huangye, who was crouching down.

Feeling that something was wrong, one of the soldiers bent his body to feel Huangye’s breath, then raised his head, “Your Majesty, she is dead.”

Everyone was shocked.

Huangye lay on the floor with black blood hanging in the corner of her mouth and red blood spreading from her forehead to her chin alongside her fair skin, in a coquettish curve.

Helian Jue beat the table with his big hand, “Ridiculous!”

Then Shun Decai called the imperial physician. After the diagnosis, the physician concluded that Huangye died from poison.

“How do the guards in prison do their work? Didn’t they find out the prisoner had brought poison with her?” Helian Jue said angrily. It was a provocation against his authority that the criminal died while he was adjudicating.

For an arrogant man like himself, how could he bear such humiliation?

The imperial physician stepped forward and bent his body, “Your Majesty, the poison in Huangye’s body was transmitted from the outside world rather than caused internally.”

What he meant was that Huangye died from murder, rather than suicide.

What the imperial physician said attracted everyone’s attention back to Huangye’s forehead.

“Your Majesty, please look at this. The blood on her forehead is red, however, the blood at the corner of her mouth is black. So she was poisoned after she kowtowed.”

Huangye kept on kowtowing since she entered the hall. Poisoning a person to death in such a short time was extremely dangerous anyways.

Tang Xia raised her thin eyebrows then fixed her eyes on Yi Jiazi opposite to her.

And Yi Jiazi looked back directly in Tang Xia’s eyes. Both of them were wrestling with each other in Hecheng hall with their eyes.

There were two people close to Huangye – one was Yi Jiazi who just touched Huangye and the other one was Tang Xia who was standing aside the whole time.

“Yi Jiazi touched Huangye, in that case, she has more opportunity to poison Huangye.” Lengmei said, standing at one side. And her words attracted everyone’s look onto Yi Jiazi’s slender right hand.

Yi Jiazi remained calm with a trace of a smile on her mouth, “You are raising me too high, Lengmei. I’ve known nothing about poisons since I was a little girl. As for Yueji, Huangye’s words may do significant harm to her. Is it possible that Yue Ji poisoned Huangye to death in a panic?”

The blame was back to Tang Xia with Yi Jiazi’s words.

“In such an occasion, Yi Jiazi can still remain calm even after murdering someone. What a ruthless woman!”

Tang Xia raised her thin eyebrows and said in a cold voice, “Are you kidding? I have always been timid. As for you, you can stay calm after murdering someone.”

“Is there any proof of what you said? Charging me with such a serious crime before the final verdict will upset me.”

Yi Jiazi frowned her eyebrows. In the candlelight, tears could be seen in her big eyes.

“You are really so interesting.” Tang Xia opened her red lips unhurriedly.