Chapter 2
Edward Quan ·
Looking at the late emperor’s coffin in the depths of the main hall, I didn’t hesitate.
“Someone open the coffin.”
Everyone erupted.
The Empress dropped to her knees with a thud. “Mother, you mustn’t! Disturbing the late emperor’s body is an offense against heaven…”
The old ministers prostrated themselves and wailed. Eunuchs and maids knelt in a sea of bodies, their cries filling the hall.
Only the Consort was different.
Forced to kneel behind them, she had suddenly gone quiet.
A trace of certainty appeared on her face. She even spoke lightly.
“Empress Dowager… do you truly wish to anger the late emperor’s spirit?”
I ignored her and ordered the Imperial Guards to act. But just then, hurried footsteps and the clatter of armor sounded outside the hall.
“His Majesty has arrived!”
Xiao Changge rushed to the Imperial Ancestral Temple with the civil and military officials.
His dragon robe was still rumpled. He had clearly hurried over the moment he received the news.
The Consort immediately began to weep.
“Your Majesty! The Empress Dowager suspects that I switched the Empress’s baby. She claims the child is inside the late emperor’s coffin, and now she wants to open it and search!”
“Her Majesty has never left her chambers today. I beg Your Majesty to stop the Empress Dowager from committing such an irreverent act!”
After hearing her accusation, the officials looked at me not as though I were the Empress Dowager, but as though I were a madwoman. They all knelt.
“Consort Wei is right. Even the Empress Dowager, exalted as she is, must not disturb the late emperor’s eternal rest!”
All eyes turned to Xiao Changge.
He looked at me and was silent for a long time.
Then he spoke. His voice wasn’t loud, but each word was clear.
“This concerns the imperial bloodline. We must be cautious—more than cautious.”
The officials looked pleased.
“The Empress Dowager and the late emperor were husband and wife. He will not blame her.”
He paused. His gaze remained calm.
“Do as the Empress Dowager says. Open the coffin.”
The Consort’s pupils contracted sharply. Her mask cracked.
“Your Majesty… You would actually agree to the Empress Dowager’s reckless act?”
Xiao Changge didn’t look at her. He only nodded.
The Imperial Guards stepped forward and pushed the coffin lid open with both hands.
I stared into the coffin.
In my mind, the light of my best friend’s life in the Book of Fate was now just a tiny flame, flickering on the verge of going out.
She was in there.
She had to be.
The coffin lid came off.
Everyone held their breath.
The late emperor lay peacefully inside, dressed in his dragon robe. His face looked just as it had in life, his hands crossed over his stomach.
Still. Peaceful. As if he were only sleeping.
There was nothing else.
No baby. No hidden compartment. Nothing out of the ordinary.
After a long while, the emperor’s voice came from behind me, utterly weary.
“Can you finally be at peace now?”
The Empress wept, unable to speak. Kneeling on the ground, she had lost all her earlier suspicion.
“Mother, please stop tormenting us. I beg you…”
The officials shook their heads and sighed. Their eyes flickered as they whispered among themselves like buzzing flies.
The Consort spoke gently, her tone perfectly composed.
“Your Majesty, you must be exhausted. You should rest.”
I didn’t move.
The Book of Fate in my mind trembled violently.
My best friend’s life flame had dwindled to a final thread, so faint it could go out at any moment.
The divine patrol had sealed every path of yin magic. The baby could no longer be moved.
Then she had to still be here.
I suddenly snatched the long sword from the Imperial Guard at my side and pointed its tip at the Consort’s face.
“Tell me! Where is the baby hidden?”
The Consort collapsed to the ground, her face drained of color. She sobbed and begged for mercy.
“Spare me, Empress Dowager! I truly know nothing!”
She was still lying.
But there was a way to make her speak.
Kill her, turn her into a ghost, and question her soul directly.
No ghost could lie to me.
With that thought, I stepped forward.
But just as the sword point was about to pierce the Consort’s throat, the emperor stepped in front of her!
“Mother! You’ve already looked inside Father’s coffin. There wasn’t a baby in it. How much further are you going to take this madness?”
He gripped the sword blade with both hands. Blood ran down his palms and dripped onto the golden-brick floor.
“I beg you, Mother. Stop making a scene!”
I tried to pull the sword free, but only cut deeper into his hands.
“Your Majesty!”
The Consort’s eyes nearly split with rage. She turned on the Commander of the Imperial Guards.
“What are you standing there for? Are you going to watch His Majesty die?”
The emperor took a step back. He stared at the wounds on his hands in silence for a long time, then seemed to make a painful decision.
His voice trembled as he spoke.
“The Empress Dowager has gone mad. Take her back to her palace.”
The civil and military officials prostrated themselves on the floor, shouting in unison for the Empress Dowager to return to her palace.