Chapter 6: The Little Diviner Saves Her Clan

As I spoke, raindrops began falling.

A moment later, rain poured in sheets.

The heavy gates thundered shut.

Beyond the downpour, no distant sound remained.

All the Crown Prince's men had entered the trap.

Abandoning every trace of dignity, he charged at me with his saber.

"Where is Father?"

"Where are the Xies?"

I wiped watermelon juice from my palm.

"There."

"All here."

"A whole family reunion. Not one missing."

He hacked at the nearest straw figures.

Melon juice flew.

"Impudent!"

"You dare deceive me!"

The whites of his eyes turned bloodred.

"Tell me!"

My smile faded.

"Your Highness."

"Under the laws of Daye, a prince who commits a crime is punished like a commoner."

"You committed adultery with the Consort."

"Plotted to frame loyal subjects."

"Led troops to murder your father."

I stepped aside.

Two stones at the center of the ground were much whiter than the rest.

Where condemned prisoners knelt for execution.

I crouched and wiped them with my sleeve.

"Your crimes merit beheading."

"You'll have to make do with kneeling here."

His men moved to shield him.

"Insolent!" the deputy shouted.

The Crown Prince stared at me.

"I remember you."

"The Xies' youngest daughter."

"The one born blind."

His voice tightened.

"How do you know all this?"

He'd spent eight years planning for today.

Outwardly patient.

Secretly training the Eastern Palace guard.

But his strength still hadn't been enough.

So he'd invented Xie Kuang's rebellion on the frontier.

Once he arrested the general, he'd take control of the five hundred thousand border troops.

So everything had gone smoothly…

Because it had all been a trap from the start.

I'd met plenty like him.

In my previous life, bankrupt developers.

Top celebrities who'd crossed the law.

Their ruined expressions were no different from his.

I went around to face him and pointed at the gate.

Daye's banners snapped in the wind.

"Your Highness."

"I also know you're the father of the Consort's child."

"What a pity."

"With a father like you, the baby never even got to see Daye's splendor."

He narrowed his eyes.

The rain stopped.

Wind lifted a corner of a flag.

A small dark-purple thing hung beneath the pole, swaying forlornly.

His face drained.

His knees gave way.

He dropped to the ground.

His wails echoed across the square.

"Unfilial wretch!"

The Emperor's shout rang from the gate tower.

It seemed to tear through the rain.

The young man prostrate below jerked his head up.

"Father…"

He crawled forward on his knees.

"I know I was wrong!"

In his fury, the Emperor's eyes were bloodred.

The Crown Prince had been his first child.

Cherished from infancy.

What parent didn't love their children?

He turned away.

Wouldn't look at him again.

"Guards. Arrest the Crown Prince!"

The imperial guard closed in.

Seeing their cause lost, the five thousand cavalry had already thrown down their weapons.

The deputy drew his sword and killed himself.

"Your Highness, I have failed you. I'll go first!"

Only the Crown Prince and I remained in the great execution ground.

The Xies had all followed the Emperor onto the tower.

Only I still longed for the watermelons.

I'd slipped back.

On my short legs, I carried one beneath the eaves to shelter from the rain.

Suddenly, a hand seized the back of my neck.

My feet left the ground.

The Crown Prince lifted me, his face utterly mad.

"It's all your fault!"

He thrust his arm high.

My melon fell.

"My watermelon…"

Its flesh smashed across the ground.

My parents stared at that little figure.

"Little Wu!"

Eldest, Second, and Fourth Brothers raced down.

My gaze turned cold.

"Murong Shen."

He went rigid.

His forbidden personal name had fallen so lightly from a little girl's lips.

Cold sank into his bones.

Gooseflesh rose along his arm.

"You… who are you?"

I laughed.

In my previous life, people had honored me as Hong Kong's master diviner.

I'd traveled the world.

Been a royal family's honored guest.

Been hunted by a gang boss.

In the end, I'd died peacefully at ninety-five.

Murong Shen was twenty-three.

To me, he was a child barely out of swaddling clothes.

Slowly, I raised my eyes.

On that young face, only the eyes changed.

My pupils narrowed into lines.

Golden light swept through them.

A pair of cold vertical pupils fixed on the Crown Prince.

"Stop now."