An Lingrong's Rebirth: Red

At night, the emperor opened the door of Yongshou Palace. Zhen Huan, who had not been seen for months, was reading poems under candlelight, and her appearance had not faded in the slightest.

When Tang Di saw the emperor coming in, she immediately reminded Zhen Huan, but she just turned a page of the book and said "hmm" lightly.

Only after she finished reading the page did she stand up, put on her shoes, and bowed to the emperor with her knees slightly bent.

However, this time the emperor did not reach out to help her up. Instead, he sat down first and looked down at Zhen Huan condescendingly.

At this moment, Zhen Huan did not know that the Emperor had already learned about her and Prince Guo, and thought that the Emperor was still angry about the auspicious dress.

She knew that she had worn the wrong auspicious dress and offended Queen Chunyuan, so she was punished and confined by the emperor, but she did not have many complaints.

But there was another thing that she absolutely could not accept. The emperor blurted out "Wanwan" through the hazy gauze curtain, but at that time her title had been changed to Xu. Why did the emperor call her Wanwan?

She vaguely guessed that this was Queen Chunyuan's nickname, but the maids and eunuchs in her palace were all very young. She wanted to ask, but unfortunately these people didn't know.

The only person there was an Aunt Jiaoyue, who had been in the palace for a long time. But no matter what she was asked, she refused to reveal a single word. She even made excuses when doing things, which made people very angry.

Precisely because of many circumstances, Zhen Huan is not sure now that she is somewhat similar to Queen Chun Yuan, but is secretly doubting it in her heart?

"A few days ago, I was poisoned by an assassin."

The emperor did not call Zhen Huan, but instead mentioned that he had been poisoned a few days ago.

Zhen Huan no longer had feelings for the emperor, but she was good at disguising herself. She screamed and raised her handkerchief to cover her lips, "Who did it? The assassin must have been caught."

"You don't even want to ask how I am doing."

When asked this question by the emperor, Zhen Huan's heart immediately trembled. She didn't care about the emperor, so naturally she didn't pay attention to his body immediately.

When the emperor mentioned this, she reacted very quickly, "I saw that the emperor's face was ruddy and full of energy, so I knew that the emperor had fully recovered.

Therefore, I was anxious to inquire about the whereabouts of the assassin, fearing that the emperor would be murdered again."

What Zhen Huan said was flawless. It not only showed that she had been paying attention to the emperor's condition since he came in, but also expressed her concern for his safety.

If the Emperor didn't know that Zhen Huan was planning to elope with Prince Guo, he would probably really think that Zhen Huan was still devoted to him.

"The assassin has been captured. It's Cai Ping, the maid in the flower room."

When she heard Caiping's name, Zhen Huan clenched her handkerchief tightly between her fingers. This person knew about her and Prince Guo's plan. Could he have already told her everything?

"It's good that the assassin has been caught, but I feel that there must be someone behind this, otherwise how could a palace maid dare to do something like murdering the emperor?"

Zhen Huan was already a little unsteady on her knees, but the emperor didn't call her out, so she could only endure it and continue to put on a submissive look, "You know the mastermind behind this, why don't you guess who he is."

"Your Majesty, you are joking. I am just a woman, how can I guess who would do such a rebellious thing?"

"I told you that you are very familiar with it."

The smile on Zhen Huan's face froze. The face of Prince Guo quickly flashed through her mind, but she didn't dare to think about it seriously.

If it was really done by Prince Guo, why did he do it? For the throne, or... for himself?

No, no, he couldn't do that for his own sake. Now that he had married Huanbi, the two of them were no longer destined to be together - no matter what, he couldn't snatch his sister's husband away.

What's more, Prince Guo is not the husband she wants. He is frivolous, likes to flirt with women, and will never keep the heart of one person.

Of course, the emperor is not one of them. There shouldn’t be any man like that in this world.

Zhen Huan sighed unconsciously, but the emperor noticed it keenly. He frowned and asked what was wrong.

"I am worried about the emperor. Even if he works so hard to govern the country, there are still people who want to harm him.

But such actions will only push the people of the world into an irretrievable situation.

If the emperor says that this person is someone I know, I am afraid that only Prince Dun would do something so disregarding the people of the world."

The Emperor stared at Zhen Huan's face, his eyes were full of inquiry, and Zhen Huan wanted to avoid him.

But she finally calmed herself down, acted completely bewildered, and even called out "Your Majesty" with a bit of bewilderment.

"Get up."

The Emperor asked Zhen Huan to stand up. She finally got a rest and her smile became more sincere.

“But you guessed wrong. The person behind the scenes was not Prince Dun, but Prince Guo.

He confessed everything, including your two plans to flee."

Zhen Huan's eyes trembled, but she did not beg for mercy immediately. Instead, she smiled and said, "Your Majesty, please don't scare me." "I am not familiar with Prince Guo, but there is a maid who has a crush on Prince Guo.

The emperor was also aware of this matter, and it was the emperor who made the decision to let her marry into the Prince Guo's mansion and become a concubine."

The emperor was naturally aware of this matter, but he was not talking about the maid, but Zhen Huan herself.

So the Emperor told him in detail how Prince Guo and Zhen Huan had planned and how they had taken advantage of Prince Dun's rebellion to assassinate him.

The more Zhen Huan listened, the more frightened she became. She clenched the armrests of the chair tightly with her fingers and dared not respond no matter what.

The emperor looked at her expression and felt even colder in his heart. He couldn't even continue to tell her the truth.

Zhen Huan slipped off the chair and collapsed to the ground, unable to even shed tears.

"Your Majesty, your concubine...your concubine..."

She tried to explain, but found that all her explanations were pale and powerless, and might even make the emperor even more angry and implicate her family.

"Do you know what your good sister Shen Meizhuang did?"

The emperor did not punish Zhen Huan immediately, but instead brought up the matter of Shen Meizhuang.

Zhen Huan did have some understanding of what Shen Meizhuang had done, but not in detail.

When he heard the emperor's question, he began to wonder whether Shen Meizhuang had made some agreement with someone other than the emperor, just like himself.

"I don't know."

"Then do you know why Wen Shichu's entire clan was exterminated?"

The emperor mentioned Wen Shichu again. His anger could not be stopped when he thought of these two people, but this time he took the initiative to dig open the wound and let Zhen Huan listen to what her good sister did.

"Your Majesty," Zhen Huan struggled to get up from the ground, trying to suppress her fear and sit upright on the chair, "My concubine and Concubine Hui are no longer as close as when we first entered the palace.

Because the emperor suspected that she was pregnant, he asked me to personally deliver a bowl of safflower to her.

Afterwards, Concubine Hui found out about this, and my two sisters stopped communicating with each other from then on.

Therefore, I am not aware of the matter between Concubine Hui and Wen Shichu, so please let Your Majesty know clearly."

The emperor looked at Zhen Huan, gritted his teeth, and continued, "They had an affair and got pregnant with an illegitimate child. They even wanted to give birth to that illegitimate child and make it my child."

Zhen Huan widened her eyes. That was Shen Meizhuang, a dignified and generous woman known to everyone. How could she do such a shameful thing as having an affair?

But the emperor was so sure in what he said, I'm afraid he has already investigated the whole story.

Thinking about the fact that Shen Meizhuang had done this with Wen Shichu, Zhen Huan felt a little disgusted, especially since this Wen Shichu had once proposed marriage to her and always called her "Sister Huan".

As for Shen Meizhuang, Zhen Huan really couldn't understand why she would do such a stupid thing and get together with Wen Shichu.

Wen Shichu was just an imperial physician. It was impossible for him to take her out of the palace. If something happened, Wen Shichu could not protect her.

As a result, the two people's affair was discovered by the emperor, and they both died without leaving any trace.

The only good thing is that this matter concerns the emperor's face. He will not ruin Shen Meizhuang's reputation and preserve her last bit of dignity.

"Your Majesty... Concubine Hui was brought up very strictly, she would not do such a thing, is there any misunderstanding here?"

"Are you trying to use this incident to show that everything between you and Prince Guo is just a misunderstanding?"

Zhen Huan was speechless, she did have this idea, but was seen through by the emperor, so she could only pretend that it was not true, "I do want to escape from the palace, but it is not because I have any affair with Prince Guo.

Your Majesty, I have encountered too many schemes since entering the palace, and even lost my first child.

Even so, they still refused to let the concubines go. They gave them musk and fed them safflower, thus destroying their bodies.

Because the ones who did this included the Queen, Concubine Hua, Concubine Sheng, and Concubine Tian. They were in high positions and powerful, and were deeply favored by the Emperor. There was no way for the concubines to get justice for themselves.

All this suffering cannot be redressed, and one can only swallow it with gritted teeth.

Your Majesty, if it weren't for my true love for you, I would have been unable to persist in the palace long ago.

But the Emperor just couldn't do anything about it and kept putting me under house arrest, which broke my heart. I am really tired and can no longer serve the Emperor.

So she took advantage of Prince Guo's covetousness for the concubine and deceived him into running away with him, and that's how she got the opportunity to leave the palace.

But I, a concubine, could not bear to watch the assassin hurt the emperor, so I subconsciously rushed forward to block the knife.

At that moment, I could no longer feel any pain. The only thing I thought about was that nothing must happen to my husband."

Zhen Huan shed two lines of tears. She didn't bother to wipe them away. She just looked at the emperor with tearful eyes.

She stretched out her hand to hold the emperor's hand, but then retracted it as if in fear, leaving only half of her face facing the emperor.

"Your Majesty, I know that no matter what I say now, you will no longer believe me. If Your Majesty has made up his mind, please tell me.

If it is a death sentence, please allow me to stay one more night to pray for your Majesty before I go to die."

She stood up and knelt on the ground, wiping away the tears from the corners of her eyes with her fingers. All the weakness she had just shown had disappeared.

But the emperor could see from her face the pretended calmness and the fear and trembling in her heart.

He even felt that he saw the crying heart of Zhen Huan under her skin. Just like Rouze, she loved and admired him, and everything she did was out of love for her husband.

When the emperor thought of Rouze's face and looked at Zhen Huan again, he almost couldn't help but forgive her.

But he also knew in his heart that everything Zhen Huan said was just sophistry. The correspondence between her and Prince Guo, the eye contact and the vows of eternal love between them, were all real things that happened.

Under punishment, Prince Guo had confessed everything and explained clearly the private contacts between the two of them in the past.

He even naively asked to be buried with Zhen after death, and begged the emperor to agree to his request.

"Prince Guo asked me for a decree. He said that although he could not sleep with you in life, he was willing to be buried with you in death.

What about you, are you willing?"

Zhen Huan shook her head without even thinking about it. She stroked her chest and her voice trembled as she spoke, "I am your concubine in life. Even if I cannot be buried in the imperial mausoleum after death, I absolutely cannot be buried with a man other than you.

I wish to be burned completely after my death, leaving no trace.

Please, Your Majesty, do not agree to Prince Guo’s presumptuous request.”

"Even now, you are still unwilling to admit the affair between you and Prince Guo."

Zhen Huan shook her head, her tone was very firm, "Your Majesty, there is nothing wrong between this concubine and Prince Guo, there is absolutely no private relationship between us.

But leaving the palace was indeed my plan. It was just that I didn’t intend to elope with Prince Guo. I just wanted to get a chance to leave the palace.”

"Since you want to leave the palace so much," the emperor interrupted Zhen Huan, he pondered, looking at Zhen Huan's slowly raised face, "then leave the palace and go to Ganlu Temple, pray to the Buddha day and night, and use the Buddhist scriptures to wash away your sins bit by bit.

I will send a nanny to follow you, but she will not take care of you. You will have to take care of everything in your daily life by yourself. Are you willing?"

It was not a death sentence, and her family was not implicated. Zhen Huan could not think of a lighter punishment than this.

But even though he left the palace, he was still being monitored by the people in the palace. He was just moving from one cage to another.

But she had to agree. After all, the lives of dozens of people in the Zhen family should not be implicated by her alone.

What's more, he has a younger sister who is still unmarried. If she were to miss out on important life events because of his involvement, wouldn't that be creating new sins?

Anyway, there is nothing wrong in leaving the palace and the emperor and going to Ganlu Temple. On the contrary, there is peace and tranquility available, and one will no longer be plotted against by those malicious people.

"I obey your order," Zhen Huan kowtowed slowly and lowered her eyes. "I will pray for the Emperor and the Queen Mother day and night. I wish you a thousand years of health."

The emperor sighed deeply. He didn't want to look at Zhen Huan any longer. After giving the order, he wanted to leave.

But after Zhen Huan thanked him, she asked him a question hesitantly.

"But I have something that I would like to ask Your Majesty to explain. Why did Your Majesty call me Wanwan when I was conferred the title of Consort?"