“Since everybody is already here, let Royal Father speak.” Crown Prince Mo turned around and led the young crown prince consort over to the Mo king’s side. He motioned to the king with his eyes. “Royal Father?”
The Mo king took a deep breath and spoke after some hesitation, “It is a fact that the Vassal King of An’nan has secretly colluded with the eldest prince, Consort Dowager Shu, and the Shu Family to revolt. Imprison everyone in the Highest Judiciary. After conferring with the queen dowager, We will then finalize punishments.”
“Yes!”
Wails shook the heavens. Even the menial servants in charge of picking vegetables and watering the flowers were implicated by the Vassal King of An’nan’s Estate and the Eldest Prince’s Estate, so were also detained and ushered to prison.
Wu Hongmo cursed loudly, and she almost got shoved to the floor.
She looked back, wanting to see the crown prince and crown prince consort’s faces clearly, but the crowd was surging too fiercely. Furthermore, how was she, a defeated prisoner, able to clearly see the faces of those two people high up above.
Her heart tightened as she teared up.
She did not expect that her and the old vassal king’s lifetime plans would end up getting wrecked overnight!
Should she blame her own uselessness, or was it just that their enemy was too powerful?
Wu Hongmo could not say for sure, but her heart ached for her son.
Soon, the several hundred people were all taken away, and this farce of a rebellion officially came to a close.
After going through such a long disturbance, the queen dowager looked quite fatigued, so Qiao Mu helped her back to her Longevity Palace to rest.
When the crown prince saw his wife ignoring him and instead showing filial respect to his grandmother, he immediately followed along without another word.
However, he eyed the old king before leaving and exhorted, “Royal Father, you must not be soft-hearted in case of resurgence.”
The old king was silent for a long time.
The situation had already been spelled out.
The Vassal King of An’nan had probably given the eldest prince some guarantee, which was why the latter would recklessly make this lousy move.
Consort Dowager Shu and the Shu Family were clearly on the eldest prince’s side. By colluding with the Vassal King of An’nan’s Estate, they proved decisive in this farcical rebellion.
The old king was only somewhat muddle-headed and was not truly foolish. He had been in an important position of power for a long time, after all. After thinking everything through, he sighed and left while holding Queen Zhao’s hand.
It was not that he did not understand his son’s meaning, but he could not bear to issue the order to personally kill his eldest son.
“My king, my king! My king!” Consort Cheng was sprawled on the floor and had long been shuddering in fear.
“My king, please be merciful. My king, please be merciful and spare Mo Jiao! Mo Jiao is your blood-related son, my king. My king!”
“Shut up.” Queen Zhao halted and turned back to stare at her. “Before this unfilial son joined hands with outsiders to plot rebellion, did he ever think that the king was his blood-related father?”
“Consort Cheng, the king and the queen dowager can both laugh off the incident of you inciting your own son to embezzle spiritual bamboo shoots. Yet who knew that you would go one step further and commit treason!”
Wh-What? Her Majesty the Queen had already reported the incident with the spiritual bamboo shoots to the queen dowager, but the queen dowager was not going to punish them?
Th-The queen dowager and the king had planned to l-let them off?
Consort Cheng widened her eyes in shock. At this time, regret seized her heart so very painfully.
It was because she and her son were afraid that their secret would come to light that they hardened their hearts and agreed to tread upon this path of rebellion with the Vassal King of An’nan!
After all, spiritual bamboo shoots were unrivalled treasures in the world, and the few produced had always been supplied to the royal family. After the eldest prince embezzled them to exchange for resources for his private army, how would the king and the queen dowager let her and her son off?
