Chapter 1487: Chapter 871: Rivers of Blood (Part 2)
The Witch’s appearance.
She pulled back her foot.
The Third Prince isn’t dead.
He gasped with difficulty, but managed a sinister smile: "Brother Yi, you really have returned... I knew that as long as Sister Zui is in the Capital City, you’d definitely come back... You must be suffering terribly... Foolish as you once were, relying on your talents and the Emperor’s favor, the imperial throne could have been within your grasp..."
"What do you hate me for?"
"I hate that what was easily attainable for you, you looked down upon... while others had to sacrifice everything, treading a path of thorns to get it in hand..."
Sui Yi stared down at him, emotionless, reminding him: "You haven’t got it yet, you’re one step short."
Yes, just one step short.
Those words are really like a knife.
The Third Prince spat out a mouthful of blood, mixed with teeth that had fallen out, and chuckled lightly: "But you haven’t won either... because of your arrogance, you gave up the throne... and forced Chu Yezui to bear everything for you... I wish I could show you how she’s lived these years... ah, no, you must have seen already, I think she’s surely dead by now... such is her pride, after seeing you, she would definitely commit suicide..."
In schemes and machinations, the one who resembles the Emperor most was surely this Third Prince.
Sui Yi no longer looked at him.
She didn’t win, not even close, because she never fought for anything, but lost it all.
Looking up, she saw row after row kneeling.
These people were respectfully inviting her to ascend the throne.
Compared to the tyrannical Third Prince who imprisoned the Crown Prince and the Emperor, they hoped for this Prince Yi, once renowned for his elegance and talents, to become emperor...
But what no one expected, not even the Third Prince.
They saw her standing alone in the center of the great hall, holding a sword, looking at the ministers kneeling below, reaching out to take the Jade Seal held by the head steward beside her, heavy in hand, yet cold.
She closed her eyes and said lightly: "From the beginning, I never liked this place, the Imperial Palace, the royal power struggles..."
She looked at the Third Prince, her gaze also sweeping over several other princes who were still alive.
"I know what you all fear, nothing but me seizing that position, grabbing this Jade Seal."
Holding the Jade Seal, she descended the steps, arriving before a man with a delicate face, pale complexion, yet firm posture.
"Among the princes, the most noble is the Crown Prince, the most scheming is the Third Prince, the most capable and people-oriented is you. The dynasty is unstable, everything is waiting to be revived, and externally there are unsettled tribes at the borders. Do you dare take on such a burden?"
"Yi, you..." This Seventh Prince, not even twenty a decade ago, looked somewhat startled but bit his lip and grasped the Jade Seal.
"I dare."
Thus, the Jade Seal was easily handed over.
Something so many princes schemed tirelessly to seize was simply given away by Sui Yi.
"Actually, you could have taken it yourself."
The Seventh Prince did not lack ambition to ascend, but his character was the most upright, and compared to himself and the remarkably talented Prince, he knew he fell short.
Maybe at the start, Father also favored her... but up until now, he couldn’t understand what immense change happened between that father and son and Consort Li those years ago.
"I cannot, not only because I do not want it, but because I am furthest from it."
Sui Yi stepped aside, dragging a body soaked in blood, her robe saturated with her blood, others’ blood, making the thin garment several pounds heavier, a pool of blood spreading beneath her boots...
The Seventh Prince instinctively looked at the blood pool before him, and then at the person walking away...
Each step leaving a bloody footprint.
"Yi, when Father passed, he only remembered you and Consort Li... aren’t you going to..."
The prince only saw her back to them, casually removing her hair tie, leaping up, her long hair floating, standing atop the palace wall, she turned her head to look at them.
That glance, deep without bottom, yet shallow enough to reflect the entire palace.
No words needed, those present stood there in shock.
The Prince Yi is a woman.
Suddenly, it was as if everything from that night of killings and upheaval years ago became clear.
Including their father’s gloomy late years, his extensive renovation of Consort Li’s tomb without ever mentioning that mother and son again...
The most shocked and stunned was none other than the Third Prince, his eyes wide, limbs already crippled, yet he stubbornly tried to climb up, to take a closer look at the silent yet gentle sibling...
She turned her head toward him, filled with endless desolation.
He suddenly laughed, laughing while crying.
Crying, he bit off his tongue.
His head tilted, quietly looking at the throne.
Letting the bloodstain cover his eyes.
Snow began to fall, piece by piece.
The Seventh Prince held the Jade Seal, looking at the surrounding kneeling people filled with unease... In an instant, all the joy faded, leaving only gloom.
Prince Yi, a daughter of the Chu Family...
"Yi, the affairs of the Chu Family, I will stand for him, and bring back those who remain..."
This is a promise of a king.
Sui Yi only nodded and then left.
Without turning back.
Covered in blood, mingling with the white of heaven and earth.
Where would she go? (Many of the things I wrote in the past have mixed in many dark aspects of human nature, greed, desire, betrayal... but I hope those who read it can also feel the good within it)
Still that lone boat, still that long river, a person in a blood-red garment boarded the boat, sorting through Chu Yezui’s belongings, found inside the cabinet, aside from some wine... were two sets of clothes.
A bright red groom’s outfit, a bright red bridal costume.
She froze there.
Beside her, Yezui also froze, yet suddenly felt that her soul could no longer linger... so in a trance, she left the cabin, leaving the stunned silent person...
She wouldn’t see the one who had just finished a rampage take off the bloody garment, wash away the filth, and soon, a person dressed in a fiery red groom’s outfit tied up her hair, lifted the curtain, holding the bridal costume...
Stepping forward, she fell into the river.
Two splashes of red, a lifetime of chaos, a life of desolation, could this turbulent river give them a second chance?
Or grant them a peaceful unmarked acquaintance in the next life? (I think if I were to write historical romance, it would definitely be extremely sentimental and melodramatic... but... as I wrote and wrote, sometimes I also feel sour, maybe it fulfills a saying, every author writing a story, the first moved is surely herself - allow me some narcissism, alright, the story of the fifth life ends here)
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