Chapter 480
Facing Empress Dowager Liu, the emperor did not hide anything and nodded, as he said. “Dead.”
Empress Dowager Liu’s eyes widened slightly and her chest heaved violently.
In a matter of moments, she calmed down, and a burst of pleasure appeared on her face, her smile unimpeded, while her eyes were red, she gritted her teeth, as she said. “Serves her right!”
“To die in the hands of her own grandson, she can also be ‘satisfied’.” Saying that Empress Dowager Liu slowly twirled the string of Buddha beads in her hand as a touch of the sneer showed in her expression, her heart was still hateful.
Every time she thought of Yongle who died early and her poor granddaughter Fang Hanjun, she felt that letting Imperial Consort Fang die like this was really too easy for her! After all, the pair of mother and son, Imperial Consort Fang and Wang Yu, were cold hearted and heartless.
Empress Dowager Liu took a deep breath and asked again. “Where is Fang Qinlian’s body?”
The emperor faintly replied, “The late emperor had a posthumous edict that he would be buried with Imperial Consort Fang in the future. However, since the person burned to death in Tai’an Palace is not an “imperial concubine”, she cannot be buried in the imperial mausoleum. I have already given an order that after they inspect the body, it would be wrapped in a straw mat and sent to a mass grave.”
The chief eunuch had just come to report what happened in the morning court, so both Empress Dowager Liu and Empress Wei knew what happened.
The reason why the emperor denied in court that the body burned in the Jiuqi Garden was Imperial Consort Fang was not only due to political considerations but also for this reason.
As long as the body was not Imperial Consort Fang, it meant that she was not qualified to be buried in the imperial mausoleum; instead, she would be a homeless and a feral ghost.
Empress Dowager Liu smiled, a different kind of splendor blooming in those pale eyes, nodding her head and saying, “Good!”
If Fang Qinlian knew about this, even if she had become a ghost, she would not be willing to accept it and would be so angry that she would sit up from her coffin. In addition, once this news reached Wang Yu’s ears, what would be his reaction?!
It’s exhilarating.
This was not called revenge, the time had not yet arrived.
On this day, the emperor and empress sat in Shou’an Palace for the entire afternoon before leaving hand in hand.
The following days, among the people captured by the royal guards from Wang Yu’s people, some could not stand the torture and finally confessed. They said that the kerosene was brought by Gu Xi, the third prince of Wang Yu, from Yuzhou and secretly sent them to Jiuqi Garden.
They said that Gu Xi ordered someone to set fire at Tai’an Palace and replaced Imperial Consort Fang with a substitute.
They also said that Gu Xi and County Princess Duan Rou were ordered by Wang Yu to bring the Imperial Consort back to Yuzhou.
The emperor did not issue a decree to keep this entire matter a secret, but even deliberately instructed the royal guards to spread it. Thus, within a few days, there was a lot of discussion and news spread among people in the capital.
Even Qin Jiu, who was preparing for her wedding ceremony at Marquis’s Mansion, could occasionally hear some servants talking about this matter.
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