The courtyard assigned to Answer Song was dilapidated, a stark contrast to the grandeur expected of an imperial concubine's residence. It was a cold, forgotten corner of the palace.
Emperor Kangxi stood at the center of the room, flanked by Consort Tongjia—who managed the imperial harem—and Consort De, the grieving mother of the Sixth Prince.
Kneeling before them was Answer Song. Her spine was rigid, her expression devoid of fear. She had abandoned all royal protocols, referring to herself plainly. "There is no need for this grand inquisition. I will tell you everything. The moment I acted, I knew I would not survive."
She looked up, a mocking smile on her lips. "Do you even remember me, Your Majesty?"
Kangxi drew a blank. Consort De, however, frowned; she remembered.
"I entered the palace in Year 14," Song recounted. "By Year 16, I was assigned as a maid to Consort De. In Year 17, while she was pregnant with the Fourth Prince, the Emperor visited her while intoxicated and bedded me instead."
Song sneered at Consort De. "The Emperor mistook me for someone else. But Consort De, who had climbed from a maid to a master herself, assumed I had seduced him to usurp her position. The Emperor hastily gave me the lowest rank of 'Answer' the next day and forgot me. Consort De then isolated me in a back room, assigning a maid to watch my every move under the guise of 'serving' me."
Song's eyes reddened with malice. "I tried to submit. I begged to return to her side as a servant. She agreed, but ordered me to sew clothes for her unborn child. She kept me confined, sewing day and night, until the exhaustion caused me to miscarry the child I didn't know I was carrying."
Kangxi was stunned.
"My child died!" Song laughed hysterically. "What brilliant methods, Consort De! Now, how does it feel to lose your own flesh and blood? Heaven has eyes! You killed my child, and now you have lost your Sixth Prince! It is karma!"
Consort De clutched her chest, her face pale.
"But the Sixth Prince's death is not enough," Song continued, her voice dripping with venom. "You still have the Fourth Prince. I orchestrated the rumors to ensure your surviving son would be framed for his brother's murder. I want you to despise him. I want the thorn of suspicion to fester between you two forever, severing your bond permanently!"
Song swept her gaze across the room, lingering on Consort De and then, meaningfully, on Consort Tongjia. "Do your worst. Torture me, kill me. It does not matter. I forgot to mention..."
Before Kangxi could order the guards to secure her, Song collapsed in agony.
"Pry her mouth open!" Kangxi roared.
Head Eunuch Liang Jiugong lunged, forcing her jaws apart, but it was too late. Song grinned through bloodstained teeth. "The poison is already in my blood. You can do nothing."
Her eyes went wide, and she died on the spot, her gaze fixed on the ceiling.
***
The Rebel Network
Inside the Qianqing Palace, the investigation immediately pivoted from a harem dispute to state treason. Liang Jiugong delivered a chilling debriefing to the Emperor.
"Your Majesty, we verified Song's history. She did miscarry, and Consort De did isolate her. However, the motive she presented today was only a cover story to hide a much larger conspiracy."
Liang placed a hollowed-out silver hairpin and several embroidered fabrics on Kangxi's desk. "We found this hairpin containing a lethal, fast-acting poison in her room. We also found these embroidery pieces, all featuring hidden compartments."
Liang's expression was grim. "Song lived in poverty and often smuggled her embroidery out of the palace to sell, using the alias 'Fangruo.' We tracked her buyer. All of her items were sold directly to the Jinxiu Workshop in the capital."
Kangxi kicked a nearby table, sending it crashing to the floor. "The Jinxiu Workshop! That is one of the Tiandihui rebel bases Nuomin raided yesterday!"
The truth locked into place. Answer Song was not a bitter, isolated concubine; she was a deep-cover Tiandihui spy planted ten years ago. She had a genuine grudge against Consort De, which made her cover story flawless, but her true allegiance was to the rebels. By committing suicide and citing harem jealousy, she attempted to close the investigation before the Emperor could uncover her rebel ties.
Cao Yin, the Emperor's intelligence chief, stepped forward with further confirmation. "Your Majesty, we discovered a dead-drop communication system utilizing a hollow stone lion in the imperial gardens. Two low-level servants were recently assassinated to protect this network. The rebel infiltration is deep."
Kangxi's eyes burned with cold fury. A spy network had operated under his nose for a decade.
"Issue orders to all provinces and prefectures," Kangxi commanded, his voice devoid of mercy. "Eradicate the 'Third Prince Zhu' rebel faction. Any resistance is to be met with immediate execution."
***
The Strategic Retreat
In a hidden farmhouse outside the capital, the rebel leaders realized their rumor campaign had failed.
"The Qing court countered us brilliantly," Zhu Hewei, the rebel 'Little Prince,' analyzed, reading a copy of 'The Secret Records of the Dayan Dynasty'. "They didn't suppress the rumors; they funded storytellers to narrate a fictionalized version of our plot. By hiding the truth inside a mystery and letting the public deduce it themselves, they secured the people's absolute loyalty."
Chen Guangyi slammed his fist on the table. "We lost the narrative, and we lost Answer Song. She was our deepest operative, all for nothing!"
"It was not for nothing," Zhu corrected sharply. "Song's suicide was a calculated sacrifice. Her actions forced the Emperor to investigate the harem, stalling the imperial guards and buying us the time we needed to evacuate the Jinxiu Workshop."
Zhu tapped the book. "Furthermore, her parting words were a psychological weapon. She has permanently poisoned the relationship between Consort De and the Fourth Prince. That internal fracture within the royal family will serve us later. We also still have Yanyan, our spy placed near the First Prince. We will use Song's 'martyrdom' to ensure Yanyan's absolute compliance."
***
The Deduction of Consort De
Inside the Yonghe Palace, Consort De ruthlessly snapped the flowers off a potted plant, crushing the petals underfoot.
Her maid, Yuchan, tried to comfort her. "Your Ladyship, the authorities have proven the Tiandihui rebels killed the Sixth Prince. You finally have the truth."
"The truth?" Consort De scoffed coldly. "The rebels executed the plan, yes. But they did not act alone."
She replayed the interrogation in her mind. When Song was monologuing, Consort De had paid close attention to Consort Tongjia. Tongjia had been visibly trembling, her breathing erratic, staring at Song with barely concealed terror, terrified of what the spy might reveal.
Song's final words echoed in De's mind: 'Taste the pain of losing a child. I want you to despise your surviving son.'
Those words did not belong to Answer Song. Consort De knew for a fact she had never ordered Song to overwork, nor had she caused the miscarriage. Song's accusations were a targeted, specific psychological attack.
Consort De realized the chilling reality: Song was speaking on behalf of Consort Tongjia.
'Tongjia hates me because I killed her daughter,' Consort De deduced rapidly. 'Tongjia used this rebel plot—or colluded directly with them—to ensure Yinzuo died and Yinzhen was framed. She used my own maid, Yujuan, to plant the evidence.'
Consort De felt no guilt over Tongjia's daughter. It was an act of brutal retaliation. Tongjia had repeatedly tried to assassinate the Fourth Prince, Yinzhen, when he was an infant. If Consort De had not possessed her secret 'Spiritual Spring'—a mystical, spatial artifact bound to her soul that produced miraculous healing water—Yinzhen would have died from Tongjia's poisons long ago.
'Karma?' Consort De sneered internally, her eyes turning bloodshot with hatred. 'There is no karma. If Heaven had eyes, it would have struck Tongjia down first.'
The rebels provided the weapon, but Consort Tongjia had guided the blade. The war in the harem was far from over.