Moonlight, though dim, was enough for Xue Liulan to recognize the cloth bundle. Worn white fabric, embroidered with red peach blossoms. His mother had loved peach blossoms.
He unfolded it carefully. Inside were several chunks of dried herbs and some powder. He sniffed it. The familiar scent filled his nose.
Empress Murong had suffered from a congenital heat condition, plagued by headaches at the turn of the seasons. This was her daily medicine.
"What is this?" he asked, turning to Guo Shangzhong.
"This slave took it from the Empress's medicine chest," Guo Shangzhong said, pointing. "I had it tested. It contains Mingjue."
"Mingjue," Xue Liulan said through gritted teeth. "Three mace a day, and in three years, death." He slammed his fist onto the stone table.
"Your Highness, please calm yourself." Guo Shangzhong jumped, covertly checking the table for cracks.
Xue Liulan whirled on him. "Can you prove Empress Deng put it there?"
"This…" Guo Shangzhong hesitated, then steeled himself. "I found the physician who prepared the medicine. He acted on her orders."
"Good. Tomorrow, bring him to the court. I will make that witch pay blood for blood."
"This old slave will do his utmost."
Xue Liulan watched the eunuch leave, his grip tightening on the bundle. He knew why Guo Shangzhong had hesitated. He was afraid of implicating himself.
Guo Shangzhong, he thought with a cold smile. Today, the Deng family pays with their lives. Tomorrow, you will pay yours.
The witnesses knelt in the hall, their clothes tattered, revealing raw, festering wounds. Some ministers covered their mouths, nauseated. Murong Jin just frowned. She had seen worse on the battlefield.
"Your Majesty, this is torture!" Empress Deng cried out before Li Yan could speak. "Look at them! Beaten into submission. They'll say whatever he wants them to say."
Xue Liulan stepped forward calmly. "Father, I did not beat them for a confession."
"Then why?" the Empress glared.
"Because they hurt my wife." He smiled coldly. "A little pain is letting them off easy."
"Excuses!" Her shrill voice echoed in the hall.
Li Yan glanced at the silent Xue Feiyan, then turned to the accused. "Lord Deng, what do you have to say?"
"If you want to condemn me, you can always find a pretext," Deng Qinyao sneered.
"Wrong," Xue Liulan said, turning to him. "You are already guilty. No pretext is needed."
He knelt before the Emperor. "Father, today I accuse Deng Qinyao of three crimes."
"Speak," the Emperor said emotionlessly.
"First, the attempted assassination of Crown Princess Murong Yu, which injured my wife. Second, forging weapons and plotting rebellion. Third, poisoning Empress Murong ten years ago to seize her position."
His voice grew louder with each accusation, the echoes ringing in the hall.
The Emperor sat up straight, shock replacing his indifference. "What did you say? He poisoned Empress Murong?"
"Yes." Xue Liulan raised his head. "To make his daughter Empress, he bribed the physician to put a slow poison in my mother's medicine."
The Emperor slumped back, his strength draining away. His eyes, searching for something to hold onto, landed on Murong Jin. Her resemblance to her aunt was striking. A wave of grief washed over him.
Just then, a eunuch announced: "General Murong Yan requests an audience."
The Emperor started. Murong Yan strode in, still in his armor. His sword had been taken at the door, but his presence was a blade in itself.
"Your subject greets the Emperor." He knelt on one knee, ignoring the Dengs.
"Rise, General. Why have you returned from the border?"
"I heard my only daughter was injured and had given birth. I was worried, so I rode back." He cupped his hands. "On the way, I picked up a gift for Your Majesty."
"Oh? What gift?"
"The troops from Deng Qinyao's thirty-two secret garrisons around Jindu." Murong Yan shot a triumphant look at Xue Liulan.
Xue Liulan nodded. He turned to Murong Jin, who was staring at him in shock. He smiled. She rolled her eyes.
"Slander!" Deng Qinyao's voice cracked.
Murong Yan looked down at him with disdain, then waved his hand. Two guards carried in a heavy chest.
"Your Majesty, inside are letters from Deng Qinyao to his confidants, and weapons forged in his name." He opened the chest, took out a sword, and presented it.
The Emperor examined the blade, then suddenly threw it. Thud. It landed at Xue Feiyan's feet.
"Look at it," the Emperor said coldly.
Xue Feiyan picked it up. He didn't need to look. He knew the inscription: King of Heluo. It was meant to tie him to the rebellion.
"Father." He knelt, head bowed, offering no defense.
Murong Yan sneered, about to speak, but Xue Liulan stepped forward, taking the sword from his brother.
"Father, this must be Deng Qinyao's plot."
"Hm?" The Emperor frowned.
"Our seventh brother must have discovered this plot, and Deng Qinyao used this to threaten him into silence. He is too filial to explain himself." Xue Liulan spoke slowly, glancing at his brother.
"Feiyan, what do you say?"
"Your son is unfilial. Please punish me." Xue Feiyan kowtowed deeply.
The Emperor looked at him with disappointment. "Withdraw for now."
Xue Liulan hid a smile of relief. "As for the assassination attempt on Murong Yu, it is also connected to our seventh brother."
"Are you saying he ordered it?" The Emperor's gaze grew complicated.
"No." Xue Liulan shook his head firmly.
He saw the relief in his father's eyes. The Emperor had won his throne through fratricide; he hated the thought of his sons killing each other.
"As for why, ask our sister-in-law."
The Emperor nodded to Guo Shangzhong, who went to fetch Murong Yu. The hall fell into a deathly silence.
The situation had shifted. Deng Qinyao could have argued against torture, but Murong Yan's arrival had sealed his fate. The chest might contain forged evidence, but the General's presence meant the Deng family was finished.
"Why save him?" Murong Jin whispered.
"Why should I harm him?" Xue Liulan whispered back.
She smiled, not answering. The promise never to kill a brother was not empty words.
"Liulan." The Emperor spoke after a long silence.
"Your son is here."
"You said… how did your mother die?"
Xue Liulan paused, then raised his voice. "She was poisoned by the Deng father and daughter."
"Do you have proof?" The Emperor's gaze swept over Empress Deng, cold and devoid of warmth.
She stiffened. She knew he believed it. Evidence or not, in his heart, she was already dead.
Xue Liulan presented the cloth bundle. "This is medicine my mother used. Thanks to Eunuch Guo, it was preserved. Because of him, I learned the truth."
"Guo Shangzhong, speak." The Emperor clutched the bundle as if it were the last piece of her he had left.
Guo Shangzhong knelt. "At first, I overheard Empress Deng telling Physician He to use a slow poison. Soon after, Empress Murong fell ill. I became suspicious and secretly had some of her medicine tested. It contained Mingjue."
"Physician He? I recall he retired soon after she died."
"He was silenced by Empress Deng on his way home," Guo Shangzhong added quietly.
Xue Liulan smiled faintly. He knew Guo Shangzhong wouldn't risk producing a live witness. He had likely killed the physician himself after taking the evidence.
"You murdered Empress Murong. What do you have to say?" The Emperor stared icily at the kneeling Empress.
"I have plenty to say." Empress Deng stood, looking at him with pride. "If not for your words, would I have dared?"
"My words?" The Emperor started. He remembered a night, long ago, under the moon.
I wish to raise your family up. If Murong dies, I will make you Empress.