Chapter 354: Dust Settles
The Seventh Prince held all the winning cards.
Because he was ruthless not only to others but also to himself.
Ever since he witnessed his mother die in the Cold Palace as a child, he had wanted revenge on everyone.
When he was just a small child, he began to struggle for survival.
He began to understand how to please others and protect himself.
Some people are born cruel.
As a child, he knew his younger brother, Eight Prince, liked to climb trees, and there was always a group of palace maids and eunuchs surrounding him, so even if he climbed trees, he would be fine.
He casually found a snake and threw it into the tree.
In truth, he didn’t want to do anything.
He had no enmity or grudge against Eight Prince.
At most, it was because he had seen his Imperial Father hold Eight Prince, but his Imperial Father had never held him.
That time, Eight Prince climbed the tree, saw the snake, was bitten, fell down, and died.
The Seventh Prince saw the maddened Consort He; her son had died, and she had gone mad.
And his Imperial Father only shed a single tear before forgetting Eight Prince, ordering people to look after Consort He, who later died in an accident.
He suddenly realized that life could be planned.
Don’t be anxious; step by step, everything could be planned.
Most people are stupid and can be manipulated.
But some people cannot, like his Imperial Father, who was born selfish and cold-hearted.
So, he worked hard to gain the attention of Princess Huiyun.
He married the Grand Tutor’s daughter, Jiang Yuluan.
He felt the Grand Tutor was a very capable man.
But he hadn’t expected that his Crown Prince brother wouldn’t last.
Then he was sent away to a remote fief.
Although one couldn’t say every single thing was successfully calculated, it didn’t matter; sometimes, failure happens.
Just like in childhood, he didn’t want Eight Prince to die; he just wanted to see him fall and get crippled, wanted to see him cry out in pain, but Eight Prince ended up dying.
Things can’t always go as one wishes.
But by working slowly, one day, he would get closer to his destination.
Finally, this day had arrived.
The Seventh Prince had the victory in his grasp.
He wasn’t a man of many words.
He was just preparing.
Every palace coup requires preparation; for instance, poisoning takes time, and gathering the guards also takes time… Having waited for most of his life, he still had patience.
And the Emperor, looking at his son before him, hearing him speak of Old General Meng and the young General Meng both meeting their deaths, saw the old man’s usually calm face finally crack.
He had just thought this son was ruthless like him.
He himself was a ruthless man.
But he hadn’t expected it to be different.
His Seventh Son was a madman.
He fought for the throne; the winner is the king, and the loser is the bandit.
Both victory and defeat have their causes and effects.
But the Seventh Prince had actually allied with foreign enemies, betraying his own country; he had actually done such a crazy thing.
Qin Luoxia, not far away, heard this and was also filled with towering rage, cursing her son-in-law to die; the Seventh Prince was truly wicked.
If a wealthy man’s sons fought over the family inheritance, fighting to the death, and finally the seventh son won and got the father’s estate, that would be normal; it might happen in any wealthy household.
But to invite robbers to seize the family estate just to win the inheritance—this wasn’t just fighting over an inheritance; it was madness.
It was an aura of “if I can’t have it, none of you will have it either”; “to obtain it, I will join forces with outsiders, and I’d rather have it taken by outsiders than let my own brothers benefit.”
At this moment, the Emperor finally cursed: “You beast.”
The Seventh Prince laughed: “I was born of a beast.”
This sentence nearly sent the Emperor to his grave, causing him to vomit blood in anger.
The Emperor had anticipated the Seventh Prince’s question.
But the Seventh Prince had anticipated the Emperor’s anticipation.
Right now, it was clear that the Seventh Prince had the upper hand.
Then, Jiang Wan collapsed.
Jiang Wan tried to grab Chu Xi’s hand, but she couldn’t reach it.
She fell straight to the ground.
With wide eyes, she couldn’t believe it; she knew she shouldn’t have gotten involved in this.
She had a feeling that her life should be positive, upright, and noble, not like this.
Then, the Earthquake shook.
The first time, she thought she was heaven’s favorite, and heaven couldn’t bear to see her hurt.
But now, she knew something was wrong.
Every time, she got hurt anyway; shaking, shaking, shaking, what the hell—feeling like she was about to die, Jiang Wan finally let out the first curse word of her life.
She had always been carefully educated by the Old Madam to be a refined lady.
She thought she was heaven’s favorite, but now she was thinking she might have misunderstood; every time the Earthquake happened, perhaps heaven wasn’t celebrating her impending death, but was excitedly shaking…
If, if there were an afterlife, she would be a woman who was the same on the inside as the outside; if she didn’t like someone, she would kick them away, and if she liked someone, she would chase after them, instead of wronging herself, pretending, pretending, pretending until she was exhausted. Jiang Wan stared with wide eyes, saw the Earthquake knock Chu Xi over, and finally, she laughed too.
An Earthquake, another Earthquake.
It hadn’t been long since the last one.
The people at the Star-Gazing Pavilion were about to lose their minds.
Large buildings like the imperial palace were normally designed to withstand Earthquakes, capable of resisting at least a magnitude five or six Earthquake.
But when the Earthquake hit, it was still terrifying.
Moreover, the main beams in the palace hall were very thick; if any one of them fell, it could send many people to reincarnation together.
The Seventh Prince had been holding the winning cards; his layout of decades was finally reaching today.
He believed he would succeed.
It was just that more people would die.
It didn’t matter; in any case, the dead were all others.
But in over a decade of preparation, he hadn’t prepared for an Earthquake.
Natural disasters are unpredictable; this was something he never imagined.
At the moment of the Earthquake, he couldn’t stand firm and was shaken toward his Imperial Father.
He was almost shaken onto the Dragon Throne.
But his Imperial Father was still sitting on the Dragon Throne.
The Seventh Prince subconsciously wanted to push his Imperial Father off.
But he didn’t expect his hand to be grabbed by his Imperial Father’s hand first.
He had always thought his aged Imperial Father was weak, but his grip was actually very strong.
And there was an Earthquake.
His Imperial Father was actually still nagging at him: “Rebellious son, rebellious son, you want to fight for the throne, I can understand, I came up the same way, but you must never ally with the Tie Man. If the Tie Man invades, the country will fall and the home will be destroyed. Do you not read books? You have read so many books, how can you do such an inhumane thing? When the country is gone, the home is gone, what kind of emperor will you be? Whose emperor will you be?”
The Emperor gripped the Seventh Prince’s hand tightly.
The Seventh Prince tugged a few times but couldn’t pull his hand back.
The Seventh Prince didn’t understand what his Imperial Father was feigning; he hadn’t said a word when he killed the Ninth Brother just now.
What was important and what was trivial?
The Earthquake struck.
Chaos ensued.
Eunuch Yan, who was supporting the Emperor, also fell to the ground.
Unfortunately, there was a protruding corner under the Dragon Throne, and Eunuch Yan saw his head about to hit it.
And the closest person, Second Young Master Jiang, because he was always cautious about Earthquakes and had trained at home on how to stay standing and maintain his center of gravity during an Earthquake.
So, at this moment, seeing the Emperor and Saner both falling.
Jiang Changtian chose to follow his heart; he lunged over and caught Saner, preventing his head from hitting the sharp corner on the side of the Dragon Throne.
The Emperor was thrown and tumbled together with the Seventh Prince.
Fortunately, the Dragon Throne was large, and both father and son could squeeze onto it.
Don’t panic when things happen.
With so many years of experience, Jiang Changtian knew that one must remain steady; only by being steady to the end could one survive.
So, while his face looked panicked, he was not panicked at all in his heart.
After observing that Xia Mei was fine, he analyzed the situation here.
He and Saner stayed to the side.
The Dragon Throne was wide; even if the beam above fell, it should be able to hold it up.
And the Seventh Prince had played almost all his trump cards; the Emperor, being such a suspicious and paranoid person, couldn’t possibly be without hidden cards.
Sure enough, the Seventh Prince couldn’t pull his hand away and wanted to get up to pick up the fallen sword, but he saw the Emperor pull a knife out from the side of the Dragon Throne.
If the Emperor hadn’t taken it, one wouldn’t even have known that a knife was embedded in the side of the Dragon Throne.
It was very ornate, with a coiled dragon and gemstones, and all sorts of things.
However, the Emperor grabbed his son’s hand with one hand and took the knife with the other, stabbing forcefully at the Seventh Prince.
“Beast, you beast, I shouldn’t have let that bitch mother of yours give birth to you in the first place; I should have killed you all together.”
The Emperor was furious, and for a moment, he seemed to have infinite strength, stabbing twice in a row, but he didn’t hit any vital points.
After all, there was an age difference.
Even though he had a weapon, and even though the Seventh Prince had been shaken over and caught off guard, he quickly reacted and snatched the knife away.
He stabbed back at his Imperial Father.
Sloppy, swish!
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