"Chen'er, Your Majesty should know very well whose child he is, right?"
Shen Lingyun's voice carried a hint of shrillness. For a moment, Xiao Tianye wavered.
But then he remembered the gossips outside, and his heart immediately hardened again. "Of course I know. The older he grew, the less he looked like me. I thought he would resemble you more. It was not until he stood with Xiao Tianchi that I realized he was an exact copy of Xiao Tianchi!"
"You asked Xiao Tianchi to be his teacher. Weren't you just using this opportunity to have secret trysts?!"
"No wonder after he had an accident in the south of the Yangtze River, Xiao Tianchi dragged his sick and broken body there to collect his body. What a deep father - son affection!"
The angrier Xiao Tianye got as he spoke, and his words mingled with Biwu's cries of pain from the caning outside, making one's heart turn cold.
"Your Majesty, have you ever thought that you and the Prince of Mu are brothers, and you two also look somewhat alike?" Shen Lingyun clenched her fists tightly, and her expression grew colder and colder.
Xiao Tianye sneered. "I knew you would never admit it."
He took out several letters and threw them in front of Shen Lingyun.
Looking at the handwriting on the letters, Shen Lingyun's pupils shrank sharply, and her body curled up uncomfortably.
No wonder, no wonder she had never been able to get the letters sent by Xiao Tianchi. It turned out that he had intercepted them all...
Xiao Tianye watched as this beautiful woman as cold as ice and snow trembled as she gathered the letters into her arms. The last string in his mind snapped completely, and he roared angrily:
"By my order, from today onwards, depose Shen Lingyun from her position as the queen, take away her phoenix seal, and confine her to the Cold Palace. Keep a strict watch on her! Without my permission, no one is allowed to visit her, and she is not allowed to take a single step out of the Cold Palace!"
In an instant, eunuchs and maids rushed into the Jiaofang Palace. Without any explanation, the eunuchs grabbed Shen Lingyun who was on the ground. Shen Lingyun raised her red - rimmed eyes, glanced at the furious Xiao Tianye, struggled for a while, and then said to the eunuchs:
"Let go of me. I can walk by myself."
The eunuchs looked at Xiao Tianye. Seeing that he didn't say a word, they let go of their hands.
Shen Lingyun took weak steps, propping herself up as she walked out step by step. She was already ill, and her figure was as thin as a piece of paper, as if a gust of wind could blow her down.
Due to excessive grief, she almost fell every two steps.
Xiao Tianye instinctively wanted to reach out to support her, but then, remembering something, he forcibly held himself back.
He watched as Shen Lingyun walked out of the palace step by step. When she reached Biwu who was being caned, she turned around and looked at him. "Let her go to the Cold Palace with me."
The veins on Xiao Tianye's forehead bulged. He grabbed the porcelain vase on the flower stand and smashed it on the ground. "Get out! All of you, get out of my sight!"
The gates of the Jiaofang Palace, which had been closed for a long time because of the Crown Prince's death, finally opened. But the news that Queen Shen had been deprived of her phoenix seal and queenly position and immediately confined to the Cold Palace because of her immoral conduct spread like wildfire.
Undercurrents were surging in the harem, and various forces were all having their own thoughts because of this.
One crash after another came from the Jiaofang Palace. Xiao Tianye smashed all the utensils in the room.
Every time he remembered Shen Lingyun's back as she left while holding herself up, his anger welled up.
Why didn't she cry and plead with him like other women?
Why couldn't she just bow her head to him once?
Could it be that all of this was true, so she had nothing to defend herself with?
Night fell earlier in the capital than in other places. When the night curtain fell, Shen Lingyun and Biwu had already been locked in the Cold Palace, which was full of cobwebs and dust.
Now that there was no one else around, Shen Lingyun finally took off her disguise and couldn't help crying.
Her sobs echoed in the silent and desolate Cold Palace, telling of her grievances and anger.
"Lady, don't cry. We will definitely find a way to get out of here." Biwu, although she was injured, still propped herself up and wiped the tears from Shen Lingyun's eyes.
Shen Lingyun held her hand and said hoarsely, "Biwu, I couldn't stop him from punishing you just now. Don't blame me."
Biwu also shed tears and shook her head. "Lady, this servant will never blame you. His Majesty has always been like that. If you had pleaded for me, he might have gotten even angrier."
"As long as this servant can continue to accompany you, it is enough."
Shen Lingyun gave a bitter smile. "Don't call me Lady anymore. I'm no longer the queen."
She had been the queen for more than twenty years, and she was really tired of it. It was not a bad thing not to be the queen anymore. It was okay...
Biwu nodded. "Then, I'll still call you Miss, just like before."
She was Shen Lingyun's personal maid. She had served Shen Lingyun since before and followed her when she got married and entered the palace. The mistress and the maid had been together for many years.
The Cold Palace was full of dust, and the furniture was all broken. It was really not a place for people to stay. Shen Lingyun's emotions had fluctuated too much. Leaning in Biwu's arms and looking at the bright moon in the sky, she couldn't help coughing.
The coughing got louder and more violent. Biwu was so scared that she quickly patted her on the back and shed tears in a hurry.
There was nothing here, no medicine, no water. What if something happened to her lady?
Fortunately, Shen Lingyun had just drunk a bowl of medicine before Xiao Tianye's outburst. After a while, she recovered.
Remembering the letters that Xiao Tianye had thrown in front of her, Shen Lingyun quickly rummaged through her clothes and took them out.
Biwu was stunned. "This is..."
Shen Lingyun said coldly, "These are the letters written by the Prince of Mu. No wonder you didn't see them when you sent someone to look for them. It turned out that they were intercepted and handed over to Xiao Tianye."
Now that she had been deprived of her queenly position and the affection between husband and wife was over, Shen Lingyun called Xiao Tianye by his name without any scruples.
Biwu gasped. "Who did it? Was the place where we hid the letters discovered?"
Shen Lingyun connected all the dots in her mind and sneered. "This is probably a trap, a trap specially set for me and Chen'er. Someone has been spreading rumors secretly, saying that I still have feelings for the Prince of Mu and that we have been having an affair in secret, which made Xiao Tianye doubt Chen'er's birth."
"With Xiao Tianye's personality, he must have believed these rumors."
This was the root cause of Xiao Tianye's outburst today.
Biwu was so angry that her face turned red. "What a vicious mind!"
Her lady had clearly explained everything to His Majesty today, but His Majesty just didn't believe her. How could there be such a man in the world!
Biwu couldn't help thinking that it would have been better if that incident hadn't happened back then. If her lady had really married the Prince of Mu as promised, they would surely be deeply in love with each other now!
After all, the Prince of Mu had never married, while His Majesty had favored many concubines. He doted on the noble concubine and the Prince of Xuan, often allowing the noble concubine to act wildly in front of her lady!
It was not a bad thing not to be the queen!
"What should we do then?" Biwu was extremely distressed. "This place is so desolate. There is nothing here. Lady is still ill. I'm afraid she won't be able to hold on."