Chapter 42: Beheading
Not long after Ye Qiongying came out, she saw the palace maid guarding there. She went up to ask, and then went to the toilet.
Sure enough, no one is here.
She squinted her eyes and looked around. This place...
On the other side, Leng Qianqian finally saw the entrance to the Imperial Garden.
As soon as I got closer, I heard Liang Dehai's voice:
"Your Majesty, are you okay? Do you need to go back and rest? I can go to the Taihe Palace..."
"No need." This was the voice that had been talking to Ye Qiongying in the Taihe Palace. It was getting closer and closer. It was obvious that the other party was about to come out. "It's much better to walk around. Let's go back now."
Leng Qianqian quickly tidied her hair and skirt, pretended to be lost, and walked forward.
Sure enough, they soon saw the emperor and the eunuch chief Liang Dehai coming out.
The emperor still had the golden mask on, covering most of his face. Only his eyebrows, thin lips and chin could be seen.
The expression on his face was completely invisible.
"Ah? Your Majesty!" Leng Qianqian quickly bowed and prepared to kneel down to apologize, "I...I accidentally lost my way and bumped into Your Majesty, please forgive me!"
She originally thought that the emperor would soon signal Liang Dehai, or even come over himself to stop her from paying her respects.
Unexpectedly, the other party did not respond until she knelt down.
The weather is getting hotter and hotter, and my knees feel so hot when I kneel on the ground.
Her clothes were very thin now, and the hard ground made her legs hurt.
The emperor did not say that he would forgive her, nor did he intend to punish her. Instead, he looked at her thoughtfully, and then asked Liang Dehai:
"Who is this?"
Liang Dehai quickly bowed and replied:
"Your Majesty, this woman should be the concubine that the Loyal and Brave Marquis brought into the palace."
"Oh," the emperor replied, "He's the one who drove away the wife of the Marquis and Miss Ye, right? He's quite capable."
Leng Qianqian broke out in a cold sweat.
Before this, almost no one outside knew about the divorce between Yin Xu and Ye Qiongying.
It was just today outside the Taihe Palace that Yin Xu mentioned it.
Unexpectedly, the emperor knew all of this.
Is this the power of authority?
Then... did the palace know everything about her situation? Including the little tricks she had done?
At this moment, Leng Qianqian's brain, which had been blinded by the "halo of the heroine", finally calmed down and became afraid.
The emperor in front of her had no intention of embarrassing her, but played with a purse in his hand and suddenly asked:
"I found a purse a few days ago, and I found it quite interesting. I saw you staring at it just now. What, does it have anything to do with you?"
Leng Qianqian shuddered.
Fear made her want to tell the truth.
but……
The emperor in front of her seemed to have a smile on his face. Although her appearance could not be seen clearly, she felt that he was in a good mood. His eyes were dark and bright, and he seemed to be very focused when he looked at her.
Leng Qianqian felt a little more lucky.
What if?
As the purse got closer to her, she suddenly smelled a familiar scent.
This smell...she seemed to have smelled it somewhere before?
Leng Qianqian's heart trembled, and she immediately rang.
Ye Qiongying! It's Ye Qiongying!
This smell is clearly the smell of Ye Qiongying!
Is this purse Ye Qiongying's?
No, Ye Qiongying must not know about this.
Leng Qianqian thought she had some understanding of men.
This emperor, who was said to be a tyrant, showed from his words and actions how much he valued his purse.
If I knew this thing belonged to Ye Qiongying...
Then wouldn't she, the "concubine" who drove Ye Qiongying away from the Marquis' Mansion, be doomed?
Thinking of the contents of the novels and TV dramas she had read before, Leng Qianqian guessed that Ye Qiongying and the emperor might have had some accidental encounter outside, and she left her purse behind, which made the emperor obsessed with her, but he did not know the other party's identity.
Even Ye Qiongying herself is not clear about this matter.
Otherwise, why would Ye Qiongying sign the divorce agreement so easily instead of asking the emperor to make the decision for her?
Leng Qianqian made her decision in an instant. Her face was slightly red, and a light of surprise suddenly appeared in her eyes. Before she could see the purse clearly, she reached out to touch it:
"Ah? Isn't this the purse that I accidentally lost before? How come it's here...with Your Majesty?"
"Oh?" The emperor took back the purse without letting her touch it. "You mean, this purse is yours?"
"Yes," Leng Qianqian said embarrassedly, "My daughter's embroidery skills are not good, so I specially asked the embroiderer in the mansion to do this, so..."
She knew that all these things on Ye Qiongying's body were made by an embroiderer and were not embroidered by herself.
As it happens, she is not good at these either.
This was half true and half false, and the emperor couldn't use the opportunity of testing her embroidery skills to verify whether the purse belonged to her.
"You know... what the consequences of deceiving the emperor are, right?" The emperor did not give a definite answer, but said this. Just when Leng Qianqian was stunned, he suddenly raised his head and said to the other side, "Miss Ye, why don't you tell her?"
Ye Qiongying, who had just found this place, was planning to leave quickly when she saw those people in the distance.
Although she knew that the current emperor was not really crazy, his reputation for brutality was not false.
Who knows if Leng Qianqian, a guy with a strange style of behavior, will anger His Majesty? It's better to leave first.
Unexpectedly, the emperor's reaction was quite quick and he could recognize her even from such a distance.
Ye Qiongying had no choice but to move forward.
She didn't come closer, but stood far away, and was about to salute.
Unlike Leng Qianqian, she had just bent down when the emperor stopped her and said directly:
"No need for all these empty formalities, Miss Ye, please tell me what the punishment for deceiving the emperor is in this dynasty. I have been feeling unwell recently, so I can't remember it clearly."
Ye Qiongying said seriously:
"Deceiving the king is a crime of great disrespect. The law of this dynasty stipulates that the punishment is beheading."
The emperor clapped his hands and said happily:
"That's right, beheading! I haven't used this method for a few years. As I recall, the prisoner was cut in half from the waist with a heavy axe. The prisoner didn't die immediately and could even crawl with half of his body. It was really interesting."
Leng Qianqian, who was kneeling on the ground, turned pale with fright. The red blush that she had been holding back from shying away was completely gone. She only felt dizzy and her back was cold.
The emperor knew she was lying?!
Is she going to die?
Leng Qianqian regretted it very much.
This is a tyrant! What was she thinking that he would be attracted to her and become her backup?
Just when she thought she was going to be dragged away and chopped to death with an axe, she heard the tyrant suddenly ask Ye Qiongying:
"Miss Ye, why don't you come closer? Does this purse look familiar to you?"