The look Zhan gave them shook their hearts even more. They became certain he was hiding something. And that secret recording made without their knowledge....if it were played, it would cause a serious problem. In this court, either of the two could easily be sentenced to death, because there was no doubt that every scheme they had plotted within the palace would be exposed.
Prince, Deng....who knew his own guilt....burst into tears, shaking his head. He understood that surrendering himself might earn him some sympathy from the people.
The entire court fell silent, and even King Yibo glanced briefly at Prince Tanga, sensing what he meant. Quickly, Prince Tanga signaled for the head guard to stop the officer preparing to play the recording.
The guard halted respectfully. Silence filled the court again as everyone fixed their eyes on the Prince Deng. Even Prince Langya stared at him, unable to understand the meaning behind his sudden crying.
Zhan, meanwhile, let out a sharp smile that exposed the whiteness of his teeth.
Seeing that Deng's crying was not stopping and time was passing, Prince Tanga straightened and asked, "Deng, do you have something to say?"
Deng cried even harder before blurting, "Yes, I have something to say. And I promise to tell everything that needs to be heard. I regret everything....I regret deeply following Langya, his mother, and even my own. Everything began with them…"
Not only Langya.... even Dowager Ruyan fixed her eyes on Deng. Everyone knew who Langya's mother was: a kind and graceful woman. Meanwhile, Deng's mother was the opposite....self-serving and ruthless. Everyone in the palace knew the mothers of Deng and Langya hated each other and couldn't stand being under the same roof. So what was Deng trying to imply?
His crying continued, trembling and broken, before he finally managed, "Outwardly, everyone believes our mothers were enemies. But that wasn't the truth. In secret, they were extremely close. Langya's mother only befriended Momma to extract her secrets and bring them to us. Their goal was to gain the throne and seize all of King Tengshan's wealth. They knew Murong, being the eldest, would inherit everything. They tried to have him eliminated even when we were children, but they failed. That was when they decided that Langya's mother should kill the King and Murong years ago."
"You liar! Shameless liar!"
Langya shouted, bursting into tears as he lunged at Deng with a punch. For all his own corruption, he still loved his mother deeply, and he knew she had never involved herself in these schemes. He only openly showed ambition after her death.
It took effort to separate them, but not before Langya scratched Deng's face with his nails. King Yibo closed his eyes, fighting the anger burning inside him.
When the court finally settled, Deng was allowed to continue.
Before he spoke, Langya cut in sharply, "He's lying. So I will tell everything. After I finish, you can play the recording....we all know it won't match what he's claiming. Give me whatever punishment I deserve afterward. I won't stand by and let him disgrace my mother....she rests in peace, and he won't smear her name with things she never did. I would rather speak the truth, even if it becomes the end of me."
He took a breath before continuing.
"What happened at first was only between us and his mother, never mine. He told me everything the day we agreed to join forces to bring down our brother Murong. Our alliance began the day we caused the death of Huizue's daughter. We buried her inside the palace grounds during the festival after raping her, without anyone knowing. Yes, we did it....both of us. And all these years of searching for the girl, everyone thinking she was kidnapped or disappeared during the festival....none of that was true."
"After we formed our alliance, we launched attacks from every direction to get rid of Murong, but we never succeeded. While we were still struggling in that battle, the news came that he intended to step down and appoint his son. That sent us into a panic. We immediately scattered in search of powerful sorcerers who could help, and eventually we found the sorcerer Barbushi. Barbushi promised to assist us and confirmed that he would help eliminate both Murong and his son."
"We were overjoyed, almost uncontrollably so. We even arranged the ceremony for Murong's appointment as if nothing dark was in our hearts. But the truth struck us the day Barbushi handed us the poison meant for Murong. We went to deliver it, only to find Murong alone in his room....vomiting blood and desperately calling the names of Yibo and Momma."
"When he saw us, he pleaded for help, begging us to call them for him. But we stepped out in complete shock, our hearts racing....partly in disbelief, partly in excitement that he might die without our involvement. We hurried back to Barbushi to report everything. He was astonished as well, realizing someone else had poisoned Murong before us. He took back the poison and told us to return the next day so he could investigate, saying it was clear another hunter was after Murong's life."
"Before dawn we returned to the palace, only to find that Murong had died during the night. We were thrilled, but also deeply unsettled. Someone else shared our goal....and in our eyes, that person had to be removed before they became a threat, especially if they, too, wished to seize power."
"And here is the part that might surprise you: despite our alliance, none of us actually trusted or liked one another. Our true ambition was to eliminate one another after Murong and his son were out of the way."
"What complicated matters even more was the sudden death of Yibo's two wives the morning after Murong died. We rushed back to Barbushi with no hesitation."
"Sorcerer Barbushi confirmed that there was indeed a serious problem. He explained that besides us, there were powerful forces surrounding Yibo.....dangerous ones. And even after the deaths of his two wives, more deaths would follow, though he could not predict how many. But there would come a turning point....everything would change because Yibo would marry a young consort under the age of twenty. That young man carried something extraordinary with him, along with several secrets, one of which was the greatest secret of the entire palace. If he was allowed into the royal household, our dream of ruling the kingdom would never come true."
"We panicked, but Barbushi stopped us and told us to calm down. There was only one path left for us.
That path was to watch every woman Yibo would take as a wife. The boy could only be identified after the third marriage....because the first two would be his sister's and die shortly after entering the palace. After that, we would eliminate the boy's entire family and use him to finish off Yibo. Once Yibo was gone, the boy would either die in prison or be executed. Deng would then take the throne, and I would become his successor without the great secret ever being revealed."
"Everything made sense to us. But our real curiosity was about the killer of Yibo's wives....who was behind it? Barbushi admitted he had no way of identifying them. They were extremely dangerous and lived within the palace itself. But he assured us not to worry...they were helping our cause. The killings would destroy Yibo's reputation, turning everyone against him and causing people to see him as the man who brought death to his own wives."
"Yibo would then focus all his attention on hunting down whoever was killing his spouses, leaving us free to continue our plans without difficulty. We were satisfied and returned home full of confidence.
From that point on, everything continued to unfold, and we pushed even harder. We devoted ourselves to making sure Yibo kept marrying new wives after each death. Exactly as Barbushi predicted, his words kept coming true one by one. Everywhere people mocked Yibo and cursed his rule. They even began calling him a tyrant.
That pleased us greatly."
"So we sent our boys everywhere to search for beautiful young women to be brought into the palace as his brides. Each time we approached Momma, speaking to her especially through me, she eventually agreed.... hoping that this time it would all finally end. That was how our calculations led us to a group of children whose father supplied honey to the palace. One of our boys, who worked for us, brought us their details....apparently it was from his friend. We expected them to die as usual. And when two died one after the other, we proceeded to the third."
"The boy's age matched exactly the one Barbushi had described. That gave us joy and certainty....he was the one we had been searching for. After he married into the palace, we began planning how to destroy his entire family.
On the very day we discovered their home, the boy father's friend....who had unknowingly revealed it to us... overheard our conversation. We did not let him know that we were aware of it. Instead, we watched his life through his wife."
"We bribed her with a huge amount of money and terrified her until she gave in. Deng even used her personally, and afterward we handed her the poison meant for her husband."
"The next morning, unexpectedly, she called us in panic, claiming her husband had gone to inform the boy's parents about everything....but that she had already given him the poison we provided.
We panicked as well. Immediately, we arranged for officers to go to her house, and she led them straight to the boy home. That was when we had them arrest the owner of the house and his eldest son."
(I'm sure you haven't forgotten when Babiy and Huan were arrested, right?)
Langya drew in a harsh breath, anger tightening his face before he continued:
"Their neighbor and an old man.... claimed to be the father of the wife.... kept insisting that they knew where the missing people were, but they failed to prove anything. Originally, our plan was to kill them all at once. But the way Barrister Aas got involved made us change our minds....we became interested in prolonging the game."
"So we continued to toy with their minds. We planned to end their lives at the same time we finished planning Yibo's death. But we didn't focus on them too much, because that very day we gave snake-venom milk to their son. Our attention shifted fully toward the boy and the task we had forced him into."
"Later, we were informed that they too had been killed…
Everything collapsed into chaos after that.
The only thing we did right was eliminating his entire family. They were the only ones who didn't slipped through our hands. King Yibo did not die. The boy even managed to escape from the prison. And the Barrister Hua we hired to get rid of the boy parents....he also vanished without a trace."
"From that point on, everything turned against us.
The game began to change in ways we didn't plan. And when we approached Barbushi again, he calmed us, saying he had found another solution.
He promised he would take care of the boy for us, quietly.
He would worsen King Yibo's illness and make sure all misfortune landed on him. But in exchange, one of us had to become a king, fully bound to him."
"That became the reason each of us grew desperate to outdo the other.... to ensure none of us became the sacrificial piece.
We continued to weave more plots around King Yibo.... causing the death of Prince Maiqing, sparking civil protests, planting the bomb in Barrister Aas' car, even creating a video to make it look like Yibo was the one killed his husband parents with dark forces. We handed it to his husband believing he would release it to the world, but he never did…"
A violent uproar shook the courtroom.
Especially from Prince Maiqing's family.
His eldest son jumped forward in fury, grabbing Prince Langya and Prince Deng by the neck before anyone could stop him. His relatives rushed in as well.
It took great effort to pull Prince Langya and Prince Deng out of their hands....King Yibo himself had to intervene and command order.
Even he was barely holding himself together. He knew too well the truth hidden behind many of Prince Langya's confessions....because he had secretly begun investigating them ever since Zhan beg him to find the clue about his family, when he was pretending as Mulan. That was the day Yibo began tracing their movements and later uncovered the truth.
He was also the one who saved Barrister Aas from the car bomb everyone still believed had killed him.
The only unresolved crime was the murder of Prince Maiqing....until now, when the true culprits confessed.
When the courtroom finally settled....barely....people wept, some cursed, and Prince Tanga, his face drained, turned to Prince Langya:
"And what is your connection with Consort Xuan Ji?"
Prince Langya looked at her.
Seeing the way she glared at him made him smile faintly.
"Everything I listed includes her as well," he said. "Our involvement began after Murong died. But she and Deng....long before she entered the palace....they were already together. She was practically his woman. He have her whenever he wished."
"You liar!" Deng barked back. "You have her too! At least I did it before she got married. You kept meeting her even after she officially became Prince Murong's consort!"
"That's a lie, you fool," Langya snapped. "I never touched Xuan Ji until after Murong died. She came to me herself....I never called her. If I'm lying, she's right there. Let her deny it!"
A thunderous slam of the gavel cracked through the courtroom.
King Yibo struck with such force that everyone jolted.....even Prince Langya, who had shoved Prince Deng away in anger.
If not for the tinted glasses hiding the King's eyes, people would have seen their sudden blaze.
Even so, his face tightened, sharp with controlled fury.
Prince Tanga, realizing this line of questioning no longer needed to continue, turned to the accused and said:
"Everyone understands. But there are still things you haven't explained....things the entire court already suspects you two are responsible for.
First, you injected the royal consort while he was in prison.
Then you threw him into the swimming pool as well."
"Yes, we used injections....but not ordinary injections. They were special ones Barbushi gave us to weaken the body so the person couldn't resist. We used King Yibo's own robe on the day he was given the poison milk, so Zhan would think it was him. It was Xuan Ji and I who went together and injected him that day.
But we were not the ones who threw him into the water…"
"You're lying, Deng! Whoever committed those crimes is the same person who did this. You just want to hide it....because the method is exactly the same as what was done to Prince Nayyar years ago…"
Prince Tanga snapped.
"He's telling the truth! They didn't do it!" Another voice cut in.
Everyone in the court turned at once toward the person who spoke.
Zhan shot to his feet, stunned.... because even in a dream he could never forget that voice.
It was Grandfa....the old man with a steel-hard will, looking healthier than before despite his age, as if life had somehow brightened him.
King Yibo slowly closed his eyes behind his glasses, deeply shaken by Grandfa's words. His heart had already been troubled by Prince Deng's testimony, which made it harder to believe Deng's group were truly not the ones killing his consorts…the same thing Zhan once told him.
Prince Tanga broke the silence, his gaze fixed on Grandfa.
"How did you know? And if they didn't do it....then who did?"
Grandfa stepped forward from where he had been sitting, bowed his head slightly, then said calmly:
"Just as I said, they are not the ones. They committed the crimes they admitted to....but the rest…that knowledge belongs only to the person responsible. And that person is right here in this royal household…in this very hall… and when the moment is right, they will reveal themselves."
"Then who is it?" Prince Tanga demanded.
Grandfa only smiled softly and said nothing.
Everyone stared at him.
Dowager Ruyan tried to remember where she had seen his face before.
Dowager Taihou, however, felt her chest pounding violently....so hard she thought her heart might burst. Everything Grandfa said clawed at her nerves. Still, she forced herself to stay calm.
No servant who helped her should recognize her… and certainly not this foolish old man waiting for death… She thought in her head.
The silence stretched until Prince Tanga repeated the question.
This time, Grandfa gave a gentle smile, lifting his gaze slowly until his eyes met Zhan's....who was staring at him with the urge to run to him and hold him tight.
Grandfa's eyes softened as he looked back.
"I beg this honorable court to forgive the limitations of an old man. I am not here to announce who committed the deeds you seek. Because whoever it is....they are in this household, right here among us.
And when the right moment arrives…they will reveal themselves clearly."
"This is serious. The court will want to understand what brought you here, Lao shi."
Prince Tanga asked, prompted by the node Prince Hanyu threw at him.
Grandfa straightened his stance, then spoke calmly:
"As I said from the beginning....they are not the ones. Truly, they are not. They only followed a trail that unknowingly connected them to someone from years ago. That person left because of them, and later returned because of them, even though they were never the cause of anything. They were being used in a plan that was never theirs to begin with."
"Elder, you're confusing us more. Can you explain everything clearly, in a way the court can understand?"
"If the court permits, I will."
"The court permits it. You are speaking toward the truth needed to judge the guilty and protect the innocent."
"Good." Grandfa smiled, then turned briefly toward Prince Deng and his group, who were struggling to remember where they had seen his face. He looked away from them and faced Prince Tanga again.
"We are the family of the royal consort Zhan. We were the ones targeted for elimination. But we were saved....and so was Barrister Aas, who fought for us from the moment they began hunting us."
He pointed toward the far end of the courtroom.
Immediately, Prince Langya and Prince Deng both jerked to their feet in shock when they saw Barrister Aas standing with Babiy.
At the same moment, Daneen froze....her eyes locking onto Babiy.
Twenty years or twenty thousand…she knew she could never forget that face, not after the thirteen short days they once shared.
They had been forced into a marriage neither wanted or approved…
But they cried together, they laughed together, they bonded deeply…
They suffered their separation together.
And they mourned the emptiness that followed.....together.
The courtroom dissolved into chaos.
Some people stared at Daneen, watching her trembling lips try to speak.
Others stared at Prince Deng and Prince Langya, who looked completely undone.
Others turned toward Song (Mah), who suddenly step out:
"Zinnu!! It's you! You're Zinnu! Even after twenty years....twenty times over....I could never forget you!"
Daneen's voice whipped every eye in the courtroom toward her....even Babiy, though he stood frozen and wide-eyed, as if unaware of anything happening. His heartbeat had been pounding ever since he entered the palace.
Now, for the first time, his eyes truly fell on Daneen....and his breath vanished.
He swayed, almost collapsing, and would have fallen if Barrister Aas and Huan had not caught him.
Whispers surged across the courtroom like rising wind.
King Yibo's gaze locked on Zhan through his eyeglasses.
Zhan's body trembled visibly, as lost and overwhelmed as the rest.
King Yibo suddenly felt a sharp pull of sympathy for him.
So all this time…Zhan truly never knew the real origin of everything.
He felt an urge to close his eyes and imagine it was just the two of them....him and Zhan alone...so he could hold him and calm the storm in both their hearts.
If not for the chaos in the courtroom, he would have postponed this entire trial until the next day.
But he swallowed everything down....like he always did.
He needed the truth today, no matter how painful.
After all, the test results had confirmed that Daneen was Zhan's mother.
And now, seeing Babiy and Daneen reaction together…everything previously hidden was suddenly wide open.
Zhanxianyibo💚❤️💛