Chapter 886: Chapter 704: My Domain, My Rules!
Only then did she notice that above the nine-layered steps, on the Dragon and Phoenix Chair adorned with carved dragons and painted phoenixes, a figure clad in red with gold embellishments of dragons and phoenixes was reclining…
As Borjigin Nian had said, the silent Gu Changsheng indeed exuded a certain aura of authority without anger, and at this moment, Madam Zheng, looking at the woman above, couldn’t help but feel a chill in her heart. Yet, in a blink, boundless hatred filled her eyes.
“In my presence, to tear my subjects to pieces, this mad beggar woman truly has audacious rules!” Gu Changsheng sighed, her phoenix eyes slightly closed. She truly didn’t want to spare another glance at Madam Zheng; it was too exhausting, inevitably making her associate Madam Zheng with her family’s evildoer. Although they were mother and son, the difference between them was truly more than a small fraction; it was genuinely vast, too disillusioning!
Indeed, the saying that dragons give birth to dragons and phoenixes to phoenixes is just to deceive children. Listening to it is enough; it lacks any scientific basis!
In fact, it proves that the evildoer in her family is indeed a mutant that went in the favorable direction of genetic inheritance!
Madam Zheng stared at Gu Changsheng with a face full of hatred, her hands clenched, veins bulging, stifling her words.
On the Dragon and Phoenix Grand Chair, Gu Changsheng slightly closed her phoenix eyes, retrieving her thoughts, and spoke with indifference, “However, I most like people who speak of rules, because I am the one who adheres least to rules. Today, I will show you that on my territory, I am the rule!”
Upon hearing this, Madam Zheng’s battered body trembled almost imperceptibly, finally understanding why she was brought out for trial by Emperor Zhoulin today—it was to make her meet this woman, Gu Changsheng!
This woman who caused her reputation to be infamous, leaving everything in the past unrecoverable!
Madam Zheng was filled with extreme hatred!
Gu Changsheng still didn’t spare her a glance. After saying this, her sharp gaze swept towards the two rows of female Imperial Forest Army waiting on the side, and she shouted in a low voice, “What are you all standing still for? Do you want me to teach you proper conduct?”
“…” The female Imperial Forest Army waiting with bowed heads were momentarily stunned. To be honest, their Majesty usually spoke kindly and seldom showed such severity and sternness. For a moment, the female Imperial Forest Army attending by Gu Changsheng’s side didn’t quite understand their Majesty’s intentions…
Gu Changsheng’s mouth twitched almost imperceptibly, her casually reclined body nearly faltered. Damn it, the female officials beside her were truly too clueless! Why couldn’t they understand her desire to assert authority? Did she have to be forced to spell it out?
“In front of me, how could there be a place for outsiders to stand? Are you waiting for me to personally take action to teach this rule-abiding woman what rules are?”
Damn, embarrassing! So embarrassing!
The people around her, how could they be so dense and dumb? It was infuriating her!
Upon hearing this, the female Imperial Forest Army in the hall immediately understood their Majesty’s intentions. Naturally, Madam Zheng understood too!
“Hey! Rude shrew, in the presence of our Emperor, why haven’t you knelt and kowtowed yet!”
Two female Imperial Forest Army members kicked simultaneously, directly striking Madam Zheng’s calves, not even giving her a chance to react.
“Bang!”
Even if the female military in front of the Southern Emperor was somewhat sluggish, they still had strength. With such a powerful kick, Madam Zheng immediately fell to the ground, kneeling so solidly that she lost her balance, lying completely on the floor.
“You!” Madam Zheng, lying on the ground, snarled viciously, trying to rise, but before she could manage it, two of the female Imperial Forest Army behind her stepped forward and pressed her down again.
Seeing this, Gu Changsheng immediately felt balance restored, rising with disinterest from the Dragon and Phoenix Chair, gazing with satisfaction at Madam Zheng lying on the floor, “Hmm, not bad, not bad. Now this resembles someone with proper conduct. Although there was no voice of kowtowing to pay respects, considering your status as the wife of the former Crown Prince of Great Zhou, my broad-mindedness allows me, with difficulty, to overlook it!”
“You! Gu Changsheng, how dare you!” On the floor, the disheveled Madam Zheng looked up, glaring at the woman above with eyes almost bursting from their sockets.
“Tsk, tsk… This tone, truly is Madam Zheng!” On the Dragon and Phoenix Chair, Gu Changsheng shook her head, speaking with a face full of disdain, “When we first met, you still had some semblance of a royal family member’s demeanor. Now upon seeing you again, who would have thought you’ve fallen to such a state that I couldn’t recognize you at first, almost mistaking you for a madwoman scavenging junk who barged into my traveling palace, nearly wronging Emperor Lin.”
Deliberate! This woman must be doing it deliberately! The reason she fell into such circumstances is entirely thanks to the woman before her! Upon hearing this, Madam Zheng’s disheveled face twisted immediately!
“Gu Changsheng, do you think just because you’ve become the Southern Emperor, wielding power over the world, you can control everything?” Madam Zheng gritted her teeth and raised her head, compelled to look up at the woman high above her, “I tell you, it’s impossible! So long as I am alive, you will not have your way, and that rebellious son shall not have his way either!”
Rebellious son? Her evildoer?
Hearing these words, Gu Changsheng’s expression turned grim, her phoenix eyes slightly squinted, looking down with imposing gaze on the kneeling woman, and spoke in a deep voice, “Madam Zheng, even today, do you not introspect thrice? As a mother, you are unkind. That year, a glass of Qianji Poison nearly cost Zhou Mu his life. As a ruler, you are unjust. Just because my grandfather detoxified Zhou Mu, you plotted to have him meet a tragic end in Liuzhou City!”
If it weren’t for her grandfather Gu Chengyi’s death in Liuzhou City, how would she have been left helpless and entrusted to the Capital City Li Family back then? How would she have married into the Li Family, becoming an abandoned wife and losing her life?
Every bit of all this cannot be without credit to the woman in front of her!
“Haha… So what?” Upon hearing this, Madam Zheng’s face contorted into a sinister smile, her disheveled face full of disdain, “Gu Changsheng, the past hatred is before your eyes, dare to kill me to avenge it? You dare not!”
As Madam Zheng said this, she shook her head while smiling, with an air of certainty, “Not only do you not dare, even if you slander and disgrace me, making me intolerable to the Zhou Imperial Clan, they dare not take my life. Gu Changsheng, if I die, regardless of how that rebellious son reacts, whether he saves me or not, he will bear the crime of matricide. The matter of that rebellious son burning the Eastern Palace and slaying his own father was concealed by that cruel old thief Emperor Zhoulin back then. But now? Now that rebellious son is the Crown Prince of Great Zhou, heavily armed and familiarly ruling the court, whereas I, have fallen to this because of your machinations. If I die, the future emperor of Great Zhou and the current emperor of the Southern Country, you both, will be burdened with matricide, a mark that can never be erased. This will undoubtedly be recorded in the annals of history, and even if the two of you unify the world, you cannot withstand the public’s opinion, nor can you wipe away this stain, forever branded as the most unfilial matricides in the mouths of future generations, haha…”
Saying so, Madam Zheng laughed even more recklessly.
Gu Changsheng just watched her, her face growing darker as pitch, for what Madam Zheng said was indeed a consideration by Emperor Zhoulin and others.
Filial piety is paramount in ancient times, a weight of a thousand pounds. Among the vast populace, the public’s opinion of matricide and unfilial conduct, no one can block!
“Madam Zheng, you should know, within the darkness of the imperial family and marquis’s household, I have means to make you die but live on in the hearts of everyone, and I also have means to make your life worse than death!” Gu Changsheng looked down at Madam Zheng, and spoke in a deep voice.
Hearing this, Madam Zheng’s sinister laughter stopped, a flash of panic crossed her eyes, but it quickly returned to calm.
Gu Changsheng gazed intently at her, continuing in a deep voice, “Madam Zheng, since I summoned you to audience, naturally it is to question you about certain matters. You should know, I can ruin you with one word, and also grant you endless wealth and prosperity with one word. You are Zhou Mu’s birth mother, I do not wish for needless bloodshed and to have Zhou Mu and I bear the notoriety of matricide. Let the old grievances fade, Madam Zheng, consider carefully, do you want wealth and prosperity, or death?”
“Haha…” Hearing this, Madam Zheng burst into laughter, looking at Gu Changsheng with a face full of ridicule as she lay prostrate, and disdainfully spoke, “I know what you want to ask, Gu Changsheng, aren’t you the almighty Southern Emperor? Yet there’s a time when you have to plead with me? Haha… I’ve said, I won’t let you have your way, Gu Changsheng, no need to ask, I have only one thing to say: If I die, you will be doomed to seek yet never find, regretting for a lifetime! Go ahead, kill me if you dare, will you?”
Hearing this, Gu Changsheng closed her eyes tightly for a moment and then opened them again, murmuring softly, “Just as expected…”
Just as she had speculated!
She thought, she is now already exalted as the Southern Emperor, and Zhou Mu has become the Crown Prince of Great Zhou. Those ambitious princes of Great Zhou no longer have anything to bounce back with, and Zheng’s son Zhou Hao is utterly incapable of rising. Why would Madam Zheng dare to oppose her and humiliate her openly when she entered the Capital City knowing this was hopeless? As it turns out, she has her reliance!
If Madam Zheng dies, Gu Changsheng is destined to seek yet never find and regret for a lifetime!
Hehe… Gu Changsheng lowered her head, a bitter smile forming, “Even a venomous tiger does not eat its cubs, yet in this world, there truly exists a mother as sinister as you…”
“I’m sinister? Haha! It’s that rebellious son who shouldn’t exist in this world! As a son, he knows not filial piety, if it were just stealing his father’s glow that’s one thing, but he even wants to seize his father’s position as Crown Prince, and in the end even burns the Eastern Palace!” Madam Zheng spoke with a face of ferocity, “It’s him! It’s all that rebellious son! He made me a widow, cost me the chance to ascend the throne, made me lose everything. He shouldn’t live in this world! He should die! He’s the one I carried for ten months in my womb, I wish I had never given birth to him, I should have strangled him at birth, whose life is his but mine to take, who dares say I’m sinister?”
Everyone present in the grand hall felt a chill upon hearing this; there exists such a vicious and ruthless mother, just because her son is too outstanding?
“You vile woman! What exactly have you done to that Zhou Mu boy?” Others were overcome with sighs, while Yue Xilou more acutely picked up the crux from the conversation between Gu Changsheng and Madam Zheng. Upon hearing Madam Zheng’s words, he immediately could not sit still any longer, angrily stood up from his chair, and for once, that seductive face usually indifferent to matters, brimmed with anger, and he sternly interrogated…