The Concubine Who Was Supposed to Die in Chapter Three novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Sentence
The Hall of Ten Thousand Lamps was lit from end to end at midnight, and every courtier in it was smiling.
Zhiyao stood at the foot of the dais in her sleeping robe, with her hair on end.
Wuyan had not let go of her hand since the Pavilion.
He climbed the steps with her beside him, and when he reached the throne, he did not sit.
Rows of nobles stood below, silent and perfectly still.
There were three hundred of them.
All their faces were turned toward the same spot, the empty cushion where the Holy Maiden sat at audience.
Xueling was not there.
She was kneeling at the side of the hall with two maids holding her by the elbows, her face white and wet.
She mouthed a single word at Zhiyao.
Run.
"What is this?" said the Emperor.
A minister stepped forward.
He was a gentle old man with a white beard who had once cried at a lamp festival because a child gave him a paper boat.
His eyes were the color of milk.
"Your Majesty," he said pleasantly. "A petition from the court."
He unrolled a scroll.
"It is the opinion of all the ministers that Heaven's Rite cannot proceed while a stain remains on the Emperor's household."
Zhiyao felt her stomach turn.
"The stain is the Fifth Rank concubine, Lan Zhiyao, who has no root, no fate, and no place in the Book of Heaven."
The courtiers murmured, in one voice.
"We ask that she be set aside," read the minister, "and sentenced at the third bell."
Wuyan's hand tightened on hers until the bones ground.
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Concubine Who Was Supposed to Die in Chapter Three are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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