AUBTN -Chapter 382 Saving Her Husband at the Golden Hall

Just a second ago, Shen Jue had still been standing there nonchalantly, as though even if everyone under heaven were to drop dead, it would have nothing to do with him.

But now, his back suddenly stiffened.

In the next instant, the lazy, vicious aura surrounding him transformed into murderous intent!

“What did you say?” Shen Jue asked, his gaze fierce as he enunciated every word.

“What did you do to her?”

The sound frightened Wen Xianzhong into taking half a step backward. But relying on the fact that they were standing in the Golden Hall, he forced himself to sneer.

“Why is Your Highness in such a hurry? This old minister didn’t do anything. It’s just that the investigation has reached an impasse, so I sent someone to Yuyuan to invite Your Highness’s wife to the palace to ask her a few questions, that’s all.”

The instant Wen Xianzhong finished speaking, everyone saw a black shadow flash before their eyes.

Shen Jue crossed several zhang in an instant and appeared directly in front of Wen Xianzhong.

“Urgh—”

A miserable, muffled groan rang out.

Shen Jue’s long, well-defined hand had already clamped tightly around Wen Xianzhong’s neck!

“I’ll ask you one last time.”

Shen Jue slightly raised his head. His usually deep and inscrutable eyes were now bloodshot, the whites completely suffused with red.

“What exactly did you do to my wife?”

“Y-You’re… outrageous…”

Wen Xianzhong’s face instantly turned purplish-red. He desperately tried to pry Shen Jue’s fingers apart with both hands, but it was as futile as an ant trying to shake a tree.

The entire court was stunned!

After the deathly silence came complete uproar!

No one had expected that once Shen Jue went mad, he would actually dare to kill the sitting Prime Minister in public—right beneath the Son of Heaven, in the Golden Hall itself!

“Protect His Majesty! Quickly, protect His Majesty!” someone shouted.

The young emperor was so frightened that his face turned deathly pale!

The Imperial Guards outside the hall surged in like a tidal wave. In an instant, they surrounded Shen Jue in layer upon layer, with countless spearheads gleaming coldly as they pointed directly at him.

But Shen Jue did not even spare those blades and spears a glance. The strength in his hand continued to tighten, and Wen Xianzhong was clearly about to suffocate to death right there on the spot.

Just then—

Lu Yan suddenly rushed to Shen Jue’s side.

He grabbed Shen Jue firmly by the wrist.

Lu Yan lowered his voice and warned him, “Shen Jue! Snap out of it! Don’t act rashly!”

Looking at Shen Jue’s nearly deranged eyes, he gritted his teeth and growled in a voice only the two of them could hear.

“This is their chain of schemes! If you kill him here today, you’ll completely confirm the charges against you! If you die, who’s going to save Su Hewan? Don’t fall for their trap!!!”

“L-Let go… Shen Jue… what you’re doing is… treason…”

Wen Xianzhong forced the words out from deep in his throat, his eyes already rolling back.

“Men! Seize Shen Jue for Me!”

The young emperor rose from the imperial throne in fright, his voice trembling uncontrollably.

The long spears of the two rows of Imperial Guards had already closed in on Shen Jue’s throat.

At this critical moment—

“Your Majesty, please wait!”

A woman’s voice, cold yet clear and commanding, rang out from the entrance of the hall!

Everyone turned around in shock.

At the doorway stood Su Hewan and Yu Qing, supporting a round-faced young eunuch between them, one on each side.

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The sharp golden hairpin was pressed directly against the little eunuch’s neck.

“Wanwan!”

Shen Jue’s pupils suddenly contracted. The moment he saw that Su Hewan was unharmed, the tense line of his jaw relaxed slightly.

The strength in his hand unconsciously weakened by more than half. Wen Xianzhong struggled free and fell onto the floor. He scrambled backward on his hands and knees, looking as utterly disheveled as he possibly could!

“Yu Qing?”

Lu Yan, who was standing nearby, was equally shocked. A trace of panic that was extremely difficult to detect flashed through his deep eyes.

How had she followed Su Hewan and barged into the hall as well?!

“Your Majesty!”

Su Hewan released the little eunuch, took Yu Qing by the hand, and quickly walked to the center of the grand hall. Without the slightest hesitation, she bent her knees and knelt down.

“This concubine, Su Shi, pays her respects to Your Majesty. There was truly a reason for barging into the Golden Hall today. I humbly ask Your Majesty to forgive me for my offense!”

Su Hewan’s voice was clear and bright, every word distinct.

The little emperor also came back to his senses at this moment. His face alternated between green and white as he pointed at Su Hewan.

“Princess Consort Regent, you… You actually dared to hold a palace servant hostage and force your way into the grand hall! Prime Minister Wen just said that you had already confessed to Shen Jue’s crimes. What exactly is going on?”

“Your Majesty, this is a complete and utter conspiracy!”

Su Hewan coldly glanced at Wen Xianzhong, whose face was deathly pale on the floor, and spoke in a clear and logical manner.

“An incense stick ago, this little eunuch, who claimed to have been carrying out the Regent’s verbal order, went to Yuyuan Garden with the intention of tricking this concubine into entering the palace. If Princess Consort Jing and I had not been cautious and discovered that the route he was taking was not toward the Golden Hall at all, but toward the secluded direction of the Western Six Palaces and the cold palace, then by now, the two of us would probably have become wronged spirits—or perhaps we would have been forced to sign that so-called confession!”

“You’re talking nonsense!”

Wen Xianzhong struggled to his feet and pointed at Su Hewan, roaring hoarsely.

“You demoness! You’re trying to exonerate Shen Jue and deliberately slandering me!”

“Whether I’m talking nonsense or not, Your Majesty can simply send someone to investigate!”

Yu Qing suddenly burst into tears.

“Your Majesty! Everything the Princess Consort Regent said is true! This slave is vicious and ruthless. When he saw that his deception had been exposed, he actually tried to kill us to silence us! I fought desperately to protect the Princess Consort Regent, and I nearly broke my ankle in the process! If the Princess Consort Regent hadn’t subdued this villain with her golden hairpin, I wouldn’t have been able to see my prince today! Sob, sob… Lu Yan, I’m in so much pain!”

With her dramatic performance of crying, making a scene, and finally sitting right down on the floor, she directly transformed the solemn Golden Hall into the scene of a grand melodramatic tragedy.

Lu Yan looked at Yu Qing crying on the floor without the slightest regard for her dignity. The veins at his temples bulged, yet deep down, for some inexplicable reason, he felt a sense of relief.

“Your Majesty.”

Lu Yan took a deep breath, stepped forward, and knelt on one knee.

“My consort is my lawful wife. She would never dare lie before Your Majesty. This man falsely conveyed a verbal imperial order and intended to abduct the Princess Consort Regent. Clearly, someone is behind this, attempting to force a confession from the Princess Consort Regent in order to establish the Regent’s guilt. I humbly beseech Your Majesty to investigate this matter thoroughly!”

Within the grand hall, the situation instantly reversed.

Seeing that everything had been exposed, the round-faced little eunuch collapsed completely onto the floor, trembling like a sieve.

The little emperor was not a fool. By this point, how could he possibly fail to understand that Wen Xianzhong had been using him as a weapon?

He glared fiercely at Wen Xianzhong before slamming his hand down on the imperial desk.

“Bastard! Guards! Take this dog slave who falsely conveyed an imperial decree and attempted to murder the Princess Consort Regent away and hand him over to the Dali Temple for a rigorous interrogation!”

“Your Majesty… Your Majesty, spare me! This servant was only carrying out orders!”

The little eunuch screamed as he was dragged away.

Yet he was clever enough not to name Wen Xianzhong on the spot. Clearly, he was still clinging to the hope of saving himself.

Wen Xianzhong’s face was deathly pale. He knew that today’s game of chess had already been completely lost because of Su Hewan and Yu Qing’s sudden intrusion.

But he absolutely refused to give up just like that.

“Your Majesty!”

Wen Xianzhong gritted his teeth and kowtowed again.

“Even if the matter of deceiving Your Majesty was fabricated, the Regent openly struck at this old minister with murderous intent in the Golden Hall, right before the Son of Heaven. He showed utter disregard for imperial authority. This is an indisputable fact! If he is not punished, where will the dignity of the imperial family be? Where will the laws of Great Wei be?”

Those words once again dragged the issue back to reality.

Shen Jue had indeed attacked him.

The entire court of civil and military officials had witnessed it with their own eyes.