When the emperor saw his trusted confidants, including the chief eunuch, who had been beaten to the point of near death, and learned that several of them had already died, he was naturally even more furious.
Even when beating a dog, one should consider its owner. The Empress Dowager's casual killing of his servant shows utter contempt and disregard for him. Otherwise, why wouldn't she have dealt with his servant without questioning him? If the Empress Dowager were to kill Xu Zifan's men, would she dare?!
The rift that had been building up little by little was amplified at this moment. The Emperor looked at the Empress Dowager with extreme coldness and gritted his teeth as he said angrily, "My people, I will deal with as I please. There is no need for the Empress Dowager to worry about them. No one can stop me from doing what I want to do. From now on, the Empress Dowager should take good care of her health and stop treating me like a child. I still have state affairs to attend to. The Empress Dowager should rest."
The emperor finished speaking and left, ordering his guards to carry all his men back, including Xiao Shunzi. The Empress Dowager couldn't stop him, and not wanting to confront the emperor too forcefully, she could only overturn the table and fly into a rage. The unfortunate ones were all the palace servants who served in the hall.
Her hands were trembling, her mind filled with the emperor's cold words. He no longer called her "Mother," but instead addressed her as "Empress Dowager," a term that pierced her heart. Ironically, she was the one who personally taught him to wield power, and she was also the one who personally taught him to manipulate the regent, his mentor. Everything she taught him was based on self-interest, completely devoid of sentimentality. Only now did she realize that her son had also placed her on the scales of self-interest, and that her son had become estranged from her.
The Empress Dowager returned to her palace, lying wearily on her bed, her head throbbing with pain. She couldn't understand when the Emperor had become like this. She pondered the Emperor's recent changes, finding the only unusual occurrence to be his departures from the palace. She summoned Granny Wen and instructed her, "Use all the people we can to find out what the Emperor has been doing outside the palace. Find out clearly. The Emperor is my support; I cannot allow him to become estranged from me. I need you to find the reason immediately so I can prescribe the right remedy. Also, the flower-viewing banquet must be arranged quickly. Keep everything that happened in the palace today a secret. Those who couldn't keep their mouths shut must be dealt with; not a single word is allowed to leak out. The matter of the Empress's position might be a stepping stone for reconciliation between me and the Emperor; it cannot be overlooked."
"Yes, Your Majesty, please rest well and relax. I'll go and take care of it right away." Granny Wen replied and hurried off to carry out her task. She loved doing these things for the Empress Dowager; the more she did, the more the Empress Dowager would trust and rely on her. Moreover, dealing with people was most advantageous to her. At these times, she could eliminate dissidents, get rid of disliked maids and eunuchs, and let all the palace staff know her authority. They would respect her and fear her.
Granny Wen was quite efficient. She quickly arranged for people to investigate the unusual activities both inside and outside the palace, to find out what the Emperor was doing outside. Then, under cover of darkness, she took a few trusted confidants and took away palace servants who had offended her or were not trustworthy due to their loose tongues. They were gagged, taken to an abandoned courtyard, strangled, and thrown into a dry well.
This wasn't the first time; all the palace servants kept their doors and windows tightly shut, afraid of being noticed by Granny Wen. They weren't curious about what was happening outside; upon hearing any commotion, they would lock themselves in their blankets, praying that they wouldn't be eliminated.
Mo Yun also heard the commotion, and she was also on the list of people that Granny Wen wanted to eliminate!
She made Granny Wen feel threatened. She had been trying to find fault with her but hadn't been able to. This was a perfect opportunity. Even if she killed Mo Yun, the Empress Dowager wouldn't care about such a thing. To Xu Zifan, she could just say that Mo Yun had caught a cold and hadn't made it through. Who would pay special attention to a palace maid?
Granny Wen was very skilled at this kind of thing. Luckily, Mo Yun's door wasn't locked, so they went straight in and easily took Mo Yun away, almost without making a sound. Mo Yun struggled symbolically but didn't make a sound either, observing the situation along the way, until they were led to an abandoned courtyard. Granny Wen was probably quite pleased with herself, and even came along, tearing the rag out of Mo Yun's mouth, mocking, "I wonder if your clever tongue will please the King of Hell in the underworld."
Mo Yun looked around in panic, "What are you doing? What right do you have to arrest me? I didn't do anything."
Granny Wen stepped forward, looking at her with a leisurely smile, "In this Anci Palace, if I say you're not wrong, you're not wrong; if I say you're wrong, you're wrong, understand?"
Mo Yun had already surveyed the surroundings. There were only a few of them: besides herself and Granny Wen, there were four eunuchs and two palace maids. Two eunuchs were holding her captive, while the other two had just strangled a young palace maid, and the two maids were carrying the maid's body to the well and throwing it in. These six were Granny Wen's trusted confidants.
Mo Yun raised her head, her panicked expression vanishing as she transformed from fearful and timid to calm and composed. Before Wen Mama could even react, she deftly broke free from the two eunuchs' grip, removed two poisoned pearl hairpins, and stuffed them into their mouths. Then, grabbing Wen Mama by the neck, she charged forward a dozen steps to the remaining four.
The two eunuchs behind him spat out pearl flowers and tried to catch up, but after only two steps, they clutched their stomachs, coughed up blood, stared wide-eyed, and collapsed to the ground, already dead!
The two palace maids screamed and tried to run away in panic, but Mo Yun kicked Wen Mama's leg and broke it. He turned around, pulled out a silver hairpin, slashed the artery in one of the maids' necks, pushed her into the well, and then chased after the other maid. He stabbed her in the heart and neck with the silver hairpin, then threw her aside and quickly ran back to Wen Mama.
The remaining two eunuchs were helping Granny Wen up and running outside. All three of them shouted for help. As Mo Yun ran, she took off two pearl flowers and flicked them out with both hands, hitting the backs of the two eunuchs' legs. The two of them staggered and threw Granny Wen away. Granny Wen's broken leg was injured again. She screamed in pain and broke out in a cold sweat.
"Mo Yun! You let go..."
"Just let me go! As long as you don't kill me, I'll pretend nothing happened today and I'll never bother you again! Mo Yun!" Seeing Mo Yun rushing towards her, Granny Wen hurriedly shouted, but Mo Yun remained indifferent and unresponsive. Suddenly realizing what was happening, she pointed at Mo Yun and angrily cursed, "You're a spy sent by the Regent! You—"
Mo Yun ignored her completely, grabbed the white silk ribbon from the ground, and wrapped it around the necks of the two eunuchs, strangling them to death in a few breaths. Then, she carried the ribbon towards Granny Wen.
Granny Wen crawled forward desperately. Fearing she might scratch herself in her struggle, Mo Yun swiftly dislocated Granny Wen's arms and broke her other leg. Only then did she wrap the white silk around Granny Wen's neck. Granny Wen glared at her, unable to utter a curse, and could only plead with difficulty, "Don't...kill...me..."
"We're on different sides. It's either you or me. You've been talking too much nonsense." Mo Yun tightened the white silk ribbon without expression, and soon, Granny Wen was lifeless.
Mo Yun carefully examined the scene, confirming that everyone present was dead. She then threw the palace maid who had been stabbed to death with a silver hairpin and the two eunuchs who had been poisoned into the well, creating the illusion that they had been disposed of by Granny Wen. Then she took out a personal item belonging to one of the emperor's trusted guards and placed it in Granny Wen's hand, instructing her to hold it tightly.
Afterwards, she cleaned up the traces around her, put her silver hairpin and pearl flowers back on, tidied her somewhat disheveled clothes and hair, looked around, quickly moved through the night, found a pond to wash the bloodstains on her hands and clothes, and quietly returned to her room.
While the others waited fearfully for Granny Wen to deal with the people, she returned to her room and locked it without being noticed by anyone. No one even knew that she had been taken away. She had already been ordered back to her room by Granny Wen during the day and hadn't witnessed anything involving the Empress Dowager or the Emperor. In everyone's eyes, she was someone who wouldn't leak information and wouldn't be punished, so she was naturally without suspicion.
As Mo Yun undressed and hung up her clothes, she reviewed the day's events three times, making sure every step was correct before finally lying down on the bed. She silently counted the names of the Empress Dowager and the Emperor's trusted confidants, removed a few, adjusted her plans, and then peacefully fell asleep. She was probably the only person in the entire Anci Palace who slept well.
The Empress Dowager had barely slept all night, and at the crack of dawn, she couldn't resist getting up. After washing up, she still hadn't seen Granny Wen, and she grew somewhat displeased. She ordered a maid to fetch Granny Wen, but the maid couldn't find her anywhere. The Empress Dowager assumed Granny Wen was out running some errand and hadn't finished, and was dissatisfied with her competence. After waiting another quarter of an hour, she grew impatient and ordered someone to immediately find Granny Wen and bring her back to report.
This time, the palace servants realized something was wrong. Not only was Granny Wen missing, but six of her trusted servants were also gone—this was very strange. A senior palace maid serving the Empress Dowager knew that Granny Wen always disposed of people in abandoned courtyards, so she sent many people to search each courtyard. A quarter of an hour later, the people she sent out ran back in a panic, telling her that Granny Wen was dead, and there were two dead eunuchs beside her. In a dry well there were more than a dozen corpses, all from their Anci Palace!
The head palace maid went to confirm it was indeed Granny Wen before nervously reporting to the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager was stunned upon hearing this, "What did you say? Granny Wen is dead?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, I saw it with my own eyes. Granny Wen... was strangled to death with a white silk ribbon."
The Empress Dowager found it absurd. Granny Wen had been by her side since childhood; they had grown up together, Granny Wen had risen from a lowly maid to a senior palace maid and then to a nanny. Just yesterday she had asked Granny Wen to do some errands for her, so how could she be saying today that Granny Wen was dead? And strangled to death? Who would dare strangle Granny Wen? She was one of her people; even princes and ministers had to give Granny Wen some respect!
Suddenly, the scene of arguing with the emperor yesterday flashed through her mind. At that time, the emperor glared at Wen Mama and called her a dog servant. Later, he was extremely dissatisfied with her for beating and killing his servant. Could it be... could it be that the emperor was retaliating and killed Wen Mama to vent his anger?
The Empress Dowager slowly stood up, propping herself up on the table. She straightened her back and said coldly, "Prepare for the carriage. I want to see for myself who has the audacity to touch my people!"
"Yes, Your Majesty."
The palace servants immediately made arrangements, and the Empress Dowager and her entourage went to the abandoned courtyard. The surroundings were very quiet, and there was nothing unusual about the ground; there was no indication that a murder had occurred there. However, when they reached the vicinity of the dry well, there were some bloodstains on the ground, and Granny Wen and two eunuchs were lying not far from the well, with a white silk ribbon wrapped around Granny Wen's neck.
Only then did the Empress Dowager believe that Granny Wen was truly dead. Her vision blurred, and she swayed dizzily. Mo Yun and the other three head palace maids quickly supported her. She stared intently at Granny Wen's corpse, her voice as cold as ice, "Investigate! Investigate thoroughly for me!"