Chapter 178: Everything, From Beginning to End.

Chapter 178: Everything, from start to finish...

Like a thunderbolt striking through silence, Huo Ling's footsteps halted.

Just for an instant.

The moment Ji Xianshan's words fell, Huo Ling's gaze changed.

Ji Xianshan struggled for breath; those simple words had taken a lifetime's worth of strength.

Watching Huo Ling's suddenly rigid back, Ji Xianshan only then realized what he had just said.

He had done the worst, most foolish thing.

It wasn't charging recklessly to Shouning Palace to confront the Empress Dowager after hearing that Mandate of Heaven Prophecy.

No—it was unearthing a secret that should have been buried forever.

And blurting it out at the worst possible moment.

Outside the window, the storm raged harder. Inside the grand hall, only heavy panting and the rhythmic dripping of the palace water clock echoed.

"Your Majesty."

Huo Ling's voice was gentle and restrained: "What are you saying? I'm not quite following."

She turned around, a smile on her lips that never reached her eyes.

"Such a deadly matter—how could you speak so carelessly? Even if you're acting out with me, there should be limits."

Regret had already flickered in Ji Xianshan's heart. Yet when he met Huo Ling's completely humorless eyes and saw the wariness and vigilance in her eyes, that regret disappeared completely.

He knew the Empress Dowager too well.

He had sat beside her countless times, watching her outmaneuver court officials.

So many subtle habits—ones even she might not have noticed—were burned into his memory.

"Does the Empress Dowager not believe me?"

Ji Xianshan said: "Or do you suspect I'm trying to trick you into confessing?"

Huo Ling pretended not to understand: "When your grandfather passed, didn't you visit the Huo residence and learn all the details of his death? How could you suddenly say such things?"

She slowly took a step down: "Have you heard some baseless rumors somewhere? Has someone been feeding you lies?"

Seeing his mother finally lose her composed, cool demeanor, Ji Xianshan shook with laughter.

This was how it should be.

In this confrontation, why was he the only one in pain? The only one falling apart?

When he was already suffering so much, the way his mother looked at him seemed to say, "Must you be so naive, so childish?"

As the nominal emperor, all military and political power in the court was firmly held by his mother—he couldn't defy her will.

As her biological son, she could question his filial devotion.

He was completely helpless against his mother, the Empress Dowager.

But Ji Xianshan had always known—he still held the sharpest blade in his hand.

A blade that cuts both ways, one that would ensure mutual destruction once unleashed.

He had never intended to use it before, wishing only for it to remain buried in the past as a secret lost to time. But—

But—

Swept up in emotion, he could no longer restrain himself.

Now that the words were out, the secret laid bare—there was no undoing it.

Huo Ling waited and waited, but no response came. Finally, she spoke again: "Didn’t you see the reports from the Ministry of Justice and the Shadow Guards too? All these years, haven’t you known I’ve had men scouring the riverbanks for your grandfather’s body?"

Ji Xianshan laughed too wildly. He laughed until he clutched his chest, coughing violently.

When the coughing finally stopped, he rasped, "The Ministry of Justice, the Shadow Guards—they are all under your control. You can manufacture whatever truth you want. The so-called findings were just a cover-up to hush the people’s gossip. Otherwise, how else could the Empress Dowager explain the sudden death of a nation’s Duke of Chengen after attending the New Year’s Eve banquet?"

"Vanishing without a trace—that was the cleanest solution."

Huo Ling had thought Ji Xianshan was lying, but hearing his certainty, doubt began to gnaw at her.

Her hands, tucked in her wide sleeves, curled slowly into fists, her fingertips whitening from the pressure. Pain shot through her fingers as she pushed on.

"Before the Duke of Chengen’s accident, he had written me a ten-thousand-word apology. Only because he seemed truly remorseful did I lift his confinement and allowed him to attend the palace banquet for a family reunion."

Ji Xianshan had exhausted every ounce of his strength. He abandoned all dignity, crumpling to the floor, his once-straight spine now hunched under the weight.

"Before, the Empress Dowager called it a confession, not repentance. There’s a world of difference between confession and repentance."

He licked his cracked lips.

"I know what you want to say. You’re thinking—how could his own child, who’d made peace with him, have any motive to murder him?"

He lifted his head, his eyes bloodshot.

"New Year’s Eve. The Cold Palace. Poison. A bowstring."

With each word Ji Xianshan uttered, Huo Ling’s expression grew colder.

"The Duke swore he loved me, yet now he wanted me dead. Now that I turn on him, you doubt if I ever truly cared—"

"Enough."

"And the Duke of Chengen’s last words were—'Killing mother and father—a monster without mercy—'"

"I said enough!"

Huo Ling’s voice turned sharp. "Emperor! Do you not hear me?"

Ji Xianshan fell silent.

Huo Ling’s mind flashed back to that bloody New Year’s Eve.

It never crossed her mind—her child had been there too.

"...Where were you hiding that night?"

"From behind the screen."

"...How much did you hear?"

"Everything."

"Everything?"

"From beginning to end."

Huo Ling abruptly looked up, her expression toward Ji Xianshan full of disbelief, as if meeting him for the first time.

Everything. From beginning to end. Eight years—eight whole years. This secret, he had actually kept hidden for eight whole years.

*"Killing your mother and father, utterly ruthless—Huo Ling, you deserve to be betrayed by your own kin in this life."*

Huo Shiming's dying curse still echoed in her ears.

After eight years, the truth had become a deadly blade, wielded by her own child to destroy them both.

Huo Ling wanted to say something, but her throat felt as though it were stuffed with cotton, rendering her unable to utter a sound.

Her lips trembled faintly, and then that slight tremor gradually spread to her fingers, until finally, it took over her entire body.

Instinctively, Huo Ling took a step back—only to forget that the staircase was right behind her. She stumbled over the edge and crashed down onto the stone steps.

"Before he died, he wore a strange smile..."

"His final look... was directed at me."

Understanding dawned on Huo Ling as a lone tear traced down her cheek. "So that explains it."