Wolf King And His Fox Consort

Chu Yun's heart hammered wildly inside his chest.

What was the Queen Dowager going to say? She was even more unpredictable than her son. 

Chu Yun never knew where he stood with her, whether she was an ally or a foe. She never made her allegiances explicit. 

For the first time since he had walked into the throne room Chu Yun felt trepidation. But all he could do was wait. He pulled the tiger fur cloak tighter around his throat and looked up at the Queen in tense anticipation.

At his side, Xiao Zai took a step closer to him, wanting to present an united front.

The Queen Dowager was in no hurry to explain herself. Her lined face looked remorseful, but not sad. 

The only person who seemed more apprehensive than Chu Yun was the King, whose fingers tightened on the smooth end of the throne's armrests until his knuckles turned white.

"Mother-," he whispered, not looking around to face her.

The Queen Dowager ignored him.

"A mother always thinks the best of her children. And sometimes can even convince herself that her eyes deceive her." She sighed deeply, shaking her head. "However, in light of today's tragic revelations, I can no longer remain wilfully ignorant. I have to admit to myself, and to all of you, what I saw, more than four decades ago, on the day the late King's soul left for the underworld."

Her words fell on the room like a hammer, rending everyone mute. Xiao Zai exchanged a wide-eyed look with Chu Yun. But Chu Yun quickly shifted his eyes back towards the dais and the Queen Dowager, who despite her slim stature and advanced age, commanded everyone's attention.

The King looked so pale it seemed he had seen the ghost of his aforementioned late father.

It was the look on his face that made Chu Yun finally relax his shoulders. The King knew exactly what the Queen Mother was talking about, and it scared him to death.

One of the ministers could no longer hold back his excitement and blurted out, "What did her Royal Highness witness?"

The Queen Dowager raised a trembling hand to her chest and sighed deeply. "Something I've spent my entire life trying to forget."

Chu Yun had to give it to her, for a woman with such an imposing aura, and an indomitable steel resolve, she played the frail old lady very convincingly.

"Mother, please," the King whispered, turning around in the throne to try and touch his mother's hand. But she pulled her fingers away from him as if scalded, holding the hand he'd touched to her chest as if cradling an injury.

Ignoring him, she continued to spin her tale. "As everyone surely remembers, our late King suffered a sudden illness and was bedridden for weeks, before his untimely death."

Everyone who was old enough to remember nodded gravely. The King looked desperate.

Chu Yun only realised he was holding his breath when it left him all at once.

"On the night of his death, I was keeping vigil, and praying for his quick return like all the days before. I must have fallen asleep..." Her lips trembled and she looked away to the side, ashamed of revealing the depth of her emotions in front of these people.

A quick look at their audience told Chu Yun her performance was very convincing. 

"I woke up with a start, and found my-- my son, bent over his father, with a small brocade pillow in his hands."

The collective gasp of shocked disbelief was like a downpour hitting a tiled roof all at once, making the entire building shake with the vibrations.

The King shot up from the throne and faced his mother with a look of total betrayal. "That's not how it happened, royal mother knows that!"

Much like the unwise Peng Rui, the King was letting his emotions get the best of him, and incriminating himself in the process.

He tried to reach for his mother who turned away from him with a watery sob, unable to stand the sight of him. Had it been happening to any other person, Chu Yun would feel terrible for the cold dismissal.

"Stop, just stop," she said with a sigh, still not looking at him. "On that day you told me you were just trying to make your father more comfortable on the bed, but when I got up to kiss his forehead he was still as stone!" Her tone was accusing, filled with recrimination. "All these years, I've told myself I was mistaken, that it was merely a coincidence, and my dear son was really just taking care of his ailing father. But I can't continue being blind, not after what happened today."

The glint in the Queen Dowager's eyes told Chu Yun she'd been waiting for this day all her life. The King must have been little more than a boy then, and she had been planning his downfall even then. 

"I did it for you! Mother asked me to kill him!" the King advanced towards his mother with reaching hands even as she kept backing away from him. "I did it for mother!"

The Queen Dowager shook her head firmly. "You are sick, and I've been remiss in my duties as both a mother and Queen Dowager."

At this point the ministers and officers were all talking over each other, no better than clucking hens as they shouted for the King's immediate arrest, and bemoaned the terrible crime he had committed.

For a son to kill his father was an unforgivable sin. 

The King didn't seem to care for any of it. He had been shattered at his mother's betrayal. There was nothing behind his eyes except a glassy emptiness. 

Chu Yun still had the assassination contract from Harmonious Resonance -- how he got hold of it would raise a lot of uncomfortable questions, after the dust settled down, but now he was sure he wouldn't need to use it.

The King was no more.. Now he was just Xiao An, reduced once more to a little boy reaching for his mother's skirts, who turned her back on him for the last time.