Chapter 28
Everyone was served a cup of wine, well everyone except for Yang. He got non-alcoholic wine. Jun got up and made a toast to everyone within the hall. Everyone got up and received the toast and drowned their cup of wine in one go.
"It is truly an honour to be able to make such an alliance with you all", Jun said as he sat back down locked his hands with Yang, who seemed to be actin strange ever since the guest came in. Jun assumed that it might be because it was the baby kicking or something but when he had asked Yang, he said the baby wasn't it.
Yang himself didn't know why but he had a bad feeling. Ever since everyone came in one by one, he suddenly got this weird gut feeling that just didn't seem to go away. He felt like something bad was going to happen, but he didn't tell Jun in case it causes problems with the guests.
Yang told Jun that he was feeling tired and that he was going to leave so he can rest, Jun didn't force him to stay and told Jing to take care of him and escort him to the bed chamber. While walking there, the bad feeling didn't go away, so Yang asked Jing to tell the guards to be on standby in case someone uninvited comes in.
Jing understood what Yang meant by uninvited guests, assassins. Seeing Yang so worried Jing also felt worried and told some of the imperial guards in the hallway to tell the others to be extra careful and to keep their guards up. After finishing her job, Jing came back and told Yang that everything was done and for him to not stress, as it not good for the baby.
Yang relaxed a little knowing that the guards are warned, and he knew how capable they were so he could pat down the bad feeling he had. Yang was truly tried from walking from the hall back to the bed chamber, he got changed into a simpler robe and decided to take a short nap.
Everything was peaceful, that was until, almost 2 hours later, Yang was woken up by the sound of screaming. Yang quickly opened his eyes and looked around. He felt confused as to why there was screaming being heard, it didn't help much that Jing wasn't in the room. He got up from the bed and steadily walked towards the door, as he walked the screams could be heard dying down, the whole place fell into silence.
The bad feeling, he had while in the hall has come back to him. He didn't know why but he felt scared to open the doors, but he had to see what was going on, he was also worried about his family and Li Jun. Yang's trembling hands reached for the door and slowly opened them. What he saw next make him feel sick to the stomach.
Death bodied and blood everywhere. Yang nearly vomited. Limbs cut off, people with their throats slit and their guts spilling out, it was truly a horrifying scene. What made things worse was that all these people are his own people. Guard, servants and maids, who have been together will him and helping him since the day he got to the palace.
"No, no, what is happening", Yang cried as he went to each person and saw that they were all in fact dead. None of them were breathing.
Yang thought an assassin might have come in and was trying to harm them, he had to find Jun and warn him and the others. As he walked along the hallway, more and more bodies of the workers of the palace could be seen. The sight of all this was straight off from a horror film.
As Yang walked his legs felt weak, looking at the familiar faces of the people, all dead, Yang didn't know how to function. As he carried on walking, he saw something he wished he would never see. The headless body of his mother-in-law, Li Cui Fen and the almost unrecognisable body of his personal maidservant Jing next to her.
Seeing the two closest people to him dead, Yang's legs gave out on him, and he fell to the floor. His heart was beating fast, his body shaking. He was scared and confused. He tried to convince himself that this was all a nightmare and that he needed to wake up. Yang shut his eyes closed and begged to wake, his tears streaming down. The coldness from his tears made him open his eyes as he realised that his was in fact not a nightmare but reality. He looked towards his mother in laws headless body and Jing.
He slowly crawled to his mother in laws body, seeing the jade pendent that she always wore and the coldness of her body, he felt a gut reaching emotion on his lower abdominal area. His tears couldn't stop as he cried silently next to her body, then his eyes fell on Jing.
Her eyes were wide open in shock, her body had multiple slashes on them. Her insides were spilling out, feeling her cold hands, Yang really wished that this was some sick joke being played with him right now, but he knew that a cold dead body never lies. After crying at the death of his mother-in-law and maid servant, Yang softly closed Jing's eyes and gently placed her lying down next to Li Cui Fen.
He was about to get up to look for other when he heard multiple footsteps. He saw that it was people from the Mu Kingdom. Yang felt relieved that there were people still alive. He thought they were here to help find out what was going on.
"Thank lord, you are alive, we need to quickly find out what's going on". Yang said as he got up, ready to find Li Jun. Maybe because he had sat down for a long time, his legs had given out on him, and he was about to fall. Just then two soldiers from the Mu Kingdom, held him up from both sides, preventing him from falling. Yang was relived and thanked them, but they didn't let go of him, instead they started dragging him.
"Hey what are you doing, let go of me", Yang said, as the two men dragged him away. He didn't know why he didn't realise until that these people were giving him a bad feeling. It was the same feeling when the banquet first started and when he opened the door after hearing the screaming.
He didn't say anything, maybe because he had yet to fully understand the situation he was in right now, plus he wasn't sure if Jun was safe or not. For his mother-in-law, the Empress Dowager to be killed like that and Jun not being there to find the culprit, this mean that he was being held up somewhere and he couldn't do anything unless he knew Jun was safe.