Chapter 953: “Retribution (1)”
Fan Jin was feeling happy seeing that they were about to return to the Zephyr Academy but he was suddenly informed by Fan Zhuo that they would be not able to go back together with him. Fan Jin merely smiled and did not say much but only to remind Fan Zhuo to take good care of himself.
After Qu Ling Yue and Xiong Ba received a definitive answer, they returned to the inn they were staying at to get themselves prepared.
When Fan Jin was to set forth on the return journey towards the Zephyr Academy alone, he bade farewell to Jun Wu Xie and the others and got into the horse carriage. He stared at the several attractive looking faces and a bitterness surfaced beneath his smile. He knew deep down that he was different from all the companions afterall.
He gathered his emotions to compose himself and pulled himself together. He was determined to get the Zephyr Academy back on track and to be better than it had been before when Fan Zhuo returned, in order to not shame his little brother!
Two of the horse carriages from the Zephyr Academy convoy remained behind. There had only been three of them when they came here and only one departed from the place alone now.
Lei Chen was persistently trying to get Jun Xie to talk to him at the Immortals’ Loft but he was repeatedly snubbed and ignored, making Lei Chen so frustrated he almost wanted to scratch his nails against the walls!
That very afternoon, the Emperor announced his abdication from the throne and that news brought the entire Imperial City to a boil. Everyone was suddenly talking about it but no one knew exactly what had really happened. They were not even made aware of who would be inheriting the Emperor’s throne after the abdication.
Some guessed that it would be the Crown Prince Lei Chen who would take up the mantle, while another group were speculating that a higher possibility would be the Fourth Prince Lei Fan.
And while the people were still shock at the sudden announcement of the Emperor’s abdication, more explosive news suddenly rocked the entire city!
The Fire Country’s Empress had engaged in an illicit affair with the Prime Minister and secretly murdered the real Fourth Prince, switching him out with the illegitimate child they had conceived! And the Emperor had been kept in the dark about it for more than a decade!
The Fourth Prince who had been most favoured and doted upon, was in reality a bastard child! ?
That piece of news threw the people into a greater state of shock!
The three people were executed that very same evening and just before the execution, they were paraded through the public streets in shame!
When the common people of the saw Lei Fan’s true countenance which looked very much like the Empress and the Prime Minister, they were immediately convinced of the truth!
Under the loud and raucous jeers and admonishments as they passed through the streets, the Imperial Guards escorted the horse carts holding the Empress, Prime Minister and Lei Fan captive. The people lined along the streets were enraged and they began to throw whatever they held in the hands at the shameless and despicable criminals!
The Empress who once ruled the interior Palaces was at that moment looking haggard and wretched, dressed in the plain white clothes of a prisoner, which was soon dirtied and stained by all the things thrown at them by the people.
The Prime Minister who once stood tall above all but one man was now standing shackled and locked within the prisoner’s cart, his eyes tightly shut in despair.
The once most favoured and doted upon Fourth Prince Lei Fan, stood staring unseeingly straight ahead, his forehead bleeding from a stone that had been thrown at him. The bright red blood flowed down his temple and down his cheek, but he did not give the slightest reaction, looking like he had completely lost his mind, his dull eyes staring blankly.
The nobility and glory they once enjoyed was now non existent, and the only thing that awaited them was death.
The dull and lifeless Lei Fan suddenly lifted his head as they passed the Immortal’s Loft. He suddenly spotted a face of the demon that plagued his nightmares by a window on the second floor of the Immortals’ Loft, and his numb and blank face suddenly twisted up to show an expression of extreme terror!
Everything that he had possessed had been torn asunder by that demon! If he had not met this demon….. If they had not met, then none of this would have happened!
Jun Wu Xie sat by the window on the second floor of the Immortals’ Loft as she watched the crowd of people pass by below. While Lei Fan stared at her, she merely looked at him calmly, just like all of this had nothing to do with her in the least.
Good and evil, retribution catches up.
If the Heavens has not yet dealt out retribution, then she did not mind lending a hand on its behalf!