frightfiction Chapter 1733 Does Your Majesty Understand What Love Is?
Chapter 1733 Does Your Majesty Understand What Love Is?
"This is a matter of course, a matter of basic social order!"
"How dare you compare His Majesty to a lewd monk? This is utterly outrageous and treasonous!"
Li Changde's angry shout was like a raging storm!
However, where would Chiang Ching-kuo be afraid of these things?
Li Changde's angry rebuke not only failed to intimidate her, but instead ignited the resentment that had been building up in her heart: "Hahaha... It's only natural? Supreme glory?"
“Eunuch Li, you eunuchs have no one to rely on, so of course you can only regard His Majesty as a god.”
"I am the daughter of a fifth-rank official, and according to the rules of the Great Zhou Dynasty, I have no choice but to participate in the imperial concubine selection. The imperial palace is magnificent and a place that women from all over the world would fight tooth and nail to enter, but so what?"
"His Majesty has my body, but he will never have my heart! No... he hasn't even had my body. Hahaha..."
"You guessed right, my virginity was given to Xingchen in that room long ago!"
Li Changde pointed at Jiang Changzai, trembling with rage: "You! You are simply..."
He couldn't find the right words to describe Chiang Ching-kuo's shocking and filthy remarks.
"What am I? Shameless? Deserving of death?"
Jiang Changzai interrupted, mocking, "Say whatever you want!"
"Since things have come to this, I'm doomed anyway!"
Li Changde has seen far too many prisoners wailing and begging for mercy, or gritting their teeth and enduring it all.
I have also seen the resentful or sorrowful tears of concubines in the harem after they lost power.
But he had never seen a woman like Jiang who could so brazenly justify having an affair.
Imperial power, etiquette, family honor and disgrace, personal life and death... all these are as light as a feather in the face of her logic that cannot be brought to light.
Li Changde stared directly into Jiang Changzai's eyes and said sarcastically, "Jiang, I'd like to ask you a question: when you did this, did you ever think about the entire Jiang family?"
Jiang Changzai's expression froze.
Li Changde continued, “As a palace concubine selected to serve the emperor, you should have brought glory to your family. However, you had an affair with a lewd monk, defiling the palace. According to the laws of the Great Zhou Dynasty, this is a crime punishable by the execution of your entire family!”
"Your father served as an official for many years, and was cautious and meticulous. Your mother came from a scholarly family and was gentle and virtuous. Although the Jiang family was not a prominent family, it was a family that valued poetry and propriety, and had a good reputation..."
With each word Li Changde spoke, Jiang Changzai's expression grew increasingly grim.
"When you and Xingchen were having an affair in that filthy room, did you ever think of them even a little bit when you uttered those outrageous words today?!"
Jiang Changzai's eyes flickered.
A young girl, experiencing the first stirrings of love, encounters a man like Xingchen—a man detached from worldly affairs, gentle and understanding, yet possessing a forbidden allure.
Her whole heart was filled with an intense emotion she had never experienced before!
Her heart and eyes were filled with his features, his words, and the warmth of his hands.
The brief intimacy they shared in the private room was enough to burn away all her reason...
Parents, family, reputation, future...
At that moment, all these things became distant and blurry, even becoming a constraint on her journey to true love.
Or rather, Jiang Changzai did consider the consequences if this matter were exposed, but she simply couldn't care less.
For some women who are deeply immersed in romantic love, the security and affection provided by their parents' years of pampering and careful upbringing sometimes cannot compare to a few seemingly affectionate words of concern from a man they have only known for a short time.
At this moment, Li Changde asked her so directly. Jiang Changzai's mind finally resurfaced with those images she had deliberately forgotten—
The father was stern, but occasionally his eyes revealed concern.
Her mother's gentle hands combed her hair and adorned her with flowers.
The incense smoke curls up in the ancestral hall.
On the eve of her departure for the palace, her mother held her hand, her eyes filled with tears as she gave her heartfelt advice, her voice brimming with reluctance...
Jiang Changzai had to face reality.
What will become of her loved ones after this incident?
Imprisoned, executed in blood.
Their home was seized, their reputation ruined, and their clan disgraced.
Jiang Changzai bit her lip hard, tears streaming down her face...
She not only risked her own life, but also dragged her entire family and all her loved ones who raised her into an abyss of no return!
Looking at Jiang Changzai's tearful appearance, Li Changde's contempt deepened.
I knew this, why should I be at the beginning?
How foolish and selfish Chiang Kai-shek was in his pursuit of so-called true feelings!
"Now you're scared? Thinking of your parents? Too late!"
Even so, Chiang Chang-tsai could not possibly admit that he was wrong.
Because... if she bowed her head and admitted her mistakes, confessing her foolishness, then everything she did with Xingchen would be a sin, a mistake...
Then, wouldn't her sacrifice of her innocence, even involving her family, become a complete joke?
This is even more unacceptable to her than being killed!
Her true love for Xingchen must transcend family, imperial power, and the laws of etiquette!
Only in this way will the suffering she endured and all the price she paid have meaning.
She was martyred for true love that was not understood by the world, not a sinner who brought shame upon her family.
Jiang Changzai stared at Li Changde, his eyes bloodshot: "What wrong have I done? What wrong has true feeling done?!"
"Does His Majesty even know what love is? All he cares about is his empire and power. The women in his harem are nothing more than tools for him to satisfy his desires and procreate. Who has he ever given his heart to? Are they even worthy of talking about love?"
"As for you... Eunuch Li. A eunuch, something that has been cut off from its root, you understand even less!"
“You eunuchs only know how to kneel on the ground and lick His Majesty’s boots.”
"The true love between Xingchen and me sounds ridiculous, rebellious, and dirty to you, because you have long lost all humanity in your hearts!"
You don't deserve to understand true love!
Li Changde almost laughed when he heard Jiang Changzai's crazy words: "Are you saying that the relationship between you and Xingchen is a true love that cannot be tolerated by the world?"
"Did that lecherous monk once tell you that you were his only attachment in the mortal world, the guiding light illuminating his desolate Zen mind?"
"Did I tell you that your meeting with him was guided by Buddha in the unseen realm?"
"Is your destiny to settle your past ties and continue your karmic connections?"
Jiang Changzai was stunned as he listened, his pupils shrinking slightly.
These were whispered words Xingchen murmured in her ear as he held her. How could Li Changde possibly know them?!
Xingchen would rather die than betray her, so how could she possibly reveal their intimate words to Li Changde?!
Jiang Changzai pressed anxiously, "How...how did you know?!"
"Where did you hear these things?!"
Li Changde sneered, "Jiang, do you still remember Chu and Feng, who were pregnant with the 'dragon's child' before?"
"Let me tell you the truth, they were executed by imperial decree. Because, like you, they both had affairs with the lecherous monk Xingchen and even became pregnant with his illegitimate children!"
He hadn't told Jiang about these things before because he wasn't sure if Jiang was really having an affair with Xingchen.