Different Paths for a Salted Fish

Chapter 99

It was the first time people had seen Chancellor Jiang lose his temper with the young emperor, and it had even alarmed Yang Empress Dowager.

The palace servants knelt in a dark, sprawling mass. One after another, people were dragged away, their mouths stuffed with cloth before they could cry out. Amid muffled strikes, limp bodies were dragged across the blue bricks, leaving bloody streaks that would not wash away.

Everyone trembled, terrified that the flames would spread to them.

Jiang Yan was a jade-faced demon. He looked like a dignified gentleman, but in truth, he was ruthless and unscrupulous.

Could the emperor be replaced again? The bold thought sprang into some people's minds. It was not groundless speculation. There had been precedent in the previous dynasty. When Empress Dowager Lü held power, she had replaced several child emperors, and not a single one of them had lived a good life afterward.

"Chancellor Jiang, what is going on here?" Yang Grand Empress Dowager arrived surrounded by palace maids. She turned a blind eye to the blood on the ground. Even when her skirt hem was stained red, while the palace maids accompanying her went pale, her expression barely changed.

She had been like this ever since her husband passed away—still as dead water, without a ripple. Even when her own son died, she had not seemed particularly grief-stricken.

Jiang Hansheng wore his court robes, the embroidered birds and beasts upon them looking somewhat ferocious in that moment. He stood in the shadows, only turning around when he heard Yang Grand Empress Dowager's voice. Upon closer inspection, he was holding a tabby cat in his arms.

Had this scene taken place at night, it would surely have scared someone half to death. Chancellor Jiang's expression was like that of