A Scummy Alpha Emperor Transmigrated and Marked the Powerful Prime Minister - Chapter 4

The sudden turn of events left everyone stunned.

The Empress Dowager, shielded by a swarm of eunuchs and maids, quickly retreated into the safety of the palace hall. At the same time, guards from outside Daming Palace swarmed in like a hornet’s nest.

Lin Jiayue’s hand trembled; the pain was so intense she immediately let go of the dagger, before lashing out with a kick that sent the assassin flying.

Lu Siling stood up in shock, but her body was too weak, and she collapsed back into her seat. She hadn’t expected Lin Jiayue to grab the blade, nor had she expected her to be able to kick the assassin away with such force.

“Your Majesty! Protect the Emperor! There’s an assassin!”

Wei Jinming let out a sharp scream and threw herself in front of Lin Jiayue, shielding her like a mother hen protecting its chick. “Seize him! Quickly, seize him!”

“The tyrant is devoid of virtue! Corrupt officials rule the court! Great Zhou is doomed!” the assassin roared, painting himself as a righteous warrior before being tackled and gagged by the guards.

Lin Jiayue was in so much pain she couldn’t even roll her eyes. She couldn’t resist giving Wei Jinming’s calf a sharp nudge with her foot.

“Dammit! Look after me!“

Wei Jinming finally snapped to her senses. “The physicians! Summon every physician from the Imperial Academy!” After shouting the order, she hurriedly checked on her. “Your Majesty, let this servant help you inside.”

The scene was a complete mess. The terrified Empress Dowager had already vanished into the inner halls. Lu Siling, supported by Guang Wei, followed the crowd into the hall. When an Emperor is assassinated, the Grand Chancellor must be present as long as they are still breathing. If the blade was poisoned and Lin Jiayue died, she would have to handle the aftermath.

If she lived, she would avenge Lin Jiayue, and their debts would be settled. But she would still never forgive Lin Jiayue for poisoning and violating her.

As Lin Jiayue walked in, enduring the throbbing pain, she felt a sudden intuition and glanced back. At that moment, Lu Siling was looking down to step over the threshold and didn’t notice. Guang Wei saw it, however, and whispered, “My Lady, the Emperor is looking at you.”

Lu Siling looked up to see Lin Jiayue already seated on the Luohan bed, appearing relatively composed. But the image of the young Emperor—clearly terrified, yet resolutely grabbing the dagger—remained etched in her mind. For a moment, her thoughts were a tangled mess.

By now, Lin Jiayue had wrapped her palm in the sleeve of her inner robe. She sniffed the scent of the blood; there was no strange odor, and the color hadn’t changed. She checked her body carefully and felt no unusual symptoms. It seemed she had overthought it—it wasn’t that easy to procure rare poisons within the high walls of the imperial palace.

Lin Jiayue selected a powder from the medical chest and poured it onto the wound. Empress Dowager Cui spoke up insincerely from the side, “Your Majesty, don’t just use any medicine. Wait for the physicians.” She then barked at Wei Jinming, “What is wrong with you? Can’t you see the Emperor is bleeding?”

Despite her words, the Empress Dowager secretly wished Lin Jiayue would bleed to death—or better yet, that the blade was poisoned.

Lin Jiayue frowned. The pain in her palm left her with no energy to deal with these theatrics, and cold sweat beaded on her forehead. When the blade had sliced her palm, she had experienced a brief moment of numbness before the agonizing, unbearable stinging set in. Even with the powder, her hand wouldn’t stop shaking.

If there weren’t so many people around, she would have been groaning on the bed for hours. In her previous life, the only thing that compared was her appendicitis. Fortunately, the powder had a mild analgesic effect; it hurt, but it was manageable.

Lu Siling interrupted the Empress Dowager’s impending lecture with cold impatience. “An assassination attempt within the imperial palace… Summon the Commander of the Forbidden Army and the Commander of the Imperial City Guard immediately.”

The palace had two protective agencies. Beyond protection, the Imperial City Guard handled investigations and arrests, while the Forbidden Army guarded the palace, with its elites serving as the Emperor’s personal detail. With an assassination occurring, neither commander would escape accountability.

“But the assassin was a eunuch,” the Empress Dowager stated coldly from the head seat. The mastermind might be unknown for now, but the fact that there was a traitor among the inner eunuchs was an established fact.

Wei Jinming’s expression froze. This was aimed at her. She managed the eunuchs and maids of Daming Palace; if there was a mole, the blame would fall squarely on her. She looked up at the young Emperor, who was silently pressing a silk handkerchief to her wound with a dark expression. An injury to the Dragon Body was a monumental event, yet she was the only one who seemed genuinely concerned. The Empress Dowager was clearly eager to use this incident to achieve her own ends.

Wei Jinming had been a princely eunuch who followed Lin Jiayue since childhood. After the coronation, she became the head of the Daming Palace eunuchs. If the assassin had come from outside, the Forbidden Army and City Guard would be at fault—but the assassin was an internal eunuch.

Wei Jinming immediately knelt, slamming her head against the floor repeatedly until her forehead was bloodied. The dull thuds echoed in Lin Jiayue’s ears. Wei Jinming kowtowed so fast she couldn’t react; by the time she looked over, the floor was stained with blood.

“Enough!”

The moment she spoke, Wei Jinming stopped, knowing the Emperor was giving her a chance to explain. “This servant was negligent and allowed a villain to find an opening. I have failed Your Majesty’s trust and deserve ten thousand deaths. However… the eunuch Wang Ergou is the nephew of Chief Eunuch Wang Duoshi from the Palace of Longevity and Peace. He was recommended by him. This servant believed any person recommended by Eunuch Wang would be upright, which led to this grave mistake.”

Impressive, Lin Jiayue thought. Without even mentioning the Empress Dowager, she had successfully splashed the dirty water onto her. Since the recommendation came from the Empress Dowager’s head eunuch, Wei Jinming hadn’t dared to refuse him a spot as a palanquin-bearer—a position that allowed contact with the Emperor and the potential for a sudden rise in status.

In the original owner’s memories, female Alphas who had their glands removed became inner eunuchs, while male Alphas underwent full castration. Male Betas were similar to the eunuchs she knew from history. Female Omegas and Betas were the court officials and palace maids. Alphas and Omegas could both serve as officials regardless of gender, but since Omegas were rarer, those selected for the palace started as female officials of the ninth rank. Without connections, a common eunuch couldn’t even get through the doors of Daming Palace.

Lu Siling glanced at Lin Jiayue; it seemed she was one to protect her own. Wei Jinming wasn’t bad either, seizing the moment to defend herself. If she was guilty of negligence, then the one who recommended the assassin deserved to die. The Empress Dowager wouldn’t be able to detach herself from this—the world would assume she had plotted the assassination.

The Empress Dowager hadn’t expected the fire to spread to her. She wouldn’t have piped up if she’d known. She glared at Wang Duoshi, who immediately knelt and began slapping his own face.

With every slap, he offered an explanation: “Empress Dowager, Your Majesty, this servant truly didn’t know! We only share a surname; we have no real relation! Ergou found me looking for work, and I took pity on him and agreed.” Wang Duoshi hit himself hard, his face swelling instantly. Until the Emperor or Empress Dowager told him to stop, he had to keep going.

Empress Dowager Cui eventually couldn’t bear to let her loyal old servant continue. If the Emperor could speak for her people, she couldn’t remain silent. “Enough.” She waved him off and turned her fury toward the others. “Where are the physicians? Why aren’t they here yet? Can’t you see the Emperor is injured?”

Finally, you notice, Lin Jiayue thought, feeling like she was watching a top-tier drama. The Empress Dowager had arrived ready to “clean up the mess” and take control, meaning she had known Lu Siling was injured and had rushed over the moment she heard it was just a “fall.” Physician Zhang was clearly her spy.

Just then, Physician Zhang—who had been called back before he’d even reached the medical academy—ran in panting. The moment he saw the Emperor’s bleeding hand, his heart skipped a beat. An assassination attempt on the sovereign… a storm was coming to the capital.

“Zhang Henyi, treat the Emperor immediately.”

Zhang Henyi knelt before Lin Jiayue and gently removed the handkerchief. Lin Jiayue glanced at the still-kneeling Wei Jinming. “Wei Jinming, sit.”

Wei Jinming wiped the blood from her face and gave the young Emperor a look of profound gratitude before rising. “Understood.”

The Emperor was clearly using the opportunity to let her stand up. Wei Jinming felt a pang of guilt; over the years, she had become greedy and lost the loyalty she’d had back at the prince’s estate—yet when trouble struck, the Emperor still protected her. Out of everyone in the palace, the Emperor had chosen to save her. She was truly valued. She wiped her face again, but this time it wasn’t blood—it was tears.

Lu Siling watched the scene with a cold sneer in her heart. She certainly knows how to win people over.

Lin Jiayue happened to catch Lu Siling’s eyes—filled with coldness, ferocity, and mockery. Her hand twitched involuntarily, scaring Zhang Henyi into kneeling again. “This official was too heavy-handed. Please forgive me, Your Majesty.”

“It’s fine.” The twitch had caused a new wave of pain, but she endured it.

Zhang Henyi looked at the powder on her wound in surprise. “Does Your Majesty understand medicine?” The moment the question left his lips, he broke into a cold sweat. How could he interrogate the Emperor?

“A little.”

Lin Jiayue’s gentle voice made Zhang Henyi breathe a sigh of relief. He was the Empress Dowager’s man, but as a physician, he couldn’t afford to offend the Emperor.

Lu Siling thought back to that box of powder. The young Emperor knows medicine? The Emperor’s changes today were truly vast. Hmph! Scum is scum; whether she changes or not, she can’t hide her nature. Grabbing that blade was probably for some ulterior motive.

But could Lin Jiayue’s reaction time really be that fast in the heat of the moment? Lu Siling recalled the single tear that fell from Lin Jiayue’s eye as she grabbed the blade. The young Emperor is a better actor than I thought. To have worn a mask for so many years, her ambitions must be massive.

The lingering sting on her own neck served as a reminder of what had happened yesterday. Lin Jiayue… deserved to die.