My Princess Has Been Reborn

Chapter 130.2 – Shangyuan Lantern Festival (Final Part)

This wasn’t the first time the Emperor and the Crown Prince went up the tower to light a lantern, so the first thing they looked at was not the dragon lantern in front of them.

The two of them stood on Chaoyang Tower and gazed into the distance, the crowd outside the palace being the first thing that caught their eyes. A lot of people came to pay their respects, and the crowd surged forward noisily when the Emperor and the Crown Prince appeared. Then if you looked further, you could see a panoramic view of almost the whole capital…

The Liang State had been enjoying prosperity under the Emperor’s rule, and the capital was filled with song and dance.

The so-called “climbing the tower to view the lanterns” during the Lantern Festival was not just about the dragon lantern, but also to watch the lanterns all over the city. It was a custom to enjoy lanterns during the Lantern Festival, but it wasn’t mandatory for every household to hang lanterns. So with this one glance, you could see a lot of clues.

When the Emperor saw the light all over the city, he knew that the people were prosperous and could afford to light the lanterns. This made him feel somewhat satisfied. Although his health was deteriorating, these were all his achievements… Birth, aging, sickness and death were things beyond his control, but this peaceful and prosperous era would be enough to make his name go down in history, and it was the biggest proof of his life.

With the surge of pride in his heart, the Emperor turned his head around and held his hand out to the Crown Prince, saying, “Give me the torch, I want to light the lantern for the last time!”

The word “last” startled the Crown Prince, and his lips twitched as he hesitated to say something, but he swallowed back his words after seeing the Emperor’s clear gaze. He silently handed him the torch and watched as the Emperor stepped forward carrying it, subconsciously following two steps behind him.

Right at this moment, a gust of cold wind blew past them.

The Crown Prince’s sharp, sword-like brows frowned slightly. Maybe it was just an illusion, but he felt that there was a strange smell in the wind.

The Emperor didn’t notice anything strange. He was filled with emotions and held the torch, moving forward to light the lantern. The moment the torch lit the wick, the Crown Prince finally remembered what the strange smell was – it was the smell of gunpowder!

The Crown Prince was horrified. Looking at the lit wick, he rushed towards the Emperor without even thinking, “Royal Father, be careful!”

With a loud “boom” sound, Chaoyang Tower exploded. The huge dragon lantern was shattered, and a towering flame illuminated the ground and the sky. The bustling palace gate suddenly became quiet, and many people looked up dumbfoundedly, not understanding what had happened.

The world seemed to turn quiet for a moment, then it became filled with even more noise.

The people outside the palace might not yet understand what the ruckus in Chaoyang Tower meant, but they instinctively realized that something big had happened. Everyone liked to watch the excitement, but they didn’t want to get into trouble themselves.

So after a moment of silence, the people outside the palace who came back to their senses lost their excitement and began fleeing in all directions – everyone wanted to leave this place as soon as possible and pushed and bumped into each other, making the scene turn into chaos.

Someone was knocked down and let out a few screams for help, but it was basically impossible to get up again. Pairs of feet fleeing in haste stepped over them, and that person’s voice gradually disappeared.

Even Qi Yang and Lu Qipei who stood at the back and protected by their attendants were almost swept around right now.

Without caring about anything else, Lu Qipei quickly thrusted Lu Sheng into Qi Yang’s arms and extended her arms to protect the two of them. The peach blossom lantern, the rabbit lantern, and the glazed palace lantern were all smashed and trampled over in the commotion.

No one cared about those things, and even Lu Sheng was so scare that she shrank inside Qi Yang’s arms and didn’t dare to move, her small body still slightly trembling.

Lu Qipei protected them and just wanted to take them away to somewhere with less people, but Qi Yang was staring blankly at the fire at Chaoyang Tower, holding Lu Sheng while she subconsciously wanted to rush towards the palace gates. Lu Qipei could hardly hold her back.

“Ah Ning, Ah Ning, calm down! There are too many people, we can’t get through now!” Lu Qipei lost her composure and shouted on Qi Yang’s ear.

The two had already taken off their masks at this moment – those words failed to move Qi Yang, and she still wanted to rush towards the palace gates. There were two lines of tears from her eyes. Although Chaoyang Tower had been dim before, she still saw the Emperor and the Crown Prince there the moment the dragon lantern was lit, standing right next to it. Now that the dragon lantern had exploded and Chaoyang Tower was in flames, it was almost needless to say what would have happened to her father and brother.

She was filled with an unprecedented sense of panic, and right now Qi Yang only wished she had wings to fly towards the palace!

But that was impossible. She didn’t have wings, and there was no way to go forward with the crowd surging before them. She cried as her legs went weak, and she almost dropped down to the ground. But Lu Qipei hugged her and comforted her, saying, “It’s okay, it’s okay. We’ll go there as soon as there are less people.”

But even when they get there, what could they do?

It wasn’t just Qi Yang that panicked, right now, even Lu Qipei was distraught, but she still had to protect Qi Yang and Lu Sheng. Taking another look at the fire raging on Chaoyang Tower, which was clearly in chaos, her mood completely plummeted.

After a while, the Mighty Cavalry battalion arrived with more troops, and the chaos in front of the palace gates were finally brought under control.

Qi Yang and Lu Qipei didn’t have time to look at the tragedy that happened there, and didn’t want to know how many people died in the chaos. The two were escorted by the few remaining attendants and pushed aside the crowd as they rushed towards the palace gates.

On the way, they were stopped once by the people from the Mighty Cavalry battalion, and when they arrived at the palace gates, they were once again stopped by the royal guards. Fortunately, Lu Qipei carried their identity plaques with her, and no one dared to stop them in the chaos. They entered the palace as soon as they could.

After they entered the palace, Qi Yang couldn’t care about anything else. She wiped her tears and ran towards Chaoyang Tower, leaving everyone behind. Lu Qipei was worried that she would no longer be able to take care of Lu Sheng, so she chased after her and followed behind closely.

When the two of them arrived, they saw the Emperor and the Crown Prince being carried down from the tower by the royal guards. Both of them were scorched black, and it wasn’t clear whether they were dead or alive.

Right now, the fire on Chaoyang Tower was still raging, and the kings and princesses had not received the news yet.

Author notes:

Qi Bo & Meng Fei: Make trouble, make trouble, make trouble!!!

I’m back! My SSD died so I had no access to PC for a while, and I had to reinstall everything from scratch since the OS and all my data was on that SSD T_T Things should mostly be back to normal now, so I’ll try to get back to regular update schedule again.

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