Return of the Swallow

Translated by: etvolare

The second consort’s heart skipped a beat when she heard the senior consort’s screeching. She secretly cursed her peer’s stupidity as she hastily pulled herself and her two sons off the palace walls.

Sure enough, the senior consort cursing the goddess as a witch and even a bitch attracted everyone’s ire. An undercurrent of dissatisfaction and rebellious murmuring ran through the crowd.

There were also some who exclaimed in surprise, “The prince is dead?”

The senior consort didn’t care about anything else at the moment. Her ears buzzed loudly and she couldn’t hear what people beneath the walls were saying. All she knew was that her husband was dead and her son naturally to inherit the throne, but some random goddess was saying that the prince had been an imposter!

If Zhou Meng was a fake, wouldn’t that mean her child would never be able to inherit the throne?

She knew that Zhou Meng’s affection for her had faded away long ago, but she didn’t feel all that deeply about him either. Even though the prince was now dead, she didn’t find too much grief in her heart.

But she would never stand for someone stealing her son’s throne and robbing her of the riches and glories that should’ve been hers for the rest of her life!

“You witch, you didn’t come here with good intentions to begin with! I can see through your plan to steal the throne! No one believe this witch! She already killed our prince! You’re out of your mind if you think you can make some random stranger a prince by spewing some drivel!”

The senior consort’s words drew much support, especially from Zhou Meng’s concubines and some of the princes old enough to be eligible for the throne. Fingers wagged indignantly at Qin Yining as agreements with the senior consort took an uglier turn. f𝓇𝘦𝒆𝘄𝑒𝗯𝑛𝗼ѵ𝙚l.𝒄𝘰𝓶

Pang Xiao listened with a frown, but didn’t immediately react as to avoid ruining things. f𝔯𝒆𝚎𝚠𝑒𝚋𝓃૦νℯƖ.co𝘮

Qin Yining looked down expressionlessly at the people. She ignored all of the malicious denouncements and raised her voice to ask them instead, “Do you truly believe I am a fake goddess?”

The crowd was greatly flustered by all the chaos, particularly those standing in the back since they could barely hear what was going on in the front. As such, everyone kept silent.

“Alright then.” Qin Yining nodded. “If the people of Xiyue do not believe the guidance from the heavens, I can only leave with my tribespeople and provisions. But I must warn everyone that he who pretended to be Xiyue’s prince will be punished. He has already been summoned by the gods for his sentencing.

“As for who is to rule Xiyue, since you have decided to follow the fake prince, there is nothing further that I can do. You will be on your own after this.”

She turned around, preparing to leave. Pang Xiao and the troops behind them also shifted to join Qin Yining’s departure.

This shook the dazed commoners out of their spell and they hurried to beg her to stay. “Goddess, please quell your anger! We don’t have such ideas at all. Of course we believe your words!”

“That’s right, Goddess! Please don’t be mad!”

“The ones who bullied you were all related to that false prince! They have a guilty conscience, that’s why they spew obscenities at you!”

The commoners were in a complete panic.

The wagons filled with bundles of tightly-wrapped grains were a magnificent sight for their sore eyes. For the commoners of Xiyue, familiar with the constant presence of hunger, there was nothing more important than filling their stomachs.

The adults could bear it. In any case, that’s how they’d lived their entire lives. But what about the children? They could settle for life as it was now, but if things continued like this, their offspring might not even know what rice or noodles taste like.

They couldn’t be considered well-off under Zhou Meng’s rule. Although their population was small, they were also heavily exploited.

When they had no choice, they could only put up with it. Furthermore, their religion stated the prince was selected by the heavens, imparting the Zhou family a mysterious air. Their faith made everything they’d suffered before tolerable.

However, all was different now.

That the goddess had fulfilled the prophecy in the Xiyue sacred texts went without saying, and now she was clearly pointing out that fake prince Zhou Meng had been summoned by the heavens for questioning. The senior consort had already said Zhou Meng was dead, which was an even greater confirmation of the people’s conjecture—the heavens had punished Zhou Meng for pretending to be Xiyue’s prince! The senior consort and the rest were panicked only because they’d no longer be able to enjoy the riches and glories of the past, so they’d decided to slander the goddess!

Emotions ran high and the people grew fervent. They didn’t dare to block the goddess’ entourage and could only crowd the road, kneeling and begging for her to stay.

A few of the more hot-tempered raised their heads and jabbed fingers at the senior consort and the rest, raining down insults and curses. They seemed ready to charge through the palace gates at any second and tear them to shreds.

Everyone on the palace walls was frightened by the growing tide of condemnation. Somebody softly whispered, “It’s true—the prince didn’t die from injury or poison. It was like he was summoned by the heavens. I think the goddess is right!”

“I think so too. Think about it: the goddess is plainly from another world and brought provisions to us. The prince really did die suddenly, mysteriously. Will the heavens punish us if we protest further?”