"The three former princes cannot remain."
After the long coronation and Empress Conferment ceremony, Xiao Jinan finally returned to his bedchamber with his new Empress. Just as he was about to act, Jiang Jiamian spoke calmly.
By then, Xiao Jinan had already renamed the dynasty Xuan, marking the official end of Great An.
The three princes once imprisoned were now merely former princes.
Xiao Jinan nodded. "Don't worry. I'm not soft-hearted."
Whether they were innocent or not no longer mattered.
Their status alone sealed their fate.
No dynastic transition is bloodless.
Someone always has to die.
"Shadow One."
Without loosening his hold on Jiang Jiamian, Xiao Jinan spoke into the darkness. "Take men and kill the three of them, cleanly. As for their families, conscript their concubines and kill their children."
It wasn't cruelty.
It was necessity.
Mercy in usurpation only invited endless disaster.
Jiang Jiamian raised a hand to his chin. "Wait."
