TN | The Malicious Empress

Chapter 11: Kim Family's Ending

Jennie lowered her head, seeming bashful.

Kim Taehyung had died at the age of twenty six.

The Imperial family of Ming Qi became more muddle-headed and incompetent as time passed. They did not consider developing the country's strength, instead, only thinking about how to protect themselves against the vassal families who they viewed as threats. As per Fu Jong Kai, the Shen family's objective was to live honestly whereas the Kim family ignored Imperial commands, so naturally they were a thorn in the Late Emperor's eyes, causing the Late Emperor to want to punish them.

When the Dunes had attacked, Kim Ding set off with the Kim family troops. Once on the battlefield, the presumptuous General Kim's troops were annihilated to the last man. While Kim Taehyung waited for his father's return, in reality what he waited for was the return of a coffin.

Kim Ding's death was not the end. During the funeral, the people in the Ding capital sent Kim Ding off and the entire country was in mourning. To the Imperial family, this was a big taboo.

Thus, it did not take long for young Kim Taehyung to be appointed to lead the military campaign on behalf of his father.

This was not Kim Taehyung's first battle. Like the Kim family, his talent on the battlefield was enough to make the Dune terrified. But despite obviously knowing the queer nature of his father's death, Kim Taehyung went into the battlefield and was defeated, the Imperial edict had pushed him onto the road of death.

Yet Kim Taehyung still received the Imperial edict. That day he was exposed to the Dune and became the target, ending up with thousands of arrows through his heart. Not only that, for unknown reasons, the body was taken away and the Dune's skinned it before hanging the body up in the tower to serve as a warning to others.

Another tragic outcome was played and Ming Qi went into national mourning.

Father and son made the battlefield their grave and the commoners could only see the Dune's brutality and the generals' heroism but they did not see that the undercurrent of this conspiracy.

At that time the late Emperor was already approaching his deathbed, so Fu Jong Kai took over the affairs of the court. In order to express regret for the bitter outcome of the Kim family, he conferred titles to both the father and son. Even though the titles were useless for the deceased, it appeased the court while the concubine and the two step-brothers of Taehyung gained all the advantages.

Jennie still remembered Shen Xin's look of pain when he came to know of Kim Taehyung's death. She initially thought that the Kim and Shen family were like water and fire and when the Kim family fall into despair, her father would not be sad about it. Thinking about it now, it was most likely at that time when Shen Xin experienced the feeling of the fox grieving when the rabbit dies.

Since the balance was broken with the collapse of the Kim family, the next to fall would be the Shen family.

The ridiculous thing was that at that time she single-mindedly pushed the Shen family into the muddy waters of the fight of the throne.

Jennie did not have any feelings for the Kim family and in the beginning she only felt some regret towards the fate of this young man. Such an outstanding young man should be leaving a legacy in the country of Ming Qi, who would have expected such an ending. He knew that the Imperial edict was a seal of death but he still went.

Perhaps it was in order to preserve the dignity of the Kim family and to prove that to the very end that the Kim family was loyal to the country. But knowing that it cannot be avoided yet still proceeding showed that this unruly Kim Taehyung was not ordinary.