Lady Meilin is seduced by her green tea brother-in-law everyday-Chapter 275: After the explosion---1

The sky ruptured in what looked like a mixture of red fire and blue fire works.

The crowd that had gathered at the headquarters of Space M witnessed the explosion with their very eyes. They watched as some of the pieces of the vessel were pulled back to the ground and an engine that was breathing fire crushed through the Space M building.

Sparks started to rain from the sky.

And then came the first scream, from a young girl. Like as if they had been awakened from a nightmare, more screams followed and the crowd panicked. Some sobbed others turned to seek escape.

Reporters on ground were even more active than they had been before the set off.

"There has been an explosion in the sky just now. The spaceship named Celestial Mo which was carrying the Empress has shattered in what can only be described as a reddish-blue explosion." Reporter Yu Jiayi of Phoenix news gasped into the camera, her words drawn out with static and disbelief.

Another reporter beside her was reporting the same news but in different words, "The vessel appears to have exploded without warning. It is hard to tell if anyone survived."

More and more of them were reporting this news, including foreign reporters that had flown into the empire to follow the Empress on her tour to fight technology. The assassination attempt had drawn the attention of the world.

"After surviving one assassination attempt, the Chinese Empress might have met her demise in an explosion on The Celestial Mo at the beginning of her campaign to seek technologically conscious companies in her empire. There seems to have been no warning before the spaceship exploded and disintegrated. Only a wing was seen descending from the sky." Reporter Cam Satur of the CCN news in America reported.

Above them, tiny embers were still failing to the ground and what appeared to be rescue efforts were already being made. The Imperial soldiers, police, fire and rescue and all the other concerned parties were actively working.

Sirens were blaring, drones were hovering in the air and he crowd was being forced to move back. A pack of rescue dogs raced in the direction where some pieces of the space ship had landed.

But, this search effort was fruitless. Only a wing and an engine had fallen from the sky. The rest of the space ship had disintegrated. It was a precedent which was new and they had no clue how to handle it.

Jun Mingzhe was leading the efforts, commanding the rescue efforts. "Comb every stone, grass, tree and molecule of the upper atmosphere. If there is a strand of hair, we must find it."

Chi Lian was in disguise, having been the first one to get to the wing and hidden away a tiny piece of the memory drift which had survived the explosion.

Even though she knew that it had not recorded anything, she did not want anyone getting their hands on it because they would ask that exact question.

She vanished into the crowd after ensuring that nothing was left of those on the space ship. A secondary explosion was heard. The engine which had survived also disintegrated into pieces before investigators could get to it.

In the crowd, some people were livestreaming the scene and their own tears, real or fake. One woman was screaming "It was the smart mirrors!" A man was shouting, "They sabotaged the ship!"

There were those that were sobbing, hugging strangers because this was a moment of grief. Much as the Empress was not loved, some had come to like her in her final days, standing with her wholeheartedly. Others weeped just because she had been the Empress.

There were those that sobbed for their family members that had disintegrated with the ship.

Grandpa Mo was one of them, having lost two family members in the explosion along with the opportunity to restore Space M’s lost glory. Whether it was mechanical error or pilot error, Space M was responsible.

His hope was that they could prove tampering or an external cause of death like a drone strike.

****

In D city, the Emperor was captured getting on an emergency helicopter to fly back to the capital city immediately.

In the royal palace, The Empress Mother sat alone in her chamber, surrounded by her dogs and unfinished sweaters she was sewing for her grandchildren by hand.

She watched the explosion ten times, rewinding to the moment it happened. She set it on replay and observed it second by second.

Her lips pursed--not in grief, but in disappointment

"I told them that the entire space ship must blow up and nothing should survive. Why did a wing survive? Every expert will come forward and offer their expertise to help figure out what happened."

Pan Xiang, a deaf mute servant that was standing behind her blinked. She looked at the hologram replaying the accident and then the Empress Mother. She shivered.

The Empress Mother looked at the black dress which had been prepared half a year ago for Empress Hui’s funeral. It had been prepared long before the explosion was put into action. "This dress does not say sad and glamorous, it just says sad." she mumbled.

Pan Xiang stepped forward and took the dress away. She had learned long ago to understand what displeased the Empress Mother from her body language alone.

She also knew that the Empress Mother was one of the most deadly members of the royal family. The other three black dresses in her closet which had been prepared for funerals of people that were not yet dead were a testimony to that.

Pan Xiang took a deep breath. It was the season of blood.

****

In another part of the royal castle, Long Wen had taken a break from her studies on the history of the empire to watch the news.

She switched off the television and returned to her studies. Not a single tear fell from her eyes. It was not because she did not like her mother but the two were not close. They had been living like strangers for the longest time.

The last time they spoke was the day of Mingzhu’s tea party and that was when her mother forced her to attend the party and tried to get her to forcefully take back the sword her father had given Mingzhu.

Long Wen had refused. Her mother called her some ugly names and declared her useless. Such insults did not phase Long Wen. She had once overheard her mother calling her a curse. This was because she wanted to have a son as a first child and ended up having a girl.

Long Wen had also always known that her mother’s fate would be a sad one in the end. In all royal families, those who did not fall in line had a habit of being shipped off to another empire or dying before old age.

"Princess, we should pick out your dress for the funeral." A maid said.

Long Wen looked up from the book she was reading. "I will choose one for Long Shuang as well."

Her sister often dressed inappropriately. Their mother was to be blamed for that as well. If Long Shuang continued to embarrass the family, she would not reach an old age.

As much as Long Wen was not close to her younger sister, she thought it best to try and help her.