Prince Xin coldly watched her cries and asked, “When did it begin?”
Jiang Qi: “What?”
Prince Xin said, “You were the palace maid assigned by my mother to serve me. I’m asking, from when did you start plotting against me?”
Jiang Qi’s fair cheeks already bore several red marks from his grip. Gritting her teeth with difficulty, she said, “From the very beginning. I was acting on the orders of Consort Hui and Lady Meng to stay by your side and act as circumstances allowed.”
—“From the very beginning, hahahaha… my mother, how wonderful!”
Prince Xin laughed maniacally.
Perhaps out of guilt or fear, Jiang Qi decided to lay everything bare at this moment.
“Consort Hui’s treacherous intentions have existed for a long time. When you were just a youth, she was already encouraging Lady Meng to have improper thoughts. However, Your Highness, Lady Meng didn’t originally intend to harm you. Consort Hui colluded with Prince Wen and had the trained hounds from his manor memorize the scent of your clothes. They planned to lure you to the mountains and make their move, intending to kill you, the only adult prince, to pave the way for them to support a young prince easier to control. Lady Meng couldn’t bear it. At the last moment, she regretted it and bribed the palace servants who were supposed to report it, manipulating the timing so that the real Fifth Prince suffered in your place.”
Prince Xin vaguely remembered that there were doubts in that old case.
It seemed the timing of the Fifth Prince’s murder didn’t match up.
The case was later closed due to Prince Wen’s death, but the unresolved doubts remained on record at the Court of Justice.
So this was the truth.
As Prince Xin pondered, he suddenly understood. “My foolish Fifth Brother… He was always lazy. There’s no way he would have taken his servants to Mount Xiao for no reason. It was your people who tricked him there, wasn’t it?”
Jiang Qi kowtowed. “I wasn’t involved in this matter. I only know bits and pieces.”
Prince Xin hadn’t expected to unearth such an old case. Staggering, he leaned against the desk. “My poor Fifth Brother, who died in my place…”
And the innocent Lady Xu.
Jiang Qi said, “Later, I was assigned to your side. They ordered me to conceive your child and then give birth to it.”
A new royal bloodline.
The Emperor was no longer willing to have children, but the Emperor’s son would be just as effective.
Prince Xin: “Oh, those two women really came up with a plan… and you succeeded.”
Jiang Qi: “They ordered me to find a way to sow discord between you and your father.”
Prince Xin gradually calmed down. “Ha, I can’t blame you for that. It was me, my own heart, that was unsteady.”
Jiang Qi said, “Your Highness, you treated me so well. I’ve thought countless times, what if I just stopped? I could stay quietly by your side, support you and the Princess Consort, and never do anything for those people again. But my sister is in their hands. When I entered the palace at fourteen, my younger sister was not yet seven. Our parents had passed away early, and over the years, I’ve been stuck in the palace, unable to leave, not knowing how much suffering she endured at such a young age. They promised me that providing the disaster relief grain would be the last thing I had to do. Afterward, they would return my sister to me safely.”
Prince Xin lowered his eyes and glanced at her. “So, did you see your sister?”
Jiang Qi sobbed silently, unable to reply.
—
Gao Yuexing passed through Lushu once again, stopping for the night.
She stood on the mountain, gazing in the direction of her own temporary palace. It still seemed safe there.
Zhao Tongsheng asked, “Princess Consort, do you want to enter the city?”
Gao Yuexing replied, “I want to.”
Her vague answer, merely expressing her desire, showed that even she wasn’t sure of her decision at the moment.
Gao Yuexing had been mulling over many things during the journey.
Kong Shishu’s interference in the capital had been enough to make anyone question his loyalties.
Intercepting the disaster relief grain and framing Prince Xin.
Taking advantage of the severe floods in Jiangnan to poison civilians and officials.
Stirring up chaos in the capital, poisoning the Emperor, and conspiring with Prince Xin to seize the throne.
All these actions, carried out at this critical moment—was it for his own benefit, or for someone else’s?
Was the Emperor really dead?
Gao Yuexing didn’t believe it.
Marshal Zheng hadn’t even made a move yet!
Gao Yuexing wasn’t privy to the Emperor’s detailed plans.
If their scheme included her as a calculated piece, then her absence would render the plan incomplete.
Conversely, if she wasn’t part of their plan at all, her sudden intrusion might become an uncontrollable variable.
Gao Yuexing muttered to herself, “Something’s not right.”
Zhao Tongsheng asked, “What’s not right?”
Gao Yuexing said, “I’ve been the one jumping around most visibly, both in and out of the palace. There’s no way the Emperor would have overlooked me. He must have given me some kind of hint or instruction, but I didn’t pay attention.”
Gao Yuexing recalled the time when the issue with the disaster relief grain came to light. She had returned to the palace and met the Emperor in the imperial study.
The Emperor had told her to rest assured.
What else had he said?
She had mentioned Prince Xin to him.
Since she had stumbled upon Kong Shishu’s conspiracy, there was no reason to allow Prince Xin to be falsely accused again. She remembered the Emperor saying to her back then:
“Prince Xin’s thoughts are becoming more profound, but I’ve personally watched him grow up. His meticulousness and ability to avoid mistakes make him someone who can be entrusted with important responsibilities and trust at critical moments.”
Entrusted with responsibilities. Trusted.
Gao Yuexing decided to try trusting him. She said to Zhao Tongsheng, “At that time, you led your subordinates back to the city unprepared. He could have easily had you all shot down outside the city walls, but he let you go. Why?”
Zhao Tongsheng: “Huh? What do you mean, why?”
Gao Yuexing: “The city gates were tightly shut, and the throne had already changed hands. But you were left outside the gates, unable to return home. You had nowhere else to go, so you could only head back to Jiangnan to find me. His intention was for you to go and notify me, wasn’t it?”
Zhao Tongsheng finally understood. “You mean Prince Xin was coerced? Who coerced him? Kong Shishu?”
Gao Yuexing said, “Let’s stay here for the night. I need to think it through carefully.”
—
Prince Xin waited until Jiang Qi finished crying before bending down, leaning closer to her, and saying, “I happened to meet a woman about the same age as your sister. Coincidentally, you’re looking for your sister, and she’s looking for her elder sister. I think you two might share an extraordinary bond. Let me take you to see her, shall I?”
Jiang Qi stopped crying and looked up at him in astonishment.
Prince Xin curled his lips slightly and said, “After all, we’ve shared the same bed. If you’re going to die, I might as well grant you this last wish.”
Jiang Qi’s tear-filled eyes had already blurred her vision, but despite everything, she could still sense the trace of suppressed sorrow in Prince Xin’s eyes—something that their time together had allowed her to understand.
Prince Xin took her to the prison on horseback.
Fu Yun was imprisoned in the dungeons.
Prince Xin had the Emperor’s support. The Emperor trusted him not to be foolish, so his name was cleared. But it was different for Fu Yun—a maidservant with no master to protect her. With Prince Xin accused of treason, and the fall of the Xiang Prince and Princess Consort seemingly imminent, most people in the world chose to side with the wind. Fu Yun was left to take full blame for embezzling the disaster relief grain and had long since been thrown into death row.
Fu Yun had been in the death cell for some time.
At night, she listened to the sound of rats gnawing on the straw mats. Slowly, her heart grew calm. As death approached, she suddenly found clarity.
They were always fish on the chopping block, at the mercy of others. When had they ever had the right to negotiate terms? Used and discarded, silenced forever, even leaving a complete corpse behind was already a good outcome. Her poor elder sister had likely died quietly in some corner long ago. How ridiculous that she had betrayed her country, turned on her master, and still dared to hope for a life in the sunlight again. What face did she have to hope for that?
Fu Yun thought of her sister.
Her memories stayed fixed on when she was six years old. She couldn’t even clearly recall her sister’s face, only that she was a gentle girl who used to slip her candy. Her sister disappeared one spring and never returned. Little Fu Yun sat on the fence every evening, waiting, until she reached her teenage years and came of age, but her sister never came back.
Fu Yun remembered her parents saying that her sister had been sent to work as a maid in a wealthy family in the city, where she lived an extraordinarily comfortable life, wearing beautiful new clothes and even having servants wait on her. Fu Yun’s impoverished family soon became well-off thanks to the money her sister sent home.
Later, when Fu Yun’s parents passed away, they hadn’t explained her sister’s whereabouts clearly before their deaths. Young Fu Yun, lost and without guidance, heard about the palace recruitment that year. With the money she had and her family’s clean background, she successfully entered the palace.
Once in the palace, she was not allowed to leave due to her age. She could no longer see the sister she longed for.
Perhaps it was better that way.
Fu Yun thought, trying to see the brighter side. Maybe they were just trying to scare her. As for her sister’s whereabouts, even Fu Yun herself didn’t know. Where could they go to find out?
After a few days of idle thinking in the cell, Fu Yun unexpectedly had a visitor.
Through the iron bars of the prison door, she saw a graceful, beautiful woman standing outside.
Fu Yun didn’t recognize her and, confused, asked, “Who are you?”
Jiang Qi tilted her head, carefully examining her, and asked, “Are you Fu Yun?”
Fu Yun nodded. The other woman was truly beautiful. Glancing down at her own filthy prison garb and disheveled appearance, she felt embarrassed and shyly tugged at her sleeves.
Jiang Qi asked again, “Are you from Dengzhou in Heyang?”
Fu Yun opened her mouth in surprise. “How do you know?”
Jiang Qi: “What year did you enter the palace?”
Fu Yun: “The fifth year of the Jingle era.”
Jiang Qi nodded. “Ah, by that time, I had already served Prince Xin for a while. Knowing that I’d follow him in the future, I rarely paid attention to palace affairs and didn’t notice that a child like you had joined that year.”
Fu Yun felt a vague suspicion in her heart, but she couldn’t believe it.
Until Jiang Qi said bluntly, “You have an elder sister named Fu Dou.”
Fu Yun, who hadn’t eaten or drunk for days and was on the verge of collapse, was struck with a wave of shock. Using both her hands and feet, she crawled to Jiang Qi. “Are you Fu Dou? Are you Fu Dou?! Are you doing well? Did they catch you, beat you, or scold you?”
Before coming to the prison, Jiang Qi had learned the entire truth from Prince Xin.
She pitied her foolish younger sister, who had ruined her entire life for her, and was still left in the dark.
At the entrance to the dungeon, Prince Xin was feeding a horse. It was one he had casually taken from the Imperial Stables, and he was now having someone harness it to a cart.
—“Your Majesty, who do you plan to send out of the city?”
Kong Shishu seemed to appear out of nowhere, as if he could emerge from the cracks in the earth whenever Prince Xin made a move.
Prince Xin, unhurried and composed, even appearing leisurely, said, “You’re the one who promised those two sisters that after everything was settled, they’d be reunited, hide their identities, and return to their hometown.”
Kong Shishu stood beside him with his hands clasped behind his back, scrutinizing his face. Smiling, he said, “Prince Xin truly has a benevolent heart. That woman schemed against you so thoroughly, and yet you’re still thinking of fulfilling her wishes!”
Prince Xin replied with a faintly amused expression, “She harmed me, not you. Why do you seem more indignant than I am?”
Kong Shishu circled him, as if still harboring doubts. “Our benevolent Prince Xin, capable of forgiving that woman—why can’t you show the same understanding toward your own father?”
Prince Xin chuckled. “Minister Kong, are you still brooding over that matter?”
Kong Shishu ground his teeth in frustration. “The medicine I gave you that day was meant to make the Emperor ill for a while, and I told you to put it in his tea. But you switched the medicine and poisoned him instead! The usually kind and lenient Prince Xin—how could you commit such a treasonous act?”