Chapter 59 What are you pretending to be, this virtuous and chaste woman?
Shen Qingci tilted her head slightly and chuckled softly: "What does Mother mean by 'entering the palace to beg His Majesty'? Does Mother know what I will suffer after entering the palace?"
"Does Mother truly not know what kind of person His Majesty is?"
Madam Hou's lips trembled slightly as she whispered repeatedly, "Qingci, I beg you, Mother! I've already lost one son; I can't lose another!"
Shen Qingci's gaze turned cold inch by inch. She slowly pried open the old lady's hand that was holding her wrist, her voice calm and unwavering: "Mother is joking. It is the Marquis who is in trouble now. Even if Mother were to make a request, she should not be asking me!"
"The Marquis is my sister-in-law's husband. My sister-in-law is the eldest daughter of the current Prime Minister. Haven't my mother and the Marquis always been proud of marrying the Prime Minister's eldest daughter? My sister-in-law must have a way!"
Old Madam Hou shook her head repeatedly: "No, no... Only you... only you can save him! Qingci, he... he's not actually..."
Shen Qingci's eyes suddenly turned cold. At this point, the old Marquis's wife suddenly remembered to tell her that Huo Yunzhan was not dead? To tell her that the one now bearing the title of Marquis of Yongning was the real Huo Yunzhan?
Just as Madam Hou was about to reveal Huo Yunzhan's identity at all costs in order to get Shen Qingci's help, a series of hurried and flustered footsteps suddenly came from outside the door, followed by the butler rushing in.
"Madam, something terrible has happened! A horrible calamity has occurred!"
Old Lady Hou had no choice but to stop speaking and turn to look anxiously at the steward of the Hou residence who was walking in quickly: "What's the rush? Such lack of manners! I told you to try to find out about the Marquis by using your connections in the palace, did you find out anything?"
The steward's expression was rather grim, and he simply nodded: "Reporting to the Old Madam, we've found out! It's said that the Marquis was taken into the palace and immediately brought before His Majesty. We don't know what the Marquis said, but His Majesty suddenly flew into a rage, stood up, and was about to kick the Marquis..."
"But at that moment, His Majesty suddenly clutched his chest, his face contorted in pain, and then he collapsed backward! He... he had fallen unconscious!"
The old lady of the Hou family stared in astonishment, feeling her vision go black and the world spin around her. A sudden, excruciating pain shot through her chest.
The butler was startled by the sight and hurriedly stepped forward to support the old lady: "Madam, are you alright? You absolutely cannot get hurt again!"
The old lady of the Marquis waved her hand, forcing herself to speak, "Your Majesty... how is His Majesty? And the Marquis?"
Seeing her weak appearance, almost unable to breathe, the steward hesitated for a moment before finally speaking, "The imperial physician said His Majesty is suffering from a stroke of anger and it's unknown when he will wake up. As for the Marquis... the Marquis was rushed to the scene by the Regent and imprisoned in the Imperial Prison on charges of offending the Emperor and plotting rebellion!"
Upon hearing the words "Regent," and the news that Huo Yunzhan had been imprisoned by his orders, Shen Qingci's eyelashes trembled uncontrollably.
A heart that had been hanging in suspense since last night seems to have finally slowly settled back into place.
Shen Qingci immediately realized her unusual reaction; Chu Jichen seemed to have taken on a special meaning for her.
It was as if just hearing Chu Jichen's name made her feel an uncontrollable sense of security.
She almost subconsciously felt that as long as Chu Jichen was there, no matter what happened, he would definitely be able to handle it properly.
Shen Qingci's eyelashes trembled. She suppressed the unusual emotions in her heart and lowered her head to look at the old lady of the Marquis, whose face was ashen: "Mother, you heard it too. His Majesty is unwell and unconscious, and the Marquis has been imprisoned in the Imperial Prison. Your daughter-in-law can't help you at all now."
"The imperial prison is a heavily guarded place. I'm afraid we'll have to ask Prime Minister Liu for help with the Marquis's matter."
The old lady's chest heaved violently, and upon hearing this, she gritted her teeth and looked at Shen Qingci.
This time, however, there was no longer any pleading or pleas in her cloudy old eyes. Instead, there was an intense, unyielding resentment and hatred!
"It's all your fault! It's all your fault!"
Old Madam Hou suddenly stood up from her chair, pointed at Shen Qingci's nose, and screamed angrily, "Why didn't you lie in your own bed last night! You...you're trying to kill my son!"
Shen Qingci's heart trembled, and she subconsciously took two steps back, her face full of disbelief, as if she was seeing the hideous old woman in front of her for the first time.
Is it her fault?
Is it her fault for not lying properly in bed? For not obediently being sent to the palace by Huo Yunzhan? For being sent to that licentious and tyrannical emperor's bed to be humiliated?
"Hahahaha! This is truly... utterly ridiculous!"
When the old lady asked her earlier if she was usually very good to her, she thought about it carefully and felt that apart from what she had been hiding, the old lady was indeed quite good to her.
But it turns out that all that so-called goodness was fake.
When something really happens, the old lady of the Hou family will definitely be the first to push her out.
Too……
A son and a daughter-in-law are ultimately different.
She stared intently at the old lady of the Hou family, her voice icy and chilling: "I have a pretty good idea of what happened."
"Is it because His Majesty glanced at me a few more times yesterday and inquired about my details? The Marquis thinks that His Majesty has taken a liking to me. Yesterday during the day, he was here righteously and hypocritically denouncing me as a vixen who seduced His Majesty. But in the end, he thinks that he can directly offer me, his sister-in-law, to His Majesty in exchange for his and the Marquis's wealth and honor?"
"So, that night, the Marquis brought his men, intending to knock me unconscious and carry me directly into the palace?"
"But, my lord, you never expected that, by such a coincidence, the person who slept on my bed last night was not me, but a sick and disfigured maid."
"His Majesty was furious when he saw the man the Marquis presented, so he ordered the Marquis to be arrested?"
Shen Qingci looked at the old lady's somewhat evasive eyes, her face cold: "You disregarded my wishes and wanted to send me to another man's bed to be humiliated and bullied. You arrested the wrong person, but now it's my fault?"
"Why should I?"
"Doesn't Mother think this whole thing is utterly absurd and ridiculous?"
The old lady's forehead veins bulged, and she took several deep breaths: "On what grounds?"
"Back when the entire Shen family was convicted and should have been executed according to the law, if I hadn't instructed Yun Zhan to act decisively and marry you, the daughter of a disgraced official, into the Marquis's mansion, thus saving your life, you, Shen Qingci, would have already been taken to the execution ground and beheaded along with your traitorous parents! How could you possibly be alive today?!"
"Our Huo family are your saviors!"
"After you married into the family, Yun Zhan and I have treated you extremely well! With the Shen family in trouble, you lost your maternal family to rely on. Logically speaking, given your status as the daughter of a disgraced official, you could at most become a concubine!"
"But I still had Yun Zhan marry you properly, according to the previous marriage agreement, and bring you into the family with the rites due to a legal wife!"
"We've been so good to you, shouldn't you repay us!"
The old lady of the Hou family glared fiercely at Shen Qingci, her usual kind and gentle demeanor gone, her face now appearing somewhat ferocious.
"Yun Zhan died on the battlefield, and Yun... Yun Ting tried every means to coax Liu Ruolan. Wasn't all of this just so that we could all live a good life?"
"Now that Yun Zhan is dead, and Yun Ting... Yun Ting is already like that, and you have repeatedly opposed Liu Ruolan, completely offending her! Shouldn't you do something for the Huo family to make up for the mistakes you made before?"
"So what if we send you to the palace to serve His Majesty? You're a widow who's had a miscarriage! You're practically a used woman! It's your good fortune that His Majesty has taken a liking to you!"
"Once you enter the palace, you'll be a concubine! You just lie there and all you have to do is obediently accept the emperor's favor. You won't suffer any losses! On the contrary, you can easily obtain the power and wealth that we all dream of!"
"At that time, you will have enough power to pull the Huo family along! Wouldn't that be a win-win situation?"
"What are you pretending to be, this virtuous and chaste woman?"
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