ill-fated relationship
Shen Meiwu looked at the person in front of her who looked somewhat like Fu Yunjin, but whose eyes resembled hers in their movement, and asked with a hint of doubt in her daze, "Who are you?"
Ping An chuckled softly, straightened her skirt, and said calmly, "You should have heard Shen Zhi mention me before. I am Fu Yun Jin's daughter, Ping An."
Upon hearing this name, two words inappropriately surfaced in Shen Meiwu's mind.
really.
As expected, it was a name that idiot Fu Yunjin would come up with.
As expected, that idiot Fu Yunjin has high expectations for her child.
She composed herself, forced a smile, raised her head, and said haughtily, "What, you want to kill me? But Cui Shenzhi promised Ling Xian that he wouldn't kill me."
Ping An glanced at Shen Meiwu's coarse linen clothes and sneered, "Yes, Shen Zhi promised Cui Lingxian he wouldn't touch you, but I didn't. Besides, I'm Shen Zhi's wife, who's with him day and night. Cui Lingxian is just the daughter of an enemy far away. Do you think Shen Zhi will listen to me or Cui Lingxian?"
Upon hearing this, Shen Meiwu ran outside without saying a word, but tripped and fell hard because Ping An had stepped on her skirt at some point.
Ignoring her arms and knees that had crashed heavily to the ground, and without even getting up, she kept tugging at her skirt, trying to pull the hem off Ping An's feet, but to no avail. Since she only had a wooden hairpin in her hair, she couldn't tear the skirt open, so she turned her head and tried to bite it with her teeth.
Seeing Shen Meiwu's disheveled appearance, Ping An chuckled, then squatted down and patted Shen Meiwu's shoulder, saying half-sarcastically and half-genuinely, "Don't be so scared, I was just kidding. I owe my success today to your guidance, so why would I want to kill you?"
Upon hearing this, Shen Meiwu was taken aback, but there was indeed no murderous intent in Ping An's voice, so her face regained some color.
"My teachings? When did I ever teach you anything?"
"Those deposed concubines in the Cold Palace." Ping An said, ignoring Shen Meiwu's resistance, and affectionately helped Shen Meiwu up from the ground to sit down, as if there was no difference between the two of them, not Fu Yunjin's life, but just familiar elders and juniors chatting.
“They were driven mad by you, so all they talk about in the Cold Palace is your affairs, including how you framed Fu Yunjin, how you manipulated Cui Sugong, and how you used Cui Sugong to harm them. I learned a lot about how to conduct myself in the world from this, which is why I am where I am today.”
Seeing the genuine warmth on Ping An's face and hearing her dismissive attitude towards Fu Yunjin, a hint of doubt and confusion appeared on Shen Meiwu's face.
"Are you... really Fu Yunjin's daughter?"
Ping An smiled, her eyes crinkling.
"Of course, my mother... I'm not talking about Fu Yunjin, I'm talking about my adoptive mother Qingya. You and she have both been by Fu Yunjin's side since the Fu family. You should know very well how much she admires Fu Yunjin. If I weren't Fu Yunjin's daughter, she wouldn't have let someone who looks more like you than Fu Yunjin tarnish Fu Yunjin's reputation, would she?"
Shen Meiwu nodded, thinking of Qingya's almost worshipful attitude towards Fu Yunjin.
"If you don't want to kill me, then why did you come to me? To humiliate me?"
Ping An shook his head.
"You've already fallen to this state, is there any point in humiliating you? I just wanted to come and have a chat with you, and maybe get some answers to my questions."
"Answer my questions?"
Ping An released Chen Meiwu, rested her chin on her hand, blinked, her face full of innocence, but the words she spoke had nothing to do with innocence: "I want to ask you, since you used Cui Sugong to harm Fu Yunjin, why didn't you think of killing me to eliminate the root of the problem and prevent future troubles?"
Shen Meiwu was a little confused. After a while, she said, "I just think it's unnecessary. You are just an insignificant princess. Why should I go to all this trouble? Besides, although Cui Sugong doesn't like you because of my scheming, you are still his biological daughter. He might not want to kill you."
“Then why don’t you find a way to make him want it?” Ping An tilted his head, his face still showing an innocent and naive look: “For example, have the Imperial Observatory tell Cui Sugong that I am a reincarnation of an evil ghost, born to bring him down… no, born to take everything from him, including his throne, his country, and his life.”
"...But you're just a princess."
"So what if I'm a princess?" Ping An's eyes gleamed with a strange light: "Emperors have ruled for three generations, and Wu has replaced Li. Even a wise and powerful emperor like Emperor Taizong of Tang was afraid. Do you think that good-for-nothing Cui Sugong wouldn't be afraid? Empress Wu Zetian didn't have the blood of the Li Tang royal family, yet she was able to sit on the throne. I am the only daughter of the emperor and empress, so why can't I sit on it?"
"By the way, speaking of which, I have something else I wanted to ask you. Cui Lingxian is your only daughter, and also the only child in Cui Sugong's heart. Her situation is vastly different from mine, who has nothing. Why didn't you consider making her the Crown Princess or the Regent Princess, but instead chose to let her depend on Cui Shenzhi for survival without hesitation? Do you really think that depending on a powerful man is better than having power yourself? Are you happy living by depending on Cui Sugong?"
Shen Meiwu opened her mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out.
Seeing this, Ping An chuckled softly, a hint of disdain in his voice: "Never mind, let's get back to the previous topic."
She turned to face the incense table and the statue of the deity on the other side of the table, lifted her foot and put it on the armrest of the chair, swinging it casually. Her posture was very unrefined, but she was full of leisure.
“If the Imperial Observatory had made such a prophecy that was unfavorable to me, given Cui Sugong’s character, he would certainly not have spared my life. He would have chased me to the ends of the earth and killed me. You, Cui Sugong, and Cui Lingxian would not have lost everything because of me and ended up in your current situation. Don’t you think so?”
Shen Meiwu lowered her head and said in accordance with Ping An's words, "Not necessarily. After all, you may be gone, but Qingya is still here. If she tells Shenzhi everything, I won't have a good ending either."
Upon hearing this, Ping An couldn't help but roll her eyes.
“My mother’s useless nature is almost exactly like Fu Yunjin’s. She’s cowardly and incompetent, and all she can do is cry and beg for pity. If it weren’t for me, she would have a hard time surviving. Do you think she has the ability to get to Shen Zhi?”
"However, what you said makes some sense. After all, there are no secrets that stay hidden forever. Even without my mother, Shenzhi could still find out the truth from others, such as Fu Xiuzhu. In that case, you won't get away with it either."
"So if I were you, I wouldn't let Cui Lingxian and Shen Zhi get to know each other slowly, and I wouldn't hide these things from Cui Lingxian. Instead, I would tell her everything so that she would be aware of the situation. Once she comes of age, I would drug Shen Zhi and create the illusion that Shen Zhi had become a beast and defiled her, and that she had gotten pregnant."
"As for whether the child is actually Shen Zhi's..." Ping An's expression was a half-smile: "Does it matter?"
"In this way, you can sit back and relax. After all, it's true that you and Cui Sugong wiped out Shen Zhi's entire family, but Shen Zhi defiled Cui Lingxian and even gave her a child. You owe him, and he owes Cui Lingxian. Once the debts are balanced, he naturally won't treat you like this anymore."
"Even if we assume that Shen Zhi is cold-hearted and has no remorse, why don't you just get rid of him? After all, there is already a 'grandson' who can inherit the throne, and the disappearance of the child's father won't make a difference."
Shen Meiwu did not answer, but could only stare blankly at Ping An, her face full of indescribable emotions.
Ping An received no response and turned around curiously, only to find that Shen Meiwu's expression was very familiar, but he couldn't remember where he had seen her before. He thought for a while before he finally remembered.
—I've seen it on Qingya's face.
This is how Qingya viewed her when she discovered that she was doing evil deeds with Guo Shu in the Cold Palace.
Disappointment, sadness, anger, disbelief.
Ping An's brow twitched, and he said with a hint of mockery, "Chen Meiwu, Fu Yunjin is your defeated opponent, and the kind of opponent who loses utterly. How can you, like my mother, yearn for that fool? Are you crazy?"
Then she heard Shen Meiwu's panicked voice.
"I don't!"
"You don't?" Ping An reached out and poked Shen Meiwu's chest. "Shen Meiwu, do you believe that?"
Ping An's tone gradually deepened, much like Fu Xiuzhu's tone when he spoke to her, slow and deliberate yet full of deadly poison: "You envy Fu Yunjin's noble birth, unlike your humble status; you envy Fu Yunjin's dignified and kind nature, possessing all the good qualities you lack; you envy Fu Yunjin for having the Fu family as a burden behind her, yet receiving everyone's love and praise."
"Of course you admire someone like that, but you know very well that Fu Yunjin is the bright moon in the sky, while you are a rat in the gutter. You are destined to go your separate ways. So after winning Cui Sugong's heart, you did not choose to leave Fu Yunjin, but instead used Cui Sugong's hand to tie the two of you together tightly."
"Unbreakable even in death."
“You’ve driven Cui Sugong’s concubines to their deaths or madness, but Fu Yunjin, despite all the humiliation you’ve inflicted, has remained perfectly fine, neither insane nor stupid. Why?” Ping An approached Shen Meiwu, so close it seemed she was about to kiss her: “Because you just wanted to bring her down from her pedestal. You wanted her to become like you, but she remains as perfect as the statue on the altar.”
"Noble and elegant, gentle and quiet."
"So in the end you still caused her death."
"But the human heart is the most uncontrollable. Although you harmed her, you could not suppress the secret longing in your heart. Therefore, during the decades you controlled the harem, Fu Yunjin's reputation was never tainted, and even got better and better, to the point of being almost perfect."
"That's why you can't accept seeing that my daughter, who carries Fu Yunjin's blood, has no resemblance to her at all. It's because only now do you clearly realize that you not only killed her, but you also completely destroyed her."
"You're talking nonsense!" Shen Meiwu stood up in a panic, her eyes darting away, not daring to look at Ping An. "I didn't... I would never admire her. She's a good-for-nothing, a hopeless idiot! She had all the advantages, yet I beat her to a pulp. There's no one dumber than her in the world. I would never think there's anything good about someone like that! Absolutely not!"
Ping An stood up, took Chen Meiwu's hand and placed it on her face, her expression softening, her eyes filled with an overwhelming sadness.
"Meiwu, is that really how you see me?"
Shen Meiwu looked at Ping An, who had transformed into someone who bore an eight-tenths resemblance to Fu Yunjin. She flung her hand away and hurriedly took a few steps back. She accidentally stepped on her skirt and fell to the ground. She couldn't utter a word of rebuttal, nor could she stand up. She just muttered something under her breath, and it was unclear who she was talking to.
Ping An chuckled and removed the mask from his face.
"I thought that you had been able to manipulate Cui Sugong for more than ten years and had some understanding of the emperor's mind. You had also taken care of Shenzhi for more than ten years. I thought that talking to you might be fruitful and help me figure out why Shenzhi was acting strangely. But it turns out that you are just a useless piece of trash. What a waste of time."
After saying that, Ping An left Chen Meiwu behind, lifted her skirt, and got into the carriage to return to the palace.
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