The female doctor fell to her knees and said, "It is indeed a slippery pulse. But..." She suddenly ripped open Chen Ruyi's clothes, and the toad's blood was glaring red in the sunlight.
Amidst the uproar in the garden, officers from the Dali Temple burst in. Pei Ji, his dark official robes tinged with the scent of blood, pointed the case file at Chen Ruyi's forehead. "Twenty years ago, you faked a pregnancy to win favor and murdered the old Duke. Now you're using the same tactic to frame your stepson?"
The sandalwood columns cast tiny shadows, and Madam Cui's armor almost poked Chen Ruyi's eyebrows: "What a shameless bitch!" The eight Xiang skirts behind her rustled, and the emerald-studded headband rose and fell with her breathing - she should have torn off this layer of face on the day her daughter married into the Duke of Dingguo's Mansion twenty years ago.
Chen Ruyi straightened up, leaning against the vermilion railing. The hem of her pomegranate-red skirt with gold embellishments slithered across the blue bricks. Her three-inch-high peony bun was slightly disheveled, but it only accentuated her rosy face, a face in her early thirties. She glanced at Old Madam Cui, two years her senior, and suddenly remembered the expression on the imperial physician's face when he'd described her pulse as "slippery like pearls" the previous day.
"Mother-in-law, be careful what you say!" Duke Dingguo Deng Xu intervened, his dark, python-patterned official uniform blocking the way between them. He was forty-five, sporting the short beard typical of military commanders, but his brow trembled slightly with anger. "Chen is my father's second wife, personally bestowed upon her by His Majesty the First Rank Imperial Edict. How can we allow..."
"What a first-rank imperial edict!" Old Madam Cui raised her foot and stepped over the bloodstains on the blue bricks. The agate ring gleamed coldly in the sun. "I will go to the palace to see the Queen Mother and ask if this bastard who has defiled the harem is worthy of wearing the phoenix robe!"
Before he finished speaking, Chen Ruyi suddenly raised her hand. Gilded armor streaked through the air, landing with a thud on Old Madam Cui's wrinkled face. A thrush in a gilded cage in the corridor flapped its wings in surprise, knocking off several emerald feathers.
The women in the garden gasped. Jiang Songyi clutched her handkerchief and retreated behind the moonlit door. "Wow, Aunt Chen's slap was even more powerful than the last time she slapped Jiang Shu." Jiang Shu, who was leaning against a Taihu rock, watched the scene unfold. She rolled her eyes when she heard this, and was suddenly grabbed by Chen Ruyi's arm.
"Give me a hand." Chen Ruyi whispered, half of her body pressed forward. Jiang Shu smelled the strong scent of mugwort from her sleeves, mixed with the lingering smell of blood - that pool of blood just now, maybe it was a sign of miscarriage?
Old Madam Cui was supported by her daughters-in-law and pointed at Chen Ruyi tremblingly: "You dare to hit me?" The jade-inlaid headband was tilted, revealing an old scar on her forehead - it was caused by a collision between her and her daughter Cui during an argument on the eve of her daughter Cui's wedding.
"Beating her then." Chen Ruyi stroked the golden peony on her phoenix robe, her phoenix eyes sweeping over Cui Shi behind the crowd. "My mother-in-law is old and virtuous, yet she's imitating that shrew in the market to gossip. I've been in charge of the household for twenty years, and I didn't realize it was the Cui family's turn to interfere in the affairs of the Duke of Dingguo's Mansion."
These words pierced Old Lady Cui's lungs. When Cui came into the family with a magnificent wedding, she didn't even have the key to the storeroom. She suddenly pushed aside the maid who was supporting her, and with her dry, twig-like hands, she grabbed Chen Ruyi's collar. "Today, I will clean up the mess for Duke Dingguo!"
"Mother-in-law!" Deng Xu gripped Madam Cui's wrist with such force that the agate ring dug deep into her flesh. Chen Ruyi suddenly staggered, and crimson blood swirls down her pomegranate skirt, creating a faint pattern on the blue bricks. Jiang Shu felt her arm sink. Looking down, she saw Chen Ruyi's lips were pale, and sweat dripped from her forehead.
The corridor was suddenly in chaos. Cui Shi squeezed in, holding up her moon-colored skirt, her jade earrings dangling uncomfortably. "Help the old lady to the side room!" She reached out to touch Chen Ruyi, but her hand was scratched by the gilded armor.
"Don't touch me." Chen Ruyi clenched Jiang Shu's arm tightly, and Dan Kou almost pinched her flesh. "Just now in the corridor, the twined peony pattern on Madam's embroidered shoes... was quite unique." She stared at the tip of Cui's soft satin shoes that was half an inch exposed under her skirt - the embroidered pattern of twined peonies was exactly the same as the shoe print next to the bloodstain on the blue brick.
Deng Xu suddenly shouted, "Shut up!" He lifted Chen Ruyi horizontally, oblivious to the blood on the hem of his official uniform. Old Madam Cui tried to stop him, but his cold gaze held her still: "If anyone dares to tell others about what happened today, I will break his legs!"
"The Duke is so majestic." Chen Ruyi smiled weakly, her fingertips stroking the Qilin pattern on the patch on his chest, "The third brick on the east wall of the ancestral hall..." She fainted before she finished her words, and the jade bracelet on her wrist hit the railing and broke into two pieces.
Jiang Shu bent down to pick up the broken jade and caught a glimpse of a few grains of cinnabar on the soles of Cui's embroidered shoes—the very same cinnabar used to ward off evil spirits at corridor corners. She suddenly remembered that half a month ago, the maid in Aunt Chen's courtyard had reported that two packets of saffron had been lost from the storeroom.
"Quickly call the imperial physician!" Deng Xu's roar startled the sparrows from under the eaves. Jiang Songyi stood on tiptoe to peer, seeing blood oozing from Chen Ruyi's skirt. Quietly tugging at Jiang Shu's sleeve, "You said that child..."
"It can't be saved." Jiang Shu crushed the cinnabar grains in her palm, and the red shavings drifted away in the wind. She watched Cui Shi supporting Old Madam Cui as she left, and suddenly realized that her stepmother's embroidered shoes were exactly the same pair that Aunt Chen had given her yesterday.
The midday sun was blazing, yet the ice jar from Chen Ruyi's wing had yet to be delivered. While the imperial physician examined her pulse through the gauze curtains, Deng Xu was interrogating the gardener in the courtyard. Jiang Shu leaned against the carved doorframe, listening to the old servant's trembling voice: "...Ms. Cui's daughter, Chuntao, came the other day to ask for Crane's Beak Red..."
"Nonsense!" Cui rushed in with a sobbing voice, the golden phoenix hairpin in her hair tilted askew. "I have always been cautious in managing the harem. Crane's Beak Red is so poisonous..."
"Madam, please be careful with your words." Chen Ruyi suddenly lifted the gauze curtain, her face as pale as paper, but her eyes blazing. "Crane's Beak Red is in the third compartment, fifth bottle, of the medicine storehouse. You hold the key." She spread out her palm, and half a fragment of jade reflected Cui's pale face. "Would you like to pry open the bricks on the east wall of the ancestral hall and take a look?"
The teacup in Deng Xu's hand shattered with a crack. Jiang Shu saw sweat stains on the back of his official uniform and suddenly remembered that snowy night three years ago—Mrs. Chen lay in a pool of blood, while Cui knelt in the corridor with medicine in her hands, saying that it was all for the sake of their offspring.
"Duke!" Old Madam Cui rushed in, leaning on a cane, followed by four uncles from the Cui family. "If you don't deal with this vicious woman today, I will die in this Duke Ding's mansion!"
Chen Ruyi chuckled and pointed her blood-stained armor at Cui: "If my mother-in-law wants to hit someone, she should hit the beam in the west wing. Your daughter was there three years ago..." Before she could finish her words, Deng Xu suddenly jumped up and slapped Cui in the face.
In the silence of the room, Chen Ruyi watched the rustling curtains fall, and thought back to the day she married into the Duke of Ding's mansion. Seventeen years old, she held the old Duke's tablet and heard the matchmaker whisper, "This is just a wedding gift for the bride. You won't live more than three years."
Now, twenty-three years have passed, and it is someone else's turn to get married.
Chen Ruyi's face was as dark as a cloud, and his gaze pierced Cui like an icy blade. His tone was cold and icy: "Did you set a trap to put me in jail?"
Cui's body trembled involuntarily, tears welling up in her eyes. Her eyes were filled with astonishment and confusion, but her voice was sobbing: "Mother, what are you talking about? How could I have the power to make you pregnant? How could I have done this?"
Old Madam Cui, however, spoke sarcastically, "Only Duke Dingguo possesses such power. Your deceased child, whose father's illegitimate offspring is unknown, died young, a fate unto himself."
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