In the back garden of the Yongding Marquis's Mansion, Jiang Yuyao whipped the trembling maid: "Bitch! How dare you wear scarlet!" The jeweled whip tore Liao Xianxian's sleeve, revealing the bruises left by the Fourth Prince last night.
"Second sister is so majestic." Jiang Songyi leaned against the moon-shaped door and played with a walnut. "I heard that the fourth prince's wife will come to the palace to express her gratitude tomorrow. You, the concubine."
"Shut up!" Jiang Yuyao threw out the jade ring, "Don't think I don't know what you are planning!" The jade artifact hit the rockery and shattered, scaring the koi in the pond to scatter.
As dusk stained the palace walls red, Xinyi Daoyi coughed while leaning against a soft couch in the eastern warm room. A secret guard presented a report: "The Earl of Yongchang has bought a three-story house in the south of the city, claiming it's for Miss Yu's bedding."
"Adding to the dowry?" The prince's fingertips brushed across the four characters "Mobei Iron Mine" on the secret letter. "I'm afraid it's a betrothal gift for my second brother." He suddenly coughed violently, a dark red blood stain spreading across his handkerchief. "Tell the people from the East Factory to keep a close eye on Yu Chuwei and the tattoo on the back of her neck."
At the sound of the night watch, the Second Prince's carriage broke through the city's curfew. Xin Yiwei's silver armor was still stained with the yellow sand from the Great Wall. Hanging beside his saddle was not the head of an enemy general, but the head of the eldest son of the Earl of Yongchang. The moment the defenders saw the token clearly, the Mobei warriors' scimitars were already at their necks.
"Report—" Babaili rushed and broke open the door of the imperial study, "The second prince has rebelled!"
The emperor flipped over the memorial, and the Longquan paperweight hit Grand Tutor Yang on the forehead: "This is the good grandson you taught!" He looked at the red dot approaching the capital on the map, and suddenly remembered the secret letter sent by the prince yesterday - the account book between the Yongchang Earl's Mansion and Mobei, which was now in the East Factory dungeon with a bloody look.
Yu Chuwei knelt before the Imperial Ancestral Temple, wearing a phoenix crown, a poisoned dagger hidden beneath her wedding gown. As Xin Yizi grasped her hand, she felt a sharp pain in her palm. The wolf-head seal dissolved in the wedding wine, revealing the same poison that had killed the late Crown Prince three years prior.
"Your Highness." Yu Chuwei leaned into his arms, her fingertips tracing across his heart. "Did you know that there's a kind of poisonous insect in Mobei that feeds on the flesh and blood of unfaithful people?"
As the bells of the palace coup rang through the imperial city, Jiang Songyi was just about to stuff the imperial seal into Xin Yidaoyi's arms. Deep within the imperial prison, the Earl of Yongchang gazed at the rotting corpse of his daughter in an iron cage and suddenly burst into a maniacal laugh: "Retribution! It's all retribution!"
…
The chirping of cicadas pierced the oppressive midsummer heat. Jiang Songyi leaned against a porch pillar, peeling lotus seeds. A sudden shadow fell on the bluestone slab, and when she looked up, she caught sight of the hem of Jiang Dinglian's crimson official uniform.
"Father is well." She knelt down and saluted, making an indentation on the lotus seeds with her fingertips.
[What evil tricks is this old fox planning? ]
Jiang Dinglian tightened his hands behind his back, but maintained a fatherly demeanor. "The decree to make Yu Chuwei the principal consort should arrive today." He paused deliberately. "Yu Yao will need your help as her elder sister in the Fourth Prince's residence."
Jiang Songyi stared down at the coiled dragon pattern on his official boots when she suddenly saw a gray rabbit dart out from the flowers and crash into Jiang Dinglian's foot with a thud. Xiang Zhu chased after him, her skirt in hand, grass dust in her hair. "My Lord, be careful! This is the County Lady's pet."
"Is this a rabbit I sent you?" Jiang Dinglian picked it up by its ears, startled when his fingertips touched the warm fur. The little creature was kicking its legs, its three-lobed mouth still chewing on half a vegetable leaf.
Xiang Zhu smiled slightly. "The pair you gave me from last year's autumn hunt are now having their seventh litter." She counted on her fingers. "We've cleared three rooms in Langhua Garden to raise rabbits, and we just sent eight to the main kitchen."
Jiang Dinglian's throat churned, remembering the pheasant Yue Qingyang had given him last month, and how he had made a ginseng soup that very day. The gray rabbit in his arms suddenly urinated, the warm liquid seeping through his brocade official uniform, but he inexplicably curled his lips.
"Father?" Jiang Songyi saw him staring at the rabbit head in a daze, and quietly moved half a step behind the corridor column.
【Could it be that he is possessed by evil spirits? 】
Jiang Dinglian snapped back to his senses, his ears reddening. "Well, since we can't keep them fed, have the village headman send some alfalfa tomorrow." He stuffed the rabbit back into Xiang Zhu's arms, the front of his official uniform wet. "I remember there's a jade trough in the warehouse."
The cicada's chirping suddenly rose, drowning out the rest of his sentence. Jiang Songyi watched his father's shaky departure, crushing the lotus seeds in his palm.
【Did the old fox take the wrong medicine? 】
Jiang Dinglian stumbled half a step after passing through the moon-shaped gate, and only managed to hold onto the Taihu stone to avoid falling. His personal attendant tried to help him, but he waved him away with a flick of his sleeve: "Go! Clean up the rabbit hutch in the southern suburbs!"
The cicadas' chirping intensified, shaking the glazed tiles. Jiang Shu clutched the cracked ice teacup, sloshing ripples of plum soup in it. "Mother, that child has a cinnabar mole on his left hip and six toes on both feet. We'll definitely find him!"
Madam Jiang's Buddhist beads twirled rapidly on her wrist: "Twenty-three years have passed. Even if I were still alive, I would still be afraid." Green smoke rose from the gilded Boshan furnace, blurring the wrinkles at the corners of her eyes.
"Was Sister conscious when she gave birth?" Jiang Shu suddenly leaned forward. "The midwife said the baby was taken away by wild dogs as soon as it was born. But if that's true..." She pinched her palm with her fingertips. "Hao Ren clearly said he heard the baby crying!"
There was a "crack" outside the window, and the Buddhist beads in Madam Jiang's hand broke, and the sandalwood beads rolled all over the floor. The old nanny hurried to pick them up, but was stopped by Jiang Shu: "Madam Liu, who delivered the baby that year, fell into the lotus pond and drowned last month."
"Shu'er!" Madam Jiang grabbed her daughter's wrist, "These are secrets."
"Secret?" Jiang Shu sneered. "Madame Liu's son turned himself in last night and said someone gave her ten taels of silver twenty years ago." She shook off her mother's hand. "Guess what's engraved on the bottom of that silver ingot?"
The cicadas' chirping suddenly stopped. Old Madam Jiang looked at the scar on her daughter's sleeve, the scar she had received when she was burned by charcoal while protecting her.
"It's the Jiang family seal." Jiang Shu squeezed out the words through her teeth. "It's the official silver in the secret compartment of my father's study."
The Guanyin statue on the shrine suddenly fell to the ground, and the offering fruit rolled to Jiang Shu's feet. She picked up the broken peach, juice dripping through her fingers. "Mom, why did you tremble when Song Yi said the child was still alive?"
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