Join forces for revenge
The mute nanny who served the Empress was always disliked.
Every time I see Xia Chengen, it's as if I'm afraid of him, or as if I'm looking at something else through him.
Xia Chengen wanted to get to the bottom of things several times, but every time he took a step closer to the nanny, the Empress would appear by chance.
Since parting ways with Qi Yuning, Xia Chengen has never stepped out of the East Palace again.
Having finally endured the end of his confinement period, he rushed to the Xuanzheng Hall, only to stumble upon a scene at a corner of the palace road—
The mute old woman was forced to kneel outside the palace gate as punishment, while a maid slapped her in the mouth. The old woman was hunched over, her face red and swollen, with half a bowl of swill and leftover rice in front of her, which she was wolfing down with her hands.
Xia Chengen stepped forward and stopped the maid: "Granny is an old servant in the palace. She is so old. What serious mistake has she made that deserves to be treated like this?"
The maid was so frightened that she fell silent. Only after Xia Chengen bent down to help the old woman up did she stammer, "It was Her Majesty's decree. This servant... this servant was just following orders."
With his help, the old woman stood up, her withered hands suddenly gripping his sleeve tightly.
"How dare you!" The Empress's voice came coldly from behind. "A lowly servant dares to soil the Crown Prince's clothes!"
The mute old woman seemed to have no other choice, shaking her head desperately at Xia Chengen, making gurgling sounds. At the Empress's glance, the maids on either side immediately stepped forward and forcefully pried the old woman's hands off.
"Your subject greets Your Majesty." Xia Chengen bowed, but his gaze remained fixed on the nanny.
"When people get old, they often do crazy things. But we should give them a small punishment to prevent them from causing trouble in the future," the Empress said calmly.
"In that case, why not send her out of the palace to live out her remaining years in peace?"
“Her entire family is dead, she’s all alone, and she’s mute. If she’s sent out of the palace, she probably won’t live more than a month.” She changed the subject, “But you, you’ve just been released from confinement, where are you going?”
Xia Chengen lowered his eyes: "Mother knows what her son is going to do."
"If you still want to plead for your father and the Qi family, I will absolutely not allow it!" The Empress's voice suddenly turned stern. "You are the Crown Prince, and I cannot let you act recklessly!" She waved her hand, ordering the guards to escort him back.
To everyone's surprise, Xia Chengen did not back down an inch this time. He snatched a guard's sword, ignoring his leg injury, and confronted the crowd.
"Your Majesty, have I already made a mistake once? Do you want me to make the same mistake again?"
"Xia Chengen!" the Empress shouted sternly from behind him.
He didn't turn around.
Only when he reached the outside of Xuanzheng Hall did he throw his sword to the ground. When the eunuch announced that His Majesty was not there, he stood in front of the hall and poured out his pent-up feelings, his sense of right and wrong, to the heavens and earth.
But he didn't know that in the shadows of the palace, the emperor was drawing a bow.
The arrow pierced the air, grazing his earlobe and sending a stinging pain through him.
Wang Shuhuai scrambled out and knelt at his feet, his voice trembling: "Your Highness! Please stop! Please go back..."
Xia Chengen's heart sank.
The emperor's icy voice echoed from inside the hall: "If you dare utter another word, I will strip you of your title as crown prince!"
The Empress rushed over, raised her hand and slapped him across the face, then turned and knelt down: "Your Majesty, please calm down! It is my fault for not disciplining him properly. I will take him back immediately!"
"Father! If even you disregard propriety, law, and justice, is this still the Great Xia?!" Xia Chengen shook off the Empress's hand that was pulling him, his whole body trembling uncontrollably.
"It's my fault... for spoiling you too much in the past!!!"
"Your Majesty!" the Empress interrupted urgently, "It is all my fault, Your Majesty! I beg Your Majesty to forgive Cheng'en this time!"
The air was deathly still. Finally, the emperor ordered the imperial guards to escort Xia Chengen to the Zongren Hall.
That place was in the westernmost corner of the palace, a small square hall, deserted year-round, with only a dead old tree in the courtyard.
At night, Xia Chengen leaned against a withered tree, lost in thought, when a thin, bony hand suddenly reached in through the crack in the door, beckoning anxiously.
He leaned closer and saw that it was a mute old woman dressed in a black robe.
"Granny? It's you?"
The old woman couldn't speak, but hurriedly shoved a food box through the dog hole in the corner of the wall. She looked up at him, her eyes filled with unspeakable sorrow, tears welling up in her eyes. Before he could ask any more questions, she quickly disappeared into the night.
Xia Chengen picked up the food box; it was quite heavy. Upon opening it, he found it contained several pebbles used to weigh down the basket.
At first, he also thought that the old woman was really senile, just as the Empress had said. But when he remembered her hand that had gripped his sleeve tightly during the day, and her tearful yet perfectly clear eyes... he had a sudden thought. He carefully searched the food box inside and out, and finally, with a determined heart, he threw it to the ground.
The wooden box fell apart, and sure enough, a letter was hidden in a hidden compartment.
The letter paper was yellowed and brittle, and the ink had faded. He carefully picked it up and examined it closely by the moonlight.
The letter was written by Consort Su, who had already passed away. It was addressed to her child.
Xia Chengen vaguely remembered that the palace servants said that Consort Su had no children.
He suppressed his doubts and continued reading—
"I am overjoyed to have a son. I wish him to be blessed with God's grace throughout his life, hence the name Cheng'en (meaning 'receiving grace')."
The whole thing is absurd.
He then unfolded another piece of white cloth, inscribed with dark brown blood-red characters; the writing on it was even more shocking:
"The Empress is not your biological mother. She conspired with His Majesty to murder Consort Su and seize her child. This old servant's tongue was cut out, and he has become mute."
Xia Chengen read the letter over and over in disbelief: "No, how could this be... no, no..."
He spent a sleepless night, holding the letter in a daze. Only now did he understand the meaning behind Pei Qinzhou's words: "You will understand."
He gripped the blood-written letter tightly, knocked out the guards, and rushed towards the Empress's palace.
Pushing open the palace gate, one sees a pool of glaring blood on the ground.
The mute old woman lay lifeless in a pool of blood.
When the Empress saw Xia Chengen arrive, her eyes were filled with horror.
"Cheng'en?! Weren't you at the Imperial Academy?!"
He didn't respond, but stepped forward, closed the old woman's wide-open eyes, and pinched her jaw.
It has no tongue.
At that moment, his heart died completely.
He held a long sword and pointed it at the empress.
The people around the empress all stood in front of her.
"Why are you doing this to me?" His voice was broken, yet full of resentment.
"Cheng'en, what are you saying?"
"Is my birth mother really you?" He stepped over the pool of blood, leaving footprint after footprint, and walked towards the Empress, repeatedly asking, "I'm asking you, who exactly is my birth mother!"
No one dared to make a move.
"Speak!?" The next second, he killed the empress's closest stewardess.
"Xia Chengen, how dare you!" The Empress looked at him in horror, trying to use her status as the Empress Dowager to continue to stun him: "Have I not treated you well all these years?!" The Empress still answered evasively, but she could not get even a trace of the rationality that Xia Chengen used to have.
As Xia Chengen charged toward her, the Empress's legs went weak and she knelt on the ground: "Chengen, you have called me mother for twenty-one years. I have never treated you badly. Today, do you really want to kill me?" She was gambling again, gambling that the son she had raised with her own hands would not really be so heartless as to kill her.
The sword landed an inch from her face, and Xia Chengen's tears fell continuously before her eyes: "Mother..."
He laid down his sword, but he did not let the empress go easily. Even if he killed her, there was still the emperor.
There is more than one person standing at the source of hatred.
"Cheng'en, Cheng'en, I knew you wouldn't really hate your mother, would you?" The Empress knelt on the ground and grabbed his clothes.
“No.” He turned around and said coldly, “I will kill you at the most opportune moment.”
Having said that, before the guards could arrive, he leaped onto the palace wall and escaped from the palace.
...
The night was long. In the general's mansion, the leaves rustled in the wind. Wen Zhibai stood alone under a tree, feeling somewhat lost about which way to go next.
During this time, she felt that her memory was always incomplete, but she couldn't explain what kind of feeling it was.
Qi Yuning had not returned for several days. After handing over all the money she had to the Pei family to make weapons, she also went to distribute porridge to the refugees she had taken in and subsidize the teachers of her former school so that children from poor families could also study and learn to read.
These are all things that Jiang Xuwan used to do.
"Zhibai." Qi Yuning returned and stood not far away, softly calling her name. Given what Wen Zhibai had said when they parted last time, Qi Yuning dared not get too close to her.
But Wen Zhibai acted as if nothing had happened, running towards Qi Yuning and affectionately taking her arm: "How is it? Is everything going smoothly?"
"Yes, don't worry, the money you gave me is enough, and everything has been arranged."
"...Did Pei Qinzhou...say anything?" Wen Zhibai stammered. After all, she and Pei Qinzhou had long since become enemies in a sense, but she still couldn't give up and inquired about him.
"Lord Pei asked me to tell you that Xie An will come to protect you at that time." Qi Yuning hesitated for a long time, then said, "Zhibai, there are some things I don't know whether I should tell you or not."
Wen Zhibai raised his head and smiled at her, "What can't you tell me?"
“I can tell that Lord Pei has deep feelings for you. Perhaps there is some misunderstanding between you. The things you said to him last time were too harsh. Even I was a little hurt.”
"Hmm? Did I say anything to him?"
"...You don't remember?" Qi Yuning asked in surprise, then continued, "Didn't you say that Lord Pei was a plaything you picked up out of pity?"
Wen Zhibai was completely stunned: "I could never say such a thing to him."
“But what you said was actually a hundred or a thousand times worse than that. I was almost scared to death by you back then.”
"...How could that be?" Wen Zhibai looked at Qi Yuning's affirmative eyes again, her heart pounding with panic: "Where is he now?"
"He has already left Beijing."
Upon hearing this, Wen Zhibai clenched his fists, his nails digging deep into his palms.
How could she say such hurtful things to him? It wasn't what she meant, especially since he was seriously injured. Why did she hurt him like that?
Guilt, like a vine, tightly coiled around her heart.
“Zhibai… right now, it’s impossible for us to see each other again.” Qi Yuning took her hand: “Wait until everything settles down, then you can talk properly. Don’t be sad. Today, I’m returning to the manor for three reasons: first, to offer incense to my brother; second, to convey Lord Pei’s message; and third, to say goodbye to you. We don’t know the final outcome, but we can only gamble with all our might. Zhibai, see you later.”
Wen Zhibai hugged her: "Goodbye."
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