Three days later, Prince Ding ascended the throne. Apart from a few powerful figures closely associated with Prince Huai being purged, the capital quickly returned to normal.
Prince Huai plotted to murder the late emperor and committed suicide in prison. Consort De followed suit. The rest of the princes were demoted to commoners and imprisoned, never to leave the palace again.
However, the princess was an exception. Considering that her grandfather was a veteran of three reigns and she was unaware of Prince Huai's conspiracy, the new emperor ordered her to divorce Prince Huai and remove her name from the royal imperial archives.
Zhou Ying was originally to be executed, but she was pregnant and the new emperor was unwilling to commit further killings, so he spared her life and punished her by making her recite scriptures for the late emperor, eat vegetarian food, sleep in thorn cloth, and wear thorn shoes for the rest of her life.
After dealing with the people of Prince Huai's mansion, the new emperor began to settle scores with those who had once served Prince Huai. Those without major faults were mostly demoted or exiled, while those with serious faults, such as the Liu family who presented the secret medicine, had all their adult men beheaded, and their women, children, and grandchildren reduced to slavery, with their descendants also becoming slaves for generations to come.
Subsequently, Liu Fangniang and Zhou Shuqing, according to their crimes, should also have been beheaded, but whether it was the Empress's perverse sense of humor or her knowledge of their grudges with Song Xia, both of them were demoted to slaves and sent to singing houses as slaves.
Zhou Yongli, because of his plot to murder his eldest brother, was sentenced to life imprisonment. The current dynasty does not support criminals, and people like him have to go to the Western Hills to work as stone carvers.
Ever since Zhou Shuqing was demoted to a slave, Wu Chunying lived in constant fear in the mansion. Seeing that the court had not taken any action, Song Xia took the initiative to grant her a divorce from Zhou Shuqing. Wu Chunying was extremely grateful, but her father was demoted to another place, so she ended up taking a sum of money to live in the suburbs of the capital. Song Xia later heard that she had married a farmer and used the money given to her when she left the mansion to buy a lot of land. Although her life was not as good as before, it was still stable.
The once grand Zhou mansion fell silent, though it's no longer called the Zhou mansion; it's now known as the County Princess's Mansion.
Aunt Gao and Aunt Meng still lived in the original courtyard. They would either tease Lin Jie'er or come to pay their respects to Song Xia. From time to time, they would also do some needlework for Song Xia and Zhou Yuqing to express their gratitude.
Song Xia sat down on a stool two meters away, covered her nose in disgust, and watched as the kind old lady, who was already nearing the end of her life, kindly informed her of the information about Zhou Yongli and the others.
“You were supposed to be dealt with anyway, but you couldn’t be moved. The officials were afraid of getting their hands dirty, so they kept you in the mansion. Old lady, did you ever expect things to turn out this way?”
The old woman stared at Song Xia with her cloudy eyes, her right hand weakly raised and then slammed down.
“What is not yours will eventually be returned. All adult males of the Liu family have been beheaded, and your brothers and nephews have all been exiled as slaves. From now on, you will no longer need to think about supporting them.”
"Ying'er didn't die, but she was tormented every day. Everyone in the Prince's mansion blamed her for harming Prince Huai, and they all targeted her. The poor child in her womb was born sickly. However, His Majesty once decreed that they are now commoners, so they are no longer qualified to summon the imperial physician. With such targeting in the Prince's mansion, who knows how long she can live."
Song Xia had visited Zhou Ying once. Her life was already difficult enough, but she was also being targeted. However, she couldn't die, because if she really died, there would be no one to care for her child.
What a karmic retribution! Her parents harmed Yuqing so badly, and now her child is doing the same thing. It's just a pity for the innocent child.
"And then there's Liu Fangniang and Zhou Shuqing. They were sold into slavery at a brothel. You know what a brothel is like. Liu Fangniang is past her prime, so no one's interested in her. Poor Shu-ge'er..."
Song Xia paused deliberately at this point, and seeing the old lady shed tears again, she smiled.
"Look how anxious you are, but who can blame you when Brother Shu is so handsome? He also has the reputation of Zhou Junzi. You know how people in the capital are; there are always some powerful and wealthy young men with eccentricities, especially Brother Shu's former classmates, who particularly like to have Brother Shu serve them."
After hearing this, the old lady couldn't even utter an "ah." If it weren't for the tears still flowing, Song Xia would have thought she had passed away.
"Don't rush, I haven't told you about Zhou Yongli yet!"
Seeing that the old lady had stirred again, Song Xia continued, "Your good son Zhou Yongli is not as aggrieved as they are, but he has been sent to Xishan to quarry. You know Xishan, how many criminals die there every year. But I have made arrangements to ensure that he is well-fed and will not die easily."
After saying all this, Song Xia sighed, "Do you know why I'm so ruthless? It's because I was reborn. In my previous life, you really achieved your goals. Yuqing died, and I went with her. Liu Fangniang was made the official wife. Zhou Ying didn't marry Prince Huai, but she became the wife of the heir of the Marquis of Yong'an. Zhou Shuqing also passed the imperial examination and became a third-ranked scholar, with a bright future ahead of her. You also lived a life of luxury. It's a pity that my father and brothers were kept in the dark all along. They thought that I was too willful and caused Yuqing's death. In the end, they helped Zhou Yongli in the court."
Hearing her say these things, the old woman seemed to remember them, her eyes gleaming. Then, seeing her cold smile, she wished she could get up and kill her.
"Now all of this is just a matter of what goes around comes around."
At the same time, Zhou Ying seemed to sense something and shouted loudly, "I am not a concubine of Prince Huai, I am the wife of the heir of the Marquis of Yong'an. Let me out, let me out."
"She's really crazy. The Marquis of Yong'an's wife? The Marquis of Yong'an's son is already married."
"If she really wasn't a concubine of Prince Huai, we wouldn't be implicated by her."
"Stay away from this crazy woman, lest something happens to her child and she goes berserk and bites people."
Zhou Ying sat on the ground, crying and laughing at the same time. She remembered everything. It shouldn't have been like this. They should have succeeded.
She didn't come to her senses until the child in her arms started crying in fear.
The problem arose at that crucial point. Song Xia must have known about what happened in her past life before her.
God, why are you favoring Song Xia? Are we all wrong? But who in this world doesn't fight for their own interests?
On the other side, Zhou Shuqing, just like Zhou Ying, suddenly shouted that he was the third-ranked scholar while serving drinks. Those people, with their perverse sense of humor, immediately made him act it out.
After a night, Zhou Shuqing was left in the woodshed like a dead fish. Liu Fangniang held her son and wept bitterly. She knew she was wrong. She shouldn't have competed with Song Xia for Yonglang. If she and the children had been more respectful to Song Xia, if she hadn't harbored unrealistic ideas, could they still have lived peacefully? After all, Song Xia hadn't paid any attention to them before finding out the truth.
Although she wasn't the principal wife back then, she had everything she could want. But now everything is ruined. Shu-ge'er's pride has been destroyed, and he has no one to rely on. As for Ying-jie'er, no one knows what she's like in the Prince Huai's mansion.
What exactly gave her the right to challenge Song Xia? Song Xia was a high-ranking county princess, the daughter of Prince Cheng. Why couldn't she recognize her own status back then?
Yonglang, you're the one who's made us so greedy! You're the real culprit!
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