Chapter 307 Trapped in that small backyard
"Why is all this happening?" Empress Song Zhuyi still couldn't help but want to know the reason. "Since your birth, the entire household has doted on you."
"I believe I have done what an elder sister should do for you."
“If you want to be the Empress, just say so, and I will definitely give it to you. But you said you don’t want to enter the palace.”
"Back then, my grandfather and father had the idea of sending you into the palace because I had not conceived for a long time, for the sake of the Song family's future."
“But you yourself said you didn’t want to enter the palace, didn’t want to be confined to this harem for life. Your elder sister is also trying her best to set you free, so you won’t be trapped here for life like me.”
"I've never wanted to believe that you're the one who made me unable to get pregnant and harmed me behind my back. I've never understood why you did all this?"
The Empress couldn't help but shed tears as she spoke these words. This was her younger sister, whom she had doted on since childhood, and who shared the same mother.
Unexpectedly, Song Zhuran showed no emotion whatsoever, and her previous sickly demeanor vanished. She casually picked the most vibrant peony from the nearby flowerpot, held it to her nose, and gently sniffed it.
Only then did she slowly speak, "My dear sister, did you move yourself to tears?"
"You keep emphasizing that we are siblings from the same mother, are you afraid that the dirty things in the Song family's inner quarters will be discovered by others?"
Empress Song Zhuyi's expression shifted slightly. "You...know something?"
"Hmph, what do you know?" Song Zhuran sneered. "When she was pregnant with me, the Song family sought out so many Taoist priests and doctors, just wanting a son."
But it turned out to be a daughter.
"It is precisely because of all the medicine you people have given me that my health has been so poor and I can't get better. You say the palace is a prison, but your prison is many times bigger than the Song family's."
"This entire palace has 9,999 rooms."
"How much is the Song family mansion? How many courtyards does the Song family mansion have? I have been confined to that small courtyard since I was born."
"At first it was because I was unwell, and later it was because they wanted me to enter the palace, so they wouldn't let me go out, fearing that I would take a fancy to some young master, just like you did back then, elder sister."
"Ranran, shut up!" The Empress was startled. "This is the palace."
"If these words were to reach His Majesty's ears, neither you nor I, nor the Song family, would be safe."
"Didn't you tell me to say it, sister?" Song Zhuran showed no sign of stopping or being afraid. "What? You kept pressing me for answers when I didn't say anything?"
"It's as if you're the only kind-hearted person in the world, and as if I'm being ungrateful for everything I've done."
"Now that I'm telling you, what are you afraid of?"
"Isn't it just that back then, you were betrothed to His Majesty when he was still the Crown Prince, but you fell for a scholar at a banquet?"
“Sister, you were willing to marry the Crown Prince for that scholar, but you probably don’t know that Grandfather promised to spare that scholar’s life, but he didn’t.”
"On the day you married into the Eastern Palace, he watched you get into the bridal sedan chair with his own eyes, and then he was killed by his grandfather's men."
As Song Zhuran spoke, she smiled sweetly, then grabbed the head of the peony flower and squeezed it hard with one hand, "The body was eventually buried somewhere random."
Song Zhuran looked at Empress Song Zhuyi with a face full of shock and grief.
He got more and more excited as he spoke, "Not only that, the scholar's family members were all dealt with by his father."
"Did they say the scholar's whole family moved away? And that the scholar took the money given to him by the Song family and left? My dear sister, you've been kept in the dark all these years. How do you feel now that you know?"
"Sister, please don't get angry," Song Zhuran said earnestly, pouting. "You're pregnant now, what if you upset the baby?"
"Don't worry, I will make sure this child is born safely, and it must be a boy."
"I will personally raise him for my sister in the future."
"Or rather, sister, you raised a son for me."
Empress Song Zhuyi subconsciously touched her stomach and asked nervously, "What exactly do you want to do?"
Jiang Wan Ning quickly took out a calming pill and fed it to the Empress. "Your Majesty, please don't be angry. I'm here, so you'll be fine, and the baby will be fine too."
Jiang Wan Ning's words were more effective than any calming or pregnancy-preserving medicine for Song Zhu Yi at this moment. As long as Jiang Wan Ning was by her side, she would feel inexplicably at ease.
"Your Majesty, let's go."
Empress Song Zhuyi grabbed Jiang Wanning's wrist. "Ningning, I want to hear what she has to say. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing, it'll be fine."
"The doubts I've kept hidden in my heart for so long, now that she's willing to speak, let her speak clearly. That way, I won't be soft-hearted again and again in the future."
The Empress steadied herself and, suppressing the turmoil in her heart, said calmly, "Since you are willing to speak today, then speak clearly."
"As for my affair with that man, I already know about it. There's no need for you to say anything here. Even if my grandfather and father treated that scholar that way, that's no reason for you to hurt me like this."
Song Zhuran knew that Song Zhuyi was putting on a brave face at this moment; she knew better than anyone what it felt like to love someone.
That feeling of loving someone but not being able to be with them openly and honestly.
Song Zhuran smiled sweetly, "Sister, you're always like this, making yourself seem very kind and dignified."
"That scholar's matter naturally has nothing to do with me, after all, I was still young at that time, wasn't I?"
"But my dear sister, when my mother was pregnant with me, the Song family wanted a son. Who was it that gave the Song family that idea, saying that those nonsensical prescriptions could change the sex of the baby and guarantee a son?"
"Sister, don't you have any?"
"Who told you all this?" Empress Song Zhuyi said sternly. "Your grandfather ordered that no one be allowed to mention these things since you were born."
"So it's true?" Song Zhuran said. "You did a really good job. Those servants who knew about these things were probably killed by Grandfather and Father long ago, right?"
"I know I still need to thank you, sister."
"If I hadn't overheard what you and Mother were saying in the house back then, how would I have known?"
Song Zhuyi suddenly remembered that before she got married, she had talked with her mother about when she was pregnant with Song Zhuran.
“My grandfather and father did want a boy, but my mother was forced to have one. I didn’t want my mother to drink those things, so I secretly discussed it with her. The so-called pregnancy-changing medicines I found were actually pregnancy-preserving medicines.”
Song Zhuran didn't believe it at all. "If there's no evidence, then you shouldn't believe it anymore, sister."
“If that were all, I wouldn’t have done this. But later, the Song family confined me to that courtyard because of my sister and that scholar, didn’t they?”
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