Chapter 94 Confession The man's breath brushed against her ear, making...
*
The Prince of Chi was the second prince back then. Although he was of decent quality, he did not have many outstanding qualities. Moreover, there was the eldest prince who was virtuous and talented above him and the third prince who was brave and capable below him. According to the order of seniority, the eldest prince should be the crown prince. However, if we consider the late emperor's personal preferences, he preferred the third prince.
Caught in the middle, he was overshadowed and held little weight among the court officials and in the heart of the emperor. His ambition and the disparity of being ignored accumulated, eventually leading him to rebel. Therefore, when he launched his rebellion, the first person he killed was the eldest prince, followed by the third prince.
The current emperor is the fourth among the princes, and is the most carefree and unrestrained by nature, having never had any interest in the throne. However, the Demon King is bloodthirsty and determined to eliminate all the princes to ensure his absolute right to succession.
If it weren't for Shen Kunyao's desperate protection, the current emperor would surely have met the same fate as the other princes, unable to even save his life, let alone have any chance of ruling the world.
Over the years, Shen Kunyao and Mu Wei have jointly commanded the Divine Martial Camp, protecting the entire city of Donglin. Their father, Shen Yuan, guards the border, which is the most solid defense line for Daye against the outside world.
The Shen family holds power in both the capital and the border regions, a situation almost unique in the entire Great Ye Dynasty.
Prince Xin's actions against the Shen family were not outright hostile; rather, they were a form of suppression after failing to win them over, an intention to destroy what he could not obtain.
Conversely, if someone wants to compete with him for power, then the enemy of my enemy is my friend, and they will definitely try to curry favor with the Shen family. If they can get the Shen family to join their side, they will probably stop at nothing to achieve their goals.
For example, this person in front of me, in order to make the Shen family appear to be his people on the surface and thus be loyal to him wholeheartedly, can even spout such lies.
Regardless of whether it was exploitation or for some other purpose, this should be considered a confession.
As the one being confessed to, Shen Qinglu was unsure how to react—whether to be shocked or shy.
She made no attempt to disguise herself, and calmly looked up at Mu Hanshi, her most authentic self, and asked, "How could the person you love be me?"
Mu Hanshi also wanted to ask himself, why her?
Was it that she had a detached view of life and death at such a young age? Or was it her maturity beyond her years? Or perhaps it was the accumulated experience of spending time together over the years, or maybe it was her trust in herself?
However, her calm and sensible demeanor was clearly an act, meaning that all the little things they did together, and her dependence on him, were very likely fake!
Why is it still her?
And besides her, there couldn't possibly be anyone else!
"I don't know, maybe it's because you are you."
What a convenient excuse of "I don't know"!
They didn't even bother to make up a reason. What they said, "Maybe it's because you are you," was actually the truth. They were just after her status as the niece of the Shen family.
Shen Qinglu felt a chill in her heart, but she didn't show it on her face. In the midst of power struggles and scheming, genuine sincerity was a rare commodity; even four or five parts of it were considered precious.
Unfortunately, there's probably not even a sliver of a connection between them.
"I haven't thought about that matter you mentioned yet."
"It's alright, I'll wait for you."
She is also someone who can be flexible and adaptable.
Shen Qinglu sighed and nodded quite casually.
She was too calm, like an orchid blooming in a secluded valley, ignoring the sunshine, rain, lightning, and thunder, as if she knew nothing of the storms of the world, shining brightly and beautifully on her own.
The night was eerily quiet, so deep it felt like there would never be a tomorrow.
For a fleeting moment, Mu Hanshi felt as if he were a venomous snake lurking in the shadows, flicking its greedy tongue, eager to devour that beauty.
In the blink of an eye, he moved closer to Shen Qinglu and wrapped his arm around her.
The man's breath brushed against her ear, making Shen Qinglu feel a strange sense of danger. Perhaps it was just her imagination, but it felt as if someone had licked her soft earlobe.
The strange sensation of being enveloped in warmth and moisture happened so quickly, so fast that it caught her off guard. She didn't even have time to dodge or push the person away in time; the person had already retreated to their previous position, several steps away from her.
"Your hair is covered in dust."
Mu Hanshi rubbed his thumb and forefinger together, and sure enough, his fingertips were covered in black.
For a moment, Shen Qinglu didn't know whether to praise this person for having good eyesight, being able to spot even the ash that was similar in color to her hair, or to question whether the other person had licked her.
After a while, he said, "I'm tired."
After saying that, she turned around.
This means to shoo people away.
But the way she did it didn't seem like she was chasing people away; it seemed more like she was seducing them.
She couldn't see the change in Mu Hanshi's expression, which was like a snow pine suddenly catching fire, turning into a dazzling display of light and color, both endlessly brilliant and endlessly eerie.
The boots with cloud patterns and gold embroidery moved slightly, but ultimately refrained from approaching her and turned to walk away.
Once she was alone in the room, she rubbed her temples and, feeling quite tired, sat down on the edge of the bed.
As if possessed, she touched her earlobe, imagining someone licking it, and the more she thought about it, the more incongruous and strange it felt. She glanced sideways at the beauty in the mirror, and even though the angle wasn't good and she couldn't see clearly, she was still amazed.
So that person wasn't just after the Shen family's power, but also her beauty!
Feeling a bit bored, she collapsed onto the bed, her eyes vacant and unfocused as she stared at the top of the tent until they started to ache before slowly closing them.
After an unknown amount of time, a cicada quietly entered.
"Girl, are you asleep?"
"No," she replied listlessly. "I'm just a little tired."
“You’ve been so worried these past few days, not daring to relax for a single day. You must be exhausted.” Xia Chan said as she took off her shoes. “I’m terrified just thinking about it. That thing is so harmful. If Miss Tang’er really succeeds, the consequences will be unimaginable.”
Upon hearing this, she suddenly opened her eyes.
No wonder she always felt that she had overlooked something; it turned out that after she finished talking about what Yu Liuzhu had done, Mu Hanshi didn't ask a single question.
In other words, that person either doesn't care at all, or has everything under control.
If it's the latter...
She stared at the red canopy above her head again, as if an invisible net, like this gauze curtain, was covering her, but she was unaware of it.
*
As dawn breaks in the east, the first rays of morning light begin to appear.
Yu Liuzhu's eyes, which hadn't slept all night, were filled with a desperate mix of hatred and fear. She seemed unable to bear the light, her gaze filled with dread and panic.
The night was so long and so unbearable. Several times when my consciousness wavered, it felt as if the neglect I had suffered in my past life had become insignificant.
Her body was bound hand and foot, and her mouth was gagged with a cloth, so she couldn't move at all. Apart from Renchun and Hanxiao taking turns watching her, no one else came to see her.
Of course, no one came to save her.
Hearing the gurgling sounds coming from inside her stomach, she grew increasingly desperate.
The door was pushed open from the outside, and a sudden burst of light blinded her. In the glare, the vibrant red seemed like an approaching fire, its glow reflecting in her eyes.
"Waaah"
She struggled desperately, her expression twisted and ferocious.
Shen Qinglu stared at her coldly, as if looking at a distorted mask, and then ripped the cloth out of her mouth.
"...Give me the antidote, give me the antidote quickly..." she said hastily, her words slurred because her mouth had been stuffed with a cloth all night.
"As long as you behave yourself from now on, I will send you the antidote every month." Shen Qinglu leaned down slightly to look her over, like an observer looking at a face that resembled her own from the past, without feeling the slightest bit of pity.
She kept shaking her head, "Ah Li, I promise I won't go against you anymore. Give me the antidote now... I promise I'll keep my word."
"I don't believe you."
How could Shen Qinglu possibly believe her? She could even harm her adoptive mother, who had doted on her for over a decade, let alone someone she considered a thorn in her side.
"You can't do this to me... I haven't done anything wrong to you, you have no right to control me..."
“My mother did nothing wrong to you. She raised you in luxury for over a decade. Yet, for your own selfish reasons, knowing she might go insane, you still tried to control her.” Shen Qinglu’s dark eyes held an unfathomable coldness.
They were switched at birth for sixteen years, but if we really look at it, the fault lies with Xie Shi and Yu Qingxue. There should be no hatred or resentment between them. What they should have been was peaceful coexistence after the switch, with each returning to their place and not disturbing the other.
"I was wrong, I will never do it again..."
Shen Qinglu wouldn't believe a single word of her apology and promises.
"Yu Tang, did you also pray to God like this in your past life?"
The moment the words "past life" were uttered, Yu Liuzhu was completely stunned.
"you……"
"God gave you a chance, but instead of using it to change your fate with your own abilities, you used it to harm others." As Shen Qinglu spoke, she opened the half-open door to its maximum and then pushed open the carved window.
In an instant, light came from all directions, and the darkness was dispelled.
Yu Liuzhu was startled by the light and instinctively closed her eyes. When she opened them again, for a fleeting moment, she felt as if she had returned to the day before her rebirth.
That night, when she heard Jiang Yingshui and Ning Shi discussing sending her to Shansi Nunnery, she was terrified and didn't sleep well all night, thinking that she would go back to her parents' home as soon as it was dawn.
She stared intently out the window, half-asleep and half-awake, as if she saw the first rays of dawn appear, and then she returned to the Yu residence, back to the time before she and Mu Lin had officially married.
"I didn't hurt anyone, you're the ones who wronged me. God has been kind to me, He will surely protect me..."
"Untie her."
Renchun and Hanxiao heard Shen Qinglu's instructions and came over to untie her.
Still reeling from the unexpected joy of gaining freedom, she heard Shen Qinglu's emotionless words: "Throw her out!"
"Shen Li!" As she tried to pounce, Ren Chun and Han Xiao grabbed her from either side.
The two men grabbed her and dragged her out without looking back, ignoring her struggles and screams.
At this hour, Chongde Lane is bustling with people, including those from various households who come out to buy things, as well as farmers and peddlers rushing to deliver meat and vegetables to the kitchens inside the high walls.
As soon as the side gate of the Shen residence opened, she was thrown out and nearly crashed into an oxcart carrying vegetables.
The farmer driving the oxcart was startled and quickly stopped the cart. When he saw that the girl who had been thrown out did not look like a servant, he couldn't help but be a little curious.
A voice, filled with both laughter and grief, rang out, "My lady is kind-hearted. Even though her own biological daughter was switched, she still couldn't bear to leave this adopted daughter in the manor. Who would have thought that this black-hearted wretch would poison my lady's soup!"
She was skilled at mimicking speech and also an excellent ventriloquist; the same words she spoke were especially captivating, drawing passersby to stop and watch.
Yu Liuzhu panicked, but she could not possibly admit to such a crime. "You...you're framing me!"
"Miss Tang'er, what goes around comes around. You will get your comeuppance!"
The word "retribution" struck Yu Liuzhu like a thunderclap.
She shook her head frantically, "No, God has been kind to me, you people..."
They all deserve to die!
The people who gathered around pointed at her and said all sorts of things.
“This eldest daughter of the Yu family is truly heartless. Madam Yu used to dote on her so much. Even my wife said that there were few people in the entire capital who could spoil their daughters like Madam Yu did. How could she poison Madam Yu? She is truly wicked.”
"...You don't know this, but I heard that she and the real eldest daughter of the Yu family were switched at birth, and it was her own mother, the eldest aunt of the Yu family, who forced the old lady of the Yu family to do it. I also heard that the old lady of the Yu family's biological children weren't born mentally challenged, but were made mentally challenged by the eldest aunt of the Yu family's medicine. Like mother, like daughter, this mother and daughter...tsk tsk..."
"..."
As she listened to these discussions, her mind went blank.
She still remembers that wherever she went in the past, all she heard were praises from others. Those compliments and criticisms were mixed together, giving her a splitting headache.
"Madam Yu, Madam Yu is out!"
"You've got it wrong now. She's Madam Shen now."
Shen Linlang looked extremely haggard and pale, as if she had just recovered from a serious illness. She was helped out by Granny Yu and slowly walked up to her, looking at her with heartache and disappointment.
"Tang'er, I have never done anything to wrong you, so why would you want to hurt me?"
"Mother, I didn't, I'm innocent. You love me the most and can't bear to see me being talked about. I have nothing left. If this gets out, my reputation will be ruined, and I won't be able to live..." She looked up, her eyes full of pleading, trying to awaken Shen Linlang's past love for her and thus exonerate her.
Shen Linlang grew increasingly disappointed and suddenly pulled a dagger from her sleeve.
"...Just because I didn't crawl out of your belly, you not only framed me, but you also tried to kill me, you..."
"What is Madam Shen doing?"
Everyone was shocked, including her.
She watched in shock as Shen Linlang cut off a lock of her hair with a dagger and scattered it on the ground.
"From this day forward, all ties between us are severed!"
"mother……"
"Don't call me 'Mother' anymore. I have nothing to do with you anymore."
Shen Linlang's ruthlessness stopped her trembling. Deep inside, she was filled with fear and endless resentment.
Since her rebirth, she has been filled with resentment, a resentment that has made her obsessive, twisted, and driven to seek revenge at all costs. She craves the guilt and remorse in others after she has retaliated against them, hoping for everyone to repent and weep with regret, not for them to completely abandon her. Especially Shen Linlang.
"mother……"
She struggled to her feet to chase after her, but it was too late. She could only watch helplessly as Shen Linlang disappeared through the door, seemingly about to vanish from her life forever.
A huge panic drove her to desperately want to follow them inside.
Suddenly, she met a pair of cold, dark eyes.
Shen Qinglu looked at her indifferently, "You hurt the person who loves you the most in this world, you deserve to die."
"No, it's you...it's all your fault."
She shook her head desperately, refusing to admit that it was all her fault.
"It wasn't someone else who harmed you; you brought this upon yourself." Shen Qing's dark green eyes were like a pitch-black night, each word as cold as ice. "Yu Tang, this is your retribution."
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