Chapter 67: The Snake Has Emerged From Its Hole
The night wind outside the alley carried the unique earthy smell of the moat, brushing past her face.
Yue Tang leaped onto the high wall, and from afar, she could already see the Du Family Member heading toward the horse carriage along the dark alley.
When the sound of carriage wheels rumbled from the distance, she didn’t wait for Wei Zhang. She jumped down from the wall top herself, walked slowly onto the street, and headed in the direction of the Xu Family.
There were no pedestrians on the road, and the sound of footsteps was clear to the ear.
Tonight, there was only a crescent moon.
She had never strolled alone like this on the streets of the Capital City before.
Bearing the prophecy given by the old monk, appearing in public would let her malevolent energy affect fortunes, so before age six, she had stayed almost only in Prince Duan’s Mansion and the Imperial Palace.
Her mother’s indifference made her accustomed to solitude. She had never walked the Capital City’s streets alone, but she had explored every corner of Prince Duan’s Mansion.
The more remote and quiet the place, the more at ease she felt.
There were also people who couldn’t bear to see it and would come to accompany her on their own.
At first, it was Yue Rong, her brother who was over two years older. After school, he would find her first thing, take her to play, and tell her interesting stories from his studies.
Later, Chu Yan joined.
Prince Duan’s Mansion held high position and great power, and many people wanted to associate with it. Prince Duan was not aloof and would appropriately accept social engagements. The Chu Family itself had high family status, and the master was the Grand Preceptor. Prince Duan had been acquainted with the Chu Family even when he was still a prince, and later when he stayed in the Capital City to establish the mansion and take charge of the Imperial City Department, he maintained interactions with the Chu Family.
Chu Yan was only half a year younger than Yue Rong, and Yue Rong liked her very much. When they were young, he would blush and steal glances at her.
Chu Yan probably liked Yue Rong too, right? The Chu Family’s family education was very strict, with many rules. The young miss of their family could not make any mistakes. If there was even the slightest impropriety outside, she would face some punishment upon returning home. Only when together with Yue Rong could Chu Yan stop being a puppet; she could laugh and pester Yue Rong to pick flowers from the treetops.
Fortunately, Princess Duan and Madam Chu got along fairly well, so the Chu Family did not stop Chu Yan from coming over to visit.
Every time Chu Yan came, she would bounce around looking for Yue Tang. When Yue Rong was not at school, they played together. When Yue Rong was at school, Chu Yan played with Yue Tang.
Yue Tang envied her ability to make nail polish herself, so she brought seeds of the balsam flowers she grew from the Chu Family, planted them in Yue Tang’s own small garden, watered them when she came, picked them when they bloomed, mashed out the juice, and applied it to Yue Tang’s nails.
Due to the strict family education, Chu Yan always spoke very little and was more composed than ordinary young ladies.
But during Yue Tang’s noon nap, she would sit by her side embroidering, tuck in the quilt for her, and wipe her sweat.
Yue Tang always couldn’t write her own name well, and she would comfort her from the side, saying that if a person couldn’t write their own name well, it might just be incompatibility between the two, unrelated to ability.
Chu Yan didn’t say it, but Yue Tang knew that her fondness for the prince’s mansion exceeded that for the Chu Family.
Later, Chu Xin came too.
He was Chu Yan’s brother, three years older than Yue Rong and Chu Yan, but much busier than Yue Rong, who was born into real power and nobility.
When he came, he looked for Yue Rong, but since Yue Rong often had to take care of his sister, Chu Xin would occasionally join their trio for fun.
Looking at Yue Tang, who was five or six years old, Chu Xin would call her Little Princess.
When Yue Tang couldn’t find anyone, she also asked him for help to retrieve kites stuck on the roof.
He would hold up the big kite, pretend to be a bird, let out strange cries as he jumped down, then grin and hand it to her.
“Princess!”
Wei Zhang had arrived.
Yue Tang raised her head with furrowed brows locked tight, only to see Wei Zhang looking worried: “What happened to you?”
Yue Tang glanced around, then realized she had already sat down under the wall battlement. And the surroundings were clearly the scene outside the Top Scholar’s Mansion gate.
“Is it the old injury acting up?” Wei Zhang also squatted down beside her.
“No.” She dissipated the malice in her eyes. “I just wanted to rest for a bit.”
“Mother!”
Suddenly, in the night, came the sweet, milky call of a child.
Yue Tang’s back stiffened as she turned toward the sound, seeing not far ahead A Li holding a soup tureen in his left hand, his right hand held by his father, excitedly looking at her.
“A Li!”
She immediately stood up: “How did you all come?”
“The child said he wanted to bring you sweet dumplings. I couldn’t dissuade him.”
The man was too tall, and leading a three-year-old child was quite strenuous, so he only extended one index finger for A Li to hold, and had him stand on the roadside base to maintain his posture.
A Li rushed to Yue Tang’s side, clumsily opened the soup tureen, with hot steam rising to her face: “It’s still hot. Father said Mother went to beat bad guys earlier, which is very tiring. A Li made sweet dumplings to reward Mother!”
Yue Tang looked at the soup tureen full of oddly shaped dough balls and couldn’t help rubbing his little head. “How are you so great!”
A Li leaned to her ear and whispered: “Even if Mother didn’t beat the bad guys, it’s okay. A Li and Father will help you beat them together!”
Yue Tang’s eyes grew moist.
All her pent-up feelings were suppressed.
She handed the soup tureen to Yan Bei, then picked up A Li in one go: “Let’s go inside and eat sweet dumplings!”
Yan Bei looked at the soup tureen in his hand, then at the mother and son who had already stepped through the door, and resignedly became a bowl holder.
……
Lan Qin had long left the door open for Yue Tang and the others. Yan Bei and his group had arrived a step earlier, and there was no one under the Xu Family gate.
Once inside the room, Yue Tang had already sat A Li down on the couch, and Lan Qin was playing nine linked rings with him nearby.
Yan Bei placed the soup tureen in front of Yue Tang: “Eat it quickly. It may not look great, but the taste is still good.”
Yue Tang said nothing, took the spoon, and started eating.
Yan Bei watched her under the lamp, her hair still disheveled, but eating intently. Suddenly, no matter how many words were in his heart, he couldn’t bear to interrupt.
At this moment, Yue Tang spoke up herself: “I saw him.”
Yan Bei paused.
“If I’m not mistaken, it’s Chu Xin.”
Yue Tang raised her eyes, her gaze sharp as knives: “Among all the Chu Family Members and Mu Family Members who know me, precisely Chu Xin is left-handed. And precisely, he saw me when I was young.”
After a pause, she continued: “The Chu Family has held office for generations, with deep family resources. They can certainly afford the 100,000 taels of silver reward money, and have sufficient strength to promise the Imperial City Department Envoy position to Du Minghuan.
“So the world’s belief that the Chu Family was put forward to oppose the Shen Family due to hatred with them is wrong.
“The Chu Family’s rise to power was something they strove for themselves.
“They first formed a marriage alliance with Prince Duan’s Mansion, binding themselves to its power, then seeing a better opportunity, simply set up a trap to step down Prince Duan’s Mansion and rise themselves.
“Because they are the prince’s mansion’s in-laws, they knew the Imperial City Department situation too well, so even without seeing me, they had ways to grasp my whereabouts very clearly.”
Yue Tang said this and tugged at the corner of her mouth toward the air. “Before tonight, I had been denying my suspicions, but unfortunately, the facts are still heading in that direction.”
Upon hearing this, Yan Bei took out two pieces of paper given to him by Gao An from his bosom: “You’re probably not wrong. Because the guards staking out outside the Chu and Mu Families have also discovered Chu Family Members heading in the direction of the Du Family Father and Son’s whereabouts.”
Yue Tang took them, her brows furrowing even tighter.
Yan Bei was puzzled: “You didn’t return to Prince Duan’s Mansion before. Was it because you already had suspicions?”
“Yes.” Yue Tang scooped up the last sweet dumpling. “There must be an informant, so they could ambush in the woods just in time.
“But I couldn’t be sure who it was.
“You know, when I return to the mansion, the mansion also needs to prepare in advance. More than one or two people know my whereabouts.”
Yan Bei snorted coldly: “Your sister-in-law is surnamed Chu. I think she’s the most suspicious.”
“She certainly has suspicion. But there are a few points I can’t figure out.”
“How so?”
Yue Tang set down the bowl and spoon: “Chu Yan is my sister-in-law and my playmate from childhood. Even though I didn’t live in the prince’s mansion later, she saw me countless times.
“I used A Xiu’s corpse to impersonate myself. If she was a accomplice, she would definitely personally verify the corpse’s authenticity.
“If she wasn’t an accomplice and didn’t participate, the Chu Family would definitely have her come forward to identify the body.
“No matter how well Wei Zhang and the others forged it, it certainly wouldn’t escape Chu Yan’s eyes.
“So why has the Chu Family firmly believed it for these three years?
“Why are they only starting to suspect now?”
Yan Bei furrowed his brows upon hearing this: “Indeed. Before this, I never heard anyone doubt that Princess Yongjia didn’t die.”
Yue Tang nodded: “So, the one who knows best that the Chu Family’s conspiracy didn’t succeed is Chu Yan.
“Chu Xin has seen me, but only me from when I was very young.
“Chu Yan knew from the beginning that I probably didn’t die, but she never told her father and brother.
“I don’t know how to explain these unreasonable points.”
Under the lamplight, her gaze deepened, surging with waves again.
Ever since waking from her injury and hearing the follow-up news that Wei Zhang had investigated upon returning to the Capital City, Yue Tang had set her sights on these families that benefited at the Imperial Court.
But frankly, before Yan Bei’s stance became clear, aside from confirming that her stabbing was entirely led by the Du Family, drawing in the He and Zhang Families, she still had no clear train of thought. She could only infer from the silver the Du Family gave to the He and Zhang Families that the Du Family had another mastermind.
Out of caution, she avoided contact with Prince Duan’s Mansion people, and for Chu Yan, she didn’t rashly conclude whether her nature was black or white.
Until step by step reaching now, with the mask-wearer’s identity almost confirmed and the Chu Family mastermind’s identity exposed, she naturally couldn’t avoid Chu Yan.
Yan Bei was puzzled: “So, regarding the Chu Family’s conspiracy, is she aware or unaware?”
Yue Tang was silent for a long time staring at the flickering lamp flame, then said: “Aware.”
“Why are you so certain?”
“Because in these three years, she never looked for me.”
Yan Bei fell silent.
Yue Tang pushed away the bowl and wiped her lips clean: “From when I was three and started remembering things, I knew I had a not-so-good fate. Father King didn’t let me go out, and I never objected.
“Those boring days, Chu Yan helped me pass many.
“She was my only friend, the one I sincerely hoped would become family. When she was suffocated by the Chu Family rules, I found ways to help her out. When brother died and she repeatedly wanted to seek death, I accompanied her day and night.
“When I married you, she personally, stitch by stitch, tailored my wedding dress.
“She said she was an unlucky person and specially left all the embroidery on the wedding dress to the prince’s mansion’s embroiderers.
“When I was pregnant with A Li, vomiting terribly, she was like a mother, like an elder sister, preparing stabilizing medicines for me and reciting scriptures to bless me.
“The Chu Family is so suspicious. In short, I know she’s suspicious, but I can’t figure out the contradictions in her.
“No matter if the past affections were real or not, her not sending anyone to secretly find me privately, even if isolated and without aid, at least shows she knows the Chu Family is untrustworthy.”
She curled up the five fingers resting on the table.
Yan Bei, listening with flushed face and ears, hesitated: “Then do you want to go directly back to Prince Duan’s Mansion to find her?”
Letting her face the pains of pregnancy alone was his fault.
If possible, for the next child, he was willing to bear it himself.
If not possible, right now he would be her ox and horse.
Yue Tang sat still for a moment, then shook her head: “This move is useless. The Chu Family is the main culprit of the conspiracy. Right now, they probably wish I would be distracted.”
“But since she knew what the Chu Family did, didn’t stop it, didn’t resist, it equals betraying you. Equals betraying Prince Duan’s Mansion.”
“Yes, but no rush.” Yue Tang calmly took a sip of water. “I must first unmask the true culprit and make them submit to the law for their crimes.
“The Chu Family was never good people. Stepping back ten thousand steps, even if my judgment today is wrong, and the mask-wearer I saw wasn’t Chu Xin, the fact remains that the mastermind behind the scenes is already targeting the Imperial Clan Court.
“Since they’ve started doubting my life and death again, I must guard against it beforehand.
“My seal is surely in their hands. If I can’t get it, I can only verify my identity with the Imperial Clan Court’s household registration file.
“I guess he suddenly had the Du Family take the turtle talisman into the Imperial Clan Court precisely to retrieve my household registration file—or even destroy it!
“After all, no matter how I seek revenge, without a way to restore my princess identity, I can’t have the strength to revenge against them. Even more, I can’t prove my identity.
“As long as they stubbornly insist I’m not Princess Yongjia, they can erase everything!
“So I absolutely cannot let them succeed.
“And I can’t give them time to catch their breath.
“When they surface, I will live back openly as Princess Yongjia.
“Not only will I avenge my own grudge, A Li’s grudge, Father King’s grudge, brother’s grudge, even those subordinates who died wrongfully in the woods for me—all the grudges, I will avenge them all.”
A thin porcelain cup was nearly cracked by her grip!
Yan Bei also burned with anger inside, yet a chill roamed his body: “For the Imperial Clan Court side, I’ll find a way. I absolutely won’t let anyone have a chance to touch your household registration file.”
Yue Tang nodded: “This matter is something only you can handle.
“But there’s another thing, which is exactly what I want to say.
“Earlier, the people Du Yu ambushed outside the secret room were discovered by the Chu Family. Afterward, they must have carefully searched the surroundings.
“I deliberately left a pearl hairpin in that secret room. Once Chu Xin gets it, he will be even more suspicious it’s me.
“And when he discovers I’ve been to the place where he and Du Minghuan met, he will definitely become even more uneasy.
“The snake has already moved.
“Right now, I don’t want them to keep hiding motionless. I want them to actively expose their vital spot.
“So tomorrow at the Imperial Court, you still need to help me stir the fire once more.”
“How to stir?”
Yue Tang brewed a cup of tea and pushed it over, her eyes sharp as blades: “At the Imperial Court, directly tell the Three Judicial Offices that He Jianzhong and Zhang Shaode’s sudden increase in family wealth three years ago, and the suspicious displays, are greatly related to me being surrounded and killed by refugees in the outskirts dense forest.”
