Chapter 74: Congrats, You’ve Got A Fake Child
Yue Tang admitted that ever since the incident, she had been somewhat guarded and suspicious toward everyone except Wei Zhang and a few others close to her.
But she had never thought that the Empress’s affection for her would have any other motive.
It was even more unbelievable that her father and brother, who doted on her to the bone, would accept such an idea from the Empress!
Outside the window, Yan Bei watched her solitary figure and also furrowed his brows.
Yue Tang had changed too much before and after three years ago; back then she was spoiled and mischievous, always smiling, but now the Yue Tang facing the world had cold eyes, and even her smiles lacked warmth.
Only when facing Wei Zhang and the others around her, and A Li, would she reveal gentleness.
This showed how much she valued family ties and how much she cared about her relatives deep down?
She had once regarded Chu Yan as family too.
But the account of Chu Yan pushing her to a dead end was not yet settled, and now she was tearing apart the family bonds of the Empress and Prince Duan’s Mansion as fake too?
Having experienced such brutal slaughter three years ago, she at least had the support of being loved by her family back then; now facing such torment again, what difference was there from having her bones crushed and ashes scattered?
He looked around at the high walls everywhere, then turned his gaze to Yue Tang in the room.
At this moment, her head was slightly lowered, her right hand holding the sword, her left hand lightly supporting the edge of the table, lost in thought.
“Who told you this?” As over ten ways to kill Chu Yan flashed through Yan Bei’s mind, Yue Tang suddenly raised her head, her voice still extremely steady: “Brother?”
Chu Yan, who was similarly dazed, glanced at her, hatred surging up again: “How would he know? I only found out after it happened!”
“Was it the Chu Family that told you?”
Chu Yan bit her lip.
Yue Tang sneered: “If it was the Chu Family, how could I take it as true? Chu Yan, you deliberately lied to me.”
Chu Yan’s expression crumbled.
“But you’re right, I’m here to kill you, so why would you so honestly tell me the truth?”
Yue Tang leaned close to her: “According to your guess, you thought that even if I came back alive, I would still trust you like seeking refuge with family and turn to you for help.
“Then you could deceive me into helping you kill the Chu Family.
“You didn’t expect me to come suddenly.
“Now you have the Prince’s Mansion, enough to contend with the Chu Family. You have a child, you have hope, of course you don’t want to die.”
Chu Yan’s face was already twisted.
She turned her face away, her hands moving away from Yue Huan’s body, clenching into fists.
“You actually guessed right. I was certain the one who leaked the secret was you, which happened just these past few days.” Yue Tang straightened her waist. “But now I’m very curious; since they could convince you with these words, they must have some evidence, right? What is the so-called evidence they have?”
The sister-in-law pair gazed at each other across the spirit altar, separated by mere inches yet as distant as a thousand miles.
Chu Yan clenched her hands into fists: “Chu Xin showed me the imperial physician bribed by the Shen Family!
“The imperial physician confessed everything, saying that Empress Dowager Shen, then still Consort Shu, coerced and tempted him, forcing him to replace the medicinal herbs in the pills your brother took daily, adding a large amount of ephedra!
“I don’t know if the confessed imperial physician was real, but Chu Xin made me know that your brother indeed suffered heart disease from overdosing on ephedra!
“Someone harmed him, that’s true; they just did it very covertly.
“Since he produced evidence, why wouldn’t I believe the rest?!”
Hearing about the imperial physician, Yue Tang’s gaze lingered on her for a moment.
It was possible for the Shen Family to tamper with the imperial physician, but for the Chu Family, who had enmity with the Shen Family, to expose it, its authenticity needed to be doubted first.
Seeing her silent, Chu Yan pulled her hands away from the table and stared fixedly at her: “Don’t you find it strange? Apart from the Empress and the Prince’s Mansion doting on you exceptionally, the Former Emperor even allowed you to marry low-key outside. You’re an imperial clan daughter; when you said not to make a fuss about your marriage, they really didn’t!
“Even the Prince’s Mansion sent Father’s confidante disguised as a village neighbor to observe the ceremony!
“You said to keep the child and leave the father, and they agreed.
“At that time, we were intimate without reservations, yet they wouldn’t let me see your husband; all of these are unprecedented!
“Tell me, if you didn’t have a secret, why would they indulge you so much?”
Yue Tang furrowed her brows in silence.
On these matters, the Empress had indeed been tolerant toward her.
But compared to her living alone outside since age six, what was that?
Chu Yan’s voice was hoarse: “The Former Emperor and the Empress, their attitudes toward you are both highly questionable!
“And your mother, she was very cold to you from childhood!
“Which mother would do that?
“Do you think that’s normal?
“All these abnormalities added up, how do you explain them? Even the Chu Family wants to kill you. My husband was indeed murdered! And it was on the road to your Bie Ye that I personally saw the crisis!
“Only the mystery on you is what I can’t see through, Yue Tang.”
At this point, her breathing quickened.
In the vast hall, her panting sounded especially clear.
Under the flickering candlelight, the room seemed somewhat dreamlike.
Yue Tang was silent for a moment, then said: “From the time Brother started taking the medicine to his death, it spanned several months; wouldn’t Brother have noticed? Why didn’t he say anything?”
Chu Yan stared into her eyes, mere inches apart, swallowed saliva, and didn’t answer.
But confusion appeared on her face at the same time.
Yue Tang pressed closer to her: “Almost every sentence of yours points to the Empress’s ulterior motives toward me; what is the real reason Brother was killed?”
Chu Yan gritted her teeth and swallowed saliva: “You’re here to kill me, to avenge yourself; why should I tell you?
“Would you let me go if I told you?
“Yue Tang, no matter what I do, we can’t go back. You should know I won’t tell you everything.”
Yue Tang looked at her calmly for a while, then stood up, glanced at Yue Huan in the corner, and suddenly thrust the sword toward him!
This sword’s force was incomparable to the previous one; it whistled through the air, its chill oppressive!
Yue Huan screamed in fright.
In panic, Chu Yan threw herself over regardless: “Stop it!”
The sword stopped an inch from the child’s heart, but the mother and son had already collapsed on the ground, souls fled.
Yue Tang slowly began to laugh.
Chu Yan turned back and roared hoarsely: “What are you laughing at! He’s just a child; why did you attack him?!”
Yue Tang said: “I’m laughing that you’ve been used by the Chu Family your whole life, still in the dark even at death’s door.”
Chu Yan roared: “What nonsense are you spouting?!”
Yue Tang looked at the child: “You’ve protected this child twice, showing you still value him in your heart. But what if he’s from the Chu Family?”
Chu Yan froze, then crawled up from the ground: “What do you mean by that?”
“You’ve been used by the Chu Family again.” Yue Tang pulled the child over, then took out that household registration file: “The child is right here. After being the Prince’s Mansion’s heir apparent’s consort for years, you should be able to tell if this is real or fake. Take a look; does it match?”
The Imperial Clan Court-stamped household registration file for imperial clan descendants was slammed in front of her.
The page with the child’s handprint in the middle was prominently displayed under the lamp.
Chu Yan shuddered involuntarily; under her ornate robes, she seemed to have lost her support, swaying with the candlelight.
Yue Tang said: “For three years, you’ve hidden the truth that I didn’t die, because you knew if I lived, I would eventually return for revenge.
“The Chu Family harmed you, and you harmed me; moreover, to this day, you still suspect me because the Empress treats me well. We’re both your enemies.
“How could you tell them my whereabouts, letting them guard against me in advance?
“No matter which side dies or loses, it would please you.
“Right?”
Chu Yan was already grinding her teeth audibly.
Yue Tang continued: “You hid the fact that the corpse back then wasn’t mine, expecting me to discover them, which shows how much you hate the Chu Family to the bone. And if you knew he was the Chu Family’s child, how could you care so much?
“You and the Chu Family both know you’re not on the same side.
“Your father and brother know even more that you, who wholeheartedly loved Yue Rong, are unreliable.
“So when this child was brought back, they must have told you he’s the Imperial Clan Court child adopted from the imperial clan to your Yue Family, right?”
Chu Yan could no longer control her rapid panting; she supported herself on the table, eyes wide as she looked at the child before her, her slender fingers trembling nonstop.
“Impossible! Impossible!…”
Yue Tang gazed at her quietly: “The Chu Family isn’t of one mind with you, but they need you in the heir apparent’s consort position to wield the Prince’s Mansion’s power for themselves; how could they rest easy letting you raise your own child?
“To build your own forces against them?
“Wouldn’t it be better to have you help raise the Chu Family’s child?
“So, they’d treat this child well, raise him carefully, make him attached to the Chu Family. When he grows up, they’d tell him he’s the Chu Family’s child and owes loyalty to the Chu Family.
“Then, the Imperial City Department he inherits as heir apparent, wouldn’t it actually become the Chu Family’s?”
Chu Yan’s gaze was already scattered: “Impossible, it can’t be like this; I saw his household registration file when he arrived! The Imperial Clan Court wouldn’t dare fake the household registration file!”
Yue Tang laughed: “Two years ago he was only two or three, right? Finding a similar-looking one isn’t hard; children change quickly as they grow, what’s impossible? Besides, they won’t collect hand and footprints so intensively after he grows up.
“You know everything I’ve said is fact, don’t you?”
Chu Yan suddenly fell silent.
Not only silent, her face also lost all color.
Staring blankly at the household registration file, in just these few words, she already looked like a dead person.
The child was very frightened, crying and shouting: “Mother save me!…”
“Don’t call me!”
His mother suddenly screamed.
Her fingers grabbed his wrist, glared at it, then flung him away fiercely; the surging hatred in her eyes made her look like a malevolent ghost.
Yue Tang looked at her: “If you hadn’t been bewitched by the Chu Family but chosen to tell Father King or me, Prince Duan’s Mansion would never have fallen to this graveyard-like state.
“I would have helped you exterminate the Chu Family, freeing you from their manipulation, letting you live proudly.
“If you wished to remarry, I would do everything to fulfill it.
“If you wanted to stay in the Prince’s Mansion, I would carefully select an imperial clan descendant for adoption, giving you lifelong hope.
“If you wanted the child to inherit the Prince’s Mansion, I would, for your kindness to me and loyalty to the Prince’s Mansion, fully support you to become its masters, making my child yield the heir position.
“But you believed the Chu Family’s slander, suspected me just because the Empress and Father King treated me well, conspired to murder me, harming Prince Duan’s Mansion to this point—what have you gained now?”
Yue Tang smiled: “You got a fake child. All your heart’s blood fed to the dogs.
“And now you’re still playing mind games with me; do you think I won’t kill you if you don’t speak?
“Toyed with by the Chu Family, now do you want to live or die?”
Chu Yan trembled like chaff, hugging her head, looking at Yue Tang with tears gushing like a spring.
“Then kill me! Why not kill me quickly!”
Her shrill voice echoed repeatedly in the empty hall. “When did you find out? Why didn’t you come tell me earlier? Why!”
Roaring too forcefully made her collapse prostrate on the cushion.
Her splayed fingers twitched as she clawed at her face, dry heaving.
But her eyes still fixed on Yue Tang, as if all her will awaited that thrust of the sword!
Yue Tang squatted down: “How did Brother die? I know you have some clues. Tell me, and I’ll give you a quick end.”
Hearing this from Yue Tang, Chu Yan paused in her prostrate position, then supported herself with one hand and straightened up.
“He died because of me!”
Yue Tang narrowed her eyes: “Because of you?”
“Yes!” Chu Yan’s face was ashen, but flames surged in her eyes, unnaturally bright: “The Chu Family, enemies of the Shen Family, suddenly allying in marriage with the powerful Prince’s Mansion was terrible news for the Shen Family!
“Of course they wouldn’t want this marriage to happen.
“So the Shen Family initially targeted me!
“They didn’t want me to marry Yue Rong!
“But the Shen Family never managed to kill me, so they turned to poison him instead. With him dead, leaving me wouldn’t benefit the Chu Family much!
“Now do you understand? I’m actually the disaster star!
“I killed him!
“Come on!
“Kill me quickly, kill me!
“Aren’t you here for revenge?”
“Let me die quickly!”
She grabbed Yue Tang’s sword blade and aimed it at her own chest; blood soon seeped from her pale fingers!
“Seeking death isn’t that easy!” Yue Tang clamped her neck with one palm: “How did Brother really die? I want the truth!”
Chu Yan let out a muffled grunt but still clenched her teeth.
Her hand hadn’t loosened; both hands forced the sword toward her body with such force that her finger gaps were soaked.
