Chapter 87: The Sleaziness Of A Married Man
Bright flower pillar lamps were lit in the corners of the four walls of the flower hall, the lights illuminating Chu Yan in the hall as eerily calm as a ghost from hell.
Chu Ying was stunned, and the three people on the eaves fell silent too.
No one would think that Chu Yan’s visit here was just to throw a tantrum; the grievances accumulated from growing up in a strictly disciplined deep mansion before marriage, and the frustration of being controlled and used by her maternal home after marriage, had long made her eager to find an outlet for venting. The Chu Family pushed her to raise Yue Huan, which initially gave her some hope, but this hope was illusory too—she would be strange not to explode.
But no one expected her to exact revenge in such an extreme way!
As she said, no one would believe that Yue Huan was killed by her, and moreover, Yue Huan’s existence held immensely important significance for her. For the child to die in the Chu Family in the middle of the night, right in front of Chu Ying—this blame, Chu Ying could never shake off!
Even if it didn’t constitute murder, the suspicion of accidental killing was undoubtedly there.
“Do you hate me so much, hate the Chu Family so much?” Chu Ying staggered to his feet, his voice floating, “Just because he is a child of the Chu Family, you deliberately brought him to your maternal home to kill him, to take revenge on the father who gave birth to you and raised you?!
“Even if he is not of the Yue Family’s bloodline, he is still your maternal home nephew! He shares the same blood as you! Raising your own brother’s child—isn’t that better than raising an outsider?
“You treacherous beast!”
Chu Ying’s angry curses filled the entire hall, deafening in the silent midnight.
Chu Yan bent down to pick up the child, staring straight at him: “You got to play the good person. But I’ve had enough of you.
“You always use the name of father, the name of family, to righteously exploit me.
“The fault is that your exploitation of me also taught me one thing: so-called flesh-and-blood relatives are all for using. Now I’m just returning it to you.
“Lord Chu, we’ll meet at the imperial court.”
She said it word by word, then turned around holding the child.
The nearly five-year-old child was not light at all; she, raised in brocade clothes and fine food since childhood, clearly struggled to hold him, but she showed no intention of letting go, walking out past the threshold with her head held high.
Chu Ying shouted loudly: “You stop right there!”
The Chu Family servants waiting outside for orders had long been drawn over by his roar; upon seeing this, they were all frightened, and instinctively blocked Chu Yan’s path.
Chu Yan turned around: “Want to stop me? On what grounds?
“Unless you tell the world that this dead child is not some imperial clan collateral found by the Imperial Clan Court, but a child of your own Chu Family.
“Do you dare say that?”
Chu Yan laughed.
Chu Ying gritted his teeth and rushed over: “Do you not want to live?!”
“How do you know?” Chu Yan composed herself, “I’ve long not wanted to live, but hearing those words from your mouth—does that mean you want my son and me both to die here?
“If I die here too, are you sure you can bear the responsibility?”
Chu Ying’s face nearly cracked.
Chu Yan giggled loudly, laughing so hard she doubled over. Then she charged straight through the servants’ blockade holding Yue Huan and walked out.
Yue Tang, who had kept her brows tightly furrowed, stared fixedly at the stunned Chu Ying in the hall for a moment, then turned on the eaves, watching Chu Yan who had already passed through layers of courtyards and gone far away; she too lightly and gracefully leaped over the mansion wall under the cover of night.
Just outside the mansion gate, Chu Yan had just lifted Yue Huan onto the horse carriage, then wearily but still uprightly boarded and ordered: “Go to the imperial palace, go strike the drum of complaints!”
Yue Tang watched the horse carriage leave, then said to Jiang Shao who had already arrived behind her: “Have one of you hurry back to the prince’s mansion to pick up Hua Lin, have him go check if the child still has any breath?”
“Ah?” Jiang Shao was greatly surprised, “This is a Chu Family child; back then the Chu Family showed no mercy to the young heir apparent!”
Wei Zhang had always obeyed Yue Tang’s decisions without question, but now he couldn’t help saying: “Yes, A Li was only three months old then, such a young infant and they showed no mercy—their methods were even more cruel!
“Besides, looking at that child’s condition, he’s already more dead than alive. Hua Lin coming won’t help.”
“Whether to show humanity is up to us.” Yue Tang gazed into the depths of the night, “The life or death of a four- or five-year-old child won’t decide the Chu Family’s fate in my hands.”
Wei Zhang furrowed his brow: “But his existence occupies A Li’s position.”
He absolutely could not accept someone taking away A Li’s things—that was the true Prince Duan’s Heir who had once been lost from his hands.
Yue Tang turned around: “The position that belongs to A Li, no one can take away.
“Chu Yan has gone to file an accusation with the emperor; regardless of whether the child lives or dies, father and daughter have already fallen out—I have achieved my goal tonight.
“I have a blood feud with the Chu Family, but Wei Zhang, this child is not yet powerful enough that I must watch him die with my own eyes to feel at ease.”
Wei Zhang took a deep breath and slowly nodded.
Watching him disappear into the night, Jiang Shao turned his gaze back and attentively addressed the silent Yue Tang: “Princess, I still have three guards waiting nearby; is there anything else you need dispatched?”
Yue Tang smiled: “Lord Jiang, you’ve helped greatly tonight.”
“No, no, this is what I should do!”
Jiang Shao was flattered. Having served their prince for so many years, he had never received half a word of such warm and gentle speech from him—do the job poorly and he’d get kicked!
Still, the matriarch was charitable.
He said: “How about I accompany the princess back, and have them go watch over the heir apparent’s consort’s side, while also waiting for Brother Wei and Doctor Hua to arrive?”
Yue Tang thought for a moment: “Very well. Have the brothers endure one more trip, to avoid any more trouble from Chu Yan’s side.”
With that, she turned around: “The prince and the others have already escorted Chu Xin to the yamen; I won’t go back for now—I’ll go to the prince’s mansion to see A Li.”
“Great!” Jiang Shao’s eyes lit up; he snapped his fingers to summon the guards and give instructions, while accompanying Yue Tang toward the prince’s mansion: “The young heir apparent has gained quite a bit of weight under Doctor Hua’s careful treatment lately; I see he’s grown taller too. He’s so lively—you should visit often, princess…”
The streets were still pitch black, but a line of dawn had appeared on the distant horizon.
The early winter frost condensed on the wall tops on both sides, presenting a cold bluish-gray color.
Jiang Shao, as the ceremonial guard commander of Prince Jingyang’s Mansion, was somewhat of a minor officer, yet unexpectedly a real social butterfly.
Along the way, he chattered endlessly about mansion affairs, A Li’s anecdotes from childhood to now; Yue Tang just listened quietly, smiling occasionally, but mostly very calm.
Hua Lin and the others took a different route and they did not meet halfway.
By the time they arrived under the prince’s mansion gate, the sky was a bit brighter than before.
Gao An heard the guards report and hurried out to greet them; seeing bloodstains on Yue Tang’s hand back and that she was still in night clothes, and Jiang Shao similarly attired, he guessed the night had been thrilling, so he quickly sent someone to prepare hot water, then led Yue Tang inside.
“Where is A Li?” Yue Tang asked.
“The nursemaid has him sleeping inside the room.” Gao An softly pointed the way, “Originally the prince had him asleep beside him; after he left, he woke up. He kept asking what Father King went out for, when he’d return.
“He finally held out until deep night before falling asleep.”
By now, he had lifted the curtain, stepping aside to let Yue Tang enter.
Yue Tang smiled at him, lightened her steps, and tiptoed into the room.
Yun Niang heard the movement and immediately came out barefoot to bow.
Yue Tang helped her up with her right hand and walked to the bed.
Lifting a corner of the embroidered canopy inside, A Li lay flat on the pillow, little hands and feet splayed open, chest rising and falling evenly under the quilt with his breathing, sleeping soundly.
Looking closer, his right hand was still clutching the slingshot Yue Tang had given him.
Yun Niang and Gao An lit a lamp, the soft glow illuminating the child’s face; indeed, after just a few days, he was rounder than when they first met, even his little eyebrows gaining some plumpness.
Yue Tang gently stroked his little face, her lips curving involuntarily.
Gao An glanced at Jiang Shao outside the door, signaled Yun Niang to move the lamp away, then quietly left.
Now only a layer of dim light fell on Yue Tang; her gaze never left the child, her smile gradually fading, then tears welled up, moistening her eyes.
“Mother…”
A Li murmured in his dream.
Yue Tang bent down, pressing her face to his little face.
A Li turned over with eyes closed, following his mother’s scent, his little arm naturally draping over her.
Yue Tang gently stroked the long knife scar on his little body under the thin clothes, her own body trembling as she closed her eyes.
……
Yan Bei returned to the prince’s mansion as dawn was breaking; upon entering, he called Gao An: “When Cui Xun returns, have him come see me at once; also have the guards at the Du Family gate shout for Du Minghuan and son to roll over!”
Gao An nodded repeatedly.
Yan Bei entered Yangrong Zhai, then suddenly remembered: “Did A Li sleep well last night?”
“Slept well.” Gao An smiled, cupping his hands, gaze toward A Li’s room, “The princess is with him right now.”
Yan Bei paused, a look of disbelief on his face; he abruptly halted his steps to his own room, turned on his heel, and headed to the child’s room.
The lamp in the room had burned out, quiet enough to hear the child’s sound of breathing.
Inside the lifted embroidered canopy, a graceful figure lay quietly on the outer side of the bed; in the dim shadow, that figure was exquisitely alluring.
He tiptoed to the bedside; at a glance, wasn’t this his own wife?
An inexplicable warmth surged in his heart; his iron-hard heart, privately mocked countless times by Cui Xun and others, now melted into a pool of warm soup.
Looking again, Yue Tang was still in her clothes and hadn’t changed; he guessed she couldn’t bear to leave after seeing her son last night and just lay down like that.
Otherwise, with her former fussiness and pickiness, how could she go to bed without washing clean.
So he carefully pulled some of the quilt mostly wrapped around A Li to cover her; his finger accidentally brushed her jaw, that smooth touch immediately hooking his hand like a hook.
Probably married men are a bit lecherous; just that one stroke made his heart sway. Recalling how tender she was back then, able to squeeze out water, and now she was still so—no, even more delectably beautiful.
Just look at this face of hers, this hand; whether glaring at bad people or killing them, her aura was overwhelmingly strong!
Du Yu, who was dealt with by her last night, turned into a real turtle grandson; that Chu Xin, usually arrogant and smug, what could he do in front of her?
Speaking of which, they were also blessed with ten lifetimes of fortune from a past life—this life they were lucky enough to die at the hands of his child’s mother.
“What are you looking at?”
While secretly sighing to himself, Yue Tang actually turned over, a pair of deep bright eyes staring right at him.
Yan Bei quickly withdrew his hand, face red as burning coal: “I just saw you were too tired and wanted to put down the canopy for you to sleep well properly—no intention of peeking at you sleeping!”
“Father King is lying.”
At this moment, the little piggy beside them, with a lazy voice just woken up, exposed him: “A Li saw Father King touch Mother’s chin. You wanted to touch Mother’s hand too.”
Yan Bei was so embarrassed he wanted to burrow into the ground!
When did this kid wake up?
“I didn’t, don’t talk nonsense! That was accidental!”
He stepped back three steps, brushed his robe, looking every bit the sage.
Yue Tang smiled and sat up.
A Li crawled up on all fours: “Why is Mother here? When did Mother come? Is Mother leaving again?”
Yue Tang hugged him and kissed him, then set him on the ground, patted his little bottom: “Mother isn’t leaving. A Li go find the nursemaid first, wash up and change clothes; Mother and Father King will talk business first, then come eat with A Li later.”
Hearing her say she wasn’t leaving, A Li’s eyes already lit up. Hearing they’d eat together, he was even happier.
“Mother, you don’t know, Grandpa Hua’s medicine is so bitter; A Li has to pinch his nose to drink it every time. Sometimes even pinching the nose I can’t drink it down, so I can only think of Mother—thinking of Mother lets me drink it.
“If Mother eats with A Li, then A Li can drink a hundred bowls of bitter medicine!”
Yue Tang sighed inwardly, reached out to pinch his little cheek: “If it means A Li doesn’t have to take medicine, Mother would do anything.”
A Li clapped his little hands.
Yun Niang came in.
The child obediently left Yue Tang’s embrace, climbed back on the bed to pick up the slingshot, then let Yun Niang lead him out.
Yue Tang stood up and asked Yan Bei, who was standing dazedly beside her lost in thought: “How’s the interrogation of Chu Xin going? Any moves from the Chu Family afterward? Has Hua Lin returned?”
Yan Bei cleared his throat, turned to wring a handkerchief from the hot water in the copper basin and handed it to her: “Chu Xin is already in prison; not mentioning the rest, just the charge of leading people to assassinate the top scholar’s wife is enough for him to atone.
“The rest, we’ll take step by step.
“Chu Ying sent his younger brother Chu Rui to the Supreme Court last night; at first he tried to throw his weight around, but seeing no chance, he went back.
“As for Hua Lin—”
“I’m back!”
Yan Bei was just about to ask someone about Hua Lin’s whereabouts when several people arrived outside the door—it was Hua Lin, Cui Xun, and the few guards Jiang Shao had sent last night to check on Chu Yan’s situation.
“How’s the child?”
Yue Tang wiped her face, then washed her hands in the water.
“No saving him.” Hua Lin shook his head, “He was already out of breath when we got there.”
Yue Tang’s hands paused in the water basin, then she turned to ask those guards: “Did you all wait to see the result of Chu Yan’s accusation to the emperor?”
A guard stepped forward: “Chu Yan filed the accusation overnight, alarming the emperor; Empress Dowager Shen also intervened, summoning Chu Ying to the palace on the spot—we don’t know the situation inside the palace.
“But later the Imperial Clan Court and Supreme Court took over, organizing people to examine the corpse; Empress Dowager Shen had the Shen Family oversee it.”
