Cui Huaiyin could not push him away, so she could only remain silent in his arms.
The first time she had been this close to him was seven years ago.
Ever since learning that Zhu Wangbei was not that man, she had imagined what Yaoyao’s father might be like.
Yaoyao was beautiful—both the features she had inherited from her mother and those she had not were beautiful. Cui Huaiyin had thought that Yaoyao’s father could not possibly be an ugly man.
Yaoyao was also very intelligent—so intelligent that Cui Huaiyin often felt she was unworthy of being her mother. She had wondered whether Yaoyao’s intelligence had come from her father. Her father must be an exceptionally clever man as well.
But now that she thought about it, he could at best be called strikingly handsome. He also occupied the highest position in all of Great Zhou, yet he did not seem particularly intelligent.
He could mistake one person for another. He could be deceived by Chen Yunxiang all this time… He had not even realized that he had another daughter!
How could someone like that be called clever?
Yaoyao’s intelligence must have come from her instead.
Cui Huaiyin did not want to look at the man holding her. She simply closed her eyes and ignored him.
The group proceeded in silence toward the emperor’s Liangyi Hall.
Consort Cui said nothing, and neither did the emperor. The servants naturally did not dare make a sound.
On the way, Wang Zhong secretly glanced at Consort Cui. He saw that she had her eyes closed, leaning against the emperor’s chest. She was neither as excited as he had imagined, nor as nervous and apprehensive, and there was none of the tender coyness he had expected.
Even so, the emperor continued to hold Consort Cui steadily. He walked for a long while without slowing down or quickening his pace.
At last, they arrived at Liangyi Hall.
Everyone had assumed that His Majesty would immediately place Consort Cui on the dragon couch. Yet Consort Cui seemed to have truly fallen asleep. When the emperor saw this, he did not set her down. Instead, he carried her to the dragon bed and sat there, silently gazing at the woman in his arms.
Wang Zhong was both shocked and terrified.
When had His Majesty ever done something so foolish?
He had known it—Consort Cui was certainly no ordinary woman!
Fortunately, the emperor did not continue holding her forever. After a quarter of an hour, His Majesty placed Consort Cui on the dragon bed and summoned the imperial physician.
After all that commotion, Consort Cui still did not wake, as though she had fainted.
The imperial physician took her pulse, then went to the outer hall and reported to the emperor, “Her Ladyship likely has not slept well for several days. Her emotions are unsettled, and she has been worrying excessively, which is why she is sleeping so deeply. Her Ladyship’s leg should improve after a few days of rest. I will prescribe some medicine as well…”
“Your Majesty, Consort Cui has awakened.”
A light flashed in Dantai Ji’s dark eyes. He strode toward the rear hall, but when he reached the screen, he awkwardly clasped his hands behind his back and slowed his steps.
After walking around the screen, Dantai Ji finally saw the woman sitting on the bed, holding a sachet.
He had no idea where she had found it. The sachet was exquisitely made, embroidered with a small black cat. Her index finger lightly touched the cat as she studied it intently, apparently lost in thought.
“Does Your Highness like cats? If you do, I’ll have Wang Zhong find one for you.”
Cui Huaiyin raised her eyes, silently put away the sachet, and replied calmly, “They’re all right. For now, I don’t want to raise one.”
Dantai Ji ordered the servants standing guard to leave. The doors of the room were closed, leaving only the two of them inside.
With his face taut, Dantai Ji walked over to Cui Huaiyin and looked down at her. “When you saw Commoner Chen at Xiaguang Palace yesterday, had you already guessed the truth?”
Cui Huaiyin lifted her head and met Dantai Ji’s gaze. She nodded lightly. “That was why, after I was driven out, I waited for Your Majesty. I wanted to ask whether Your Majesty had ever gone to Zhou County, and when you had met Consort Chen. I simply did not expect that after you came out, you would give me no chance to speak, nor explain what mistake I had made.”
Dantai Ji felt as though a great hand had clenched around his heart. He spoke with difficulty. “I’m sorry.”
Cui Huaiyin smiled faintly. “It is nothing. It has already passed.”
Dantai Ji lowered his broad, tall frame into a crouch. His dark eyes fixed on hers as he clasped her hand and said solemnly, “It should not simply pass. I mistreated you back then, lost you, and hurt you yesterday. You ought to blame me. I will bear it all.”
Cui Huaiyin quickly looked away and tried to pull her hand free.
“This subject wouldn’t dare.”
Dantai Ji’s body stiffened, but he did not rise. With a hint of caution in his voice, he asked, “When you married Zhu Wangbei, did you mistake him for me?”
Cui Huaiyin looked at Dantai Ji again and answered without the slightest hesitation, “Yes.”
Dantai Ji’s expression tightened. “Are Zhu Wangbei and I very similar?”
Cui Huaiyin shook her head. “No.”
“Then how could you have mistaken him for me?”
Cui Huaiyin stared straight at Dantai Ji, anger flickering in her eyes. “That night, you covered my eyes and only whispered in my ear that it was your first time, and that you would take responsibility and marry me afterward. When I woke up in the daytime, you were already gone! You even helped me put on my clothes. If not for that jade pendant, I would have thought it had all been a dream! How could I have known what you looked like?”
“You mistook me for someone else, married Chen Yunxiang, and I naturally could marry Zhu Wangbei!”
Dantai Ji’s face darkened like ink. He lowered his eyes, concealing the murderous intent within them.
“It was my fault. Chen Yunxiang deceived me. She used sorcery to alter the way she appeared in my eyes. To me, she looked exactly like you.”
Cui Huaiyin’s body stiffened. She asked, “In Your Majesty’s eyes, did Chen Yunxiang truly look exactly like me?”
Dantai Ji answered solemnly, “She had the same face as you.”
Cui Huaiyin frowned. “But Chen Yunxiang and I do not look alike at all.”
“I know,” Dantai Ji said. “I began to notice something was wrong in the first year after I brought her into the manor. I consulted an imperial physician, but he only said that I was so enamored of her that I saw her as a beauty. She behaved well enough, and I could find no evidence, so I did not pursue the matter further. It was not until I met you that I grew increasingly certain she had cast some kind of spell on me. I spared her life today so that I could investigate the truth.”
Cui Huaiyin cast Dantai Ji a brief glance before looking away again. She lowered her head and gave a quiet hum in response.
The hall once more fell into dead silence. Even breathing seemed difficult.
Dantai Ji was the first to tentatively break the silence. “Would you be willing to tell me what you have experienced all these years?”
Cui Huaiyin looked up at him strangely. She did not answer. Instead, she asked him, “Is Princess Shengping of royal blood?”
A trace of awkward guilt crossed Dantai Ji’s face. “Yes. Shengping was obtained after Commoner Chen assumed another identity. Yesterday, Shengping lied and falsely accused you. I will certainly punish her, but she is still Great Zhou’s Eldest Princess. I cannot punish her too severely.”
“Eldest Princess.” Cui Huaiyin emphasized the title, especially the word “eldest.” “Then in what year, month, and day was she born?”
Dantai Ji replied, “The twenty-fifth year of the late emperor’s reign, on the twenty-fifth day of the third month.”
“The twenty-fifth day of the third month?”
“After she was brought to the capital, Mother ordered an imperial physician to examine her. Commoner Chen was not pregnant. She did not conceive until more than a month later. It was simply that Commoner Chen gave birth to Shengping prematurely. I know what you are thinking. I will investigate the matter again.”
Cui Huaiyin lowered her gaze to the black hair falling over her chest, the corners of her lips curling slightly. March twenty-fifth? What a coincidence—her Yaoyao had been born on March twenty-second.
Even if Princess Shengping truly was his child, she still could not be considered the Eldest Princess.
“Your Majesty, have you forgotten something?” Cui Huaiyin asked, lifting her head to look straight at Dantai Ji.
