At noon, Juxiang, who had been sent out of the palace to check the examination results, finally returned.
“Congratulations, Your Ladyship! Congratulations! The eldest master has passed—Third Rank in the First Class!”
Unable to contain her excitement, Cui Huaiyin seized Juxiang’s hands. “Truly? My brother truly passed? And he placed third among the First Class?”
“Absolutely true,” Juxiang replied. “This servant saw it with her own eyes!”
Cui Huaiyin paced excitedly around the courtyard. “Wonderful, wonderful! All of Eldest Brother’s decades of hard work have not been in vain. I knew he could do it. He was only held back before. Yaoyao, did you hear that? Your eldest uncle has passed! He really did it—and ranked among the top three!”
Rongyao was overjoyed as well and could not help bouncing on her feet. She had known her eldest uncle would make it this time!
Along with her joy, Cui Huaiyin felt a renewed sense of guilt.
Her eldest brother had always been an exceptional scholar. When he was young, even his tutor had declared that, if he studied diligently, he would pass the metropolitan examination before reaching twenty.
Yet year after year, he had sat for the examinations, and year after year, something had gone wrong.
Had her brother not been so resolute and unwilling to admit defeat, he might have long since given up studying—and abandoned the civil service examinations altogether.
And the root of it all was her own failure to see people clearly.
If she had not trusted Chen Yunxiang so blindly, if she had not allowed Chen Yunxiang to help her find someone, then Chen Yunxiang would never have been able to deceive His Majesty. She would not have gained power and influence, only to turn around and harm the Cui family!
And Chen Yunxiang was still living peacefully in the palace.
It was time for Cui Huaiyin to pay her a visit.
Qiuling Palace.
Mother and daughter, Cui Huaiyin and Rongyao, arrived hand in hand before the gates of Qiuling Palace.
Cui Huaiyin ordered the young eunuch guarding the entrance to open the gate.
Commoner Chen had been confined, but His Majesty had never forbidden anyone from visiting her.
After receiving a reward, the young eunuch respectfully opened the gate and led Cui Huaiyin and Rongyao inside.
He guided them to a dilapidated room with its door tightly shut. “Your Ladyship, Princess, Commoner Chen is inside.”
“You may leave,” Cui Huaiyin said.
“Yes.” The young eunuch withdrew with a cheerful smile.
Daoxiang stepped forward and pushed open the battered door. It creaked as it swung wide.
Light poured into the room.
“Who is it?” A wary voice rang out.
“Me,” Cui Huaiyin answered as she crossed the threshold.
Holding her daughter’s hand, Cui Huaiyin entered and saw a disheveled woman lying on a shabby bed.
Chen Yunxiang’s hair was a tangled mess, as though she had not washed or groomed herself for a long time. Her face was grimy, and scattered locks obscured more than half of it.
Frowning, Cui Huaiyin approached, shielding her daughter behind her.
“Chen Yunxiang.”
Chen Yunxiang propped herself up and raised her head. Sweeping the tangled hair from her face, she glared at Cui Huaiyin. “You! Don’t call me Chen Yunxiang! Chen Yunxiang died long ago!”
Cui Huaiyin stared at Chen Yunxiang’s face. No matter how closely she looked, she could not find the slightest resemblance between them.
Yet the Emperor had said that they looked exactly alike.
“Why did His Majesty say that you and I look alike?”
Chen Yunxiang gave a mocking laugh. “What meaning is there in asking that now? Aren’t you pleased with yourself? Even if, in His Majesty’s eyes, you and I look exactly the same, he still chose you in the end! He brought you into the imperial palace!”
Gnashing her teeth, she continued, “I truly regret it. I regret ever going soft on you. I should have killed you back then! If I had killed you, I wouldn’t have fallen to this state—I would still be Consort Chen!”
Cui Huaiyin’s expression turned cold and grim. “Going soft? Wasn’t it you who ordered Concubine Liu to poison us back then?”
“Chen Yunxiang: “Yes! It was me! You mother and daughter were far too difficult to kill! You should have died long ago!”
Cui Huaiyin said coldly, “You dared to lay a hand on my daughter. Aren’t you afraid that I’ll do the same to your two children?”
Chen Yunxiang’s pupils suddenly contracted. “No! You can’t! You can’t hurt them! They’re only children!”
“Children? Are you saying my daughter wasn’t a child too? Chen Yunxiang, you disgust me!”
Yaoyao had once told her about a dream. In that dream, she had been poisoned to death by Concubine Liu, while her daughter had also been poisoned. Although the poison had not been severe enough to kill her, it had damaged her mind, leaving her vulnerable to anyone who wanted to deceive or manipulate her. Chenxiang and Daoxiang had also died from poisoning. Her elder brother’s attempts at the civil service examinations had repeatedly ended in failure. Her father had been falsely accused of embezzling disaster-relief funds, and the entire Cui family had died on the road to exile…
All of it had been Chen Yunxiang’s doing!
She did not know how her parents and brothers had died on the road to exile, but she had seen what had happened to the Gu family a few days ago. Everyone in the Gu family, old and young alike, had been covered in wounds—some from blades, some from whips. Their lips had been cracked with thirst, and they had not been given even a single mouthful of water.
These past few days, she had kept wondering whether, in Yaoyao’s dream, her parents and brothers had suffered the same fate…
If it had not been for Yaoyao’s dream, what would have become of her Yaoyao in the end? Without her mother, and with her mind reduced to that of a child, would she have been bullied by others?
Every time she thought of it, her heart clenched with pain, and she wished Chen Yunxiang would drop dead that very instant!
“The Emperor and the Empress Dowager will never allow you to harm them! Yuer and Chang’er are the Emperor’s own children!”
Cui Huaiyin’s gaze darkened sharply, and she was just about to speak when—
“Princess Shengping isn’t Father Emperor’s child.”
Rongyao poked her head out and spoke to Chen Yunxiang in her clear, lilting voice.
Chen Yunxiang’s entire body instantly stiffened. Her pupils contracted as she stared fixedly at Rongyao.
“Lies! You’re lying! The imperial physicians examined my pulse. I only became pregnant after returning to the capital, so my child is the Emperor’s!”
Cui Huaiyin was equally stunned by what her daughter had just said. Princess Shengping wasn’t the Emperor’s child? How could that be…
Rongyao tilted her head up to look at her mother. “Mother, can something false really be disguised as something true?”
Cui Huaiyin stared blankly for a moment before answering, “No. What is false will always be false. Every secret leaves traces behind.”
The corners of Rongyao’s lips curved upward. She affectionately took her mother’s hand and said, “I think so too. No matter how well something false is hidden, one day the truth will be exposed!”
Chen Yunxiang’s entire body was trembling, but she fought desperately to suppress it so no one would notice. “What are you talking about? What nonsense are you spouting? I truly have no idea what you’re talking about!”
“Yaoyao says Princess Shengping isn’t a princess!” Rongyao tilted her head as she looked at Chen Yunxiang, her voice childish and clear.
Chen Yunxiang stared in terror at the six-year-old child before her, as though she had seen a demon. She quickly looked away, tears welling up in her eyes. Turning anxiously to Cui Huaiyin, she said,
“My lady, I know I was wrong. I truly do! I’m being punished now, aren’t I? I... I didn’t really do much, did I? My lady, you are safe and well now, and you have even become Consort Cui, unmatched by anyone. And the Cui family too! The master has been promoted. Even if I did obstruct the eldest young master’s civil service examinations back then, there are so many provincial graduates in this world. Though the eldest young master may have been considered a talent in Zhou County, in the capital, where gifted people abound, he might not necessarily have passed.”
Cui Huaiyin said coldly, “Thanks to you, when the results were posted today, my eldest brother placed third in the first rank.”
