Cui Huaiyin's arms tightened around her daughter, and she got up with a somber face to look at the messenger who had come from outside.
"What did you say?"
"The master has woken up! He's asking to see Madam!"
Cui Huaiyin kept her composure, telling the man to wait outside for a moment. She went to the inner room to fetch a few things before reappearing, then patted her daughter's head at her side and looked down at her to ask, "Do you want to come with Mother to see Father?"
Rongyao answered in a crisp, clear voice, "Yes!"
Cui Huaiyin took her daughter's hand and headed toward Zhu Wangbei's courtyard.
The closer they got, the heavier her steps became, and her thoughts churned in her mind.
This was a matter of life and death for her and her daughter, so she could not dismiss a single word her daughter said.
Now that her mother-in-law had passed away, Concubine Liu had taken her own life, and Zhu Wangbei was lying gravely ill, his very survival uncertain, there was little chance of any major trouble arising again. The entire Zhu household was under her control.
But if her daughter's premonitions turned out to be true, she did not want to stay in this Zhu family any longer.
As soon as she stepped into the room, Cui Huaiyin forced a look of deep concern, leading her daughter over to the bedside where Zhu Wangbei lay, his face completely drained of color, and asked him with a worried tone, "Husband, are you feeling any better?"
Zhu Wangbei, propped up against the quilts at the head of the bed, had bloodshot eyes and looked weakly at Cui Huaiyin.
"Mother... Mother..."
Cui Huaiyin hesitated for a long moment, then reached out to take Zhu Wangbei's hand, forcing herself to weep along with him. "Mother... She has already left us. It was my fault. I never should have agreed to let you take Concubine Liu as your concubine in the first place. She brought ruin down on this whole family, that vile woman deserves to rot in hell!"
Zhu Wangbei's cold fingers curled slightly. Taking advantage of the moment Cui Huaiyin was crying, he gave her a scrutinizing glance and said, "Why did you send those plates of food to Mother and me? If not for that food, Mother and I would never have..."
Before Zhu Wangbei could finish his sentence, Cui Huaiyin looked utterly stunned, her voice cracking with sobs as she spoke, "Husband, are you blaming me?"
Zhu Wangbei coughed, pressing a hand to his chest. "No, I didn't mean that... I'm not blaming you. I'm just heartbroken that Mother was killed by a villain, and I can't get my bearings for a moment."
"Mother's passing weighs heavily on all of us," Cui Huaiyin said. "Just a moment ago, Yaoyao cried so hard her voice went hoarse. But fortunately, that evil villain Lady Liu has killed herself, and there's no longer any danger lurking in this manor."
Zhu Wangbei's hands clenched tight, dark haze swirling in his eyes.
That Lady Liu turned out to be such a vicious woman!
Not only vicious, but stupid too! She tried to take Cui Huaiyin's life and ended up dragging everyone else down along with her!
He could not help but wonder why Lady Liu was so determined to kill Cui Huaiyin, and so terrified of the truth being exposed.
It was a pity she was already dead. If she had not died, if he had found out about all this earlier, the two of them might have even joined forces...
He had long since grown sick of Cui Huaiyin, but his body was in such a state right now that he dared not act rashly...
Zhu Wangbei pressed a hand to his chest and coughed heavily several times, then reached out with difficulty to take Cui Huaiyin's hand, his eyes full of expectation and affection. "Ayin, I've been poisoned. I don't know how much longer I have to live."
Cui Huaiyin gently pulled her hand back without the slightest sign of obviousness, squeezing her handkerchief to wipe her tears. "Don't say such silly things. You will live a long and full life. I will find the best doctors for you, and get you the finest medicinal herbs money can buy."
Zhu Wangbei gave a bitter smile. "Mother and I took the disaster blow for you. It must have been fate. As long as you can stay safe and well, my heart is filled with nothing but joy. But if I cannot pull through this illness, there is one regret that will haunt me for the rest of my days."
Cui Huaiyin loosened her grip on the handkerchief and looked up at Zhu Wangbei. "A regret? Whatever regret you have, Husband, you may speak of it freely. I will make sure to help you fulfill it."
Zhu Wangbei hesitated for a moment, coughed repeatedly for quite a while, glanced at Rongyao, then covered his mouth and spoke in a muffled voice, "This matter is my fault towards you. For years, we have not had any children, and my mother was so anxious that she found me a woman to keep as a mistress outside the household. She has given birth to a son and a daughter for me."
Zhu Wangbei paused at this point, stole a glance at Cui Huaiyin, covered his chest and coughed hard a few times before continuing, "Because you sent poisoned food to us, my mother is dead, and I don't have much time left to live. The Zhu family will truly have no heirs left! I know I have wronged you, but I cannot bear to leave those two children to suffer out there. If I do not survive this illness, I beg you to take them in, raise them as your own, send my son to study for the imperial examinations, and raise my little daughter well to find her a good match in the future."
"One son and one daughter." Cui Huaiyin repeated these four words slowly, her eyes fixed on Zhu Wangbei whose gaze was dodging, and a perfectly measured smirk tugged at the corner of her lips.
For all these years, Zhu Wangbei had never taken a concubine, with Cui Huaiyin as his only wife. That Lady Liu was only taken in as a concubine after they moved to the capital, which made outsiders think she was Zhu Wangbei's very first concubine.
After Cui Huaiyin gave birth to her daughter, she had not conceived again for a long time. She had brought up the idea of taking a concubine for Zhu Wangbei many times, but he had turned her down every time, speaking righteously that he had only her in his heart and had no need for any other women.
Now it seemed that it was not that he did not want to, but that he wanted to put on a show of deep affection for the Cui family, so that her second brother would keep pouring money into his pockets!
Did Zhu Wangbei really think that since he and Wang Cuiyun had been poisoned, she would feel guilty and spend her own money to raise his children for him?
"Ayin, are you blaming me?" Zhu Wangbei asked tentatively, coughing while pressing a hand to his chest.
Cui Huaiyin said, "This is a wonderful thing. Once you recover from your illness, I will go with you to bring them back."
A look of wild joy flashed across Zhu Wangbei's face immediately, "Really?"
Cui Huaiyin nodded slightly, "I just don't know how old they are."
Zhu Wangbei lowered his head at this moment, "One is five years old, and the other is six."
Cui Huaiyin said, "Are you sure the older one is only six? Husband, you can be honest with me. You and your mother took the disaster blow for me, so I owe the Zhu family a favor. I would never do anything to harm the children."
Zhu Wangbei hesitated for a long while, stared at Cui Huaiyin for quite some time before saying, "I did not mean to hide it from you. That woman is my cousin. My mother forced me to take care of her... Our first child is already seven years old. If I had known I would meet you in the future, I would never have gotten involved with her or gotten her pregnant."
The smile on Cui Huaiyin's face faded away, and she stared fixedly at Zhu Wangbei.
That child was seven years old, one year older than Yaoyao. That meant Zhu Wangbei had already been intimate with his cousin before he even married her.
But that night was still fresh in her memory. That man had been so flustered, panting in a rush and blurting out, "This is my first time. If I hurt you, miss, please forgive me... I will take full responsibility for you and marry you in the future."
That man had been a first-timer, completely clueless, fumbling around in a panic... But Zhu Wangbei had clearly already been with his cousin long before that night, and had even had their first child by the time he came to ask for her hand in marriage.
Zhu Wangbei was definitely not the man from that night! He was not Yaoyao's father!
"Ayin, what's wrong with you?" Zhu Wangyin asked in a panic, noticing that Cui Huaiyin's expression was clearly off.
"I'm thinking about why you decided to marry me back then."
Zhu Wangbei looked away, "I compromised your innocence, so of course I had to take responsibility for you."
Cui Huaiyin let out a soft chuckle and glanced down at her daughter Yaoyao, who kept looking between her and Zhu Wangbei as if she could understand every word they were saying.
Cui Huaiyin gently patted her daughter's head, pulled her behind to shield her, then looked at Zhu Wangbei, who seemed so frail that he could pass away at any moment, and said, "A man came to our house just now. He claimed to be Yaoyao's biological father, and accused you of impersonating him seven years ago."
Zhu Wangbei's hand clutched the bedding tightly, his eyes filled with panic. He then hung his head low and said, "Ayin, don't joke with me."
Cui Huaiyin said, "He can recount every detail of what happened that night seven years ago, details you can't even remember. Dare you say you never lied to me?"
A look of panic flashed across Zhu Wangbei's pale face, and he snapped as if his tail had been stepped on, raising his voice, "We've been married for years, Cui Huaiyin! What on earth do you want!"
Cui Huaiyin stared at him coldly, "Tell me everything clearly. How did you find out that my chastity was gone, and why did you pretend to be that man? There's no need to hide anything now. Otherwise, the pair of children you're raising outside might not grow up safe and sound."
Blue veins bulged on the back of Zhu Wangbei's hand. Then all the strength seemed to drain from his body. He glanced at Rongyao beside Cui Huaiyin with dull, lifeless eyes and let out a cold snort, "Fine, I'm not her father. She's nothing but an illegitimate child!"
The moment Zhu Wangbei finished that sentence, a sharp slap sounded, and his face was struck hard by Cui Huaiyin.
He was already weak from poisoning, so the blow nearly knocked him unconscious. He shook his head vigorously to clear his senses.
But even after suffering such humiliation, his sickly body could not retaliate. He could only cover his face, trembling, and point at Cui Huaiyin, stammering in unbridled rage, "You, you..."
Cui Huaiyin's face was dark with anger, "Do you really want your two children to have no good future?"
Zhu Wangbei fell silent, covering his chest and coughing violently, "I'll talk! I'll tell you everything!"
"Back then, I was just a lowly student who had sat for the xiucai exam for years without passing. I couldn't even scrape together the money for the imperial examinations. Luckily, my mother worked as a menial laborer in your household, and once by chance she overheard a conversation between you and your mother."
Cui Huaiyin's expression turned icy cold at once.
Zhu Wangbei continued, "We learned that you couldn't find the man who had taken your chastity, that you didn't even know his surname, name, or what he looked like! It just so happened that around that time I was at Green Green Mountain. My mother and I talked it over, and the idea of impersonating him popped into our heads. Your father is the county magistrate, the absolute ruler of Huang County. Every man would be eager to marry a noble daughter like you, because marrying you meant attaching himself to the county magistrate, and never having to suffer from poverty again. I knew you were already pregnant and could not afford to wait, so after making inquiries from all sides, I came to your house to propose marriage. You and your parents believed me completely, just as I expected."
Zhu Wangbei paused at this point, glanced at Cui Huaiyin, and added hurriedly, "I had long been in love with you even before that, but I was too low in status to find a way to get close to you. Even when you were carrying another man's child, I didn't mind at all, as long as I could be with you. What I said just now was wrong. I truly love Yaoyao from the bottom of my heart. I beg you, for the sake of the years I spent shielding you from misfortunes, and all our years as husband and wife, to bring my two poor children back to the manor, take good care of them, and raise them to be accomplished people. After all, I've treated Yaoyao sincerely all these years, and always loved her as my own daughter."
"Treat her with sincerity?" Cui Huaiyin let out a mocking snort, looking down at Zhu Wangbei from her superior position. "Let me ask you this: if I were the one poisoned today instead of you two, how would you treat my Yaoyao?"
A flicker of guilt crossed Zhu Wangbei's eyes. "Of course, of course we'd still treat her the same as before. I've watched her grow up, I've long regarded her as my own daughter."
Cui Huaiyin sneered, staring fixedly at Zhu Wangbei. "Do you feel your face burning, your heart racing, or your chest tightening when you spin such lies? Seven years ago, when I gave premature birth to Yaoyao, you were the one who drugged me!"
She still remembered clearly that seven years ago, she drank a bowl of medicinal soup sent over by Zhu Wangbei, and immediately went into premature labor. She barely survived the ordeal, and Yaoyao nearly suffocated inside her womb.
If her parents hadn't invited the best physician in the city, she would have surely died along with the child.
After she successfully gave birth to Yaoyao, the physician warned her before leaving that someone had administered a drug that harmed both the mother and the unborn child.
She had her suspicions back then, but there was no proof. What's more, Zhu Wangbei had been so attentive to her afterwards, and showed nothing but fondness for Yaoyao, so she set aside her doubts.
Thinking back now, it must have been Zhu Wangbei who wanted to kill both her and her child!
When Zhu Wangbei heard Cui Huaiyin bring up this matter, cold sweat broke out on his palms.
That time, he really had the urge to harm the child in Cui Huaiyin's belly.
As a man, how could he bear that his wife was carrying another man's child, while he had to force a smile every day, pretending to be caring and concerned?
So he had someone secretly buy the drug, planning to get rid of that child before it became an eyesore later on.
Who would have thought that the child in Cui Huaiyin's womb would be so lucky? Even after drinking a whole bowl of abortifacient, she still survived.
But luckily, fate was kind to him. Cui Huaiyin gave birth to a daughter, who would never inherit the family property. Once Cui Huaiyin bore him a son later on, all the family wealth would belong to his own child.
Unexpectedly, Cui Huaiyin's body was damaged after that incident, and she never got pregnant again for all those years, failing to give him the son he wanted.
As time went by, every time he looked at Rongyao, he only saw a disgrace. He could only endure Cui Huaiyin with all his might, and the resentment he felt toward her grew stronger each time he thought of her with that other man.
Cui Huaiyin owed him.
If it weren't for the fact that his father-in-law was the local county magistrate, he would never have swallowed his pride for so long!
He never expected that Cui Huaiyin would bring up the old premature birth incident again, and even guess that he was behind it.
That was all in the past. The mother and daughter are alive and well now, and he and his mother even took the disaster for them! Why couldn't she just let it go?
He would be crazy to admit it!
"Ayin, what are you talking about? How could your premature birth seven years ago have anything to do with me? I only covered up for that man who wronged you, I have never done anything to harm you and our daughter."
"Zhu Wangbei! Do you think I will still believe you?" Cui Huaiyin let out a faint scoff, her face full of disgust. She took a sheet of paper out from her sleeve and held it out in front of Zhu Wangbei. "This is the document for our separation. If you know what's good for you, sign it as soon as possible. You might just get to live a few more days."
