Last night, she was as calm as a dead person, completely indifferent to the life or death of the man at the palace doors, yet now she was acting like this...
Cui Yunchu rubbed her forehead.
"Exhausted" didn't even begin to cover it.
What exactly was she trying to pull? Could she at least give her a heads-up beforehand? Her heart was about to leap out of her chest.
She hurriedly caught up with Cui Yunfeng and lowered her voice, "Yunfeng, we are on someone else's turf. We cannot afford to be impulsive."
Cui Yunfeng merely glanced at Cui Yunchu, who was clinging to her arm and refusing to let go, and obediently nodded.
Xiao Yi's bedchamber was not far from where the sisters were staying, and they arrived in no time.
Inside the room, Consort Liang was throwing a fit. "Are you trying to get yourself killed? I have exhausted myself over your trivial matters, leaving me no time to even spar with the Empress, yet you continue to throw tantrums. If Eldest Miss Cui met you, even she would have to concede defeat."
"Standing in the rain all night and catching a cold—why didn't you just hang yourself at the palace doors? You are a man! Is there nothing left for you to do in the royal court? Have you defeated the Crown Prince? Is the position of the heir apparent yours?"
"You have grown this big for nothing! It is a good thing the Empress is also useless, otherwise, my head would have rolled long ago, buried right alongside you during all those times you spent quarreling with Cui Yunfeng."
Consort Liang truly could not take it anymore.
Her son was a hopeless romantic. She couldn't control how he tormented himself, and she had let that go, but now he wouldn't even spare his own mother.
She was already getting on in years.
Lady Zhao went in and nudged Consort Liang. "Your Highness, the Prince is severely ill. Please say no more."
On the bed, Xiao Yi looked pale, his lips dry, his eyes slightly closed.
He remained silent from start to finish, letting Consort Liang ramble on.
Consort Liang thought: He does look a little bit pitiful.
"Yi'er, just drink some medicine. How can you recover if you do not take your medicine? If anything happens to you, your mother will not want to live either."
Consort Liang cried while shooting a pointed glance at Lady Zhao.
Lady Zhao immediately invited the Cui sisters inside.
The two of them first curtsied in greeting. Consort Liang quickly told them to rise. "Yunfeng, come quickly and persuade him. How can he get better if he refuses his medicine?"
Cui Yunchu hung her head, staring at the tips of her shoes.
After all, she was the originator of acting; she could see right through the gritted teeth hiding behind Consort Liang's performance.
To be honest, she was gritting her teeth quite a bit herself.
Or was it that people in love were all this childish and dramatic?
Even Xiao Yi had been corrupted to this extent.
She was not particularly smart to begin with; if she got infected by this thing called love, wouldn't she become incredibly stupid?
As she was pondering, Consort Liang pulled her outside. "Yunchu, we didn't get to talk in detail yesterday. I truly admire your talent. Tell me, where did you copy all those poems from?"
"..."
If only you hadn't said that second half, I might have actually believed the first half.
Cui Yunfeng took the medicine from the palace servant, scooped up a spoonful, blew on it, and brought it to Xiao Yi's lips.
Xiao Yi's closed eyes finally opened.
"Your Highness Prince An, allow me to feed you your medicine."
"Yunfeng." He suddenly grabbed her wrist with great force. "If you have misunderstood something, you can ask me, you can scold me, you can throw a temper tantrum, but please do not act like this."
The scene of the two of them embracing and watching the fireworks from the high tower that night felt as if it had just happened yesterday. She had even smiled and said she liked him.
Cui Yunfeng's expression was calm. "What is Your Highness talking about? Aren't we perfectly fine?"
Just like in the past when he had kept things from her, it was the same tranquil facade.
Cui Yunfeng looked at Xiao Yi, but her eyes slowly blurred, bringing forth images of the disappointed gazes of her grandmother and father, and the sight of her eldest sister on the brink of death.
And her cousin's heartbroken, haggard face.
These past days, she had loved him while being torn in agony. Every emotion—terror, worry, fear, a guilty conscience, and remorse—could be used to describe her.
Now, all of it suddenly dissipated.
Although her heart was dead, without the burden of those emotions, she actually felt it wasn't too bad.
She no longer had to live in fear and trepidation, did she?
Now, the one who should be living in fear and trepidation was him.
Cui Yunfeng set down the medicinal broth. "Your Highness should focus on recovering, so as not to delay presenting the betrothal gifts in a few days."
She was so cold it seemed she lacked even a trace of warmth.
The mention of the betrothal gifts caused Xiao Yi to slowly loosen his tight grip on Cui Yunfeng's wrist.
Cui Yunfeng said, "Rest assured, Your Highness. The Cui and Tang families are currently at the center of the storm. Our marriage was decreed by His Majesty. For the sake of the Cui family, I will not defy the imperial edict."
Every word she spoke was about her family; there was not a trace of the girl she used to be.
For some reason, Xiao Yi suddenly felt that she was becoming more and more like the Crown Princess.
...
In the Fengluan Palace, a servant reported that Consort Liang was going to host a birthday banquet the next day.
The Empress furrowed her brows tightly. "Didn't she just celebrate it in the first half of the year? What kind of nonsense is she pulling now? Did her mother give birth to her twice in one year?"
The female official beside her immediately said, "I heard both the Misses of the Cui family are in her palace. She might be cooking up some wicked scheme again."
Consort Liang never followed any logic in her actions. The Empress was already annoyed, unable to figure out her angle this time, and the incessant whimpering in her ear only fueled her irritation.
"Stop crying."
How could Liu Wanting hold back? "Mother Empress, you must seek justice for me! It must have been the Crown Princess who instigated the Crown Prince; otherwise, how could the Crown Prince possibly drug me with that kind of medicine?"
Just a little more—if it had been delayed for another half a year or a year, she would never have been able to conceive in this lifetime.
Remembering how she had even taken that scent pouch to flaunt in front of Tang Qingwan, boasting that it was personally gifted by the Crown Prince, she beat her chest and stomped her feet, wishing she could crawl into a mouse hole.
That wretched woman must have been secretly laughing at her and gloating.
The Empress felt annoyed just looking at Liu Wanting.
It was true that the Liu family held power, but how could they produce such a foolish daughter? She truly could not even compare to half a finger of Tang Qingwan.
No matter how much Liu Wanting cried, the Empress remained silent, because she knew that the scent pouch was definitely the Crown Prince's idea.
Tang Qingwan was a smart woman; she couldn't possibly have done this, for if the truth came to light, it would be no small matter.
Therefore, it was highly likely that she had started plotting from the very day the main and secondary consorts entered the household together.
She had endured silently, allowing Liu Wanting to be arrogant and domineering, allowing her to pressure the Crown Prince to shower Liu Wanting with favor. It was all a calculation to build up the Crown Prince's guilt, pushing him to take matters into his own hands and render Liu Wanting barren.
As long as there was no child, no matter how powerful the Liu family was or how favored Liu Wanting became, she was nothing more than a grasshopper in late autumn—jumping around aimlessly before her inevitable end.
And within the Crown Prince's estate, the two factions of Cui-Tang and Liu—the main and secondary consorts—were fighting tooth and nail, ensuring no other woman could step in.
To her, Liu Wanting was not a threat at all. Even her past concessions were likely just perfunctory acts.
Even she, the Empress, was merely a grasshopper caught in her schemes.
The Empress felt furious, but she knew clearly that investigating further would only drag the Crown Prince into an embarrassing scandal. Her greatest ability was making the Crown Prince willingly do all this for her, while she remained completely untainted by the filth.
No matter what anyone did, they would never be able to implicate her or the Cui-Tang families.
