Fu Yun Xi sat quietly beside Han Yan, amazed at how quickly she had pieced everything together. Although he had been wary of his Imperial brother’s pursuit of Han Yan from the beginning, he hadn’t expected him to act so swiftly. His brother had sat on that throne for too long – so long that he wouldn’t allow anyone who threatened his position to live.
Once he learned that Han Yan was the Eastern Marquis’s daughter and that the previous Emperor had decreed the Eastern Marquis should be Emperor, he immediately sent assassins. Though Han Yan was just a woman and could never become Emperor, if her identity were revealed, people would realize the current Emperor’s position was illegitimate and rise against him.
This was something his Imperial brother couldn’t tolerate. So even knowing Han Yan’s pitiful situation, even knowing she might be the true princess, his brother would still kill her – from a ruler’s perspective, this action wasn’t inappropriate.
But Fu Yun Xi himself couldn’t simply stand by and watch. The Emperor and Empress Dowager had reached an unspoken agreement regarding Han Yan – neither wanted her alive. When the Eastern Marquis’s wife Tang Xiao Qiao’s maid fled the manor with Han Yan and handed her to the Wang family, Han Yan lived on under the identity of Zhuang Han Yan in the Zhuang household – this wasn’t entirely unknown.
Given the Empress Dowager’s extensive influence, discovering Han Yan’s presence in the capital would have been simple. Yet when she learned that Han Yan was the sole survivor of the Eastern Marquis’s household, she didn’t pursue her elimination, because the imperial edict remained unaccounted for.
The previous Emperor’s edict naming the Eastern Marquis as Emperor still hadn’t been found. The Empress Dowager knew the previous Emperor had entrusted it to someone, but that person hadn’t appeared. So she planned to use Han Yan to draw out that person. As long as Han Yan lived, that person, knowing she was the Eastern Marquis’s child, would surely give her the edict. But after all these years, that person never appeared.
The Empress Dowager considered killing Han Yan, but then she’d lose her bait to draw out that person. So she arranged for Wei Ru Feng to marry Han Yan since Prince Wei was the Empress Dowager’s confidant. This way, Han Yan would be under complete surveillance. If Han Yan made any moves, the Empress Dowager would know immediately.
When Da Zhou Shi entered the Zhuang household, it was to search for that imperial edict. The Empress Dowager didn’t fully trust Zhuang Shi Yang, fearing he might have obtained and hidden the edict, so she sent Minister Zhang to investigate. Minister Zhang arranged for Da Zhou Shi, who had connections with Zhou Shi, to enter the Zhuang household and get close to Zhuang Shi Yang, using Zhou Shi’s miscarriage as an excuse to stay longer and search for the edict. However, Minister Zhang hadn’t anticipated that not only would Da Zhou Shi fail to find the edict, but her affair with Zhuang Shi Yang would be exposed before everyone, making him the laughingstock of the entire capital.
These events had developed to this point for reasons dating back many years. The Emperor’s throne belonged to the Eastern Marquis, and Han Yan was the true golden branch and jade leaf. The Empress Dowager’s murderous scheme to silence everyone was only now coming to light. But now Fu Yun Xi had been afflicted with the cold poison, perhaps with no possibility of cure.
Her brows knotted together. The current situation was so complicated that it left one feeling lost. In truth, neither Fu Yun Xi nor she was at fault, yet trying to interact naturally as if nothing had happened felt somehow strange.
“Now you know,” Fu Yun Xi said. “What do you plan to do?”
Han Yan turned to look at him. What could she do? She couldn’t exactly storm the palace and seize the throne. She didn’t want to do that anyway – if possible, maintaining the status quo would be best. She could remain an unremarkable ordinary woman, and he could remain the powerful royal prince.
Master Wu and Cheng Lei exchanged glances and quietly withdrew, leaving space for these two people. Han Yan and Fu Yun Xi surely had much to discuss.
“Fu Yun Xi,” Han Yan asked, “How is your cold poison?”
The moment “Fu Yun Xi” left her lips, both Han Yan and Fu Yun Xi paused slightly. In their previous interactions, whenever Han Yan forgot herself, she would call him by name, not the cold “Your Highness” – without that politeness and distance, replaced by a subtle intimacy. After so long, hearing Han Yan call him this way again gave Fu Yun Xi an otherworldly feeling.
“For now,” he said, “I’m not dying yet.”
Han Yan turned to look at him. Though confined to his sickbed, this handsome young man still maintained his extraordinary bearing, showing no signs of gloom or depression. It seemed as if nothing in this world could defeat him, yet he couldn’t even control his fate. Not knowing what to say, perhaps nothing needed to be said – after learning the truth, even explanations seemed superfluous. She stubbornly held onto Fu Yun Xi’s sleeve, as if afraid he might escape, or perhaps to steady her unease. Fu Yun Xi noticed this gesture and deliberately reached out to cover her small hand with his. Though Fu Yun Xi’s hand was ice-cold, Han Yan seemed to feel a hint of warmth. This calmed her confused heart somewhat.
“Can you tell me about the cold poison?” Han Yan finally asked after a long while.
Fu Yun Xi paused slightly, smiled faintly, and said, “Alright.” Then he began to slowly recount that dust-covered story he had kept in his heart for years, never told to outsiders.
Fu Yun Xi’s birth mother, Consort Jing, was a great beauty – this was evident in the appearances of Fu Yun Xi and the Emperor, as both brothers had inherited their mother’s exceptional looks. Consort Jing was gentle and kind by nature, existing in the palace like a lotus flower.
Such people weren’t suited for palace survival, but Consort Jing was an exception. The Emperor greatly favored her, but the Emperor’s favor alone wasn’t enough – he couldn’t interfere in matters of the inner palace. Consort Jing’s good fortune lay in the fact that the Grand Empress Dowager also liked her very much. The Grand Empress Dowager’s authority in the palace was unquestionable, so no one dared to move against Consort Jing.
Consort Jing was gentle and didn’t compete for favor. The more she was like this, the more the Emperor loved her. However, the Emperor’s favor wasn’t necessarily a good thing. The women in the inner palace envied her, especially the Empress.
As the mistress of the six palaces, the Empress had to maintain an appearance of virtue and tolerance daily, but this didn’t mean she could accept any woman monopolizing the Emperor’s attention. Particularly when the Emperor’s favor toward Consort Jing had given the Empress a sense of crisis, making her feel her position was unstable. After Consort Jing had borne two sons for the Emperor and was about to give birth to a third, the Empress finally couldn’t sit still.
The Empress herself had no sons, and a mother’s status depended on her children. The Emperor already favored Consort Jing, and now she had repeatedly borne sons for him, making her position even more unshakeable, even privately surpassing the Empress’s status. If the Emperor decided to make one of Consort Jing’s sons the Crown Prince, her position would be in dire peril. Had she spent her life cultivating an image of magnanimity and virtue as Empress, only to end up paving the way for someone else?