The Crown Prince had originally had no desire to deal with this fourth maternal aunt of his ever again.

The last time he had listened to her, things had backfired spectacularly — not only had he handed the Tao family’s cousin over as an asset to his newly emerged Third Brother, he had also caused his own legitimate princess consort to be humiliated by that fraud Gu Youjin.

The resentment from that particular grievance was something no one could simply swallow.

But now Tao Huiru was claiming with absolute conviction that she knew a secret about the Third Princess Consort — and that truly had piqued his curiosity. He wanted to hear what she had to say.

As it turned out, this fourth maternal aunt was quite the accomplished gossip from the capital’s great households, and knowing his patience had grown short of late, she came straight to the point and revealed a secret about the Third Princess Consort’s time before the marriage.

It turned out that Tao Yashu, while attending the Ronglin Academy for Women, had been bold enough to secretly develop romantic feelings for Liao Jingxuan — a male tutor at the academy.

Her cold and indifferent manner toward the Emperor when she entered the palace had also been because her heart was already given to someone else.

The Crown Prince listened with his brow gradually smoothing, and immediately asked, “Is every word of this true? Doesn’t that mean my Third Brother is wearing a magnificent green hat without knowing it? But still… you only eavesdropped on her conversation with Chu Linlang — what use is that? You’ll need solid, concrete evidence before anything can be done with it.”

Tao Huiru knew the Crown Prince was afraid the Tao family would switch sides, so she had thought everything through in advance. She kept her eyes downcast and said demurely, “Tao Yashu had two personal maids before she entered the palace — both had already married by the time she went in. If the Crown Prince could locate them and loosen their tongues, surely personal maids would know far more than I do.”

Though the Crown Prince had long since firmly resolved not to get entangled in schemes with his fourth maternal aunt again, hearing this he found himself tempted once more.

He had also always found it puzzling that Tao Yashu had been at such odds with her family before. But having heard Tao Huiru’s account, everything could now be explained.

So this cousin of his had long since given her heart to someone else — that was why she had agreed so readily to marry into the Third Prince’s manor, intending to preserve herself for the one she loved.

Yet seeing how the two of them had looked so genuinely devoted and affectionate at the banquet that day — was it all an act put on for others to see? Or had she simply changed her affections upon seeing how fine and distinguished the Third Prince looked?

Thinking about it further, the Crown Prince felt that if there was solid evidence of his cousin’s past romantic affair, and the Third Prince were to find out — no man with any self-respect could stand for that.

Once the Third Prince harbored resentment toward Tao Yashu, the Tao family would certainly no longer be able to count on Old Third either.

With the Tao family not defecting to the other side, he would have nothing to be alarmed about.

Just as his maternal grandfather had said — he was the eldest legitimate son of the imperial family, and his mother was the unquestionable Empress of the realm. As long as he committed no grave error, even the Emperor could not set him aside based on personal preference alone.

This time, however, he would absolutely not act unless he had solid, concrete evidence.

And as Tao Huiru left the Crown Prince’s residence, she was equally full of schemes of her own.

The Crown Prince was no longer someone who could be set in motion with just a word or two. He had listened with interest just now, yet had made it clear to his fourth maternal aunt that he needed real, concrete evidence.

It seemed she would have to put in genuine effort and produce proof of Tao Yashu’s pre-marital indiscretion.

Thinking of Tao Zan’s obsessive fixation on Chu Linlang, Tao Huiru felt another surge of exasperation.

She refused to believe her son had simply gone and lost his head. In her view, it must have been Chu Linlang scheming again — using her bewitching wiles to extract information from her son, which was the only reason Tao Zan had been drawn in like this. And behind it all, Situ Sheng, that wretched creature, was no doubt pulling the strings. Unless she got rid of both of them, how could her son ever have any peace?

Now, as for Tao Yashu — because she was with child and afraid of showing, it was not convenient to return to her parental home.

The last time she had gone back had been when Linlang went to the north, using the pretense of her mother’s illness, with her father acting as an intermediary before she agreed to go.

At the time, though Su Shi had indeed taken ill, it had been only a common cold. And the way she had treated Yashu had still been somewhat dismissive and indifferent.

So Tao Yashu, having received a cold reception, had lingered only briefly at home before making an excuse about going to the imperial temple to pray and leaving the Tao household early.

Thus when Liao Jingxuan told her she was with child and that if she had no wish to return to her parental home she needn’t go — that he would handle everything that remained — her heart had felt enormously lightened.

She had only found out afterward that the Tao family had gone to Chu Linlang to serve as a go-between in hopes of bringing her home, and that Chu Linlang had sent them away empty-handed.

When Linlang came to visit the Third Prince’s manor, Tao Yashu could not help but take her friend’s hand and express her gratitude.

Linlang laughed and said, “What are you thanking me for? I was somewhat disrespectful to Madam Wu — as long as you don’t hold it against me.”

She said this while helping Tao Yashu dig a hole in the garden.

Liao Jingxuan had brought back from the palace a pot of peonies personally bestowed by the Emperor. The color was so beautiful that Tao Yashu planned to plant it in the courtyard.

It was an idle afternoon, and without even calling on the maids to help, once Linlang had dug the hole, Yashu sat on a small stool and was preparing to plant the flowers herself.

Chu Linlang knew Tao Yashu’s old habits well, and when she watched her scoop up soil with her bare hands without the slightest hesitation, she couldn’t help but gape in mild astonishment, half-suspecting that the Yashu before her had somehow been replaced with a different person entirely.

Tao Yashu, seeing her wide-eyed expression, laughed and said, “Liao… the Third Prince said that the purest and most wholesome thing in all of heaven and earth is soil. Everything we eat and wear is nurtured and grown from it. To feel disgust toward it is to forget one’s roots. Just the other day he took me out to a field to dig up fresh sweet potatoes to eat.”

It seemed that following the Third Prince, Tao Yashu’s aversion to dirt had improved considerably, and she had started to take on a more grounded, earthly quality.

After all, in the Third Prince’s manor, no one was constantly reminding Tao Yashu to observe the etiquette befitting a young woman of distinguished family, to be mindful of all those rules and prohibitions.

Some constraints, once loosened, naturally bring ease to both body and spirit, and allow a person to live more freely.

Today, Situ Sheng and the Third Prince both had official business — they had gone to receive the Jin kingdom’s peace-marriage procession and had left the city that morning, and had still not returned.

The two women planted the flowers and then had lunch together. They were just enjoying their post-meal tea and pastries in light conversation when a servant came to report that the Empress Dowager had sent word from the palace, asking Tao Yashu to come in for a casual visit.

At this hour, it should normally have been the Empress Dowager’s midday rest. She generally did not receive visitors then.

A sudden summons to the palace at this time was in itself unusual.

Chu Linlang was somewhat puzzled when she heard the imperial decree. But Yashu said that the Empress Dowager sometimes suffered from leg cramps during her afternoon rest, and that Yashu’s massage technique suited the Empress Dowager very well — perhaps she was being summoned to the palace for a massage.

It was the Empress Dowager’s summons, after all, and could not be disobeyed.

Chu Linlang thought for a moment and said, “As it happens, I’ve also selected some embroidered pieces with distinctive Southern character for the Empress Dowager — why don’t I accompany you to the palace?”

Tao Yashu welcomed this eagerly, and so the two of them each boarded their separate carriages and set off for the palace.

Tao Yashu entered first, while Chu Linlang waited briefly at the palace gate before having someone present her access token — this token had been bestowed upon her as a reward by the Empress Dowager and generally allowed her to pass through the palace gates even without a specific summons, provided she stated her purpose.

But today something was slightly off. The guard sent someone to announce her arrival, and after a moment returned with an apologetic expression, saying, “The Empress Dowager is not feeling well today and will not be receiving the Lady of Comfort. Please return.”

Chu Linlang paused, sensing something was not right.

If the Empress Dowager truly felt so unwell that she could not receive visitors, why had she specifically summoned Tao Yashu to the palace?

Even if she missed her former female official and found Yashu’s bedside attendance particularly soothing — Yashu was, however one looked at it, the dignified consort of the Third Prince.

Bedside attendance as an act of filial care was hardly something a granddaughter-in-law should be performing. The Empress Dowager was a woman who valued protocol so deeply — she would not do something so demeaning to a granddaughter-in-law.

Chu Linlang’s instinct told her something was wrong, yet she kept a smile on her face and handed over the embroidered pieces she had brought to the guard, saying she had come for no particularly important reason — only to deliver some embroidered pieces to the Empress Dowager.

She also mentioned that she was a little concerned about the Empress Dowager’s health.

Since Lady of Comfort from New Plum had been a frequent visitor to the palace of late, the guards recognized her, and one of them remarked casually, “This morning the Crown Princess brought a physician into the palace. And Resident Wangchen also arrived — perhaps they noticed something was amiss.”

Chu Linlang’s sharp mind caught the guard’s use of the word “physician” rather than “imperial physician,” and she smiled and asked, “Oh? Some renowned folk healer, then?”

The guard looked mildly puzzled and replied with a laugh, “I wouldn’t know about that. I just noticed the smell of medicine about him — probably someone in the medical line…”

Chu Linlang realized she was unlikely to get more useful information and, smiling, took her leave and turned to make her way out of the palace.

But after a few steps, she could not shake the unease settling in her heart.

Since the Crown Princess had been frightened at the palace on a previous occasion, she had not come for a long time — she had not even appeared at the palace banquet. Yet this time, not only had she come, she had not come alone — she had brought Tao Huiru, the Tao family’s fourth aunt, and someone who appeared to be a physician.

The Empress Dowager had not been ill recently and had no need for someone to recommend a physician. Even if she were seeing a doctor, she would not use someone brought in from outside by the Crown Princess.

So the Crown Princess’s arrival was unusual, and she had certainly not come of her own free will — the only person who could order her to overcome her psychological resistance and enter the palace was the Crown Prince.

And what was more, why had Resident Wangchen come along with them?

They had arrived in the morning and had still not left, and now in the afternoon — ordinarily the Empress Dowager’s nap time — the Empress Dowager had urgently summoned Tao Yashu to the palace, which made things even more unusual.

In just the span of a few steps, Chu Linlang suddenly pieced it together.

What if the Crown Princess and the physician had come with the purpose of targeting the Third Princess Consort?

What leverage could make the Crown Prince so eager to strike? Could it be… Tao Yashu’s four-month pregnancy?

The Empress Dowager did not know the truth — that the Third Prince was in fact Liao Jingxuan. To ensure the Third Prince’s return appeared legitimate and above reproach, the Emperor had kept things tightly sealed, insisting the Third Prince had been in his manor all along, recuperating in seclusion.

If the Empress Dowager mistakenly believed that Tao Yashu had been carrying on with someone while keeping solitary vigil in the Third Prince’s manor and had become pregnant by another man, she would undoubtedly be furious.

Because Tao Yashu had served as a female official in her palace. If Yashu had been improper in conduct, did that not also make the Empress Dowager responsible for failing to keep a watchful eye?

So the Empress Dowager had summoned Tao Yashu to the palace in haste to confirm the situation.

With this realization, Chu Linlang was suddenly seized with urgency.

If this was indeed the case, Tao Yashu entering the palace right now was walking into danger. She was currently four months along, still in a period when the pregnancy was not entirely stable — how could she withstand an interrogation like this?

But at the moment, both Situ Sheng and Liao Jingxuan were outside the city — going to find them would be too slow to be of any use.

Chu Linlang thought for a moment, then made a decisive turn and said to the guard, “Please trouble yourself to announce me once more. I still wish to see the Emperor — please be sure to pass on that I have an extremely urgent matter to report to His Majesty.”

—

Meanwhile, Tao Yashu was kneeling rigidly in the Empress Dowager’s sleeping chambers.

Moments earlier, the Empress Dowager’s attending nanny had held her hand in place as an imperial physician took her pulse.

When the imperial physician informed the Empress Dowager that the Third Princess Consort’s pulse indicated a pregnancy of at least four months, even the Empress Dowager — who had already been somewhat prepared — could not help drawing in a sharp breath. She pointed at Yashu with a trembling finger and said, in a voice laced with heartache and fury, “You… you actually committed such a shameless act!”

At her side, the Crown Princess hurried to support the Empress Dowager’s arm, urging her not to let her anger harm her health.

On the other side, Resident Wangchen — Tao Huiru in her guise as a Buddhist lay practitioner — stared at her niece with an expression of burning anxiety. Drawing on her authority as an elder, she pointed and reproached in anger, “How could you behave in such a disgraceful manner, child? You’ve practically thrown the entire Tao family’s honor away. Tell me at once — whose child is that you’re carrying?”

Tao Yashu took in the scene unfolding before her, then looked at the physician — the one she had secretly had her maid summon before the Third Prince’s return, to examine her in private. Now she finally understood what was happening.

She cast a cold sideways glance at her fourth aunt, then lowered her head and said, “I conceived after marrying into the Third Prince’s manor. Naturally the child is the Third Prince’s.”

This was practically trying to fool a ghost. Everyone present was a seasoned veteran of the capital’s inner circles — who among them did not know that the Third Prince had only recently returned to the manor?

The Empress Dowager, seeing Tao Yashu maintain this unyielding, unrepentant composure, felt a disappointment she could not put into words.

She truly had been too fond of this child. The Emperor had thought her ladies-in-waiting were remarkable and had chosen her to enter the Third Prince’s manor. And yet now Tao Yashu had stirred up this kind of scandal — would this not plant a seed of resentment between the Third Prince and the Emperor?

At this moment, Tao Huiru chimed in with impeccable timing. “I had heard before that you were closely involved with a male tutor at the academy — and that you even quarreled with your mother over him and refused to enter the palace. Could it be that… you carried on with that Master Liao and are now pregnant with his illegitimate child?”

Hearing this, the Empress Dowager’s fury reached a new height. A tutor and a female student? This was a scandal too unseemly even to hear spoken aloud.

This trouble had originated from someone who had slipped out of her own palace. If it was not handled cleanly, how would she be able to face the Emperor and the Third Prince?

With that, the Empress Dowager turned to the Crown Princess. “What do you think should be done about this?”

The Crown Princess had not wanted to come today at all. As she saw it, even if the Third Princess Consort had well and truly cuckolded her Third Brother, it was none of the Crown Prince’s manor’s business. She had even urged the Crown Prince not to get entangled with a troublemaker like Tao Huiru, who made it her business to dig for gossip at every household she could reach.

The Crown Prince had listened at first. But then he had sent someone to seize and interrogate the maids who had attended Tao Yashu at her marriage, and when he learned that Tao Yashu had secretly visited Master Liao’s home before she entered the palace, he had become immediately overexcited and single-minded.

And Tao Huiru had been quite capable in her own right — she had somehow located the physician who had been secretly treating Tao Yashu, and confirmed from him that Tao Yashu had been with child for quite some time already.

With evidence this solid, how could the Crown Prince pass up the opportunity to drive a wedge between the Tao family and the Third Prince?

And so he had urged the Crown Princess to enter the palace and bring the scandal out into the open.

But the Crown Princess had flatly refused to go alone.

Left with no other option, the Crown Prince had arranged for Tao Huiru to step forward — presenting herself as an elder who had discovered a junior’s misconduct, informing the Crown Princess, and the two of them then reporting the matter to the Empress Dowager together.

Though Tao Huiru had been tempted to shirk the task, claiming she was worried about offending her brother and sister-in-law, the Crown Prince had turned sardonic and snapped back, “Does my fourth maternal aunt only ever kill by borrowing someone else’s hand? If you won’t step forward, am I, a grown man, supposed to come forward and report on my own younger brother’s consort?”

With no way out, Tao Huiru had taken it upon herself to play the role of the righteous aunt serving family justice.

Now, with the evidence laid out before them, both the Crown Princess and Tao Huiru felt a quiet sense of relief.

Whatever else might be said, they had not made a false accusation. As for the business of making enemies — they had already agreed to push the responsibility onto the Empress Dowager.

So when the Empress Dowager asked, the Crown Princess quickly said, “As for that… this daughter-in-law truly doesn’t know… Perhaps wait until after the child is born to deal with it…”

“Nonsense! An illegitimate child — how could we allow her to carry it to term and give birth?”

Tao Huiru chimed in at the right moment. “These matters are the hidden scandals of the inner household — it would not be appropriate for the men out front to get involved. Unfortunately, the Third Prince’s birth mother is gone, and the palace has no principal Empress acting as a maternal mother figure. The burden would fall on you, Empress Dowager — however you wish to handle it, our Tao family will have no complaints whatsoever.”

This line of rhetoric neatly offloaded all responsibility squarely onto the Empress Dowager’s shoulders.

And the Empress Dowager, hearing it, found herself thinking this was indeed exactly right, and had already made up her mind.

In matters concerning the imperial bloodline, there could be absolutely no ambiguity. The child in her womb could not be allowed to remain for even a moment longer.

By rights this sort of thing should have been handled by the Third Prince himself.

But this daughter-in-law had been granted by the Emperor, and she had come out of the Empress Dowager’s own palace. If the Empress Dowager did not take charge and see it dealt with cleanly, it might cause the Third Prince to suspect that the Emperor had been negligent in his regard for him.

With that, the Empress Dowager waved her hand and said, “Go — have someone prepare the medicine and administer it to her. Then have her held in the imperial temple.”

Tao Huiru could not help a quiet surge of hidden satisfaction at these words.

Tao Yashu had committed such a disgrace — she was truly finished and could never recover from this. So she no longer needed to fear that this niece might one day come to power and exact revenge on her.

And of course, she had already let slip to the Empress Dowager that Chu Linlang had known about Tao Yashu’s scandal all along and had been helping to conceal it.

So once the Empress Dowager had dealt with Tao Yashu, Chu Linlang would be next.

A petty commoner woman who had risen to favor through lucky timing and a flattering tongue — being given a cup of poisoned wine would be more than she deserved.

Of course, if the Empress Dowager executed Chu Linlang, Situ Sheng would surely be devastated.

With that thought, Tao Huiru suddenly felt a rare, clear-headed sense of refreshing elation — even if it meant offending her brother and sister-in-law, it would be worth it.

After all, her brother was fond of her, and the fault lay entirely with Tao Yashu. Even if she hadn’t reported it, how long could the wretched girl have kept it hidden? By stepping forward herself, she was actually demonstrating the Tao family’s righteousness and moral rectitude. Her brother might be angry with her, but it wouldn’t last long. He had always been indulgent with her since childhood.

And just then, a palace attendant had already brought in the abortifacient decoction and was preparing to administer it to Tao Yashu.

Tao Yashu had been exposed today and had felt some measure of shame regarding her pregnancy. But the child in her womb was indeed the Third Prince’s, and so she had not been particularly afraid.

What she had never anticipated was that the Empress Dowager, stirred up by her fourth aunt’s scheming, would move to terminate her pregnancy privately without notifying the Emperor or the Third Prince.

Tao Yashu knew that if that bowl of medicine went down her throat, there would be no saving her child.

So just before the palace attendant came over, she suddenly rose to her feet, snatched the hairpin from her hair, and lunged at her fourth aunt — with one hand she seized her by the throat, and pressed the tip of the hairpin against her neck. “Nobody touch me! If you push me too far, I’ll throw my life away along with hers!”

The Empress Dowager had never witnessed anything like this and reeled back slightly in alarm, crying out, “Yashu, child, what on earth are you doing?”

This posture of Tao Yashu’s was something she had absorbed directly from her close friend Chu Linlang. The ferociously bold stance Chu Linlang had struck when they had encountered danger at the oasis had left an indelible impression on Tao Yashu.

Linlang had once said: when life is on the line, don’t be soft or polite for even a moment — you have to be fierce to survive.

At this moment, Tao Yashu had inherited seven parts of Chu Linlang’s ferocity.

She was not just making a show of it. The tip of the hairpin had already sunk into her fourth aunt’s neck, and blood was welling out in small, steady beads.

Tao Huiru was screaming in terror, frantically shrieking at the palace eunuchs and guards to stay back.

And while the two sides remained at a standoff, a voice suddenly rang out: “His Majesty the Emperor has arrived!”

Before the words had fully died away, the Emperor walked in. Taking in the scene before him, he frowned and said, “What is the meaning of this?”

Following behind the Emperor, Chu Linlang took one look at the situation and saw that Tao Yashu appeared to have the upper hand — and quietly let out a long breath of relief.

Thank goodness. Just as she had been about to step out through the palace gates, she had suddenly worked out the connections, turned back, and gone to bring the Emperor as reinforcement.

If she hadn’t, given the way things had been developing in the Empress Dowager’s palace, Tao Yashu would eventually have come out the worse for it.

Not even stopping to offer proper obeisance to the Empress Dowager, she hurried over and said to Tao Yashu, “Let go quickly — don’t strain yourself. Now that the Emperor is here, he will naturally make decisions on your behalf.”

And the Empress Dowager, seeing the Emperor had come, felt a trace of sheepishness. After the attendants and unnecessary persons had withdrawn from the room, she recounted the entirety of Tao Yashu’s scandalous situation.

The Emperor listened, and rather than the furious reaction the Empress Dowager had anticipated, he turned to Yashu with a perfectly serene expression and asked mildly, “You are expecting?”

Yashu dared not conceal anything and could only kneel and nod.

Tao Huiru, pressing her hand against her bleeding neck, burned with inward fury. She immediately spoke to the Emperor, “Your Majesty, it is my Tao family’s failure in governance that has allowed this woman to grow so outrageously bold. If my brother and sister-in-law were to learn of this, they would surely beat her to death on the spot rather than let such filth soil Your Majesty’s ears…”

Before she had even finished speaking, the Emperor cut her off coldly. “No one asked for your words — why do you insert yourself so freely? Sheng Hai — go, help the Third Princess Consort to her feet. She is with child; how can she be left kneeling so long?”

The Emperor’s manner and tone left the Empress Dowager, the Crown Princess, and Tao Huiru all momentarily stunned.

The Empress Dowager thought the Emperor had been driven to madness by rage, and could only venture carefully, “Your Majesty… she has been with child for four months now.”

The Emperor turned his prayer beads over in his hand with a composed air and said pleasantly, “Four months? Good. My Yi’er has been getting on in years — now that he has an heir, I can rest easy.”

The Empress Dowager could no longer remain in her seat. She seized the Emperor’s hand and pressed it to his forehead with concern, dropping her voice to say, “But, Your Majesty, the Third Prince… he has been back less than a month, hasn’t he?”

The Emperor gave his mother’s hand a reassuring pat, then turned to look at the Crown Princess. “You said the person with whom the Third Princess Consort was involved — who was it?”

The Crown Princess was not one to stir up trouble. The confrontation she had just witnessed had terrified her down to her bones, and so when the Emperor asked, she hastily distanced herself. “I only heard it from the Tao family’s fourth aunt — she said she had seen the Third Princess Consort in frequent and close contact with Master Liao, the tutor from the academy…”

Hearing this, the Emperor nodded with an even greater sense of ease.

When he had first acknowledged his third son, he had asked him about the principal consort who had been married into the household on his behalf as a good-luck measure — whether he was fond of her. His son had answered with completely open candor, admitting that the reason he had been willing to come forward and acknowledge his identity was precisely for the sake of Tao Yashu. The two of them had been deeply in love for a long time — he would marry no one but her in this life.

Perhaps it was a case of loving the son and extending that love to all things connected to him — seeing in his son the same frank and unrestrained spirit as Lady Fang, the Emperor did not even find it particularly objectionable that his son and Tao Yashu had formed an attachment before marriage.

And so, compared to a son and Yashu having conceived a child before marriage, this Tao Huiru — who had come to the palace under the banner of being a Tao family elder to stir up trouble — was, in the Emperor’s view, immeasurably more despicable.

Most particularly when the Emperor’s gaze fell on the abortifacient medicine the eunuch was holding nearby, his heart filled with a cold, cutting fury.

If Chu Linlang had not come to alert him in time today, how might his third son’s heart have been torn asunder by a bowl of abortifacient medicine ordered by his own grandmother?

—