Song Chuyi had heard tales of the formidable exploits of the Fan sisters. It was said that back then, the Crown Prince had nearly driven his already-betrothed Crown Princess, Miss Lu, to hang herself in despair over this Fan Liangdi.

However, Miss Lu was after all the Empress’s own niece and an impeccable candidate for Crown Princess. In the end, the Crown Prince couldn’t overcome the forces arrayed against him and agreed to marry Miss Lu as Crown Princess. At the same time, however, he also extracted a condition from the Empress—that the Fan girl would become his Crown Prince’s Good Consort.

Since the Crown Prince’s health was poor, the Empress didn’t dare push too hard and ultimately agreed.

Later, Miss Lu gave birth to the Crown Prince’s legitimate eldest son, Zhou Weizhao. Close on his heels, Fan bore Zhou Weiqi the following year.

The Eastern Palace was far from peaceful during those years. When Zhou Weizhao was born, unusual celestial phenomena led people to proclaim him a heavenly blessing, and he had always been much beloved by Emperor Jianzhang and Empress Lu.

But when he was five years old, he nearly died from illness.

Crown Princess Lu personally petitioned Emperor Jianzhang and the Empress to send Zhou Weizhao to Longhu Mountain, which led to Zhou Weizhao’s seven or eight years of growing up on Longhu Mountain.

Song Chuyi carefully searched through her memories of her previous life, only to realize with some alarm—in her past life, Zhou Weizhao had died on the road while rushing to attend a funeral, yet Zhou Weiqi and Fan had both remained safe and sound.

Zhou Weiqi in particular had later even been enfeoffed as the Prince of Jiujiang and had even brought Fan to his fiefdom.

She had always assumed that Zhou Weizhao’s death in her previous life was Prince Duan’s doing, but now it seemed things might not have been so simple after all. Her fists clenched involuntarily.

Old Madam Song held Song Chuyi close and shook her head. “Back then, the affair of the two Fan sisters truly caused an enormous uproar—it was even staged as a play by the Hongyun Theater Company. Fortunately, they’ve kept a low profile since then. These past few years have been so quiet and uneventful that I nearly forgot these two people even existed.”

That probably wasn’t keeping a low profile—more likely they were conserving their strength and waiting for the perfect moment to strike with certainty, Song Chuyi thought.

Song Chuyi smiled and brought up Shen Huiyi again. “Speaking of which, I also received an invitation from the Shen family. Duke Yingguo’s mansion is actually hosting a flower viewing party too. It’s just that in my dreams I was so familiar with Duke Yingguo’s mansion, yet I never heard them mentioned as having any connection to the Marquis Jinxiang’s household.”

Old Madam Song gave a cold laugh. “You wouldn’t know this, but the Shen family, Fan family, and Han family are all three too ashamed to ever mention it. Before Fan, Marquis Jinxiang Han Zhengqing had a proper first wife, and that first wife was the legitimate younger sister of the current heir of Duke Yingguo’s mansion. She simply passed away later due to poor health.”

So the cousin whose origins she had been completely ignorant of in her previous life actually had such a background.

For Duke Yingguo’s mansion to maintain such good relations even with the children of Marquis Jinxiang’s second wife was truly rather remarkable yet somewhat baffling.

Song Chuyi’s estimation of the Han family and Duke Yingguo’s mansion dropped another notch in her heart. At the same time, she frowned at this invitation from Shen Huiyi—the Han family’s invitation very likely came at Han Zhi’s direction, but what about the Shen family?

Recalling the letter Ye Jingchuan had sent when she was previously in Qingzhou, her eyebrow twitched sharply again.

In this life, she had no intention of provoking Shen Qingrang again, but if Shen Qingrang insisted on clinging to her relentlessly just as in her previous life… Thinking of Ran’er, thinking of Song Yan, all the smile on her face transformed entirely into cold killing intent.

Old Madam Song had just finished analyzing all these relationships for her when First Madam Song, who had just taken Xiang Mingzi to look at the room arrangements and furnishings, returned leading Xiang Mingzi by the hand.

Old Madam Song smiled and explained to Xiang Mingzi, “It’s not really appropriate right now to have you live alone in a separate courtyard like your cousin does. Once the weather warms up in a while, we’ll prepare other accommodations for you. Are you satisfied with the layout and furnishings?”

Xiang Mingzi’s eyes were somewhat moist as she nodded emphatically.

First Madam Song had put real thought into it. Knowing that this young cousin couldn’t be neglected, she had already completely refurnished the small front room that Song Chuyi had previously occupied. She had even specially replaced it with a fashionable southern-style huanghuali wood canopy bed with openwork panels and horseshoe-shaped stretchers. Even the screen had been deliberately chosen in huanghuali wood with an immortal-pointing-the-way design. The room was furnished both elegantly and opulently.

Seeing her satisfaction, Old Madam Song’s attitude toward First Madam Song grew considerably warmer. “This year, your father-in-law and I weren’t home for the New Year celebrations. You had to manage household affairs while also caring for the children—it’s truly been hard on you.”

First Madam Song quickly waved her hands with a smile. “These are all my proper duties. For Old Madam to say such things really makes this daughter-in-law feel unworthy.”

As they spoke, the topic turned to Song Yi. “Today the eldest had an engagement with colleagues and went out after paying his respects to you, so I didn’t have time to ask him. Do you know what the current situation is regarding the second son’s matter?”

First Madam Song glanced at Song Chuyi, who sat perfectly upright without even raising an eyelid, and sighed before replying, “It’s rather troublesome. This case is being tried primarily by the Ministry of Justice. Although Minister Cen is on familiar terms with us, this case has both victims and evidence—it’s truly thorny.”

Old Madam Song also knew this matter was difficult to resolve. Even when she was far away in Qingzhou, she had already sent people to Changsha to investigate thoroughly—whoever had framed Song Yi had clearly come prepared, with every detail carefully considered. It was an almost perfect trap.

She looked at Song Chuyi with her eyes, then couldn’t help but sigh again. “Xiaoyi, I know this matter is entirely your father’s just deserts—if he hadn’t forcibly kept that disaster close by his side, no one could have harmed him.”

She paused, rubbing her brow somewhat wearily. “But you’re a clever child. You know that if something happens to your father, Brother Yan will also be affected.”

Actually, Song Chuyi knew that Old Madam Song might not truly be out of options. She was clearly trying to get her granddaughter to take action, hoping to use her experiences from her dream life to rescue Song Yi’s prospects at the smallest possible cost.

Of course she also knew that as the daughter of a criminal official, once the family was divided, the consequences would be severe. And of course she had no intention of truly destroying Song Yi completely—she had indulged Madam Fang in continuing to carry out Song Chuning’s plan merely to make Song Yi see thoroughly and completely through to Song Chuning’s true face beneath that obedient exterior.

She had already taken the full measure of what kind of person Song Yi was, knew his character inside and out, and knew what it would take to make him completely and wholeheartedly pivot back toward her and her brother without any lingering resentment, so he could peacefully hold an official position in the future without any ambition whatsoever.

Nothing more than giving him another object to hate and blame.

She had long since abandoned any expectations of the word “father” and had long known that even between blood relatives there would be differences in closeness and distance. But she couldn’t let Song Yi drag down both herself and Song Yan.

Apart from Han Zhi’s sudden unexpected appearance and the Ninth Princess, everything else was developing naturally according to her plan. She straightened her clothing and looked up to meet Old Madam Song’s eyes. “Grandmother, perhaps there is a method worth trying.”

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival everyone, sending kisses. Also, many thanks to Siwuya2008 for the gifted sachet. The editor changed my cover and I’m a bit unused to it, haha. Hope everyone has a wonderful Mid-Autumn Festival.