Last night, the rain was sparse and the wind sudden; the fragrance within the brocade curtains was heavy, and the air brimmed with spring passion.
The Silk Tree Flowers embroidered on the canopy trembled slightly, looking vivid as if they were being buffeted by wind and rain.
The unfamiliar bed made Yu Ying uneasy, but she was groggy. She wanted to flee, yet could not summon a shred of strength.
It was dark inside the curtains. She could not see the man’s face clearly, but she knew his identity all too well.
She had already been smothered to death; how could she still be with him…
She reached out to push the man atop her, but her weak palms touched his firm muscles, as if hitting a wall.
This action amused him even more. He caught her slender hand, kissed it, and murmured hoarsely, “Be good.”
Yu Ying suffered through the ordeal and lost consciousness once more.
“Wake up! To think you could sleep so soundly after climbing into the Shizi’s bed!”
“Shameless! Get up this instant!”
Bright morning light spilled through the brocade curtains onto the bed. Feeling someone rubbing her face harshly with a wet cloth, Yu Ying struggled to open her eyes.
Mama Zhou and Baochuan, who served the Heir Apparent’s Wife, stood before the bed, looking at her with disdain, their mouths full of abuse.
“Usually you look so honest and dutiful; I never expected you to be such a vixen,” Baochuan said as she dragged Yu Ying up.
Mama Zhou’s eyes flickered as she glanced at Yu Ying’s dazzlingly white body.
When Yu Ying worked in the flower room, she dressed plainly and looked dusty. Though she had always been somewhat pretty, she had never been considered outstanding.
Yet, once her clothes were removed, she seemed transformed. Not only was her skin fine and tender, but her waist was slender and her breasts rose like proud peaks.
Even someone as stone-hearted as Mama Zhou could not help but be moved by such a figure.
A beauty with such skin and form should never have been allowed near the Shizi, but Yu Ying’s features happened to closely resemble those of the Heir Apparent’s Wife. Right now, they had no choice but to use her.
“According to the rules, for climbing into a master’s bed and seducing him, one should be given twenty strokes of the board and expelled from the Houfu,” Mama Zhou said with a cold face.
Climbing the bed?
In her past life, Yu Ying had been misled by them, believing she had drunkenly climbed into the Shizi’s bed and committed a terrible crime. She had foolishly allowed them to manipulate her.
“If you ask me,” Baochuan said snidely, “we should throw you onto the street just like this, so everyone can see how wretched you are.”
Yu Ying was unclothed, her ink-satin hair cascading down to her waist, barely veiling her snow-white body. Baochuan felt like spitting on her.
Mama Zhou said, “How she is dealt with depends on the Madam. It’s just that her current state is too unseemly. Take her away and wash her clean first.”
The Shizi had already gone out for social engagements; it was the perfect time to deal with Yu Ying.
Clothes lay scattered across the floor. As Baochuan supported Yu Ying, she accidentally stepped on an apricot-colored undergarment, and after two more steps, she trod upon a pair of green trousers.
She spat in disgust, her grip on Yu Ying’s arm tightening.
Warm water was ready in the side room. Yu Ying felt weak and frail all over, barely able to stand while leaning against the bath barrel.
Her back, as fine as white porcelain, was covered in red marks, and the tiny spots of blood left behind from her first night as a woman stained her skin.
Fuming at the sight, Baochuan scooped up water and splashed it over Yu Ying’s head and face, washing away the blood and other impurities.
The hot water stung, and Yu Ying’s grip on the barrel tightened.
It was exactly the same. Everything happening was exactly as it had been in her past life.
It was also on the day the Shizi returned to the capital that the Heir Apparent’s Wife had rewarded the servants with food and wine.
Yu Ying was not a strong drinker, but the head maid, Baozhu, had urged her to drink several cups. After becoming intoxicated, Yu Ying had shared a night of chaotic, lingering dreams with the Shizi.
When she woke in the morning, the Shizi had already departed. Yu Ying was seized by Mama Zhou and the others and brought before the Heir Apparent’s Wife for judgment.
The Heir Apparent’s Wife had been “lenient,” choosing not to pursue the crime of climbing the bed. Instead, she ordered Yu Ying to serve the Shizi in her place.
Yu Ying had not dared to disobey. She could only hide her face and voice at night, entwined with the Shizi like a pair of mandarin ducks.
Not long after, Yu Ying became pregnant. The Madam sent her to a Manor Estate to nurture the pregnancy, promising her the position of Concubine after a safe delivery and pledging to pay for physicians and medicine for Yu Ying’s critically ill mother.
For ten months, Yu Ying was trapped in a small room, never seeing the sun.
She was anxious and terrified, yet unable to escape, forced to endure the bitter wait.
On the day she gave birth to a son, Mama Zhou and the others arrived at the Manor Estate. As they prepared to “keep the child and dispose of the mother,” they finally revealed the truth.
The fruit wine rewarded to her back then had been drugged. Yu Ying hadn’t climbed into the bed; they had delivered a drugged Yu Ying into the Shizi’s bed.
This was the Heir Apparent’s Wife’s carefully orchestrated plan of Borrowing a Womb to Bear a Child.
They had chosen Yu Ying because her appearance was somewhat similar to the Madam’s, ensuring the child she bore would not arouse suspicion.
As for Yu Ying’s mother, she had never received medical treatment and had died months prior!
Every word pierced Yu Ying’s heart like a knife.
In her most desperate and weakest moment, they had used a wet quilt to ruthlessly smother her.
Her final memory was an all-consuming sense of suffocation, just like these basins of water being splashed onto her face now.
Yu Ying took a deep breath. After the initial surge of extreme humiliation, hatred, and rage, she instead grew calm.
Mama Zhou spoke from the doorway, “Madam has finished her breakfast. Bring that little vixen over for questioning.”
“Coming,” Baochuan answered, taking a dry silk cloth to wipe Yu Ying’s face.
The moment their eyes met, Baochuan felt an inexplicable prickle of guilt under Yu Ying’s clear gaze.
Snapping back to her senses, Baochuan put on the air of a head maid and scolded sharply, “What are you staring at?”
Baochuan truly loathed her.
A natural-born vixen, yet she had the luck to resemble the Madam and spend a night of passion with a god-like figure like the Shizi.
“Put these on yourself!”
Baochuan irritably threw the clothes at Yu Ying and turned to leave the side room.
Yu Ying did not rush to dress. Noticing a pot of cold tea on the table, she drank half of it in one go. Only then did she dress neatly and push open the door to walk out.
Expensive incense burned in the room. The Heir Apparent’s Wife, Cui Yichu, sat in the primary seat, slowly sipping tea.
She was adorned in radiant silks and fine jewelry, her entire aura one of nobility and refined elegance.
Baozhu, the maid who had urged Yu Ying to drink the previous night, stood by her side fanning her.
“Madam,” Mama Zhou said respectfully, “for such a lowly creature, whether she is beaten or sold, it is best to deal with her severely.”
Cui Yichu set down her teacup, her gaze falling on Yu Ying, but she shook her head gently. “Yu Ying, I truly did not expect you to be capable of such a thing.”
“She was caught in the act. Madam, you cannot go easy on her.”
As soon as Mama Zhou finished speaking, Baozhu spoke up to plead for her: “I expect Yu Ying was just momentarily confused. Madam, you are magnanimous; why not give her a chance to reform herself?”
Cui Yichu’s eyes were bright and piercing as she looked down at Yu Ying. “Do you have anything to say for yourself?”
Heh.
Watching the masterful acting of this mistress and her servants—two playing the “bad cop” and two playing the “good cop”—Yu Ying could not stop the cold laughter in her heart.
If the maids were the ones who had physically killed her, Cui Yichu was the mastermind behind the scenes.
Drugging her and sending her to Zhao Xuanyou’s bed, then disposing of the mother to keep the child after she gave birth—everything was a trap laid by Cui Yichu.
What did she have to say? It was nothing more than a debt of blood to be paid in blood.