Seeing the tragic scene before her, Fuling cried until her eyes were swollen red. With a thump, she fell to her knees and began kowtowing to Heaven and Earth.
As long as Princess Consort and the Young Miss could survive, she was willing to die. She was willing to die right then and there, giving them all the years of life allotted to her.
“Good Fuling, don’t beg Heaven. Beg yourself!”
Su Luoluo gently inserted needle after needle. Her face was ashen, and she spoke to Fuling in a trembling voice. Then she lowered her head, pried open her daughter’s tiny mouth, and softly sucked the contents out.
The little one’s body was covered in purplish-blue bruises. She had stopped breathing long ago!
After removing the needles, Su Luoluo carefully rolled her body onto her side and wiped away the filth she had spat from her mouth. Then she breathed air into her, inserted the needles again, and continued…
Only when the weak heartbeat gradually became clearer did Su Luoluo tremble with excitement. She lifted the child by the feet until she was hanging upside down, then gave the tiny soles a hard slap.
Fuling was heartbroken to see it and hurriedly rushed over, waving her hands.
“Gently, gently, Princess Consort! My heart already hurts so much I can hardly bear it.”
“So does mine!”
Su Luoluo was a complete mess. She turned her head and smiled at Fuling, tears streaming from her eyes. But she had no choice—she could not stop. She had to save her daughter.
The main hall.
As Imperial Physician Chen took Su Yiyao’s pulse, he reported to His Majesty.
“His Majesty, it is a female child.”
His Majesty looked toward the baby girl being held by a young eunuch in the hall. This child was also a girl. That meant Su Luoluo had given birth to a pair of Twins.
“Imperial Father.”
Prince Rui stepped forward, bowed, and knelt.
“Su Luoluo has violated wifely virtue and schemed against us, intending to send us all to our deaths. Now she has given birth to another child. A comparison will reveal the truth. I ask Imperial Father to permit Su Luoluo’s execution once the truth has been uncovered.”
“If she truly did such a thing, I will naturally execute her.”
Su Yiyao pretended to be unconscious. Hearing Prince Rui’s words, she grew even more nervous, her entire body going weak. If that was the case, then the faces of those two little bastards definitely would not be identical.
But then again…
One was a boy and the other a girl, so naturally they would look different. No, this wouldn’t do… She either had to find a chance to ruin one of the little bastards’ faces or leave this place immediately.
She slowly awoke, tears shimmering in her eyes, and reached out toward Prince Rui.
“Prince.”
Prince Rui hurriedly stepped forward and gathered her into his arms, his eyes full of concern.
“You’ve suffered, Yiyao.”
“Prince, the more this matter is investigated, the more humiliating it will become for Sister. Let’s go back instead. I don’t want any title. Let’s take Sister back to the residence and live peacefully together.”
As long as she returned to the residence, she could kill Su Luoluo however she pleased. But here, she was truly afraid—terrified.
She should never have rushed into the palace to demand the position of princess consort!
“Su Yiyao, are you afraid?”
The side hall doors opened.
Su Luoluo’s face was deathly pale. She had changed her clothes and was leaning against the doorframe, her breathing unsteady and her body so weak she could barely stand. Beside her, Fuling held an infant in her arms. After a while, the three of them slowly emerged, taking unsteady steps.
Prince Rui raised his cold eyes.
Yet the moment he saw Su Luoluo dressed in white, without a trace of makeup, her pallor lending her an otherworldly elegance, her gaze icy cold, he abruptly froze.
How had she become like a different person?
She was no longer as frail as before, nor did she gaze at him with that foolish devotion, waiting on him and guarding him. Instead, her eyes now revealed a murderous intent.
At the entrance to the hall, the physicians of the Imperial Medical Academy entered one after another, all standing behind Imperial Physician Chen. Several experienced palace wet nurses came in with them.
They stood in orderly rows and paid their respects to His Majesty.
Immediately afterward, people from Dali Temple, the Ministry of Justice, the Censorate, and the Imperial Household Department all entered the hall.
“Clatter…”
The sound of a wheelchair crossing the threshold rang through the hall. Su Luoluo abruptly turned her head. When she saw the beautiful figure seated in the wheelchair, tears suddenly welled in her eyes.
It was her best sister—Shi Wanyue!
On the way here, she had asked Fuling to stop the carriage. She had given the only valuable thing on her head, a silver hairpin, to a child playing in the snow and asked him to find the Shi Residence. He was to call out for Shi Wanyue from the west side gate and pass along a message.
In truth, Su Luoluo had not held out any hope at all.
After all, who knew whether the child would go, whether he could find the place, or whether Shi Wanyue—whose legs were paralyzed and whose days in the Shi Residence were especially difficult—would even receive the message? The chances of succeeding were exceedingly slim.
Yet she had never expected that miracles truly existed in this world!
Sister Shi had actually summoned everyone she had asked for…
The wheelchair struggled forward inch by inch. Shi Wanyue leaned down, clasped Su Luoluo’s icy hand, and choked out through her tears,
“I told you—I would live and die alongside you.”
“Thank you.”
Su Luoluo spoke softly, so moved that she did not know what else to say. She would remember this kindness. She would remember it!
“Good.”
Su Luoluo wiped away her tears, then turned toward Su Yiyao. Her eyes were filled with icy malice as she advanced step by step.
“Since you claim that you gave birth to the boy, then tell me: where is his birthmark?”
Su Yiyao panicked and took a step backward, her mind thrown into chaos. A birthmark?
She had known it.
That wretched Su Luoluo would definitely make use of this. She had just wanted to see the child, but he had been carried away. It was all because she had been too eager to use the bastard as leverage and too eager to demand the position of princess consort. She had made the wrong move in this game.
Besides…
Once she became Princess Consort Rui, that wretched child would be doomed. Why would she have cared whether he had a birthmark?
“Answer me!”
Staggering, Su Luoluo rushed one step forward, her cold aura forcing Su Yiyao to retreat.
Su Yiyao looked at Prince Rui in panic, tears spilling down her cheeks. But at that moment, Prince Rui’s brows furrowed. How could a mother not know her own child?
Su Yiyao then frantically looked toward her Wet Nurse. Could it be that she had not opened the swaddling cloth to look either?
“B-Birthmark… There seems to be one. I was weak after giving birth, and they were the ones caring for me. I didn’t examine him closely.”
“Weak? You didn’t examine him closely?” Su Luoluo sneered. “You were energetic enough to enter the palace and demand the position of Princess Consort Rui, intent on sending me to my death. How is it that you’re no longer weak now?”
As soon as those words were spoken, everyone in the palace hall grew solemn and looked at Su Yiyao with cold eyes. They could not help feeling that something about the matter was not right.
“Fourth Sister…” Su Yiyao suddenly raised her head, seemingly driven into a dead end. “You can’t force me to my death just because Prince dotes on and loves me. I… I’ll leave with my son and never return to Prince Rui’s Residence. Can you let us go?”
Su Yiyao tried to divert everyone’s attention, but the only response she received was a heavy slap. Her cheek burned with pain as she covered it and was forced to retreat step by step.
“I ask you one thing, and you answer something else. Why are you changing the subject? You like a piece of trash like Prince Rui? Fine, take him. I wish you both a long and happy marriage.”
The Minister of the Court of Judicial Review and the Minister of Justice exchanged a glance. They were both seasoned investigators and could tell at once that something was wrong.
At that moment, the experienced palace wet nurse finished examining the child. Su Luoluo walked up to her and whispered something into her ear. The old wet nurse then grew solemn, bowed to His Majesty, and said,
“Reporting to His Majesty…”