Chapter 21: Wuhuan Was So Fierce! She Left the Jin Prince Speechless

“Stop talking, this plan is absolutely impossible! The Emperor is the most noble man in the world—how could he possibly tolerate his wife betraying him? How could he ever let go of a bastard born between his wife and another man? Even if you told him that Chengying is your own flesh and blood, even if the Empress Dowager pleaded on your behalf, he would not care about your feelings. He would still have Chengying torn into a thousand pieces!”

After Wuhuan finished speaking, she lowered her head with tears in her eyes.

The reason she continued to act along with the Jin Prince was because she wanted to see how far he would go with his lies.

She herself could see clearly that the tyrant would never let his wife’s illegitimate child go. There was no way the historical Empress Zhu wouldn’t have understood that.

Since Empress Zhu clearly knew that by claiming Chengying as her illegitimate son the tyrant would only kill both her and Chengying faster and more brutally, why did she in the end let herself be deceived by the Jin Prince?

She had to continue acting with him a little longer, to see just how good he was at lying.

“Don’t be afraid, Wuhuan—”

Just as she expected, the Jin Prince continued coaxing her.

“My royal brother will indeed fly into a rage when he learns of this, but so what? As long as I can ask my mother to protect me and Chengying, he won’t be able to touch us!”

He lowered his voice. “Because my mother holds an imperial edict left by my father on his deathbed! My father deeply loved my mother. He feared that after his death, over time my royal brother would fail to respect her. So he left her an edict. As long as my mother produces it, my royal brother will not dare disobey her!”

When Wuhuan heard him mention that secret decree in the Empress Dowager’s hands, her eyes flickered.

Indeed, holding that decree made the Empress Dowager a steel-solid, unshakable pillar!

So this was the hidden card the Jin Prince revealed, which finally persuaded the historical Empress Zhu?

Now she understood.

But speaking of it, that late emperor really did set his son up badly. Leaving such a decree to the Empress Dowager meant that Feng Changye would be constrained by her at every turn.

What a suffocating way to be an emperor!

The Jin Prince gazed at Wuhuan with deep affection. “So, Wuhuan, you needn’t worry at all. I can absolutely protect your brother Chengying! Let me help you, Wuhuan. I want to help you. Let me do one last thing for you—”

He opened his arms, once again trying to embrace her.

He thought that after all he’d said, Wuhuan would surely be moved and throw herself into his arms.

Instead, Wuhuan avoided him once again!

She stepped back a few paces, and then shed the pitiful, delicate façade. In a second she switched to a cold, indifferent face.

She had tested all she needed. There was no need to keep up this hollow act with this greasy man. Disgusting!

She looked at him coldly while grumbling to the system in her mind: 【This greasy man! Why does he keep trying to touch me? How many times has he lunged at me already? He really should learn from his brother—I’m his brother’s empress, yet his brother has never lunged at me like this!】

The system quietly added: 【That’s because his brother is a cut-sleeve, and he isn’t.】

Wuhuan almost burst out laughing!

Perfectly timed jab!

“…” In the pavilion, Feng Changye’s lips had just curled at hearing Wuhuan call the Jin Prince greasy.

But as soon as he heard the system’s comment, he snapped back to a blank expression.

Hah!

That woman and her system were always so good at provoking him. Infuriating!

One day, he would make those two damn fools understand whether he truly was a cut-sleeve!

…

Having once again hugged empty air, the Jin Prince looked down to see that the soft, dependent look in Wuhuan’s eyes had turned into the cold, proud face of a queen.

Immediately, a sense of dread rose in his heart!

Wuhuan had been strange all day. At first he assumed it was because she was shaken by her family facing extermination. But now, that excuse no longer explained her icy indifference!

“Wuhuan, today you—”

He squinted at her.

“I’m very strange today, am I?”

Wuhuan raised her head, lips curved, giving him a sidelong look.

Since all her probing was done, there was no need to keep acting with this man who disgusted her. It was time to attack!

She had endured too long playing the pitiful maiden just now—it was suffocating!

“The Jin Prince, for the sake of saving my younger brother, is willing to let rumors of adultery with me spread, willing to stand against the Emperor. I am truly moved.”

She slowly straightened her sleeves, her gaze fixed on him. “Then I shall give the Jin Prince some good news.”

She smiled, radiant as a blooming peony. “His Majesty has pardoned the Zhu family from execution. My trip out of the palace today was to deliver the imperial decree.”

The Jin Prince hadn’t expected such news. Shocked, he lost control of his expression. “How could this be?”

Wuhuan glanced at him.

“The Jin Prince is very disappointed, isn’t he? My Zhu family survived this calamity. I, Zhu Wuhuan, will not share in your plan to enrage His Majesty and be torn apart by a thousand cuts. My entire family will not, as you wished, become wronged souls beneath your blade, spreading the name of the Emperor as a tyrant throughout the land—”

Her smile held no warmth. “That your careful schemes come to nothing—how unfortunate for you.”

The Jin Prince hadn’t expected Wuhuan to throw a direct punch, exposing his desire to destroy the Zhu family!

The expression he had just managed to recover collapsed again!

Fortunately, years of acting had made controlling his face as easy as breathing. In the blink of an eye, he returned to normal.

He put on a look of sorrow, staring at Wuhuan with eyes full of disbelief. “Wuhuan, why are you so malicious in suspecting me? Did someone tell you something?”

Wuhuan chuckled. “No one needs to tell me anything. As long as I’m not a fool, I can see you came here today with ill intentions.”

She raised a hand to stop his protests and went on.

“You just said that in order to save Chengying, he must pretend to be my illegitimate son with you—”

“Really, I was puzzled. If you truly wanted to save him, couldn’t you just have him pretend to be your illegitimate son alone? Why insist he must be mine as well?”

“You could say Chengying is a child you had with a courtesan. Because his mother’s status was too low to be acknowledged, you entrusted him to the Zhu family’s care. Wouldn’t that work?”

“You could say you once feared the Zhu family’s great功 would overshadow the throne, so when our family had a newborn, you secretly switched your own son with ours. Thus Chengying is your flesh and blood. Wouldn’t that work?”

“You could even claim he was born from a romance with a maid in our residence, and the Zhu family covered for you by raising him. That would work too, wouldn’t it?”

She spread her hands with a smile.

“You see, any of these explanations could save Chengying. You wouldn’t have to bear the crime of committing adultery with the Empress. You wouldn’t have to become an enemy of the Emperor. So why insist on dragging me down, forcing me to share the Emperor’s wrath with you?”

“Why reduce me, the dignified Empress of Great Ning, to a criminal woman accused of adultery? This is the love you keep proclaiming?”

“You only want the Emperor to hate me to the bone, see me as a woman who cuckolded him, and then have me executed by a thousand cuts, my body torn to pieces!”

“And once an emperor slaughters even his own wife so cruelly, his reputation as a tyrant will surely spread across the world!”

She stared straight at the Jin Prince, sneering coldly.

“You planned to use the Zhu family’s unjust deaths to seed in the people’s hearts the idea that the Emperor is a tyrant. Then, bit by bit, you would reinforce that image with other events. Within two or three years, the image of him as a tyrant would be deeply ingrained, causing him to lose the hearts of the people and the officials.”

“And by then, when you rise to eliminate the tyrant for the sake of all under heaven, you could openly and justly ascend the throne. No one would call it treason!”

“This—this is your ultimate goal!”