Chapter 81

Chapter 81

Jiang Mo was a bit nervous. She nervously lowered her head, clutching the bowl, her heart pounding.

"It was Ran Dong," he said. "Wei Yalan had her caned to death. That's when Lan Qiu told me the truth."

With a clatter, Jiang Mo's bowl fell to the ground. "What did you say? Ran Dong... is dead?"

Chen Yingchou bent down to pick up the bowl and placed it on the stone table. Seeing Jiang Mo's tears flow, he hadn't expected her to care so much about Ran Dong. He moved closer and drew her head to his shoulder. "If I'd known you'd be this upset, I wouldn't have said anything."

"No, tell me. What really happened?"

Time turned back. That day, after Su Jiying left, Chen Yingchou had completely abandoned all unrealistic hopes, as well as any attempt to restore Wei Yalan's memories. He began forcing himself to accept that the woman he loved was no longer the same, but he still couldn't bring himself to be close to her. Using military affairs as an excuse, he stayed overnight at the camp.

Everyone in the palace knew how much the Crown Prince cherished his Crown Princess. Even the Emperor and the Empress often sent gifts to Wei Yalan. Pampered by such favor, Wei Yalan's true nature gradually emerged. At the slightest displeasure, she would beat and scold the palace staff. Especially after hearing that the cook who had raised her since childhood had died because of Jiang Mo's return to her family home, she grew even more hostile toward the people in the Dawn Court Hall.

She disliked Xing Chun lecturing her, disliked Wang Xia's aloof demeanor, disliked Lan Qiu always avoiding her, and most of all, she hated how Ran Dong would pester her to read storybooks.

Wei Yalan couldn't understand how Jiang Mo had managed to get along with her servants. None of the palace maids in Dawn Court Hall seemed afraid of her.

How could that be? A mistress was a mistress.

When Xing Chun suggested she make jasmine flower cakes for the Crown Prince, who liked them, and take them to camp, Wei Yalan ordered Xing Chun never to mention jasmine again and made her slap herself fifty times.

Seeing Xing Chun's stunned expression, Wei Yalan felt immensely pleased.

That day, Xing Chun's mouth was swollen and bloody from the slaps. From then on, she became like a puppet, following orders without uttering a single unnecessary word.

Wei Yalan deliberately said that Wang Xia's tea was terrible and made her kneel in the heavy rain for more than four hours. That night, Wang Xia fell ill, but Wei Yalan refused to let anyone call a physician. Had Lan Qiu not secretly sought out An Zeyou to get medicine, and had Xing Chun not begged the Empress to let Wang Xia return to Kunning Palace, Wang Xia might have died as well.

Wei Yalan also claimed Lan Qiu's hairstyle was ugly and subjected her to finger torture, nearly crippling Lan Qiu's hands.

Unable to bear it any longer, Lan Qiu discussed with Xing Chun that once the Crown Prince returned to the Eastern Palace, they—together with Ran Dong—would beg him to let them go back to Kunning Palace.

Xing Chun had actually sensed long ago that Wei Yalan was not the same consort as before. She also realized that Lan Qiu knew the truth, but she understood that the full truth was more than she could handle, so she pretended not to know.

Before Chen Yingchou could arrive, Wei Yalan ordered Ran Dong to be caned.

Lan Qiu had told Ran Dong earlier that their mistress had lost her memory and was no longer the gentle, kind, and considerate woman they had known. Ran Dong was naive but not stupid; she could see that. She no longer pestered Wei Yalan to read storybooks or ask for candy.

But Wei Yalan deliberately found fault with Ran Dong. She smashed her candy jar and watched with twisted pleasure as Ran Dong crawled on the ground, sobbing and picking up the pieces one by one, only for Wei Yalan to kick them away.

Ran Dong couldn't understand why the mistress who had given her the jar would destroy it.

"Your Highness, this candy jar was a gift from you. You said there were a hundred candies inside, and I was to eat one every day. After a hundred days, I was to fold the wrappers into stars and make a wish to the stars in the sky."

Wei Yalan sneered. What childish nonsense Jiang Mo was up to! A lowly maidservant wasn't worth such effort.

"You say that, but I don't remember. I just don't like the look of this jar. If you dare pick it up again, I'll have you beaten to death."

Ran Dong stopped picking up the candy. She stood up and glared at Wei Yalan. "You are not the Crown Princess! Even if the Crown Princess lost her memory, she would never treat us like this!"

The thing Wei Yalan hated most was being compared to Jiang Mo. The Emperor did it, the Empress did it, and the Crown Prince was obsessively searching for traces of Jiang Mo in her, as if she couldn't measure up in any way to that replacement.

She had to endure the Emperor, Empress, and Crown Prince, but a lowly palace maid dared to speak to her like that? That was asking for death.

"Drag her out and give her fifty strokes!"

None of the palace staff in Dawn Court Hall dared to move. They knew their mistress had once doted on Ran Dong, treating her more like a beloved little sister than a servant. Perhaps this was just a fit of anger. If they actually carried out the punishment, they would be the ones to suffer later.

Wei Yalan roared, "Do you all want to die? Drag her out!"

Fifty strokes would surely kill her. Ran Dong was no ordinary maid; like Qiao Yun, she had grown up by the Crown Prince's side and was deeply trusted by the Empress and the Crown Princess before her memory loss. If she were beaten to death without any real fault, and the Crown Prince returned to investigate, everyone involved would face punishment.

The true master of the Eastern Palace was the Crown Prince, not the Crown Princess. Besides, everyone in Dawn Court Hall knew that the Crown Prince loved the Crown Princess before her memory loss, not this temperamental woman who had taken her place.

Seeing her orders defied, Wei Yalan grew angrier. She pointed at two eunuchs standing outside the hall. "You two, come in here!"

"Drag Ran Dong out and give her fifty strokes!"

These two eunuchs had been assigned to Dawn Court Hall after the Crown Prince took up residence in the Eastern Palace. They didn't know the history of the Prince Yu's estate. They only had a vague idea that the old staff from Dawn Court Hall were not to be touched, but since they had been singled out, they had no choice but to obey.

The two eunuchs dragged Ran Dong into the courtyard, tied her to a bench, and took turns striking her back with wooden planks.

At that moment, Xing Chun had been sent to the kitchen to wash vegetables as punishment for using water that was too hot for Wei Yalan's morning rinse. Lan Qiu had been sent to do laundry for serving the wrong dish during a meal. Neither of them knew that Ran Dong was being beaten.

Some quick-witted eunuchs and maids ran out in panic.

A maid went to Kunning Palace, while a eunuch rushed to the Flying Cavalry Camp.

By the time the Empress arrived, Ran Dong was barely alive.

"Wei, what are you doing!" the Empress cried out.

She quickly ordered Ran Dong to be taken down from the bench. "What crime did Ran Dong commit that you would use such heavy punishment?"

Wei Yalan immediately began to weep, approaching the Empress. "Mother Empress, Ran Dong said I am not the Crown Princess! Isn't that treason?"

The Empress did not like Wei Yalan, but out of consideration for Chen Yingchou, she had been accommodating.

"Ran Dong is young and spoke thoughtlessly. As the Crown Princess, you should be more magnanimous."

Fearing she might anger the Empress, Wei Yalan had no choice but to reply, "Yes, I was wrong. I understand."

The Empress paid her no further attention. Looking at Ran Dong lying on the ground, she instructed the eunuchs behind her, "You two, take Ran Dong to Kunning Palace."

Then she turned back to Wei Yalan. "Since Ran Dong displeases you, I'll take her back to Kunning Palace."

The two eunuchs tried to help Ran Dong up, but she struggled, crawling over to grab Wei Yalan's skirt. Looking up with tears in her eyes, she said, "Crown Princess, don't you want to know what wish I was going to make?"

Wei Yalan instinctively wanted to step back, but fearing the Empress's reprimand, she stood still with a look of disgust.

Ran Dong's back and mouth were covered in blood. The sharp pain in her chest made every breath feel like a tearing rupture, but she still forced herself to speak clearly. "I wanted to stay by the Crown Princess's side forever. It seems that wish will never come true."

With those words, she fainted and never woke again.

By the time Chen Yingchou rushed back, it was already dark. The Empress had ordered Ran Dong's body to be sent out of the palace.

"Mother, what happened? How could Lan'er kill Ran Dong? She treated Ran Dong like a little sister. She wouldn't do that."

"Chou'er, that is exactly what happened. There are many kind-hearted people in this world who turn into killers. Some abandon good for evil, others turn over a new leaf. Human nature is fickle. Wei is no longer the woman she once was. Stop obsessing over restoring her memory. I will arrange for a secondary consort for you."

Chen Yingchou had long given up on that obsession. But he hadn't expected Wei Yalan capable of such cruelty. "Mother, I've already let it go. But as for taking a secondary consort, let's discuss that another time."

"Chou'er, I heard that while you were away from the Eastern Palace, Xing Chun and Lan Qiu suffered greatly in Dawn Court Hall. I want them to return to Kunning Palace."

"As Mother wishes. I'll take my leave."

Chen Yingchou's heart was growing colder by the moment. The warmth that Wei Yalan had once kindled in him was nearly extinguished. Bewildered, he walked out of Kunning Palace, unsure what to do with Wei Yalan.

As soon as he entered the Eastern Palace, the two guards who had once followed Jiang Mo were already waiting at the entrance of his bedchamber.

"Your Highness, we have something to report."

They recounted to Chen Yingchou everything they had seen and heard in the early hours of the seventh day of the third month.

"Your Highness, when we were at Prince Yu's residence, the Crown Princess was very fond of Randong. How could she bear to have her caned? And during the days you were away from the Eastern Palace, the Crown Princess grew increasingly excessive, often punishing the attendants. She made Xingchun slap herself and subjected Lanqiu to finger-squeezing torture. Everyone in Zhaomu Hall lived in fear. The more we think about it, the more something feels off. We believe they are not the same person."

Chen Yingchou turned and took Jiang Mo's portrait from the table, lost in thought. He had already considered this possibility before, carrying Lan'er's portrait through every street and alley of the capital, even dispatching the Flying Cavalry Camp to inquire in other counties—but no one resembling Lan'er had been found.

"You may go. Send Xingchun and Lanqiu in."

Soon, Chen Yingchou saw the two women, haggard and red-eyed from crying. Without asking, he knew how much they had suffered.

"Return to Kunning Palace tomorrow morning."

Xingchun seemed to hesitate, exchanged a glance with Lanqiu, and then spoke: "Your Highness, I dare to make a bold guess—this Crown Princess is not the previous one. Please, Your Highness, look into this."

She was gambling, wondering if Lanqiu would take the chance to reveal the truth.

Lanqiu clenched her fists and said loudly, "Your Highness, the Crown Princess has not lost her memory, nor has she been possessed or disguised. The truth is..."

She looked at Xingchun. After years of shared service, Xingchun immediately understood and said, "Your Highness, I'll take my leave."

Lanqiu glanced again at the attendants in the bedchamber and at Qiao Yun. "Your Highness, please send everyone else out."

Qiao Yun waved a hand. All the palace attendants withdrew, and Qiao Yun wisely left as well.

"Now, speak."

Lanqiu first kowtowed. "Please, Your Highness, forgive me for deceiving you."

Chen Yingchou was both anxious and uneasy. "What is it you have to say?"

Lanqiu clutched her skirt and bit her lip. "The Crown Princess before she fell into the water and the one after are not the same person."

Having just heard the guards' report, Chen Yingchou now felt a glimmer of hope. "Say that again."

"The Crown Princess before her memory loss and the one after are two different people!"

Chen Yingchou's heart tightened. "You must not lie!"

Lanqiu's expression was calm. "The previous Princess Yu was the only daughter of Secretary of the Ministry of Works Jiang Bingzhong, named Jiang Mo. Because she always wore a hat with a veil whenever she went out, Your Highness never discovered her. She could have lived peacefully, but she was accidentally seen by the house steward of Duke Qingguo's mansion. Under the duke's coercion, she took Wei Yalan's place and married Your Highness."

The gloom and frustration of the past days faded. His heart pounded with excitement. He murmured to himself, "So that's how it is. So that's how it is."

Suddenly, a wave of panic hit him. "Where is she now?" Since she was forced to substitute and now Wei Yalan had been swapped back, how could Duke Qingguo let her go?

"Where is she? Is she alive or dead?" Chen Yingchou's breath grew ragged. His palms were damp with nervousness as he stared at Lanqiu.

"Miss Jiang fled to the Jiangnan region. I don't know exactly where."

Such a frail young lady—how could she have escaped from Duke Qingguo without help? Chen Yingchou sensed something was wrong. "You said her name is Jiang Mo? Is 'Mo' the character meaning jasmine?"

"Yes."

Chen Yingchou repeated the two syllables over and over. Jiang Mo, Jiang Mo—why did he feel he had heard them somewhere before?

After thinking for a long while, he finally remembered: those two characters had once been spoken by An Zeyou!

Ignoring that it was already the third watch of the night, Chen Yingchou rushed straight to An Zeyou's bedchamber.