Chapter 8
I shut myself in my room for five or six days, carefully considering how I might remedy the situation.
After turning it over endlessly, I found only one event from my dream worth pursuing.
About six months after Xiao Jinhe and I married, Zhou Lürong of Grand Tutor Zhou’s household abducted a commoner girl and beat her parents and grandmother to death.
The Zhou clan was the Empress’s maternal family.
By then, I was already the Crown Princess. When the case reached my father, he feared that investigating it honestly would implicate me, so he had no choice but to bury it.
Later, all the worthless relatives of the Empress’s family took advantage of Father’s authority over the censors. Every few days, another one of them came asking him to clean up a mess…
Perhaps I could start with the Zhou clan.
Before I married into the imperial family, I needed only uncover one scandal damaging enough to shake them to the core. I might even pull the Empress and Xiao Jinhe down with them.
The Emperor had long been wary of powerful maternal relatives. If Father handled the investigation, he could render meritorious service and request that my engagement be dissolved at the same time. It seemed the ideal solution.
I planned to discuss it with Father at dinner, but the moment my sister saw me, she started another scene.
“Father, if Luo Yufu marries Xiao Jinhe, your daughter will not go on living!”
She smashed a porcelain bowl and held a shard against her slender neck.
This was one of her favorite tricks: cry, make a scene, then threaten to hang herself. At the slightest frustration, she threatened to die.
As expected, Mother panicked and rushed toward her. Before she could reach her, Father slammed his chopsticks on the table.
“Then die if you want to! You were ignorant as a child, and you remain ignorant now that you are grown. If you are tired of living, no one will stop you! Neither of you behaves like a sister. Instead of supporting each other, you scheme against one another every day!”
My sister was plainly terrified by his outburst. She could only sit on the floor with open hands and weep. Father had made up his mind to cure her temper. “If you do not intend to die, then get to the ancestral hall and kneel before our ancestors! Let them see what the pair of you have become!”
He suddenly turned and shouted at me, “You too!”
Ever since we were children, whenever Luo Yuzhen caused trouble, I always suffered alongside her!
I knelt before the ancestral tablets and listened to Luo Yuzhen mutter curses under her breath.
She glared at me venomously and sneered. “Do you think the Empress wants you as her daughter-in-law because she likes you? What she likes is Father’s power.”
I smoothed my hair and smiled sweetly at her. “Of course. But even after I refused the marriage, she still did not want Sister as her daughter-in-law. She insists that I marry into the family. Why, the more I think about it, the more honored I feel.”
My sister had spent years lost outside our home. Because of the stain on her reputation, the Empress would never allow her to marry into the Crown Prince’s residence. And since I had once been meek and easy to control, I became the perfect candidate in the Empress’s eyes.
Humiliated and furious, my sister cursed me for ages. Then she suddenly lunged forward, grabbed my collar, and whispered into my ear.
“What are you so smug about, Luo Yufu? Do you think life will be pleasant once you marry into the Crown Prince’s residence? Her Majesty the Empress—your dear future mother-in-law—is not someone you want to cross! Do you think you lost your chastity by accident? She planned the whole thing. To keep Xiao Jinhe away from me, she created a reason he would have no choice but to marry you. Do you still feel honored now?”
I whipped my head around and stared at her vicious smile.
Of course. Xiao Jinhe was the Crown Prince. Who would dare drug him? Why had there been no attendants at his side? And why had I, of all people… gone looking for him…?
Who could have secretly arranged the right time, the right place, and the right people?
Forcing myself to remain calm, I sneered. “What, did Her Majesty tell you herself? With all the lies that come out of your mouth, do you expect me to believe you?”
She released me, settled back onto the kneeling cushion, and stared bitterly at the floor. “Believe it or don’t. I have my ways of finding things out,” she murmured, her gaze unfocused.
I knew she was telling the truth.
My nails had already dug into my palms. Hatred gnawed away at my reason, little by little.
So all the misery in my life had come from being used as a tool in someone else’s struggle for power.