Chapter 129

Chapter 129

[The Prince Consort Brought Home Another Woman – 4]

Shen Lin had always regarded the great-aunt who raised him as his closest family. How could he tolerate Princess Linchang cursing her this way?

His expression changed in fury. “Linchang, my great-aunt died long ago. Show some decency and speak of her with respect!”

Mockery entered Princess Linchang’s smile. “If that is how you feel, then I find myself curious. Why did the Shen Family announce that their daughter had died and cancel her engagement? They could simply have married your great-aunt to her fiancé with her belly already swollen. It was hardly a serious matter. Her fiancé’s family would surely have understood, wouldn’t they?”

Shen Lin flushed with rage and shame. His face burned, but he could offer no reply.

Princess Jiangyang forced out in a bloodless voice, “Brother Lin…”

Shen Lin turned toward her.

She had frozen when Shen Lin repeatedly declared that Eldest Sister was the woman he truly loved. Once she recovered, pain sliced through her heart, leaving it utterly broken.

Before her marriage, she had already disliked her elder sister. Yet Princess Linchang was the legitimate Grand Princess, deeply favored by the Emperor and formidable in her methods. Jiangyang possessed neither followers nor influence. Even her meager portion of imperial favor had been gained through endless maneuvering. How could she dare oppose her elder sister?

She could only tuck in her tail, swallow every grievance, and endure.

But then Eldest Sister married Shen Lin.

Shen Lin, the man who filled Jiangyang’s thoughts and dreams!

Why? Why did Eldest Sister always have to steal from her?!

Brother Lin had never said so, but Jiangyang knew he loved her too!

Imperial Father’s favor. Legitimate birth. A younger brother and sister who supported her. A powerful maternal family. Eldest Sister possessed so much already. Why did she still have to steal the man Jiangyang loved?!

Hatred made Princess Jiangyang’s heart bleed. Her nails dug hard enough to break the skin of her palms.

On the day Princess Linchang married, Jiangyang had stood with the other imperial sons and princesses atop the city wall, watching Linchang’s phoenix carriage leave the imperial city. At that moment, she secretly swore that one day, she would make her elder sister taste the bone-piercing agony of losing the person she loved!

She had succeeded. She truly had accomplished it.

When bandits abducted her and Eldest Sister years ago, everyone else stared fixedly at the blades, terrified that the criminals would lose their minds and truly kill two princesses. Princess Jiangyang alone felt no fear. All her attention remained on her elder sister’s expression, observed from the corner of her eye.

She trusted that Brother Lin would choose her, and he did not disappoint.

Princess Jiangyang could savor the expression on her elder sister’s face for the rest of her life.

Even long afterward, whenever she recalled it unexpectedly at night, satisfaction would fill her for hours.

Eldest Sister, so even you have a day like this?!

But now Brother Lin said the woman he truly loved was Eldest Sister, and all the kindness he had shown Jiangyang over the years had been solely because of his great-aunt?!

Princess Jiangyang could not accept this reality.

If it were true, then what did all her devotion and persistence over the years amount to?

Why had she not lived peacefully with her Prince Consort? Why had she insisted upon intruding into her elder sister’s marriage and reducing herself to such a wretched condition?

“Brother Lin, you’re lying to me, aren’t you?”

A terrified tremor entered Princess Jiangyang’s voice. She forced out a smile. “The woman you love is clearly me, not Eldest Sister!”

The pillar supporting her entire spirit approached collapse. Forgetting everything else, she staggered to her feet and threw herself at Shen Lin. She cried out obsessively, “I know you only said that to protect me! You think that if you deny your love for me, Eldest Sister will spare us and Imperial Father will withdraw his decree. But I am not afraid of death! I do not care about any of that!”

Her eyes were crimson. She swept a vicious stare over Princess Linchang and everyone around them. When her gaze returned to Shen Lin, however, it softened.

Princess Jiangyang’s voice became tender, as though she remained the gentle maiden who had once gazed at him with shining eyes. “Brother Lin, nothing else matters to me now. I only want you! You love me, and our feelings are mutual, aren’t they?”

Princess Linchang: “…”

Princess Linchang watched the scene speechlessly. Her face settled into the classic subway-old-man frown, and she shrank deeper into her chair in disgust.

The exhaustion and desolation from Shen Lin’s earlier quarrel with Princess Linchang still lingered between his brows. As he looked at Princess Jiangyang, sorrow mixed with guilt on his face. “I am sorry, Huaiya. I truly am.”

Princess Jiangyang’s expression froze.

Shen Lin saw it, but he hardened his heart and continued. “I should have told you long ago. Several times the words reached my lips, but I hesitated and swallowed them again. Your birth mother had already died, and the Shen Family could never openly acknowledge you as a granddaughter. You were living well. Why burden you with unpleasant events from many years ago? All these years, I treated you as my own younger sister. I cared for you, indulged you, and even…”

Pain flashed across his face. “Even when I knew you had harmed my wife, I could not bear to punish you. I never imagined this chain of misunderstandings would make you misinterpret my actions and create such a terrible disaster!”

Shen Lin closed his eyes. Tears streamed down his face. “I failed you, but I failed Huaiwan even more. I betrayed her!”

Princess Jiangyang’s romantic dream of many years had shattered in an instant. How could she accept it?

If this were true, then why had she secretly murdered her Prince Consort and slept with his concubine-born younger brother to keep him silent?

So she could pursue an incestuous romance in Shen Lin’s eyes?!

Or had she deliberately wanted to add a few more obstacles to a life that was already difficult enough?!

“You’re lying! You liar!!!”

Princess Jiangyang looked utterly deranged. She screamed madly and struck Shen Lin again and again, sobbing in collapse. “You’re lying to me! None of this is true! You clearly love me! Why don’t you dare admit it?!”
Shen Lin gave a bitter laugh. The tear tracks on his face had not yet dried, but he allowed her to strike and curse him without resisting.

Princess Linchang, however, developed a headache from Princess Jiangyang’s shrieks. She ordered the attendants to pull Jiangyang away, then rose with a folding fan in hand.

“Finished?”

Amusement shone in her eyes. She looked relaxed and carefree, as though enjoying a spring outing. “Then it is my turn. Imperial Father ordered your immediate execution, yet I allowed the two of you to talk for all this time. Surely I deserve to collect a little interest?”

Fear entered Princess Jiangyang’s face. She instinctively retreated several steps.

Princess Linchang behaved as though she had not noticed. Still smiling, she carried the folding fan over to Princess Jiangyang and struck her heavily across the face.

The ribs of the fan were hard and their edges sharp, while Princess Jiangyang’s skin was delicate. A crisp slap rang out, followed by Jiangyang’s sudden scream. A bloody welt appeared on her cheek. The skin split in a thin, ragged line, creating a particularly vicious sight.

“Is your elder sister’s man truly so wonderful that you would surrender your dignity and even your life to possess him? Or is cheapness genuinely hereditary, passed all the way down from your maternal grandmother to you, beyond even the power of imperial blood to cleanse?”

Princess Linchang smiled gently at her and spoke in a soft voice. “You feel wronged, don’t you? You cannot accept it? You hate me? Jiangyang, is something wrong with your brain?! I am an imperial princess. I did not simply take a liking to some man, pack my belongings, and marry him. Imperial Father asked the Shen Family’s opinion beforehand, and the Shen Family necessarily asked Shen Lin what he wanted. If he had been absolutely determined not to marry a princess, do you imagine I would cast aside all honor and dignity, as you did, and insist upon marrying him anyway? You are shameless. I am not!”

Princess Jiangyang clutched her bleeding cheek and cried out in pain, her hateful gaze fixed upon Linchang.

Princess Linchang used the folding fan to lift her chin. “You claim Shen Lin only said he loved me to protect you. If that were true, why did he not marry you in the first place? As far as I know, you met him before I did!”

Princess Jiangyang froze. Humiliation flashed rapidly across her face. She lowered her lashes and remained silent.

“So you do understand!”

Princess Linchang laughed, then raised her voice and explained slowly, “He was the young heir of the Shen Family and the junior commander of the northwestern army. Imperial Father is no mediocre ruler. If Shen Lin did not marry into the imperial family, how could Imperial Father trust the Shen clan? The slightest misstep could destroy their entire house! Since it was a political marriage, naturally he wished to marry the most exalted princess possible. The more Imperial Father valued that princess, the more securely the Shen Family’s ship would sail. Isn’t that so?”

Princess Jiangyang: “…”

Princess Jiangyang came within a hair of shattering on the spot.

Princess Linchang savored the hatred on her face and leisurely glanced at Jiangyang’s clenched fingers. Satisfaction filled her. “So this is what it feels like to speak in cutting insinuations. How delightful! No wonder Little Sister always preferred to speak this way. Your elder sister has fallen in love with it too!”

Princess Jiangyang: “…”

Princess Jiangyang clenched her teeth and refused to utter a word.

Princess Linchang was not yet satisfied. “Speaking of which, Little Sister truly is the sort of shameless creature seen only once in a thousand years. The man you adored refused to marry you because he wanted power, yet you did not hate him. You hated me instead! We have been sisters for many years. I do not consider myself a poor elder sister. I have always watched over my younger siblings and treated you well. Who could have known that your belly would contain nothing but a bastard of uncertain origin, while your chest held no heart at all? When your journey brought you past my residence, I kindly invited you to stay. In return, you bribed men to destroy my chastity and take my life. Your maternal grandmother may have been shameless, but at least she never tried to murder anyone. In sheer malice, Little Sister truly has surpassed her teacher!”

By this point, Princess Jiangyang was nearly dying of fury and hatred. She could not help retorting through clenched teeth, “You call me malicious, but are you some virtuous woman? Weren’t you the one who tampered with my carriage, left me grievously injured, caused my miscarriage, and made it almost impossible for me to conceive again?!”

“I did. So what? Is there a problem?”

Princess Jiangyang choked with rage. “You!”

Princess Linchang lifted her chin and snorted. She ordered the attendants, “Bring the wine. If she refuses to drink, pour it down her throat!”

Then she gave Princess Jiangyang a false smile. “Little Sister, go on ahead. You may rest easy in the underworld. After your death, I will not burn paper offerings for you, but I can at least promise not to spit upon your face.”

Princess Jiangyang: “…”

Fuck your mother! Do you hear me, Zhuang Huaiwan? Fuck your mother!

The eunuch approached with the wine cup, only for a hoarse voice to call abruptly, “Wait!”

Princess Linchang turned and found Shen Lin staring fixedly at her, his eyes filled with sorrow and pain. “Huaiwan, now that matters have reached this point, I wish to ask you only one question. For the sake of our years as husband and wife, I hope you will answer me honestly.”

Princess Linchang arched one brow. When she looked back upon their past, she ultimately nodded. “Ask.”

Shen Lin gave a bleak smile. He watched her anxiously. “Did you… did you ever love me?”

Princess Linchang: “…”

Princess Linchang: “………………”

Princess Linchang wanted to return to several years earlier, slap the version of herself who had run all the way to Imperial Father to request the marriage, then snap her own neck and pour the water out of her brain.

If she had not liked him and held him in her heart, why would she have rushed to Imperial Father and begged for an imperial marriage decree?!

Yes, the Shen Family was an eminent noble house that had produced generations of officials. But Great Qin had no shortage of wealthy, aristocratic families. As the legitimate Grand Princess, marrying any man in the realm would have meant marrying beneath her. Did Shen Lin imagine the entire capital held no second outstanding young man besides him?!

Why would she insist upon marrying into a house that controlled military power and burying danger beneath her own future?

Only at this moment did Princess Linchang finally let go completely.
What an utter farce.

The blissful marriage she had anticipated began with her husband’s suspicion, continued through her half sister’s hatred, and ended in a complete shambles.

Truly perfect.

The only cause for celebration was that the final outcome was not too terrible.

Princess Linchang smiled, both in release and reconciliation with her younger self.

She recalled her husband’s coldness and distance during the early days of their marriage, then considered everything Shen Lin had said today. At last, understanding dawned. “From the very beginning, you suspected my reason for marrying you, didn’t you?”

Shen Lin guiltily averted his gaze.

Princess Linchang understood.

Then she raised both brows and nodded in the tone of a schemer whose plot of many years had finally been exposed. “So you discovered it after all.”

“Now that matters have reached this point, there is nothing I cannot say.”

Filled with vindictive delight, Princess Linchang smiled with utter malice. “That is right. I never loved you. I married you only to take advantage of the Shen Family’s military power, then turn against you at the proper moment and destroy the Shen clan completely, using it as a step for my younger imperial brother to ascend to the position of Crown Prince!”

Princess Jiangyang froze.

Shen Lin looked as though lightning had struck him. He stared at her as if seeing her for the first time and cried, “Zhuang Huaiwan, what do you mean by this?”

“I mean that not only will you die, but the Shen Family is finished as well!”

Her father never left a single gap in his plans. Princess Linchang trusted that the Shen Family had already reached the end of its road. She did not mind using that fact to inflict another wound upon Shen Lin and make his death more painful. “I never intended to spend a lifetime with you. I only used this marriage to approach you and the Shen Family, waiting for an opportunity to find proof of the Shen clan’s treason. Then I could topple your family and clear a path for my imperial brother’s rise!”

“Love you?” The very thought amused her. She chuckled mockingly. “Only a fool like Jiangyang would treasure a man like you. This Princess has met countless talented, handsome, and devoted young men. Why would I spare you a second glance? To tell the truth, pretending to tolerate you all these years for the sake of my great plan has been utterly nauseating!”

Princess Linchang’s words raised a raging storm within Shen Lin’s heart.

Their affection as husband and wife was false. Their marriage had been a calculation. From the very beginning, she had even planned to destroy the Shen Family and pave the Eldest Imperial Son’s road to the future?!

What kind of woman had he fallen in love with? Into what desperate abyss had he led the Shen Family?!

“Zhuang Huaiwan.” Shen Lin’s face turned bloodless. A metallic sweetness filled his throat, and amid fury and regret, he coughed up a mouthful of blood. “How could you do this to me?!”

Blood poured continuously from the corner of his mouth and soon soaked his robe. Despair and grief filled his eyes as he called her name again and again. “Zhuang Huaiwan… Zhuang Huaiwan!”

Princess Linchang remained entirely unmoved. Inwardly, she felt immensely satisfied. She ordered coldly, “Bring the wine. If they refuse to drink, force it down their throats!”

Shen Lin collapsed on the floor. His eyes were vacant, and he laughed and wept by turns, without the slightest desire to live.

Princess Jiangyang refused to accept death. “I want to see Imperial Father! He only ordered my death because he misunderstood and believed I committed adultery with Eldest Brother-in-Law. If he learns we were innocent, he certainly will not take my life! I want to see Imperial Father!”

Princess Linchang mercilessly crushed her hope. “When the Son of Heaven speaks, his word carries the weight of nine tripods. How could an imperial decree be withdrawn? Besides, is adultery your only crime? How exactly did your Prince Consort die? How did the child enter your belly? Is it false that you tried to take my life and destroy my chastity? Is it also false that you tried to seduce Shen Lin, followed him home, and plotted against me? Even at the edge of death, you refuse to confess. Pathetic creature!”

Princess Jiangyang’s eyes became bloodred, and her body flinched uncontrollably. Soon, however, she began screaming madly once more. “I want to see Imperial Father! I want to plead my case before him!”

Princess Linchang sneered and ordered the attendants, “If she refuses to drink, forget the cup. Pour it straight down her throat!”

Princess Jiangyang stared in utter horror. “You dare?!”

Frost covered Princess Linchang’s face. She showed no fear. “Of course I dare!”

With that, she waved her hand coldly. “Force it down!”

She lifted the end of her shawl and walked out of the front hall.

As she passed Shen Lin, he caught the edge of her skirt. His face was pale, his voice weak. “Huaiwan.”

He trembled as he said, “Everything you said just now was false, wasn’t it? You are good by nature. You could never do such a thing, much less implicate the entire Shen Family because of me…”

Princess Linchang laughed coldly at his presumption. Ambition blazed between her brows as she looked down upon him from above. “Shen Lin, becoming a stepping-stone for my younger imperial brother and me is your honor-and the honor of the entire Shen Family!”

She yanked the corner of her skirt from his slack grasp and strode into the courtyard, leaving her confidantes and the eunuchs to finish matters.

Those were the last words she ever spoke to Shen Lin.

Not long afterward, Nurse He emerged to report. She fought desperately to keep her body from shaking so that she would not laugh aloud on the spot. “Your Highness, Princess Jiangyang and the Prince Consort have departed this life. Please restrain your grief.”

Princess Linchang’s lips curved in anguish. “Did they pass peacefully?”

Nurse He shook her head and sighed. “Princess Jiangyang kept screaming that she did not want to die. In the end, they tied her down and poured the wine into her mouth. She departed soon afterward. The Prince Consort also suffered greatly. He coughed up more blood and wept until tears covered his face. Fortunately, everyone proved very strong. Not a single person cried, and one could not help laughing aloud…”

Princess Linchang burst out laughing.