Cui Lin snapped back to his senses and shouted sharply, “Qian Baokun, don’t you dare slander me! I only spoke out because I couldn’t stand by and watch someone collude with consorts and princes, deceiving His Majesty. I don’t even know Zheng Kun, nor did I know Madam Xuan would enter the palace today…”
“You? Acting out of kindness?” Qian Baokun sneered dismissively.
Cui Lin roared in anger, “Why not? My Cui family is loyal to the court, and I, Cui Lin, am wholeheartedly devoted to His Majesty…”
“Hah.”
A sudden light chuckle from the side cut Cui Lin’s words short, nearly choking him with his own breath.
Xiao Yan, as if watching a farce, observed Cui Lin’s fervent display of loyalty and righteousness with a faint, mocking smile. “So, Minister Cui is this loyal to His Majesty? It seems you were just as mindful of His Majesty last night when you were entwined with Madam Xuan, whispering sweet nothings to each other.”
Cui Lin looked as if he’d seen a ghost. “What nonsense are you spouting?!”
Madam Xuan’s tears fell as she sobbed, “Supervisor Xiao, I was only inadvertently drawn into palace secrets. I had no intention of harming you, nor do I know this Zheng Kun. Why must you slander my reputation like this…?”
She raised her head, crying pitifully, “Your Majesty, I have remained a widow for the Xuan family for years, never daring to get too close to any man, nor ever stepping out of line to tarnish the Xuan family’s name. Yet Supervisor Xiao slanders me so cruelly. How can I face the world after this? I might as well die…”
Madam Xuan’s sobs were heart-wrenching, and many in the hall frowned at Xiao Yan.
Xiao Yan’s thin lips curled slightly. “If Madam Xuan’s conduct counts as fidelity, I’m afraid Old Master Xuan’s coffin lid would burst open. Since both you and Minister Cui seem so forgetful, shall this Supervisor jog your memories?”
“West of the city, the old Cui residence, the bamboo grove in the back courtyard, under the open sky, Minister Cui’s vigor is truly impressive for his age.”
Madam Xuan’s crying stopped abruptly, her face turning deathly pale. “You…”
“It seems Madam Xuan remembers now?”
“I didn’t…”
Madam Xuan instinctively tried to deny it, but Xiao Yan’s gaze was chillingly cold. Without arguing, he spoke in a voice entirely different from before, eerily mimicking Cui Lin’s tone with uncanny precision.
“A-Tong, you know how difficult things have been for me in the court lately. That eunuch Xiao Yan schemed against me, causing me to lose His Majesty’s trust. His Majesty is even more furious with me over Lu Qingfeng’s matter. I had hoped to use the Empress Dowager to plead my case, to find a way to bring you out of the Xuan family so I could formally marry you into the Cui family. But now…”
“I’ve become a laughingstock in the court, and the Cui family is suffering because of me, constantly suppressed and thwarted. I fear if this continues, the Cui family will follow the Lu family’s fate.”
“I can’t marry you, lest you be dragged down by the Cui family. That scoundrel Xiao Yan is ruthless. If he learns of our relationship, he might not even spare the Xuan family. Though I can’t bear to part with you, I’d rather you not suffer. After tonight, just be a proper Madam Xuan. Though His Majesty dislikes the Xuan family, as long as the Empress Dowager is here, he won’t mistreat you…”
“Shut up!”
“Shut up!!!”
Madam Xuan’s face was ashen, her still-charming features filled with terror as she listened to Xiao Yan’s vivid, “affectionate” recitation.
Cui Lin’s panic surpassed even hers.
What Xiao Yan had just said was exactly what he had told Madam Xuan last night.
To ensure Madam Xuan’s unwavering loyalty and to secure the Empress Dowager’s support for the Cui family, Cui Lin, despite his illness, had spent an intimate night with the much younger Madam Xuan. Afterward, they held each other, pouring out their hearts.
Xiao Yan’s words were identical to their conversation last night, down to the tone and phrasing, without a single discrepancy.
Cui Lin’s palms were sweaty, and his face grew even uglier as he met the questioning gazes of his son and daughter-in-law.
Ignoring the murmurs in the hall, Xiao Yan turned to the trembling Madam Xuan, who was slumped on the floor.
“You indeed don’t know Zheng Kun, nor did you know Cui Lin would scheme against me today. Because he didn’t fully trust you. He wanted to use you and the Xuan family to sway the Empress Dowager to speak for the Cui family, even making you his informant in the palace. But he also feared you might slip up, worried you couldn’t convincingly show the shock of witnessing a death. So, even you were just a piece in his scheme tonight.”
“He knew you admired him and deliberately told you about the Cui family’s struggles, knowing you’d resent me for the rift between him and me. And you do harbor resentment toward His Majesty, blaming him for not recalling the Xuan family after his ascension, for not supporting them. You’d be delighted to see him humiliated and outmaneuvered in public.”
“You didn’t conspire with Cui Lin, but he calculated that even without telling you his plans, once you heard Zheng Kun’s words and learned I was supposedly colluding with the deposed empress to deceive the emperor, you’d eagerly follow the path he laid out for you.”
“You were his chosen pawn, the one he selected to wield the knife against me tonight.”
Xiao Yan’s words pierced the deepest secrets of Madam Xuan’s heart. She felt the eyes of everyone in the hall on her, and his revelations about Cui Lin’s manipulation made her feel as if she were standing in a frozen wasteland, her entire body chilled to the bone.
“Madam Xuan, you were so devoted to Cui Lin, risking your widowed status to be with him, repeatedly pleading for the Cui family before the Empress Dowager, even willing to take risks tonight despite sensing something was amiss. But him?”
“When he schemed against you, did he ever consider what would happen to you if tonight’s plan failed? Did he think about how you’d be ruined, your reputation destroyed…?”
Xiao Yan’s soft scoff shattered Madam Xuan’s composure.
“Your deep affection only served to fulfill Cui Lin’s scheme against me. Truly… pitiful.”
Madam Xuan’s eyes slowly reddened as she gripped her hands tightly and looked up.
“You really schemed against me?!”
With teary eyes, she glared at Cui Lin, her voice trembling with accusation.
“You said you admired me, that you’d had feelings for me since I married into the Xuan family, that if not for His Majesty’s interference, you would have brought me back to the capital long ago.”
“We had a past, and after I returned to the capital, you rekindled my feelings for you. I pressured the Empress Dowager for you, risking the Xuan family’s name. But it turns out, from beginning to end, you only saw me as a pawn?!”
“Cui Lin, how dare you treat me like this?!”
As Madam Xuan’s words fell, the hall was filled with gasps.
Though Madam Xuan was a widow and addressed as “aunt” by Emperor An, she was only in her forties, her beauty still radiant, her charm undiminished. Cui Lin, on the other hand, was nearing fifty, respectfully called Lord Cui or Minister Cui.
Yet who would have thought this aging Minister Cui still had the heart for seduction?!
In that moment, the scandal between Cui Lin and Madam Xuan nearly overshadowed the shocking revelation that the He family still had a surviving heir.
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T/N: One thing about this book? You can never predict what would happen next===============
You can read ahead to chapterr 470 (100+ extra chapters) here
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