A flash of shock and disbelief flickered across Granny Yu's eyes.
"You!" Granny Yu struggled to break free from the torture rack, rattling the iron chains and shackles on her body. "How dare you kill me?"
She thought she might be hallucinating and let out a low growl. "Lan Caiyu! Say that again!"
Caiyu tightened her lips, expressionless, and spoke in a tone as calm as if discussing the weather:
"I said I'm here to send you to your end."
"Lan Caiyu! How dare you kill me! Don't you care about the dozens of lives of the Lan family?" Granny Yu's old face trembled violently.
She looked at Caiyu in disbelief.
Caiyu slowly opened her lips. "Precisely because I want to save the Lan family that I need your life..."
Under Granny Yu's shocked gaze, she looked around the dark and blood - soaked interrogation room, her expression as calm as if she wasn't talking about life and death.
"As far as I know, only you and I among the spies sent by our master managed to successfully infiltrate the Prince of Yan's mansion. Our master trusts you more, so the lives of me and the Lan family are in your hands. As long as you send a message to our master, my younger brother's fingers... will be cut off at your word."
There was coldness and sorrow in Caiyu's eyes. "Only by getting rid of you and becoming our master's only informant in the Prince of Yan's mansion can I be qualified to negotiate with our master!"
She would use this identity to negotiate with their master again and strive for more time for the Lan family!
Seducing him had been in vain, and stealing the register had also been noticed by Song Yinghuai.
She had no choice but to take another desperate gamble.
"You're crazy!" Granny Yu gasped for breath, roaring like a caged beast at her enemy. Her throat made a gurgling sound. "I'll report to our master! I'll report to our master..."
"Heh!" Caiyu interrupted her roar with a soft laugh. "Granny Yu still hasn't recognized the situation..."
"Granny Yu is now locked up in the dungeon of the Prince of Yan's mansion. The means of sending a message to our master is now in my hands. Now, our positions have been reversed."
Granny Yu shouted hoarsely, "Lan Caiyu, don't dream! When the people of the Prince of Yan come again, I'll confess immediately! I'll expose your identity! I'll drag you to hell with me!"
Caiyu paced slowly in the small room. Looking at Granny Yu glaring angrily but helplessly, she casually picked up a sharp piece of broken iron on the ground and played with it unconsciously:
"I guess, like me, Granny Yu's family members are all under our master's surveillance. As long as I send a message to our master by carrier pigeon and fabricate a few pieces of news about your betrayal, your sons, daughters - in - law, grandsons, and granddaughters..."
Granny Yu's furious expression suddenly froze. She looked at Caiyu fearfully, as if seeing a devil climbing out of hell.
"Granny Yu should know my current status in the Prince of Yan's heart. Even if you confess later, the Prince of Yan has gone to Tongzhou. The secret guards will only dare to monitor me secretly at most and won't dare to do anything to me. As for whether the Prince of Yan will take my life in the end, what do you think?"
"But it's different for you!" A blood - thirsty chill suddenly overflowed from Caiyu's extremely beautiful and charming smile. Her pair of watery eyes were deep, cold, and menacing, making Granny Yu shiver:
"Granny Yu, after our master receives my message, he will surely kill your whole family... not leaving a single one alive!"
"Granny, think carefully. Which is more important, your life or the lives of your whole family? Is it worth it for you to perish with me?"
Granny Yu's forehead was cold, her eyes were dizzy, and her whole body's blood almost froze. She was firmly seized by fear.
Even when she was captured by Song Yinghuai last night, she wasn't as afraid as she was today.
Even when she was tortured last night, she didn't feel as desperate as she did now.
She was tired of living this old life and didn't care about it at all. But Caiyu was right. Her sons, daughters - in - law, grandsons, and granddaughters... the bloodline of the Yu clan couldn't be cut off!
Her eyes were full of panic, and tears struggled to overflow from her eye sockets. "Miss Caiyu... You, you kill me. I'll do as you wish. Please spare my family..."
Seeing that the time was about right, Caiyu smiled gently. "I don't want to do it myself. I've been forced to kill three people in my life, and my hands are already dirty enough. Granny Yu, please end your own life!"
She put the sharp piece of iron she had just picked up into Granny Yu's chattering teeth. "I'll leave in a while. Just swallow this little thing, and you'll be gone soon."
Granny Yu let out a muffled whimper, like a wild animal about to lose its life, whining again and again as Caiyu's figure gradually disappeared.
...
Wanxiang Hall.
"Cousin! I dare not do it again!"
Jiang Jinyue suddenly woke up from the high fever and nightmare. She suddenly opened her eyes and stared straight at the bed canopy. Her mind was in a daze.
"Yue'er, you're finally awake!" The relieved voice of Concubine Yao came from beside her.
Jiang Jinyue slowly turned her head and saw Concubine Yao's slightly haggard face. Her mind was blank for a moment. "Aunt...?"
"Good child." Hearing her call, Concubine Yao let out a sigh of relief. "It's good that you're okay."
She was really afraid that, as the doctor said, Jiang Jinyue might damage her brain due to the fever. That would be a disservice to her cousin who had married to Jiaodong.
Jiang Jinyue was in a daze for a while. The things before she passed out flooded into her mind like a tide, and her face instantly turned even paler.
She remembered that her cousin had forced her to jump into the Taiye Pond!
No matter how she begged for mercy and apologized, her cousin remained unmoved and was determined to take revenge for that low - class maid, Lan Caiyu.
She also remembered that at the moment she jumped into the lake, she heard that low - class maid, Lan Caiyu, adding insult to injury!
It was she who had led those men over!
Those men were all commoners and peddlers, of low status, but they had taken the opportunity to grope and tear at her...
Her reputation, her innocence...
"Aunt!" Sorrow welled up in Jiang Jinyue's heart. She leaned over and buried her head in Concubine Yao's arms, crying bitterly. "Yue'er is so wronged! It's all Caiyu's fault, all Caiyu's..."
Concubine Yao had caught Zhu Xiao that day and learned the whole story.
She was also very shocked and helpless that her son had been so cruel to his cousin for a low - class maid.
But the son had grown up and wouldn't listen to his mother. Song Yinghuai had always been opinionated, and she was helpless.
She quickly hugged Jiang Jinyue, and her eyes were filled with mist. "Yes, it's all that low - class maid's fault... all her fault... If it weren't for her, Huai'er wouldn't have done such a foolish thing... My poor Yue'er is really wronged!"
"Aunt, what should Yue'er do in the future? What should I do?" Jiang Jinyue cried hysterically. "Yue'er doesn't want to marry those low - class men. I don't want to. Aunt, save me!"
"Don't worry about this. Aunt will never sit back and do nothing. In the two days you've been in a coma, Aunt has spent a lot of money to send away all those who came to propose marriage. They will never pester you again!"
Hearing this, Jiang Jinyue felt a little more at ease. However, Concubine Yao's next words made her face turn pale again.
Concubine Yao said, "After you recover, Aunt will send someone to take you back to Jiaodong. Aunt will write a letter to your father and ask him not to send you into the palace. Aunt will find a noble family worthy of you. You just wait obediently to get married."
Jiang Jinyue suddenly felt her hands and feet turn cold, as if covered by ice and snow. "Aunt... Is she going to marry me off to someone else?"
Although she had guessed this result before jumping off the bridge, when Concubine Yao said it in person, she still felt it was very ironic.
It was Concubine Yao who had written to invite her for a marriage alliance, and now it was also Concubine Yao who was saying that she would send her away!
Concubine Yao also knew she was in the wrong. She had invited this niece to Yanjing, but her son had forced her to ruin her reputation.
But things had come to this. As the mistress of the Prince of Yan's mansion, she would definitely not want a woman with a ruined reputation!
Arranging a marriage for Jiang Jinyue to save her from the danger of entering the palace was all she could do now.
Concubine Yao pretended not to understand the questioning in Jiang Jinyue's eyes and continued talking on her own:
"You're not young anymore. You can't be as picky as before. Now that the situation is like this, and you're a concubine - born daughter of the Jiang family, you can't be the main wife of a noble family. But Aunt will choose a good family for you. It's no problem for you to be a noble concubine. Anyway, everyone will give the Prince of Yan's mansion some face..."