Song Yi'an walked into the coffee shop. Zhong Yuxiu looked up and was quite surprised when she saw him.
She never expected that Song Yi'an would actually come.
In fact, Zhong Yuxiu had already been surprised once when she received Song Yi'an's call. Although she didn't have Li Xichi's memories, she often heard Jiang Yongfeng talk about Li Xichi and Song Yi'an's past. But after she transmigrated, Song Yi'an had never looked for her. She even thought Jiang Yongfeng was lying to her.
So, when she first saw this message today, she thought it was a trick. Jiang Yongfeng advised her to come though, saying that having one more backup was like having one more way out. Moreover, she was told not to tell Song Yunsheng.
If it had been before, Zhong Yuxiu would definitely have told Song Yunsheng. But Song Yunsheng's performance that day made her feel like she had been made a fool of. She was holding a grudge. It wasn't that she really wanted to have something going on with Song Yi'an. It was just a bit of a way to prove her charm.
However, to Zhong Yuxiu's surprise, after Song Yi'an sat down in front of her, what he called was her real name.
"Zhong Yuxiu?"
Zhong Yuxiu was stunned for a moment. She replied subconsciously, "How do you know?"
As soon as the words came out of her mouth, she knew she had exposed herself. She quickly took a sip of water to calm her nerves. Just as she was about to find an excuse to cover it up, Song Yi'an didn't give her the chance and the next sentence came out.
"You don't need to hide. Let's be straight with each other. I know you're the one who transmigrated here, Zhong Yuxiu, Concubine Yu, right?"
Seeing that he already knew she was Concubine Yu, Zhong Yuxiu simply stopped looking for excuses, but she still remained on guard.
She asked, "Who are you? Why do you know all this?"
Song Yi'an smiled.
"I not only know this, but I also know that Song Yunsheng is actually Song Jiaye, the emperor of the Mu Dynasty and your husband."
Hearing this, Zhong Yuxiu was so scared that she quickly clutched her phone tightly. Song Yi'an saw through her little move and stopped her before she could tip off Song Yunsheng.
"If I were you, I'd choose to listen to what I have to say first before deciding whether to tell Song Yunsheng. Besides, there are people coming and going here. It's a public place. I'm not going to do anything to you in public, right?"
Zhong Yuxiu looked at the people around and felt relieved. She put down her phone.
"What do you want to say to me?" She cleared her throat and said, "No matter what you say to me, I can only tell you it's a waste of effort. I won't help you."
"I never said I wanted you to help me." Song Yi'an smiled and said, "I just want to tell you something. Do you know why you couldn't have a child in the palace for so many years?"
This was a sore spot for Concubine Yu. She stiffened her neck and said, "Who says I couldn't have a child? I clearly had a child!"
"Yes, you did. But unfortunately, the child died of illness at the age of three because of the negligence of the palace maids, right?"
Mentioning the dead child, Zhong Yuxiu's eyes turned red.
"What do you mean?"
"To put it bluntly, I'm here to drive a wedge between you and Song Yunsheng." Song Yi'an didn't hide his purpose. "But I don't like to tell lies, and there's no need for me to do so. I won't beat around the bush either. I'll just tell you straight."
Song Yi'an didn't really want to face Zhong Yuxiu. He was too lazy to talk nonsense and went straight to the point. "You couldn't have a child, and the child you lost was all because of your husband."
"What do you mean?"
"You've lived in the palace for decades. Do you still need me to tell you what it means? You were there when Empress Li Qiyu died. You should know how. Although you weren't the empress, after Empress Li's death, your status in the palace was comparable to that of an empress. He guarded against Empress Li the same way he would guard against you."
Song Yi'an had touched on the part that Zhong Yuxiu had always vaguely felt but never dared to believe. Now, every word from Song Yi'an was like a knife, stabbing at her heart.
"You're talking nonsense. He and I were childhood sweethearts. We had a child. He said that if our child hadn't died prematurely, he would definitely have made our child the crown prince and given the world to him."
"However, in the end, it was Concubine Xiang's child who ascended the throne, and it was Concubine Xiang who became the empress dowager."
"That wasn't the emperor's will. Someone forced the emperor to abdicate!"
Hearing this, Song Yi'an laughed. There was more pity in his smile, pity for Zhong Yuxiu, this woman who deceived herself.
"He got the world by relying on women. He used the military power of the Li family to ascend the throne and then used your father's prestige to secure his throne. You thought he truly loved you, but you don't know that he said the same thing to Li Qiyu. Do you know why Concubine Xiang could give birth to one child after another? It wasn't because Concubine Xiang was in good health or lucky. It was because in the entire palace, only Concubine Xiang had no background. Only when a son was born from Concubine Xiang's womb would it not pose a threat to his throne. He himself ascended the throne through a coup. He was afraid that his son would do the same thing as him. You thought he loved you, but from beginning to end, the only one he loved was himself."
"No, it's impossible!"
"After each time you served him in the imperial bedchamber, didn't he always bestow on you the so - called pregnancy - promoting medicine? In name, it was to help you get pregnant, but in fact, it was to cause an abortion."
Zhong Yuxiu was very familiar with the pregnancy - promoting medicine. She had taken it for a lifetime. When she was almost forty and still couldn't get pregnant, she took advantage of going back to visit her parents and asked her father to find a doctor from outside. The result was that her womb was damaged and she could never get pregnant again.
She was depressed for a long time at that time. She couldn't figure out why, although she had always been taking the pregnancy - promoting medicine and diligently taking medicine to nourish her body, her body could still be damaged.
But before this, she had never suspected the pregnancy - promoting medicine. She even felt grateful to the emperor - because the emperor knew about her body, didn't dislike her, and still gave her the power to manage the entire palace. Although she wasn't the empress, she was better than an empress.
"You're lying. I clearly got pregnant. My child clearly..."
"Now that you've transmigrated, I naturally can't prove the matter of the pregnancy - promoting medicine. But for that child of yours, you might as well think about how the maid who took care of you died."
"She... she couldn't bear the pressure and committed suicide in the prison."
Song Yi'an laughed very coldly. "Committed suicide? Do you know that the guards in the sky prison have ten thousand ways to prevent prisoners from committing suicide? If they don't want a person to die, that person can't die even if they want to."
"What do you want to say?"
"Think for yourself. In the Mu Dynasty, who else could control the guards in the sky prison? Who else could make the maid keep her mouth shut without fearing your power?"
The answer was obvious.
The emperor, Song Jiaye.