On the wedding day, my wife was abnormal

Outside Hu County, the lights at the construction sites are like sparks that set the field ablaze, burning all night long, conveying the desire and clamor of rebuilding after destruction.

In sharp contrast, the royal residence is surrounded by heavy armor, like a huge silent tomb.

The suppressed despair is like thick ink, which has already permeated every inch of the air here.

The news that Wang Youde was stripped of all dignity and paraded through the streets, which came in sporadically through various channels during the day, was like a poisoned whip, repeatedly lashing the nerves of everyone in the house.

Fear was no longer a silent spread, but a suffocating entity that grabbed everyone's throat.

Especially those female relatives who are quick-witted or have little affection for Wang Youde.

As night falls, the dew becomes heavier.

The main hall, which used to be filled with singing and dancing, was now dead silent, with doors and windows tightly closed. Only a single, infuriating lantern was lit, its dim light weakly illuminating a few pale, desperate, yet secretly unwilling faces.

The air was filled with a cloying smell of powder and sweat.

Wang was slumped on the main armchair, her eyes dull and her lips chapped and peeling. Her remaining energy seemed to have been exhausted by the day's collapse.

The concubines and younger maids sitting around seemed even more anxious.

Most of them were playthings that Wang Youde had seized by force over the years, or brought into his mansion to consolidate his power.

In the past, in order to compete for a little pitiful favor and survival resources, there was no shortage of open and covert fighting among each other.

But at this moment, the shadow of death pulled everyone onto the same sinking ship.

A woman wearing a half-worn light red silk shirt, with fine lines at the corners of her eyes but still a look of unwillingness between her brows, suddenly slammed the coffee table - it was the Fifth Aunt (the one who had pointed out the crisis before), who was always arrogant and had the most violent temper.

The teacups clinked and tea splashed out.

"Are we just going to sit here and wait to die?!" She lowered her voice, but her hoarse tone revealed a fierce determination to fight to the death.

"You've heard the news outside! The master is no longer the master. He's just a piece of meat on the chopping block of His Royal Highness, waiting to be chopped up at any moment! All those dirty, rotten things he did, his evil deeds that deserve to be struck by lightning! Which one of them was our fault?! Why should we, the entire family, and even our children, be buried with him?!"

Her eyes were like knives, sweeping across the pale faces of the others one by one:

"Especially us..." She looked at the Sixth Concubine in the corner, who was wearing a plain lake green jacket and had a beautiful face but a look of sadness and determination between her brows. She then glanced at the Ninth Concubine who looked panicked.

"We were forcibly tied to this wrecked boat! We're not even allowed to struggle?! Are we just going to drown like this?!"

The older Fourth Concubine, who had once enjoyed Wang Youde's trust and had participated in some of the dirty work in the inner house, retorted in a sobbing voice: "Old Fifth, what nonsense are you talking about? In this deep and large courtyard, how can we survive without the master? There are soldiers outside."

"You have to earn your own way out!" Fifth Aunt interrupted her harshly, her eyes like quenched iron. "Master? Can he still give us a chance to live? He's just a dead dog waiting to be skinned! Our only chance of survival is outside the wall, in the hands of the Crown Prince who holds the power of life and death over us!"

The beautiful Sixth Concubine in the corner (probably the daughter of a scholar, forcibly taken by Wang Youde) suddenly raised her head, a faint light in her eyes: "Fifth Sister...what can we do? The security outside is very strict. We are like birds in a cage. We can't even say a word."

The Fifth Aunt took a deep breath, a desperate madness flashed in her eyes, and her low voice was like a venomous snake spitting out its tongue:

"Lin Zhen, huh? He's a man too! And a man of unparalleled status. What kind of delicacies and beauties hasn't he seen? But we..."

She paused, her gaze, with a naked, self-objectifying coldness, sweeping across the faces of the women in the hall, some beautiful, some delicate, and some gentle.

"We are the last and only treasure in this golden cage that could possibly impress him! Although the master may not have many other qualities over the years, he has a pretty good eye for beautiful women! We are the special treasure he has accumulated!"

This sentence was like cold water thrown into boiling oil, instantly causing the entire hall to explode!

"Fifth Brother! You...you're crazy!" Wang suddenly looked up and screamed, her face filled with disbelief and shame. "How dare you say such shameless words that bring disgrace upon our family!"

"Shameless?!" Fifth Aunt stood up suddenly, fearlessly meeting Wang's angry gaze, pointing at her nose, her voice shrill and piercing.

"Madam, put away your pretense of propriety and morality. Is this your pride or your life?! Do you want all of us, including your good-for-nothing sons and grandsons, to be turned into pigs and exiled to forced labor? Or do you want us to be beheaded like dogs and hung on the city gate?!"

She was determined to go all out, with a ferocious look on her face:

"Shame?! When you were messing around with the master, did you guys have the nerve to mention shame?! Where was the shame of that maid he tortured to death?! For the sake of our future, for the sake of our children—"

She turned suddenly towards the Sixth and Ninth Concubines, her eyes filled with deep sorrow and fierceness:

"Xiao Liu, your son is only three years old, what a clever child! Could you bear to see him condemned to slavery from the moment he was born? Ah Jiu, your daughter was only born. A delicate little creature! Do you want her to grow up in the Music Bureau, being abused by others for the rest of her life?!"

Her words were like the sharpest awl, piercing the softest and most fearful part of every mother's heart.

The sorrow in Sixth Aunt's eyes instantly turned into immense pain and determination. Her lips trembled as she bit her lower lip tightly, blood seeping out. "I don't care about you, and I can't care about you. For Lin'er, I'll do anything!"

The Ninth Aunt also covered her face and let out an uncontrollable sob, but then nodded vigorously.

The other two concubines who had participated in the internal strife had changing expressions. Finally, their eyes turned into a look of despair and cruelty, and they nodded with gritted teeth.

Wang collapsed in the chair, her face as pale as a ghost, her lips trembling, but she could no longer utter a word.

She looked at the group of women in front of her who were willing to sacrifice everything for their children, as if she was seeing the final sacrifice ceremony.

Sons...her sons...She closed her eyes, two lines of turbid tears slid down her cheeks, silently representing her acceptance.

"Okay!" Fifth Aunt's eyes flashed with the light of a lone wolf. "Since everyone agrees, then let's follow my plan!"

She quickly deploys:

"Xiaojiu, go find the soldiers at the north gate and tell them that the lady is frightened and has contracted an acute illness. She's fainting, convulsing, and foaming at the mouth. She's dying. Tell them to find a doctor! No, be more direct. If she's crying and screaming, tell them we must call the palace's physician! An ordinary doctor can't save her!"

"But will His Royal Highness the Crown Prince care about the lady's life or death?" asked the Fourth Aunt worriedly.

"Hmph!" Fifth Aunt sneered. "He doesn't want to intervene, but he wants to solidify his reputation as a benevolent and righteous man! He wants the people to believe that he's an honest and caring ruler! His wife is still nominally the county magistrate's wife. As long as she's not dead, there's no way he'll just sit back and watch, giving people a reason to criticize him!"

"What then?" asked Sixth Aunt anxiously.

"When the doctor or medical officer sent by the palace arrives, we will slip the things into his hands without anyone noticing!"

"What is that?" everyone was puzzled.

The Fifth Aunt's eyes swept over everyone, with a cruel look that was like a sacrifice: "A letter of allegiance signed by all of us!"

She spoke word by word, as if reading out her own doomsday verdict:

"Write clearly on it: Wang Youde is guilty of a thousand deaths! His evil deeds have nothing to do with women like us. We have suffered greatly from him and deeply detest his evil deeds! I only wish to lead all the women in the mansion, including Madam (Fifth Aunt deliberately emphasized these two words and glanced at Wang), to offer our lives together and submit to His Royal Highness's orders! No matter what kind of service you may offer us, we will do it willingly and without complaint! I only ask His Royal Highness to have mercy on us and spare our lives and those of our innocent children, considering that our weak bodies can still be used as his servants!"

"This..." Even Sixth Auntie, who was so bold as to take such risks, instantly blushed so red that blood seemed to be dripping out.

"Dedicate ourselves?" Ninth Aunt's voice was trembling. "Shall we serve him together?"

"What else?!" Fifth Aunt slammed the table again, with undisguised contempt on her face.

"Do you really think pie will fall from the sky? If we don't give out our only and most complete possessions, how can we impress that aloof prince? Let him command us without complaint. These eight words clearly tell him that all of us, including everything in this mansion that he can find appealing, are his spoils! He can do with us as he pleases!"

She glanced around, her tone cruel, like an ultimatum: "Put aside your pitiful sense of shame. In the past, in order to fight for fame and fortune, you all tried every possible means to form cliques and factions, and acted recklessly behind closed doors! You treated Wang Youde, a mere county magistrate, like this, let alone Lin Zhen? This is a sacrifice for survival, for the next generation to avoid being crushed to death! Anyone who refuses to sign and seal, or who drags us down later..."

She didn't finish her words, but her icy gaze made everyone shudder.

The plan began to be implemented.

The house was suddenly in chaos like a storm!

The sounds of women crying, running around, and things being smashed came one after another.

"Hurry up! Madam is dying! Madam has fainted! She's foaming at the mouth!"

"Please! Please have mercy! Save my lady! The palace's doctor! Please call the palace's miracle healer!"

"Madam! Wake up..."

The noise finally alarmed the Jinwu Guard soldiers guarding the periphery.

The lieutenant leading the team came over with a frown on his face to ask questions, and was met by the manager Wang Fu who was guarding the gate (he had no choice but to cooperate in the act in order to save his own life), who hugged his thigh and cried with tears and snot.

The lieutenant saw that the mansion was indeed in chaos, with patients being moved and people crying and wailing, and he felt annoyed.

If someone really died, especially at a time when the prince had just established his authority, it would be difficult for the guards to explain themselves.

After much deliberation, he had no choice but to send a soldier on horseback to the county government to report and ask for instructions.