The Eldest Daughter Reborn: She Provoked the Obsessive Crown Prince and Couldn't Escape

The melodious strains of the zither accompanied the young girl's singing, and Yuan Lu was stunned. This was the first time he had ever heard Fu Luan sing...

The moment she opened her mouth, it was as if she were telling an endless story;

Even he, a complete idiot, could detect a hint of compassion in the chanting...

“This is ‘Haoli’. I learned it specially to ‘send off’ my former husband,” Fu Luan said with a smile.

"Seeing me off? I just came to see you! I don't want you to see me off! Let's never be apart again, okay..." Yuan Lu still wanted to step forward and make advances.

But the thought of the dagger against his neck made him hesitate.

"Don't forget what you promised me, Lord Marquis!" Fu Luan reminded him.

"Oh, oh! I won't forget! How could I forget what I promised my wife?" Yuan Lu slapped his forehead and left reluctantly.

After taking a couple of steps, he seemed to remember something, turned back, and bowed to Fu Luan.

As soon as Yuan Lu turned around, Fu Luan abruptly stopped smiling and continued to sing and play her instrument.

Accompanied by the song, Marquis Yuan Lu of Changyi walked away with a limp, his heart filled with the joy of having snatched his wife from Yuan Jiu's hands.

Yes... all I need to do is go back to the old mansion to get something, and my wife will come back;

Who wouldn't want to do something so simple?

As I listened, something seemed to have been added to the music and the chanting...

"The Lady of Langya is so thoughtful; she even played a dirge to send off her sixth brother."

"It's a pity he's so dull-witted that he probably won't understand your hidden meaning and will actually think you're expressing your feelings through song!" A man walked out from behind the mountain, holding a jade flute in his hand.

The person she just played with was none other than Prince Ning, Yuan Jia, whom everyone praises as having "a clear breeze and a bright moon"!

"It's really hard for Your Highness Prince Ning. I've been to your residence several times, but you've refused to see me, saying that you want to avoid any suspicion with my future sister-in-law."

"But now you are willing to come with me to this desolate mountain wilderness to bear witness to your sixth brother's words."

"Aren't you afraid of what others will say?" Fu Luan sneered.

Yuan Jia chuckled awkwardly, "Last time at the alliance ceremony, Father Emperor was very angry with Sixth Brother."

"They've tried everything: making him an heir to the imperial family, stripping him of his title, and banishing him from the capital... But you know how shameless Sixth Brother is;"

"As long as he's willing to swallow his pride, apologize to his father, say a few kind words, and mention his mother, who died tragically giving birth to him..."

"Father will surely soften his heart! If there isn't a reliable witness to testify that he just admitted to slandering Ninth Brother, Father probably won't believe him so easily!"

Fu Luan gently plucked the strings of her zither. "Why does Your Highness Prince Ning consider yourself the 'reliable' person?"

Yuan Jia sighed, "Xiao Jiu is the person involved, so naturally he doesn't count; your older brothers are from the same family as you, so they don't count either."

"As for maids and servants... I have no intention of looking down on them, but between the marquises and the servants, who do you think Father Emperor would believe? As for you, Princess..."

Yuan Jia also plucked the strings of his zither, and with just one plucking, the music echoed through the mountains for a long time!

"The poem 'Xielu' bids farewell to princes and nobles, while 'Haoli' bids farewell to scholars and commoners."

"Today you wore a white robe and played a dirge for him, and among the many dirges, you specially chose 'Haoli,' which is used to bid farewell to commoners..."

"It's a pity he didn't understand, all your good intentions were wasted!"

"I brought the wrong flute today... If I had brought the zither, it would have been a harmonious match with the Lady..."

Fu Luan's face immediately darkened, and she pressed down on her zither strings, "We're not husband and wife, what's with this talk of 'harmonious harmony'!"

Yuan Jia realized he had misspoke and bowed deeply, saying, "It was I who was presumptuous..."

"But are you so certain that Sixth Brother will be demoted to a commoner this time?"

"Of course!" Fu Luan said with a smug look on his face.

She has every right to be proud!

That night, Marquis Yuanlu of Changyi was captured under a maple tree in the former residence of the Prince of Youbeiping.

He was digging a pit when he was arrested. The pit contained a doll used for witchcraft, and the doll had the birth date and time of the nineteenth prince, who was born this year, written on it!

The nineteenth prince has not yet been named; he is referred to by his birth order.

"You beast! You don't even spare a baby who's still nursing!" The Emperor was furious and interrogated the victim through the night.

"I'm innocent, Father! My wife sent me to get it, I don't even know what it is!"

"She said the thing was under the maple tree, but I searched all over and couldn't find it, so I started digging..."

"Hmph, you're quite eloquent. Then explain again, what is this pile of things?!" the Emperor roared in fury.

"Splash!" Upon hearing the Emperor's order, the palace servants dumped a full bag of contents in front of Yuan Lu.

These are all puppets! They're made of cloth, wood, clay... all sorts of materials!

Yuan Lu's hands trembled as he randomly picked one up to examine it. "Yuan...Yuan Li...Ah?!"

He threw the doll far away, as if it were something dirty.

"What, you're so scared just seeing my name? If you knew this would happen, why did you do it in the first place!" The Emperor narrowed his eyes, looking at his son whom he had repeatedly let go out of kindness.

"Yuan Li" is the name of the current emperor of the Great Wei Dynasty!

The other dozen or so puppets are the surviving princes of the Great Wei, excluding Yuan Jiu!

And... His Majesty's most beloved, the late Empress Zhaoshen!

"Father, your son has never seen such insidious things! Father, please see the truth!" Yuan Lu kowtowed repeatedly.

He missed the days when Fu Luan was by his side.

No matter what her father said, did, or asked, she always responded on his behalf.

This is something that even the concubines he later took in, and even Zhengzheng and her mentor Mr. Shui who was behind the scenes, could not do!

"A clear mirror? All these filthy things were dug up under the tree in the Eastern Palace!"

“Since you moved out, no one has lived in the East Palace! Whose things are these if they aren’t yours?”

"It was my carelessness that day that I failed to send people to search underground, so I only found a few puppets."

"Who knew you would be so vicious! You buried more than a dozen effigies in the Eastern Palace to curse me, Empress Zhaoshen, and your own brothers!"

"What grudge do you have against Empress Zhaoshen? She's dead and you still won't let her go!"

"You beast! I shouldn't have spared you back in the Eastern Palace!" Yuan Li picked up the teapot beside him and smashed it on Yuan Lu's head;

Yuan Lu dared not dodge, and blood immediately gushed from his forehead.

He stammered, "Father, Your Majesty, if I want to place the puppets, I can just place them in one place."

"Why put the nineteenth brother's doll in the Right Beiping Prince's Mansion and put the rest in the East Palace?"

"This..." Just as Yuan Jia said in the mountains, the Emperor still favors Yuan Lu after all;

Just that one sentence—and not a very clever one at that—made him waver.

“That’s because… when the nineteenth prince was born, the Marquis of Changyi was no longer in the Eastern Palace!” Fu Luan walked gracefully from outside the palace, pointing the finger at Yuan Lu.

Both cases of witchcraft were reported by Fu Luan.

In her previous life, she and Yuan Lu were husband and wife for many years. Although they were "sleeping in the same bed but dreaming different dreams", they still had a period of blissful happiness on the surface.

Fu Luan knew the exact location of every puppet he buried!

In her past life, she couldn't bear to do it; but in this life, these clues have finally come in handy!

Only the nineteenth prince's puppet...