Fearing being killed for his overwhelming merits, the empress decided to marry him.

The furnishings inside the wooden house were very simple, and did not look like what a "queen" would own.

"You, kneel down!"

Yu Ling Shuang called Jiang Yue to a table and pointed to the memorial tablet on it.

Jiang Yue looked up and saw the words "deceased husband Nie Gonghe" engraved on it, and couldn't help but frown slightly.

Seeing that Jiang Yue did not kneel down, Yu Ling Shuang became somewhat angry: "What, you're not even willing to listen to me?"

Jiang Yue shook her head calmly, her clear, cold voice ringing out: "Mother, please forgive me. I will never kneel before such a strange person again."

"What did you say? You bitch!"

Upon hearing this, Yu Ling Shuang flew into a rage and made a move to hit Jiang Yue.

But soon, before her raised arm could fall, Jiang Yue grabbed it.

"You, you bitch, what are you trying to do?"

"Mother, I urge you to calm down!"

Jiang Yue shoved Yu Ling Shuang away.

"You keep calling me a slut. If Mother despises me so much, why did you give birth to me in the first place?"

Before she could recover from the shock of her daughter daring to defy her, she was stunned when she heard her say that.

"Well, well, you've actually learned to disobey your mother! You unfilial daughter!"

As she spoke, Yu Ling Shuang's eyes reddened.

"Why did I raise you with such difficulty? Do you even know?"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yue slowly closed her beautiful eyes.

Seeing her like this, Yu Ling Shuang assumed that Jiang Yue was beginning to reflect on her behavior, so she quickened her pace and said:

“I’ve told you more than once that I was raped by that man, which caused me to miss out on my relationship with Nie Lang. This is the thing I regret most in my life.”

"And you, you are that man's bastard child. You were born only to pay off the debts owed to your mother, me, and Nie Lang."

If it weren't for me, would you be alive and well by now?

"Now that you're all grown up, you're planning to turn against me? Hmph, Jiang Yue, let me tell you, I gave you your life."

This will never change in my lifetime. What I tell you to do, you must do. You will never escape my grasp. Do you understand?

"You should be grateful for the opportunity to become the Empress of Great Chu. This is the greatest mercy I can bestow upon you!"

Jiang Yue frowned, her jade-like fingers gently stroking her slightly furrowed forehead.

After a long while, she sighed softly and shook her head gently.

"What's your expression?"

Upon seeing this, Yu Ling Shuang wore an incredulous expression.

The next moment, Jiang Yue slowly spoke.

According to the records of the Ministry of Rites of the Great Chu Dynasty, the process by which the Empress Dowager entered the palace that year fully complied with the national rites.

There is no record of the late emperor raping women and forcing them into the palace.

"Furthermore, it was the Yu family's idea to bring the Empress Dowager into the palace. I have reviewed the Yu family genealogy from back then."

The claim that the Empress Dowager was humiliated by the late Emperor is also completely unfounded.

Finally, the day after the Empress Dowager and the late Emperor's wedding, the palace maids checked the bedsheets.

"It has been confirmed that the Empress Dowager was a virgin when she served the late Emperor, so how can there be any claim that the late Emperor raped her while drunk?"

Upon hearing this, Yu Ling Shuang looked at Jiang Yue with fear in her eyes.

After a long silence, she shook her head and said, "No, you are not Jiang Yue. Who, who are you?"

Jiang Yue gave a cold smile, stood solemnly in front of Yu Ling Shuang, and respectfully performed a deep bow: "Your subject Jiang Mengxuan greets Your Majesty!"

boom--

These words were like a thunderclap, exploding directly in Yu Ling Shuang's mind.

No wonder, she had been wondering since earlier why that submissive little bitch suddenly displayed the aura of a superior and dared to defy her like this.

"you you……"

Seeing her other daughter standing alive and well in front of her, Yu Ling Shuang was overwhelmed with emotions and couldn't utter a single complete sentence while pointing at her.

Jiang Mengxuan's aura made Yu Ling Shuang feel genuinely humble and insignificant.

"Where is Jiang Yue? Where is she?"

"Mother, you need not worry. My younger sister is in a very safe place. I am able to see you today."

I should be overjoyed, but unfortunately, hearing my mother's extreme words has left me feeling very conflicted..."

Jiang Mengxuan shook her head helplessly, a hint of disappointment flashing across her face.

Yu Ling Shuang tried to calm herself down, then put on a disdainful attitude: "As expected of the Emperor of Great Chu, you have the same repulsive aura as your father."

Jiang Mengxuan looked at her mother quietly, then shook her head: "Do you know how happy I was when I found out you were still alive, Mother?"

Because I thought I would finally have my mother by my side, but I never imagined that my birth mother, whom I hadn't seen for twenty years, would have such a twisted and distorted face.

This truly chills my heart.

"I've become like this because of your father, haven't I?"

Yu Ling Shuang tried to argue, but Jiang Meng Xuan quickly interrupted her.

"Enough, Mother. Do you know that when Father was alive, he often mentioned you to me? He said you were the most virtuous woman he had ever met."

He gave you the best of everything, wanting only to ensure you wouldn't suffer. But Mother, how did you treat Father?

"There are some things I didn't want to say, but after hearing the Empress Dowager slander the Emperor like this, I'm afraid that if the Emperor knew this in the afterlife, he wouldn't be at peace. So I have no choice but to speak frankly to the Empress Dowager."

"In fact, Mother, you regretted it from the moment you left the palace and betrayed Father, didn't you?"

The last sentence struck Yu Ling Shuang's defenses.

"You're talking nonsense! I dream of escaping that cage. Being around him makes me feel utterly disgusted!"

She began to defend herself frantically, but as she spoke, a sudden surge of inexplicable grievance welled up inside her, and she couldn't help but shed tears.

But Jiang Mengxuan said calmly, "Before my mother married my father, she did have a marriage agreement with the Nie family."

However, the Empress Dowager's family concealed this matter, and the Emperor only learned of her pre-arranged marriage before entering the palace, but he did not expose it.

Because his father had doted on his mother so much back then, he believed that his sincere feelings would win her back.

The Ministry of Rites records clearly state that when the Empress Dowager entered the palace, the Emperor granted her the same status as the Empress.

Once the Empress Dowager gives birth to an heir, she will be formally crowned Empress of the Great Chu.

Unfortunately, the Empress Dowager never forgot her childhood sweetheart, and in the end, she even abandoned the Emperor and left the palace with her son.

I truly do not understand how Nie Gonghe, a pedantic scholar who relied on his wife for half his life, could be so incompetent in both literature and martial arts.

For a mere seventh-rank county magistrate position, he actually sold his wife. How could such a despicable character have caught your eye?

"You're not allowed to say that about him. He's not what you think. He... he..."

Yu Ling Shuang completely panicked, her eyes flashing with the despair of her beautiful dream being shattered.

"Mother, there's no need to say anything more. I understand what you're trying to say."

Jiang Mengxuan took out a silver needle from her waist and used it to brighten the dim candlelight.

"In the end, this is nothing more than the Empress Dowager's youthful impulsiveness at play."

The reason why the Empress Dowager is so eager to pull me off the throne is simply because she is dissatisfied with the current situation.

"After all, when your mother was in the palace, your father took great care of you."

Whenever he went out, he was always surrounded by a retinue of servants, adorned with fine silks and satins. He had no worries about lacking anything, only that his mother, the Empress Dowager, might not want it. He could be said to have enjoyed the finest of worldly riches.

"But what happens after leaving the palace? A life of hardship and displacement, enduring the scorn and contempt of the world."

In the end, they were forced to collude with the martial arts sects. Comparing the two situations, I refuse to believe that Your Majesty had no thoughts at all.

Yu Ling Shuang collapsed onto the bed.

Looking at her other daughter, whose temperament and expression were completely different from Jiang Yue's, she couldn't help but clench her fists.

Because Jiang Mengxuan's analysis revealed her dissatisfaction with her current life.

Especially after learning that Jiang Mengxuan had ascended the throne, he deeply regretted his impulsive actions back then.

If I hadn't left the palace back then, I would be the Empress Dowager of the Great Chu.