Lady Hou is reborn and, by pampering her illegitimate son, reclaims her life of wealth and privilege

"Mother!" Wei Fenghui suddenly knelt down, revealing a blood-soaked bandage halfway up his sleeve. "A secret report from the northern frontier: Father has been ambushed and is seriously wounded!"

The teaspoon in Jiang Huaiyu's hand clattered to the ground. The newly replaced coral bracelet on Old Madam Chao's wrist suddenly shattered, splattering blood onto the vermilion birthmark on Wei Fenghui's forehead: "What a charade of loyalty and filial piety!"

Thunder roared outside the window, and a torrential downpour began. Jiang Huaiyu dug her nails into her palm, watching the blood droplet slide down her son's forehead—the same blood that had splattered on her phoenix crown on the day the Duke of Wei went to war.

"Old Madam, please be careful with your words." Jiang Huaiyu's blood-stained fingertips traced Wei Fenghui's wound, a silver needle hidden within her gold-inlaid jade bracelet dipping into the blood. "Hui'er, this injury was inflicted while saving your nephew, the Duke of Protectorate."

Old Madam Chao suddenly coughed violently, black blood seeping from the corner of her handkerchief. She stared at the bluish needle mark on Jiang Huaiyu's wrist, a glint of shrewdness flashing in her cloudy eyes: "Tomorrow at Fahua Temple for the prayer ceremony, Third Sister will wear that hairpin inlaid with Northern Di blood jade."

The torrential rain washed over the blue bricks of the Duke of Wei's mansion. Jiang Huaiyu watched as Old Madam Chao's sedan chair disappeared into the rain, then suddenly ripped open Wei Fenghui's sleeve. Beneath the blood-soaked bandage, the barb of a wolf-tooth arrow was hooked onto half a bronze tiger tally.

"The troop deployment token for the Yunzhou camp?" Her fingertips trembled. "Your father really..."

Wei Fenghui suddenly grasped his mother's hand and tucked the tiger tally into her blood-stained nail polish: "Three days ago, the Northern Di launched a night attack, and my father used this tally to save my life." The young general's eyes flashed with shock. "The Duke of Protectorate's cavalry isn't transporting warhorses."

As the water clock ticked, Jiang Huaiyu opened the bloodstained secret letter. The sealing wax was stamped with the head of a Northern Barbarian wolf, but the letter paper was soaked with the sandalwood incense of Fahua Temple. When the gray pigeons flew over the eaves again, she tied the tiger tally to the bottom of the betrothal gift box sent by Old Madam Chao—the blood-stained jade hairpin was gleaming with a ghostly light.

……

A gilded incense burner emitted wisps of smoke, and suddenly, the jade prayer beads on Old Madam Chao's wrist snapped, tumbling onto the rosewood tea table: "Even the Imperial Concubine didn't receive this year's tribute of camphor from Siam, yet the Empress bestowed the entire box upon the newly arrived Consort Yu."

Jiang Huaiyu's hand holding the teapot was as steady as a rock, and the boiling water brewed Junshan Silver Needle tea: "I heard that Yu Meiren is a distant relative of the Chao family?" The tea mist drifted over the flower ornament between her eyebrows, just enough to cover the sarcasm in her eyes.

Wei Fenghui's black iron wrist guard bumped against the corner of the table, causing ripples in the tea. "Last month during the hunt, Yu Meiren's brother shot a white deer in the imperial garden." The young general dipped his fingertip in tea and traced the shape of deer antlers on the table. "The arrowhead was engraved with the wolf head emblem of the Duke of Protectorate."

Old Madam Chao's withered fingers suddenly tightened, the sandalwood prayer beads embedding themselves in her palm: "Hui'er is certainly well-informed." She suddenly pushed over a gilded lacquer box, "The Imperial Concubine specially left a precious eight-treasure necklace for Yu'er, entrusting me to present it to the Duchess of Wei."

The moment the lacquer box was opened, Jiang Huaiyu's armor snapped three strings of the zither. Inside the box, a red-gold necklace held a pearl, the largest of which had an eerie indigo hue—the very same poisoned pearl that had been lost three years ago when the Siamese envoy died suddenly.

"Mother, be careful!" Wei Fenghui's sleeves billowed, and the black iron wrist guard slammed into the lacquer box. The necklace clung to the pillar, and the Eastern Pearl cracked with a "crack," scattering poisonous powder onto Old Madam Chao's skirt.

Jiang Huaiyu covered her nose with her wide sleeves: "Is this gesture from the Old Madam intended for the Duke of Wei's mansion to follow in the footsteps of Yu Meiren?" She traced the character "鸩" (zhen, poison) on the tea table with her red nail polish, "I heard the Yu family suffered a fire last night; all thirty-seven members perished."

Old Madam Chao staggered backward, her jade pendant suddenly falling to the ground. Wei Fenghui's deerskin boots ground down on the pendant's tassel: "The tassel on this double-fish pendant is the same Suzhou embroidery style as the arrow tassels on the white deer's corpse."

A sudden downpour began, and a clap of thunder shattered the carved window. Jiang Huaiyu abruptly tore off the jade pendant from her waist, the twelve jade rings falling to the ground and shattering: "This pendant was a gift from the Imperial Concubine three years ago. Each jade bead was inlaid with a register of spies from the Duke of Wei's mansion." She picked up a fragment of a poisoned bead with her fingertip. "This one should have been in the Ministry of Justice's evidence room."

Old Madam Chao suddenly coughed violently, black blood seeping from the corner of her handkerchief: "This old woman...this old woman doesn't know..."

“Of course you don’t know.” Wei Fenghui picked up the lacquered box from its inner compartment and shook out half of a secret letter. “The other day, when Yu Meiren’s brother went to the northern border to sell horses, he intercepted a secret letter that was stamped with the Imperial Concubine’s phoenix seal.” The blood-stained letter was soaked in tea stains, revealing a dark pattern—it was actually the Chao family crest.

Jiang Huaiyu's nail guards grazed Old Madam Chao's neck: "Since the Imperial Concubine is already walking on thin ice, why not let the Duke of Wei's mansion add fuel to the fire?" She suddenly chuckled, "I've heard the Empress intends for Hui'er to marry the Princess..."

"No!" The Buddhist prayer beads on Old Madam Chao's wrist shattered. "The Fifth Princess is..."

A thunderclap boomed, and Wei Fenghui's sword suddenly drew. The blade parted Old Madam Chao's sleeve, revealing a bronze key: "The prison key to the Ministry of Justice?" The young general suddenly sneered, "No wonder the coroner couldn't find any external injuries on the thirty-seven charred corpses of the Yu family."

Jiang Huaiyu applied her nail polish to the key pattern: "This wolf head engraving matches the jade pillow bestowed upon me by the Imperial Concubine." With a flick of her sleeves, she pulled out a gilded jade pillow from a hidden compartment, its core revealing an empty poison box.

The torrential rain washed away the bloodstains on the steps, and Old Madam Chao collapsed to the ground. Jiang Huaiyu bent down to pick up the jade pillow, and suddenly peeled off the gold foil from under it—a map of the northern border defenses appeared in the candlelight: "Three years ago, the Duke was ambushed; it turned out that a nobleman had opened Yanmen Pass."

Wei Fenghui's sword suddenly shifted, tearing open Old Madam Chao's robes. On her aged chest, a wolf's head tattoo, tinged with vermilion, revealed a deep red: "The blood oath of a Northern Di sorcerer?" He pressed the tip of his sword against the tattoo. "Grandmother, do you know this mark is specifically designed to cure the Chao family's hereditary heart ailment?"

Jiang Huaiyu suddenly smashed the jade pillow, and the sheepskin map fluttered into the brazier. Amidst the acrid smell, she stared at the gradually emerging silver patterns: "So, what the Imperial Concubine wanted wasn't camphor incense, but a map of the tungsten gold veins outside Yanmen Pass."

As the water clock ticked, a gray pigeon fluttered into the window. Wei Fenghui untied the secret letter from the pigeon's leg and suddenly burst into laughter: "Yu Meiren isn't dead!" He unfolded the blood-stained silk, revealing a woman in shackles leaning against an iron window, "Waiting for Grandmother to reminisce at the lowest level of the imperial prison."

Old Madam Chao suddenly vomited black blood, her fingertips digging deep into the cracks of the floor tiles. Jiang Huaiyu's nails grazed her aged cheek: "Tomorrow at court, do you think the Ministry of Justice will use poison on the Imperial Concubine?" She suddenly sprinkled the remaining poison powder onto the incense burner, "Just like the 'Beauty's Intoxication' you're currently ingesting."

As the downpour subsided, Wei Fenghui used the tip of his sword to sling Old Madam Chao's hair and threw her into the carriage. Jiang Huaiyu stroked the tattered jade pillow fragments and suddenly noticed half a tiger tally peeking out from the hidden layer—a perfect match for the military tally that Duke Wei had taken with him when he disappeared three years ago.

……

The Buddhist prayer beads in Old Madam Chao's hand snapped with a "crack" at the seventh bead, the South China Sea coral bead rolling across the jade bricks and coming to rest at the hem of Jiang Huaiyu's peacock blue skirt. Wei Fenghui's grip on his sword tightened abruptly, the eyes of the Yazi beast carved on the black iron scabbard glowing red in the candlelight: "Mother just said... the heart of an emperor?"

"In my humble opinion, these beads are even more translucent than the one bestowed by the Emperor." The old matriarch of the Duke of Huguo's mansion bent down to pick up the beads, the pearls hanging from her silver-threaded headband brushing against Jiang Huaiyu's fingertips. "I heard that the batch of black iron that the Duke of Wei was escorting last month was robbed of thirty cartloads by bandits at Tongguan?" Her cloudy eyes turned to the sword at Wei Fenghui's waist. "The young general's newly forged 'Breaking Clouds' sword seems to have been crafted with ample materials."

Jiang Huaiyu's fingernails dug into her palms from her wide sleeves, but she chuckled lightly, "Your eyesight has improved quite a bit. Yesterday, the Ministry of Rites sent some wine from the Western Regions..." Before she could finish speaking, the sound of porcelain shattering came from the corridor. Wei Fenghui swiftly lifted the curtain and saw a maidservant kneeling trembling before a Yue ware celadon cup that had been broken into eight pieces.