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

As dusk settled over the blue bricks in front of Moyou Hall, Jiang Huaiyu was stirring the styrax incense in the bronze censer with a silver hairpin. Cuiying, holding a gilded hand warmer, retreated outside the curtain, her newly worn jade bracelet tapping against the doorframe with a crisp "ding".

"The clarity of this bracelet is even better than that pair of old mine glass-type jadeite in the warehouse," Jiang Huaiyu suddenly said, startling the little maid who almost dropped her hand warmer. "I've heard that Old Madam Chao of the Duke of Huguo's mansion loves to use Burmese jadeite to reward people."

The beaded curtain was abruptly thrown open, revealing Wei Fenghui, whose armor still reeked of the blood of Mangshan: "Mother urgently summons..." Before he could finish speaking, the sound of a teacup shattering came from the east wing. Old Madam Chao, leaning on her sandalwood cane, strode in, her phoenix-tail skirt sweeping across the shards of porcelain: "So this is the Lady of the Duke of Wei, questioning even me about a bracelet I've given her?"

Jiang Huaiyu's fingertips traced the secret letter on the table; the sealing wax stamp clearly bore the insignia of the Marquis of Zhenbei: "A maid personally trained by you, Your Excellency, naturally deserves a reward." She suddenly overturned the incense burner, splashing scalding ash onto Cuiying's skirt. "But this styrax incense, mixed with Cnidium monnieri, is giving me a headache."

Wei Fenghui's brows furrowed sharply, and his black iron sword clattered as it was drawn half an inch from its sheath. Old Madam Chao slammed her cane heavily on the ground, causing dust to fall from the beams. "I must ask the young general," she said, "that at midnight last night at the dilapidated temple west of the city..." She suddenly stared at the half-broken red rope peeking out from Wei Fenghui's lapel. "The way this peace knot is tied...it's strikingly similar to the handiwork of that woman in the Cold Palace."

A sudden downpour caused Jiang Huaiyu's fingers to tighten abruptly within her wide sleeves—twenty years ago, when the late emperor deposed the empress and hanged herself, a similar red rope had been tied around her wrist. She chuckled softly, pulling out a gold filigree phoenix hairpin and picking up some incense ash: "Since you recognize this peace knot, can you also recognize the handwriting on this secret letter?"

"Mother!" Wei Fenghui suddenly knelt on one knee, pulling a blood-stained cloth bag from his bosom. "The hunters from Mangshan sent this..." On the unfolded coarse cloth, half a bronze key engraved with the character "Chao" gleamed with a ghostly light. Old Madam Chao's expression changed drastically, and the luminous pearl at the top of her staff slammed down onto the blue brick with a "crack."

Jiang Huaiyu picked up the luminous pearl and twirled it in the candlelight: "So this East Sea pearl is hollow." She flicked it with her fingertip, and the shell cracked open, revealing strips of bright yellow silk. "The imperial decree of marriage that went missing three days ago was actually inside the Old Madam's cane?"

A thunderous roar erupted as Wei Fenghui's sword tip pressed against the old woman's throat. The old woman's wrinkled face suddenly trembled like a withered leaf in the wind: "You think killing me will..." Before she could finish speaking, Jiang Huaiyu suddenly clutched her chest and staggered backward, black blood seeping from between her fingers.

"Mother was poisoned by the Miao's Heart-to-Heart Gu." Wei Fenghui's eyes were bloodshot as his sword drew blood from the old lady's neck. "How about exchanging the antidote for your grandson's ledgers from his illegal copper mine in Tongguan?"

Old Madam Chao let out a strange "clucking" laugh and suddenly snapped the Buddhist prayer beads from her wrist. The sound of armor clashing echoed in the downpour, mixed with the eunuch's sharp announcement: "Imperial decree has arrived—" Jiang Huaiyu's blood-stained fingertips gripped her son's battle robe tightly. Staring at the bright yellow umbrella piercing through the rain, a cold smile suddenly appeared on her lips.

The bronze bells on the eaves shattered into pieces in the fierce wind, and a secret letter that had popped out from the hidden compartment of Wei Fenghui's sword hilt fluttered down in front of the imperial edict. Old Madam Chao stared at the three vermilion annotations "Zhenbei Army" on the letter, her cloudy eyes suddenly bulging: "You dare to investigate privately..." Before she could finish speaking, Jiang Huaiyu broke free from her support, her fingernails stained with poisoned blood tracing the still-wet ink on the imperial edict: "Your Majesty's calligraphy, in its flying white style, is becoming more and more like that of the late Grand Tutor."

……

Suddenly, the sandalwood prayer beads on Old Madam Chao's wrist snapped, rolling across the jade table with a crisp sound. "In this game of chess, Lady Duchess, using me as bait isn't enough," she said. Her withered fingertips, stained with tea, traced the outline of Yanmen Pass on the table. "That newly appointed Left Wise King of the Northern Barbarians is a madman who only recognizes the Wolf God's Seal."

Jiang Huaiyu's crimson nail polish grazed the crack on the edge of the table, precisely severing Yanmen Pass in two: "Only a mad dog is easy to command." She took half a bronze tiger tally from her gilded dressing case. "The Northern Di envoy that Sanlang intercepted the other day was carrying this."

Wei Fenghui's black iron wrist guard slammed heavily against the corner of the table: "The tiger tally that my father lost back then..." He stopped abruptly halfway through his sentence, the young general's pupils reflecting the dark patterns on the inside of the tiger tally—clearly the mark of the private soldiers of the Duke of Wei's mansion.

Old Madam Chao suddenly coughed violently, indigo blood seeping from the corner of her handkerchief: "The Third Young Master certainly has connections everywhere, even managing to obtain a troop mobilization token from the Northern Di royal court." Her cloudy eyes turned to Jiang Huaiyu, "But the pine soot ink on this token smells like the tribute ink bestowed upon me by the Imperial Concubine."

Jiang Huaiyu's wide sleeves billowed, and the twelve-panel Hunan embroidery screen collapsed with a crash. A gilded box rolled out from a hidden compartment, and the sealing wax stamp on the secret letter inside matched the pattern of the knotted buttons on Old Madam Chao's robe: "A mad dog recognizes a seal, a noble consort recognizes a person. The money Old Madam Chao donated to Fahua Temple last month should have been enough to buy three hundred Northern Di warhorses, right?"

A clap of thunder cleaved through the rain outside the window, and Wei Fenghui's soft sword suddenly pressed against Old Madam Chao's throat: "Were the refugees outside Yanmen Pass three days ago wearing the uniforms of the Duke of Protectorate?"

"Hui'er!" Jiang Huaiyu pressed his armor against the sword's blade, blood droplets rolling down the black iron's patterns. "The Old Madam is an honored guest."

Old Madam Chao's withered fingers suddenly crushed the teacup, shards embedding deeply in her palm. "I remember," she said, "that among the Imperial Concubine's dowry was a set of twelve gold hairpins." Her bloodied hand pointed to a hidden door behind the screen, "one of them, the golden sparrow hairpin, wasn't it inserted into the Duke of Wei's heart three years ago?"

Jiang Huaiyu's nail polish suddenly dug into the sandalwood table. Wei Fenghui's sword turned towards the hidden door, and from the split compartment fell a gold hairpin broken in two, the bird's eye on the hairpin inlaid with an indigo sapphire from the Northern Di royal court.

"What a beautiful golden sparrow holding a pearl!" Old Madam Chao suddenly tore open her robe, revealing the same golden sparrow totem tattooed on her withered chest. "The Imperial Concubine asked me to pass on a message—what I could give you back then, I can take back now."

The torrential rain pounded on the glazed tiles, and Jiang Huaiyu suddenly chuckled softly. She pulled out her nine-tailed phoenix hairpin, and a jade seal rolled out from a hidden groove at the end: "Sanlang is carrying this seal of the Yanmen garrison commander; he should be seeing the Left Wise King by now." The mutton-fat jade seal revealed dark patterns under the candlelight, and it was actually the wolf god totem of the Northern Di royal court.

Wei Fenghui's soft sword suddenly turned towards Jiang Huaiyu: "Mother knew all along that Third Brother was of Northern Di blood?"

“Bloodline?” Jiang Huaiyu’s armor sliced ​​across the broken hairpin. “Your father was shot in the heart with an arrow; the arrowhead was engraved with the insignia of the Duke of Protectorate.” She suddenly plunged the broken hairpin into the table, the indigo gemstone splitting open to reveal half a sheepskin. “This map of the northern border defenses, the Imperial Concubine drew it with far greater detail than the Ministry of War.”

Suddenly, Old Madam Chao lunged forward, her withered claws reaching for Jiang Huaiyu's face. Wei Fenghui's sword, however, pierced through her sleeve first, pulling out a blood-stained swaddling cloth: "The wolf god mark on this, and the birthmark on Third Brother's back..."

"Hui'er!" Jiang Huaiyu shouted sharply, and the gilded incense burner suddenly exploded, spewing poisonous smoke. Old Madam Chao laughed maniacally through the smoke: "Does Madam know how many babies the midwife switched back then?"

The hidden door swung open with a bang, and the real Wei Fengyao led a masked man inside. The young man ripped off the prisoner's mask, revealing him to be the chief eunuch serving the Imperial Concubine. Jiang Huaiyu's nail polish traced a line across the eunuch's neck: "Third Master, you handled this mission brilliantly, even taking down the Imperial Concubine's spy."

Wei Fenghui's sword tip trembled incessantly: "So Father, he..."