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

Jiang Huaiyu suddenly clapped his hands, and a young man who bore a striking resemblance to Wei Fenghui emerged from the hidden door. The man tore open his shirt, revealing a wolf-god tattoo on his chest, stained with vermilion: "Brother, how have you been? I've tasted the bitterness of this 'Entanglement' for ten whole years."

Old Madam Chao stumbled backward, knocking over the antique display shelf. Dozens of scrolls of military plans tumbled out, each edge stamped with the imperial concubine's phoenix seal. Jiang Huaiyu's nail polish traced across the scrolls: "The congratulatory gift the old lady sent back then had some good stuff hidden in a hidden compartment."

Wei Fenghui's sword suddenly turned towards the fake nanny: "So, the third brother is the one who..."

"He is your father's legitimate son!" Jiang Huaiyu suddenly shoved a pill into the fake nanny's mouth. "The poison from these ten years of 'Tracing the Mechanism' should be enough to make you tell the truth, right?"

The fake nanny, bleeding from all seven orifices, clawed at Wei Fenghui: "The Chao family wants the military power of the Duke of Wei's mansion... The Imperial Concubine used witchcraft to switch the baby... The real legitimate son was thrown in..."

Before he could finish speaking, three poisoned crossbow bolts shot in through the window. Wei Fenghui parried with his sword, but then saw twelve golden needles fly out from Jiang Huaiyu's wide sleeve, all of them piercing the fake nanny's vital points.

"Hui'er, did you see clearly?" Jiang Huaiyu pulled open the fake nanny's robe, revealing a tattoo on her waist that was identical to Wei Fenghui's. "The Chao family used witchcraft to switch the babies, and your twenty years as heir apparent..."

A thunderclap shattered the roof beams, and Wei Fenghui suddenly knelt down, retching. A young man emerged from the hidden door, supporting his shoulder; the wolf god tattoo on his palm gleamed with gold. "Brother," he said, "the three thousand witchcraft pits outside Yanmen Pass are filled with 'pawns' like you and me."

Jiang Huaiyu stroked the charred arm bone: "Tomorrow at the morning court session, we should let Consort Chao see how the wolf cub she personally trained turns on its master."

……

Before Wei Fenghui could finish speaking, the Buddhist prayer beads in Old Madam Chao's hand suddenly snapped. The South China Sea coral beads rolled across the jade bricks and came to rest at the hem of Jiang Huaiyu's peacock blue skirt. A clap of thunder outside the window cleaved through the twilight, illuminating the old scar on the young general's collarbone, which appeared bluish-purple.

“Princess Ziyan?” Jiang Huaiyu’s fingertips traced the secret letter on the table. The sealing wax was clearly the white wax used only in the Cold Palace. “The one who drowned in Taiye Pond three years ago?” She suddenly chuckled, her gold-inlaid jade nail guards lifting the sachet at her son’s waist. “The stitches of this gold and silver thread seem to be the work of a convict slave in the Inner Palace.”

Wei Fenghui suddenly grabbed his mother's wrist, the black iron scabbard knocking over a teacup: "Mother, watch your words!" The spilled tea meandered like a snake on the blue bricks, and the luminous pearl at the top of Old Madam Chao's staff suddenly reflected the silver needles floating within: "The Duchess's Biluochun tea for her guests is even more exquisite than the poisoned wine of Consort Chen back then."

The beaded curtain rustled, and a young maidservant stumbled in carrying a gilded tray. Jiang Huaiyu swept her wide sleeves across the glass cup, then suddenly grabbed the jade bracelet on the maidservant's wrist: "The cinnabar pattern on the bracelet's core is similar to the pair Princess Ziyan wore when she came of age..." She exerted force with her fingertips, and the jade bracelet shattered, spilling out half of a bronze key engraved with the character "Chao".

"So the family key of the Duke of Huguo's mansion was hidden on a cleaning maid." Wei Fenghui picked up the key with the tip of his sword, the engraved pattern fitting perfectly with the half of the tiger tally in his pocket. Old Madam Chao's wrinkled face suddenly twitched, the sandalwood staff cracked open, and a poisoned silver needle shot straight into the young man's throat.

Jiang Huaiyu barely managed to knock away the poisoned needle with her golden hairpin, and her nails, adorned with red nail polish, were already gripping the old lady's vital point: "When you used this trick to kill your half-sister back then, did you ever think that you would be killed by your own grandson..." Before she could finish speaking, the sound of a pipa suddenly came from the west wing, and it turned out to be the last half of the "Rainbow Feather Dress Dance".

Wei Fenghui's pupils constricted sharply—the woman who emerged from behind the gauze curtain carrying a zither had exquisitely beautiful features, but the cinnabar birthmark on her forehead gleamed with an eerie bluish-black hue. Princess Ziyan's slender, pale fingers traced the strings, and a drop of crimson blood fell onto the zither: "Young General, do you still remember the fireflies by the Taiye Pond on the Lantern Festival three years ago?"

The torrential rain pounded against the windowpanes, and Jiang Huaiyu suddenly overturned the incense burner. A yellowed marriage certificate appeared in the scalding ash, the sealing wax stamp bearing the imperial seal of a previous dynasty: "So the princess and the hostage from Xiliang have this connection." Her bloodstained fingertip touched the woman's neck, "The Gu poison spots beneath this disguise are even more vibrant than those of the Miao holy maiden."

Old Madam Chao suddenly burst into maniacal laughter, her Buddhist prayer beads shattering: "The Duchess of Wei's eyes are indeed sharp, but..." She abruptly ripped open the princess's sleeve, revealing the virginity mark on her arm transformed into the shape of a scorpion, "This 'Heart-Connecting Gu' is lethal upon contact with blood, and the tea the young general just drank..."

A thunderclap boomed, and a secret letter, popped from the hidden compartment of Wei Fenghui's sword hilt, fluttered onto the desk. Jiang Huaiyu stared at the vermilion annotation, "Zi Yan is actually the Princess of Xiliang," and suddenly clapped her hands and laughed: "No wonder the corpse found in Taiye Pond three years ago had twin birthmarks." Her poisoned fingernails traced across the princess's cheek, "Princess, your clever escape plan has even fooled the Duke of Huguo's mansion."

As the bronze bells on the eaves shattered into dust, the sound of the Imperial Guards' armor surrounded the mansion. Princess Ziyan suddenly vomited black blood, and a peacock gall bladder rolled out from the shattered jade bracelet. Wei Fenghui held his black iron sword between his mother and the Dowager Empress, the blade reflecting the bright yellow parasol swaying outside the window—the five-clawed golden dragon embroidered on it perfectly matched the pattern of the tiger tally in his bosom.

……

The candle flame flickered and burned, and Wei Fenghui's black boots crunched on the wax dripping from the cracks in the blue bricks: "Mother, please don't press me any further. That girl... that girl comes from a good family." The cuffs of his dark official robe were stained with the musty smell of the Ministry of Justice prison, and his knuckles were clenched so tightly they turned white.

Jiang Huaiyu suddenly snapped the golden nanmu hairpin in half: "Would a girl from a respectable family carry a Northern Di witchcraft doll?" The broken hairpin tip picked up a piece of bloodstained cloth, "The stitches on this mandarin duck embroidered handkerchief are from the same source as the purse the Imperial Concubine gave you."

A grey dove's shadow flitted past the window, and the sound of Old Madam Chao's cane approached from afar: "Is Hui-ge'er embarrassed?" Her withered fingers gripped a glass cup, the blood-red swallow's breath reflected in her cloudy eyes. "I see that double-fish pendant on Miss Yu's waist; it looks like a token from the Empress's maternal clan."

Wei Fenghui suddenly looked up, his sleeve sweeping away the teacup: "Old Madam, watch your words!" A shard of porcelain grazed his neck, and drops of blood splattered onto the pheasant pattern on Jiang Huaiyu's skirt. "Miss Yu is... is a refugee from Yunzhou..."

"Would refugees from Yunzhou wear jade bracelets from the East Sea?" Jiang Huaiyu flung half a broken bracelet from his sleeve, the phoenix pattern carved on the inner wall directly opposite the buttons on Old Madam Chao's robe. "The jade ring that the Imperial Concubine bestowed upon you last month, isn't this the same pattern when you take it apart?"

A clap of thunder cleaved through the rain, and Wei Fenghui stumbled and bumped into the antique shelf. The gilded box shattered, and a yellowed marriage certificate rolled out—below the words "Wei Fenghui betroths a woman from the Yu family," and the wolf's head seal of the Northern Di royal court was clearly stamped.

Suddenly, Old Madam Chao's staff shattered, and poison powder flew straight at Jiang Huaiyu's face: "Madam, do you really want to tear off the mask?" As the withered claws reached for the marriage certificate, Wei Fenghui's sword pierced through her sleeve, bringing out a bronze key.

"The prison key to the Ministry of Justice's death row?" Jiang Huaiyu's nail polish traced the key's teeth marks. "The Northern Di assassins who broke into the prison three days ago carried the same one." She suddenly chuckled, "Does the Old Madam know that the assassin called out Miss Yu's maiden name before he died?"

Wei Fenghui's sword tip trembled incessantly: "Impossible! Yu'er, she..."

"You think she's some kind of orphaned refugee?" Jiang Huaiyu ripped open his shirt, revealing a wolf god tattoo that gleamed with an indigo glow under the candlelight. "This tattoo of a Northern Di sorcerer only reveals its color when it comes into contact with royal blood." She suddenly splashed the blood-stained wine cup onto the marriage certificate, and the wolf head tattoo transformed into a phoenix pattern upon contact with the blood.