Chapter 60: Younger Brother

Wang Jingyi's eyes instantly turned icy.

She pulled the hairpin from her head and thrust it straight at the veterinarian's throat.

Wan Tang suddenly lifted her foot and kicked at her wrist, and the hairpin clanged and fell to the ground.

"Mother!" Xu Luoyan screamed, lunging forward, but Wan Tang slapped her across the back of the head, sending her stumbling backward.

"Are you here to watch a play?" Wan Tang turned her head, glared at the two Imperial Guard, her voice hoarse.

The Imperial Guard leader clasped his fists and said, "I am ordered only to deliver the person."

"Fine indeed," Wan Tang sneered, her blood‑stained fingertips lightly brushing the neck, "If I have any grievance, your Master cannot escape involvement."

Before the words finished, the two Imperial Guard moved like wraiths, instantly forcing Wang Jingyi and her daughter onto their knees.

"Speak!" Wan Tang yanked the veterinarian's collar, "Tell everything you know!"

The veterinarian coughed violently, fear filling his single eye, "Back then that woman gave birth to a healthy baby boy."

He trembled and pointed at Wang Jingyi, "That charred infant corpse was prepared in advance."

"The child was taken away immediately after being born."

Wan Tang felt as if struck by lightning; her body jolted sharply.

She steadied herself on the desk before falling, her nails scraping deep gouges into the mahogany.

"Also," the veterinarian continued, "the first few times we met, Madam Wang showed no sign of pregnancy."

"It was a false pregnancy."

"Silence! I'll kill you!" Wang Jingyi suddenly broke free of her restraints, only to be pinned down again by the Imperial Guard.

Her hair knot was in disarray, her face snarling like a demon, "So what if you know?"

She burst into a manic laugh, the golden Step Shake bead string snapping with a crackle, "Now the Xu Jiachuan holds power, and you rely only on a powerless Zhaoying?"

The laughter stopped abruptly; she stared at Wan Tang maliciously, "What can you do to me?"

"Besides, your illegitimate younger brother—don't you want him to live?"

Younger brother!

Her brother is still alive.

Wan Tang suddenly felt her heart, which had nearly stopped, begin to beat again.

So her mother really gave birth to a brother back then.

In Wan Tang's mind, a figure gradually became clear.

It was the little young master in the General's Residence, always overlooked, yet each meeting brought a sense of warmth.

But Wan Tang had hated that person since childhood.

Little Wan Tang had always believed his existence conflicted with her brother's.

Because they were born the same day, his birth meant there was no doctor or midwife.

So that's it!

With that, Wan Tang understood everything.

She realized even more that the son Wang Jingyi struggled to bear was constantly ignored.

【Wailing】 I want to cry; finally I understand why the little young master is so capable yet constantly suppressed.

【It turns out Xu Chengyuan, that old scumbag, couldn't bear to see his son.】

【Indeed, he dares not offend the Wang family and doesn't want his son to become an illegitimate child.】

【He even colluded with Wang Jingyi, using such a vicious method to make the son rightfully become a member of the Xu family.】

【I think the old scumbag's original intention was not to let Wan Tang's mother die, after all he coveted her looks.】

Each barrage, like a knife, stabbed into Wan Tang's heart again and again.

For the first time, the barrage felt really noisy!

She clutched her head in pain.

Wan Tang suddenly let out a low laugh, a sound that seemed to emerge from the depths of hell, with a bone‑chilling shiver.

She dragged the dying veterinarian across the blue‑brick floor, leaving a winding trail of blood.

"Madam, don't be afraid." Her voice was eerily gentle, blood‑stained fingertips brushing Wang Jingyi's pallid face, "For my brother, how could I harm you?"

Wang Jingyi trembled all over, her lips quivering, "What... what do you want?"

Wan Tang spun around sharply, drawing a long sword from the Imperial Guard's waist with a metallic clang.

A flash of cold light appeared, reflecting her twisted visage.

In those eyes swirled madness and despair, while a strange smile lingered at the corner of her mouth.

"I told you so." She pressed the veterinarian before Wang Jingyi, the blade tip pressing against his nape, "Today, a life must be repaid."

She raised the sword to strike, intending to cleave the veterinarian's head.

But when she actually swung, she found human bone far harder than she expected.

She swung the blade as if mad, using all her strength.

The first slash hit the shoulder blade, emitting a muffled "crack".

The veterinarian let out an inhuman scream, blood splattering onto Wang Jingyi's ornate skirt hem.

The second cut split the spine, shards of bone flying; Xu Luoyan let out a hysterical scream.

The third slash finally severed the neck, the head rolling "gurgling" to Xu Luoyan's feet.

That snarling face stared at her, eyes still holding the terror of death.

Xu Luoyan's eyes rolled back, and she collapsed into unconsciousness.

Wang Jingyi retched violently, her meticulously applied makeup smearing into a mess, she fainted several times and jolted awake.

Wan Tang dropped the blood‑stained sword; her skirt was soaked in fresh blood, yet a naive, girl‑like smile graced her face, "Madam, don't be impatient... this is just the beginning..."

Wang Jingyi slumps in a pool of blood, her meticulously coiled hair bun half scattered, the golden Step Shake hanging askew, the bead string stained with dark‑red blood.

Her lips tremble, but her voice is sharp as a knife: "You wretched bastard's mongrel! You think killing a lowly veterinarian can scare me?"

"You are as despicable as that short‑lived woman!"

Wan Tang pretends not to hear, and slowly walks toward the dressing table.

In the bronze mirror, her blood‑stained face is reflected; she picks up a rose balm, her fingertips lightly twirling along the rim of the porcelain case.

Amid the tinkling water, she calmly washes her face.

Blood‑water diffuses in the silver basin, a cloth wipes over her brows and eyes, as if the act of killing had never occurred.

"Madam is right." Wan Tang suddenly says, her jade comb passing through her cascading black hair, "Knowing my brother is still alive, I truly should thank you."

The bronze mirror shows the strange curve at her lip corner, "Otherwise, if I killed you, I would have no reason to live. So, you told me my brother is still alive."

Wang Jingyi finally struggles to stand, her blood‑stained hem dragging a fierce mark across the blue bricks: "Want to see him?"

She suddenly laughs nervously, "Within three months, restore Luoyan to the rank of noble consort."

"What if I don't?" Wan Tang snaps, turning sharply: "You would kill my brother?"

She suddenly giggles, the laugh tinged with a frantic tremor, "Madam! Have you forgotten?"

Wang Jingyi's pupils contract sharply, her meticulously painted distant‑mountain eyebrows twist: "Aren't you afraid?"

"As for me." Wan Tang steps back two paces, suddenly revealing a childlike innocent smile, "I hate being threatened the most."

"Growing up being threatened from below, now I truly can't stand even a little."

"As for this…" Wan Tang kicks the headless corpse of the veterinarian, the fresh blood staining her embroidered shoes, "I trust Madam has plenty of ways to deal with it."

She walks slowly toward the hall doors, then turns back with a smile, "After all, you are still suspected of plotting against the Imperial Heir."

"I say this person is the one who supplied the hook‑snout to Xu Qinghuan; you are merely silencing witnesses by killing."

These words cause Wang Jingyi's complexion to change abruptly; she shouts angrily, "You scoundrel, how dare you?"

Wan Tang gives a sly smile: "You say… who does the Emperor now trust more?"

The instant the hall doors close, Wang Jingyi's hysterical scream and the sound of shattering porcelain echo from behind.

The Imperial Guard leaves like a ghost.

【Although… but, I support Tangtang.】

【Tangtang, don't be afraid; now the Xu Family doesn't dare to act rashly against your brother. After all, they still need to use your brother.】

【Xu Chengyuan wants a useful son, so you don't have to worry about your brother's safety for now.】

【Come to think of it, I prefer seeing Wan Tang like this.】

【Unfortunately Wan Tang can't hear what we say; otherwise I'd really want to spoil everything to her.】

Wan Tang feels bitterness in her heart; she can hear everything, can sense everything, but can the audience feel what she thinks?

When Wan Tang leaves Songbai Palace, the sky has already turned a pale, fish‑belly white.

Morning mist spreads, shrouding the palace corridor in a haze.

Her fingertips still tremble slightly, and blood stains linger in the gaps of her nails.

She turns a corner of an empty palace wall, finally can't hold herself, staggers, grabs the cold stone wall, and slowly slides down to sit on the ground.

"Still alive… brother still alive…"

She murmurs softly, her voice shattered beyond recognition.

But immediately, she recalls the scene of her just having beheaded the veterinarian herself.

The splattering blood, the rolling head, the heart‑rending scream.

She suddenly clutches her mouth and dry‑vomits.

All the pretenses are stripped away when no one is watching.

Tears finally roll down uncontrollably; she curls up in the corner, buries her face deep in her arm, her shoulders trembling silently.

"Tsk tsk, a beauty shedding tears, I feel pity."

A clear, resonant voice comes from above, startling Wan Tang into an abrupt head turn.

On the eaves of the palace wall, a young man in a dark‑blue robe sits with a bent knee, gently fanning with a folding fan.

Morning light gilds him with a golden rim, yet it cannot reveal the brows and eyes hidden in shadow.

Only a jade pendant with a chi pattern at his waist glints warm light in the mist as he swings his leg.

Wan Tang quickly rises, her fingertips erasing the tear tracks at her eyes without a trace.

She steps back half a pace, straightens her back; the earlier fragility seems never to have existed.

"How dare you!" Wan Tang snaps up, her blood‑stained nails digging into her palm, "The inner gardens of the deep palace cannot tolerate an outsider man's gaze!"

She swiftly retreats three steps, the pearl hairpin at her side jingling from the vigorous motion.

The man chuckles low, then suddenly leaps down from the wall.

As he lands, his robe's hem flutters, stirring up a cloud of dust.

"Madam," he draws out his tone, "your face is weeping to the point of blooming, which makes it less beautiful."

The morning wind lifts the fragments of hair before her forehead, revealing unrestrained panic in her eyes: "I am a consort of the Emperor; if you know proper etiquette, you should retreat at once."

She speaks while stepping toward the palace corridor; her embroidered shoes crush dry branches on the ground, producing a crisp snapping sound.

The man suddenly reaches into his chest, pulls out a white handkerchief: "Wipe your face?"

"No need!" Wan Tang's voice suddenly sharpens, like a cat whose tail has been stepped on.

She quickly performs a proper court bow, "I take my leave."

She turns and walks away, her silhouette straight as green bamboo, only the clenched fist hidden in her sleeve betrays a hint of emotion.

She remains fearful inside.

The man watches her retreating figure, then suddenly bends, picking up a delicate Fragrance pouch from the ground.

The pattern of the crabapple blossoms is embroidered exquisitely, with petals layered upon layers, as if one could smell the fragrance.

Their fingertip brushes the edge of the Fragrance pouch, tracing the tiny "Wan" character, and a playful smile curls at the corner of their lips.

"Interesting."

The morning breeze passes by, scattering their whisper into the mist.