The Prisoner of Beauty - Chapter 116

Chapter 116

Jinyang Posthouse

Su Ehuang had been staying in this elegant chamber for over half a month.

Although she was supposedly recovering from an illness, her clothes, food, accommodations, and travel arrangements were nothing short of exquisite. Despite this being merely a temporary residence, someone had willingly gone to the expense of lining all four walls with entire bolts of fine Qijun silk.

The postmaster could only marvel at such extravagance. Then, a few days ago, word spread that the Su clan was not only related to the Wei family, but that Su Ehuang herself seemed to share an ambiguous past with Wei Shao in their early years. Upon hearing this, the postmaster held her in even higher regard, and his service became twice as attentive.

Learning that she had complained yesterday about the dim, smoky candles in her room irritating her eyes, and knowing that the storehouse lacked refined wax, the postmaster made a special effort to purchase and deliver some high-quality candles today.

The newly replaced refined candles burned with a bright, flawless flame. Nine of them were arranged neatly on a bronze branched candlestick. Once lit, they illuminated the entire room as brightly as day.

After bathing, Su Ehuang emerged supported by her maidservant. Beneath her robes, she wore a striking vermilion undergarment, while her shoulders were draped in a trailing outer robe embroidered with patterns of clouds and dancing phoenixes. Through the fabric, which was as thin as a cicada's wing, the snowy curve of her fair breast was faintly visible.

She sat before her dressing mirror, leaning in close to the reflective surface to carefully examine the scar on her forehead.

The wound had not been deep, and the scab had fallen off smoothly, revealing a small, pink patch of new skin about the size of a pinky fingernail. In a few more days, it would likely recover completely.

Su Ehuang used a jade spatula to scoop a bit of medicinal salve, carefully applying it to the scar on her forehead and smoothing it out with her little finger.

"Madam possesses peerless beauty. It is a blessing that your knock that day was not severe. Otherwise, if a scar had been left behind, wouldn't it be a lifelong regret?"

An old crone from the Su family, standing close by, spoke in a flattering tone.

Su Ehuang gazed intently at the reflection of her face in the mirror.

She was currently at the prime age of her womanhood. Having freshly applied her makeup after her bath, even she found herself to be delicate and captivating.

"Where is Su Xin?"

She suddenly remembered him. She had not seen him since dusk.

"I do not know," the old crone replied, though in her heart, she suspected he had gone to some pleasure house.

Su Ehuang harbored the same suspicion. Her elegant, moth-like brows furrowed slightly.

She had originally thought this nephew of hers would be of some use. To her dismay, the very first time she took him to Yuyang, he had made a complete fool of himself at the Luli Grand Assembly. Even now, he showed no signs of growth, requiring her constant guidance and reminders.

During their stay here, Su Ehuang had strictly instructed him not to go out, lest he stir up trouble for no reason.

He had agreed. Yet a few days ago, Su Ehuang had caught him in the act of secretly carrying on an illicit affair with one of her personal maidservants.

It was just a maidservant, someone as lowly as the mud. If he had simply asked for her, Su Ehuang would have gladly given her to him.

What infuriated Su Ehuang was that he had gone behind her back to fool around.

Old Madame Jiang, whom she used for her own purposes, was hidden right beside Wei family's Madam Zhu.

Because of this, Su Ehuang was extremely paranoid about anyone serving in her close proximity operating behind her back in such a manner.

At the time, she had harshly rebuked Su Xin, forcing him to kill the maidservant who dared to engage in a secret affair with him.

Su Xin had been reluctant at first, but under her coercion, he finally stabbed the maidservant to death.

The next day, they simply claimed the maidservant had died of a sudden, violent illness during the night, and her body was sent outside the city to be buried in a mass grave.

Su Xin had finally behaved himself after that. She had not expected that in just a few short days, he would slip out to fool around again.

"When he returns, tell him to come see me immediately!"

A flash of fury emerged in the eyes of Su Ehuang's reflection in the mirror.

The old crone complied.


By the end of the hour of the Dog, Su Xin had still not returned.

This was highly unusual.

Su Xin had always feared her. Even if he really went out to fool around, she expected he would not dare to stay out this late.

The anger in Su Ehuang's heart—born from her nephew's incompetence and his betrayal of her rules once again—gradually dissipated.

In its place, an uneasy feeling arose.

She lost herself in thought for a moment, when a sudden wave of panic washed over her, bringing a faint, ominous presentiment. It felt as though some terrible calamity had occurred.

Su Ehuang was no stranger to this sense of impending doom.

The last time she had experienced a similar sensation was many years ago, when Emperor Xuan, the elder brother of her husband Liu Li, died of a sudden illness.

Back then, it was the moment she had been closest to the dream of her life. But as figures like Liu Ai and Xing Xun took the stage one after another, a seven-year-old from the imperial clan, Liu Tong, was ultimately pushed onto the throne. Her husband, who originally had the highest hope of inheriting the imperial lineage, was placed under house arrest after dawn, living the rest of his life under constant surveillance.

During that excruciatingly long night of waiting for dawn, what Su Ehuang had felt was exactly the same kind of heart-stopping dread she felt right now, as if a great disaster were about to strike.

She loathed this feeling.

She gradually grew restless, rising from her couch to pace back and forth across the room.

What could possibly go wrong? she thought to herself. Zhonglin had indeed discarded the resoluteness he showed when he came to see her that evening. Her testing had proven that he still held onto their past sentiments and harbored pity for her.

As long as a man harbored pity for a woman, it was good news.

This made her even more determined in her resolution to remain by his side.

But the current sense of unease made her anxious.

Su Ehuang could not help but carefully review the things she had done in the past once more. Ultimately, she confirmed that she had indeed left no traces or handles that anyone could seize upon.

Everyone connected to that failed conspiracy who could not be allowed to live was already dead.

Even if Grand-Madame Xu eventually suspected her, Su Ehuang was certain there was no evidence that could completely ruin her.

As long as there was no evidence, they could do nothing to her.

Su Ehuang gradually settled her mind again.

She sat back down before the mirror, her thoughts suddenly drifting back to her nephew, Su Xin.

She stared blankly at the face in the mirror, watching as a sharp, gloomy glint slowly emerged in the eyes of the woman reflected back at her.

Right at that moment, a flurry of footsteps echoed from outside the door.

These footsteps came abruptly and heavily. One could hear that a man was striding rapidly toward her room. His feet seemed to stamp with the force of surging, angry waves, each thud crashing against Su Ehuang's eardrums.

Su Ehuang's heartbeat, which had only recently calmed down, accelerated once more. Her expression shifted drastically as she abruptly stood up from the dressing mirror and rushed toward the door.

Before she could reach it, the door was violently thrown open from the outside.

Wei Shao had arrived.

Su Ehuang's footsteps froze.

Wei Shao's face was rigid to the point of distortion, and his eyes held a gathering storm of ferocious fury. He stepped inside, and only then did Su Ehuang see clearly that in one of his hands, he was dragging her nephew, who had been missing for the entire evening.

Like a dead dog, Su Xin was hurled at Su Ehuang's feet by Wei Shao.

Su Ehuang looked down to see Su Xin covered in blood and filth, looking as if he had just emerged from a slaughterhouse. He collapsed on the ground, his body writhing like a maggot as he struggled to extend a blood-soaked hand toward Su Ehuang.

"...It was all her... She instigated me..."

Intermittent, broken sounds issued from his mouth, which was missing several teeth. His voice was almost unrecognizable.

"Spare me..."

He fainted away.

Su Ehuang's eyes snapped open to their absolute limit, her face instantly turning devoid of any color.

"You wretched servant! To be so utterly malicious, how dare you plot to murder my grandmother?" Wei Shao ground out through clenched teeth.

Having never seen Wei Shao in such a lion-like rage before, Su Ehuang looked at him in stark terror. Her teeth chattered as she stepped back, retreating one step after another until her back hit the wall lined with the beautifully patterned silk. "Er-lang, I truly do not understand what you mean by this! How could I possibly plot to harm my grand-aunt? What exactly did Su Xin say to you? I know nothing..."

"Wretched servant! Try calling me Er-lang one more time!" Wei Shao roared, his face ash-pale with rage, looking terrifyingly monstrous.

Su Ehuang stopped abruptly.

"Your nephew confessed just now! You were in secret communication with Old Madame Jiang. You obtained snake venom from the Madam of Xianghou and instructed Old Madame Jiang to bide her time to poison my grandmother, intending to frame my mother, after which you would kill the Madam of Xianghou..."

Wei Shao said every single word deliberately.


Initially, when Xiao Qiao told him that Su Xin had been in contact with the Madam of Xianghou, and that she suspected the incident last year where his grandmother was nearly poisoned might be related to the Su clan, Wei Shao's instinctive reaction had been disbelief.

Even though he had already moved past the callow memories of his youth, just as he told Xiao Qiao, and the current Su Ehuang could barely overlap with the young girl he used to call "elder sister" in his memories, in the depths of his heart, a warm, beautiful, and hazy impression still remained of the young girl who had accompanied him through the darkest days of his life when he was twelve years old.

He truly found it difficult to believe that the gentle girl in his memory would do such a thing today. For a brief moment, he had even wondered if his current wife was merely chasing shadows in an attempt to completely banish the ghost of his childhood acquaintance from his heart.

That was until he read his grandmother's letter.

At that moment, his entire being was stunned.

Once he snapped out of it, he was deeply seized by a profound shock and fury at having been utterly fooled and deceived.

He no longer doubted it!

It was actually the Su clan who had almost killed the grandmother he respected and loved the most in his life!

How could he tolerate this!


A brief, deathly silence filled the room before Su Ehuang suddenly wailed, "Zhonglin! You must absolutely not believe Su Xin's words! That beast has lost all conscience! I only had good intentions to help him, but I never imagined he would hate me to this extent, going so far as to frame me! I truly knew nothing—"

Even as she was defending herself, two fierce and robust guards had already rushed in from behind Wei Shao. They went forward, pinning Su Ehuang's arms to the left and right, and dragged her outside.

Su Ehuang struggled with all her might. Her originally meticulous hair fell into disarray, her gold hairpins and ornaments dropping to the floor. The cicada-wing thin silk outer robe on her shoulders was also torn away during the struggle. She planted her feet desperately. Finally, as she was dragged past Wei Shao's side, her face covered in tears, she shrieked hoarsely, "Zhonglin, have you forgotten? Back then, when you had a high fever and were unconscious, was it not I who tended to you through the night? Have you forgotten that you once said you would protect my safety for a lifetime? Today, you convict me based solely on the words of others! Are you not even going to give me a chance to defend myself?"