Yunchu’s Vengeance - Chapter 180
Chapter 180 - The Children's Birthday
"I truly never imagined that I would fall in love with such a venomous woman."
Qin Mingheng burst into loud laughter.
Laughing at his own utter stupidity, laughing at how he had never truly known the woman standing before him.
For the sake of a woman with such a malicious heart, he had actually led the Qin family into such a devastating plight.
It was truly not worth it.
"Yun Chu, I can tell you everything, but I have a condition," he gritted his teeth as he spoke. "Restore the Xuanwu Marquisate. I know you possess this ability."
Yun Chu smiled as well: "Do you think that is even remotely possible?"
"If you refuse to do as I say, then I do not mind taking this secret to my grave," Qin Mingheng said with a dark, sinister gaze. "You only want to know who that man was that night, but don't you want to know where the two children were thrown? Don't you want to know whether those two infants died, or if they miraculously survived?"
Yun Chu's heart clenched violently.
She knew she had been firmly gripped by her weakness.
Yet she could not afford to display even a fraction of an emotion, or else she would be forever manipulated and controlled.
Drawing a silent, steady breath, she put on a cold sneer: "Qin Mingheng, I repeat my words: if you refuse to honestly confess what you know, your Qin family will have its ancestral line severed with your generation. Do not try to threaten me with your so-called secrets, because no matter what, my two children already perished... Whereas your child is still alive and well."
"Are you truly so certain that they perished?" A bizarre, unsettling smile appeared on Qin Mingheng's face. "What if I told you that they are still alive?"
"To carve out a path of survival for yourself, you really will spout any lie that comes to mind," Yun Chu shook her head. "I will give you one more stick of incense's time."
Qin Mingheng chuckled raspy: "My son has already taken the surname Luo; he is no longer a scion of my Qin family, so you cannot threaten me with him."
Ceasing any further words, Yun Chu stepped forward and ignited a stick of incense.
As wisps of smoke coiled upward, she gazed at the pale blue tendrils, taking countless deep breaths to pull her focus back from Qin Mingheng's preceding words.
How she wished Qin Mingheng was not merely spouting empty nonsense; how she wished her two children were still alive...
Even knowing how minuscule that hope was, she still clung to it tenaciously... She was willing to stake her very life to trade for even the slightest possibility...
The stick of incense slowly burned down to its ashes, yet Qin Mingheng still remained silent.
Yun Chu turned around to look at him: "Remember, this was your own choice. Do not blame me for being ruthless."
She turned and strode out of the cell.
Hearing the door unlatch, Chu Yi immediately stepped forward to meet her. Without needing to ask, the moment he saw Yun Chu's ashen complexion, he knew she had failed to extract the desired answers.
He spoke up: "Miss Yun, what is it you wish to interrogate out of him? Why not let me do it for you?"
"Thank you, no." Yun Chu shook her head. "I have my own ways of making him speak; I won't trouble Your Highness."
From his sleeve, Chu Yi produced a token and handed it over: "This is the prison pass. The next time you wish to interrogate him, simply come straight through."
Yun Chu pressed her lips together, ultimately accepting it, and curtsied: "Your Highness..."
"Miss Yun, you have already said 'thank you' far too many times." Chu Yi gently supported her arm to help her rise. "I shall escort Miss Yun out."
The two walked together until they reached the entrance of the Grand Court of Revision.
Yun Chu paused her steps, lifted her gaze, and looked directly at the man before her: "If I may be so bold as to ask, what is the birth date of Yu'er and Changsheng?"
She had entertained such a thought long ago.
Yet it was far too absurd; she had never dared to delve deeply into it.
However, Qin Mingheng's words just moments ago...
Had conjured images of those two children vividly before her eyes.
If her pair of children were still alive, could they possibly be... Yu'er and Changsheng?
Could it be?
Could it really be?!
Chu Yi caught the glimmer of fervent hope shining in Yun Chu's eyes.
He had no idea why she would wear such an expression.
He answered truthfully: "This winter, on the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, it will be their fifth birthday."
Yun Chu's body swayed unsteadily.
The twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month...
The day she gave birth was the twenty-third day of the twelfth lunar month, amidst a swirling blizzard. The children had been born at the very end of the Hai hour on that twenty-third day.
If Xie Jingyu had taken the children away, dumped them at the Xuanwu Marquisate, and Qin Mingheng had subsequently abandoned the infants at the Prince of Pingxi's Manor, it would indeed fall right around the twenty-fourth day of the twelfth lunar month...
"Miss Yun, what is wrong?"
Sensing the violent swaying of her frame, Chu Yi stepped closer.
Disregarding the strict boundaries between men and women, he steadied her by her shoulders.
The wave of sudden body heat transferred through his touch snapped Yun Chu instantly back to her senses. She quickly retreated a step: "Your Highness, I must take my leave."
Never before had she felt such an overwhelming sense of urgency.
She climbed into her carriage and instructed the driver: "Head to the Luo residence."
The carriage galloped swiftly down the grand avenue, arriving shortly before the third-rank official residence of the Luo family.
Possessing no formal calling card, Yun Chu stated her identity. After the gatekeeper went inside to report, he returned to escort Yun Chu through the gates of the Luo Manor and led her directly to the courtyard inhabited by Lady Luo.
"Lady Luo."
Yun Chu greeted her formally.
She noticed that Lady Luo had grown visibly thinner and far more haggard, with dark, sunken hollows beneath her eyes.
"Madam Xie." A smile touched Lady Luo's face. "Hearing that Madam Xie was coming, I specially had someone brew some fine tea. It will be ready in just a moment."
Yun Chu glanced at the table; the tea Lady Luo usually drank was of the most ordinary, common variety.
She guessed that following her divorce from the Xuanwu Marquisate, the Luo family likely had not entirely opened their arms to welcome back their married-out daughter.
In this world, life was inherently difficult for women, and even harder for divorced women.
Yun Chu had a mountain of matters weighing upon her own shoulders and temporarily lacked the mental bandwidth to empathize with Lady Luo's predicament.
Suppressing her swirling emotions, she spoke: "Lady Luo must have heard some rumors regarding the former Marquis of Xuanwu escaping during his exile and subsequently being captured, I presume?"
Lady Luo's fingers paused on the teacup, remaining silent.
"The person interrogating the Marquis has some connections with my father. He informed me that the Marquis will face execution shortly," Yun Chu lowered her gaze. "The Marquis's final wish before death is simply to catch a glimpse of his sole remaining bloodline."
Lady Luo smiled bitterly: "Zhan'er has been having nightmares every single night during this period. Because in his final memory, his biological father tried to strangle him to death. It is impossible for him to go see Qin Mingheng one last time—impossible."
Yun Chu nodded: "...He deserves his execution, and letting him die with lingering bitterness is only fitting."
Hearing her say this, Lady Luo fell silent once more.
The affection built over so many years of marriage with Qin Mingheng was not fake; it could not be easily erased in a single day or two.
And paternal affection was even less likely to be false. Over the years, she had witnessed firsthand how Qin Mingheng doted on and protected the child.
The boy had been spoiled rotten into a lawless, unbridled temperament precisely because of Qin Mingheng's excessive indulgence...
The child was still young now and understood very little.
Once he grew up, would he blame her for not letting him see his biological father one last time?
Lady Luo drained the remaining tea in her cup, then turned to the maidservant behind her and ordered: "Bring Zhan'er over."
Moments later, the maidservant led Luo Zhan into the room.
Yun Chu had seen this child a few times before. In the past, the boy exuded an aura of unbridled arrogance, but now, he stood quietly, wearing an unusually obedient and subdued expression.
She sighed internally; a child who had lost his father's protection naturally reined in his unruly temper on his own.
Lady Luo asked him: "Zhan'er, your father wishes to see you one last time. Are you willing?"
Luo Zhan pressed his lips together, keeping his head lowered for a long while before finally giving a slow nod.
Lady Luo gently stroked her son's head: "Then let us go."
Yun Chu's carriage traveled at the front.
The Luo mother and son followed closely behind in their own carriage.
Before long, they arrived back at the gates of the Grand Court of Revision.