Chapter 9: “Just after leaving the Pear Garden, I saw Prince Chu push Your Highness off that bridge!”

Before coming, Su Yingxue had carefully questioned Qiushuang. At that time, the guards had brought the drenched Su Yingxue back to the palace from the willow embankment of Dong Hu, while the equally soaked Chu Xingchen, who had been holding her, was detained in the Inner Service Directorate.

Afterward, Su Yingxue personally had someone retrieve the layout drawings of the imperial garden and reviewed the entire garden’s arrangement, as well as the imperial guards’ patrol schedule.

As Qiushuang had said, she had been standing on the stone bridge feeding koi fish and had dismissed all the servants. Thus, during the incident, Su Yingxue happened to be standing there alone.

From the time Chu Xingchen entered the imperial garden and encountered the imperial guards, to Su Yingxue falling into the lake—where she, unable to swim, was in mortal danger, flailing and calling for help—until he discovered her.

He then swam from the willow embankment to the center of the lake and rescued her, bringing her ashore. By the time the patrolling soldiers discovered them, she had ordered the guards to reenact the events and verify the timing. Indeed, from a time perspective, Chu Xingchen’s testimony matched the guards’ reenactment without discrepancy. He had been wrongly accused.

If that was the case, and it wasn’t Chu Xingchen’s doing, then who was it who harbored such deep hatred for her, knowing she couldn’t swim, and pushed her into the lake, intending to kill her?

If Chu Xingchen hadn’t saved her, she would surely have been buried in the earth, dead and gone!

“Just after leaving the Pear Garden, I saw Prince Chu push the young lady off that bridge!”

The palace maid in yellow trembled as she spoke. When she lifted her head to reply, her expression was flustered, her eyes evasive. Su Yingxue merely circled around the kneeling maid once, then stood in front of her, meeting her gaze. Yet the maid, guilt-ridden, dared not look her in the eye.

There was a problem. There was definitely something wrong here.

Where was the issue? Su Yingxue carefully recalled the maid’s words. According to what Qiushuang had told her, she had been standing on the stone bridge, facing the direction of the Lake Center Pavilion, scattering fish food to feed the koi.

From the direction of the Pear Garden, one would only be able to see her back.

Coming from the Pear Garden—no, if she came from the Pear Garden, she should have only seen a back view. How could she be so certain it was Chu Xingchen?

If that were the case, the person who pushed her should also have had their back to this palace maid.

Qiushuang said this maid was ordinarily just responsible for cleaning and sweeping, so she shouldn’t have ever seen Chu Xingchen before. As a Hostage Prince from Da Qi, Chu Xingchen had long been confined to his own small, dilapidated courtyard. His status within the Da Qi palace was very low; even some servants freely insulted and beat him.

On that day, he definitely wouldn’t have come to the imperial garden alone. The imperial garden was frequented by nobles, and given his nature, he would avoid it if possible. How could it be such a coincidence that he happened to enter the imperial garden just as she fell into the lake? It was a perfect setup.

After all, Su Yingxue often flogged and abused him. As a Hostage Prince from Da Qi, if he were to push the Dasheng Monarch’s most favored Eldest Princess into the lake and drown her within the Dasheng palace, it would be no minor offense.

Su Yingxue pondered for a moment. The mastermind behind this might have been seizing this opportunity to eliminate her.

But who could it be?

As for Su Yingxue, this Eldest Princess, when Zhang Susu had read the novel, she felt that the original Host was too ostentatious, willful, arrogant, and domineering.

She remembered a passage in the novel where, in the Empress’s bedchamber, she used her usual leather whip to flog the Empress’s close confidant, simply because that day, when serving bird’s nest soup, the confidant had offered it to the Empress first instead of to her.

The confidant served the Empress the royal tribute blood bird’s nest, while offering her the snow bird’s nest bought from outside. The difference wasn’t just one character, but a tenfold price gap.

Seeing the maid’s sycophantic differential treatment, she directly lashed the maid’s face with several strokes of her whip, disregarding the Empress’s dignity, and brutally flogged the maid until her body was covered in wounds.

This incident where Eldest Princess Su Yingxue publicly humiliated the Empress naturally bred resentment in the Empress’s heart. When the matter later reached Your Majesty’s ears, he personally intended to discipline Su Yingxue in front of the Empress, planning to punish her with half a month of confinement in her palace.

Finally, when Su Yingxue was summoned to the palace for reprimand, she coldly declared to Your Majesty, “Does Elder Brother now feel that since you’re married with a principal wife, you would heavily punish Yingxue regardless of sibling affection, based solely on the one-sided accounts of a few glib-tongued servants?”

“Yes, yes,” Su Yingxue lowered her head, tears falling, her voice mournful, “Elder Brother isn’t wrong to blame me. Because Yingxue lost parental guidance since childhood, now even Elder Brother considers Yingxue a burden, isn’t that so?”

It must be said that Su Yingxue knew exactly how to manipulate Dasheng Monarch Su Qinhuai’s thoughts. She clearly understood that Su Qinhuai was first a filial son, then a monarch.

Before the late emperor passed away, he made Su Qinhuai stake the nation’s fate and swear a heavy oath upon his deathbed to protect the orphan, remembering how Su Yingxue’s mother had used her own life to block a fatal sword strike for the late emperor during the assassination attempt in the imperial study.

This profound gratitude and debt, the late emperor secured by making him swear a solemn oath to protect Su Yingxue.

Therefore, Su Yingxue clearly understood that whenever she mentioned being orphaned, no matter how grave the trouble, Su Qinhuai the filial son would recall the late emperor’s deathbed entrustment and would soften, sparing Su Yingxue.

Sure enough, watching Su Yingxue kneel on the ground crying while lamenting, “Or does Imperial Brother think Yingxue is unworthy of blood bird’s nest, only sister-in-law deserves it, and Yingxue should be inferior!”

Hearing this, Su Qinhuai frowned, but first softened and helped her up, sighing helplessly, coaxing gently, “How could that be? Yingxue is your elder brother’s youngest sister. Not to mention one bowl of blood bird’s nest, even if your brother bestowed all the blood bird’s nests upon Yingxue, it would be fitting.”

Hearing this, the Empress turned pale. In that moment, she clearly knew, and the entire rear palace clearly knew, that her status and Su Yingxue’s in Su Qinhuai’s heart were different.

But the Empress was after all the Empress. Even though her face paled momentarily, she quickly composed herself and smiled gently, affectionately addressing Su Yingxue, “Sister Yingxue, look what you’re saying. It’s sister-in-law’s fault for lax management, allowing a wicked servant to mistreat you.”

The Empress gently took her hand and said softly, “Regarding today’s matter, some busybody must have exaggerated this trivial affair to His Highness’s ears, damaging the bond between sister-in-law and Sister Yingxue.”

Finally, the Empress proposed punishing herself with half a month’s salary deduction and demoting the palace maid to third-class cleaning servant to satisfy Su Yingxue’s wishes.

Zhang Susu sighed. With Su Yingxue’s domineering and arrogant nature, she probably hadn’t just offended the Empress in this palace—how many others viewed her as a thorn in their flesh?

She deserved to be punished by all! Even those palace servants she frequently flogged and penalized couldn’t oppose her openly, but privately, they must deeply hate Su Yingxue.

How many enemies in this palace were there, who smiled to her face while secretly wishing to eliminate her behind her back?

Zhang Susu did not know who was behind it this time, but she knew that person must be one of Su Yingxue’s many enemies. She felt that with Chu Xingchen’s cunning, if he were to make a move, it would not be so full of loopholes.