I and my father-in-law didn’t stay long in the Ministry of Justice’s prison before being secretly transferred by carriage. This was my first time seeing a prison inside the imperial palace. To be precise, it could hardly be called a prison, more like a three-courtyard, five-room mansion, with the only difference being that the mansion was tightly guarded, so tight that even a bird couldn’t fly in. The facilities in the rooms were quite complete, with warm and comfortable bedding. My father-in-law was exhausted and went to sleep early. I returned to my room, thinking that His Majesty was quite considerate, probably worried that we had suffered in the Ministry of Justice’s prison and specially brought us to the palace.
I just didn’t know where my mother-in-law had gone. After pondering for a while, perhaps because the environment was more comfortable, drowsiness overcame me, and I quickly fell asleep.
The next day, two red-robed imperial guards threw Yuan Xiao in.
I hurriedly comforted it about its bruised self-esteem from being tied up like a sausage. It whimpered in my arms for a while, then began happily running around the new courtyard, trampling many flowers and grass.
However, my father-in-law’s complexion was getting worse. Yuan Xiao circled around him, making a strange and urgent cry, constantly looking at me. My father-in-law weakly raised his hand to comfort it, but it seemed agitated. I was worried and asked the imperial guard at the door to report to His Majesty, at least to have a doctor come and check. The guard impatiently waved me back, saying that His Majesty had ordered that no one could approach here, let alone a doctor.
I suddenly had a bad feeling, an inexplicable panic. Something wasn’t right. This was supposed to be a mere show of imprisonment, so why take it so seriously?
On the third day, my father, mother, younger sister, and older brother and his wife were brought in.
My feeling had finally come true. The agreement between An Jin and the Emperor definitely did not include involving my family.
My parents looked haggard, clearly having suffered a lot. My older brother supported Miao Yin, and they were both silent. My younger sister cried with a dirty face, looking at me.
“I’m sorry,” I was in complete chaos, not knowing what to say, just lowering my head to apologize. “I’ve implicated you all in suffering.”
Mother didn’t ask anything, just squeezed my hand. “Child, don’t say anything. Our family has been through sweet times together, and we must go through bitter times together to be complete. Don’t bear everything alone…” As she spoke, her eyes reddened, and she turned away.
My parents went to see my father-in-law, and my older brother and Miao Yin explained their experiences of the past few days. It turned out that not long after the An family was taken away that night, a group of officials also took away my family and imprisoned them in the Ministry of Justice’s prison.
They had been in that environment for two days before being brought here on the third day.
“A Yao, it’s okay,” my older brother and Miao Yin exchanged a glance and smiled. “At least we’re still together.”
“But—my sister-in-law’s condition—” Miao Yin was pregnant, and having stayed in such a damp and cold place for two days, if anything happened, how could I be at peace?
Miao Yin boldly patted her belly and laughed, “Don’t worry! I’m in great health, and the child takes after me. How could they be weak?”
My older brother was startled by her action and quickly grabbed her hand. “Stop hitting?”
Miao Yin made a face. My older brother and I were slightly cheered by her, our heavy hearts momentarily lifted.
My younger sister wanted to laugh but ended up crying. “Second Sister—Brother-in-law he—”
My older brother quickly stopped her.
“An Jin must have his reasons,” I could only comfort them. “He will definitely find a way to save us.”
My younger sister cried harder. My older brother and Miao Yin’s expressions were grim. “A Yao…”
My heart sank. “What’s wrong?”
My older brother, Miao Yin, and my younger sister had different expressions, but all conveyed an ominous message.
“What happened to him?” My heart raced, but I found it unbelievable. How could they know about An Jin’s situation?
My younger sister grabbed my arm. “Brother-in-law… something has happened!”
Chapter Fifty-One: The Schemes of the Eastern Palace
I broke out in a cold sweat, my clothes sticking to my back, shivering.
Miao Yin supported me, looking calm. “A Yao, the situation is not yet confirmed. Don’t be anxious, stay calm.”
I waved my hand to indicate I was fine and recalled several times the scene of An Jin entrusting me to wait for his return, gradually calming down. My younger sister wiped her tears, her eyes red.
“Tell me what happened.”
My sister was panicked, so my older brother finally told the whole story. It turned out that the day after they were taken to the Ministry of Justice’s prison, Song Si Tian found a way to visit them.
Song Si Tian’s expression was off, and finally, she couldn’t help but reveal something.
After hearing about my family’s trouble, she immediately went to find Tang Wei, hoping he could help. Unexpectedly, she overheard a conversation between Tang Wei and a Tang clan subordinate. The conversation mentioned An Jin, who had escaped from the imperial prison.
It was like a thunderbolt. The Tang clan had long received a secret imperial decree to ambush and kill An Jin and the Su family at the Suo Long Slope outside Ye City, west of Yan Feng. An Jin was their primary target. According to what Song Si Tian overheard, An Jin and Su Xi had been killed by Tang Wei. Su Qian, Su Hui, and others had escaped during the conflict.
My heart had never beaten so intensely. Would he die? No. Impossible. He had promised to come back to me. We were still going to have two children…
“A Yao?” My elder brother raised his hand, waving worriedly in front of my eyes. “We only heard Song Si Tian say this; it may not be true. Don’t be anxious!”
Miao Yin gripped my hand. “A Yao, calm down. Only by staying calm can you see the truth. This matter is truly suspicious. What exactly went wrong? Why did His Majesty know their escape route? Why did he send the Tang Clan and the Crimson Guard to ambush them? Why must he ensure An Jin’s death?
The situation is not yet clear, so you must not lose your composure.” My younger sister kept nodding, no longer sobbing, and forced a smile. “That’s right, second sister. You know Sitian’s personality – she’s always dramatic. Maybe she just misheard?” I wanted to smile reassuringly at them, but my facial features had already stiffened, and I couldn’t even manage a fake smile. They didn’t know that I was unable to calm down precisely because I had seen the truth. All the clues in my mind were now clearly connected, forming a complete chain of cause and effect. The entire affair was simply a trap set by the Qi Emperor to lure the An family into a net. What pretend defection? What investigation into the Third Prince’s whereabouts?! The Qi Emperor was simply trying to lure An Jin out of Yan Feng by surprise, to eliminate him quickly. After removing An Jin, the next step would be to use the entire An family to threaten my mother-in-law into handing over the secret department. By now, my mother-in-law had surely been secretly imprisoned by the Qi Emperor, deprived of her freedom. On the surface, this was just an undercover mission for the secret department, and without orders from An Jin and my mother-in-law, no secret agent would act rashly, thus the Qi Emperor wouldn’t need to worry about being counterattacked by the secret department. Truly a meticulously crafted, world-class evil scheme.
