Ning Dao Covered with Snow

Chapter 379: Treat the other person in return
Yan Tingyu chuckled lightly: "It seems that you are more decisive and cut your losses when necessary, unlike me who always harbors illusions and ends up being driven into a desperate situation step by step."

Yan Ciwan looked up at her, but whether it was because of the distance or the dim light inside the tower, her expression was very blurry and impossible to see clearly.

Yan Ciwan hesitated for a moment, but in the end she couldn't help but ask the question that had been bothering her.

"What exactly is going on between you and the Crown Prince?"

"It's just what you see here. I married him in your place and became his crown princess. He trusted me completely and even fantasized about growing old with me. Isn't that ridiculous?"

Yan Tingyu laughed again as she spoke, but Yan Ciwan didn't laugh. She calmly asked, "Have you fallen for him?"

Hearing this, Yan Tingyu laughed even louder: "That's the funniest joke I've ever heard! From the very beginning, I approached him with ulterior motives. The gentleness and attentiveness I showed him were all a facade. If you hadn't suddenly appeared and disrupted my entire plan, I would have definitely been able to control him firmly and make him work for me! The Crown Prince is nothing more than a pawn to me. Tell me, would you really have feelings for a pawn in your hand?"

Yan Ciwan said, "Since you have no feelings for him, why did you ask me to pass on a message to him?"

Yan Tingyu's smile vanished, and she said coldly, "Because I find him annoying, and he can't save me anyway, so why bother adding to my troubles?!"

Since the conversation had already progressed this far, Yan Ciwan didn't want to waste the opportunity and decided to get to the bottom of things.

What do you intend to do with the Crown Prince?

Yan Tingyu seemed to have come to terms with things at this moment, making no attempt to hide anything. She frankly said, "The Emperor has always been suspicious of my father. He will kill him whenever he gets the chance. My father won't sit idly by and wait to die; it's only a matter of time before he raises an army to seize power. As my father's only daughter, of course I must share his burdens. I will try every means to sow discord between the Crown Prince and the Emperor, making them fight amongst themselves. When my father raises an army in the future, I will join forces with him from within and wipe them out! I want to prove to my father that what you can do, I can do too, and I can even do it better than you!"

As she finished speaking, she couldn't help but laugh self-deprecatingly.

She spent her whole life trying to get her father's attention, but all her efforts came to nothing. She felt like a complete joke.

Yan Ciwan was not Yan Tingyu, so she could not comment on Yan Tingyu's behavior. She could only say, "If you were given another chance, would you still marry the Crown Prince in my place?"

Yan Tingyu remained silent for a long time before finally giving her reply.

"will not."

"why?"

Yan Tingyu didn't answer directly. She continued up the wooden stairs until she reached the top floor. She stood by the railing, her hands resting on it, looking down before slowly speaking: "Before I left Xizhou, my mother gave me a letter and some local specialties. She said that when she was a dancer in the palace, she had a close friend. My mother lost both her parents at a young age and was left alone. When she first entered the palace and was unfamiliar with everything, that friend helped her a lot, and she cherished that friendship. Unfortunately, she married and moved to Xizhou, and will never be able to return to Chang'an. Therefore, she could only ask me to deliver that letter and the local specialties to that friend, and also to check on whether that friend is doing well."

Yan Ciwan and Xiao Wang listened quietly; in the empty tower, only Yan Tingyu's voice could be heard.

"My mother's friend was named Qinglan, also a dancer. After I arrived in Chang'an, I asked around and found out where she was. She had been released from the palace ten years ago and now works as a teacher in the dance academy, instructing young dancers. I sent her a letter and some local specialties, thinking that would be the end of it, but unexpectedly, Qinglan sent me a reply. Out of curiosity, I opened the letter. In it, Qinglan reminisced about the time she and my mother danced together. She was very concerned about my mother's current situation and wanted to know how she was doing and whether the King of Xizhou had discovered what happened that night."

Yan Ciwan keenly caught the key phrase and asked, "Which night?"

“I had the same question as you at the time. I suspected that my mother was hiding something from me, so I secretly left the Crown Prince’s residence and found Qinglan in private. I revealed my identity to her. When she learned that I was my best friend’s daughter, she was very enthusiastic towards me. She even asked me for my birth date and time in detail. When I told her, her expression became very interesting.”

When Yan Tingyu got to this point, she seemed to want to laugh, but she couldn't manage to. In the end, she almost burst into tears.

She said in a trembling voice, "You'll never guess what she told me afterward. She said that before she married Father, she was no longer a virgin. Before she met Father, she already had another man. Can you guess who that man was?"

Yan Ciwan said without changing her expression, "It is the current emperor."

Yan Tingyu was taken aback: "How did you know?"

"Guess."

"You guessed right. Qinglan said the Emperor really liked my mother. From the first moment he saw her, he often summoned her to dance and serve him. Qinglan originally thought my mother would soon be favored by the Emperor and rise to a high position. But she never expected that the Emperor would eventually issue an edict to bestow my mother upon the Prince of Xizhou as a concubine. That night, the Prince of Xizhou and his wife stayed in the palace. They drank a lot of wine, and the Emperor specially sent my mother to serve the Prince of Xizhou. When my mother arrived at the Prince of Xizhou's residence, she learned that the wine he drank had been drugged with aphrodisiacs. It's easy to guess that the Emperor must have had it added."

Yan Ciwan's understanding of the emperor was once again refreshed. This guy, who was the supreme ruler, could actually resort to such despicable means.

"When the King of Xizhou first saw my mother, he thought she was the Queen. He called her by her maiden name, and that's when my mother realized that she looked somewhat like the Queen."

As Yan Tingyu spoke, her eyes were filled with mockery.

"No wonder the Emperor treated my mother differently. It wasn't because he fell in love with her at first sight, but because he treated her as a substitute for Ning Qingyang. From beginning to end, he only loved Ning Qingyang. He couldn't bear the thought of the woman he loved marrying someone else, so he came up with this despicable method to deliberately annoy the Prince of Xizhou. You must know the Prince of Xizhou's temper very well. How could he swallow this insult? Not only did he not touch my mother, but he also knocked her unconscious and then, under the cover of darkness, secretly sent her to the Emperor's bed. He wanted to repay him in kind."

Yan Ciwan was stunned.

This behavior, though outrageous, is indeed something the King of Xizhou would do.