Favored concubine deposed empress? I'll seize your throne and marry you to a powerful minister.

Her mother passed away early, leaving behind her and her brother. Wei Beimu was stationed at the border year after year, but he never had the idea of ​​remarrying.

His family had urged him to remarry, but he only glared at the woman and said, "Don't say that again, or A-Miao will get angry."

Song Qingmiao is Wei Rong's mother, and it is said that she looks very much like her mother.

No wonder, when her father was in Beijing, he would often stare at her face in a daze.

"Mom, these are your favorite bamboo shoot dumplings. Dad said he has to bring them every time he comes to visit you."

Wei Rong served up the plate of vegetarian dumplings she had made herself.

The ancestral hall was filled with the smoke of incense, which made my eyes dry.

Wei Rong didn't want to cry, but she felt guilty.

When I first heard the news of my father's death, he was such a tall and strong man, but when I brought him back to Yunjing, all that was left was his head.

She dispatched her personal guards to search for the body for several months, but they were unable to recover it. The enemy state, Sumon, simply said that it was a spoil of war and that Sumon's rule was not to return bodies.

This is an indelible disgrace for both Dajing and the Wei family.

Therefore, Wei Xing was determined to stay in the southern border region and vowed not to return until the Soviet Union and Mongolia were defeated.

"Mother, I will definitely return Father to you," she said, raising her hand to stroke Song Qingmiao's memorial tablet. "I will."

After talking for a while, she left the ancestral hall, and Wei Jin came to greet her.

"Has there been any news about Father's situation?" Wei Rong couldn't muster any emotion and rubbed her temples.

Wei Jin noticed that the young woman before him looked much more tired than when they last met. He knew that Wei Rong was having a hard time: "Your Majesty, there's something strange."

"Our people have discovered that the general was ambushed and killed in the Yimeng Mountains. However, the reconnaissance guards reported that the terrain in the Yimeng Mountains is complex and not easy to ambush, but rather easy to maneuver around."

"That means that even if the general were ambushed there, with only two hundred soldiers at the time, he could have easily escaped unscathed."

Wei Rong's temple throbbed with pain: "You mean, Father wasn't powerless to fight back then?"

Wei Beimu was on an inspection tour of Guanyue City near Yimeng Mountain, leading two hundred soldiers.

Guanyue City is part of the territory of Dajing. Although the Yimeng Mountains are vast, a section of them is also within the territory of Dajing.

This is what Wei Rong finds most unsettling: her father did not die on the battlefield, but in an ambush during a patrol.

She already felt that things were shrouded in mystery. How could Su Meng's people know her father's location so accurately and strike so decisively?

According to Wei Jin, given the complex terrain and Wei Beimu's years of combat experience and vigilance, how could he have been beheaded in the Yimeng Mountains?

"Unfortunately, none of the two hundred generals who accompanied him survived—"

"That's right!" Wei Rong endured her headache, her mind suddenly clearing: "Not a single one survived. Su Meng didn't capture a single prisoner. Logically speaking, since the commander-in-chief is dead, there's no need to exterminate them all; capturing them alive is the way to go."

Wei Jin looked at her cautiously: "Your Majesty means...?"

"Doesn't it look like a cover-up?" Wei Rong's eyes slowly reddened: "The whole thing looks more like a conspiracy, a massacre conspiracy."

The accident happened where it shouldn't have happened, and in places where the entire population shouldn't have been wiped out, not a single survivor remained.

Are they afraid of being found out, so they simply shut everything up?

Wei Jin's expression grew increasingly grave: "The massacre—who could it be?"

Su Meng fought against Da Jing for decades, but never gained any advantage over Wei Beimu.

An ambush led to Wei Beimu's death. Wei Rong could only think that it was one of her own people who wanted to kill Wei Beimu; she couldn't come up with any other idea.

She thought for a moment and went to the study: "Wei Jin, I will write a letter in my own hand. You must deliver it to Su Meng and hand it to their king in person."

Over the past six months, Xiao Heng's actions have all been magnified.

She forgot to think about why Xiao Heng's attitude had changed so drastically, suddenly treating her like an enemy.

Taking away her power, distrusting her, suppressing her—all of this was not just because of Wei Beimu's death.

Another possibility is that he felt guilty.

Before things became clearer, Wei Rong didn't want to think about it any further.

She stamped her personal seal on the letter and had Wei Jin deliver it.

The other party is an enemy, and one day she will send those who killed her father to hell one by one.

Before that, she had things to figure out.

"Your Highness," Qiaoyu knocked on the door from outside, "Second Uncle invites you to dine in the main hall."

Her uncles and aunts simply wanted her to make plans for the family, to give birth to an imperial heir as soon as possible, or to recommend suitable marriage partners for her younger siblings in the clan.

I had already heard all of these things when I came back and entered the door.

Wei Rong sent Qiaoyu to report that she was tired and had already rested.

Then she returned to her boudoir, found a set of moon-white everyday clothes she had worn before her marriage, removed her empress attire, and left with Qiaoyu under Wei Jin's cover.

She didn't have any particular purpose; she just didn't want to be confined to the yard.

After wandering around the streets for a while, I remembered the teahouse Wei Jin mentioned, so I went into Hongxiuzhao, the largest teahouse in Yunjing City.

The waiter politely led her to a seat, saying sweetly, "Whose lady is this? I've never seen her before. I've met many people in Yunjing City, but I've never seen anyone as beautiful as you. You're absolutely stunning."

"Just a pot of Biluochun tea and a few plates of pastries will do." Qiaoyu handed over the silver. "The rest is your tip."

Receiving the tip, the waiter beamed with delight: "I'll serve you this year's new tea, madam. I guarantee you'll come back for more!"

The teahouse was packed with people, and a storyteller was reciting a scene from The Romance of the Western Chamber. His voice was so vivid and engaging that everyone listened with rapt attention.

Qiaoyu glanced at Wei Rong's expression and asked, "Besides 'The Story of the Western Wing,' what else is there today?"

The waiter deftly brewed the tea, covered the bowl, and smiled ingratiatingly: "You two are here to hear the new play, right? The 'Tales of the Two Concubines' is all the rage these days."

At this point, Xiao Er's gaze suddenly fell on the wound on Wei Rong's lip. He choked for a moment, thinking to himself, "What a coincidence. In 'The Legend of the Twin Concubines,' there are always big mouths saying that the emperor favors his concubine over his wife, protects the murderer, and beats his legal wife."

Of course, court anecdotes cannot name names, so it is unknown which country or dynasty this story of two concubines is about; it is only said to be a true secret history of the court.

I don't know how this story suddenly started spreading in Yunjing.

But the waiter, having observed their expressions for a while, didn't pry further, and simply said, "The Tale of the Two Concubines is in the next episode, so please drink and enjoy."

After serving the tea, he quickly moved on to another table.

They came back a short while later, this time with two people behind them.

Wei Rong had no interest in The Romance of the Western Chamber, and turned her head to look at a group of mandarin ducks playing in the stream outside the window.

"Um, Madam," the waiter said hesitantly, "we shouldn't be bothering you, but we're fully booked today. This gentleman has also informed the two concubines that he's interested and wouldn't mind sharing a seat. You—"

"My wife doesn't—" Qiaoyu only got halfway through her sentence before she saw the person who had come and fell silent.