Sun Baozhen and Prince Ning had been married for a month, but they didn’t sleep together once. Even Old Madam knew this. One day, Qin Yunuan was rubbing lower legs of Old Madam whose health condition was worsening. Although she still looked spirited in front of people, those who stayed close to her, such as Qin Yunuan and Yuanyang, knew she was very weak now. Old Madam couldn’t take supplements anymore and just had some very simple diets every day.
But she was optimistic, so she lived with an open heart. She didn’t even get upset on hearing the news about Imperial Concubine Yun and the Grand Prince. However, there was one thing that worried her.
“Mother.” Coming back from the levee, Prince Ning was told by the doorman that Old Madam wanted to meet him immediately. Still togated, Prince Ning walked to the Lotus Fragrance Courtyard hastily.
“Humph.” Old Madam seemed annoyed and said angrily, “How can you call me mother?”
Prince Ning was in a trance and then took a look at Qin Yunuan who gave him a hint by shaking her head in silence. Then the former knelt down to ask for punishment at once and said, “Mother, do I make any mistake? If so, please punish me.”
Old Madam sighed and said, “We’re an influential family but not a big one. When Suxin left, I feel lonelier. I don’t expect whether Ruyi will have a baby. She’s not a good woman. Even if she has a baby, I won’t like him or her. Now that you have a new concubine, why not cherish this chance to bring a baby to this world? I still expect our family to grow big.”
Speaking of this, Old Madam gradually lowered her voice. Qin Yunuan knew Old Madam couldn’t live to see a newborn baby given her current health condition.
“I know.” Prince Ning lowered his head as if he took an order.
After Prince Ning left, Old Madam was tired and closed her eyes. Servant girls around were sensible, and all left. Then Old Madam said to Qin Yunuan who was still rubbing her legs leisurely, “I really pamper you. I should take your advice and send my son to a wolf den.”
“Put up with it now, and you’ll be carefree forever.” Qin Yunuan replied confidently, “You taught me this. At night, the Sun Family will lose its biggest pride, and all threats facing our family will disappear.”
That night, Prince Ning read in his study until very late, and the nanny aside couldn’t help reminding him at the risk of offending him.
“Your Highness, you promise Old Madam that…”
Prince Ning put the book down sulkily and said, “I know.”
In the Dongchun Courtyard, the nanny who kept the door ran in excitedly and reported to Sun Baozhen who was ready to go to bed.
“Your Grace, dress yourself up. Prince Ning is coming.”
Sun Baozhen frowned and didn’t sound happy. “Doesn’t he say he’s busy with work this month, and he won’t come here?”
“Who knows?” The nanny was so happy that she kept rubbing her hands. “Maybe he realizes that he should care more about you. Your Grace, I’ve prepared bath water for you.”
“Don’t bother.” Sun Baozhen waved her hand and refused. When she was back to her room, she ordered Xiuying immediately, “Things have changed. Take Caidie here quickly.”
Behind the silk bed curtain with mandarin duck buckles on, Prince Ning saw a vague figure against the candlelight when he walked in. He felt that the red curtain added some dim beauty. That vague figure looked soft and charming. The smell of aphrodisiac spices permeated the air, attracting people to get indulged. He could hear some tweedle afar sometimes. Every sound enchanted people.
The woman sitting on the bed didn’t say anything, but her good figure expressed more than a thousand beckoning sentences.
For the first time, Prince Ning thought Sun Baozhen was good, at least as a sexual partner. While thinking of this, Prince Ning was a bit shocked, but he couldn’t help pulling up the curtain to hold the smooth and soft wrist of the woman there.
When he was ready to take off his clothes, he heard the sound of fights from outside. The rustling sound made by people stamping on the roof was a bit loud, and it was followed by a plump sound. Qin Yunuan’s plain but astonishing words came to Prince Ning. “Your Grace, why aren’t you staying in your room to serve father but hiding on the roof?”
Prince Ning was in a trance, and he suddenly realized that the spices used in this room might be not only for the aphrodisiac use. Then the tweedle stopped, and Prince Ning sobered up. He still held a fair and soft hand, which sent a chill to him at once. He jumped out of the bed and held a candle to drag down the woman on the bed.
“Who are you?” Prince Ning held the candle so close to that woman that the wax was nearly falling on her face.
At that moment he saw that woman, Prince Ning just couldn’t believe what he saw. That woman looked the same as Sun Baozhen from the forehead, chin even to a small scar near her sideburn.
Take the fake for the real. For the first time, Prince Ning got so angry. He was cheated and tricked by a woman from the Sun Family.
Leng Changxi said outside, “Father, are you alright?”
Prince Ning angrily dragged that sham Sun Baozhen to the door. Leng Changxi didn’t get any reply and hesitated whether to break in but stopped by Qin Yunuan.
She looked back at Sun Baozhen who was tied up and put on a complacent smile, “Destroy the leader and the gang will collapse. Now that her master is here, how dare she rebel?”
Sun Baozhen squinted at Qin Yunuan and smiled in disdain. “The Sun Family, my backer, is wealthy, and I am the concubine here. Qin Yunuan, you tie me up out of no reason. Believe it or not, I can let you die in the wildness and end up in a pile of ashes.”
Qin Yunuan sneered. “For no reason? Sun Baochen, do you know yourself is a piece of very powerful evidence.”
Hearing the name of “Sun Baochen”, Sun Baozhen suddenly became wide-eyed and stared at Qin Yunuan as if what the latter said was incredible. Right at this time, Prince Ning dragged that sham to walk out. He fiercely threw that woman to the ground, and he was so strong that the woman’s pretty face was scratched when she fell down. A long cut was left on her face. But if people took a closer look at her skin, they would find that her skin was different from that of average people. It was thinner, as thin as the wing of cicadas, and as fragile as paper.
“Give me an explanation.” Prince Ning looked at Sun Baozhen who was near the stairs. His eyes were full of redness and anger.
Sun Baozhen wore a weird smile and looked at Qin Yunuan. “She knows everything. Why not ask her?”
Qin Yunuan squinted at Sun Baozhen and ordered Leng Shuang who seized Sun Baozhen, “Take off her clothes.”
“Third Young Madam, please don’t.” Xiuying kowtowed to Qin Yunuan immediately. “Although Concubine Sun has married, there is nothing between Prince Ning and her. So if she is stripped off and other people see this and talk about this, she will be so humiliated.”
“It is she that asks me to present my evidence, and I have said her body is the most convincing evidence. She knows clearly who she is, Sun Baozhen or Sun Baochen. I can stop people from stripping off her clothes now as long as she gives me the map of the Ge Family. Return it to its owner. I just want this. I think she can satisfy my requirement.” Sun Baozhen glared at Qin Yunuan and was full of anger, but the latter directly looked back at her.
The Sun Family had found three maps. The reason why Qin Yunuan proposed this request was to reassure Old Madam and let her die in peace.
Sun Baozhen wore a bitter smile and spat at Qin Yunuan fiercely. “You wish.” Then she took advantage of her anger to break free in a backhand way. Unexpectedly, such a weak woman should be so strong.
“Leng Shuang, grab her and strip her off.”
Qin Yunuan had already fed Sun Baozhen with the bone meltdown powder that Sun Miaoyang made, just in case. Anyone who took that would become feeble and lose their inner Qi temporarily. So Sun Baozhen couldn’t defeat Leng Shuang at all now. Leng Shuang easily grabbed Sun Baozhen and used the tiny knife she hid in her nail to cut Sun Baozhen’s clothes. Then she put forth her strength to strip off Sun Baozhen’s top all together.
Prince Ning tended to look away, but Leng Changxi and Qin Yunuan looked carefully at Sun Baozhen’s flat chest, just as flat as that of a man.
“Set me free.” Sun Baozhen sounded like a charming girl. But the shadow guard to examine her seemed relentless and directly put his hand on her crotch. Then he cupped his hands and reported to Leng Changxi, “General, this person is a man.”
Prince Ning’s concubine, also the Grand Miss of the Sun Family, was a man?
Qin Yunuan kept her chin up slightly and said, “I’ve been suspicious of you since I heard that no one saw your body before. So when I knew Madam Sun gave birth to a twin, a girl and a boy, I began to assume that you were a man. You used the pigeon blood to pretend you had a period. Seeing the fluorescent brocade that every woman loves, you should be so calm. Also, you were not anxious but felt happy that father didn’t sleep with you. Later when I saw that woman who looked almost the same as you, I finally figured it out. Miss Sun, or Mr. Sun, you are a man. You really got something to keep this secret, and people all don’t know this. But you’ve taken advantage of this to frame me and hurt people in this mansion, so I can’t spare you.”
Now, Sun Baozhen was like a drowned dog, but shadow guards who grabbed his arms and feet didn’t dare to relax their vigilance.
Qin Yunuan walked downstairs and said, “All male descendants of the Sun Family died before 18. After Madam Sun gave birth to you and your sister, to sustain your family, she poisoned the girl and raised you as a girl. She dressed you up like a girl and taught you to speak in a female voice. And over time, you became confused about whether you were a man or woman. But you knew clearly that if you got married, your secret would be exposed. Therefore, the Sun Family asked Caidie to serve you. She can replace you to have sex with your husband if you have to, and meanwhile, she’s your sexual partner. She will give birth to babies, including boys, so as to break the curse that the male descendants of the Sun Family are doomed to die before 18. But it is a pity that you have pretended to be a girl for a long time, and you have no sexual desire for Caidie. Mr. Sun, you think you’re something, but actually, you’re nothing but a monster.”
