However, it inevitably caused suffering to her mother.
Madam Yu had kept vigil at her husband and eldest son’s sickbeds for several days and nights, growing so thin that her sash had loosened. Yet when she saw her daughter, she still managed to force a fragile smile, saying with a slight choke: “Sui Sui, don’t worry. Mother is here. Your father and brother will be fine.”
Yu Lingxi, seeing her mother’s swollen eyes from crying, felt the slight guilt in her heart begin to waver.
She opened her mouth, and for a moment, she wanted to reveal all the truth.
But she couldn’t.
Who would believe in supernatural matters? Speaking out would only add to the sorrow.
Moreover, the Emperor who could produce a son as ruthless as Ning Yin was certainly not incompetent. This plan could only succeed if she first deceived her family, allowing the Emperor to completely dispel his doubts.
“Mother, please go to your room and rest.”
Yu Lingxi stepped forward softly and embraced her mother’s thin shoulders. “I’ll take care of them here.”
Madam Yu just shook her head. “You’re frail. Don’t catch the illness. If you also… Mother truly wouldn’t know how to go on living!”
“That won’t happen, Mother! In at most four days, Father and Brother will wake up.”
Yu Lingxi, as if having matured overnight, firmly said: “As a daughter, I should fulfill my filial duty at Father’s bedside.”
Madam Yu couldn’t dissuade her and had to agree.
On the bed, the Yu family father and son lay side by side, eyes tightly closed, their breathing almost imperceptible—just like her own symptoms had been.
In the dim candlelight, Yu Lingxi walked over and carefully tucked in the blankets for her father and brother.
Then she sat on the edge of the bed, looking at her father’s faint breathing, gradually reddening her eyes.
“I’m sorry, Father. Your daughter deceives you only this once.”
She held her father’s rough hand and rubbed it against her cheek, saying softly, “In this life, your daughter will protect you all… definitely!”
Yu Lingxi fulfilled her promise.
After four days, the Yu family father and son indeed woke up one after another.
The father and son got out of bed refreshed, only to learn that during the days of their sudden “grave illness,” the Da Wei Dynasty’s army had already departed for the northern expedition, with a Cloud Banner General who didn’t get along well with the Yu family as the commander.
This angered General Yu so much that he lost his appetite. The next day, he took his son to the palace to see the Emperor and apologize.
“Young miss, the General and the Young General have safely returned to the mansion.”
The guard Qing Xiao stood dutifully at the door, reporting to Yu Lingxi: “The Emperor not only didn’t blame the General but praised ‘Heaven blesses Da Wei, no fine general is lost,’ and bestowed two precious horses from the Western Regions, politely sending them home.”
Yu Lingxi curved her lips: “I understand.”
The Emperor still needed the Yu family’s service; such a reaction was within expectations.
At the General’s mansion, a night banquet was held.
“This illness came too suspiciously. Father and I have always been robust, how could we both fall ill at such a critical moment?”
Yu Huanchen absentmindedly poked at the rice in his bowl, unable to comprehend.
Supporting his chin in thought for a moment, he frowned and said: “Could someone have poisoned us?”
“Cough!” Yu Lingxi, who was drinking soup, felt a surge of unease.
She composed herself, wiping the corner of her mouth, and attempted to steer the conversation toward the “traitor” from her previous life.
“Could it be that political enemies at court, jealous of Father’s prestige, conspired with outsiders?”
Although the enemy’s scheme had been thwarted for now, with her father and brother in the open and the enemy hiding in the shadows, she needed to remind them to be vigilant.
“That’s not impossible.”
Yu Huanchen’s mind worked quickly, and he nodded, “The Cloud Banner General Li’s family and Director Liu of the Ministry of War have been opposing Father openly and secretly. And we visited the Ministry of War the day we fell ill…”
Hearing this, Yu Lingxi felt a warmth rising amidst her guilt.
Her brother was so intelligent, yet he had never suspected that the “poison” in their bodies was administered by her.
No need for explanations or lies—these two men would believe in her until death.
Yu Lingxi’s eyes sparkled with light, feeling it was all worth it.
At the hour of Hai, the water clock dripped steadily.
Yu Lingxi had drunk a few cups of wine, her cheeks flushed red as she walked along the moonlit stone path back to her chamber, feeling a lightness she had never experienced before.
After the serving maids who assisted with washing and grooming withdrew, she put on a robe and sat up, wetting her brush with ink at her desk.
With the northern expedition crisis resolved, the next thing to be clarified was…
She lowered her eyes in concentration and wrote the characters for “cause of death” on the paper.
Dying so inexplicably in her previous life was truly unjust. Without discovering the hidden hand behind it, a sharp thorn would remain in her heart, making her restless.
She had thought that her death might have been Ning Yin’s doing, but she quickly dismissed this answer.
After two years of being together day and night, Ning Yin had a thousand ways to kill her—why make her vomit black blood on her deathbed?
That wasn’t his style.
Moreover, in her final moment before dying from vomiting blood, the shock in Ning Yin’s eyes didn’t seem feigned.