Coming Kingly Son-in-Law: Don't Provoke the First Daughter

Splash!

Upon entering the water, Gu Qiang flailed desperately, struggling to survive. Soon, darkness overtook her, and the surrounding noises gradually faded into silence as she fell unconscious.

In the 7th year of Jianyuan, within the imperial capital built with red walls and glazed tiles, Gu Qiang was awakened by a shrill scream. She opened her eyes in bewilderment and observed the surroundings.

Didn't she fall into the water?

Why was she here?

"No! Don't!"

Gu Qiang looked in the direction of the voice and saw two sturdy maids brutally hauling a woman who was wearing a palace costume. The maids were clutching the woman's arms, prying open her mouth and forcing medicine into it.

"Empress, Your Majesty! I beg you, please don't hurt my child!"

"Beg me?"

The chaos in the palace was starkly juxtaposed with the sight of a woman sitting elegantly in the main palace. She was wearing a phoenix coronet and a phoenix gown, draping luxuriously on the floor. Shrouded in shadows, she shrieked, "Shen Qiangwei! When my son was suffering from high fever for three continuous days before dying of poison, I begged you the same way you did. I begged you to spare my son's life!"

She spoke despairingly between clenched teeth, as if she was dying to skin Shen Qiangwei's alive and crush her bones for her son.

After hearing this,Gu Qiang felt a sudden pain in her chest. It was a piercing pain, as if her heart was sliced into pieces by a network of fine silver wires.

In that moment, she felt instinctively that the pain she was experiencing right now, was the heartache of the Empress.

"Shove it down! Don't stop!"

Following the Empress's instructions, bowls of Safflower Soup were continuously shoved down Shen Qiangwei's throat. Within seconds, the rusty odour of blood began to suffuse throughout the main palace. The palace dress beneath Consort Shen was dyed blood-red. She tried to touch it frantically, but to her despair, warm blood kept gushing out from the bottom of her body.

"My baby...My baby..."

Tears streamed down from her face continuously. She mustered all her strength and screamed, "It's not me! I didn't put poison in the pastry!"

"Not you?"

Step by step, the Empress approached her commandingly.

As the Empress came into her sight, Gu Qiang froze. She was completely dumbfounded by this scene.

This woman looked exactly like her!

No!

She could recognize the face and the familiar eyes. Apart from that viciousness and despair, it was irrefutably her!

How could this be possible?

While Gu Qiang was still dumbfounded, the Empress walked slowly toward her. At one point, half of the Empress's body overlapped with half of Gu Qiang's body before she continued forward.

In stupefaction, Gu Qiang tried to shove the Empress back, but her hands went through the Empress's body.

The Empress stopped in front of Shen Qiangwei and looked at her coldly. "You have been shamelessly seducing the Emperor from the day you enter the palace. I've been putting up with you, but you took my patience for granted!"

The odour of blood was getting stronger in the palace. Shen Qiangwei placed her hand firmly on her stomach and finally blasted out wrathfully, "Seduce? Is that what Shen Zhongbai told you?"

"How dare you!"

The Empress frowned and reproved sternly, "How dare you say the name of the Emperor casually!"

"The Emperor?"

The beautiful woman on the floor burst into a desolate, resentful laugh, as if it was a joke. "What kind of b*stard Emperor is he? Do you think that he loves me sincerely? Do you think that I really want to oppose you? It's all because of him. He is taking precautions against you, by using me as a pawn to control your family-the Gu Family!"

A pawn?

What did she mean by... a pawn to control her?

An ominous premonition crept into the Empress's heart, but she defended loudly, "Shut up! You are a crap full of nonsense!"

"You have guessed it, haven't you?"

Shen Qiangwei's lips curved into a creepy smile. Since everything had come to this point, it seemed like she was venting all her grievance and hatred that she bottled up over the years. "Using a pregnant Consort to exchange for an Empress with a son, who do you think is the mastermind of this deal?"

The door of Weiyang Palace suddenly opened with a loud bang. Through the door, a black-feathered arrow shot straight into the throat of Shen Qiangwei at a lightning speed.

The shrill voice stopped abruptly and in the next second, the breathtakingly beautiful woman died on the spot. Her alluring eyes remained widely open even after her death.

"Such a pity."

The sunlight was shining brightly outside the door. From two rows of Imperial Guards, Shen Zhongbai walked out slowly and lowered his bow. He glanced at the body of Shen Qiangwei on the floor and sighed in sorrow, while taking out a new black-feathered arrow from his back and fixing it on the full-stretched bow. "I've never liked people who talk much, haven't I, my dear Empress?"

His voice was soft and gentle, like a loving husband who cared for his wife. However, after witnessing everything, the Empress felt a shiver run down her spine. Instinctively, she took a step back.

Once again, Gu Qiang went through the Empress before they parted, as if she was a spirit. Her mind was completely blank, and she was shivering in fright. She was not in any better condition than the Empress.

Incomprehensible, the Empress asked with a trembling voice, "Why?"

"Why are you asking me such a foolish question, my Empress?" Shen Zhongbai looked at her in surprise. "With your wisdom, don't you understand why my Crown Prince can't be from the Gu Family?"

Gu family.

Both the Empress and Gu Qiang realized the reasoning behind this at the same time.

The Gu Family had the power of a prime minister which was sufficient to oppose the imperial palace. On top of that, she was a member from the Gu Family who became the Empress!

"That is your child!" After coming back to her senses, Gu Qiang shrieked in fury. Out of anger, she grabbed a book from the table and was about to throw it. She stopped upon hearing the Empress's heart-wrenching cries.

"But he is your child... Your own child! Shen Zhongbai!"

"I know."

Shen Zhongbai slightly nodded while drawing the arrow slowly. This time, the full-drawn arrow was aiming at the Empress. "I, too, am very sorry for Lan. That's why today, you have to go too. You and your son can be each other's company in the netherworld."

While he was speaking, a thought crossed his mind. He smiled faintly and added, "Oh, and you don't have to worry about Gu Family. Gu Family exchanged your life for the entire Gu Family's safety. Even your brother who died early is specially permitted to be buried in the ancestral tomb. On top of that, another biological daughter of the Gu Family will be sent into the palace very soon. But rest assured, I won't let her have your position as the Empress."

"One Empress from the Gu Family is enough."

Another biological daughter?

There is no other biological daughter in the Gu Family!

Gu Qiang furrowed her eyebrows in puzzlement.

Oh right, Gu Zhihua!

In a split second, Gu Qiang figured everything out.

The only possibility for this to happen was that the Empress might be a pawn of the Gu Family. If the Third Prince failed, she would be sacrificed along with him; if he succeeded, she would serve as the fodder for the Gu Family as well!

She was the only one who thought it was a happy marriage. It was pitiful.

"The Empress?"

The Empress repeated these two words mockingly. Her lips curled as she looked at the sky and laughed insanely. "Shen Zhongbai! What did I do wrong? And how is Gu Zhihua qualified to atone my sins?"

A tear trickled from the corner of her eye and vanished in a second. It then turned into intense hatred. "I have been your wife for ten years. I assisted you in ascending the throne with painstaking effort. Is this how you repay me and your own son? Aren't you afraid of karma?!"

In contrast to the Empress's hysterical shrieks, Shen Zhongbai smiled gently, as if it was during their grand marriage ten years ago. Confident yet indifferently, he delivered the final blow.

"A pawn needs no mercy."

He let go of the bowstring in the next second.

Following Shen Zhongbai's lead, all the Imperial Guards behind him released their arrows in the same direction.

Thousands of arrows were shot at the same time, aiming for the heart.

The Empress's figure stopped abruptly, and then slowly collapsed to the floor.

She had been extraordinary for all these years, and now she would finally wither into fine dust.

After a long moment, Shen Zhongbai put down the bow in his hands. He then took a last glance at the dead woman on the floor whose face was now beyond identification, and announced indifferently, "The Empress, Gu Qiang, who conspired to murder the Prince and poisoned the Consort, is sentenced to death."

"No, don't!"

Gu Qiang screamed and opened her eyes immediately. The next second, she heard a young woman exclaim in exhilaration, "You're awake! You have been unconscious for three days, Young Lady. You're finally awake!"

This voice was rather familiar. It was the maid who took care of her since she was young-Ting Feng.

But... wasn't she in Weiyang Palace?

Everything that she saw just now, was it just a dream?

That woman who died unwillingly in thousands of arrows looked exactly like her, and this woman-whose name was Gu Qiang-was from the Gu family too. Was it her?

Was it her future self?

Or was it, a hint from heaven?

An intense shiver travelled down Gu Qiang's spine. Suddenly, she felt something in her hand. To her disbelief, it was the book in her dream which she picked up in Weiyang Palace but failed to throw it out.

It was not a dream!

It was actually not a dream!

If that was the case, would her future be that miserable?

What did she do wrong?

Looking at Gu Qiang's face, Ting Feng and Chui Xue almost burst into tears. "Young Lady, w-what happened?"

"I'm fine," Gu Qiang replied slowly, but her chilly eyes were directed toward the door.

The one who was standing by the door was none other than the so-called new Empress from Gu Family in her dream, her sister-Gu Zhihua.

"Sister!" she exclaimed excitedly after seeing Gu Qiang regain her consciousness.

After a moment of silence, Gu Zhihua's smile faded as there was no reply from Gu Qiang.

She even felt an indescribable fear when she looked at Gu Qiang.

"S-Sister, what's the matter?"

"I'm fine."

Gu Qiang replied coolly after a moment's pause. Her lips curved tauntingly. "I'm just curious-what do you need, Zhihua?"

Gu Zhihua pondered for a moment and concluded that Gu Qiang might have something else on her mind. She then looked sorrowful immediately. She sobbed, "Are you mad at me, sister? I'm sorry, it's all my fault. I shouldn't have left your side, causing you to be alone and... and fell from the bridge. It's all my fault! You can hit me or scold me, if that makes you happier!"

What a spectacular performance, Chui Xue could not help but pursed her lips in disdain, while Gu Qiang sneered and responded satirically, "Did you think that I have amnesia?"

"W-What amnesia?"

Gu Zhihua was stunned. She was taken aback by Gu Qiang's reaction that she had forgotten to continue her sobs.

Looking at Gu Zhihua's response, Gu Qiang snickered again in her mind. How did she fall for such a lousy performance in the past? It seemed that she was indeed foolish back then.

If it wasn't for that strange dream, would she believe her lies just as before?

Gu Qiang scanned her sister from head to toe and retaliated ruthlessly, "You were the one who wanted to go to the festive lantern show and insisted on going together with me; you were the one who ran around rashly, so I had to look for you on the bridge! You didn't even bother visiting me when I was in a coma for three days, but when I woke up, you came rushing in with crocodile tears and pretended that you care for me. Did you honestly think that I don't remember any of that?"

Ting Feng gasped. She was stunned by Gu Qiang's words. For some reasons, she felt that her Young Lady had completely changed into a new person since she woke up.

Obviously, Ting Feng was not alone. Gu Zhihua was also shocked by Gu Qiang's attitude and felt humiliated by her words. In overwhelming disbelief, she stuttered, "H-How could you say that to me?"

"Ting Feng!" Gu Qiang felt annoyed and shouted, "Find the nanny who brought up Gu Zhihua!"

"Nanny?"

In the moment of desperation, Gu Zhihua completely forgot to pretend as a loving sister and shrieked, "Gu Qiang, what are you trying to do?!"

Smack!

To everyone's astonishment, Gu Qiang suddenly reached out her hand and slapped Gu Zhihua without any mercy.

This slap was rather forceful, causing Gu Zhihua to be completely befuddled by the blow. After a deadly silence, Gu Qiang voiced coldly, "As the second daughter, you are extremely disrespectful to shout at your elder sister. You have been misbehaving!"

"How dare you hit me!"

After coming back to her senses, Gu Zhihua screamed. Her beautiful facial features were twisted into an ugly grimace. She glared loathingly at Gu Qiang and spoke between clenched teeth, "Gu Qiang, you b*tch! How dare you hit me! I want you to kneel and apologize immediately!"

Kneel and apologize?

Despite Gu Qiang's abhorrence towards Gu Zhihua, she was amused by her actions. Gu Zhihua might be made of pure foolishness to shout such words at her elder sister.

Only her former self who longed for family affections would be deceived by this pair of mother and daughter.

"My Lady, I'm afraid Lady Zhihua is going to tell on you."

Ting Feng was concerned about Gu Qiang, but she was not bothered at all. She even smiled indifferently. "I'm just teaching my sister on behalf of Madam. An elder sister must take up the responsibility of a mother, Madam will understand that."

Although the current Young Lady was somehow strange, the two maids looked at each other and saw relief in each other's eyes.

Gu Qiang clearly knew what the two maids were thinking. In the past, they had repeatedly hinted and reminded her. Unfortunately, she was naive and regarded Gu Zhihua and her mother as her beloved family, so she could not stand anyone badmouthing them.

She grasped the book in her hand and dismissed the two maids. She then closed the door and windows before opening the book.

For unknown reasons, she had an uncanny feeling that the universe might be sending some signals by allowing her to bring the book back from her dream.

Gu Qiang flipped to a random page and read. In the April of the 47th year of Chongwenwu, my elder brother traveled far away for some errands. It was heartbreaking to receive the news of his death. That afternoon, I received his letter, saying that he gave me all his assets. I recalled my cold attitude toward him in the past and was drowned in regret and sorrow. But it was too late for that.

Gu Qiang furrowed her eyebrows and flipped to another page. Written on it was, In the first month of the 50th lunar year of Chongwenwu, it was snowing heavily. The Ninth Prince was offered a poisonous wine by the Emperor and died after that. Following that, the entire family of the Ninth Prince was murdered. Everyone in the capital city was anxious, and I, too, must be cautious.

Just when she was about to flip to the next page, she realized the writings on the first page were fading at an observable speed, and finally vanished completely.