Not Your Typical Villianess

Some hours before the ambush, the Crown Prince's room at the Southern seaport watchtower.

A sudden knock on the door drew Zhongshan Ling's attention from the cargo record he silently read through. Whoever was at the door knocked twice and paused for some seconds, His eyes narrowed on the door as the knocking resumed. He was not expecting any visitors, he looked to his servant, Xie Fang standing beside his seat and nodded to the door. 

Xie Fang nodded silently and without making any sound walked to the door, pulled his head out of its sheath and held it by his side. He kept it at the most easily accessible angle as he opened the door. His grip on the sword loosened as he came face to face with one of the Crown Prince's most trusted servants and the leader of their spy network Hanriu.

Hanriu noticed his sneaky actions as he pushed the sword back into the sheath but pretended otherwise. His lips curved up as he walked onto the room, Xie Fang didn't block him anymore, he stepped aside to let Hanriu in. The two men nodded briefly until he came face to face with the Crown Prince. 

Hanriu performed the standard salute and held up a folded letter to the Crown Prince, "Your highness, I have discovered the current location of the Noble consort's nanny".

The Crown Prince's eyes immediately fell on the letter, Xie Feng rushed forward and took the letter from Hanriu's hands. He passed the letter to the Crown Prince and stepped back to stand at the Crown Prince's right. 

Zhongshan Ling unfolded the paper and read through the content, which contained only an address and directions to get there from the watchtower. "She is living at the village close by, how amusing. Here I was sending people as far as her hometown on the north when she was this close. It is only three and half hours away if we leave now we can get there by daybreak. I just need to ask her a few questions so we won't stay long"

"I will go inform your guard_"

"No need for that, I don't want to alert anyone. we will be gone only for a few hours tops, going with my four private guards will be okay"

"But it isn't to save, I think going with a complete team would be more preferable" Xie Feng argued but Zhongshan Ling dismissed his concern. Even when Hanriu supported Xie Feng, his opinion was also dismissed.

In the end, Zhongshan Ling left with a team of six alone. Before leaving an eagle was sent out to the tiger cub camp, the distance between the military camp and the village was short so Prince Du waited in the woods for Zhongshan Ling.

Meanwhile, at Zhongshan Ling's end, the Sun was high in the sky when he arrived at Nanny Chu's cottage. They were greeted at the door by Nanny Chu's son, after introducing themselves. They were led inside to meet Nanny Chu, the cottage was well furnished. The financials of the Chu family looked to be very good, which could mean one of two things. 

Either Nanny Chu was given a hefty retirement fund or she was paid off by someone. Zhongshan Ling was leaning more to the later because of how quickly Nanny Chu Left the palace. Most times when an imperial concubine with a child dies, by right the children usually inherits a few of their mothers' servant but that wasn't the case with him.

Nanny Chu left as soon as his mother was buried, he didn't read more meaning into it until now. Back then he was satisfied with the excuse that she left because she was besieged by grief. Nanny Chu looked nothing like he remembered, which had nothing to do with just ageing. 

Zhongshan Ling was led into a warm well lit room, Nanny Chu was seated next to the window. She stood as he walked in and attempted to give him a salute but he stopped her before she could.

Nanny Chu didn't sear until he was seated, she asked about his health. Completely avoiding any of his questions concerning his mother, Zhongshan Ling finally couldn't take it again and asked a more direct question.

"Aunt Chu, how did my mother die?"

The smile on her face fell, "your_ Highness... You know how she died. Your mother was born prematurely_ she easily got sick. Sadly that last time.... She never recovered".

Zhongshan Ling glanced at her shaky eyes, full of fear. It was all he needed to understand what happened but before jumping to conclusions. He needed to be sure, he looked her straight in the eyes and asked

"Was my mother poisoned?"

Nanny Chu couldn't withstand the heat of his gaze, maybe it was because of the guilt that had silently eaten deep into her soul all these years. Her mistress had suffered all those years in the palace and although the Empress didn't pull the trigger. To her, Empress Lu was as responsible as the other concubines. Why did the Empress turn blind eyes to her mistress suffering, if the Empress's had stepped in maybe her mistress won't have died. 

She looked away from the Crown Prince and bit her lips, she was tired of keeping quiet on the events of that year. It has been over two decades, the Crown Prince deserved to know the true conditions of his mother's death. Nanny Chu also felt like this would give her much needed closure.

It was not like she would be lying, things had gone down this exact way. She looked at him and once again the face of her poor young mistress flashed. He looked a lot like his mother, which made this more painful for her. 'Please forgive me for not keeping my promise mistress' she thought looking up silently. 

"Your highness is right, the young mistress was indeed poisoned before she died but you must remember that this is normal in the Imperial haram. No one can escape that".

His heartbeat stilled for a second as he heard that, he had unknowingly hoped that it would not turn out to be true but in the end it did. At least this proved that one out of the two accusations made in the anonymous letters is true now to find out if the second point made is true. 

"Who poisoned her?"

Nanny Chu looked up eye wide as her heartbeat quickened, the scene she had experienced the night her mistress died immediately popped up in her head. She suddenly wished that she had kept her mouth shut about the poisoning. Maybe she wouldn't be forced to put the Crown Prince in a bind like this.

The Empress wasn't someone that he could easily cross, the Empress's grudge with her young miss was already very big. This crown Prince position was a position he got thanks to her mistress's sacrifice if the Crown Prince crosses the Empress. It could be disastrous and it would end with him losing both his title and the protection the Empress offered him.

Her silence made Zhongshan Ling more convinced that his earlier suspicion was right. He pressed her further by saying, "please tell me what happened to my mother. I have been seeing her in my dreams recently. Which made me feel very uneasy, don't I deserve to know this much?"

Nanny chu bit her lips gently, she couldn't help but remember the promise she made her young mistress. She intended to carry this secret to her grave but present circumstances made that impossible for her. With her grandchild's life in the line, there is no way she could keep her promise. The cost of doing that was too high for her to pay.

"Young Mistress was poisoned by the Empress, she had been poisoned for years."

"If the Empress poisoned my mother how come she still took me in?"

"Because your mother begged her to during the last few days of her life. The Noble consort knew that she won't survive the illness, the imperial physicians had told her several times. The Empress just lost her child and was grieving, our young miss knew that the Empress was kind and would never hold anything against a child. So she begged her to adopt you, your mother was willing to relinquish her rights over you just to keep you safe.

"She knew that the empress had complications after giving birth and couldn't survive another pregnancy. Out of the other Imperial concubines, she was the best option because she needed a son and unlike the rest, she had a strong family and could offer you protection the Tong family can't.

"Young Mistress also thought that since the Empress had no son, you could be made the Crown Prince. According to the traditions of northern Wei, only the son of an Empress or an imperial Noble consort can be made the Crown Prince. It was beneficial to everyone dividing the Lu family, a few days after Empress Lu accepted to adopt you. She sent over a bottle of fast-acting poison and instructed your mother to take it."

Zhongshan Ling remained silent for some seconds as he tried to process all that he had heard. He came here convinced that he could accept whatever he discovered but now that he heard it all he still couldn't bring himself to believe.