The Witch in the Woods: The Transmigration of Hazel-Anne Davis
Chapter 97: A Crown Built on Sand

Chapter 97: A Crown Built on Sand

The official study was quieter than usual.

Zhu Mingyu sat at the long carved table, the scrolls before him untouched. The scent of wax and dried ink filled the space, but neither brought him comfort. The red lacquer seal of the physician’s report remained broken on the table. The characters within were sharp, definitive, and damning.

He didn’t need to read it again. The conclusion had already carved itself into his mind like a knife: the child was gone.

Shi Yaozu stood by the far wall, arms loosely folded, his dark eyes focused and unreadable. The flicker of torchlight painted uneven shadows across his features, but the man did not move.

Zhu Mingyu’s voice, when it came, was low. "Did she do it?"

There was a beat of silence where Yaozu didn’t bother to reply.

"Could she have?" demanded Zhu Mingyu, slapping the table in his anger. The moment he exploded, he regretted it. Taking in a deep breath, he forced himself to calm down. "I need to know the truth."

Yaozu, on the other hand, didn’t even shift his weight at the display of anger. "You should already know the answer to that question."

Mingyu’s jaw clenched. "I didn’t think she could. But Lady Yuan... she wouldn’t hurt her own child. She wouldn’t risk everything that she had been working so hard for."

"You’re wrong." Yaozu’s voice was calm, steady as a blade, but there was a flash of emotion in his eyes that had never appeared before. "She didn’t risk everything. She thought she could gain everything with an easy sacrifice."

Mingyu finally looked up. His eyes narrowed on his Shadow Guard. "Are you absolutely certain Xinying had nothing to do with this?"

"I’m certain she didn’t need to. Not to mention, I’ve been beside her the whole time."

That made Mingyu pause.

Yaozu stepped forward, speaking slowly. "If Xinying wanted someone dead, she wouldn’t need to lace tea or orchestrate a scene. She wouldn’t wait for someone to stumble and sob. She’d kill them from a hundred li away with no one the wiser."

Mingyu leaned back in his chair, the wood creaking under the shift of his weight. "You’ve grown comfortable saying her name."

"I serve her," replied Yaozu with a shrug of his shoulders. "Besides, she has no problem with me calling her by name."

"She is my wife," snapped Mingyu. First his brother, now his Shadow Guard. Was there anyone else close to him that she was going to try to seduce?

The Emperor?

"She is your shield," Yaozu replied, his lips twitching for just a moment. "You don’t actually care about her. We both know that she is a disposable tool for you, one that will be discarded the second she outlives her usefulness."

Mingyu slammed a hand down on the table, scrolls shuddering beneath the force. "Are you forgetting your station?"

"You’re losing control of everything," Yaozu said bluntly. "And you hate it. So, instead of changing your plans around to accommodate the unknown, you are simply charging forward. It’s a stupid move and you aren’t one to be stupid."

Mingyu glared at the other man. "Mind your tongue before I have it cut out. Do you think my wife will still like you without it?"

"Your wife won’t mind it at all," Yaozu returned with a smile on his face like he knew something that Mingyu didn’t. "But I highly suggest that you mind your people," he continued. "Your concubines write letters in cipher. Your uncle’s men are mobilizing in the south. The Fourth Prince is growing bolder by the hour. And somehow, sealed records from your private study ended up in the hands of your political enemies."

Mingyu snarled as he slowly rose to his feet. Bracing his hands on the surface of his desk, he leaned forward and glared at Yaozu. "Lady Yuan, as much as she is a spy, would never harm her own child. She was too proud of that pregnancy. Too certain it would place her where she wanted to be. It would be counter productive."

"And yet the child is gone," Mingyu said bitterly. "There was blood."

"There is always blood," a voice cut in.

Both men turned.

Zhao Xinying stood in the doorway, serene as ever. She wore a seafoam green robe tied at the waist, her hands folded neatly before her. Her hair was pinned up simply with a silver cherry blossom hairpin, and her gaze was cool.

"You agreed with me just a few days ago that not everyone can be saved," she sighed, walking into the study. Mingyu stared at her while Yaozu stared at the hairpin.

Mingyu’s lips tightened as he sat back down. "That was before. I never thought you’d kill a child."

"I didn’t," she said. "And if you truly believed I had, you wouldn’t have let me walk through that door."

The Crown Prince didn’t respond, he simply sighed and closed his eyes.

"I watched her," Xinying continued, taking the seat across from Zhu Mingyu. Yaozu went to stand at her side, his arms behind his back. "She timed everything. Her collapse, her sobs, the blood. She knew when to speak and who to call. She performed it all like a memorized script."

Yaozu nodded his head in agreement. "And she made sure the servants were present."

"She wanted witnesses," Xinying said. "She didn’t want justice. She wanted a rumor with legs."

"But why risk the child?" Mingyu asked, clearly struggling with everything. "Why gamble with something so precious?"

"There are two possible answers to that. The first and most obvious is because the life of the baby wasn’t precious to her. She did what she did because sacrificing an unborn daughter in order to frame me was worth it. The other possibility is that she believed the infant would survive," Xinying said. "She thought she’d get both sympathy and a stronger position. Either the child lived, and she secured her place—or it died, and she could blame me. Either way, she believed that she could upset my position in this house."

Zhu Mingyu closed his eyes briefly. "She lost her gamble," he grunted.

"Hardly," Yaozu scoffed. "Right now, Lady Yuan has the moral high ground. The Crown Princess, jealous because a favored concubine is pregnant, killed the unborn son of her husband. It doesn’t matter if it was a daughter or not, she’ll claim it was a son because no one can prove otherwise. But she won’t see it that way. She’ll push harder now, beg louder, point fingers faster."

Xinying paced slowly along the bookcase. "She miscalculated. She assumed I’d panic. But I don’t need the court’s approval. I never have."

"But the people—" Mingyu started.

"Let them talk," she cut in. "I want them to. If this country believes that I’m capable of killing a concubine’s child, then let them tremble a little harder when I walk past."

Mingyu stood slowly. "Do you really think that will help?"

"I think it will keep them cautious," she said. "And in this place, caution is safer than favor."

Yaozu crossed his arms. "This isn’t about truth anymore. It’s about perception. And perception is a weapon just like any blade."

Mingyu rubbed his temples. "The Emperor asked after the child. He wants us to come see him."

"It just happened, and the palace already knows?" smirked Xinying. "I mean, a spy wouldn’t have the time to actually hear about the incident and race over to the Imperial Palace. It was planned long before the baby was lost," Xinying said calmly. "But by all means. Let the Emperor hear the physicians. Let him weigh the testimony. If he still wishes to ask me to my face whether I killed a child, I’ll be more than happy to answer him."

Yaozu gave a sharp nod. "Let them come to us. We hold the ground."

Mingyu glanced between them, two creatures carved from shadow and steel, unyielding in the face of political war.

"I miss when I used to have peace in my own house," he muttered.

"You never did," Xinying said. "You just thought you did."

He managed a humorless laugh.

"And now?"

"Now," she said, "you’ll have truth instead."

She walked toward the door, then paused with her hand on the frame.

"But in all seriousness, you’ll have to choose soon, Mingyu. Between your crown and your harem. There is no way you are going to be able to sit where you want to sit and still have those five women in the background. Right now, you have a crown built on sand. One wrong move, and everything will come down around your ears."

And with that, she stepped out, leaving the two men to the silence she always carried with her.