AUBTN -Chapter 285 Reversal

Upon hearing Shen Jue’s interrogation, Zhou Ruyun slowly raised her head.

In her originally hollow, numb eyes, there was now only a deep, blood-red rage.

“Poison?”

Zhou Ruyun’s cracked lips curled slightly as she let out a mocking, rasping laugh.

“How could I have poisoned him?”

She stared at Shen Jue with undisguised contempt.

“He’s nothing more than a puppet who can’t even control his own fate—just as pathetic as I am.”

“What I gave him wasn’t poison at all.”

“It was a fake death drug that could induce a state of suspended animation!”

At these words, all four of them visibly jolted.

【Holy crap! A fake death drug? Like some kind of ancient Romeo-and-Juliet potion?】

Xu Qing screamed internally in pure shock.

Beside her, Lu Yan’s fingers gripping the embroidered spring knife paused slightly, his brows tightening almost imperceptibly.

But this also finally explained the question that had long puzzled them.

All the imperial physicians of the Imperial Medical Bureau had failed to detect any poison in the emperor’s body. So it turned out—it wasn’t poison at all.

Su Hewan’s expression remained calm and cold, but a flash of understanding passed through her eyes.

“The antidote?” she stepped forward, her voice steady.

Zhou Ruyun did not look at her. Instead, she turned her gaze toward Xia Dong, who was slumped on the ground nearby.

“The antidote has always been on Xia Dong.”

Xia Dong trembled violently all over, tears falling like broken beads onto the filthy straw beneath her.

“Why…?”

Su Hewan fixed her eyes on Zhou Ruyun.

“Why go to such lengths to set up this entire scheme? What was the point of all this?”

Zhou Ruyun’s gaze suddenly turned vicious. She snapped her head toward Su Hewan and stared at her with hatred.

“Why? To live like a human being! To escape that beast Zhou Wenhai!”

She gritted her teeth, cursing her own biological father by name.

“You people who stand so high above—how could you ever understand the sorrow of being a mere pawn?”

Zhou Ruyun gently stroked the sachet at her chest, her eyes briefly softening with a fleeting, tragic tenderness.

“He and I were childhood sweethearts. We loved each other deeply.”

“But my father looked down on him for being a poor scholar with no backing. Yet he promised me he would love me for a lifetime.”

“But Zhou Wenhai would not allow it.”

“He needed a tool—someone he could use to control imperial power.”

“I knelt in the snow and begged him. I begged him to let us be together!”

Zhou Ruyun’s voice suddenly rose, sharp and piercing.

“But what did he do?”

“He held a blade to my lover’s neck and forced me!”

“If I didn’t obediently get into the phoenix bridal sedan, he would have him sliced into a thousand pieces!”

Her body trembled violently as she laughed through tears.

“How ridiculous… in the end, I still couldn’t save him!”

The entire prison cell was filled only with Zhou Ruyun’s desperate confession.

Su Hewan fell silent.

【The true nature of feudal etiquette—it devours people alive, turning daughters into stepping stones for power.】

【Someone like Zhou Wenhai, a greedy old fox, would never allow a chess piece to have emotions of her own.】

Shen Jue’s fingers, playing with his folding fan, paused slightly.

He lowered his narrow phoenix eyes, listening to Su Hewan’s calm yet sorrowful analysis in his mind.

This girl always saw things so clearly—so clearly it made one’s heart ache.

“And Xia Dong?” Lu Yan’s cold voice cut in at the right moment, like a blade of frost slicing straight toward the truth.

“The child in her womb—what is going on with that?”

Xia Dong, who had been collapsed on the ground, suddenly went into a frenzy.

“No, don’t take my child away!” she slammed her head against the ground repeatedly, like a madwoman.

Zhou Ruyun pulled Xia Dong into her arms, then lifted her head and glared at everyone present as if they were demons.

“That child belongs to Xia Dong and her cousin!”

“Summer’s cousin was also a servant in the Zhou household. They had originally pledged themselves to each other.”

“But all of that was discovered by that devil, Zhou Wenhai!”

Zhou Ruoyun’s voice trembled so badly it nearly shattered.

“He had Summer’s cousin dragged to the back courtyard and beaten to death right in front of her… alive.”

Hearing this, Yu Qing sharply inhaled in shock.

“What the hell is that? Even serial killers would call him professional!”

“Zhou Wenhai is completely lawless. Does he think human lives are just grass? I’m so furious!”

Lu Yan patted her back gently to calm her down.

“He killed Summer’s cousin, but kept Summer alive.”

Zhou Ruoyun’s voice turned as cold as ice.

“Because he discovered that Summer was pregnant.”

“And how could I possibly bear the emperor’s child?”

“For his so-called grand ambition spanning generations, Zhou Wenhai forced Summer—my personal maid—to enter the palace with me.”

“He wanted to use the child in her womb to replace the true imperial heir!”

Su Huawan’s pupils shrank.

So her guess had been completely correct!

They really were planning to swap the heir!

Zhou Wenhai’s scheme was so outrageous it would be obvious even in the modern world.

He wanted an illegitimate prince to ascend the throne, then, as the grandfather, seize power as regent and completely replace the royal Li dynasty!

Shen Jue’s gaze turned instantly dark and icy.

A treasonous rebel plotting to usurp the throne!

“But how could I let him get what he wants?”

Zhou Ruoyun suddenly burst into laughter—mad, triumphant, and unhinged.

“I hate him! I want him to die without a grave!”

“So I deliberately gave the emperor a fake death poison, trying to throw the entire harem into chaos!”

“My original plan was to take Summer and escape this man-eating palace during the chaos.”

“As long as we got out, Summer could give birth safely, and I could go find the person I love.”

But as she spoke, the light in her eyes faded abruptly.

“But we were too naive.”

“Zhou Wenhai had already set up a net. He discovered our plan.”

“He captured him again—and even Summer’s elderly mother outside the palace.”

“He used their lives to force us to continue playing along in this act!”

Zhou Ruoyun’s bloodshot eyes swept over the four people standing outside the door.

“It’s all your fault. If not for you, we wouldn’t have ended up like this!”

Su Huawan frowned. “What exactly are you planning to do?”

Zhou Ruoyun gave a miserable laugh.

“We had no way out. Of course we could only play along.”

“You think I’d really become his puppet?”

Her voice turned hoarse.

“I will wait until the day Summer gives birth.”

“Before the entire court, the Empress Dowager, and all the royal clans…”

“I will stage a death scene—claiming I died from a difficult childbirth and massive hemorrhage!”

Her eyes burned with madness.

“Before I take my last breath, I will reveal all of Zhou Wenhai’s crimes—the secret letters he exchanged with the feudal princes, his plot to swap the imperial heir…”

“I will expose everything to the world!”

“I will make him disgraced! I will make him suffer a thousand cuts! I will drag the entire Zhou clan down with me!”

She gritted her teeth, eyes blazing.

“And Summer will take the child during the chaos and escape from the palace!”

At this point, her expression softened slightly as she looked at them again.

“She will go find him, and then hand over the antidote to you, in exchange for their freedom.”

Everyone understood now.

This was a plan of mutual destruction—she intended to trade her own life for her lover’s freedom and her enemy’s downfall.

“But…”

Zhou Ruoyun’s voice suddenly softened, carrying a deep, helpless sorrow and despair.