Chapter 9: Waking Up

The mourning hall was set in the front courtyard, and two coffins were placed side by side in the middle.

Madam Li kept vigil with the twins.

Aside from her initial collapse, Madam Li had been unusually calm.

Perhaps she was only left with peace after going through extreme grief.

The twins knelt at the side. Affected by the surrounding atmosphere, they did not dare to cry loudly anymore.

They just kept sobbing softly, their small bodies trembling. They looked extremely pitiful.

By the time Madam Li regained her senses, the two children had already fallen asleep on the ground. However, they would still sob from time to time.

Madam Li’s heart ached when she saw this. She quickly got someone to send them back to their rooms to rest. In an instant, only Madam Li was left in the mourning hall.

Her fingertips caressed the rock-like coffin. It was bone-chilling.

Madam Li came from a military family and had been influenced since she was young. Naturally, she was different from those women who only knew about matters within a household.

At first, it was too sudden. Furthermore, there was no news at all, so she couldn’t react in time.

Now that she thought about it, she understood.

His Majesty couldn’t tolerate the Song family anymore. The old master must have known this, so he went all out.

From the moment he walked out of the residence, the old duke had no intention of coming back alive, because this was the only way to protect the descendants of the Song family.

Otherwise, his entire family would have been executed by now.

The duke and the old master were gone, Brother Chen’s legs were crippled, the two children were still young, and she was a woman. Thus, His Majesty could spare their lives.

Just like the Li family in the past. Her father and three brothers went to the battlefield, and none of them survived.

Her mother died of grief, and her sisters-in-law remarried because they had no children.

From then on, she was the only orphan in the Li family.

For a moment, she seemed to have returned to that year when her father and brother’s coffins were sent back from the border. The sky was filled with white paper and copper coins. The suppressed sobs around her that could never be forgotten.

How similar her fate was to her mother’s! To think that both her father and father-in-law were loyal to such an emperor.

How could she not hate him!

His father and brother’s deaths could be called an unlucky tragedy, but what about her husband and father-in-law? Her father-in-law had protected Great Xia all his life. Her husband was talented, but he suffered because of His Majesty’s suspicion.

Even in this state, His Majesty was still unwilling to let their family off. Before her husband died, he was still slandered with accusations of plotting rebellion.

She hated him!

She hated him!

She wished she could eat his flesh, drink his blood, pull out his tendons, and turn Emperor Chong’an into ashes.

But she couldn’t even show her hatred. She even had to kneel and thank him.

Because she had three children to protect. She dared not, and she could not show it!

It was already midnight when Song Jingchen woke up. When he opened his eyes and saw the familiar environment, he suddenly remembered what had happened in the prison of the Ministry of Justice.

He hurriedly tried to get up.

However, he realized that he could not feel his lower body. Before he could call for help, he heard a surprised voice.

“You’re finally awake!” Shen Yijia leaned over with a look of surprise. His eyes were really beautiful.

Song Jingchen frowned and looked at Shen Yijia warily. “Who are you?”

“You’re my husband, so of course I’m your wife. We got married a few days ago. Did you forget?” Shen Yijia was unhappy. She heard from the doctor that he might have a fever at night, so she had to be careful.

She had been staying by his side this whole time.

Song Jingchen frowned. He had seen Shen Ruyun once before, but she didn’t look like this.

Uncle Yang did not trust Shen Yijia and had been guarding the door. When he heard the commotion, he quickly pushed the door open and entered.

“Young Master, Young Madam.”

Seeing Uncle Yang, Song Jingchen lowered his guard slightly and hurriedly asked, “My father and grandfather…”

Before he could finish, he noticed the grief on Uncle Yang’s face.

There was a pause before he continued. “Are they… all okay?”

He was still hoping that what had happened before was just a dream.