Forcing me to become a concubine? Remarrying the Ninth Prince, she'll be pregnant all over the

Lin Rucong was stunned, almost incredulous.

Before Lin Wantang could say anything, he said urgently, "Your mother already regrets not being able to watch you and Xiao'er grow up. What else could she have done wrong?"

"Tang'er, as a daughter, how can you blame your mother for this? She suffered so much in her life."

Even after death, they could not be properly buried and mourned; they could only be hastily laid in a coffin and quietly buried under the cover of darkness.

Unable to erect a monument, unable to properly name him.

Even for many years afterward, Lin Rucong could not solemnly offer her a stick of incense in the ancestral hall during festivals and sacrifices, nor could he allow her to receive the worship of Chen and others as the original wife.

Lin Rucong's guilt towards her had long since been like a flood of acid rain, eroding his lungs and blood, causing him unbearable pain for so many years!

Lin Wantang slowly raised her head, trying to suppress the tears welling up in her eyes, but she couldn't stop them from falling. She raised her hand to wipe them away, but they were even harder to wipe away, so she simply covered her eyes with one hand.

"Father, I don't blame Mother. I just wanted to say... if Mother did nothing wrong, then who did?"

"My maternal grandfather's family, over a hundred people, hundreds of lives—did they deserve to die, deserve to be killed?!"

Knowing the truth, Lin Wantang felt an overwhelming sense of frustration, and his eyes turned bloodshot with anger: "Just because the King of Minyue, who is now the Emperor, rebelled and marched north, he ran out of supplies and coerced my maternal family to pay money and grain without compensation. My maternal family was loyal to the court and refused even at the cost of their lives. Were they wrong to deserve to die?!"

Most importantly, her maternal grandparents' family was not an exception, but rather one of the families and individuals that the current emperor arbitrarily slaughtered and killed on his way to rebellion and conquest.

What about the others? So many common people, so many disgruntled officials—if Lin Rucong hadn't tried his best to mediate, how many innocent lives would have been tragically slaughtered?

If these people were invaded and ravaged by foreign tribes, that would be one thing; they would simply be unlucky to be caught in the midst of war, and their sacrifice would be natural. But this is fratricide!

Back then, Lin Yasong was able to uphold righteousness even when she was already a wife and mother, and was willing to take a risky path to assassinate rather than cower in fear. Lin Wantang, who inherited her bloodline and character, how could he let it go now!

Lin Wantang fully understood what her mother had done back then. She not only praised her but also admired her. She even had the idea of ​​seeking revenge against the emperor for the blood debt on behalf of her mother and her maternal grandfather's family of over a hundred people!

"Be careful what you say!"

Lin Rucong sighed and warned, "There are no more troublemakers in the manor for now, but you still need to be careful! Otherwise, how can you face your deceased mother?"

Lin Wantang turned her head away, trying to hold back, but her slender body trembled slightly. She bit her lip with resentment and grievance, tears welling up in her eyes. When Wei Wujiu hugged her tightly, her tears finally broke free.

"Cry, if you want to cry, then have a good cry."

Wei Wujiu gently patted her back in a soothing voice, and also held her cold, trembling hand tightly: "The people outside the manor are all my men, Grand Tutor, you can rest assured. I guarantee that not a single word of what I said tonight will be leaked."

With this assurance, Lin Rucong felt a little relieved. He nodded slightly, then looked at his daughter, who was sobbing uncontrollably in Wei Wujiu's arms, and sighed repeatedly with heartache: "Tang'er, it's too late at night, don't be too sad."

Lin Wantang involuntarily hugged Wei Wujiu tightly, clutching his clothes, and cried uncontrollably.

After a long while, she slowly recovered from her grief, but her voice was still choked with sobs. Yet, her resolute eyes were filled with determination and sorrow as she insisted, "Father, I want to go to the ancestral hall to pay respects to Mother."

For so many years, she has gone to the ancestral hall every year for the festival, but she has never properly bowed and kowtowed before Lin Yasong's memorial tablet, and has been calling others "mother" for sixteen years without knowing the truth.

Lin Rucong sighed, "It's time to go, but tomorrow isn't a good day. Let's go now."

Tomorrow at daybreak, the Embroidered Uniform Guards will inevitably have to leave with Wei Wujiu. Although the servants in the mansion are all discreet and trusted by Lin Rucong, there is still no guarantee that something might go wrong.

The three of them composed themselves and soon bypassed the front yard without having any servants follow them. They went straight to the ancestral hall. Lin Wantang finally learned everything and solemnly and sorrowfully knelt and kowtowed before Lin Yasong's memorial tablet.

"Mother……"

"Only now do I understand everything. My mother, if she is watching over me from heaven all these years, I am unfilial, but I can never forget the deep-seated hatred she harbored for me. I swear that in my lifetime I will find a good opportunity to overthrow the court, do my best to set things right, and restore the royal family to its rightful place!"

Lin Yasong tried her best to achieve what she couldn't in her lifetime, and Lin Wantang wants to try her luck again.

The current emperor, Shen Huai'an... do these treacherous officials think that by changing dynasties, they can wipe away all their blood debts and evil deeds? What a joke! Heaven's justice is clear: the old emperor wantonly slaughtered and harmed the common people, and neither he nor his descendants deserve to hold high positions again!

Wei Wujiu, standing beside her, also lifted his long robe and knelt down to pay his respects to his mother-in-law. However, upon hearing Lin Wantang's sorrowful words, his almost imperceptible body stiffened, and his usually inscrutable face turned ashen.

But when he stood up and reached out to her again, his cold and stern face returned to normal. He kowtowed with Lin Wantang and offered incense together.

Lin Wantang's eyes were still a little red, and her breath was unsteady. Especially when she looked at the "Lin Family" memorial tablet, she closed her trembling eyes, and the image of Lin Yasong could not appear in her mind.

"Mother, I don't even remember what you look like..."

Wei Wujiu's breath hitched, and he turned and hugged her: "You must look a lot like your mother, do you believe it? Her spirit in heaven is always protecting you and watching over you."

Lin Wantang paused, biting her lip as tears silently streamed down her face.

"From your early childhood, I watched you babble and take your first steps, watched you listen to and learn, watched you pick up a pen to practice calligraphy and painting..."

Wei Wujiu, unusually patient and persuasive, spoke in a deep, mellow voice, carrying a gentleness he himself was unaware of: "Watching you grow from a little girl into a beautiful young woman, witnessing your coming of age, seeing you suffer humiliation, your integrity is enough to comfort heaven and earth, and you have not disgraced the Lin family."

As he spoke, Wei Wujiu pondered the truth of the past that Lin Rucong had recounted. While praising Lin Yasong, he felt even more pity for Lin Wantang, who was so young back then and couldn't even speak before losing her mother.

In order to avoid committing a crime and to consider the overall situation, young Lin Wantang was deceived into recognizing Chen as his mother from the time he could remember.

Whenever Chen treated her harshly, she not only didn't understand the reason, but also deceived herself into thinking that her strict mother was just like that, that it must be because she hadn't done a good job, and that she needed to repent for her mistakes.

Fortunately, the truth came to light.