(Disclaimer: This may trigger trauma and this chapter is pretty cruel, caution suggested, read at your own risk)
Many people who knew they were guilty of such acts left the line but less than 20 people out of tens of thousands from that morning actually passed.
Overnight, Xia Wen Ya's reputation went down the drain, the Crown Prince's was pretty much fine since it was normal for men to have four wives and three concubines and Xia Hen Chun was already infamous so they didn't suffer much of a blow but for a white lotus like Xia Wen Ya, she had a steep fall. This really fits to the saying 'the higher you climb, the harder you fall'.
In the Crown Prince's estate you could hear the sound of porcelain breaking and smashing, having her painstakingly built reputation being teared down in a blink of an eye, Xia Wen Ya was on the verge of insanity.
Her husband even seems to want to divorce her because her reputation might affect his ascension to the throne. As the Crown Prince consort when the prince becomes emperor she'll become the mother of the nation, the empress.
How could the mother of the nation be a vicious girl who tortures servants and murders her own sister!
Although it was a world where the strong rules but after all, it was an empire and to a certain extent relied on the people to stay powerful. The only thing holding her up right now is the General's Manor.
When Xia Wen Ya finished venting out her anger, an idea suddenly came to her head.
'Great Master Dai can help, he can help me retain my position and let me become empress'
Xia Wen Ya pulled a green book from the book case and a secret passage way appeared silently, it led to a torture room with a small blue stone in a inconspicuous corner.
She smashed the stone and left the room.
That night a black -cloaked figure soundlessly entered her room.
"Great Master Dai" Xia Wen Ya dropped to her knees and did a exaggerated bow.
"Have you found what I told you to find?"
His voice exuded a powerful aura soaking her back in cold sweat.
"N-no" Xia Wen Ya could only bring out her courage and get him to help or else she would be ruined!
"Then why are you here and not searching?" The voice rose in volume making Xia Wen Ya shake in fear.
"It's Light Phantom Sect!"
"Oh? The sect you told me about previously?"
"Yes, Great Master Dai, I went to the sect test to enter and use it to help you locate that thing but someone appeared and spewed venomous slander, now I'm afraid I am unable to help you to get experts to locate that in my current situation" As she said this maliciousness and hatred filled her eyes, but she was still sane and threw all the fault on her enemies. Truly sisters.
"This isn't my problem! What I asked you to do, you must do, don't bother me with anything else"
"Great Master Dai please wait! M-my son! You said you needed a young child with a special constitution to test poisons, will my son do?" Xia Wen Ya only cared about her own survival not even batting an eyelash before offering her son's life, she couldn't even think morally anymore and only wanted to not be divorced by the Crown Prince, to become empress.
"Bring me to your son" Without a thread of guilt, Xia Wen Ya led the man to her son's room.
"Hmm..." Xia Wen Ya was fervently hoping that her son will meet the requirements.
"He'll do, wake him up" She was overjoyed after hearing the man's reply.
"Xun'er wake up" Xia Wen Ya shook the boy and woke him up.
"Mother? What's wrong?" Xing Wu Xun looked at his mother in confusion, he had just had his fifth birthday a month ago but his young age made him naive to the happenings earlier and it's severity.
"Xun'er don't blame mother, mother had no choice, do this for mother okay? If you don't do this mother will be abandoned" Xia Wen Ya couldn't hide her joy and had a vicious smile on her face, although many people say that she and the Crown Prince are a perfect couple but he has a courtyard of concubines. Like today, he went to one of his concubines, if she got downgraded any further one of those scheming women will definitely not miss this chance. If she hadn't poisoned all the concubines when they first arrived to be infertile, the Crown Prince wouldn't only have one son.
"Mother, what do you mean?"
"You will know very soon, just follow Great Master Dai's orders" Only now did the boy notice the black-cloaked man standing in his room.
The stranger approached him and picked him up roughly.
"Mother, help!" Panicked, Xing Wu Xun shouted for help.
But his mother didn't do anything, she only stood there and watched.
"Great Master Dai, please complete your end of the agreement" Listening to her words he realized that the woman whom he called 'mother' had sold him to the man for her own self gain, at this moment the young child lost all his feelings of affection towards his mother, in the first place she never treated him that well and just left him for the servants to deal with. He realized that she never cared about him in the first place, he was only an object.
"Don't worry, I will abide by my promise" The mysterious man left in the darkness.