His Rui

Xi Ying left the Imperial Palace after his long talk with Qin Wenya while Zhao Zhuang Chen went inside his mother's chambers.

"Empress Mother…"

He called out his mother as he sat in front of her.

However, for a long time, Zhao Zhuang Chen didn't get any response. He frowned deeply and called out Qin Wenya again.

However, Qin Wenya seemed to be very lost in her own thoughts.

Frustrated, Zhao Zhuang Chen stood up from his seat and walked towards his mother.

"Empress Mother…"

Zhao Zhuang Chen called out as he shook his mother's shoulder.

Qin Wenya came out of her trance and looked at Zhao Zhuang Chen in confusion as she whispered

"Huh?"

Zhao Zhuang Chen looked very dissatisfied seeing her mother's dazed look.

Now was not the time to look so confused and dazed. He was about to say something when a maid entered the chambers with some scrolls in her hands.

Qin Wenya's attention was immediately focused on the maid. Looking at the maid's hands, she remembered what she had asked her to do just a few moments ago.

"Did you find it out?"

She asked the maid in a very cold voice. The maid and the old Mom who followed the maid with a few more scrolls were scared by Qin Wenya's cold tone. It seemed that something has irked the Empress today.

Generally, Qin Wenya behaved so coldly when something wrong happened tob the prince or princess but even at that time, she was never this cold.

Seeing that the maid looked more scared than her, the old Momo decided to step forward first and said

"Your Majesty, it was easy to find the portraits of Noble Consort Shu. However, for second Madam Li, we could only arrange the portraits that are very old. They are from the time when Second Madam Li was very young."

Qin Wenya swallowed and Zhao Zhuang Chen looked confused by the whole scene.

"How did you get them?"

The old Mom bowed her head and answered respectfully and hence she was unable to see the emotions passing through Qin Wenya's eyes as she said

"Your Majesty, according to this servant's guess, these portraits are from the time when His Majesty was very young and a prince. He was still taking the concubines, wife and consorts in. So Second Madam Li's portrait might have been sent to the Imperial Palace at that time."

Qin Wenya's face was pale as she nodded her head.

So Zhao Wang Lie had indeed tried his best to marry Yi Jie. Qin Wenya could see that there were many portraits in the old Mom's hands. She knew very well every girl who was suggested had only one portrait on the Imperial Palace but why Yi Jie had so many.

With a cold face, Qin Wenya took the portrait from the maid's hands and opened it slowly.

She placed it on the table that was placed in front of her and then she took other portrait from the old Momo's hands and was about to open it when her gaze landed on Zhao Zhuang Chen.

"What are you doing here?"

Qin Wenya asked sharply and Zhao Zhuang Chen visibly flinched. Regardless of how many years it has been, Zhao Zhuang Chen had always felt very afraid of his mother's anger and coldness and this time it was the same.

At these moments, he would also feel helpless and very angry. He would try to look brave and make himself that he has grown up now and now he should not be so scared of his own mother.

However, when Qin Wenya stared at his coldly and said

"Leave."

He still did as she told him.

Qin Wenya sighed. She wanted to keep her promise with Xi Ying. If all of this was true then she really didn't have anyone on his side and that's why she needed to keep the promise.

She can't tell all this to anyone else.

So she dismissed her maids also after asking them to place all the portraits on a table.

After she was alone in the chambers, Qin Wenya immediately opened the portraits.

She would not deny. There was still some hope in her heart that all of this was not true. She could accept that Zhao Wang Lei married her to make the pace between Qin and Xin but she won't be able to accept that he married her because he found something inside her similar to some other woman and hence he was finding that solace in her.

The solace that he found more in Noble Consort Shu but after her death, she was the only option and hence he used her.

But the truth was the truth after all.

And she could clearly see it when she opened the portrait.

Noble Consort Shu …she indeed looked a lot like Yi Jie. Though one would not be able to say it at first glance but after placing the portraits of these two women together, Qin Wenya could find many similarities.

Qin Wenya's face only went paler when she stood up from her chair and walked towards the mirror with Yi Jie's portrait in her hands.

Her hand trembled as she tried to find some similarity between herself and Yi Jie.

But where was it!

Her heart was indeed joyful until she suddenly found not one but two.

It was the shape of their lips and their collarbone.

The portrait surely had been drawn very nicely as it showed the shape of the collarbone two…as if an alive Yi Jie was standing in front of Qin Wenya.

Never did Qin Wenya that that portrait was drawn by none other than Zhao Wang Lei many years ago …when his love was still love not an obsession.

Qin Wenya's eyes were filled with anger as she looked at her own face now.

Even if it were only these two things, she still didn't like it.

In her anger, she tore Yi Jie's portrait as if she was tearing Yi Jie herself. Qin Wenya's eyes were filled with hatred as she stared at herself in the mirror.

All these years, she gave to Zhao Wang Lei was for nothing.

Instead, he was stabbing her in the back all this while.

This Yi Jie…all of this was for him and nothing for her children. She thought as she glared at the torn pieces of the portrait.

She was hurt. Very hurt.

And when Qin Wenya was hurt, she hurt others. This time the target was Zhao Wang Lei. She smiled viciously while her eyes were red and filled with tears as she thought that the way to hurt Zhao Wang Lei was to hurt Yi Jie.

After all, he loved Yi Jie so much.

Crazy with this hatred, Qin Wenya must have never imagined that by planning to hurt Zhao Wang Lei, she was planning her own doom.