Chapter 673 --673

Chapter 673: Chapter-673

Heena didn’t waste a single second dwelling on the guilt. Her time was running out, and her patience had completely evaporated.

She climbed into her carriage and ordered the driver to head straight to the Gu estate. There was no polite notice, no formal request for a meeting, and no civil etiquette. The carriage tore through the capital streets and violently screeched to a halt right in front of the Prime Minister’s grand gates.

She was going to deal with this bastard face-to-face.

Anyone who knew the Vanguard Madam’s reputation fully expected her to march up to the Prime Minister’s estate and violently splinter the grand mahogany gates off their iron hinges.

But she didn’t.

Heena stepped out of her carriage with unnerving, absolute grace. She walked up the polished stone steps, her heavy military cloak trailing behind her, and calmly presented her jade token to the terrified gatekeepers. She didn’t demand to see the Prime Minister. Instead, she politely, almost serenely, asked for a private audience with his wife.

Deep inside the sprawling, opulent estate, a breathless servant rushed into the grand bedchamber of Madam Gu.

The Prime Minister’s wife was sitting rigidly before her bronze mirror, her hands trembling slightly as she held a fine powder brush. She was meticulously layering thick, white pearl powder over her cheekbones, desperately trying to conceal the dark, ugly purple bruises blooming under her eyes. The heavy makeup could hide the physical discoloration of her husband’s brutal fists, but it could not hide the deep, hollow exhaustion in her gaze.

"Madam," the servant gasped, dropping to the floor. "The... the Vanguard Madam is here. She is asking for you."

The brush froze in the wife’s hand. A flicker of genuine terror crossed her battered face. Heena Vanguard was the most dangerous woman in the capital, a ruthless warlord who had just publicly humiliated the civil court. Why on earth was she asking for the women of the inner courtyard?

Madam Gu swallowed hard, placing the brush down on her vanity. She ruthlessly locked her trembling hands together in her lap and raised her chin, forcing the fragile dignity of a noblewoman into place.

"Say I am coming," she ordered, her voice tight but composed.

The servant scrambled away to deliver the message. Madam Gu took one last look at the heavily powdered bruises in the mirror, stood up, and prepared to face the monster. ℯℯ𝑙.

The meeting was arranged in the estate’s famous water pavilion—the exact same pristine, shaded structure where the Prime Minister had so affectionately poured tea for the young Lady Lou just a few days prior.

When Madam Gu arrived, stepping gracefully over the arched wooden bridge, she found Heena completely alone. The elite Vanguard bodyguards had been dismissed to the perimeter.

Heena was sitting on a carved cedar bench at the edge of the pavilion, her dark military cloak a stark contrast to the delicate, blooming lotuses surrounding the structure. She wasn’t pacing. She wasn’t breaking anything. She was just resting her chin in the palm of her hand, calmly and silently watching the prized golden koi fish swim beneath the surface of the water.

She looked incredibly tired, yet utterly lethal.

Hearing the soft rustle of silk skirts, Heena slowly turned her head. Her dark eyes swept over the Prime Minister’s wife, immediately piercing straight through the thick layers of pearl powder to the bruised, battered flesh underneath.

Heena did not stand up to greet her. She simply gestured to the empty seat across from her.

"Sit, Madam Gu," Heena said, her voice dropping into a low, terrifyingly gentle hum. "We have a lot to talk about, and neither of us has the luxury of time."

Madam Gu elegantly arranged her silk skirts and sat down on the cedar bench opposite the warlord. She forced a soft, flawlessly polite smile, playing the role of the perfect aristocratic hostess.

"I heard the joyous news that you are expecting, Madam Vanguard," Madam Gu murmured gracefully, bowing her head slightly. "Congratulations to your family."

Heena let out a short, blunt scoff. She picked up a delicate porcelain teacup from the table. "Nah. I’m not."

Madam Gu completely froze. Her polite smile shattered instantly. She stared at Heena, her eyes widening in absolute shock. "But... the imperial physician officially declared it to the court—"

"Well, enough gold can buy absolutely anyone," Heena interrupted casually. She examined her pristine fingernails for a moment before slowly swirling the lukewarm tea in her cup. She didn’t look the least bit concerned about admitting to high treason.

Madam Gu’s heart hammered against her ribs. She immediately looked around the open pavilion, her eyes darting toward the distant corridors and bridges, terrified that one of her husband’s spies had heard the confession. "You should be incredibly careful saying things like that in this estate, Madam."

"It’s fine," Heena waved her hand dismissively, taking a sip of the tea. "My guards are currently ’taking care’ of your servants at the perimeter. No one is getting within fifty feet of this pavilion. We are completely alone."

Madam Gu relaxed slightly, though the tension never fully left her shoulders. Stripped of the need to maintain polite society chatter, her sharp eyes carefully studied the infamous warlord. Without the heavy military armor and the arrogant posturing, the truth was startlingly obvious.

"You do not look healthy," Madam Gu noted quietly, her voice losing its forced aristocratic lilt.

"Well, I’m not much of a picture of health right now, no," Heena smiled faintly, offering the understatement of the century.

Madam Gu looked down at her hands, still processing the sheer audacity of the woman sitting across from her. "I did not expect that you would ever come here, Madam Vanguard. Especially not to the inner courtyard."

"I didn’t plan to," Heena replied, leaning back against the wooden railing and looking out over the water. "But your husband is making me quite angry lately. He is wasting my time, and time is a luxury I am currently very short on."

A tiny, bitter huff of breath escaped Madam Gu’s lips. "When is the Vanguard Madam not angry with my husband?"

"When he is finally nailed shut inside his wooden coffin," Heena deadpanned, looking directly at the bruised woman. "Maybe then I will stop being so angry at him."

Madam Gu let out a small, dark chuckle at the sheer bluntness of the threat. "I wish."

She smiled, but the upward pull of her cheek instantly aggravated the deep, purple bruising hidden beneath her pearl powder. She hissed sharply, her hand instinctively flying up to cover the battered side of her face. The brief moment of dark camaraderie faded, replaced by the suffocating reality of her life in the Gu estate.

"But what can we say?" Madam Gu whispered, dropping her hand back to her lap, her eyes hollowing out with despair. "If that man dies, it won’t be freedom for me. My mother-in-law would see to it that I am buried in the ground right alongside him. She blames me every time he raises his hand."

Heena paused. She looked at the terrified, battered wife of her greatest political enemy, her hyper-analytical brain instantly recalculating the logistics of her assassination plot. She took another calm sip of her tea.