Chapter 674 --674

Chapter 674: Chapter-674

"Yeah, yeah, don’t worry about that," Heena said smoothly, waving her teacup as if they were discussing the weather. "I can take care of your mother-in-law, too. Just point me toward the old hag."

Madam Gu looked at the young warlord, her brow furrowing in profound confusion. "I do not understand what you mean, Madam Vanguard. Take care of my mother-in-law?"

Heena leaned on the wooden railing, her eyes fixed on the golden koi fish. "Well, you see, I have just adopted a son. I think I would really like a daughter, too."

Madam Gu froze, her mind struggling to process the abrupt pivot. "Yes... all of the capital knows about your new son."

"Exactly," Heena turned to look at her, deadpan. "So, I will adopt you as my daughter."

Madam Gu’s jaw actually dropped. The flawless, aristocratic composure she had spent years cultivating completely short-circuited. "Excuse me? I am significantly older than you!"

Heena barely blinked. "Oh, don’t worry about that. My new son is also older than you."

Madam Gu stared at her, utterly bewildered by the Vanguard family’s terrifying disregard for basic linear time and biology. "My lady, you cannot be serious. The entire capital would laugh at you! People would say the Vanguard Madam has completely lost her mind."

"Let them laugh," Heena scoffed, casually waving her hand. "None of them can even touch me, so why should I care what a bunch of cowardly scholars think? When I was sitting at home reading poetry and doing embroidery, they said I had become weak. When I went missing, they said I was careless. If I breathe too loudly, they write an essay about it. Who cares what they think? It’s not like they are paying my bills."

Madam Gu sighed deeply, rubbing her aching temples. "I still do not understand what you mean by this, my lady. Why are you offering this?"

The playful arrogance vanished from Heena’s face, instantly replaced by the cold, calculating stare of an apex predator.

"Listen carefully," Heena said, her voice dropping into a lethal whisper. "I am going to kill your husband. But, my husband Samuel is a scholar, and he likes to preach about rules and etiquette. He says it’s bad form for me to just slaughter everyone in the inner courtyard. If you become my daughter, you fall under Vanguard protection. When the Prime Minister dies, his mother cannot bury you with him, and his rivals cannot sell you off as a pawn to the next high-ranking minister. I am offering you a way out of the grave."

Madam Gu’s hands trembled in her lap. "Didn’t you tell me directly that you do not trust me?"

"Of course I don’t trust you," Heena scoffed, leaning forward. "I don’t trust you right now, either. But let’s be perfectly clear, Madam Gu—do you think we have the time to act out this nonsense? If I just let you escape this estate alive, what is your future? To become another man’s battered wife? Another political hostage?"

Heena gestured to the pristine, lotus-filled water pavilion around them.

"I have heard quite a lot about this specific pavilion," Heena remarked, her dark eyes flashing. "This is the very place your so-called husband built just for you, right? A gilded cage for his prized, bruised bird."

Madam Gu looked out at the tranquil water. For years, she had smiled in this pavilion. She had poured tea for her husband here, hiding her bruises, swallowing her pride, and playing the perfect, submissive wife while he actively plotted to replace her.

Slowly, her hands clenched into tight fists. The delicate, pearl-powdered aristocrat finally cracked, and a lifetime of suppressed, venomous hatred bled into her eyes.

"Yes," Madam Gu whispered, her voice trembling with pure, unadulterated malice. "And I really, truly wish to bury my husband’s corpse under this exact same ground."

For a moment, the pavilion was deathly silent.

Then, Heena threw her head back and burst into bright, echoing laughter.

"Ahahaha!" Heena grinned, looking at the battered woman with absolute, sociopathic approval. "See? Exactly like my daughter!"

Heena’s laughter faded into a sharp, terrifyingly serious stare, cutting the conversation dead.

"Tell me the truth," Heena demanded, her voice dropping all traces of amusement. "Do you just want to leave this estate? Do you want to just walk away like this?"

"Of course I want to," Madam Gu answered instantly, the raw desperation cracking her aristocratic facade. "But he—"

Heena immediately raised her hand, silencing the older woman with a single, authoritative gesture. "Hear my full question first. I am not asking you if you just want to leave this estate. Look at your reality. If I simply kill your husband tonight, you become a high-profile widow. You will be stripped of your wealth, sent to a remote nunnery to pray for his soul, or sold off. If he survives my wrath, he will eventually beat you to death. The end result is exactly the same."

Madam Gu stared at her, the blood draining from her already pale face as the inescapable trap of her life was laid out in plain words.

"But listen to me," Heena whispered, leaning across the cedar table. "Put your hand on your heart and tell me the absolute truth. Do you want to live out the rest of your days as a slave? As some discarded, head-shaven nun? Or... do you want to become the Great Dynasty’s first female Prime Minister Regent?"

Madam Gu completely froze. It was as if all the air had been violently sucked out of the pavilion.

"Excuse me?" Madam Gu gasped, staring at Heena as if the warlord had just sprouted a second head. She couldn’t believe her own ears. "Regent? The civil court would never allow that! Doesn’t the Emperor have the final say?"

Heena raised her hand, her dark eyes flashing with absolute, sociopathic brilliance.

"Just think about the board," Heena instructed smoothly. "Imagine, tragically, your dear husband suddenly suffers a massive, unexplained stroke. He becomes completely paralyzed and comatose. Unable to speak, unable to walk, unable to hold a brush. And then..."

Heena reached across the table and lightly pointed a finger at Madam Gu’s flat stomach.

"...you suddenly announce that you are carrying his long-awaited heir."

Madam Gu’s breath hitched. Her mind reeled at the sheer, unadulterated treason of the plan. A fake pregnancy to secure a comatose husband’s political seat.

"Tell me," Heena smiled, a dark, incredibly predatory expression. "If you are the pregnant wife of a paralyzed Prime Minister, holding the seal of the civil court for your unborn child, who would dare to touch you?"

"Thousands would," Madam Gu whispered frantically, her hands shaking. "The entire civil court would tear me apart! My maternal family is incredibly weak. I am just a Minister’s daughter. I have no backing to hold that kind of power!"

"Exactly," Heena nodded, leaning back and crossing her arms. "But think, Madam Gu. What if your maternal family wasn’t a weak Minister? What if your new, legally adopted mother was the Vanguard Madam?"

Heena tilted her head, the full, crushing weight of her military empire backing her words.

"Which bastard of a dragon sitting on the golden throne," Heena asked softly, openly insulting the Emperor, "would ever dare to touch you, when behind you stand the Vanguards?"