Chapter 675 --675

Chapter 675: Chapter-675

Madam Gu looked at the young warlord calmly. The terrified, battered wife completely vanished, instantly replaced by a woman who had survived decades in the venomous inner courts of the capital. She offered a slight, knowing smile.

"My lady, I agree to collaborate with you on the condition that we remain entirely separate," Madam Gu said, her voice steady and sharp. "But do you genuinely believe I am crazy enough to strap the Vanguard burden to my own back?"

Heena raised her eyebrows, genuinely surprised. ’This bruised bird is actually a hawk.’

"What exactly do you mean?" Heena asked, leaning into the conversation.

"I mean that yes, having the Vanguard title would temporarily ensure no one in this estate dares to touch me," Madam Gu explained, her mind operating with cold aristocratic calculation. "But is it not also true that with the Vanguard title comes the Vanguard’s enemies? I do not think I even need to list them. Half the capital wants your family dead. If something were to happen to you and your grandparents, then what? I do not think your so-called new scholar son has enough martial guts or military backing to fight the throne. If he were to drop his hands and surrender one day, I would be left completely alone. The people your family has offended over the last fifty years would tear me apart like wild dogs."

Heena didn’t interrupt. She simply listened, thoroughly impressed by the woman’s flawless political deduction.

"And that is not even accounting for the immediate problems," Madam Gu continued, holding up two slender, trembling fingers. "First, my husband would never allow the adoption; he would kill me the moment the papers were drafted. Second, if I somehow succeeded, the civil scholars would ridicule me for the rest of my life for abandoning my husband’s household to crawl under a military banner. It goes against a hundred years of dynastic etiquette."

Heena stared at her for a moment before letting out a sharp, mocking sneer.

"Oh my," Heena clapped her hands together in a slow, sarcastic rhythm. "I certainly did not think that a woman actively suffering from domestic violence was such a brilliant smartass. So tell me, Madam Gu... if you are so incredibly smart, why exactly are you still stuck in this house getting beaten?"

Madam Gu completely froze. Her hands clenched so tightly into fists that her knuckles turned white.

"I may suffer from my husband’s fists, my lady, but that does not mean I am a fool," Madam Gu fired back, her eyes burning with a fierce, suppressed dignity. "I survive by calculating risk. Do you really think I am crazy enough to jump out of a frying pan directly into a raging fire pit?"

"It depends entirely on what you consider a fire pit," Heena countered smoothly.

She dropped the playful mockery. Her dark eyes sharpened into lethal, calculating slits as she looked at the older woman.

"Yes, if I or my grandparents fall tomorrow, our enemies will try to ensure our bloodline is eradicated," Heena admitted freely. "But do you genuinely think the Vanguard faction just contains the three of us? The Vanguard is a military syndicate where hundreds of unseen leaders operate in the shadows. Do you think my newly adopted son is the only one who holds power? No."

Heena leaned across the cedar table, the absolute authority of a warlord radiating from her fragile frame.

"You would not inherit the main title. It would be a temporary shield," Heena whispered, revealing her trump card. "And more importantly, I hold ’’five Imperial Death Pardons’’. Five absolute, legally binding exemptions from execution granted by the late Emperor. None of the civil courts, not even the current Emperor himself, can touch anyone I legally claim as my child. I don’t have the desire to rule the civil court myself, Madam Gu. But you see... I find you rather pitiful."

Madam Gu blinked, the sheer weight of the Vanguard’s true political power crashing over her. ’Five Imperial Pardons.’ It was a level of immunity that defied the heavens.

"Pitiful, huh?" Madam Gu whispered.

Suddenly, a genuine, completely unscripted laugh bubbled up from her throat. A faint blush crept through the heavy pearl powder on her cheeks, not from embarrassment, but from the sheer, absurd adrenaline of conspiring to commit high treason with the capital’s greatest menace.

"My lady," Madam Gu smiled, looking at Heena with a mixture of awe and profound amusement. "Today, you sound really strange."

Heena picked up her teacup, a dark, perfectly matched smile curving her pale lips.

"Today, you also sound quite different, my lady."

Heena looked at her calmly, the arrogant warlord entirely replaced by a woman bearing the quiet, heavy wisdom of too many lifetimes.

"As women get older, especially married women, they tend to worry relentlessly about their family members," Heena said, her voice soft against the gentle trickling of the water pavilion. "I am going to be leaving on a very long journey soon. I need someone who can take care of the people I leave behind."

Madam Gu stared at her, genuinely taken aback. "And you think I would do that?"

"Yeah," Heena smiled faintly. "I think you would."

Madam Gu’s brow furrowed, a mix of skepticism and guarded hope flashing in her eyes. "Why do you have such strong confidence in me? My lady, do you not trust me too much?"

"A woman who suffers so much, yet never allows that hatred to bleed out onto her own relatives or innocent bystanders," Heena stated, her gaze piercing right through the older woman’s defenses. "That shows exactly how strong her core is, and what kind of heart she possesses."

Madam Gu froze.

"You have been married to the Prime Minister for years," Heena continued, her tone matter-of-fact but entirely devoid of pity. "Just days after your wedding, he started laying his hands on you. You cried in pain, you screamed in the dark, but you never blamed your maternal relatives for marrying you off. You had the authority as the Prime Minister’s official wife to completely ruin them or make their lives a living hell in retaliation, but you never did. I know it wasn’t because you are some flawless, saintly figure. It’s simply because you refused to let his darkness soil the parent-child relationship you hold in your heart."

Madam Gu let out a sudden, sharp bark of laughter. It was a jagged, broken sound. As she laughed, hot tears immediately spilled over her lower lashes, carving wet tracks through her thick pearl powder. She covered her face with trembling hands, taking a few deep, shuddering breaths before looking back at Heena.

"Child-parent relationship? Family?" Madam Gu whispered bitterly, her voice cracking. "What are you talking about, my lady? Do you really think I held back because I was holding onto some grand, noble ideal?"

"I don’t know," Heena shook her head slowly. "That is exactly the point."

Madam Gu wiped her cheeks, her bruised eyes searching Heena’s face. "Do you not think I am just a weak, cowardly woman?"

"My lady, I absolutely do not."

"Then why don’t you just say it?" Madam Gu asked, a defensive edge creeping back into her voice. "Why not just say I am a woman suffering from domestic violence who happens to be smart enough to survive?"