A Poor Family’s Hereditary Scumbag (11) The Ling Jing and Qin Jingzhou whom the Tenth Prince had confidently judged to be love at first sight, hearts perfectly aligned were, in reality, still… very far from the stage of sharing everything without reservation.
Ling Jing personally led people to send Consort De’s head eunuch, along with the palace maids and eunuchs Consort De had assigned to the Tenth Prince, straight into the Office of Internal Discipline. Afterward, the Imperial Guards and attendants escorted her back to Jingren Palace and returned to report to their superiors.
After washing up, Ling Jing changed into everyday clothing and sat at her desk to write a small note to Qin Jingzhou. Before she could finish, Consort De arrived in a fury, barging in to demand an explanation.
Before her marriage, Princess Zhaoming had lived in a side hall of Qianqing Palace and had been personally raised by the Emperor.
She had only enjoyed a few years of harmonious married life before her husband fell ill and died. Out of pity for his widowed daughter, the Emperor often had her accompany him at meals and stay overnight in the palace.
He had originally meant to comfort his widowed daughter, but instead found himself thoroughly cheered up by her.
Thus, the doting father ordered the Imperial Household Department to refurbish Jingren Palace—the closest palace to Qianqing Palace—and reserve it exclusively for his daughter.
Before becoming the mistress of a palace, Consort De herself had lived in Jingren Palace.
After her elevation, she moved to Xianfu Palace in the northwest of Qianqing Palace—one of the Western Six Palaces farthest from the Emperor. From that moment on, Consort De began to harbor deep resentment toward Princess Zhaoming.
That said, Consort De had always hidden her emotions well. Even her own son, the Tenth Prince, believed that her occasional sarcasm toward Princess Zhaoming stemmed from disapproval of the princess’s indulgent lifestyle—keeping numerous male companions and “changing grooms every so often.”
In truth, even Consort De herself didn’t understand why she had suddenly flown into such a rage. By the time she had more or less calmed down, she was already standing at the gates of Jingren Palace with her entourage—stuck riding the tiger.
Princess Zhaoming had gone to seize people; it had to be under the Emperor’s orders. But if Consort De swallowed this humiliation now, who would still take her seriously in the future? Yet having come all this way, if she didn’t even enter the gates and simply turned back, wouldn’t that be even more humiliating?
As Consort De was composing what she would say once inside, the female official beside her whispered anxiously, “Your Ladyship, we should go back. What if His Majesty—”
That single sentence hit Consort De squarely in her pride. Just as she lifted her head to retort, she saw Princess Zhaoming appear at the gates of Jingren Palace, gazing at her with a half-smile.
Consort De’s anger exploded. “Insolence!”
The moment the word left her mouth, expressions shifted among the crowd.
Ling Jing wasn’t having any of it. Even though, as a veteran of household and palace intrigue, she could tell at a glance that Consort De wasn’t quite in her right state of mind, she still said coolly, “Consort De, mind your words. Insolence is something Father Emperor may say, something the Empress may say—but it’s not something you may say to me.”
The Emperor had never played games like setting up a favored concubine as a shield in the inner palace. While Princess Zhaoming’s birth mother was alive, she had been a Noble Consort; after her death, she was posthumously honored as an Imperial Noble Consort. Even while her mother lived, Princess Zhaoming enjoyed the treatment of a legitimate daughter. After her mother’s passing, her favor only rose higher.
What Ling Jing meant was perfectly clear: What right does a mere concubine have to lecture a legitimate daughter? Consort De took great care of her appearance, her makeup light and refined—so the shift from pale to flushed on her face was strikingly obvious.
Seething with hatred and feeling mocked by everyone present, she shoved aside the female official beside her and, without warning, burst into tears. “You’re bullying me…”
The crowd was stunned.
No one thought Consort De was putting on an act—this was genuinely humiliating. Which meant they believed she had been so provoked by Princess Zhaoming that she’d suffered an emotional collapse and completely lost control.
Ling Jing didn’t see it that way.
The novel plot she had received spent most of its words describing Prince Li’s heir and his delicate, beautiful kept woman being deeply in love. Any occasional obstacles were resolved physically by the “pure and beautiful” mistress using inherited poisons and secret medicines—obstacles that always ended with someone dead. That main storyline had made Ling Jing profoundly uncomfortable, and the two leads utterly disgusted her.
So after transmigrating and familiarizing herself with her surroundings, she’d immediately begun working to help her cheap father, the Emperor, quickly eliminate Prince Li and the Murong remnants. It had to be said: the original Princess Zhaoming wasn’t just the Emperor’s favorite child—she was also the one he trusted most. As a normal, doting father, the Emperor had granted her authority fully commensurate with that trust and affection.
Thus, Ling Jing had quietly set the Emperor’s own secret agents, along with palace eunuchs and maids assigned to her, to investigate with care. Once again—knowing the outcome in advance and reasoning backward made things far easier than a blind search. It didn’t take long to trace the trail to Consort De.
She presented the evidence to her cheap father, who made an immediate decision: first, seize Consort De’s head eunuch.
Consort De, likely in a moment of heated impulse, had rushed over in this collapsing state. Ling Jing laughed inwardly.
Another piece of ironclad evidence.
Ling Jing didn’t say another word. The Emperor’s trusted aides soon arrived with several matrons and guards.
The head eunuch conveyed the Emperor’s oral decree. The matrons stepped forward together and swiftly restrained the sobbing Consort De.
At that moment, the Tenth Prince—having rushed over upon hearing the news—saw his mother pinned by the matrons. His head buzzed, his stomach churned violently, and he spat out a mouthful of blood.
Consort De let out a shrill scream and lunged toward Ling Jing. “I’ll make you pay with your life!”
Oddly enough, the Tenth Prince felt better after vomiting blood.
He wasn’t anxious—in fact, he felt a flicker of grim relief. He had been poisoned with the Weakening secret drug; expelling this stagnant blood felt like shattering half the stone weighing on his chest. But when he suddenly heard his own mother’s words, his vision went black.
All lingering hope vanished.
If he could be poisoned, why should his mother be an exception? He couldn’t help but mock himself—should he be thanking Prince Li for not also feeding him a Madness secret drug?
Thus, with everyone harboring their own thoughts, the group proceeded to Qianqing Palace.
Ling Jing and the Tenth Prince sat near the Emperor.
Consort De… was only fit to kneel on the ground, restrained by matrons.
To be frank, without truly solid evidence—enough to decisively crush Consort De—how could the Emperor possibly allow his precious daughter to personally seize Consort De’s head eunuch?
Moving against a confidant and moving against the person herself—what difference was there, really?
Moments later, eight imperial physicians rushed in. Acting directly on the Emperor’s orders, they subjected Consort De to a full ancient-style medical examination—the kind that involved bloodletting. Four of the eight came from renowned medical families, some of whom had served as imperial physicians even in the previous dynasty, and were quite familiar with the Murong clan’s secret drugs.
Consort De struggled at first, then seemed to give up entirely. After this round of examinations—bordering on torture—she was fed several medicinal pills. By then, she had regained her senses and lay weakly on the thick carpet.
After conferring, the lead physician solemnly reported: Consort De had indeed been poisoned with a Murong-clan secret drug recorded in their texts—at the very least.
The Tenth Prince’s vision went black again, and in front of the Emperor, he spat out another mouthful of blood.
The Emperor, expressionless until now, finally broke. “Old Ten!”
The physicians hurried to surround him, administering another full examination. But unlike with Consort De—whom they’d treated without restraint, already assuming she was finished—the Emperor’s panicked reaction to the Tenth Prince’s blood made the difference in their standing painfully clear.
After feeding the Tenth Prince a prepared pill, the lead physician again reported solemnly: the Tenth Prince had also been poisoned with a secret drug. Fortunately, the exposure hadn’t lasted long, and his rage-induced blood vomiting had expelled much of the poison. With proper rest, he would be fine.
The Emperor visibly let out a long breath, then glared furiously at Consort De. “Even a tiger won’t eat its own cub!”
Consort De, already deathly pale, covered her face and began to sob softly.
The Emperor withdrew his gaze. “Consort De is mad and immoral. Confine her within the palace!”
The matrons stepped forward and dragged away the Consort De, who could no longer even cry aloud.
The Tenth Prince, meanwhile, was kept in a side hall of Qianqing Palace.
Once the attendants dispersed to carry out their orders, Ling Jing hurried to soothe her cheap father. “Prince Li and the Murong clan are completely entangled now—it actually saves you some trouble.”
The Emperor felt deeply unsettled. “Your uncle was upright and noble. How did his son… come to this?”
The uncle he referred to was his elder brother, the former Crown Prince.
Ling Jing understood at once. “If he dared confront you openly, why resort to such crooked paths? This… is desperation.” Seeing her father’s expression ease, she continued, “But over the years, you’ve indulged their family’s ambitions too much. Daughter advises you to cut decisively. In anyone’s eyes, you’ve treated Prince Li’s line well enough—too well, in fact.”
The Emperor thought the same.
Before his daughter presented a pile of irrefutable evidence, he would never have imagined that Prince Li and the Murong remnants were truly colluding so deeply, their reach so long.
No matter how much he missed his Crown Prince brother or cherished old debts of gratitude, this time he could no longer show mercy.
The next morning, the Emperor convened his senior ministers in Qianqing Palace. Ling Jing had her confidant leave the palace to deliver a small note, then went to the side hall to visit the Tenth Prince.
After studying her cheap brother for a moment, she smiled. “You really do look relieved.”
Outwardly relieved, inwardly—completely heartbroken.
Even if the Tenth Prince didn’t trust Fifth Sister, he had to trust his father’s methods.
His father’s immediate decision to confine Consort De all but confirmed it: Prince Li and the Murong clan had extended their hands into Xianfu Palace, and his mother not only knew—she tacitly allowed it. She had simply failed to realize that Prince Li and the Murong clan had no intention of sparing her, and had even used her hand to do the same to her only son.
The Tenth Prince hadn’t slept much that night. What truly gave him “relief” was realizing that his mother knew everything—yet told him nothing, not even a warning.
Perhaps she’d even planned to use the secret drug to control him.
After gathering himself, he asked, “Fifth Sister… you knew early on, didn’t you?”
Ling Jing nodded.
Her system and a careful rescan showed not the slightest sign of impending blackening. She sighed to the system, “From now on, when I run into three-views-off romance novels, I’ll just blindly help the villain.” The system replied, “Other worlds might vary, but in this one—even the villain’s spouse is a gentleman.” The Tenth Prince had truly turned disaster into fortune this time; the secret drug had been largely neutralized by sheer coincidence.
Still, compared to his physical ailment, his heart wound needed time. No matter what, as Consort De’s son, he would grieve and ache for a while—despite knowing clearly that his father had no intention of implicating him.
Thinking of the coming storm, he felt it best to keep his head down for a while. He decided to lie low and, of course, inform Xiao Li outside the palace to put her at ease.
In the blink of an eye, mid-April arrived. The palace exam—delayed by a full month—was held as usual in Baohe Hall.
As the top scorer of the metropolitan exam, Qin Jingzhou sat in his assigned seat. A slight lift of his head let him see the Emperor. He glanced at the palace exam topic; in essence, it was about increasing revenue and reducing expenditure.
A rootless scholar from humble origins—no matter how much backing he had from the Fifth Princess—would be courting death by ranting about austerity. His only path lay in increasing revenue.
In the late feudal era, the best way to do that was undoubtedly to open maritime trade.
As he wrote in obedience to the imperial will, producing several thousand words in one flowing stretch, the Emperor stood beside him, watching for a full quarter-hour.
Several days later, the palace exam results were announced.
With no suspense whatsoever, Qin Jingzhou became Zhuangyuan.
Before the ceremonial proclamation of names, the Emperor even issued another decree—bestowing marriage upon Qin Jingzhou and Princess Zhaoming.
Without even reading Ling Jing’s small note, Qin Jingzhou could sense the Emperor’s urgency, as though afraid of delays and complications. It made him curious—
Who else had set their sights on him?
Who else indeed?
Ling Jing’s note revealed the answer: the Noble Consort’s niece, and Prince Li’s legitimate daughter.
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