Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family

Chapter 831: Chapter 831: Those who are not of our kind, their hearts will be different!

“Empress, a hen crowing at dawn is but a harbinger of disorder to a household and the downfall of a nation. How could there be any joy in such an outcome?” Liu Sisi, clutching the two children, spat the accusation with venom.

“I, the hen crowing at dawn? Liu Sisi, by what right do you speak of me? What qualifications do you have to judge me!”

The Empress seemed to have been touched on a sore spot as she shrieked at the top of her voice. For a moment, a sinister smile stretched across her face.

“Heh, even if I were the hen crowing at dawn, I would still be better than certain people. It is often said: ‘Those not of our kind must have a different heart!’ To think you dare spout such brazen words here, it seems you no longer wish to keep your tongue! Guards, slap her hard for me; I want to see just how tough she can talk!”

Even the royal “I” was invoked, indicating that the Empress was indeed furious!

Liu Sisi internally cursed at this troubling development!

...

However, her thoughts quickly shifted, and she let out a faint chuckle, her crisp voice sounding all the more eerie in the gloomy sky prison.

“Empress, why go to such lengths? You didn’t come here today just to slap Ruyu’s mouth, did you? You might as well kill me with one swift cut; that would satisfy your vendetta and spare you from your nightly anxieties.”

“You wish to die? Quite the luxurious thought that is.”

The Empress suddenly laughed: “Lin Xiner, oh Lin Xiner, do you know what I regret the most?” Without waiting for Liu Sisi to reply, she continued: “What I regret the most is having let you, this wretch, slip through my hands, and what I regret even more is allowing you to die such an easy death…”

Lin Xiner?

The Empress actually recognized her own mother; it seemed the conflict between the two was not insignificant. Women’s jealousy indeed is the most terrifying, no wonder she targeted me at every turn!

“Oh? So the Empress also knew my mother?” Liu Sisi, still unafraid of death, continued to speak defiantly, hoping to learn more about her birth mother from the other party.

“You wish to know? I’d rather thwart your hopes.”

The Empress raised her head proudly, looking down with contempt: “I came here today to see you, you wretch. Initially, Lin Xiner caught His Majesty’s eye with those soul-ensnaring eyes of yours. Now you intend to use this same pair of eyes to bewitch His Majesty, even aspiring to have him declare your son the Crown Prince? Humph! Today, I’ll destroy your bewitching beads and see if you dare continue to deceive the world! Guards, for me…”

A flurry of urgent footsteps approached from afar, interrupting what the Empress was about to say next.

“Your Majesty, there’s been a grave incident!”

The person speaking was an eunuch who whispered fervently into the Empress’s ear.

As the eunuch spoke urgently, the Empress’s eyes gradually bulged, as if an unbelievable event had transpired.

Afterward, she glared at Liu Sisi hatefully, then with a sneer,

“Today, you’re lucky! Let’s go!”

Having said that, she led a large entourage away from the sky prison like a whirlwind, with darkness settling around once more.

Liu Sisi held the two children tightly, not daring to let go for even a moment, as if only thus could she find the strength to carry on.

A light chortle came from the next cell, followed by an old voice.

“To think a princess of the nation could be so foolish! She doesn’t even understand the saying ‘As long as the green mountain remains, there’s no fear of running out of firewood.’ It’s simply courting death, she can blame no one but herself.”

Liu Sisi turned her head towards the neighboring cell. Pitch-black, without a sliver of light, she could still easily identify the direction of the voice, which came from a corner at the edge of the adjacent cell.

Liu Sisi silently chuckled to herself, but offered no retort.

Previously, she had indeed provoked the Empress intentionally, hoping to divert Her Majesty’s attention from the two children to herself. Even if it meant enduring some physical suffering, she welcomed it with open arms!

“Niuniu! Chou Chou, wake up.”

Liu Sisi hastily tried to untie the ropes binding the two children. She had no idea what the ropes were made of, but they were exceedingly strong and, despite using all her strength, Liu Sisi couldn’t untie them and, in the end, had to resort to gnawing at them bit by bit with her teeth.

Liu Sisi didn’t know that these ropes used to bind people were clearly made from ox tendon and animal skin through a special process and couldn’t be untied by brute force alone.

Fortunately, the person who had tied the knots knew they were dealing with children and had not made them too tight.

Still, it took Liu Sisi a great deal of effort to finally free the children from the ropes. Only at this moment did she realize her mouth was full of the taste of blood, seemingly having accidentally grazed her gums.

“Chou Chou, Niuniu…”

“Mom… Niuniu’s fine, Niuniu’s just really sleepy and wants to sleep…”

Sleepy? Liu Sisi slowly reached out and touched Niuniu’s face, immediately becoming alarmed by her burning temperature. Upon touching Chou Chou, she was relieved to find he was only sleeping soundly and didn’t have a fever.

“Good girl, Niuniu, if you want to sleep, then sleep for a while. When you wake up, everything will be alright.”

To increase the chance that as many members of the Di Family would survive as possible, she had purposely left the triplets behind. It wasn’t that she was heartless; she knew that as long as the triplets were there, they wouldn’t raise the Empress’s suspicions, thereby buying more time for others to escape.

Everything was going exactly as she had anticipated!

The existence of the triplets had distracted the Empress’s eyes. But Xiao Xiao hadn’t been brought here; could it be that Xiao Xiao had also managed to escape?

“Mom, Niuniu is so thirsty, Niuniu wants to drink water…”

In a daze, Niuniu muttered softly.

“Don’t worry, Niuniu, Mom will get you some water. Be good…”

In the darkness, Liu Sisi frantically searched for the bowl of water.

She had promised to face life and death calmly, yet when the moment really came, she didn’t want anything to happen to the children at all.

She was just an ordinary person and didn’t possess the magnanimity to sacrifice her children’s lives for the sake of others. But she had no choice but to do so! If she had sent the triplets away too, wouldn’t that be even more confirmation that she was the killer who had murdered His Majesty?

Finally finding the bowl, she carefully picked it up and brought it to Niuniu’s lips: “Niuniu, here’s the water, drink up.” This was the water she hadn’t drunk today, intentionally saving it for later.

“Mom, Chou Chou wants Mom—”

Chou Chou, lying next to her, seemed restless in his sleep and started kicking violently. He accidentally kicked Liu Sisi’s arm, and her hand wobbled, nearly sending the bowl flying. Thankfully, her reflexes were quick, and she managed to catch it in time, but the water inside was now only a little.

Feeding Niuniu again, she drank up the water in a few gulps and continued to murmur softly.

“Water, water! Mom, Niuniu still wants water, water…”

In the sky prison, they only provided a bowl of water a day, and the next water wouldn’t come until the next shift change. Where could she find more water?

Liu Sisi was also extremely anxious.