Chapter 16 — Kneeling before the Queen and Duke

The suspicion between Tu Bach Quan and Tham Nhuoc Lan, which had been simmering since the mysterious meeting between the two of them with Khinh Vu, now flared up more intensely than ever when the news of Viet Khoi publicly reporting his suspicions related to Tuong Ba Khiem spread to their ears. Bach Quan, in extreme panic, began to suspect that Nhuoc Lan was planning to abandon him, trying to save himself by reporting everything to the court in exchange for leniency.

Late one night, when the two met in a familiar secret room, the atmosphere between them was completely different from the first days of planning together to poison Khinh Vu. There is no longer the same chemistry and absolute trust as before, instead there are probing eyes and words full of mutual vigilance.

"What did you say to the princess in your private meeting just now?" Bach Quan asked, his voice full of doubt, unable to hide the tension in each word.

"I only talk about innocuous things," Nhuoc Lan replied, her voice cold but her eyes no less searching. "Why do you ask that? Are you doubting me?"

"I don't know who to trust anymore," Bach Quan replied, his voice shaking with panic. "Do you know what the princess said to me? She hinted that you and I had some unusual feelings, as if she was deliberately spying, testing both of our reactions. If she knew everything, why didn't she take action to accuse us right away?"

Nhuoc Lan was silent, her mind was also reeling with a series of similar thoughts. She understood better than anyone that Khinh Vu's deliberate sowing of doubt was a sharp psychological tactic, but knowing that did not mean she could be completely immune to the insecurity that was gradually taking over her mind. In particular, when she thought about the fact that the person behind assigning the task to her all these years had never contacted her to give instructions on how to deal with this dangerous situation, she became even more confused, wondering if she was being abandoned or not.

"If she has enough evidence," Nhuoc Lan finally spoke up, trying to keep her voice calm, "then perhaps she is waiting for the most appropriate time to reveal everything to the court, instead of just resolving it quietly. That means we still have time, although not much, to find a way to turn the situation around."

"How to turn?" Bach Quan asked, his voice full of despair.

Nhuoc Lan did not answer immediately, her eyes flashed with cold calculation. A dangerous thought began to form in her mind: if the situation had reached a dead end, perhaps the best way to protect herself was to push all the blame onto Bach Quan, making him the sole mastermind of the entire plot, while she herself was just a forced accomplice out of fear of his power.

But at that moment, Bach Quan, who was also experiencing similar thoughts in his own panic, suddenly spoke first, his voice equally full of calculation. "Nhuoc Lan, I think we should go to the princess together, honestly confess part of the incident, put all the responsibility on her, saying that it was she who forced and seduced me to participate in this plot because of her jealousy towards the princess. That way, at least I can be considered the one who was taken advantage of, and the crime can be somewhat mitigated."

Nhuoc Lan was stunned by that blatant proposal. She did not expect that the person she once loved and had planned together for so many nights could now turn around and betray her so quickly. She smiled faintly, her voice full of bitterness. "Do you really think I will sit still and let you blame all my sins on me? I sacrificed my youth and my honor to help you achieve the power you desire, yet at the last minute, you are willing to abandon me so mercilessly?"

"This is not a matter of mourning or not," Bach Quan replied, his voice becoming cold and scary, completely different from the image of the gentle husband that Khinh Vu once knew. "This is a matter of life and death. If no one steps forward to admit all their sins, we will both have to die. I don't want to die, Nhuoc Lan, and I believe you don't either."

That night's conversation ended in the complete breakdown of the relationship that was once built on the foundation of common desire and calculation, now collapsing under the weight of each person's fear and selfish survival instinct. Nhuoc Lan left the room that night with a heart full of new hatred, not only for Khinh Vu but now also for Bach Quan, the person she once believed would go with her to the end of the road.

In the following days, Bach Quan lived in a state of extreme insecurity, unable to sleep every night, often startled awake in the middle of the night because of nightmares about the day he would be dragged to the execution ground to be punished. He began to avoid Nhuoc Lan, no longer daring to go to the familiar secret room. Whenever they happened to meet each other in the palace, they only exchanged a few cold words, completely different from the secret intimacy that the two of them used to have. Old lady Tu noticed that her son was getting thinner and thinner and looked haggard. She repeatedly asked him, but he only used the excuse of tiring work, hiding the fear that was eroding his mind day by day.

Nhuoc Lan, for her part, is no more comfortable. She began to try to contact the mysterious intermediary she met at the abandoned temple, hoping to receive some instructions or assistance from the force behind her, but after waiting for a long time, she still received no response, making her more and more panicked, feeling like she had been completely abandoned in the middle of the storm that was about to engulf both herself and Bach Quan. That loneliness and helplessness gradually pushed her to more extreme thoughts, considering whether she should go to the princess herself to confess first, taking the initiative before Bach Quan could betray her.

A few days later, when he felt he could no longer endure the growing pressure from all sides, Bach Quan decided to act first. He secretly wrote a letter, sent to Khinh Vu's private palace through a trusted servant, in which he confessed part of the truth about the poisoning plot, but cleverly placed all responsibility for the mastermind on Nhuoc Lan, saying that she herself had forced and threatened him to participate for fear that she would reveal other family secrets if he did not cooperate.

The servant carried the letter in the dead of night, weaving through deserted streets to avoid the eyes and ears of outsiders. He carefully delivered it to a trusted maid of Khinh Vu who was waiting at the side gate of the royal palace according to Bach Quan's careful instructions. On the way back, the servant couldn't help but worry. Even though he didn't know the content of the letter, it was enough to feel the abnormality in his master's panicked attitude in recent days, wondering if Tu Phu was facing some major disaster that a layman like him couldn't know about.

When he received that letter, Khinh Vu read it three times, then folded it neatly and placed it on the furthest corner of the table as if he didn't want it to stain other papers, an unspoken gesture of contempt for the cowardice of the man who was once her husband. She understood that this was a sign that the alliance between the two traitors had completely dissolved, and this was also the best opportunity for her and Viet Khoi to exploit and speed up the process of bringing the entire truth to light before Tuong Ba Khiem could discover it and find a way to cover up the clues.

She immediately called Viet Khoi over, and together they discussed the meaning of this letter. "Bach Quan started to really panic," Khinh Vu said, still holding the letter, her thumb rubbing the folds on the paper over and over as if weighing each word. "This proves that the alliance between him and Nhuoc Lan is irreparably broken. This is an opportunity for us to exploit, using the suspicion between them to force both of them to reveal the entire truth to the court, without us having to spend too much effort in questioning."

Viet Khoi nodded in agreement, but also reminded him of the necessary caution. "We need to verify whether what Bach Quan wrote in the letter is trustworthy or not, to avoid the case that he is deliberately staging another drama to distract us, or to protect himself more than to tell the full truth. Either way, this is an important step forward, bringing us closer to the time when we can publicly reveal the entire incident to the Holy King and the civil and military officials."