[The Behavioral Test]
In the medicine garden, Gu Xingyu watched the mute servant, Fu Ying, from the shadows. To confirm her suspicions, she "accidentally" knocked over a ceramic bowl.
Clatter!
As the bowl shattered, Fu Ying didn't react like a clumsy servant. His body coiled with the lightning-fast reflexes of a trained scout, and for a split second, his uneven gait matched the nightmare phantom perfectly. Xingyu's heart hammered against her ribs. It's him.
Back in the safety of their room, Xingyu revealed everything to Qing Fei. "Mother, I found him. The man who threw me into the vortex. He is a mute servant here, but he moves like a soldier."
[The Psychological Trap]
Xingyu laid out her plan: "We cannot confront him directly, or he will be silenced by those above him. We must break him mentally. I will tell him I am the infant who survived, and that Wan Luo has already confessed to me. Fear will make him turn on her."
Qing Fei, her eyes reddening with a mix of maternal fury and pain, agreed. "I will be there. He needs to know that the Underworld Queen is watching."
[The Confession of Shadows]
In the cold light of the side hall, Fu Ying was forced to his knees. Xingyu approached him, her voice like a chilling blade. "Twenty years ago, on Wan Luo's orders, you threw a baby into the Yao-Gate. I am that child. Do you remember?"
Fu Ying collapsed, his body racking with tremors. He couldn't speak, but his desperate gestures—pointing to his throat, miming starvation, and then pointing toward Wan Luo's residence—told the story.
A maid servant who understood sign language translated through tears: "He says he was forced! Wan Luo threatened to starve him to death if he didn't obey. He was just a tool!"
[The Queen's Wrath]
The air in the hall turned to ice. Qing Fei stood up, her regal robes sweeping the floor like a dark cloud. The twenty years of grief and deception finally boiled over into a terrifying resolve.
"Chain him!" Qing Fei commanded the guards, her voice hard as iron. "If he escapes, you pay with your heads."
She turned to her lead maid, her eyes burning with a cold, lethal light. "Go to the Great Hall. Summon the Emperor. Tell him I demand his presence immediately."
Xingyu felt a surge of warmth and strength from her mother's hand on her shoulder. The time for hiding was over. The truth was about to shake the very foundations of the Underworld.