Chapter 149: Not Seeing Anyone
If it weren’t for the Emperor insisting she spend the night in the palace, she wouldn’t have been caught off guard by the Empress Dowager.
’So it was only right to let the Emperor deal with the Empress Dowager.’
Although the Emperor and the Empress Dowager had a relatively harmonious mother-son relationship, Xiao Li felt that on this matter, at least, the Emperor wouldn’t be on his mother’s side.
The Empress Dowager had forced him to take Chen Pingting, aggressively demanding the rank of concubine for her. Then, she had pressured him to favor Chen Pingting until she conceived.
He was the Emperor. Yet, because that was his own mother, he could only give in time and time again. That didn’t mean he was a spineless puppet.
Chen Pingting was the one who had administered the drug, and now the Empress Dowager, incited by Chen Pingting, wanted to punish Princess Xuanyang severely. The Emperor would certainly not let it go.
It wasn’t that he cared so much for Xiao Li, but rather that he had already accumulated a great deal of resentment toward the Empress Dowager and Chen Pingting.
Of course, he couldn’t necessarily do much for Xiao Li. At most, he could state his position and persuade the Empress Dowager to back off.
The outcome was so predictable she could have guessed it with her eyes closed. Xiao Li was in no mood to stick around and watch the aftermath. After being revived by the Imperial Physician, she saw Hong Yue had returned and immediately left the palace with her.
Hong Yue’s eyes welled with tears. "Princess, I’m so useless. I couldn’t protect you."
Xiao Li had given Hong Yue a standing order: if anything happened, her first priority was to save her own life and avoid capture. Her martial arts skills were poor, and she was a trusted aide Xiao Li cared for deeply. If she were captured and used as leverage against Xiao Li, she would only be causing her mistress more trouble.
Xiao Li had no desire to play out some foolish drama where the servant dies for her master, or the master gets caught trying to save the servant.
So, upon seeing Xiao Li surrounded by the Empress Dowager’s people, Hong Yue had made herself as inconspicuous as possible and slipped away to hide while no one was paying attention.
Hong Yue trusted that her princess would have a way to get out of it, and she couldn’t stay behind and become a burden. She had escaped intending to find the Emperor and ask for help, but she hadn’t gotten far before the Princess herself came running out, with pursuers hot on her heels.
’She hadn’t expected the Empress Dowager to be so vicious! To send so many people after the Princess, to injure her and still not be satisfied, to even chase her out of the palace!’
Xiao Li was spattered with blood, but she had no open wounds. When her clothes were peeled back, however, they revealed a fist-sized bruise beneath her ribs, already darkening from red to purple. A little more force, and her bones would have snapped.
Xiao Li remained silent, and Hong Yue, after two choked sobs, managed to stifle her tears.
’The Princess didn’t like crying. If she cried too much, the Princess would start to hate her.’
Rong Qing was waiting with a carriage at the palace gates. Word of the incident inside hadn’t gotten out yet, but one look at Xiao Li’s deathly pale face and Hong Yue’s red-rimmed eyes told him something had gone wrong.
"Princess?"
Xiao Li gave a faint wave of her hand. "We’ll talk when we get back."
By the time Xiao Li had made her way back and was washing up, visitors from the palace had arrived.
First came people from the Empress, bearing gifts and expressing concern for Xiao Li’s health.
Xiao Li was in no mood for pleasantries. She sent them away immediately, using her poor health as an excuse.
She had just lain down on her bed when the Emperor’s men arrived.
"Princess, His Majesty sent someone."
Xiao Li didn’t even open her eyes. "I’m not seeing anyone."
Lan Yue hesitated. "Princess, it’s Chief Eunuch Lou."
’Mr. Lou isn’t like the other eunuchs.’
Xiao Li’s expression remained placid. "I am unwell. I will see no one."
Lan Yue understood and turned to relay the message.
"Chief, the Princess says she will not see anyone."
Lou Yan’s brow furrowed slightly. It wasn’t strange for the Princess to refuse visitors while injured. But the image of her walking past him, her face stained with blood, looking right through him as if he were invisible... that, he couldn’t get out of his head.
From that moment to this, his heart had been sinking bit by bit. Her refusal to see him now sent a wave of inexplicable panic through him.
"Please trouble Miss Lan Yue to inform the Princess that His Majesty has spoken with the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager will not trouble the Princess over this matter again. The Princess need not enter the palace until her injuries have healed."
He offered a list. "These are treasures and medicinal herbs from His Majesty. Please deliver them to her as well."
After Xiao Li returned to her manor, news of the events in the palace began to spread through the informants of the various aristocratic families.
Two incidents had occurred between last night and today, and each was spectacular in its own way.
The Princess rescued the Wang family’s daughter and nearly beat the Marquis Xuanping’s son to death. Not only did she go unpunished, but the Empress herself stepped in to defend her. In the end, the Wang family and Marquis Xuanping had to pay a combined ten thousand taels of silver in compensation.
Rumor had it the Marquis Xuanping was also given a beating, right in front of the Emperor, Empress, and the Wang Family.
The onlookers were left speechless.
’That familiar sense of absurdity again.’
’The great Wang family, thwarted by the Princess time and time again. How useless.’
First, there was the Lu family and the Prince Chen couple. Later came Prince Yanping and Princess Jia Ruo, followed by Mr. Wang. Now, the Marquis Xuanping and his son had been added to the list of victims.
"When Princess Xuanyang made a move, she only played in the big leagues."
But before they could even finish savoring that juicy tidbit, they heard that the Empress Dowager had tried to have Princess Xuanyang beaten to death. The Princess had escaped covered in blood, and the news had even startled His Majesty.
Another version claimed it was Princess Xuanyang who had gone berserk with a blade and chopped off a eunuch’s hand.
The truth was still unclear, but... either story was absolutely astounding.
Princess Xuanyang disappears for half a month, and the moment she returns, she’s at the center of two major incidents in a row.
By comparison, the fact that the Wang family’s daughter was nearly assaulted by her own fiancé, broke off the engagement, and entered the palace to become a female official seemed like a trivial matter.
Only Madam Wang was heartbroken, weeping inconsolably.
"Wanqing is being so foolish! How could she become a female official? Does she not want me as her mother anymore?"
A female official... The "official" part of the title sounded impressive, but in reality, she would be a subordinate to the Empress. It was a rank higher than a palace maid, responsible for helping the Empress manage palace affairs.
The senior matrons in the palace were, in fact, older female officials.
These female officials came from respectable backgrounds and held a certain degree of power, but because their duty was to the Empress, they couldn’t leave the palace at a young age to marry and raise children.
Typically, the Empress wouldn’t arrange a marriage for them until they were past thirty. After a hasty marriage and childbirth, they would return to the palace to resume their duties. Most spent their entire lives in the palace, only granted the grace of retiring to their family homes when they became too old and infirm to work.
The Empress is a daughter of the Wang family, and my daughter is also a daughter of the Wang family! Why should my daughter have to serve the Empress like a common maid?
"She was just unhappy with He Chengfeng, wasn’t she? We could have just called off the wedding!"
Madam Wang frantically grabbed Wang Zhihan’s hand. "Husband, let’s go get Wanqing and bring her back! I’ll find a new match for her, I promise it will be one she likes, all right?"
Wang Zhihan’s face was grim. "Don’t do anything rash. The Emperor himself has spoken. That is as good as an imperial edict. There’s no turning back now."
Madam Wang was incredulous. "So we’re just supposed to stand by and watch Wanqing’s life be thrown away in the palace?"
Wang Zhihan said, "I said there’s no turning back *now*, but that doesn’t mean *ever*. Calm down. Once this blows over, I’ll go to the palace and ask the Empress to arrange a marriage for Wanqing. The result will be the same."
Madam Wang was barely mollified and still felt anxious. "No, I have to go to the palace. I have to see her!"