Chapter 4: I Want to Divorce My Husband
Xiao Li followed the eunuch to the Empress Dowager’s Changchun Palace. The room was already filled with people, each one dressed in lavish finery. The figure at the head of them all possessed a profound and dignified air.
Having seen countless palace-intrigue dramas, this scene didn’t scare her in the slightest.
She sized up the luxuriously decorated palace, then noticed how every face in the room instantly soured the moment they saw her.
’So, it’s an inquisition.’
The Emperor and Empress Dowager were seated at the head of the room. The people on the left looked familiar, as did the ones on the right.
Before Xiao Li could get a good look at everyone, her eyes landed on Lu Yanzhi. His head was wrapped in bandages, and his face was ghastly pale.
Amid the crowd of lavishly dressed people, the white bandages on his head were quite conspicuous. ’His face is even more handsome in the daylight,’ she thought. ’And this pitiful, wounded look makes him even more attractive.’
She tore her eyes away and strode forward gracefully.
"Empress Dowager, Brother."
Before Xiao Li could finish her curtsy, the Empress Dowager immediately lashed out. "Why did you strike the Prince Consort? And you hit everyone else, too! Where are your manners? Your upbringing? Is this how I taught you?"
’Just as I thought. She doesn’t even bother to find out what happened. The scolding just rolls right off her tongue.’
Xiao Li rose to her feet and looked at the Empress Dowager—the woman who had cast a long shadow over the original princess’s life. She was powerful, high-ranking, and noble. In her early forties, she was by no means old, but her eyes were cruel and her expression was sour.
Next, she looked at the Emperor. He was dressed in a Bright Yellow Dragon Robe, looking regal and refined but lacking a commanding presence. He had the air of a scholar, but his narrow eyes glinted with cunning.
She disliked them both, but the power of life and death they held in their hands was something she could not challenge right now.
’Fine. I’ll just have to endure this for now.’
Xiao Li glanced toward Lu Yanzhi, her expression a mixture of confusion and derision. "Lu Yanzhi, how do you have the audacity to come tattling to the palace?"
Lu Yanzhi maintained his cold, indifferent expression, not even deigning to spare her a glance.
The Empress Dowager’s brow furrowed as she snapped, "I am asking you a question! Do you have any respect for me at all?"
At this, a middle-aged man standing beside Lu Yanzhi rose to his feet.
"Empress Dowager, Your Majesty, let us drop the matter here. I’m sure the Princess did not mean it. There is no need to make a fuss over a marital dispute; they should be allowed to resolve it themselves. Yanzhi’s injuries are merely superficial. He will recover after a few days of rest."
’No need to make a fuss? Then why was this brought before the imperial court in the first place? Why is he playing the good guy now?’
’Hypocrite.’
Xiao Li looked at him, silent for a moment before she recognized him. It was Lu Yanzhi’s own father. Lu Yanzhi’s grandfather was the current Prime Minister and, as the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, the head of all civil servants. His father was no less impressive, serving as the Assistant Minister of Rites.
The Lu family was the most powerful aristocratic family in the civil servant faction, with over twenty members serving as court officials. That was why the Emperor was simultaneously wary of them and trying to win them over, treating them with a great deal of respect.
’For him to say he wouldn’t press the matter was merely a show of humility. Could the Emperor really just agree?’
’Of course not.’
The Emperor immediately put on an expression of fury. "Lu Aiqing, you are truly magnanimous, but Xuanyang’s behavior was atrocious. This matter absolutely cannot be dismissed so lightly."
"Then what do you intend to do, Brother? Have me killed?"
Xiao Li’s chilling voice rang out, and all eyes instantly fell upon her. She slowly lifted her head. She was smiling, but the smile was cold and full of mockery.
"Make a fuss?" Her tone shifted as she turned to face Mr. Lu. "Mr. Lu, do you know why I beat him?"
Before Mr. Lu could answer, she turned to Lu Yanzhi, her gaze piercing.
"Prince Consort, do you dare tell them what happened last night?"
Lu Yanzhi’s pale lips pressed into a thin line. ’It’s true I did something wrong last night, something that can’t be made public,’ he thought. ’But isn’t Zhang Jing already dead? What is the Princess still trying to achieve by making a scene?’
"Princess, you..."
"You don’t dare, do you!"
Xiao Li let out an unbridled laugh, and her expression turned frigid. "If you won’t say it, I will! You have the gall to come to the palace and complain? I’m the one who should be filing a complaint!"
She spun around, her voice ringing with righteous fury. "I want to accuse the Lu family of deceiving the Emperor by marrying a defective man to a princess!"
With that, she yanked up her sleeve. "The Prince Consort, Lu Yanzhi, is impotent! I want a divorce!"
The crowd was still reeling from Xiao Li’s frenzied state, but no one expected her to drop such a bombshell. The accusation threw the entire hall into chaos.
Vice Minister Lu nearly staggered.
At the side, the young, brocade-clad Prince Wei spat out a mouthful of tea, completely stunned. "Imperial Sister, what are you saying?"
But then his eyes landed on the brilliant red mark on her arm. He instantly clamped his hand over his own mouth, his gaze shifting suspiciously toward Lu Yanzhi, and then... down.
Almost everyone in the room unconsciously repeated Prince Wei’s actions.
Lu Yanzhi had never suffered such humiliation in his entire life. His usually cold and indifferent expression instantly cracked. "I..."
’How could I possibly be impotent? There’s nothing wrong with my body!’
But the part of her arm Xiao Li had revealed was as fair as jade, her skin whiter than snow. Upon it, the crimson mark was exceptionally conspicuous.
The guardian sand! Proof of her virginity.
Lu Yanzhi and the Princess had been married for three years, yet her guardian sand remained...
No man could endure such humiliation, especially in full view of the court.
To accuse him of impotence... it was a vulgar and deeply personal insult, an affront to a gentleman’s dignity.
"I..." For once, Lu Yanzhi felt compelled to defend himself. "I just haven’t consummated the marriage with the Princess. It’s not that I’m..."
This was the downside of putting on such a cool front. He was usually a man of few words, and now, at this crucial moment, he found his tongue was useless.
Poor Lu Yanzhi. For all his immense learning and astonishing talent, he had never learned how to refute such a slanderous accusation.
He broke out in an anxious sweat, but to no avail. The expressions of the onlookers shifted from shock to contemplation, and then to dawning realization.
Impotent. Of course he couldn’t consummate the marriage.
Three years without consummating the marriage? That must mean he’s impotent.
That had to be it.
"Preposterous!" The Empress Dowager was the first to recover, shouting in fury, "Xuanyang, have you no sense of shame at all...?"
Xiao Li’s stunt had thoroughly enraged the Empress Dowager, leaving her both shocked and furious.
"Someone! Someone, drag her away for me!"
She was terrified of what other outrageous things the princess might say.
Xiao Li didn’t resist as she was being pulled away, but she wasn’t finished yet.
Her gaze fell on Lu Yanzhi, calm and detached, yet every word was like a dagger to the heart. "For all my faults, I am still a princess, a woman of the Imperial Family’s bloodline. After marrying me, you paid me no mind. I exhausted myself trying to please you, yet for three years, you have treated me with the same cold indifference, leaving early and returning late, as if you couldn’t bear to even look at me."
"Yes, I hit you. But I will not apologize for it. My only regret is that I didn’t beat you to death last night!"
"I gave you my heart, I tolerated you, I did everything to please you, deluding myself into thinking I could one day melt that frozen heart of yours. It’s been three years! Even a block of ice should have some warmth by now! And to think I blamed myself, believing I wasn’t good enough. It turns out you’re just a worthless cripple. And you have the audacity to despise me? Ha..."
That last syllable was delivered with maximum destructive force.
As Xiao Li’s mocking voice faded, the great hall fell into a dead silence. You could have heard a pin drop.
Xiao Li had no feelings for Lu Yanzhi, so she delivered those lines in a flat monotone. But everyone present had witnessed Princess Xuanyang’s fawning and deep love for him in the past. Now, her cold, sarcastic demeanor perfectly embodied a woman whose heart had turned to ash.
"Xuanyang!" Lu Yanzhi shot to his feet, enraged. The usual, empty indifference in his eyes was gone, replaced by pure, murderous intent.
Xiao Li was extremely satisfied by this scene. ’Oh dear,’ she thought. ’Looks like someone’s defenses have been breached.’
’Lu Yanzhi’s whole persona was that of a cold, lofty immortal, untouched by worldly affairs. In the original story, he was infatuated with the female lead from start to finish. Even knowing he could never be with her, he remained chaste his entire life, never touching another woman.’
’Remaining chaste is a fine quality, but isn’t it a shame for such devotion to go unnoticed?’
’How could she, his "deeply loving" wife, possibly bear to let his great sacrifice go unseen?’
’Well, that’s settled now. Everyone knows their relationship is completely chaste—and that it will forever remain "immaculately" so.’
’I really am such a good person.’