The bluestone pavement outside the Shuntian Prefecture Hall shone white in the scorching summer sun, as if it could fry an egg. Shen Ruorou's embroidered shoes had been flung somewhere in her struggle. Her bare feet stomped over the scorching stone, each step crushing sharp gravel and sending tiny drops of blood splattering, leaving crooked bloodstains on the bluestone. Two burly yamen runners held her arms like chickens, the iron chains rubbing red marks on her slender wrists. The clattering sound of the tugs startled the swallows nesting under the eaves.

"Let me go! I'm Shen Ruorou, the second daughter of the General's Mansion! How dare you, a bunch of slaves, do this to me—!" She cried at the top of her lungs, her hair long since tangled in a mess, a few graying strands clinging to her sweat-soaked cheeks. The lead powder at the corners of her eyes, washed away by tears, had become two crooked black lines, smearing all over her face, like a clown on stage with an erroneous face makeup. Her once meticulously maintained nails were now stained with dirt, and a few had even broken off from digging through the cracks in the prison wall last night, revealing a bloody mess of nail beds.

The second-floor railings of the street-side teahouse were crowded with people watching the fun. Even a few naughty children were squatting on the roof tiles, holding the candies they had just bought and throwing peanut shells down while eating. One shell hit Shen Ruorou's head accurately, causing a burst of laughter:

"Look! This is Miss Shen Er who stuffed cotton into her belly to fake a pregnancy!"

"I heard she stuffed it with three pounds of freshly fluffed cotton! The Grand Tutor's wife caught her red-handed at the Spring Banquet, and the cotton rolled all over the floor!"

"Shh—look over there! Miss Shen is here!"

Chen Weiwan stood beside the Seventh Prince Xiao Yu's white horse, twirling a round bamboo fan. Originally a watercolor orchid, she had forced the painter in the West Market to add a plump rabbit. Now, it swayed with her movements, the bamboo ribs creaking softly. Hearing the movement, she lifted her eyelids, her long lashes casting subtle shadows beneath them. She saw Shen Ruorou, impatiently kicked by a yamen runner, stumble and bump into the sign of a streetside silk shop. The scarlet strip of cloth embroidered with "Yunjin Pavilion" brushed against her cheek, leaving a faint red mark.

"Cousin, be careful where you step." Chen Weiwan spoke loudly, her round fan covering half her face, revealing only her graceful jawline and the curve of her lips that seemed to be half a smile. "The path to Jingxin Temple is much easier to walk on than this gravel road. At least the blue brick floor inside the temple doesn't have so many gravel to hurt your feet, so you won't grind the soles of your feet like the Kitchen God's spatula."

Shen Ruorou raised her head suddenly, her eyes turned red due to congestion, staring at Shen Weiwan not far away, like a dying beast: "Shen Weiwan! You little bitch who deserves to be cut into pieces! You must not die a good death--!"

"I don't know whether I'll die well or not," Chen Weiwan waved her round fan, and the fat rabbit on the fan seemed to shake its head. "But cousin, you must recite the Buddha's name well when you enter the family temple. I heard that the vegetarian food at Jingxin Temple is the lightest, with brown rice and boiled cabbage every meal. It's perfect for you to lose weight - look at your wrist, it's round and thicker than the leg of the Pekingese dog I keep in my room."

The people around her burst into even louder laughter. Shen Ruorou subconsciously tried to raise her wrist to cover it, but the cold iron chain pinched her painfully. She realized with a start that the three gold and jade bracelets she'd worn to show off her wealth were now down to the thinnest one. It had hit the wall in her struggle, leaving a clear crack, a stark reflection of her shattered life.

"You're talking nonsense!" she screamed back, her voice distorted by her haste. "I'm as round and smooth as pearls and jade! I look wealthy and noble!" But just as she had finished her words, she saw a mutton-fat jade bracelet loosely wrapped around Shen Weiwan's wrist. It was a relic left by Shen Weiwan's biological mother. It was very watery, and in the sunlight, her wrist looked as white as jade, making her own cracked bracelet look like a piece of broken porcelain picked up from the roadside, worthless.

"Smooth as pearls and jade?" Xiao Yu, who had been leaning on the saddle, suddenly spoke. His fingertips gently tapped the edge of Shen Weiwan's round fan, his dark eyes narrowed in the sunlight with a hint of playfulness. "I think it's Miss Shen's wrist that can be described as 'soft and graceful'."

Chen Weiwan turned around and glared at him, her round fan snapping shut, the bamboo bones making a crisp sound: "Your Highness is teasing me again." Although she said this, the dimples at the corners of her eyes quietly spread out, and she secretly laughed at the fact that the Seventh Prince was now getting better at following her words.

At this moment, the enraged Shen Ruoruo suddenly burst out with brute force, broke free from the yamen runners' grip, and pounced on Shen Weiwan like crazy: "I will kill you!" Her nails were still stained with dirt from scratching the cracks in the wall in the prison last night, and she was about to grab Shen Weiwan's delicate cheek.

Without even a frown, Xiao Yu lightly curled his toes, sending a broom leaning against the corner of the wall flying. The bamboo broom handle jabbed Shen Ruoruo right in the knee. She cried out "Ouch!" and fell to her knees like a dead tree. Her forehead slammed hard against the bluestone, leaving a large purple bump. The pain was so severe that tears and snot streamed down her face.

"Cousin, what are you doing?" Chen Weiwan took two steps back calmly, her moon-white skirt sweeping the dust on the ground, leaving a faint trail. "Could it be that you want to pay me a great tribute? But I remember that the rule of Jingxin Temple is that you only need to kowtow when you see a Bodhisattva. I am a mortal, and I can't bear your great tribute."

The yamen runners rushed forward and roughly pulled Shen Ruoruo up from the ground. The iron chain made a harsh sound on the stone slabs. When she was pulled up, her hair was still stained with a few dead leaves that had fallen from the eaves. She was in a mess, like a chicken just fished out of the mud. She stared at the jade bracelet on Shen Weiwan's wrist, as if suddenly remembering something, and screamed: "That jade bracelet is mine! It was my mother who wanted to steal it..."

This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!