Chapter Thirty: He's Not the biological son!
Li Zhou staggered out of the ancestral hall, leaning on the door frame, his forehead covered in cold sweat.
Although the thirty strokes of the cane did not damage the tendons and bones, every step brought a tearing pain to the back.
He gritted his teeth and stubbornly straightened his back, refusing to show any weakness.
The servant was about to help the young master up when he was pushed away.
As Li Zhou walked through the corridor, he suddenly stopped. In the center of the courtyard, Zhang Yingying was being forced to kneel on the bluestone slab by two rough old women.
Her hair was disheveled, and there was blood at the corner of her mouth. Where was the dignity she usually displayed as a favored concubine?
"Stop!" Li Zhou rushed forward despite the pain, but froze when he saw the figure in the corridor.
Wang Qingzhi was leaning against the balustrade, sipping tea. Seeing him arrive, she slowly put down her teacup: "Second Young Master, are you going to defy family rules?"
Li Zhou looked around but did not see Li Xiangyuan. Instead, Li Yan was hiding by a pillar not far away and dared not go forward.
"Zhou'er! Save your mother!" Zhang Yingying looked at the person who came and cried out in desperation as if she had found a lifeline. She had always known that Li Xiangyuan was a person who put power and interests above feelings, but she never expected that Li Xiangyuan could be so ruthless.
Just as Li Zhou was about to step forward, Zhang Yingying fainted due to her anxiety.
Just then, a clear, cold voice rang out from behind:
"What are you doing, second brother?"
Li Bao'er had changed her clothes and was wearing a plain white cloak. Her left arm was in a sling as she walked slowly towards them. The sunlight shone on her pale face, making her eyes appear even more serene.
"Your father just punished you, and you're already in such a hurry to act like a loving mother?"
Li Zhou suddenly looked up: "Li Bao'er! You!"
But seeing her injured hand, he was speechless for a moment. At the hunting grounds, he had overheard the conversation between the fourth princess and her guard when he shot the tigress with an arrow.
"My husband must be a hero who can shoot an arrow through a willow leaf from a hundred paces! Just like... just like my brother Prince Jing who shot two geese with one arrow the other day!"
It was this sentence that made him, as if possessed, nock an arrow and draw his bow.
But who could have imagined that cubs behind that rock had angered the mother tiger? And who could have imagined that it would cause her to be injured like this?
Having lived in the capital for so long, Li Zhou had long come to realize that no matter how talented he was, he would always be trapped by his status as a son of a concubine and could never rise in rank.
He was unwilling to accept this situation.
This appearance and talent may not be worth mentioning in the imperial examination, but since we are trapped in this city anyway, why not strive for a bright future?
Isn't the Fourth Princess in dire need of a "brave and incomparable" consort?
"Why have you stopped talking?" Li Bao'er tilted her head slightly, her pale face appearing even more ashen against her white cloak. "Has Second Brother had a change of heart?"
Li Zhou clenched his fists. He stared at Li Bao'er's slender neck and suddenly felt the absurdity of his own background. He was not Zhang's biological son at all!
Zhang's biological son had frozen to death on a winter night due to her negligence! Because he was young, she asked someone to find a child who looked similar and brought him back to her house to raise.
So Zhang didn't care about him at all. No one was kind to him when he was young, except for Li Bao'er, who was a year older than him...
Those thoughts that fester in the dead of night, thoughts that cannot be seen in the light, coiled around his heart like venomous snakes. If anyone were to find out that he harbored such filthy ideas about his elder sister, his future would be completely ruined.
But she is clearly not his biological sister, and the two thoughts often compare in his mind.
In an attempt to escape, Li Zhou's attitude towards Li Bao'er became increasingly hostile, but he never truly intended to hurt her.
"What happened in the hunting grounds was my fault."
Li Yan, who had been hiding behind a pillar, suddenly rushed out! She threw herself at Zhang Yingying, raised her tearful eyes, and glared fiercely at Li Bao'er, her voice shrill:
"Eldest sister, why are you so aggressive! Second brother has already admitted his mistake, and mother has already been punished. Do you really want to drive the three of us—mother and children—to our deaths before you're satisfied?!"
Her cry immediately drew everyone's attention; she was determined to make a big scene!
At this time of day, after Grandmother finished chanting scriptures and worshipping Buddha, she would always be helped by her maid to take a walk and rest here!
Li Yan seemed to have suffered a great injustice: "Elder sister! We know we are of lowly status and have never dared to compete with you! Even if Second Brother has a thousand faults, he has already been punished by the family law, and Mother has been innocently implicated! You are now the future Princess Consort of Jing, and are of incomparably noble. Why do you still want to kill us three, mother and sons!"
Sure enough, just as the commotion on this side grew louder, a series of hurried footsteps and the thud of a cane hitting the ground came from the end of the corridor.
"What kind of behavior is this, making such a racket!" A stern rebuke rang out.
Madam Li, surrounded by a group of maids and servants, strode over with a gloomy expression. When she saw Aunt Zhang lying unconscious on the ground, Li Zhou kneeling, Li Yan crying with tears streaming down her face, and Wang Qingzhi and her daughter adopting a posture of "bullying" others, her brows immediately furrowed, and her displeased gaze fell directly on Wang Qingzhi and Li Bao'er.
"Mother." Upon seeing this, Wang Qingzhi stood up and gave a slight curtsy, her tone calm.
Old Madam Li didn't even glance at her. She stomped her cane heavily and pointed at Aunt Zhang and Li Zhou on the ground: "Hurry up and help them up! What kind of behavior is this!"
Then, her cloudy eyes swept over Li Bao'er:
"Li Bao'er! Now that you've grown up and want to be a princess, are you determined to cause chaos and make the whole capital laugh at my Li family?"
Without even asking any questions, she immediately assumed that Li Bao'er was abusing her power: "Yan'er is right, Zhou'er was wrong, and she has been punished. What more do you want? Do you want to ruin your father's bloodline? How could our Li family produce such an unforgiving and narrow-minded eldest daughter!"
Li Yan hid behind her grandmother, a hint of triumphant calculation flashing across her lowered face.
Li Bao'er sneered inwardly at her grandmother's indiscriminate accusations, but remained calm on the surface. Just as she was about to speak, her mother, Wang Qingzhi, stepped in first, shielding her behind her.
"What you're saying, old lady, is utterly unreasonable!" Wang Qingzhi's voice suddenly turned cold as she met Madam Li's gaze without flinching. "Bao'er nearly lost her life at the hunting grounds. Does she have to be the one who loses her life because of her good brother to be considered magnanimous?"
"You!" Old Madam Li was speechless for a moment.
Li Bao'er stopped her mother and stepped forward herself.
"You keep saying we're going too far and causing trouble in the family. Then tell me, Grandmother, if my second brother's arrow had really taken my life or injured the Fourth Princess's precious body at the hunting grounds today, would it be a big deal if the entire Li family were to be buried with your precious grandson, or would it be a big deal if I followed the family rules and my mother acted properly right now?"
Her gaze swept over the trembling Li Yan and the ashen-faced Li Zhou, finally settling on her grandmother's face. A faint sneer curled at the corner of her lips: "It's natural for a grandmother to dote on her grandchildren, but if that doting goes to the point of being unable to distinguish right from wrong or care about the consequences, then it will destroy the entire Li family sooner or later!"
Old Madam Li's face turned purple from these merciless words, and she stomped her cane loudly: "You, you're being insolent!"
"I'm just telling the truth," Li Bao'er said calmly. "The Emperor's decree of marriage has already been issued. I am not only a daughter of the Li family now, but also the future Princess Consort of Jing. If I can't even manage a concubine and a half-brother in my own family today, how will I establish myself in the Prince's residence? Don't I care about the dignity of the royal family?"
When asked the question, Madam Li was speechless and could only stare at her.
Li Bao'er said no more and helped her mother up, saying, "Mother, let's go, it's windy here."
The mother and daughter turned and left, leaving behind a group of people in the courtyard who dared not utter a sound.
As Li Bao'er passed by Li Yan, she paused briefly and whispered a sentence:
"Li Yan, you really make people not want to bully you, do you know why?"
Li Yan suddenly looked up, a hint of confusion on her face.
"Because you're so stupid."
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