The Capital City during the day was much more lively, beautifully dressed people came and went, with carriages and pedestrians in a continuous flow. The prosperity of the capital was fully showcased in broad daylight.
Accompanied by Fen Ling, Su Rong leisurely strolled along the main street. After walking an entire street length, suddenly a carriage rushed out from a corner. Thanks to their swift reactions, Su Rong and Fen Ling sidestepped in time and avoided being hit. As they steadied themselves, they noticed the carriage careened down the street at a tremendous speed. Even though it nearly hit people, the coachman did not stop to look.
Su Rong frowned, looking up, only caught sight of the back of an extravagant carriage.
Fen Ling whispered to Su Rong, "My Lady, it is the carriage from the Princess Qingping residence. The person seated inside must be the Duanhua Princess. A few days ago, I saw her carriage speeding across the streets, nearly hitting someone, and likewise, it didn’t stop."
Su Rong raised her eyebrows, "Duanhua Princess? The one who wanted to go to Jiangning County but was intercepted by Zhou Gu halfway, and then went mad on Zhou Gu’s return journey to the capital, as my elder brother mentioned in his letter?"
"Yes, that’s her."
Su Rong nodded, commenting, "Indeed, she is quite arrogant and lawless."
Fen Ling continued, "I heard that after returning to the capital, Princess Qingping took Duanhua Princess to cry before the Emperor, resulting in His Majesty wanting to punish Zhou’s young son, Sheng An. The eldest Princess came into the palace especially for this. In the end, Zhou’s Young Master compensated Duanhua Princess with two bottles of Solidified Fat Jade Cream ointment, plus five thousand taels of silver, and the matter was then dropped."
Su Rong wasn’t previously aware of this follow-up, but considering that Duanhua Princess, the Emperor’s only niece, held favor, it was understandable that Zhou Gu was penalized.
The two continued walking. Before they went far, the carriage that just passed suddenly turned around and came straight back at them. Su Rong and Fen Ling again dodged to the side of the road. Unexpectedly, this time the carriage did not continue forward but stopped beside them.
The curtain of the carriage compartment was lifted, revealing a domineering face staring at Su Rong, demanding, "Who are you? Take off your veil."
It didn’t make sense to Su Rong. Was the Duanhua Princess going around the streets, inquiring about veiled women she met, and ordering them to take off their veils? She had never heard of such a thing before. She turned to Fen Ling with a questioning look.
Fen Ling was also perplexed.
"Hurry up! Didn’t you hear what I said?" Duanhua stared intensively at Su Rong, urging.
Su Rong looked at Duanhua through her veil. This was a beautiful face, but because of the extravagant dressing and sharp eyebrows, the entire person appeared domineering. Unrushed and unhurried, she replied, "I heard you, but I don’t want to take it off."
Duanhua was furious, "How dare you!"
She stared at Su Rong, asking with an imposing manner, "Do you know who I am? You dare to defy my order?"
Su Rong answered in a toneless voice, "I don’t know."
"Since you don’t know, and you fail to recognize your superior, let me tell you, I am Duanhua." The infuriated Duanhua continued, "Now that I have introduced myself, and you know my identity, won’t you pay your respects when seeing me?"
Su Rong nodded, and just as expected, she paid her respects, "Princess Duanhua, greetings!"
Duanhua lifted her eyes in satisfaction, appreciating her sense of propriety, "Now, immediately, I want you to take off your veil."
Su Rong stood up straight, shaking her head, "I’m sorry, I can’t do that. Wearing a veil is not illegal, right? It’s the freedom of the common people. May I ask your highness, where in the law does it state that if I wear a veil on the street, and it offends your highness’s eyes, I must take it off?"
Suddenly, Duanhua got off the carriage and ordered, "Someone, come and remove her veil."
As soon as she finished her sentence, a guard stepped forward to remove the veil from Su Rong’s face.
Su Rong did not move, Fen Ling stepped forward and held off the guard, frowning coldly, "Princess Duanhua is being unreasonable. You use your identity to bully others. Just because you’re a princess, does that give you the right to disregard others’ feelings?"
Duanhua refrained from saying, "What’s the big deal if I’m using my position to bully people?" Instead, she replied forcefully, "With my position as a princess, what’s wrong with asking you to remove your veil?"
"Yes, there is." Su Rong calmly responded, "I was walking properly on the street when a princess appeared out of nowhere and insisted that I remove my veil. May I ask your highness, what is the purpose of wanting me to remove my veil?"
Duanhua replied, "I suspect you are Su Rong, and I want to verify, is that not allowed?"
Su Rong was shocked by her words.
Fen Ling was equally surprised upon hearing this.
Both of them looked at Duanhua, not understanding where they had made the mistake, where they had leaked information that might have led Duanhua Princess to suspect her to be Su Rong.
Seeing Su Rong suddenly fall silent, Duanhua couldn’t see her face because of the veil’s cover, but this moment of quiet made her suddenly raise her voice, "Are you truly Su Rong?"
She abruptly moved closer, "The insignificant girl from Jiangning County?"
She kept moving closer, "No, your father Su Xu got promoted, the insignificant girl from the Inspector Residence of Jiangzhou?"
Su Rong was silent.
Duanhua came in front of Su Rong and ordered the guard: "Get lost, you useless thing!"
The guard from Princess Qingping’s Residence quietly moved away, almost questioning his life. He could accept being less competent than the guards of the Duke Residence, but just now, this man in front of him had caught him with a hand-lock, he couldn’t even escape with all his strength. How strong must this thin man be?
"Same goes for you!" Duanhua said to Fen Ling, who had been standing in front of Su Rong.
Fen Ling stood still, expressionless, "Princess, it would be better if you do not get too close, if you would like to speak, please maintain a safe distance. I’m scared that I might unintentionally hurt you since you’re the one looking for trouble here, I won’t be responsible."
Duanhua only took an extra look at Fen Ling, scoffed, "Oh really? You dare to hurt me?"
"You never know!" Fen Ling didn’t give her any illusions of using her status, "Duanhua Princess, this is a public street, look around, a lot of people have stopped to watch. If this were to be taken to court, they would all be witnesses."
The implied meaning was that she was picking a fight without reason or provocation.
Duanhua glanced around and indeed noticed many people standing at a distance watching the spectacle. She scoffed again, didn’t back off, instead glared at Su Rong and asked, "I ask you, are you Su Rong?"
Su Rong was silent for a moment, then asked, "How did you recognize me?"
She had covered herself from head to toe so thoroughly. That night at the Zhuangyuan Building while having dinner, Xie Lin had glanced at her several times from her diagonal side, but he hadn’t dared to confirm it was her. So, how did Duanhua, whom she had never met, recognize her?
"So, it truly is you!" Duanhua saw her admit it, scoffed, "Good that you admitted!"
She smugly explained to Su Rong, "You thought that just because Zhou Gu was protecting you, blocking me from going to Jiangning County, that I wouldn’t be able to recognize you? I’ve had your portrait made long ago, I look at it every day, I’m sure that even if you turned to ashes, I would still recognize you."
Su Rong: "..."
Su Rong felt sincere admiration for Duanhua Princess. She said, "Princess is truly skilled. Then my portrait must look identical to me? Even with my veil, you could recognize me from my body shape. The painter is amazing."
"Enough babbling! Remove your veil." Duanhua insisted on seeing Su Rong with her own eyes.
As Su Rong had already been recognized by her, she didn’t deny it anymore. At this point, she was not afraid of removing her veil. So, she took off the veil, held it in her hand, and faced Duanhua with a face that she believed was no less beautiful than Duanhua’s.
Upon seeing her face, Duanhua’s expression indeed darkened, "So, it was this intriguing face that enchanted Zhou Gu into bullying me, wasn’t it?"
Su Rong said sincerely, "Princess, just because one is beautiful doesn’t necessarily make her a fox spirit. But, thank you for acknowledging my beauty. I think I’m quite beautiful too, even the fox spirits can’t compare to me."
Duanhua was very angry, "You——"
"Hush, Princess, don’t lose your temper yet!" Su Rong raised a finger to her lips in a hushing gesture. Looking at Duanhua, she said earnestly, "But I disagree with what you just said, that Zhou Gu bullied you because of me."
She said seriously, "Zhou Gu is an asshole, isn’t he? Born into a good family, with a bad temper and snobbish eyes, thinking no one is better than him. You always pester him, making him irritable, isn’t it normal for him to bully you? How does this involve me?"
Duanhua was dumbfounded. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂
Su Rong pushed Fen Ling aside, stepped forward, grabbed Duanhua’s hand, and said like she was coaxing a child, "Well, even though he is my fiancé, I don’t really like him. So, I plan to break off my engagement with him. What do you think of my idea?"
Duanhua’s eyes widened as she suddenly yelled, "What did you say?"
Su Rong flashed a gentle smile at her, "Break off my engagement with Zhou Gu. After his exam, I will go to the Duke Residence to call off the marriage. So, why trouble other women, let’s ditch the annoying man!"
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