Chapter 271 Prince Consort Yun Jing
The Grand Princess's Residence, Inner Courtyard.
Lady Yunxiu held a thin, resilient cowhide whip, her face frosty, as she unleashed all the resentment and malice that had been building up over the past few days onto a kneeling, trembling maidservant in front of her.
The maid had only accidentally spilled a few drops of tea when she was serving it, because her hand was shaking.
"Please spare me, Your Highness! I know I was wrong! I will never dare to do it again! Please, Your Highness, have mercy!"
The maid was in tears, her forehead bruised and swollen from banging her head against the ground.
Lady Yunxiu ignored him, her eyes flashing with even more ferocity, and she lashed out with her whip again!
"You lowly servant! You can't even do this little thing right, what use are you!"
The whip tip whistled through the air and struck the maid's thin back again, tearing her clothes open with a bloody gash.
At this moment.
Another maid, Shiliu, quickly stepped forward and whispered a few words in Yunxiu County Lady's ear.
The Lady of Yunxiu abruptly stopped in her whip-wielding motion, a flash of wild joy crossing her face before turning into pure delight.
She casually tossed the whip to the ground and sneered at the trembling maid on the ground, "Today I'm in a good mood, so I'll spare your worthless life. Get out!"
The maidservant felt as if she had been granted a pardon and scrambled out of the room.
Lady Yunxiu leisurely sat back in her chair, picked up a delicate pastry, took a small bite, and a smile curved her lips: "Ha, I thought that Lady Lu was such a pure and virtuous person, but it turns out she's a filthy slut who has already lost her virginity and had an abortion! What a huge joke!"
Shi Liu quickly chimed in, "That's right! The Duchess of Di personally came to propose marriage, but upon hearing about this, she immediately pulled Meng Langjun away, her face extremely grim! Madam Xiao and General Ye Ming were also present at the time, and they left one after the other later."
She leaned closer and lowered her voice: "It seems that General Ye Ming also dislikes her, otherwise, why would he hesitate to propose marriage when Madam Xiao likes Lu so much? Your Highness, you can rest assured..."
"rest assured?"
Lady Yunxiu suddenly slammed the pastries in her hand to the ground, shattering the exquisite treats into pieces.
She suddenly stood up, her left hand instinctively gripping her right arm.
That was an injury I sustained when I fell from my horse during an autumn hunt, and it still aches faintly to this day.
A fierce fire of jealousy and hatred ignited in her eyes, and her voice was shrill: "What do I have to trust?"
"When I think of how Xiao Yeming always protected her when they were in Jizhou! When I think of how he even cut off his own finger for her! When I think of how he repeatedly defied me for that bitch! When I think of how she stole my championship at the Autumn Hunting Banquet, causing me to fall from my horse and become the laughingstock of the whole city!"
"How can I feel at ease? I wish I could eat his flesh and sleep on his skin!"
Her beautiful face was contorted with extreme resentment: "It's certainly satisfying that she's now disgraced! But that's far from enough! As long as Xiao Yeming still has her in his heart, I will never have peace! What I want is for her to never be able to recover, and for Xiao Yeming to completely give up on her!"
A gentle voice sounded from outside the door: "My Xiu'er, who has angered you so much this time?"
Before he finished speaking, a middle-aged man with a gentle and refined appearance slowly walked in.
He was Yun Jing, the father of Lady Yunxiu, who was the Imperial Son-in-Law and concurrently the Minister of Revenue.
His brows were relaxed, and his smiling gaze swept across the room. His temperament was gentle and unassuming, and anyone who looked at him would think of a kind, generous, and unassuming elder.
He nodded slightly, and the maid Shiliu, who was standing to the side, immediately understood. She lowered her head, held her breath, and quietly withdrew, gently closing the door behind her.
Upon seeing her father, Princess Yunxiu immediately lifted her skirt and ran over, grabbing his sleeve and pouting with a hint of grievance, "Father! Isn't it that merchant girl I mentioned to you before, Lu Zhaoruo from Yunshang Pavilion!"
Her pretty face was frosty as she said bitterly, "Now the whole city is talking about her sordid affairs, saying that she lost her virginity and had an abortion in her youth, and her reputation is completely ruined! But when I think of how Xiao Yeming risked his life for her... it's like a fishbone stuck in my throat, I wish I could..."
Yun Jing gently patted her daughter's hand and led her to sit down on the couch. Her tone was still as gentle as a spring breeze: "Oh? Is this the Lady Lu from Jizhou City that you mentioned last time, whose appearance is quite similar to your mother's?"
Lady Yunxiu was oblivious to the fleeting glint of darkness in her father's eyes, preoccupied with venting her pent-up resentment: "It is this woman! What a lowly birth she has! A mere abandoned wife of a merchant, yet she has earned Xiao Yeming's favor! What's even more hateful is that she dares to bear a resemblance to my mother! Though the whole city is in an uproar, this pent-up anger in my heart is truly hard to quell!"
She grew angrier as she spoke, twisting her handkerchief between her slender fingers: "This woman is quite cunning! My daughter has tried several times to invite her to our home, but she has repeatedly made excuses to refuse to come. It's really infuriating!"
Upon hearing this, Yun Jing still maintained that gentle smile on her lips.
He said slowly, "Xiu'er, calm down. Since she doesn't want to come, as a princess, you don't need to lower yourself to deal with her."
He spoke in a calm tone, as if he were just having a casual chat: "I've heard that she has a few capable people around her. If you want to see her, you could start with one of them and find an excuse to 'invite' them to your residence for a chat and have them pass on your message. That would be just as polite as you would like."
Lady Yunxiu was taken aback at first, then her eyes lit up as she understood the unspoken meaning in her father's words.
A smile immediately bloomed on her face, and she hugged her father's arm: "Father, you still love me the most! I know what to do now!"
Yun Jing lovingly stroked her hair, his smile still gentle and warm, as if he had just been teaching his daughter how to treat others and be kind to people.
After comforting his daughter, he returned to his study.
He dismissed those around him, and after confirming that no one was around, he walked to a row of bookshelves against the wall and pressed his fingers on several inconspicuous carvings in turn.
With a soft click of a mechanism, the bookshelf silently slid open to one side, revealing a dimly lit secret room behind it.
He entered the secret room, sat down behind a rosewood desk, spread out a piece of plain paper, picked up a brush, dipped it in ink, and wrote a few words: Lu Zhaoruo of Jizhou City.
The brushstrokes are steady, and the ink is thick and black.
After writing, he gently blew the ink dry and rolled up the paper.
He then tapped the corner of the table three times with his fingers.
A dark figure appeared silently in the shadows of the secret room, kneeling on one knee, completely shrouded in night clothes, with its head bowed.
Yun Jing casually tossed the scroll over, his voice calm and indifferent: "Investigate. Find out everything about this woman in Jizhou, down to the smallest detail, even if you have to dig three feet into the ground."
"yes."
The man in black took the scroll with both hands, bowed deeply, and said in a hoarse voice with a hint of determination, "Rest assured, my lord, I will make amends for my sins and will not fail your trust!"
Before the words were finished, the dark figure flickered and disappeared into the depths of the secret room, as if it had never existed.
The secret room returned to silence, with only the candlelight flickering faintly.
Yun Jing's gaze fell on the paper where he had just written, his eyes filled with an unfathomable darkness.
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