02 Trouble Comes Knocking
Because her injuries hadn't healed, Liu Hanruo had been resting in bed. Three days passed in the blink of an eye. During this time, through subtle inquiries, Liu Hanruo gained some understanding of the current situation. It turned out that six years had passed since she last opened her eyes; the world had changed, and many things had changed.
Not long after her death, Xiao Feng married Qin Siyan, the eldest daughter of Grand Commandant Qin. By marrying into the powerful, he became Grand Commandant Qin's son-in-law and, thanks to his wife's status, was granted the position of Reader in the Hanlin Academy.
Three years ago, Xiao Feng colluded with Grand Commandant Qin, speaking sharply in the Golden Palace, directly accusing Prime Minister Leng of colluding with the enemy and rebelling, with letters of treason intercepted by Grand Commandant Qin at the border as evidence.
Throughout history, monarchs have been particularly sensitive to the word "rebellion." Adhering to the principle of "better to kill the innocent than let the guilty go free," they have created many unjust cases. Upon seeing the prime minister's private seal at the end of the letter, they subjectively determined the facts and executed the entire main branch of the Leng family, while exiling the collateral branches to the frontier, never to return to the capital.
Xiao Feng was promoted directly to the influential position of Vice Minister of the Ministry of Personnel for his meritorious service in exposing the traitors.
Upon first hearing this, Liu Hanruo's heart bled, and she fainted several times. The hatred for the massacre of her family and the cruelty of her son, the resentment of death, seeped into her very bones, making her want revenge even more intensely. However, she also understood that she must not alert the enemy before she was absolutely certain of success. It seemed she needed to carefully consider how to cut off his escape route, cripple his wings, and send him plummeting into hell to suffer endless torment! Perhaps this would be a long process.
After three days of treatment by Chunxiang, Liu Hanruo was able to get out of bed and walk around, and her complexion was no longer so pale. That day, she was half-lying on the couch, resting with her eyes closed. The sun shone on her body, warm and comforting, making her drowsy. Suddenly, a noisy argument came from afar, waking her from her light sleep. She listened carefully and realized it was Chunxiang's voice.
"Your Highness, the Princess Consort is unwell and resting. She is not available to receive guests. Please leave!" Xiao Chunxiang said politely but firmly.
"Hmph, how dare you! You lowly servant girl, how dare you block my way? You have no sense of mortality! My sister and I are very close. I came to visit you because I knew you were unwell. What is the meaning of your obstruction? Are you trying to sow discord between my sister and me, or do you not take me seriously?" Concubine Liu Hanxue was full of arrogance, calling Chunxiang a lowly servant girl and belittling her to the point of being worthless.
"Your Highness, this servant dares not. The doctor instructed before he left that the Princess Consort has been unwell recently and needs to rest and recuperate. She is truly not fit to receive guests! Please forgive me, Your Highness!"
"Get out of my way! I'm going in today! Let's see what you, you lowly servant, can do to stop me!"
After saying this, Liu Hanxue was about to force her way in when Chunxiang stepped forward and blocked her path. Liu Hanxue was impatient and glanced at her personal maid, Dongmei. Dongmei immediately understood and signaled several rough-looking women to pull Chunxiang aside. Liu Hanxue moved gracefully to Chunxiang's side, raised her hand and slapped her several times hard, a slight smirk on her lips, her face full of disdain.
"You lowly servant, you're incorrigible. It seems you won't learn your lesson unless I teach you a lesson."
"Your Majesty, I am but a lowly servant, only knowing to be loyal to my master, with absolutely no disloyalty. Unlike some people, who disregard blood ties and wantonly harm their own siblings, I wonder if Your Majesty also considers such people to be worse than beasts!"
“You lowly maid, you have quite the nerve to dare to make veiled insults. Believe me or not, I can kill you with one hand.”
"Haha! Your Highness, I think you haven't forgotten, have you? If it weren't for the Princess's kind heart, you wouldn't be where you are today! But how did you treat the Princess? Feigning kindness? Framing her from the inside? Your Highness, I am not as kind as the Princess. Put away your hypocritical face and your lies. Of course, Your Highness is a concubine, powerful and influential. It would be easy for you to kill me. But if you kill me, Your Highness's facade of kindness will be destroyed. I wonder what the Princess will think then? Will she still believe in your so-called sisterly affection and blood ties?" Assuming Liu Hanxue wanted to maintain her facade of kindness, Chunxiang spoke with certainty and mocked her.
"You all heard that! How dare a lowly servant girl spout such nonsense and act so disrespectfully! Very well, just like master, like dog! Beat her! Beat her to death!"
At the concubine's command, none dared disobey. The old women immediately began to busy themselves, quickly finding two high stools and forcefully pressing Chunxiang down. The boards began to fall with a series of cracking sounds, and the only sound that could be heard in the entire courtyard was the 'slap slap slap' sound.
After twenty strokes of the cane, her skin was torn and bloodstains were everywhere. Chunxiang gritted her teeth and endured it without uttering a sound, though cold sweat poured down her forehead.
"Haha, I'm curious whether it's your bones that are hard, or the board that's harder! Keep hitting! I refuse to believe I can't discipline a lowly servant!"
The sounds of slapping were incessant, sending chills down one's spine. Chunxiang couldn't bear it and fainted several times, only to be awakened by the pain each time. She glanced at the extremely arrogant concubine and gritted her teeth inwardly.
"You lowly servant! It's no use resenting me. Blame yourself for following the wrong master. You've been beaten like this, and where was the master you were desperately protecting? Haha! It seems that in your master's eyes, you're not even as good as a dog!" Liu Hanxue sat to the side, leisurely drinking tea, and spoke sarcastically.
Just then, a deep yet authoritative voice came from not far away:
"My sister is so well-mannered, yet she swears so rudely, calling me a lowly servant girl. I wonder what terrible mistake Chunxiang has made to make you so angry, as if you want her dead?"
“Sister, what are you saying? How could I be so cruel? It was only because this wretched maid spoke such vile words and even hurt me that I had no choice but to teach her a lesson. I hope you will forgive me.”
"Oh, really? My dear sister, now that you are in charge of the Prince's mansion's inner courtyard, I believe the most important thing is to clearly distinguish between right and wrong. If it is Chunxiang's fault, I will not be biased and will leave it to you to deal with. If someone is just looking for trouble and deliberately stirring things up, I will not let that troublemaker get away with it. I hope you will also handle things fairly in the future!"
"Sister is right. If anyone is stirring up trouble out of thin air, no matter who it is, I will not tolerate it and will punish them severely!"
"Sister, I just heard you arguing in the inner courtyard. I wonder what it was about?"
"When I heard that I was unwell, I came to visit you. But Chunxiang not only tried to stop me, but also made some outrageous remarks and publicly humiliated me. Sister, there are no rules without order. Although Chunxiang is your personal maid, she still doesn't know the difference between superiors and inferiors. She is disrespectful and refuses to admit her mistake. That's why I taught her a lesson."
“Sister, is that so? I vaguely heard someone cursing a lowly servant just now, and it seemed like they said something like ‘like master, like dog.’ Now that I think about it, it sounds like it was your voice.”
"Sister, you must have misheard. We've had a great sisterly relationship since we were little. How could I possibly humiliate you like this?"
“That’s right. A ‘beauty’ like you, my sister, who is talented, beautiful, well-educated, and speaks such vulgar language, is rare in this world. Such vulgar and base words would never come from your mouth. I’m just overthinking it. I’ve been here for a long time and I don’t know which servant is so arrogant and presumptuous that she dares to insult the first-rank princess consort appointed by the Emperor.”
"Sister, this..."
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