Chapter 33: Shameless
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Mingzhu laid weakly on the soft chair, her face full of anger and humiliation. Upon hearing the exclamation from the wife of the Minister of the Dali Temple, she immediately angrily pulled up her sleeve to cover her face, wanting to turn away so others wouldn’t see her miserable state, but this movement caused her to cough violently.
Fu Mingzheng quietly explained to everyone, “The doctor said it’s an injury to her internal organs…”
Meanwhile, Madam Cui cried bitterly, “What sin have I committed…”
The wife of the Minister of the Dali Temple quickly went forward to comfort her, taking the opportunity to inquire about what had happened. Mingzhu signaled to Fu Mingzheng with her eyes and was then carried back to her residence.
Mingzhu stretched lazily and instructed Su Lan, “Go find out if Linan Wang followed us back. Did he come in or did he leave?”
Not long after, Su Lan came back with a reply, “Miss, Linan Wang did not follow us in. He stopped briefly at the door of the mansion and then left.” He just left like that? It didn’t seem like Yuwen You’s style, but it was understandable. Presumably, his two apologies, rushing back to the capital overnight to invite Physician Zhang to see her, and speaking to her humbly on the roadside, had exhausted all his patience, making him feel extremely humiliated.
Mingzhu smiled, “That’s about right. Once news spreads throughout the capital tomorrow that he’s injured me, it should be enough.”
Su Lan reminded her, “But Linan Wang is also injured.”
Mingzhu innocently shrugged, “He’s a man, and he started it first. If I don’t react after being hit by him, wouldn’t it seem like I did it on purpose, with malicious intent? If people say I suddenly changed my attitude, there must be a conspiracy behind it! So he’s the one who went too far.”
Though the willows may weep in the breeze, Yuwen You felt the Yangliu wind of the capital aggravated the wounds on his face. This barbaric woman, Fu Mingzhu, was truly malicious. Biting his arm was one thing, as it was concealed in his sleeve, and as long as he didn’t mention it, others wouldn’t know. But she insisted on scratching his face like this, leaving his eyes bruised and making him feel embarrassed to even walk on the street. He couldn’t dare to take a carriage or sedan for fear of being ridiculed for being jilted and beaten. So he sat stiffly on his horse, with a face covered in bruises and bloodstains, and proudly returned to Linan Wang’s mansion.
Some parts of the Linan Wang’s mansion were already adorned with red lanterns, while others were not yet prepared. Some were joyous, some sorrowful. When the servants saw him, they all avoided him from afar, not daring to approach his misfortune. However, the steward and the chief of the mansion couldn’t avoid him. They pushed each other to approach, and since the steward wasn’t as cunning as the chief, he ended up being the unlucky one pushed forward, stuttering nervously, “Your Highness, do we need to continue the preparations?”
Yuwen You slammed a teacup at him angrily, “Are you blind?” Are you blind, so you can’t see me being beaten like this? Can’t you see that I’m not happy?
The steward shrank back in fear, whispering, “But, this is the late Emperor’s decree. Even if the Fu family is powerful, they cannot disobey the imperial decree.”
Everyone was like crickets on the same rope. Yuwen You was really unlucky; none of these people in Linan Wang’s mansion could escape. Seeing Yuwen You silent, the chief came up and suggested, “The Emperor is known for his benevolence and filial piety. He wouldn’t want the late Emperor’s orders to be ignored.”
The current Emperor was actually cruel by nature, just a ten-year-old child who didn’t understand much! But his mother, the current Empress Dowager Min, understood.
The Empress Dowager Min and the Great Empress Dowager had been at odds for a long time. While Emperor Zhengqian was alive, they could still pretend to have a harmonious mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship. After Emperor Zhengqian’s premature death, Empress Dowager Min needed the support of the Fu family to help her biological son ascend the throne. She even humbled herself to the dust. Now that the young emperor had ascended the throne, political power was firmly held by the Great Empress Dowager and the Fu family, but Empress Dowager Min began to feel discontented. She wanted to eliminate all the imperial sons born to other palace concubines who posed a threat to her and her son. However, the Great Empress Dowager firmly opposed this, and Empress Dowager Min regarded it as a threat. The Great Empress Dowager, on the other hand, thought that this woman was too ruthless and needed to be watched more closely.
Thus, the two women began to openly and secretly compete against each other. While the Fu family held considerable power, not everyone was convinced. The reason why Empress Dowager Min dared to confront the Great Empress Dowager was, of course, because she had the support of some members of the royal family and the court. If she was willing to protect Yuwen You, she could do so, at least to ensure that he would not be easily killed by the Fu family.
Yuwen You understood the key point of all this, but he was unwilling to simply bow his head. Empress Dowager Min was the former crown princess, and he remembered well how her maternal relatives publicly insulted him in the past. Asking Empress Dowager Min to send Physician Zhang to him was one thing, but becoming a lackey of the Min family was another matter entirely.
Seeing Yuwen You remain silent, the Chief Shi approached him and said, “In the past, Han Xin endured humiliation under his crotch, and Yue Wang once made him a stable boy and had him taste excrement… Today, there is no need for Your Highness to endure such humiliation. Just lower your head to save your life and honor. Isn’t that good?”
The Steward added in a timely manner, “Your Highness, endure humiliation and carry heavy burdens, and one day you will have the opportunity to rise above it all.”
Yuwen You held his head in silence, perhaps because his eyes were too severely injured by Fu Mingzhu, he always saw her contemptuous and hateful face swaying in front of him. He shook his head, unwilling to think of her again, but as soon as he stopped, he thought of her just breaking in, her smiling face, her intimate gesture of grabbing Ban Jian’s collar.
The pain in his arm became even more unbearable, as if there was a living creature buried inside, thumping incessantly, causing agitation and resentment. How could she be so fickle and shallow-minded? If her affections were directed at someone more outstanding than him, of nobler birth than him, he could endure it. But it happened to be that Ban Jian, a b*stard whose parents were unknown, who couldn’t recognize more than a few characters, and knew nothing of strategy or martial arts! Wasn’t this saying that he was inferior to that Ban Jian?
He was so unwilling!
Yuwen You gritted his teeth, fiercely punched the table, leaving a shallow dent. The chief and the steward glanced at each other, both closing their mouths tightly, afraid that his iron-like fist would fall on them in the next moment.
Just at this moment, the voice of Shen Nan, the leader of the Linan Wang’s mansion guards, came from outside the door, “Your Highness, I have something important to report.”
The chief and the steward both breathed a sigh of relief, finally someone came to rescue them.
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