Chapter 11: This beating was exhilarating!
In the blink of an eye, Xiao Li tore through his inner garment, and with another forceful tug, a patch of fair chest was instantly exposed.
Lu Yanzhi struggled violently to push her away, but Xiao Li knelt directly between his legs and gave a fierce thrust.
"Ugh!"
His expression changed instantly, and his entire body curled up in pain.
Xiao Li pressed down hard to prevent him from moving. Her fingertips brushed across his handsome face, trailing downward as if heading toward his chest, but finally, she gripped his neck with a violent squeeze.
Lu Yanzhi tilted his head back in agony. It wasn't that he lacked martial skills, and he was a grown man, yet he found himself utterly unable to break free from Xiao Li's grasp.
Looking closer, Xiao Li's eyes were filled with madness; she was smiling, yet the strength in her hands grew steadily more intense.
At this moment, Lu Yanzhi finally realized that Xiao Li had been driven mad by him. She truly intended to kill him!
He exerted all his strength to pry Xiao Li's hands away, but her grip was as unyielding as rock. Even with enough force to break her own bones, he couldn't move her an inch. He could only feel the hands around his neck tightening, the air growing thinner and thinner.
However, just as Lu Yanzhi was on the verge of suffocating, Xiao Li released her grip.
Maintaining this posture, she looked down at him from above, her smile eerie and full of regret: "I really wanted to just strangle you to death like this, but that would be far too easy for you."
Lu Yanzhi clutched his throat, gagging painfully. He was choking on blood and couldn't utter a single word.
Xiao Li grabbed his chin, forcing him to look her in the eye: "Lu Yanzhi, you hate me. By what right do you hate me? Just because the one bestowed with the marriage to you is me?"
"Heh, how laughable!"
"Xuan Yang didn't fall in love with you because the Emperor bestowed the marriage; the Emperor bestowed the marriage because she fell in love with you."
"Xuan Yang simply fell in love with her legally wedded husband. What is wrong with that?"
"You were forced to marry a Princess, forced to marry a woman you do not love. Yet, you don't hate the Lu family for being unable to refuse on your behalf, nor do you hate the Emperor for using his power to suppress you. Instead, you hate a woman who cannot control her own life yet loves you with all her heart. A noble gentleman? Bah! You are nothing but a coward who bullies the weak and fears the strong."
"Xuan Yang has no biological mother and was raised under the Empress's care since childhood. She had no choice and was not in control of her own fate. What about you? Did you have no choice either?"
"Since you resisted the marriage so much, why didn't you refuse it back then? The Lu family loved you so much; why did they still choose to wrong you and sacrifice you?"
"You are proud, you are lofty. So your 'loftiness' is actually just a lack of courage to vent your anger on others, yet you dare to throw a tantrum at the only person who loves you deeply!"
"For three years of marriage, you gave your heart and soul. All Xuan Yang wanted was a shred of your affection, to be a true husband and wife with you. Instead, you thought Xuan Yang was merely a shameless woman longing for a man, even going so far as to send a guard to humiliate your own wife."
"Lu Yanzhi, where are your Confucian classics? Where is your sense of propriety, shame, and moral ethics?"
Lu Yanzhi stared at Xiao Li in a daze, unable to speak for a long time.
Xiao Li stood up, but still feeling indignant, she couldn't resist delivering another fierce slap to his face.
"Your whole family wanted to use this opportunity to get rid of me. But you knew better than anyone that the Emperor would never issue an edict for divorce, so you placed your final hope on me—hoping that I would truly loathe you and then fulfill your wishes."
"Heh, don't you even think about it. If the Emperor refused to let me divorce, do you think I could actually go up against him?"
"Don't you know? You all know, but you refuse to acknowledge it. You just bully the weak and fear the strong. That's why you dare not even let out a fart while kneeling in the palace, yet you dare to come to my place and throw a tantrum after drinking!"
"Still want to consummate the marriage? Do you think I still give a damn about a piece of trash like you?"
In the end, a disheveled and half-naked Lu Yanzhi was dragged out of Xiao Li's room. The left side of his face was swollen and red, with beads of blood trickling from the edges; one could tell just by looking how hard he had been struck.
The entire Chaoyang Courtyard was deathly silent.
Everyone continued to do their assigned tasks in an orderly fashion—cleaning, sweeping, and mopping—but they all moved with extreme caution, not daring to make a sound, as if they were trying to make their very breathing disappear.
Hong Yue went to brew a fresh pot of flower tea to soothe the nerves, while Lan Yue and Nanny Qian applied medicine to Xiao Li's arms and wrists with expressions of heartache.
Just now, Xiao Li had used lethal force to try and take Lu Yanzhi's life, and Lu Yanzhi had fought back desperately. Xiao Li's hands were covered in countless deep, bloody scratch marks, looking quite gruesome.
The two women were terrified just looking at them and didn't dare apply the medicine too firmly.
The fight between the Consort and the Princess had been far too brutal.
Having vented her rage, Xiao Li was still in a very pleasant mood and didn't find her hands particularly painful.
Previously, being trapped inside the original soul and forced to watch events unfold, Xiao Li had felt such hatred—but in the end, that hatred was nothing more than the helplessness of a hand that couldn't reach through a screen.
Now that she could finally be the master of this body, this beating was exhilarating!
Internalize the grievances to exhaust yourself; vent madness externally to exhaust others.
The netizens were right; they did not lie!
***
News from the Princess's Manor flew out like it had wings. Although it wasn't spread widely, those who needed to know already did.
The anxious Emperor: *As expected, I placed my trust in her too early.*
However, Lu Yanzhi getting drunk and trying to bully people deserved a beating!
The Empress Dowager, who had just thought Xiao Li was becoming sensible: *...This is lawlessness!*
*No, I must send someone tomorrow to properly teach her the rules.*
The Lu Family: *The hearts that were hanging in suspense have finally died.*
*What a sin!!!*
***
**Prince Chen's Manor**
Liu Xueyin wrapped herself tightly in a quilt. Her exposed shoulders and arms were covered in bruises of varying depths. The room was thick with the scent of lust, but the man was long gone, leaving only her, wounded and alone, to face the empty room.
She wept silently, mourning her own life.
In her sorrow, she thought of Lu Yanzhi, and her grief became even more unbearable.
*Princess Xuan Yang doesn't keep her word, and she is so vicious. What will Brother Yanzhi do in the future?*
***
Xiao Li didn't care what people outside were saying. The first thing she did upon waking the next morning was to order Yang Jun to arrest people.
The news had spread so quickly last night; the spies in her manor had certainly played a role.
Messenger pigeons were flying all over the sky, making her manor feel like a sieve.
"Beat everyone. Ask them which side they are colluding with. If they tell, throw them over there. If they won't speak, sell them directly."
Xiao Li felt her attitude was harsh enough, but some people simply refused to believe it.
"This servant was bestowed here by the Empress Dowager. If the Princess intends to sell an old servant, she should ask if the Empress Dowager agrees."
"This servant was bestowed upon the Princess by His Majesty."
No wonder they were so stubborn; that background was indeed something a mere Princess could not touch.
But they had missed one point: the people Xiao Li dared not touch were the Emperor and the Empress Dowager. As for everyone else, she didn't give them a second thought.
"Beat them!"
Not only did Xiao Li beat them, but she also sold them off directly.
Once everyone had been dealt with, she sent word to the Emperor, claiming it was all for the sake of the Imperial Family's dignity.
She was a woman who intended to keep male concubines; if news of that spread throughout the manor, wouldn't the Imperial Family's dignity be completely lost?
Furthermore, it was better if the Emperor and the Empress Dowager didn't know about the matters between her and her concubines, lest it offend their ears.
The Emperor: "..."
This seemingly twisted logic, yet somehow plausible, excuse left him speechless.
Should he praise her for being thoughtful?
Moreover, Xiao Li had not only shut him down but was also blatantly bossing him around. Not only did she demand he help explain things to the Empress Dowager, but she also used her "workplace injury" as an excuse to demand the Emperor send imperial physicians, medicinal herbs, and supplements.
The Emperor's vision went dark repeatedly. He found it unbelievable; no one had ever dared to boss him around so rightfully or reach into his pockets for things.
However, at the end of her letter, Xiao Li wrote that she and the Lu family were in a life-and-death struggle; she would level the Lu family and make them disappear completely!!!
The Emperor knew this was impossible, but he could not deny that he was pleased by those lines.
"Someone, summon the imperial physician!"
*Haha, it's been a long time since I've written something so satisfying.*
*I don't know if you all can accept a female lead who hits people, but this beating was inevitable. The female lead is not the type to swallow her anger when bullied.*
(End of Chapter)