Chapter 3: They Really Are Being Given Too Much Face

"You are not allowed to enter!"

"Move aside! We are looking for the Young Master. What on earth have you done to him?"

"This is the Princess's bedroom. How dare you!"

"If anything happens to our Young Master, the Lu family will not let you off!"

Outside the room was a scene of chaos, as the guarding sentries confronted the Consort's attendants.

They could not enter the Princess's bedroom, but the Consort had been inside for so long without coming out that they were extremely worried.

If the Princess had failed in her attempt to seduce him while drunk, it was not impossible that she might have acted out of shame and drugged him.

Inside the room, Hong Yue was applying medicine and stopping the bleeding for Lu Yanzhi. Seeing Xiao Li's calm demeanor, as if she hadn't heard a thing, she couldn't help but feel anxious: "Princess, the Consort hasn't woken up yet. What should we do?"

The Consort's people were worried he was being taken advantage of by the Princess, unaware that this Consort had nearly lost his life.

With two bloody holes in the front and back of his head, he was still lying on the floor; it was only by sheer luck that he wasn't dead.

The Princess had gone absolutely berserk. Something terrible was about to happen in this Princess Manor!

Xiao Li lay on her side on the bed, propping her head up with one hand, looking lazy and nonchalant: "He's just not awake, it's not like he's dead. What's the rush?"

Hong Yue could not bear to hear the word 'dead' right now. If two corpses were carried out of the Princess's room tonight, she couldn't even imagine what people outside would say about the Princess.

Xiao Li looked at that small, crumpled face and couldn't help but find it amusing. In the book, this Hong Yue was an insidious, vicious, snobbish, and ruthless lackey who helped Princess Xuanyang commit many evil deeds after she went mad—poisoning, kidnapping, framing, and slandering. Her methods of harming others were endless, and she was described as the most loyal henchman to the villainous female supporting character.

But looking at her current bitter little face, where did she look like a bad person? She was quite adorable.

Xiao Li glanced at the man lying on the floor, only regretting that there were no cameras in this world. Otherwise, she could have taken more photos of Lu Yanzhi. That sense of brokenness, lying in blood after being injured, would surely satisfy many people's fetishes if used as illustrations in the book.

"Throw him out."

Lu Yanzhi was supported and carried out. Unsurprisingly, there were cries of disbelief from the people outside.

"Young Master! What have you done to our Young Master?"

"Princess, come out!"

To dare to shout orders at the Princess—they were truly being given too much face.

No matter how unfavored the original owner was, she was still the Imperial Eldest Princess. Trespassing into the Princess's residence and shouting loudly was enough to charge them with insubordination.

Among those people outside, she didn't even need to think to know there must be Lu Yanzhi's most loyal personal guards, Lu Qi and Lu Shu. They were selected from distant relatives of the Lu family and had served by Lu Yanzhi's side since childhood; they were the most loyal.

They loved what Lu Yanzhi loved and hated what Lu Yanzhi hated.

The original owner had tried to please the Consort and was very polite to them, but they hated the original owner along with Lu Yanzhi. Relying on Lu Yanzhi's status, they never held the Princess in their eyes.

Heh.

She couldn't touch Lu Yanzhi, but could she not touch this group of minions?

"Those people outside, give each of them thirty strokes of the heavy paddle. For the one who was shouting the loudest just now, strike him across the mouth."

Yang Jun found it difficult to follow the command upon hearing it, and stepped inside to try and persuade her: "Princess, those are the Consort's personal attendants..."

"So what?" Xiao Li interrupted him coldly. "Are the Consort's people off-limits to this Palace?"

Thinking of how the original owner, despite being a Princess, actually possessed very little real power, she added an explanation: "Just follow orders. I will take responsibility. As long as you are loyal enough, as long as I am not dead, no one can touch you."

It was an explanation, but also a promise.

Yang Jun suddenly looked up at Xiao Li, suddenly feeling that today's Princess was very strange.

Killing, hitting the Consort, and now punishing the Consort's people.

But this was excellent. Previously, the Princess had always been trying to please the Consort, which made these household officials who were loyal to the Princess unable to hold their heads high in front of the Consort's people.

It was time to teach them a lesson.

"Your subordinate obeys!"

Yang Jun strode out, and before long, he had the Consort's people taken away.

It was also thanks to the fact that Lu Yanzhi had no sense of belonging to the Princess Manor and only brought a few personal attendants. Once Yang Jun made his move, they had no reinforcements and could only take the beating.

Yang Jun had held back slightly with the thirty strokes, so after being released, the group could still carry Lu Yanzhi away.

They fled the Princess Manor as if being chased by a flood or a ferocious beast.

After eating, Xiao Li unhurriedly let people attend to her dressing and grooming.

"This one is too plain. This one looks like it's for a funeral, how unlucky!"

She picked and chose through a pile of clothes, finally picking up a flowing immortal skirt with a red and white gradient. The color looked quite pleasant: "This one."

Nanny Qian stood to the side, waiting quietly for Xiao Li to choose, seemingly finally accepting the fact that the Princess she had watched grow up had killed someone, and she stepped forward to dress Xiao Li.

"The Princess has suffered grievances, and the Consort deserves death ten thousand times over. But the Lu family is powerful, and even His Majesty is wary of them. If this reaches the Imperial Court, what will we do?"

It was also her own uselessness; she had been frightened just now, otherwise, she would have certainly advised the Princess against hitting the Consort.

This was going to be a big trouble.

Xiao Li didn't bother to explain; they would find out soon enough.

Before noon, someone from the Palace arrived.

The Empress Dowager summoned Princess Xuanyang to the Palace.

The original owner was raised under the name of the Empress, who was the current Empress Dowager. Although they had the title of mother and daughter, they were not close.

It wasn't written in the story, but in the original owner's memories, there were many instances of being slapped, pinched, or forced to kneel as punishment by the Empress Dowager.

The Empress Dowager would never dote on an adopted daughter, and the Emperor treated this sister as a chess piece, so the palace servants around the Empress Dowager could not possibly be respectful to the original owner. Coming to deliver a message, their airs were even greater than the Princess's.

Xiao Li stepped onto the sedan chair, looking ahead nonchalantly while flipping through the original owner's memories.

Princess Xuanyang's biological mother was not a palace maid, but her grandfather was merely a mere county magistrate. Without support, money, or influence in this palace, she might have been even worse off than a palace maid.

Gentle, virtuous, and kind—these were all beautiful qualities, but in this man-eating Imperial Palace, without favor or a bit of cunning, there was only one end.

She died when Princess Xuanyang was seven years old; in the original owner's memory, there was only a blurry but warm shadow.

Nanny Qian and the others only came to take care of her after the original owner went to live with the Empress.

Nanny Qian and the others were loyal and considered the original owner's well-being, but they were merely servants.

The Empress's beatings and punishments, the elder brother's rejection, the bullying and isolation among princes and princesses—who could help her?

Ultimately, she learned to swallow her grievances, living cautiously and fearfully, making herself more and more numb, more and more obedient and well-behaved, allowing herself to be manipulated.

Marrying a man as outstanding as Lu Yanzhi reactivated that dead heart with longings for love and the future.

She never held the airs of a Princess; she always placed herself in the position of Lu Yanzhi's wife.

She obeyed him, pleased him, and admired him, wanting to be an ordinary couple with him.

But it was all her own wishful thinking. Lu Yanzhi did not like her, which meant this was destined to be a tragedy.

And the reason she later went mad was simply because she knew everything was hopeless and her life was destroyed.

She wanted to live but couldn't live well; she wanted to die but was unwilling, so she collapsed.

Xiao Li could understand her, but she was not her!

The thing that best unites people's hearts in this world is neither bloodline nor emotion: it is power, wealth, and interest.

So what if this Imperial Palace is a dragon's den or a tiger's lair? As long as there are people, there will always be things she can use.

At worst, she would simply flip the chessboard, and no one would have a good time.

(End of Chapter)