Chapter 4: I Want a Divorce!

Chapter 4: I Want a Divorce!

Xiao Li followed the eunuch to the Empress Dowager's Changchun Palace. The room was already filled with people, each dressed in luxurious attire, led by a figure of heavy majesty.

Having watched countless palace intrigue dramas, this scene didn't intimidate her in the slightest.

She glanced at the lavishly decorated palace, then at the individuals who instantly darkened their expressions the moment they saw her.

A joint trial.

The Emperor and the Empress Dowager sat at the head of the hall. The people on the left looked familiar, and those on the right were quite familiar as well.

Before Xiao Li could discern them closely, she spotted Lu Yanzhi, whose head was wrapped in gauze and whose face was somewhat pale.

Amidst the crowd of luxuriously dressed people, his white gauze was quite striking. His face had looked handsome during the day, and now, in this injured and pitiful state, he looked even better.

Withdrawing her scrutinizing gaze, she walked forward with measured steps.

"Empress Dowager, Imperial Brother."

Before Xiao Li could finish her salutations, the Empress Dowager immediately launched an attack: "Why did you lay hands on the Consort? You even hit everyone else! Where is your etiquette and upbringing? Is this how I taught you?"

As expected, without asking for the facts or the truth, she was very fluent in her scolding.

Xiao Li stood up and looked at the Empress Dowager, who had become the shadow haunting the original host's soul. She held high power and a noble status, and being in her early forties, she was not old, but her eyes were too caustic and her expression too unpleasant.

Then she looked at the Emperor. He wore a bright yellow dragon robe—luxurious and noble, yet lacking in dominance. Instead, he possessed a refined, scholarly temperament, looking more like a man of letters, and his narrow eyes glinted with calculation.

Though she disliked them, the power of life and death held by these two was something she currently could not shake.

Fine, she would endure it for now.

Xiao Li glanced toward Lu Yanzhi twice, appearing puzzled yet full of mockery: "Lu Yanzhi, how do you have the audacity to come to the palace to file a complaint?"

Lu Yanzhi maintained an indifferent and cold expression, not even deigning to spare her a glance.

The Empress Dowager frowned and rebuked angrily, "I am asking you a question! Do you have no respect for me at all?"

Seeing this, a middle-aged man beside Lu Yanzhi stood up.

"Empress Dowager, Your Majesty, let us end this matter here. The Princess surely did not do this intentionally. There is no need to be so pedantic about matters between husband and wife; let them resolve it themselves. Yanzhi only suffered superficial wounds; he will be fine after a few days of rest."

*No need to be pedantic? Then why did it escalate to the Imperial Presence? Why play the peacemaker now?*

Hypocritical.

Xiao Li looked at him and paused for a moment. She recognized him—Lu Yanzhi's biological father. Lu Yanzhi's grandfather was the current Chancellor, the head of civil officials and Minister of Personnel, and his father was no slouch either, serving as the Vice Minister of Rites.

The Lu family was the greatest clan of the civil official lineage, with over twenty members serving in the imperial court. This was why the Emperor both feared and courted them, treating them with a degree of awe.

Was his claim of not being pedantic a sign of modesty? Could the Emperor truly agree?

Of course not.

The Emperor immediately displayed a face of fury: "Minister Lu, you are indeed magnanimous, but Xuan Yang's behavior was egregious. This matter cannot be settled so easily."

"Then what will Imperial Brother do? Kill me?"

Xiao Li's cold, eerie voice rang out, and everyone's gaze instantly converged on her. As she slowly raised her head, she was actually smiling, but the smile was too cold, too mocking.

"Pedantic?" Her tone shifted as she turned to look at Father Lu. "Does Lord Lu know why this Princess hit him?"

Before Father Lu could answer, she turned her sharp gaze toward Lu Yanzhi.

"Consort, do you dare tell them what happened last night?"

Lu Yanzhi's pale lips were tightly pressed together. He had indeed done something wrong last night, something that could not be made public, but hadn't Zhang Jing already died? Why was the Princess still making a scene?

"Princess, you—"

"You don't dare say it, do you!"

Xiao Li laughed wantonly, her expression turning freezing cold. "If you won't say it, I will! You have the face to come to the palace to complain, but I should be the one filing the complaint, shouldn't I?"

She turned around, speaking with righteous indignation: "I wish to accuse the Lu family of deceiving the Emperor by allowing a man with a physical defect to marry the Princess!"

Having said that, she pulled back her sleeve: "Consort Lu Yanzhi is impotent. I want a divorce!"

While everyone was still reeling from Xiao Li's seemingly crazed state, they didn't expect her to drop a thunderbolt that sent them into total chaos.

Minister Lu nearly lost his footing.

To one side, the young Prince Wei, dressed in brocade, actually sprayed out a mouthful of tea, completely stunned: "Imperial Sister, what are you saying?"

However, as his gaze caught that single, bright, eye-catching speck of red, he instinctively raised his hand to cover his own mouth. He looked at Lu Yanzhi with suspicion, and then looked further down...

Almost everyone unconsciously repeated Prince Wei's actions.

Lu Yanzhi had never suffered such humiliation in his life. His habitually cold and indifferent expression instantly cracked: "I..."

How could he be impotent? His body was perfectly fine!

But the patch of skin revealed by Xiao Li's arm was white as jade and skin as pure as snow, making that tiny speck of crimson extremely conspicuous.

The *shougongsha*! The proof of virginity.

Lu Yanzhi and the Princess had been married for three years, yet the Princess's *shougongsha* was still...

No man could endure such humiliation, especially in front of a crowd.

To call him impotent was too insulting; it was an affront to a gentleman.

"I..." Lu Yanzhi rarely felt the urge to defend himself, but now he desperately wanted to: "I simply haven't consummated the marriage with the Princess, I am not—"

This was the downside of acting too high and mighty; usually, he didn't care to speak, and now, even with a mouth, it was useless at the critical moment.

Pity that despite his vast learning and extraordinary talent, Lu Yanzhi had never learned how to defend himself against such a slander.

No matter how much he sweated in frustration, everyone's gaze shifted from shock to contemplation, and finally to sudden realization.

If he was impotent, of course they couldn't consummate the marriage.

Three years without consummation meant he was impotent.

There was no mistake.

"Absurd!" The Empress Dowager was the first to snap out of it, shouting in rage, "Xuan Yang, do you have any sense of shame at all..."

Xiao Li's stunt had left the Empress Dowager both shocked and furious.

"Guards! Guards! Drag her down before me!"

She was terrified that the girl would say something even more world-shaking.

Xiao Li did not resist being led away, but she wasn't finished.

She looked toward Lu Yanzhi, her expression calm and indifferent, her words piercing like needles: "No matter how bad I was, I was still a dignified Princess, of royal blood. After you married me, you ignored me. I went to great lengths to please you, yet you met me with coldness for three years, leaving early and returning late, as if you couldn't bear to see me for even a single glance."

"Yes, I hit you, but I will not admit a mistake. I only regret that I didn't hit you to death last night!"

"I gave my heart, I tolerated you, I tried to please you, foolishly hoping to warm that heart of yours. It's been three years; even a stone should have some warmth by now. And to think I thought I wasn't good enough, when in reality, you are simply a useless waste. And you still have the face to look down on me? Ha!"

The final word carried the maximum possible lethality.

As Xiao Li's mocking voice fell, the entire hall became deathly silent; one could hear a pin drop.

Xiao Li had no feelings for Lu Yanzhi, so her words were merely a plain recitation without much emotional fluctuation. However, since these people had all previously witnessed Princess Xuan Yang's devotion and attempts to please Lu Yanzhi, her current cold and sarcastic demeanor perfectly acted out the persona of a woman whose heart had turned to ash.

"Xuan Yang!" Lu Yanzhi stood up in rage, his eyes no longer filled with that impenetrable indifference, but with pure killing intent.

Xiao Li was extremely satisfied to see this. Someone had finally broken.

Lu Yanzhi's character archetype was cold, lofty, and untainted by the world—devoted to the female lead from beginning to end, even knowing it was impossible, he had remained chaste and had never touched a woman in his life.

Being chaste was fine, but how pathetic was it to be so obscure?

How could his "deeply loving" wife bear to let his sacrifices go unseen?

Now, it was perfect. Everyone knew that they were "pure" with each other, and would remain "pure and flawless" forever.

She truly was a wonderful person.