A luxurious carriage drawn by four horses, adorned with four gilded lanterns, shimmered under the moonlight.
“It’s a palace carriage!”
Someone shouted, and everyone quickly dropped to their knees in fear.
A carriage from the palace meant either high-ranking officials or nobility—none of whom they could afford to offend in their current state.
The carriage halted just a few steps away, and under the terrified gazes of the crowd, a palace maid stepped out.
Lin Zhiman rubbed her eyes and craned her neck to peer into the carriage, but there was no one else inside.
The thought of kneeling before a mere palace maid made her chest heave with rage.
The maid strode directly toward Shang Yueli, her tone haughty: “Are you the Luoyang Princess, Shang Yueli?”
Shang Yueli: “I am. What of it?”
The maid looked Shang Yueli up and down disdainfully, her raised neck still bearing ambiguous marks.
“By the Emperor’s oral decree: The unfilial daughter Shang Yueli, who insists on siding with a traitor, has deeply grieved Us. Henceforth, We strip her of her title, expel her from the clan registry, and sever all ties with the royal family!”
Seeing that Shang Yueli remained unmoved after hearing the decree, the maid frowned and shouted angrily, “Shang Yueli, why aren’t you kneeling to express gratitude?”
Shang Yueli glanced at her. “Oh.”
“You!”
Enraged, the maid produced the Token given by the Emperor and waved it grandly, nearly poking Shang Yueli’s nose.
“Beholding this Token is like beholding the Emperor himself! If you do not kneel, do you wish to be beheaded?”
Mu Yunsheng shielded Shang Yueli behind him, his gaze at the maid as cold as if looking at a dead thing. “In the dead of night, ten li away from Jing City,” he said icily, “how long do you think it would take for the Emperor to discover your corpse here?”
The maid trembled, but upon noticing the shackles on Mu Yunsheng’s hands and feet, her courage returned.
“How dare you! Do you believe I won’t have the Emperor behead every last one of you?”
When no one responded, the maid assumed they were frightened and regained her confidence. “Shang Yueli,” she declared, “if you kneel and beg me, I might reluctantly spare all of you.”
Shang Yueli stepped out from behind Mu Yunsheng.
After all, the entire treasury of Da Qing was on her person. Whether she remained a princess seemed… of zero consequence to her.
She stared coldly at the arrogant maid before her. “I, Shang Yueli, kneel only to heaven, earth, and my parents. Why should I kneel to a petty nobody like you?”
“Wh-what?” The maid was baffled.
What was a “petty nobody”?
She couldn’t understand.
Shang Yueli looked at the maid as if she were a fool.
“You come here in the middle of the night to pick a fight, without even a single guard accompanying you. Who would believe you’re from the palace?”
She turned and signaled with her eyes to the crowd. “Do any of you believe her?”
Everyone exchanged glances and shook their heads.
This maid had arrived with only a coachman. If she were truly from the palace, wouldn’t there be eunuchs and maids lined up in two rows?
Trembling with fury and seeing they outnumbered her, the maid hastily scrambled back into the carriage and sped away.
Before leaving, she glared venomously at Shang Yueli, gritting her teeth: “You’d better never return to Jing City, or you’ll face the consequences!”
After the maid departed, Lin Zhiman brushed the dust off her clothes and sneered, “I thought it was something important, but it was just to sever family ties.”
“Your Highness—oh, no.” Lin Zhiman theatrically covered her mouth. “Should I call you Yueli now, or Mu Yunsheng’s wife?”
“Man Niang, don’t go too far!”
Wang Shi stepped forward to mediate, “After all, we are still family. Letting things escalate will only make things worse for everyone.”
“Enough talking! Get up and keep moving!”
Having finished enjoying the imperial family’s drama, the officers finally rose and bound them together again with ropes, though their handling of Shang Yueli was noticeably rougher than before.
The group trudged on under the moonlight for a long time.
By noon the next day, everyone was exhausted, parched, and drenched in sweat.
Shang Yueli licked her dry lips, her eyes squinting against the harsh sunlight.
If there were a thermometer, it would probably read forty degrees, right?
Lin Zhiman’s feet were covered in blisters, each step sending sharp pains through her. The moment she tried to slack off, an officer noticed and lashed her with a whip.
“Move faster! Stop dawdling!”
Lin Zhiman, desperately thirsty, dodged the whip and pleaded, “Sir, I have money! I have money!”
The officer halted and gestured for her to produce it.
Flustered, Lin Zhiman rummaged through her bundle and pulled out a gold hairpin, handing it to the officer. “Sir, may I exchange this for a flask of water?”
The officer bit the hairpin a few times, nodded, and retrieved a flask of water from the supplies on the flatbed cart.
Lin Zhiman eagerly accepted it with both hands and gulped down several mouthfuls.
Mu Shicai watched, his own throat feeling dry, and tugged at his mother’s clothes. “Mother, I want water too!”
“Wait, I’ll get some for you.”
With that, Jiang Xia turned to the officer with a fawning smile. “Sir, I’d also like a flask of water.”
The officer glanced at her disdainfully. “Want some? Bring out something valuable to trade!”
Jiang Xia’s smile froze. Lin Zhiman had just traded a gold hairpin for a single flask—how could she afford that with only the ten taels of silver her family had given her?
She glanced at Lin Zhiman, who was still drinking, and a scheme came to mind. She snatched the flask from Lin Zhiman’s hands and shoved it toward her son.
“Drink quickly, son!”
Mu Shicai gulped down the water noisily, and after quenching his thirst, he poured the remaining water over his head, muttering repeatedly, “So hot, so hot!”
By the time Lin Zhiman wrested the flask back, not a single drop remained.
“Jiang Xia, are you insane?!”
“If you want water, why don’t you buy your own? Why steal mine?”
As the two were about to come to blows, the officer lashed each of them with his whip.
“Enough arguing! Shut your mouths!”
Once the officer had calmed down, Shang Yueli pulled out five taels of silver from her robe.
“Sir, may I exchange this for four flasks of water?”
Wang Shi quickly grabbed her arm. “Yueli, I’m not thirsty. You and the others drink.”
“It’s fine, Mother. Don’t worry, I have plenty of money.”
The second and third branches watched with envy as the officer handed four flasks of water to the main branch, their hearts filled with bitterness.
Jiang Xia snapped, “Shang Yueli, if you had money, why didn’t you take it out earlier? Did you want the rest of us to die of thirst?”
Shang Yueli frowned. “What does my money have to do with you?”
“The rest of our families were implicated because of your main branch! If you won’t buy water for us, you have no conscience!”
Mu Yunsheng wiped the water droplets from the corner of Shang Yueli’s lips and retorted, “Third Aunt, when my father was promoted and granted titles, your families reaped many benefits. Now, you repay our main branch with ingratitude.”
“The ones without conscience are clearly you!”
Mu Tai Qi had initially wanted to stay out of it, but hearing this, he grew angry.
“Mu Yunsheng, what do you mean by that?”
“If you don’t want this family to stay together anymore, just say so! Let’s divide the household!”
“Master, isn’t this rather inappropriate?” Jiang Xia said timidly.
She just wanted a drink of water—was it really necessary to escalate things to dividing the family?
Shang Yueli must have hidden plenty of treasures on her person. If they really split the family assets now, they wouldn’t get even a sliver of benefit!
Lin Zhiman fanned the flames from the side, “So be it! Don’t think we can’t survive without you, the eldest branch!”
Fine by her—she still had a whole bundle of treasures anyway.
Mu Yunsheng closed his eyes, exhaled a heavy breath, and when he reopened them, his gaze was filled with resolve.
“Very well. As Third Uncle says, we’ll divide the household!”
Jiang Xia panicked completely. “Divide what household? We don’t even have ink, brush, paper, or inkstone on this journey. Let’s discuss this when we reach Fangling!”
“No need.”
Mu Yunsheng tore a piece of cloth from his sleeve with his bare hands, bit his finger, and began writing with blood on the fabric.
“Husband?” Shang Yueli sounded concerned about Mu Yunsheng’s state.
The novel hadn’t mentioned anything about the Mu family dividing their household.
They had remained one complete family all the way until their return to the capital.
Shang Yueli gently held Mu Yunsheng’s finger. “Have you thought this through?”
She didn’t want him to have regrets later.
Though they’d only been together for two days, she had clearly seen all the kindness he’d shown her.
Mu Yunsheng patted Shang Yueli’s head and smiled faintly, blood still smeared at the corner of his mouth.
“What? Worried your husband can’t provide for you alone?”
“Hmm?”
That rising tone seemed to hook right into the depths of Shang Yueli’s heart.
Making her tingle all over.
Shang Yueli mumbled some vague responses and fell silent.
After finishing the blood-written document, the second and third branches used Mu Yunsheng’s blood to press their fingerprints on the cloth one by one, signing their names.
Lin Zhiman hugged her bundle and declared loudly, “Let me make this clear—since we’ve divided the household, don’t even think about getting a single coin from me from now on!”
Jiang Xia still seemed somewhat dazed, her eyes fixed greedily on Shang Yueli’s abdomen…