County Mistress Jiarou lifted her chin haughtily, looking at Chu Mo with utter disdain.
She was nothing but a beggar, lowborn and base—what was wrong with cursing her a couple of times? As if she deserved an apology?
Chu Mo could feel County Mistress Jiarou looking at her the way one looks at a dog. She held it in, then held it in again, but in the she simply couldn’t.
She tugged gently at Liu Zhurong’s sleeve and asked in a small voice, “Mother, can I curse them out?”
Liu Zhurong had been about to lose her temper herself, but at Chu Mo’s words, her eyes flickered and she gave a nod. “Go ahead.”
They had been insulted first—what was wrong with cursing back?
She was the Princess Consort Yong; dignity and decorum forbade her from cursing at juniors.
But Momo was different.
Chu Mo understood. She rose to her feet with a slap on the table, pointed at County Mistress Jiarou just as Jiarou had pointed at her, and let loose a torrent of abuse.
“County Mistress Jiarou, is it? The way I see it, the wiring between your brain and your nerves must be short-circuited. I’m honestly scared that if you don’t phrase something clearly enough, you’ll bite your own tongue off. A pig head like yours dumped in water would count as polluting the environment with wastewater—you’re good for absolutely nothing.”
“I can’t even be bothered to go into detail. You’re skinny as a kindling stick—one gust of wind would knock you over. Go out at night and the rats could carry you off.”
“Other people have something in their heads; you have a head in your something.”
“Keep yapping at me, and I swear I’ll slap you so hard you’ll up stuck to the wall and never peel off.”
When she finished, the whole room fell dead silent.
Everyone was stunned. They hadn’t expected Chu Mo’s tongue to be this sharp.
Compared to vulgar insults like “bitch” or “bastard,” Chu Mo’s words clearly packed far more destructive power.
County Mistress Jiarou’s eyes bulged wider than copper bells. Clutching her violently heaving chest, she pointed at Chu Mo, her whole body trembling, so enraged that she couldn’t string together a single complete sentence.
“You… you bitch, bitch, you’ve gone too far… I… I…”
Chu Mo rolled her eyes. “You, you, you—what ‘you’? Can’t even speak a full sentence, standing there blabbering like you’ve got something wrong with you.”
Out-cursed and outmatched, County Mistress Jiarou turned to the Princess Royal with a face full of grievance.
“Mother…”
The Princess Royal slammed her hand on the table, her face dark and terrifying. “Insolence!”
Liu Zhurong slammed her table too—louder than her—and fixed the Princess Royal with a cold gaze. “Your Highness, it was just childish banter between youngsters. Why take it to heart?”
She was throwing the Princess Royal’s own words right back at her.
Chu Mo nodded along eagerly. “Exactly, exactly! I’m still a child who hasn’t even come of age. Your Highness, please be magnanimous and forgive me.”
The Princess Royal said, “…Princess Consort Yong, do not forget—my daughter is a County Magistrate!”
Liu Zhurong replied, “My daughter is the only daughter of Prince Yong’s Manor. She ought to be made a Commandery Princess. Once the Old Madam’s birthday celebrations are over, the Prince will submit a memorial to His Majesty.”
Chu Mo’s face went slack with shock.
Commandery Princess? Who? Me?
What have I ever done to deserve being a Commandery Princess?
The Princess Royal stared at Liu Zhurong with a dark expression, and seeing not the slightest hint that she was joking, her heart sank.
County Mistress Jiarou shrieked, “Princess Consort, she’s just a beggar with no father and no mother—you’d really take her as your own daughter?”
She wouldn’t allow it. She absolutely would not allow a beggar to climb above her.
It would be a humiliation beyond bearing!
Chu Mo curled her lip and said in a mock-sweet tone, “Some people, you know—they never do a single thing that counts as being human, but they’ve got a whole pile of nasty schemes, as if their brains never fully grew in.”
“If your mouth has nothing better to do, why not go lick the latrine clean? That way you’d finally do a good deed for once.”
Calling someone a beggar over and over—as if she were so special.
County Mistress Jiarou felt a rush of blood surge straight to her head, her eyes instantly turning red with rage.
She had never imagined anyone could insult another so vilely without uttering a single dirty word.
The Princess Royal clutched her chest, her fury trapped in her breast, neither rising nor falling, choking her breath. White haze flickered before her eyes—she nearly fainted on the spot from those barbed, mocking words.
“A beggar indeed, something that can’t be presented in polite company. Today, I shall properly teach this insolent thing a lesson. Xiangming, strike her for me.”
If she didn’t properly teach this wretched girl a lesson, people might think she was afraid of Liu Zhurong.
Xiangming received the order, nodded, then strode up to Chu Mo, raising her hand to slap her.
Banxia, standing behind Liu Zhurong, immediately stepped forward and firmly seized Xiangming’s arm.
Liu Zhurong’s voice was ice-cold. “Today is the Old Madam’s birthday. Are you certain you want to raise your hand in front of all these people?”
Duke Qi’s Old Madam was nearly dying of anxiety. Her perfectly fine birthday banquet—how had it come to this? Yet she dared not intervene, fearing these two great personages might turn their wrath upon her.
Hearing Liu Zhurong’s words, the Old Madam hurriedly spoke up. “The banquet is about to begin. Perhaps everyone should proceed to the dining hall.”
The Princess Royal paid the Old Madam no heed at all, her eyes chillingly cold.
“It’s not that I wish to deny the Old Madam face, but my daughter—a County Magistrate, no less—has been insulted. Naturally, I must seek justice for my daughter.”
“Justice?” Liu Zhurong sneered. “How laughable. Your daughter is a daughter, but no one else’s daughter is?”
The Princess Royal: “She’s just a beggar. You really treat her as your own daughter?”
Liu Zhurong’s voice was resolute. “Yes. Chu Mo is my own daughter. Whoever dares touch her, Prince Yong’s Manor will show no mercy.”
The Princess Royal and Liu Zhurong stared at each other, two cold, hard gazes locked in a dead standoff in the air, neither willing to yield an inch.
The Princess Royal’s nails dug deep into her palm. Ever since giving birth to her daughter, her body had been damaged and she had never conceived again.
Later, she discovered her consort had kept a mistress outside, who had borne him a son.
In her rage, she ordered the mother and son beaten to death, and had nearly lost control and killed her consort as well.
Meanwhile, Liu Zhurong and Prince Yong were devoted to each other, with four sons. It drove her mad with envy.
Why?
Why had Liu Zhurong married a man devoted to her, while the consort she had so carefully chosen betrayed her?
She utterly despised that composed, dignified, unruffled air of hers.
As if nothing in the world could touch her—as if others’ barbs and veiled attacks were nothing more than trivial matters to her.
County Mistress Jiarou and Chu Mo were glaring at each other as well.
If looks could kill, both sides would have died countless times already.
Not a single word was spoken, yet the tense, confrontational energy in the air churned and surged.
After a long moment.
Footsteps sounded from outside the room.
“Mother, what’s going on here? What happened?” Duke Qi entered the room, asking as if he had no idea.
Following behind him were the Second Prince, the Third Prince, the Fifth Prince, and others.
Seeing Duke Qi arrive, along with so many princes, the Old Madam finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She couldn’t handle these two formidable figures, so she sent someone to fetch Duke Qi to bring the princes over.
When the princes arrived, the Princess Royal and Liu Zhurong both averted their gazes at the same time.
The Second Prince glanced around at everyone in the room, his eyes lingering on Chu Mo for an extra second before he spoke with a smile.
“Aunt, Princess Consort, has something happened?”
The moment she saw the Second Prince, County Mistress Jiarou immediately pointed at Chu Mo and complained in a aggrieved tone, “Cousin, she insulted me! Hurry up and punish her for me.”
Liu Zhurong said coldly, “County Mistress Jiarou, you’re quite young to have already learned to tattle first. You were clearly the one who started insulting people—my Momo merely insulted you back.”