Yan Zhuxing had been prepared, so she was not startled.
She followed the momentum and tumbled out of the carriage, pretending to be out of control as she pushed the coachman aside, rolling twice before landing on the ground.
Before Wen Rushuang could recover from her fall, she heard the piercing scream of the maid accompanying the carriage: “Madam, be careful!”
She turned her head and saw the horse’s iron hooves, carrying a foul wind, stamping toward her.
Wen Rushuang widened her eyes in terror, wanting to get up and flee, but just as her hands pushed her up, the horse’s hoof stomped heavily on her waist.
Crack.
She clearly heard a crisp sound from her waist, as if all her internal organs had shifted in that moment. The pain drained the color from her face instantly.
Warm blood gushed into her nasal cavity, and she vomited a large pool of blood with a “wah” before fainting, her condition unknown.
After stomping, the horse itself was startled and turned to dash wildly in another direction.
Tingyun, who had been secretly following, was about to intervene when he saw Jiang Chao, the Deputy Commander of the Eastern City Military and Police Department, collide head-on with the horse.
In a swift motion, Jiang Chao spun and kicked, drawing his blade without hesitation to kill the startled horse on the spot.
Tingyun silently retreated and returned to the Prince’s residence to report the incident.
The maid, her face pale with fear, trembled as she ran over and knelt beside the still-dripping blade in Jiang Chao’s hand, crying out, “Sir, please save us! My mistress is the Marquess of Dingyuan’s Wife. She has suffered this calamity and is severely injured. Please summon a physician quickly!”
Jiang Chao glanced at the shattered carriage and noticed the emblem of the Dingyuan Marquisate, his brow furrowing.
He decisively ordered his subordinates to fetch a physician while he investigated what had happened.
Upon learning that the commotion was caused by a yellow dog and a woman, he couldn’t help but inwardly lament the Marquess of Dingyuan’s Wife’s misfortune.
“Where are the dog and the woman?” he asked, looking around but finding no trace of them.
The onlookers pointed east one moment and west the next, none able to accurately describe the whereabouts of the woman and the dog.
After all, they had all been hiding in fear, afraid of being injured by the frenzied horse.
The physician hurried over with his medical kit and administered acupuncture to Wen Rushuang.
After stopping the bleeding, he wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. “The lumbar vertebrae are completely fractured. I am of limited skill and can only keep the Madam alive for now. In the future…”
He looked at his blood-stained fingers, sighed, and continued, “I’m afraid she will have to spend her days bedridden.”
The maid and coachman from the Marquis’s Mansion turned pale with fear upon hearing this.
It was over. If the Madam were paralyzed in bed, she would surely not spare them in the future.
Nearby, Yan Zhuxing frowned slightly upon hearing this.
She had originally planned to take Wen Rushuang’s life today.
After all, Wen Rushuang had been pressing her relentlessly these past few days, leaving her no room to breathe.
Thus, before departing, she had sent Ban Tang to find Jiuzhi.
She asked Jiuzhi to create chaos so she could take advantage of the confusion to push Wen Rushuang out of the carriage and kill her.
She hadn’t expected Wen Rushuang to be so tenacious, surviving even after being trampled by a horse.
But perhaps this was for the better. Next year, when Yan Mingxiu passed the imperial examination and was set to enter the Hanlin Academy, she would take Wen Rushuang’s life then.
At that time, Yan Mingxiu would have to observe official mourning leave for three years upon his mother’s death.
With the opportunity right before his eyes but slipping away, Yan Mingxiu’s suffering would only be doubled.
And as for Wen Rushuang, paralyzed in bed from now on, she would likely find life worse than death.
She glanced at Wen Rushuang, silently praying in her heart that she would hold on and not die just like that.
She still wanted her to witness with her own eyes how the Marquis’s Mansion would fall into ruin.
Upon receiving the news, Dingyuan Marquis hurried over with his second son, Yan Mingxiu. Learning that Wen Rushuang might be paralyzed for the rest of her life, he staggered and nearly collapsed to the ground.
The sudden bad news left them completely unprepared.
Yan Mingxiu, his eyes bloodshot, lunged at Yan Zhuxing, grabbing her collar and demanding, “Was it you who harmed Mother?”
Yan Zhuxing opened her eyes and noticed that Pei Mingjing was actually following behind him.
Her heart skipped a beat.
That scoundrel Pei Mingjing was not easy to fool. Would he discover something amiss?
“Young Master, the eldest young lady is also injured. Please calm down,” Pei Mingjing stepped forward, pressing a hand on Yan Mingxiu’s shoulder and signaling him to let go.
“My mother is on the verge of death. How can I calm down?” Yan Mingxiu pushed his hand away, glaring hatefully at Yan Zhuxing. “You’re nothing but a jinx. You deserve to die.”
He viciously tried to reach out and choke Yan Zhuxing’s neck but was once again stopped by Pei Mingjing.
Pei Mingjing said calmly, “Does the second young master intend to commit murder in front of this official?”
Yan Mingxiu gritted his teeth in anger, roughly shaking off his hand, and stared fixedly at Yan Zhuxing, squeezing out a sentence through clenched teeth: “How dare I.”
Yan Zhuxing sniffled and shouted, “Yesterday, you accused me of drugging the heir. Today, with the carriage accident, you want to accuse me of matricide. So, when you picked me up back then, was it just to raise a scapegoat for the Yan family?”
She sneered, tears streaming down her cheeks from the corners of her eyes.
“Since you want me dead anyway, why bother fabricating charges? I’ll just go die now, alright?”
After shouting these words, she dragged her injured leg forward, crawling desperately as if to smash her head against a pillar by the street.
When her forehead was just half an inch from the pillar, she was suddenly grabbed around the waist.
Opening her eyes, she saw it was actually Prince Yong’an.
“You can’t die yet. This prince’s jade pendant hasn’t been found.”
He carefully placed her back on the soft sedan, then gestured with his chin to Imperial Physician Ji behind him: “Examine her. In a few days, she still has to go to the palace to instruct the tenth princess in the Battle Formation Dance. Her leg must not be injured.”
“Yes,” Imperial Physician Ji resignedly began examining Yan Zhuxing’s wounds.
With him present, Yan Mingxiu dared not act recklessly, but the hatred in his eyes as he looked at Yan Zhuxing remained undiminished.
Xie Yining looked at Yan Mingxiu with a faint, mocking smile. “This prince recalls that Da Yu abolished the custom of live burial long ago. Could it be that the rules of Dingyuan Marquisate are greater than the laws of the state? The Marquise has not yet passed away, and as an elder brother, you are already forcing your younger sister to accompany her in death?”
Yan Mingxiu’s face flushed bright red, his lips trembling as he dared not refute.
Dingyuan Marquis had no choice but to step forward and clean up the mess.
He said solemnly, “Mingxiu is simply unable to accept the devastating news of his mother’s severe injuries and spoke rashly in the heat of the moment. Please forgive him, Your Highness.”
Pei Mingjing’s gaze shifted back and forth between Xie Yining and Yan Zhuxing.
Was it his imagination, or did Prince Yong’an seem particularly protective of the eldest young lady of Dingyuan Marquisate?
But according to his private investigations, aside from meeting once at Weining Marquis Estate, the two had no interactions in private.
He glanced again at Wen Rushuang on the ground.
Just yesterday, this mother and daughter had turned against each other, and today the Marquise was severely injured.
Was this really a coincidence?
Pei Mingjing fell into deep thought.
“Prince, Miss Yan’s leg…” Imperial Physician Ji’s words broke the awkward tension of the standoff.
He was about to say that Yan Zhuxing had only suffered a fracture and would recover with proper care over time.
But before he could finish, Xie Yining interrupted him: “Hmm? What about Miss Yan’s leg? Is it serious?”
Seeing the warning in his eyes, Imperial Physician Ji understood the unspoken message and immediately put on a grave expression, swallowing the truth.
“Miss Yan’s leg is broken. If the bones are set even slightly off the meridian, I fear she may be left with a lifelong limp.”
Then he pointed to the back of Yan Zhuxing’s head: “There’s a blood clot here. If it had gone just a bit deeper, even a Great Luo Golden Immortal couldn’t have saved her.”
Yan Zhuxing was startled by his words.
She had been careful when she jumped.
Her leg would be fine after a month of rest at most, and as for her head, it was just a scrape that broke the skin. Why was Imperial Physician Ji making it sound like she was on the brink of death?