“I’m talking to you. Did you not hear me?”
Xiao Mingyue’s domineering voice interrupted Yue Li’s reminiscence. Truthfully, she found Xiao Mingyue’s arrogant, condescending manner insufferable.
“Lianqiao, do you hear someone talking?” Yue Li asked in confusion. “It sounds like an insect buzzing in my ear. So annoying—I’d really like to swat it dead.”
“You!” Xiao Mingyue’s eyes blazed with fury. “How dare you call me an insect?!”
Yue Li feigned surprise. ”How could I possibly call Miss Xiao an insect?”
“It seems Miss Xiao is not only sharp-tongued, but hard of hearing as well.”
Xiao Mingyue stomped her foot in rage. ”How dare you!”
With that, she raised her hand to strike Yue Li.
Yue Li caught her wrist and shoved her forcefully back, her tone turning ice-cold in an instant. ”How dare I? I’d say you’re the one overstepping, Miss Xiao.”
She took two steps forward, closing in on Xiao Mingyue, who instinctively backed away. When she realized what she was doing, fury surged up in her—but Yue Li spoke first:
“By rights, I am a Fifth-Rank Beauty personally conferred by His Majesty. You, Miss Xiao, hold no imperial title and have inherited no noble rank. You are a commoner—who gave you the audacity to disrespect me inside the palace?”
Xiao Mingyue’s expression shifted. She was born into a marquis’s household—so what if she held no official rank? From childhood, who had ever failed to defer to her?
“You!” Xiao Mingyue pointed at her furiously. “I’m going to the Empress Dowager to settle this!”
Yue Li caught sight of the bright yellow imperial carriage approaching in the distance. The corners of her mouth suddenly lifted into a smile as she blocked Xiao Mingyue’s path.
“Get out of my way!”
“Why so angry, Miss Xiao? Could it be… you’re jealous of me?”
Xiao Mingyue’s face stiffened, as if some sore spot had been struck, and she exploded at once. “I’m jealous of you?”
“A lowly Yangzhou courtesan like you dares say I’m jealous of you?”
She stared at Yue Li’s delicate, lovely face, the malice in her heart swelling until her words grew ever more vicious. “Someone like you, raised in those filthy houses of pleasure—I feel disgusted just standing next to you.”
Yue Li smiled sweetly. “Miss Xiao has pined for His Majesty for years, yet your love has never been returned. Now even a ‘lowly Yangzhou courtesan,’ as you call me, has won his favor—while His Majesty treats you as if you don’t exist…”
Her voice grew softer, more lilting. “In His Majesty’s heart, I’m afraid you’re even lower and more worthless than a Yangzhou courtesan.”
Xiao Mingyue’s face twisted with rage, and she shrieked, “How dare you! You shameless slut!”
Blind with fury, she forgot entirely that they stood on a busy palace walkway. She snatched the teacup from the tray her maid was holding and flung the tea straight at Yue Li’s face.
It was a cold winter day, and Xiao Mingyue had kept her standing outside for a long while—the tea had long gone cold.
“Ah~”
Yue Li staggered back two steps, the tea soaking her face. Droplets trickled down her slender neck and into her collar, and a few strands of hair clung to her cheeks.
Yet she looked anything but disheveled—instead, she seemed all the more fragile and heartbreakingly delicate.
“Your Majesty~”
Weeping, Yue Li rushed past Xiao Mingyue and threw herself straight into the arms of He Yanchen, who had just stepped down from the imperial carriage.
The man instinctively caught her, his broad palm patting her back soothingly.
Yue Li lifted her small face slightly from his embrace, her almond eyes red and glistening—impossible to tell whether from tea or tears. But that dewy, willow-in-the-rain look stirred a flicker of tenderness in He Yanchen.
Tch. She was his woman, after all. How could he let her be bullied like this?
He didn’t even bother to ask, and simply pronounced Xiao Mingyue guilty outright:
“Where did this shrew come from in the palace? Drag her out and beat her to death.”
Xiao Mingyue’s face instantly went deathly pale. Meeting the man’s black eyes, devoid of any emotion, she was so terrified that she collapsed to her knees on the spot.
The imperial guards stepped forward without a word, seized her arms, and moved to drag her away.
Xiao Mingyue struggled with all her might: “Your Majesty, I am Mingyue—”
At that moment, the Empress Dowager and the Marchioness of Shou’an, hearing the commotion, came out and were startled at the scene: “What is going on?”
No one answered her.
Yue Li’s small hand quietly clutched the man’s sleeve, her soft, boneless body leaning almost entirely against his arm, her charming, alluring eyes gazing straight up at him:
“Your Majesty, that tea was so cold…”
“Your concubine is chilled through.”
The Empress Dowager saw the wetness on her face, then looked at Xiao Mingyue trembling, and seemed to understand something.
“Your Majesty, Mingyue is young and doesn’t know better. I shall instruct her properly.”
He Yanchen’s gaze toward the Empress Dowager held little reverence: “Instruct her?”
“Is this what the Empress Dowager’s instruction produces?”
The Marchioness of Shou’an hurriedly knelt to beg forgiveness: “Your Majesty, forgive us. It is this humble wife who failed to raise my daughter properly. I beg Your Majesty to spare her life. When I return home, I shall certainly discipline her well.”
He Yanchen said nothing. Ji Mingcha, reading the situation, said: “Madam, it was Consort Yu whom Miss Xiao offended. The apology should be made to Consort Yu.”
What else did the Marchioness of Shou’an need to understand? She rounded on Xiao Mingyue and snapped: “Why aren’t you apologizing to Consort Yu at once!”
Xiao Mingyue’s hands, braced against the floor, clenched into tight fists, but the Marchioness of Shou’an showed her no leniency—she pressed her daughter’s head down and made her kowtow, bang bang bang.
Only then did Yue Li’s anger subside a little.
It felt good to have someone backing her up.
She wasn’t afraid of the Empress Dowager holding a grudge. Was she supposed to just take insults without fighting back, all to curry favor with the Empress Dowager?
Besides, what use was currying favor with the Empress Dowager? She wasn’t the Empress Dowager’s consort.
He Yanchen heard her soft, coquettish hum. Under the cover of his sleeve, her fingers grew bolder, hooking onto his little finger and giving it a gentle shake, as if quite satisfied.
The man gave a soft scoff.
But he didn’t think it was enough.
How could offending someone be settled with just a few perfunctory kowtows?
He Yanchen’s peripheral glance caught the thick book Lianqiao was holding, and he suddenly asked: “What is that?”
“Reporting to Your Majesty, it is the Admonitions for Women that Her Majesty the Empress Dowager ordered Consort Yu to copy out.”
“Admonitions for Women?” He Yanchen laughed. “In my view, the one who should be copying it is someone else.”
He reached out, picked up the brick-thick volume, and hurled it straight at Xiao Mingyue’s face.
“Ah!” Xiao Mingyue cried out in pain, a bloody gash carved across her cheek. Half dead with fright, she crumpled limply to the ground.
“Copy it a hundred times. Until it’s done, she is never to set foot outside the marquis manor’s gates in this lifetime.”
With that, he took Yue Li straight to the imperial carriage.