2025-10-04 17:38:41 作者： 桑桑必順
With a sharp crack, the thorny switch was firmly caught in midair.
Nanny Zhu froze. The nimble hand yanked hard, forcibly snatching the switch away.
Faint footsteps could be heard outside the hall, but Empress Zhu paid no attention. She glared furiously at Gao Zhi.
“Do you dare raise your hand against me?”
“I only believe I shouldn’t be punished, because the person who truly did wrong is the Crown Prince.”
Gao Zhi enunciated every word.
A flicker of excitement flashed through Jiang Tou’s eyes. Her fingertips kept rubbing against each other beneath her sleeves as she frowned and said, “Aunt, please don’t be angry. Zhizhi…”
“Shut up.”
Gao Zhi tugged at the corner of her lips.
“You’re exactly who I’m talking about.”
Jiang Tou stiffened.
“Jiang Tou, where are you every fifteenth of the month?”
There was an unmistakable chill in Gao Zhi’s smiling eyes.
Jiang Tou’s eyelids trembled.
“Zhizhi, you…”
“You’re at Luanfeng Yin, getting intimate with the Crown Prince. The two of you must be having a wonderful time.”
Empress Zhu slammed her hand against the table.
“Outrageous! How dare you slander the Crown Prince?”
“Luanfeng Yin belongs to Zhu Wen. Whether I’m slandering him or not, Your Majesty can investigate and find out for yourself.”
“Do you think I’ll believe your word alone?”
Empress Zhu was furious.
“Tou’er is pure and chaste, and the Crown Prince is an honorable gentleman. Do you think that just because you were fooling around with Feng Che, they would be like the two of you?”
“If Your Majesty truly wants to know, it’s very simple.”
Gao Zhi said, “That day, you had Nanny Zhu examine me. Now, have her examine Jiang Tou again.”
In her previous life, Jiang Tou had personally told her about meeting the Crown Prince secretly at Luanfeng Yin every fifteenth of the month, when Gao Zhi had been vomiting blood and barely clinging to life.
Jiang Tou’s face paled slightly. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the three people standing at the entrance of the hall. Her fingertips trembled.
“Zhizhi, we’ve been close friends for ten years. How can you humiliate me like this?”
“Ten years.”
Light footsteps sounded behind Gao Zhi.
She looked at Jiang Tou.
“For ten years, I could doubt anyone, but I never once doubted you, Jiang Tou.”
Jiang Tou clenched her fists.
“Not even once.”
Gao Zhi’s lips moved. After a long pause, she said, “I was foolish, so I paid the price. You say we’re close friends.
“Then why was I allowed to suffer the Empress’s humiliation while you couldn’t be? Or is it because… you really did something shameful?”
“Nanny Zhu! Punish her!”
The Empress shouted furiously.
Before Jiang Tou could stop her, Nanny Zhu snatched up the thorny switch and swung it viciously toward Gao Zhi’s face, with enough force to permanently disfigure her.
Gao Zhi did not dodge at all.
“Stop!”
A woman’s stern voice rang out.
At the same time, Gao Zhi quietly curved her lips into a smile.
“Ah!”
Nanny Zhu screamed and collapsed to the floor, clutching her lower back.
“Nanny!”
Empress Zhu froze when she saw Emperor Feng. She then looked toward the person being pushed in on a wheelchair by Princess Huaishu.
The face she had hated for half her life was alive and standing before her eyes.
Images of the woman’s smiling face and graceful manner flashed through Empress Zhu’s mind, and a chill rose from the depths of her heart.
“This subject pays her respects to His Majesty and Her Highness the Princess.”
Gao Zhi bowed to the two of them, her peripheral vision falling on Feng Che.
Feng Che had sent his sword sheath flying and knocked Nanny Zhu down. The cold, murderous look in his eyes had yet to fade. When he noticed Gao Zhi looking at him, his hand gripping the armrest hurriedly covered his injured leg with the hem of his robe.
【A-Zhi agreed to marry me earlier because she hadn’t seen me like this. Now… she must regret it…】
【Don’t hate me… please… don’t find me disgusting.】
“This wheelchair isn’t made very well.”
Gao Zhi walked over and crouched in front of him.
“I’ll have it replaced with a better one made of softwood later. It’ll be more comfortable.”
Feng Che’s handsome face was filled with astonishment.
【She must be saying this because she’s afraid I’ll feel bad…】
【And yet… I’m going to hold her back for the rest of her life. I’m truly… shameless.】
At the thought, Feng Che’s hand gripping his trouser leg trembled slightly.
Gao Zhi moved her lips, genuinely unsure how to tell him that she truly didn’t despise him.
“Your Majesty, what great authority the Empress has.”
Emperor Feng’s voice was cold.
“The marriage was bestowed by Me, yet you think you can change it whenever you please. The Crown Prince says he wants to steal someone else’s fiancée, and he simply does so. You even sent people to examine Gao Zhi’s chastity.”
“You mother and son are truly something else. If Elder Sister hadn’t come to ask Me to come, A-Che and I would still have been kept in the dark.”
Empress Zhu clenched her hands.
“Your Majesty, Prince Huai’an committed treason. A-Zhao only went to the Gao family because he wanted to take responsibility for his cousin.
“We never expected Gao Zhi not only to toy with the Crown Prince, but also to humiliate the people of Kunning Palace. Just now, she even slandered A-Zhao and…”
“Whether it’s slander or not, we’ll know after the examination.”
Emperor Feng said, “Feng Zhen, find a matron.”
“How can Your Majesty believe the word of an outsider?”
Empress Zhu stood up.
Jiang Tou’s back went rigid. She immediately rose, tears shimmering in her eyes.
“Uncle, you watched A-Tou grow up. Don’t you believe what kind of person I am?”
Emperor Feng’s gaze was like a vast, impenetrable net, spreading over her from all directions and leaving Jiang Tou at a loss, overwhelmed by the pressure.
“I watched you grow from a tiny little radish into the graceful young woman you are today.”
“You don’t bear the surname Feng or Zhu, yet I allowed you to call me Uncle because you regarded me as your uncle.”
“But if you think too highly of yourself, no longer want an uncle, and instead want Me to become your father-in-law, then I…”
Emperor Feng spoke slowly.
“Will have no choice but to shed the skin of your uncle and speak to you as your emperor.”
Another matron was brought before the throne by Eunuch Feng.
Jiang Tou’s face turned pale, and fine beads of sweat crawled down her back.
If she underwent the examination, things would be far from simple.
There was no way to conceal what had happened between her and Feng Zhao.
Feng Zhao was the Crown Prince. At most, he would be plagued by rumors.
But she was different.
Gao Zhi noticed the delicate figure on the throne looking at her, her gaze carrying a faint plea.
Was she asking Gao Zhi to plead for her?
Gao Zhi’s heart stirred. She then turned to the matron brought in by Eunuch Feng.
“Matron, if you need help, that Nanny Zhu was going to examine me earlier. I imagine she’s quite experienced.”
Under Jiang Tou’s shocked gaze, Gao Zhi curved her lips.
“Be thorough. Make sure you examine everything clearly… every last detail.”
“Wait.”
When Feng Che heard Gao Zhi say that Nanny Zhu had examined her, a cold glint flashed through his eyes before disappearing into silence.
Jiang Tou had long heard that Feng Che was an upright man. Surely he wouldn’t tolerate a helpless woman being bullied by everyone. She looked at him pleadingly.
“Your Highness…”
Princess Huaishu frowned.
Why does this little seductress throw herself at every man she sees?
Gao Zhi was equally baffled.
“Before the examination, shouldn’t we make the consequences clear?”
Feng Che’s calm, emotionless voice was like a knife plunging into Jiang Tou’s organs and twisting them, filling her with dread.
“According to the law, if the daughter of a subject seduces the Crown Prince into an illicit relationship, she is to be sentenced to exile two thousand li away or eighty strokes of the cane.”
“Why don’t we let Miss Jiang choose first? That way, we can follow the proper procedure later.”
“Feng Che, you’ve gone mad!”
Empress Zhu sprang to her feet in agitation.
“Da Feng has another law as well. Anyone who instigates or enables the Crown Prince is to receive two and a half years of penal servitude or forty-five blows to the spine.”
Feng Che interrupted Empress Zhu without changing his expression.
“At your age, Empress, you should simply take good care of yourself and avoid leaving yourself with chronic ailments. Otherwise, after the Crown Prince takes over the affairs of state, he’ll still have to take care of your health.”
Empress Zhu’s eyes widened.
“What did you say?”
Fortunately, Gao Zhi had lived through two lifetimes. Otherwise, she might have burst out laughing right there.
“Miss Jiang.”
The matron pointed toward the inner chamber behind the screen.
“Please.”
Jiang Tou could only grab onto the Empress’s sleeve.
“Or perhaps…”
The matron looked at her coldly.
“Would you prefer to be examined right here?”