Seeing that she had touched upon Murong Yao’s sore spot, Jiang Yuzhou stopped herself. “Forget it, you’d better not hear it.”
“If he finds out I leaked this to you, he’d fight me to the death.”
Xiao Changning walked over to her side, holding a plate of delicacies from the table as a bribe. “Only by understanding Bixia can I take better care of him.”
She coaxed, “Pain is like a spoiled medicinal plaster. If you keep it on, it will fester the wound and hurt constantly. Tearing it off will also hurt, but gradually, it will heal.”
Seeing Xiao Changning’s earnest expression, Jiang Yuzhou’s resolve wavered.
With her help, perhaps things could be accomplished with half the effort.
Jiang Yuzhou leaned her hands on the table and spoke slowly, “On his tenth birthday, the Khitans invaded, and the late emperor personally led the expedition.”
“The late Empress strangled his mother, the Guifei, right before his eyes. The Crown Prince, Murong Hao, ordered the palace servants to torture and kill him.”
“Everyone in the palace was searching for him. He pretended to be dead and hid among the eunuchs’ corpses, spending a night in the mass burial ground.”
Jiang Yuzhou sighed, her voice filled with heartache. “When my father and I found him, he was huddled beside the corpses, his wounds festering and refusing to heal, the knife cuts deep into the bone…”
“He knelt in the snow for three days. My father was moved by him and took him as his disciple.”
Hearing of Murong Yao’s suffering, Xiao Changning’s eyes unknowingly grew moist. So his cruelty stemmed from the betrayals and hurts of his childhood.
But upon careful thought, if he had grown up under his mother’s care, he would surely have been a benevolent ruler today.
Jiang Yuzhou looked at her and said, “Sister Guifei, Bixia loves you deeply.”
“I grew up with him and have never seen him so fixated on anyone before.”
Xiao Changning smiled faintly and nodded firmly.
Then, Jiang Yuzhou added with unusual seriousness, “Never leave him!”
“I know, I won’t.” Xiao Changning promised her, but was a life spent with Murong Yao truly what she wanted?
She had seen too many cases where once something was gained, it was no longer cherished.
Her mother was like that, and so was her cousin, Princess Ru Min.
Jiang Yuzhou picked up her chopsticks and ate the once-beloved delicacies, which now tasted like wax.
“Enough, enough.” The sorrowful topic ended with Jiang Yuzhou’s refusal to say more. She pulled Xiao Changning back to continue eating and chatting.
Just as the two were engrossed in their conversation, three or five drunkards stumbled out of the private room next door.
“Make way for me!”
The men pushed aside other guests, swaggering like crabs.
A burly man walking up from downstairs swung his fist in a wide arc, striking the leading young master squarely.
The young master in white brocade robes was caught off guard. His nose bridge was broken, and blood streamed uncontrollably from his nostrils.
Seeing the situation turn dangerous, Jiang Yuzhou pulled Xiao Changning behind a nearby pillar.
Xiao Changning whispered excitedly, “There’s a commotion to watch!”
As she spoke, she peeked out, and Jiang Yuzhou had no choice but to join her.
The burly man who had thrown the punch stepped aside, allowing his master to step forward. Judging by his blue brocade robes, this man also seemed to be from a wealthy family.
Xiao Changning tugged at Jiang Yuzhou’s sleeve. “Who are these two people?”
What a coincidence!
Jiang Yuzhou assisted Murong Yao with government affairs, and she recognized both of them!
She leaned close to Xiao Changning’s ear. “The one in the blue robe is Feng Shen. His father is Adjutant Feng Yuan. The one in white is Cao Xu, son of Cao Wenhai, the Minister of Rites.”
“Both are from official families—how could they brawl in the street?” Xiao Changning asked.
Jiang Yuzhou kept pulling at her, trying to lead her away. “Who knows? Let’s head back first.”
Xiao Changning instead grabbed the curtain by the pillar. “No rush. The palace never has such entertaining spectacles.”
“It’s rare for us to get out—what a pity to miss it.”
Xugging Jiang Yuzhou’s arm, Xiao Changning hid in the shadows and peered out.
Feng Shen was furious, his hair practically standing on end as he shouted, “You scoundrel! What were you doing sneaking around my residence last night?”
“Who sneaked into your residence?”
Cao Xu refused to back down. “What right do you have to hit me?”
Feng Shen pointed at his nose and cursed, “Still pretending?”
He threw out Cao Xu’s personal jade pendant. “This is the ‘dog hair’ you left behind! You and that wanton woman in my household… you… you two… you really make my blood boil!”
Seeing his own pendant, Cao Xu’s arrogance instantly deflated by half.
Though Feng Shen hadn’t finished his sentence, everyone present was clever enough.
They immediately understood: Feng Shen’s wife and Cao Xu were actually having an affair, carrying on in secret.
The onlookers all craned their necks—this was far more exciting than any storybook.
“Wow, adultery,” Xiao Changning murmured, her eyes fixed on the two men confronting each other ahead. She tilted her head to ask the person behind her, “Empress sister, according to Beiyuan law, how should this be handled?”
“A married woman who commits adultery should be drowned in a pig cage. A man who has relations with a married woman should be exiled into slavery.”
Xiao Changning’s smile vanished, her face turning from pale to ashen.
It wasn’t because of Beiyuan’s laws, but because of the voice—a voice she knew all too well.
A cold sweat broke out on her back. Xiao Changning cautiously turned around and indeed saw Murong Yao with a darkened expression, along with the Empress covering her face, head bowed and lips pouted.
Xiao Changning tightly clenched her sleeves and inched her way step by step to Empress Jiang Yuzhou’s side.
“Empress sister, why didn’t you warn me?”
Jiang Yuzhou whispered pitifully, “I wanted to, but my words couldn’t keep up with Bixia’s hands.”
“He covered my mouth—I couldn’t say anything.”
Murong Yao looked at the Empress, then at Xiao Changning, and let out a cold laugh. “My two beloved consorts, what refined interests you have.”
“As soon as I stepped out of the Imperial Study, both of you vanished without a trace. So you abandoned me to watch a spectacle?”
Xiao Changning weakly retorted, “Abandoned? That’s an unfair accusation.”
“You dare talk back!” Murong Yao’s expression immediately shifted.
The three of them looked at each other, none speaking, just awkwardly exchanging glances.
Meanwhile, the two parties in the corridor were like needle against awl, bandit against rogue.
Cao Xu scanned the crowd around him, all pointing and whispering. He steeled himself. “You’re spouting nonsense!”
“I lost this pendant some days ago. Are you a thief? You stole my things and now frame me?”
Feng Shen was enraged by his words, his finger trembling. “You…”
“Enough! ‘You’ what? Can’t even speak clearly, yet you accuse others here? Go home and straighten your tongue before talking, lest you embarrass yourself further!”
Cao Xu spoke while pointing at his own cheek with his finger, sticking out his tongue and making a funny face.
Though both sides had lost ground in the verbal exchange, they didn’t hold back in action. With a single disagreement, they immediately started fighting.
Amid the quarrels and commotion, a sharp dagger flew out from somewhere, heading straight toward Murong Yao.