Zuo Peng also said, “Your Royal Highness the Crown Prince, this woman is an assassin with extremely high martial arts. Please step aside temporarily, and your humble servant will capture her right away.”
Zhou Yuxiao glanced at him coldly. “Stand down.”
“Your Highness, are you going to capture her yourself?”
Zhou Yuxiao said, “There is definitely a misunderstanding here. This is Jiang Yanqing, the legitimate eldest daughter of Marquis Pingyuan’s Manor.”
Although surprised and puzzled, Zuo Peng could only obey, “Understood!”
He led his men back ten meters, which made Zhou Yuhuai extremely anxious.
“Third Imperial Brother, all the land under heaven belongs to the King! Setting aside how arrogant and despotic she is, even if she has towering grievances, daring to strike an imperial prince and directly call His Majesty by his given name are both capital offenses!”
He wondered if his Third Imperial Brother had been possessed by a ghost today. Under normal circumstances, anyone who committed the offense of insubordination would have been executed on the spot by his Third Imperial Brother.
Yet now, not only did he not punish Jiang Yanqing, he was even protecting her in a roundabout way.
Judging by how the two of them acted as if they had met before, could his Third Imperial Brother have some dirt on him held by Jiang Yanqing?
“Then let’s go to the Imperial Study and let His Father make the decision.”
Zhou Yuhuai shook his head. “Let’s go, then!”
The three of them arrived at the Imperial Study together, and Zhou Yuhuai dropped to his knees in tears.
“Father, you must seek justice for me! The legitimate eldest daughter of Marquis Pingyuan’s Manor, Jiang Yanqing, is trying to rebel. She dared to lay a hand on your son, and she even dared to…”
“Little Master Aunt!”
Before Zhou Yuhuai could finish speaking, Emperor Zhou Qicen stood up with a face full of joy and walked right up to Jiang Yanqing.
He actually cupped his hands in a bow and saluted, “Greetings, Little Master Aunt. When did Little Master Aunt arrive in the imperial city? Why didn’t you notify your nephew to come and pick you up?”
At that moment, Zhou Yuhuai’s world collapsed.
His eyes glazed over in utter shock and disbelief.
Although Zhou Yuxiao was also somewhat surprised, he wasn’t entirely shocked.
Jiang Yanqing clearly wasn’t a fool, yet the moment she returned to the imperial city, she dared to create a huge commotion at Marquis Pingyuan’s Manor and beat up the heir and an imperial prince. She definitely had a powerful backing.
So, she was his father’s Little Master Aunt—that woman who had never shown her face, yet had been enfeoffed as the Grand Princess Jingxian.
After a moment of daze, Zhou Yuhuai finally reacted. “Father, you’re saying this stinking girl is your Little Master Aunt?”
Zhou Qicen slapped him across the head. “You wretched scoundrel! If you dare to show disrespect to my Little Master Aunt again, I’ll knock out all your teeth. Hurry up and kowtow to your Great-Aunt.”
With that, the Emperor reached out and helped Jiang Yanqing sit down on the Dragon Throne.
Zhou Yuhuai pointed at Jiang Yanqing in shock. “Father… then… then… how can she sit on the Dragon Throne?”
Zhou Qicen casually grabbed a memorial booklet and smashed it into Zhou Yuhuai’s mouth. “If my Little Master Aunt wanted to pluck the stars, I’d have to build a heavenly ladder for her. What’s wrong with sitting on the Dragon Throne? Hurry up and kowtow!”
Then he looked at Zhou Yuxiao. “Xiao’er, you kneel down and kowtow to your Great-Aunt as well.”
Before Zhou Yuxiao could move, Jiang Yanqing quickly said, “He… he doesn’t need to.”
Zhou Yuhuai was truly crying now. “Why do I have to kowtow? She already beat me up several times without rhyme or reason. My face is swollen, and my ribs were almost broken from the fall. I won’t kowtow!”
Zhou Qicen’s expression suddenly turned cold as he picked up a disciplinary ruler hanging on the wall and lashed it across Zhou Yuhuai’s back.
“Although my Little Master Aunt is young, she never beats people without reason. Speak, how did you provoke her?”
Zhou Yuhuai sniffled and said, “You probably don’t know yet, but she’s that legitimate eldest daughter of Marquis Pingyuan’s Manor who was raised away in a rural estate. Considering that she had reached the age for marriage, the Marquis wanted to find her a good match, so he brought her back.
Who would have thought she would harbor deep resentment? The moment she entered the estate, she set fire to Marquis Pingyuan and his concubine, beat up Shen Zhenze, and forced arsenic down Shen Ruoyou’s throat.
I originally wanted to lecture her a bit, but before I could even open my mouth, she called me a fool and slapped me right across the face several times!”
“Slap! Slap!“
Zhou Qicen gave Zhou Yuhuai another fierce beating. “Ever since you were born, I knew you were the most foolish of all my children, and it turns out to be true.
What decent person would send their only legitimate daughter to be raised in an estate? That Marquis Pingyuan family must have been completely out of options against my Little Master Aunt, which is why they summoned you over to use you as a knife.”
“No, that’s not it… It was Jiang Yanqing who…”
“Slap!“
Zhou Qicen struck Zhou Yuhuai’s mouth with the ruler again. “Call her Great-Aunt!”
With a mouthful of blood that he didn’t dare spit out inside the Imperial Study, Zhou Yuhuai could only swallow it down along with his tears.
“Great… Aunt…”
Jiang Yanqing crossed her arms over her chest and leaned lazily against the back of the chair.
“Alright, since you’ve called me Great-Aunt, I’ll make the reason you got beaten perfectly clear.
My mother was the legitimate first wife of Marquis Pingyuan, but the Marquis favored his concubine over his wife. On the day my mother died, I begged him to find a doctor to treat her, but he claimed my mother was just faking it and walked away.
My mother vomited blood and died, and just a few days later, he sent me away to the estate. Feng Yulian bribed the servants there to beat and curse at me every day, making me do hard labor, keeping me starved and poorly clothed, and covered in injuries.
If I hadn’t met my master and learned a set of skills, I wouldn’t have survived until today.
Marquis Pingyuan’s Manor brought me back so that I could take Shen Ruoyou’s place in marrying Zhang Haokun, because he wanted Shen Ruoyou to marry someone of even higher status—you.
A few days ago, Zhang Haokun and Prince Cheng came to Marquis Pingyuan’s Manor to give me trouble, and Shen Ruoyou seized the opportunity to slip arsenic into my tea. I noticed it, so I poured it down her throat instead.
Clearly, she is the executioner, yet she played the victim to fool you completely. As an imperial prince, if you can’t even discern the true face of a woman, do you know that will be a disaster capable of subverting the state?”
Zhou Yuhuai was still somewhat unconvinced. “I don’t need to inherit the grand succession anyway, so I can’t subvert the state. As long as Third Imperial Brother can see women for what they are, that’s enough.”
“Fool!” Jiang Yanqing suddenly raised her voice. “Today she can trick you into killing me, and tomorrow she can bewitch you into staging a rebellion!”