“I truly don’t know whom the Preceptor favors.” Qin Fei lifted a well‑behaved smile. “But no matter whom the Preceptor chooses as emperor, I believe you will always be the most important support to the future sovereign.”
Her words were clever. Cen Hejue gave a low laugh, no longer pressing her on what she had said earlier. He leaned back against the chair and did not mention the throne again.
Qin Fei secretly breathed a sigh of relief. She leaned by the window for air when her gaze suddenly caught a familiar figure.
“Wait—hold on!” She called out to the driver ahead: “Ah‑Yan, stop the carriage.”
Ah‑Yan turned back, bewildered. “Your Highness, what is it?”
Qin Fei said to Cen Hejue, “Preceptor, I just saw Gu Nian’s maid. She looked flustered, as if something had happened.”
Cen Hejue glanced out the window. Indeed, a young girl was crying, her face streaked with tears, searching desperately for direction.
“This area belongs to the Song family.”
At those words, Qin Fei immediately knew Gu Nian was in trouble.
The carriage halted. Qin Fei jumped down and blocked the girl’s path.
It was Fu Ling, the little maid Gu Nian most often kept by her side. Qin Fei had seen her a few times, so she asked, “Fu Ling, what’s wrong? Has something happened to your mistress?”
Fu Ling’s eyes were swollen from crying. Seeing Qin Fei stop her, she wanted to speak but hesitated.
“Miss… Miss forbade me to seek Your Highness. I could only come to find Young Master Song. But… everyone at the Song residence said… Young Master Song is not at home. I… I had no other way.”
Still sobbing, Fu Ling dropped to her knees before Qin Fei. “Your Highness, please save our young lady. Madam is going to beat her to death.”
Qin Fei froze. “What?” She pulled Fu Ling onto the carriage. Between sobs, the girl explained.
It turned out that yesterday, Gu Nian had come home drunk, only to be caught by her sharp‑tongued stepmother. Gu Nian said some unpleasant things, and Qin Fei’s name was dragged into it. At first, Gu Nian endured, but the moment she heard Qin Fei mentioned, she could not hold back and quarreled with her stepmother.
That woman had long wanted to be rid of Gu Nian. Seizing the chance, she accused Gu Nian of defying her elders and declared she would enforce the family law.
According to Fu Ling, in the Gu household’s family law, defying one’s elders meant fifty heavy strokes of the rod.
Gu Nian’s health was already frail; if she endured fifty blows, she might very well lose her life.
Yet Gu Nian had forbidden Fu Ling from seeking Qin Fei’s help at the palace. Fu Ling had tried to find Song Jinglan instead, but he was nowhere to be found. In her panic and helplessness, she broke down crying in the street.
…
Ah‑Yan’s skill with the reins was excellent, and before long, they reached the Gu residence.
Qin Fei glanced at Cen Hejue beside her, hesitated, then said, “Preceptor, perhaps you should return.”
He gave her a sidelong look. “You don’t need me to come along?”
“It’s better not to trouble you.” After all, the matter had arisen because of Qin Fei herself; it was not right to drag others into it. She turned and entered the Gu estate with Fu Ling.
Qin Fei had visited the Chancellor’s residence once before, so this time she knew the way. Following Fu Ling, she quickly reached the ancestral hall. There she saw Gu Nian pinned to a bench. She had already taken several blows; her face was deathly pale. Above her sat a woman with narrow brows and sharp eyes, looking down with disdain.
“You lost your mother young. As your stepmother, I have done my utmost to raise you. And yet you dare defy me like this.”
The woman sneered. “Drinking, roaming about, neglecting your duties—are you still a daughter of the Gu family?”
Gu Nian bit her lip hard. Her breath was weak, but her words were firm: “Madam has long wished to kill me. Today, you’ve found the perfect excuse. Of course, you’re delighted to use it to be rid of me.”
“You insolent girl!” Gu Wang stood nearby, towering over her. “Sister, how dare you be disrespectful to Mother.”
The woman strode forward, seized Gu Nian’s chin, and mocked in her shrill voice: “Your mother was once a proper lady of a noble house. Who would have thought her child would turn out a disgrace? If she could see you now, she’d be so enraged her coffin lid would not stay shut.”
Gu Nian’s eyes were cold as she stared back. “Madam, you yourself said I was born of my mother but raised by your hand. If I’ve become so unworthy, it is entirely thanks to your careful teaching.”
Gu Wang was about to lunge at her, snarling, “Wretch!”
But the woman stopped him, flinging Gu Nian’s face aside as if discarding refuse, wiping her hands with a kerchief in disgust. “You think you’ve clung to Princess Qin Fei as a lofty branch. But that spoiled, willful girl—do you really believe His Majesty favors her? Everyone sees her as a fool.”
“I thought you had some sense. Yet instead of currying favor with the Third Princess, you chose to flatter Qin Fei, that unruly little tyrant. Do you think you’ve found a protector?” She laughed scornfully. “Utterly foolish. That kind of person doesn’t even care for her own mother. Do you think she would care for you?”
“Silence!” Gu Nian ground her teeth, her face set with icy resolve. “Her Highness is not such a person. Do not slander her here.”
“Gu Nian, that foolish look on your face—just like your mother back then.” The woman let out a mocking laugh.
Gu Nian clenched her fists, her voice cold and deliberate: “Yes. If my mother hadn’t been foolish, how could she have fallen for my father? With her noble family background, how could she ever be compared to you—a shameless servant who schemed after another woman’s husband and crawled into his bed?”
“You vile girl! How dare you slander the mistress of the house!”
The woman’s eyes bulged. She raised her hand and struck Gu Nian hard across the face.
The sharp crack of the slap echoed through the ancestral hall.
Gu Wang stared in disbelief—at his mother who had just been hit, and at Qin Fei, who had suddenly appeared in the hall.
“You… you…”
Last time Qin Fei had left too quickly, so she had never met this woman face‑to‑face. The woman had no idea who the young lady was who had just slapped her.
“Where did you come from?” The woman clutched her cheek, ready to lash back.
Gu Wang hurriedly pulled her back. “Mother, Mother—this one you cannot strike, you must not!”
“Your Highness…” Gu Nian’s face was pale as paper. When she saw Qin Fei, it was as though a deity had descended to earth. Choking back tears, she whispered, “Why have you come?”
Qin Fei flexed her hand. It was the first time she had ever slapped someone, and though she felt a guilty thrill, she masked it with imperious fury. “Tell me—who were you calling a beast just now?”
“I wasn’t cursing you.” The woman jabbed a finger at Qin Fei. “You little yellow‑haired brat, how dare you make trouble in the Gu household? Do you even know where you are? Do you know who I am?”
“Who says I don’t?” Qin Fei cleared her throat, pointed at the woman, then at herself, her whole bearing radiating: arrogant and domineering. “You’re my grandson. I’m your grandfather.”