“Nonsense!” Mo Rongyi snorted, making his disbelief clear.
“Press your stomach and feel if there are any lumps.” Ye Zhen pointed to Mo Rongyi’s stomach.
With hesitation, Mo Rongyi did what she instructed and pressed his stomach gently. It seemed that…there were indeed hard lumps as small as unrefined grain salts.
His mouth formed into a grimace–it was excruciating!
“You still won’t believe me?”
“Maybe it was a coincidence.” Mo Rongyi said firmly.
“Then I won’t disturb you anymore.” Ye Zhen motioned with his hand, “You have taken all your medicines. I have to go to the Empress Dowager to say goodbye. If you’ll excuse me, Your Highness.”
Mo Rongyi cradled his stomach unconsciously and waved his hand. “You can go.”
Ye Zhen originally wanted to give him a medicine she had developed. Although the pill was only for strengthening the body, she added a drop of miraculous liquid to it. Although it may not cure his disease, it can at least relieve his pain before he would be prescribed the right medicine.
Yet, the little prince was too stubborn. Even if she gave him her concocted medicine, he surely wouldn’t take it. It would just be a waste.
When Ye Zhen left the prince’s residence, Mo Rongyi also readied himself to go outside to seek his cousin Liu Hua and trick her into giving him his silvers back just as Ye Zhen had told him to.
Suddenly, his eunuch Fu Ping came barging in his room, “Little prince, the Chief Princess and her daughter, Liu Hua, have entered the imperial palace.”
Mo Rongyi’s eyes lit up, “Really?”
“They are going to Cining Palace now. When I saw them, I quickly came here to tell you.” Fu Ping proudly smiled.
“Just in time! This prince is looking for Liu Hua.” Mo Rongyi laughed until another thought entered his mind. He then faced Fu Ping with a look of trepidation.
Miss Lu had just left! She won’t meet them, right?
If they saw Lu Yaoyao, the two might do something to her. Ye Zhen was heading back to the Cining palace where Chief Princess and Liu Hua are visiting.
“Quick, stop Miss Lu Yaoyao!” Mo Rongyi cried and had already marched out.
*
*
*
As a famous idiom says, enemies linger mostly on a narrow road.
Ye Zhen did not expect to meet Chief Princess and Liu Hua in the palace—the mother and daughter she seldom dealt with in her previous life.
Rumors said that Chief Princess was arrogant and overbearing. Because she had helped the Emperor in his usurpation and therefore, urges for her daughter to be his concubine, she thought highly of herself, so high that she ignores even the Empress Dowager herself.
If she doesn’t bat an eye to the Empress Dowager, why would she pay attention to Lu Yaoyao, a nobody, right?
When Ye Zhen saw them, it was too late to go back on her steps. In a fury, she blames herself for thinking too much of the prince’s disease and, therefore, not noticing the pair whose backs were facing her.
Princess Liu Hua, informed by her maid-in-waiting, already knew Ye Zhen was behind her. Intentionally, she abruptly stopped in her steps when she felt Ye Zhen was near. Then, she suddenly dropped to the ground as if someone pushed her and pointed Ye Zhen accusingly.
“Have you got no eyes, cheap maidservant? How dare you hit this princess?”
“Princess, I didn’t even touch you.”
Ye Zhen sneered in her mind. When she saw Liu Hua here, she knew there would be trouble, but she didn’t expect Liu Hua would go through this childish mean and frame her.
“Are you Lu Yaoyao?” The regal woman in a purple gown looked at Ye Zhen haughtily and asked her in a cold and proud voice.
Ye Zhen recognized the woman as the Chief Princess at a glance–Princess Liu Hua’s eyebrow looked exactly like hers.
“To answer the Chief Princess, this miss who stands in front of her is indeed named as Lu Yaoyao.” Ye Zhen bowed her head.
“As expected, she looks like a fox. “The Chief Princess chuckled. “Did you coax the little prince to make a bet for you?” She looked at Ye Zhen coldly and made it clear that she would not spare her today.
Despite the apparent mocking and insult, Ye Zhen answered politely. “Chief Princess, since ancient times, any woman who is called a fox is the one who will overthrow the country and ruin it. miss has no such ambition.”
“Oh, and with sharp tongue also.” With a sneer, the Chief Princess ordered the maids next to her, “Take her down to our palace. Today our palace will teach her a lesson that will serve as a reminder to the Lu family.” The Chief Princess said arrogantly, referring to the Cining palace looming over them.
Princess Liu Hua stood beside her mother with an equally proud face. “Mother, if this cheap maidservant dares to hit me on the ground and talks back at you, she deserves to be killed.”