Yan Wanqing’s cheeks were flushed red as she reached with both hands to stop his misbehaving hands, her voice clearing to a somewhat seductive murmur, "There’s a problem."
"What problem?" Xiao Pingfeng kissed her earring.
Yan Wanqing turned her head and bumped into the depths of his dark eyes; the intense heat within startled her to inhale sharply.
"Speak, what’s the problem?" The man prompted impatiently.
Yan Wanqing bit her lower lip, her eyes filling with tears of anxiety due to those hands setting fires everywhere: "My, my period is here."
After a moment of silence.
The man behind her hugged her tightly into his arms, breathing heavily.
"... You really want to suffocate me to death."
He vented his frustration by sucking a red mark into the side of her neck.
Caught off guard, Yan Wanqing let out a moan.
In an instant, her lips were sealed with his forefinger.
"Don’t moan; it drives me crazy," he threatened.
Yan Wanqing’s eyes were slightly red, filled with tears, her lips covered by his hand, and she dared not make a sound.
Li Chengyuan, having done something wrong, was confined by Xiao Hongshen for two days. She couldn’t bear it any longer, and on this day, having heard that Yan Wanqing had left the residence and Xiao Hongshen was not on the premises, she strutted straight out the door.
"It’s just killing someone; so many people die in the Capital City without any repercussion. How come the death of a maid in some border town necessitates locking me up for days? It’s completely unreasonable."
She headed straight for the kitchen. These past few days, she hadn’t eaten well; all was meat, which left her feeling utterly sick of it, so once she left, she headed directly to the kitchen, planning to cook a good meal for herself.
Taking advantage of the ample time she had, she also prepared some other food, planning to use it to please Xiao Hongshen when he returned later on.
The proverb says that to catch a man’s heart, you must catch his stomach.
Li Chengyuan, although from modern times, highly agreed with this saying; after all, countless men had fallen for her because of her cooking skills.
After preparing the food to please Xiao Hongshen, she finally heaved a sigh of relief. By then, the sun had set. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she walked out of the kitchen, completely unprepared to meet the eyes of a throng of maids and servants.
There were probably twenty or thirty people, blocking the kitchen door en masse.
Li Chengyuan was frightened half to death.
Her face turned pale from fear.
These twenty or thirty people stood silently outside, seemingly waiting just for her to come out.
Li Chengyuan couldn’t help but frown. Without a word, she walked forward two steps, and the crowd parted for her.
She walked another two steps before the people behind her encircled her in the middle.
Now Li Chengyuan was both angry and embarrassed, "How dare you! What do you lowly slaves think you’re doing? The City Lord Residence’s servants have no such lack of discipline!"
No one responded to her rage.
Li Chengyuan was surrounded in the middle, the maids and servants lined up closely around her; their dark eyes uniformly fixed on her. Glancing up, she saw emotionless, grey faces.
"Scram—get out of my way!" Li Chengyuan yelled forcefully at them.
Still, no one reacted.
Now she swallowed nervously, intimidated.
"I’m warning you, stop surrounding this county mistress right now! Otherwise, I’ll kill you!"
Perhaps because "kill" in Li Chengyuan’s threat resonated too harshly, finally a maid spoke up.
Her gaze landed solemnly on Li Chengyuan.
"You killed someone, disrupted nearly twenty years of feng shui, and committed a sin against heaven. You will be punished by the gods."
What nonsense about feng shui!
Li Chengyuan couldn’t listen to this gibberish. She yanked a hairpin from her head and, with a fierce look at the maid, said, "If you don’t step aside, I’ll kill each of you as you come!"
After she spoke and saw that no one moved, malice flashed in her eyes. She swept the hairpin in her hand swiftly across the maid’s face, drawing blood.
A sharp scream was heard, and the crowd quickly became chaotic.
Li Chengyuan snorted coldly, looking at the group that had just encircled her tightly.
They were all flesh and blood, and when faced with danger, they still feared for their own lives.
Was this rabble of people, who had dared to surround her and teach her a lesson, worthy opponents?
By the time Xiao Hongshen returned, she was determined to have Ji Yuntai summoned for questioning, to find out exactly how he was disciplining the servants of the City Lord Residence. They truly must have the courage of the bear and leopard, far too insolent!
Li Chengyuan found a gap and immediately took advantage of her nimble stature to escape the encirclement. Looking at the group still standing there, her gaze met through the air with that of the maid covering her face, while blood continuously streamed out between her fingers.
For some unknown reason.
It was clearly the look of the weaker one.
Yet, Li Chengyuan inexplicably felt a chill down her spine.
The land of Xiliang City was sinister, and its people always made her feel uneasy.
"Commandery Princess, are you all right?" the maid asked anxiously, holding a tray next to her.
Li Chengyuan glanced at her sidelong: "Where were you just now?"
"Reporting to the Commandery Princess, this servant was just in the kitchen carrying dishes," the maid replied with her head lowered.
"There were quite a few small dishes, this is my second round," she explained.
Li Chengyuan snorted coldly, looking at the stack of dishes on the tray. She withdrew her gaze and walked towards her own quarters.
The maid breathed a sigh of relief as she saw her walk away.
In fact, she had just been nearby.
The City Lord Residence had not seen a death in over twenty years since Ji Yuntai took residence. Each time the barbarian raiders reached the gates, they would mysteriously lose their way, saving the entire Xiliang City from disaster.
But this time, because of this Commandery Princess from the Capital City,
A rule unbroken for over twenty years was violated.
Hate surged like stormy waves in the depth of the maid’s eyes, yet it vanished like smoke and clouds the moment Li Chengyuan turned her head.
"What are you still standing there for!"
"Commandery Princess, do not be anxious, this servant is coming right away," the maid hurriedly followed, carrying the tray.
Meanwhile, in the distant Capital City.
One of the high-ranking officials surnamed Zhang, who held office in the capital, was found by the night watch to have been wiped out.
Blood flowed from beneath the door and onto the green stone slabs outside, drawing a few rats to lick at the doorstep.
That was how the night watch noticed.
The night watch was scared stiff, holding back his fear for a whole day before daring to report to the authorities.
Xie Qun of the Dali Temple immediately had the Zhang Residence surrounded, tight as a drum.
At this moment, inside the palace.
Empress Zhang Lanyi watched indifferently as the palace gates before her were slowly closed, her façade of heart-wrenching tears abruptly turning frigid.
The nursemaid lying beside her, battered and bloody, shakily crawled to her feet, only to be kicked away mercilessly by Zhang Lanyi.
"Laifu, had it not been for your years of service to me, I would truly have thought you belonged to the Emperor."
Laifu lay prostrate on the ground, her fingertips covered in fresh blood.
Deep inside, Laifu was in turmoil, overwhelmed with dread. She and the Empress were tied to the same fate; without Zhang Lanyi’s redemption, Laifu’s path would lead to certain death.
Yet, she had always been discreet in these matters.
How could she have let slip just Zhang Nian?
In this life-or-death moment, a stroke of insight flashed in Laifu’s mind.
"Your Majesty, someone took the Zhang family’s legitimate daughter out in advance, thus leaving a living witness," she revealed.
Zhang Lanyi scoffed, "A witness? Ha... Can a mere girl cause me to be sent to the Cold Palace?! There must be the work of those old fools behind this!"
"Please grant your servant more time. We still have people outside the palace; your servant will certainly find that Zhang Nian—"
Zhang Lanyi raised her hand to interrupt, turning to walk into the depths of the Cold Palace with a slow, graceful gait, as if it were not a Cold Palace at all but her own splendid and luxurious chambers.
Hearing her speak leisurely.
"Since His Majesty has not declared my banishment to the Cold Palace, I remain the Empress of Dawei."
Laifu bowed her head deeply upon hearing this.
As long as she was the Empress, the Cold Palace could not contain Zhang Lanyi!