Lu Qingyuan didn't need to turn around to know who it was.
"Hurry up, hurry up!" She urged the servants to put the things away, too impatient to wait for the coachman to bring the mounting block, and lifted her skirt to step right into the carriage.
She had no desire to brawl with Lu Rongyue at the palace gates—it was unseemly, and it would cut into the time she needed to count her money.
"Get down here!"
She was still a step too slow. Lu Rongyue had already rushed up behind her, grabbed a handful of her long hair, and pulled down with all her might.
Never expecting this idiot to actually dare pull her hair right outside the palace gates, Lu Qingyuan spun around, grabbed Lu Rongyue by the shoulders, shoved her down, and gave her a firm push backward.
Lu Rongyue let go, clutching her shoulder in agony as she staggered back a few steps.
No. This was wrong. Terribly wrong.
A terrifying thought flashed through her mind.
In her past life, after Lu Qingyuan returned to the capital, though they had traded verbal barbs and her mother had punished her by making her kneel in the ancestral hall a few times, she had quieted down after taking a few beatings. But slapping her at the grand wedding earlier, and now daring to lay hands on her—these were things that had never happened in the past life.
Could it be that Lu Qingyuan had also... been reborn?!
No, impossible. If she had been reborn, how could she have so easily handed over the position of Princess Xian on a silver platter?
As she thought this, Lu Qingyuan stepped forward, slowly raised both arms, and gently rotated her wrists, letting out a faint cracking sound.
"Good sister, why never learn?" She suddenly leaned in close to Lu Rongyue's ear. "What, you still want another slap?"
"You!" Lu Rongyue instinctively covered her veil and stepped back half a step, forcing herself to lift her chin. "Just you wait until I become Princess Xian..."
"Princess Xian?" Lu Qingyuan gave a light laugh, her gaze sweeping past the python-robed figure striding over from behind Lu Rongyue. "Right now, Prince Xian probably finds even looking at you an insult to his eyes..."
Before the words finished, she fiercely grabbed Lu Rongyue's veil and gave it a vicious yank!
The veil fluttered down, exposing half of Lu Rongyue's red, ulcerated face to the open air.
"Ah—"
She shrieked, covering her cheeks.
Lu Qingyuan cheerfully tore the veil in half. "Oops, I used a bit too much muscle. Can't be helped—I grew up on the streets, so I'm rather rough around the edges, and I married a brute of a martial artist. Do forgive me."
Seeing Xiao Qi drawing closer, she had no desire to linger and fight, quickly darting into the Town-North Marquis Manor's carriage and telling the driver to move.
Feeling quite cheerful, Lu Qingyuan even leaned out of the carriage window and gave a wave.
"Don't be upset, Sister Rongyue. Tomorrow is the return visit home, and Sister will gift you a few more veils—"
Lu Rongyue had no time to retort, frantically urging her maid to hand over a handkerchief to cover her face.
Who would have thought that the moment she turned around, she would run right into Xiao Qi.
"Rongyue, your face..."
The sight of Lu Rongyue's ruined countenance filled Xiao Qi with revulsion; he wished he could pluck out his own eyes.
"Brother Qi, listen to my explanation! Lu Qingyuan framed me..." Lu Rongyue grabbed Xiao Qi's arm.
Veins bulged on Xiao Qi's temples. He was already burning with a bellyful of rage after being thoroughly chewed out by the Empress in private.
Even with all his usual gentleness toward women in public, he could not conceal the disgust in his eyes now.
"With a flawed appearance like yours, you are unfit to be Princess Xian. Call off the engagement!"
With that, he shoved Lu Rongyue away and swept his sleeves in departure.
"Brother Qi! Brother Qi! Prince Xian! You can't call off the engagement!"
The cries and wails of Lu Rongyue echoed through the palace gates.
...
An incense stick's time later, Huo Yanxing stood frowning at the empty palace gates.
Only Bai Yu and two horses were waiting.
Bai Yu handed over the reins. "Before leaving, Madam instructed that since the Marquis would surely be having a heart-to-heart with the Emperor for a long time, she had your subordinate stay behind with the mounts to attend to you."
"Hmph. She's probably in a rush to go home and count her money." Huo Yanxing mounted the horse in one fluid motion.
Bai Yu spurred his horse to follow, spilling the details of what had just happened at the palace gates like beans pouring from a bamboo tube.
His face full of admiration, he praised from the bottom of his heart: "Your subordinate has followed the Marquis for many years, but I've never seen a woman as brave and resourceful as Madam."
Huo Yanxing turned his head slightly and glanced at him. "You just stood there and watched when Madam started a fight?"
A jolt went through Bai Yu's heart as he mentally called out that he was done for. It wasn't that he hadn't wanted to help back then, but Madam's reactions were simply too fast; she had resolved Lu Rongyue in two shakes of a lamb's tail.
Just as he opened his mouth to explain, he heard Huo Yanxing continue, "Your punishment is to stand night watch at Plum Blossom Cottage tonight."
The world went dark before Bai Yu's eyes, and he almost tumbled off his horse.
God save him!
Those four little masters at Plum Blossom Cottage were more difficult to deal with than ghosts!
…………
Town-North Marquis Manor, Songtao Courtyard.
"So fragrant, oh so fragrant~"
Songyan looked helplessly at her master, who was utterly intoxicated by the art of counting money. Ever since returning from the palace, she had ordered the servants to carry the items directly into the courtyard—especially that one hundred taels of gold.
Lu Qingyuan's eyes shone with a golden light as she carefully sniffed the scent of the gold.
Songyan tried to persuade her, "Madam, it's not like our household is short on money. Back in the day when the He Family was at its peak, we brought in a thousand taels of gold a day, yet I never saw you act like such a miser when you were little."
Lu Qingyuan extended a single finger and pressed it against Songyan's lips. "You don't understand."
She had known wealth before. In her past life, whether at the He Family, the Lu family, or Xian Wang Manor, she had seen money flow like water, and at first, she hadn't thought much of it.
But in her final days, she had been as poor as a church mouse.
Xiao Qi had abandoned the city and taken all the gold and silver with him. She had stubbornly defended the city for three months, pawning all her hairpins and jewelry for grain to distribute to the soldiers and the common people.
To put it simply, she was terrified of poverty.
Besides, she had a wager with Huo Yanxing. The current accounts of the Huo Clan could be described as robbing Peter to pay Paul; with this sum of money, the ledgers would at least look a bit healthier.
Clutching the gold to her chest, Lu Qingyuan wore a smile of utter contentment.
This was the exact scene that greeted Huo Yanxing when he pushed open the door.
He walked straight in, picked up a teacup from the table, took a sip, and only then spoke. "How did you guess that the Empress Dowager would punish Prince Xian over the matter of the white deer?"
"A hunt, ruined farmland, injured people—in the Empress Dowager's eyes, these things are not worth mentioning. But..." Lu Qingyuan said with absolute certainty, "what she cannot tolerate most is Prince Xian making her lose face."
An aristocratic lady of high birth, the pride of the Lin lineage, who had climbed from a humble beauty to a noble concubine and finally Empress Dowager—what storms had Lin Yuchan not witnessed?
She did not believe that Xiao Qi would try to fool her with a fake white deer.
She was simply furious that the youngest son she had raised with such meticulous care had allowed himself to be publicly exposed as a fool.
Before the Emperor, and before the child raised by Empress Dong—her lifelong rival—Xiao Qi looked like a joke.
Huo Yanxing nodded, turning to head toward the study; there were still many matters to deal with today.
Lu Qingyuan reminded him, "Oh, right, remember to have your men keep an eye on that father and son. After suffering such a heavy blow this time, Prince Xian will definitely look for someone to vent his anger on."
Huo Yanxing's sword-like brows furrowed, a trace of suspicion flashing through his deep eyes.
"How did you know the injured party is a father and son? I recall not mentioning this to you."
Lu Qingyuan paused slightly.
She knew because in her past life, she had already been married to Prince Xian. One day, while accidentally passing by the study, she had overheard a report from one of Prince Xian's subordinates.
It turned out that the old man had also sought help from Huo Yanxing back then, and his injured son had received medical treatment.
When the old man discovered that Prince Xian was the culprit, the septuagenarian had resolved to sell off all his family property, stubbornly determined to enter the city and beat the Dengwen Drum to demand justice for his son.
Upon learning of the news in advance, Xiao Qi had actually sent men to murder that father and son.
She still remembered Xiao Qi's gaze at that time—thin, aloof, completely indifferent to human life.
That was why she wanted to ask Huo Yanxing to help look after them, so that at least they wouldn't lose their lives.
"I saw it when checking the accounts. Accountant Sun mentioned this morning that Bai Yu sent men to send an old man and his injured son to Huichun Medical Hall for treatment, and disbursed two taels of silver." Lu Qingyuan flashed a seemingly innocent face. "What is it, Marquis?"
"Nothing."
Huo Yanxing turned and left. He always felt that this "ally" harbored secrets he knew nothing about.