"Bang!" The heavy door was kicked open viciously. The man radiated a bone-chilling aura, like a Rakshasa stepping straight out of the underworld.
"Bitch! How dare you drug me!"
Shen Qingyan felt the profound speechlessness of sitting innocently at home while misfortune fell straight from the sky.
"Ugh!" Just as Shen Qingyan stood up, intending to throw him out, before she could even speak, her throat was gripped. She was forcefully slammed against the table and knocked flat onto her back. Driven by pure survival instinct, she dragged the man down along with her.
This exact reflex only cemented the man's belief that she was the true mastermind behind the drugging.
Pushing against his chest with both hands in a posture of fierce resistance, she said angrily, "Xuanyuan Ming, you absolute lunatic! Get away from me!"
The man's eyes were filled with icy cruelty. "Isn't this what you've always wanted? Why are you playing the chaste maiden now?! Huh?"
His words became sharp blades, delivered with relentless cruelty: "Disgusting woman! Just looking at you makes me sick to my stomach!"
Cruelty flashed in Xuanyuan Ming's eyes. He tore her clothes apart to cover that face he found so nauseating.
The disparity in their strength was immense; no matter how she fought back, it was completely useless.
She knew she was finished.
Even as an assassin, she was no match for this man's monstrous wave of fury.
The pain radiating from her body made her almost forget to breathe. She was already in too much pain to muster any further strength to resist. Yet, in the man's eyes, she was currently basking with relish in the happiness she had schemed to win.
...
After a brief struggle, heavy tears rolled down Shen Qingyan's face. Desperate, she grabbed Xuanyuan Ming's arm and bit down hard.
The sharp pain shooting through his arm prompted him to deliver a fierce slap across the young woman's flawless, fair face.
Shen Qingyan's cheek swelled and turned red in an instant.
Moments later, the man swiftly pulled away and dressed himself. His waterfall-like long hair cascaded down his back, secured at the base of his head by a mutton-fat jade bamboo hairpin. Stripped of his usual arrogance and aristocratic airs, the white robes lent him an air of detached coldness.
With his back to her, he spoke in his habitual tone: "Remember to drink the medicine. A vicious woman like you doesn't deserve to carry my child!"
With that, he strode away. Shortly after, a maidservant entered carrying a bowl of herbal medicine, her tone equally malicious: "Princess Consort, drink your medicine!"
It was an order that brooked no refusal. Shen Qingyan had already dressed herself by then.
She had no intention of bearing his children anyway. Splendid! It saved her the trouble of going out to buy contraceptives!
The maidservant watched her finish every drop before returning to report.
The next day, Lian'er, having heard about what happened the previous day, nervously came to clean Zuiyue Pavilion.
Shen Qingyan had just woken up, and Lian'er helped her dress. Stealing anxious glances at Shen Qingyan, Lian'er apologized for failing to protect her the night before: "My Lady! This servant didn't mean to leave last night, I was called away to wash the chamber pots. I'm so sorry, My Lady..."
Shen Qingyan lowered her gaze and comforted Lian'er, telling her not to take it to heart.
Yesterday's mess of shattered porcelain littered the floor. As Lian'er began picking up the pieces, Shen Qingyan joined in to help. To Shen Qingyan, this was no big deal, but in Lian'er's eyes, it was entirely different.
A willful and pampered young mistress who usually did nothing except torment her servants had never once helped clean anything. Yet now, not only was her mistress picking up the pieces, she was actually helping clean. Hadn't her mistress changed a bit too much?
"Lian'er, can you go to the kitchen and get me something to eat?" If not for her aching body, she wouldn't have needed to order the girl around like this.
Xuanyuan Ming was an absolute scumbag, a beast! She had been whipped just a few days ago, and yesterday he had forcibly violated her.
Lian'er stood there in a daze, completely dumbfounded. *Oh no, such politeness from My Lady must be the calm before the storm! I shouldn't have left yesterday. If I had stayed, maybe My Lady wouldn't have...*
Lian'er didn't dare to dwell on it further and bolted out of sight in a flash.
Shen Qingyan: "???"
She didn't think she had said anything unusual, so why did the girl look as terrified as if disaster were looming?
Shen Qingyan finished clearing away the fragments. Realizing Lian'er had been gone quite a while without returning, she worried the girl might be getting picked on and went out to look for her.
The matron had been harboring a deep resentment ever since she was humiliated at Zuiyue Pavilion. Seeing Lian'er emerge from the kitchen, she decided to take out her earlier grievance on the girl and ordered the others to block Lian'er's path.
Lian'er had a bad premonition. Her mistress had told her to bring food back, and she couldn't return empty-handed. Otherwise... Gritting her teeth, she straightened her back and said, "I am the Princess Consort's personal maid. What do you think you're doing?"
The matron remained silent, but a sycophantic maid eager to please her stepped forward instead: "We're blocking you! Failing to show respect to the matron when you see her is a grave offense!"
Aside from the head steward, the matron was the leader of all the estate's servants. Even a first-class maid like Lian'er was required to show respect. Figuring it was better to avoid trouble, Lian'er bowed to the matron.
"This servant takes her leave."
As Lian'er walked past one of the maids, the girl caught a sycophantic wink from the matron, wore a flattering grin, and intentionally knocked the food Lian'er was carrying out of her hands.
The sound of shattering porcelain rang sharply through the quiet garden.
Lian'er's face filled with rage and helplessness. "You... you people are going too far!"
"A lowly wench who dares to show disrespect to the matron deserves to die!"
The matron was thoroughly pleased with the sycophantic maid's actions. She ordered the others to pin Lian'er's arms and forced her face down into the spilled food on the ground.
Lian'er refused to submit even in death, so her face was forcefully pressed directly into the meal.
"Still daring to glare at the matron? Don't tell me you actually thought that useless mistress of yours won the Prince's favor for a single night and suddenly flew up to the branches to become a phoenix? Let me tell you, keep dreaming! In this Prince's Estate, she's nothing more than a stray dog!"
The crowd burst into loud laughter. Just as they were enjoying themselves to the utmost, Shen Qingyan suddenly appeared. The moment she arrived, she was met with this exact scene.
Lian'er was actually being pinned by the head and forced to eat food off the ground.
A raging fire burned in her chest. She rushed forward in a single bound, violently shoving away the servants bullying Lian'er, and then rained a series of sharp slaps across the maids' faces.
She pulled Lian'er up. The girl's face was stained with food, grains of rice clinging all over her cheeks. Crucially, Lian'er didn't show a single trace of grievance, which only made Shen Qingyan's heart ache all the more.
"Whoever gave this order, step forward right now!"
Shen Qingyan radiated an icy, bone-chilling aura. Gone was her usual arrogance and overbearing nature; right now, she looked like a demon crawling straight out of the underworld. Terrified by her freezing presence, the crowd looked at each other in panic and trembled.
Not a single person dared to point the finger at the matron. Shen Qingyan swept her cold gaze across the group, finally locking her eyes onto the matron. The memory of the humiliation she had just suffered at Zuiyue Pavilion was still fresh in her mind. Seeing the look Shen Qingyan was giving her, the coward hastily tried to distance herself from the act.
"Lian'er, tell me, was it her?!"
As long as Lian'er pointed the finger, she would gladly tear the old crone apart bone by bone.