"Hmm!" Shen Lixue nodded, a wave of hunger rising in her stomach. She remembered she hadn't had breakfast yet. She got up, but collapsed weakly back onto the bed, her beautiful eyes blazing with anger as she glared fiercely at Dongfang Heng.
It's all because of that unrestrained guy. Last night in the bath, he took her countless times and tried all sorts of positions from those erotic pictures. All she knows is that her lower back is aching terribly and her body is about to fall apart from exhaustion.
"What's wrong? Don't you have any energy?" Dongfang Heng looked at her flushed face and the light kiss marks all over her body, his smile deepening. She was his, and her body bore only his marks.
He's the culprit! How dare he laugh at her!
Shen Lixue's beautiful eyes blazed with fury. She grabbed a pillow with all her might and hurled it at Dongfang Heng's handsome face: "This is all your doing!"
Dongfang Heng raised his hand to block the pillow, his eyes sparkling with laughter, and gently kissed Shen Lixue's lips: "I'll treat you to a meal at Zuixianlou as an apology!"
In contrast to the warm and sweet atmosphere of Fengsong Courtyard in the Holy King's Mansion, the main hall of Prime Minister Li's Mansion has a solemn atmosphere that makes people tremble with fear.
"You bastard, this is all your doing!" Prime Minister Li angrily lashed Li Fan, who was kneeling on the cold ground, with a rattan cane.
A quarter of an hour ago, Governor Chu arrived at the Prime Minister's residence and politely declined the marriage alliance between the two families. He thought that Governor Chu knew about Li Fan's philandering and repeatedly promised to arrange a meeting with his grandson. However, he never expected that the reason Governor Chu gave would make him lose face completely.
When visiting his elders to apologize, the masterpiece he brought was actually an erotic painting. How could he even think of that?
"Grandpa, this isn't my fault!" The rattan cane was thin, soft yet firm, and stung painfully against his skin. Li Fan grimaced in pain, protesting defiantly, "I clearly brought my proudest poems, but they became erotic pictures in Governor Chu's hands. Someone must have been plotting against me!"
"It's your own stupidity to be outsmarted!" Prime Minister Li was furious with his good-for-nothing grandson. If word got out, he would become a laughingstock in the court, and his lifelong reputation would be ruined by this grandson.
He continued to beat her mercilessly with the rattan cane, showing no sign of stopping.
Li Fan screamed in pain, but his mind became clearer. The poems were bought and the mounting was done by his personal servants. After the mounting was finished, he even checked it and there was no problem. He took it all the way to see Governor Chu. No one had touched that booklet. How could it have turned into erotic pictures... Wait, Chu Xu (Chu Youran's brother).
"Grandpa, Chu Xu, it was Chu Xu who framed me!" Li Fan turned around, gripped Prime Minister Li's cane with all his might, and explained urgently, "Before I met Governor Chu, I encountered Chu Xu. My poem fell, and he picked it up for me. He must have tampered with it to frame me!"
"Chu Xu is currently serving in Jiangnan, how could he be in the capital? You can't even lie properly!" Prime Minister Li was furious and slapped Li Fan hard.
“Grandpa, it really is Chu Xu. The servants and guards I brought have all seen him, and my little sister has seen him too. If you don’t believe me, ask my little sister.” Li Fan looked at Li Youlan with pleading eyes.
Li Youlan glanced at him: "What Big Brother said is true, I saw Chu Xu, but I didn't see his face clearly!"
Prime Minister Li stopped what he was doing and looked at Li Youlan suspiciously. His granddaughter was always very well-behaved and would never lie to him. Chu Xu had come to the capital? Why hadn't he heard Governor Chu mention it?
"You haven't been scammed, have you?"
"Chu Youran herself admitted that it was her older brother Chu Xu, how could it be fake?" Li Fan retorted, unconvinced.
"Zhan'er, has Chu Xu returned to the capital?" Prime Minister Li was a cunning old fox who had been in officialdom for a long time. His grandchildren all said they had seen Chu Xu, but Governor Chu had not mentioned it. He felt more and more that things were not simple.
Dongfang Zhan put down his teacup, his gaze deep and unfathomable: "The Zhan Prince's mansion has spies all over the capital. Chu Xu is a court official. If he comes to the capital to congratulate his sister, he will definitely be discovered!"
"That Chu Xu is a fake?" Li Fan was taken aback, then burst into anger: "No wonder he tried to steal my poem, he was clearly trying to break me up with Chu Youran..."
Prime Minister Li and Dongfang Zhan exchanged a glance, sharing the same question: Did Governor Chu know that Chu Youran had conspired with the fake Chu Xu to deliberately ruin the marriage?
"That old scoundrel Governor Chu, if he didn't want to marry off his daughter, he should have just said so. Why did he have to set up a fake Chu Xu and go through all this trouble to frame me..."
Thinking of the fake Chu Xu's appearance, a flash of inspiration struck Li Fan: "The fake Chu Xu is Shen Lixue, it's Shen Lixue!"
Both Dongfang Zhan and Prime Minister Li's expressions changed: "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely no mistake!" Li Fan answered decisively. He knew it! That face looked so familiar. It was Shen Lixue, that... shameless beauty!
"Governor Chu, the Holy Prince's Mansion actually conspired against me! They're blind and have the guts of bears and leopards..." Li Fan was filled with righteous indignation, forgetting his serious injuries. He cursed loudly in the direction of Governor Chu's house and the Holy Prince's Mansion, making Prime Minister Li dizzy and agitated. He roared back:
"Stop arguing! What skills do you have besides yelling and cursing? If you had been more careful, you wouldn't have been outmaneuvered and ended up in this predicament. It's all your own fault. Now get back to your room and recover!"
"Yes!" Li Fan's loud cursing stopped abruptly, and his anger subsided. He suddenly realized that he was still kneeling on the cold ground. The cold air seeped into his clothes and penetrated his body, chilling him to the bone. His legs were about to go numb from kneeling, and his back was burning with pain.
The guards carefully lifted him and hurried towards the bedroom. A gentle breeze blew, hitting the wound on his back. He winced in pain again, cursing silently. Damn Governor Chu, Chu Youran, and Shen Lixue, how dare they play tricks on him! They must teach them a lesson!
After dismissing all the servants, only Prime Minister Li and Dongfang Zhan remained in the living room. Warm sunlight streamed into the room through the slightly ajar door, making it feel as warm as spring.
"Zhan'er, what do you think?" Prime Minister Li asked Dongfang Zhan first.
Dongfang Zhan's gaze deepened: "Governor Chu is a refined scholar, knowledgeable in etiquette and law-abiding, and does things step by step. He would not resort to opportunism. The scheme to replace the poem with erotic pictures was very clever, and he should be unaware of it!"
In other words, Governor Chu did not side with the Holy King's Mansion; his scheme against Li Fan was a private affair orchestrated by Chu Youran and Shen Lixue.
The image of Shen Lixue's beautiful face appeared before Dongfang Zhan's eyes. He frowned slightly. A woman disguised as a man, secretly switching erotic pictures to scheme against Li Fan—how could she even think of such a thing?
"Chu Youran conspired with Shen Lixue to scheme against Fan'er, which shows that she didn't want to marry Fan'er. Governor Chu is a loving father who dotes on his children, and it's possible that he knew Fan'er's character and saw that his daughter didn't want to get married, so he let her do whatever she wanted!"
A cold glint flashed in Prime Minister Li's sharp eyes. The people from the two mansions had joined forces to plot against his grandson. Did they think he, Li, was made of clay and could be molded and shaped by anyone?
Chu Youran and Shen Lixue are like sisters and have a close relationship. If Chu Youran were to whisper a few words of advice in Governor Chu's ear, he might just side with the Holy Prince's Mansion.
Dongfang Zhan raised his eyes: "There are so many Qingyan officials. One Governor Chu is not worth fearing!"
Prime Minister Li nodded, his gaze deep. If Governor Chu remained neutral, that would be fine. But if he dared to side with the Holy King's Mansion, he would never let him go. If he couldn't be used by him, he would go to hell.
"Grandpa, if there's nothing else, I'll head back now!" Dongfang Zhan stood up. Prime Minister Li had summoned him for Li Fan's sake, and now that the matter was resolved, there was no need for him to stay any longer.
"Wait!" Prime Minister Li called out to him, his gaze unusually solemn: "Zhan'er, His Majesty is getting older and older. You should focus your mind on the right path, consider the big picture, and stop getting into conflicts with Dongfang Heng over trivial matters!"
"I know!" Dongfang Zhan replied vaguely.
Prime Minister Li sighed: "Zhan'er, don't think I don't know. It was you who suggested that Fan'er marry Chu Youran to win over Governor Chu. You like Shen Lixue, but you can't marry her, so you have your cousin marry her best friend to create a favorable opportunity to secretly get close to Shen Lixue!"
Dongfang Zhan's eyes flickered unnaturally, and he said casually, "Grandpa, you're overthinking it!"
“You are my grandson. I know you better than I know myself. Why would I have any doubts?” Prime Minister Li glared at Dongfang Zhan and earnestly advised, “Qingyan is so vast, and there are so many beautiful women. Why do you have to be infatuated with a woman who is already someone else’s wife?”
"Grandpa, you don't understand matters of the heart!" Dongfang Zhan's deep eyes flashed with sharpness and determination; the feelings he had given could not be easily taken back.