"Why are you wearing a veil? Do you know you're too ashamed to show your face?" He Yao asked sarcastically, hands on her hips and chin held high.
Lu Zhenniang lowered her head and replied, "My face is ugly, so I do this to avoid frightening others."
"Then I'll see just how ugly you are!" He Yao waved her small hand, and a long whip, like a live snake, slithered over and lifted the white veil from Lu Zhenniang's face, revealing a face full of crisscrossing scars.
He Yao screamed and backed away, accidentally kicking a rope coiled on the deck and sitting down hard.
She had been pampered since childhood, and everyone around her was handpicked. Even the maids who swept and cleaned were pretty, with delicate features, petite figures, and sweet voices. When Lu Zhenniang mentioned that she was ugly, she thought it was just a matter of not being pretty. She never imagined or knew that someone could actually be as ugly as a demon.
Now that he was reaping the consequences of his actions, he was so frightened that his heart was pounding wildly and almost jumped out of his throat.
However, He Yao had a strong personality and did not cry like a typical little girl after being frightened. She sat there and calmed down for a while before getting up on her own and looking up at Lu Zhenniang defiantly.
Lu Zhenniang simply looked at her indifferently, her eyes showing neither the embarrassment and shame of having her scar exposed in front of others, nor the fear and timidity of having offended royalty.
This was the first time He Yao had met someone like this. She rolled her eyes with great interest, pondering how to make Lu Zhenniang submit and beg for mercy.
"mother!"
Lu An's shout broke the standoff between the two.
He Yao signaled the guards to capture Lu An, who had come to rescue his mother, tie him up with ropes, and hold him over the side of the boat. He looked at Lu Zhenniang triumphantly and threatened her, "Kneel down and admit your mistake and beg for mercy, or I will throw him into the river."
Lu Zhenniang glanced at He Wenyan, who was still being held by the guards, for a moment before slowly kneeling down and kowtowing three times to He Yao.
"What do you mean by not saying anything?" He Yao was incredibly unreasonable, deliberately finding fault. "You're not convinced? Fine, I'll beat you until you are!"
After saying this, he raised his long whip, but when he was about to strike it down, he found that the end of the whip was being pulled and he couldn't budge it no matter how hard he pulled.
He Yao turned around angrily and saw Chu Yao standing behind her, holding Wu Shuang in one arm and holding the tip of her whip with the other. He said in a deep voice, "Enough, stop fooling around!"
"None of your business!" He Yao blurted out.
The eldest princess always considered herself the emperor's daughter, more precious than other women of the imperial clan. Influenced by her mother, He Yaojiu didn't take Chu Yao, a prince, seriously. Not only was she now under his control, but even the guards left on the imperial ship to block others from rescuing Lu Zhenniang were subdued by Chu Yao's men, making her extremely resentful.
"Whether or not to interfere is not up to you, it's up to me!" Chu Yao suddenly exerted his strength, snatched the entire whip, and then tossed it overboard.
"How dare you! That was a birthday present from my maternal grandfather!" He Yao angrily lunged at Chu Yao, kicking and punching him, and even tried to pull Wu Shuang off his arms. "I'm going to have him cut off your head! Cut off all of your heads!"
She was just a little girl, and she didn't know any fighting techniques. Chu Yao could easily dodge her attacks. However, he was somewhat restrained in order to protect Wu Shuang and was unable to subdue He Yao immediately.
"He Yao! If you keep acting up, believe me, I'll chop off your head first!" The eldest princess rushed over upon hearing the news, grabbed He Yao, and slapped her.
He Yao was dazed from the beating. When she realized that the person who came was her mother, she felt even more wronged and cried out, "I did it all for you. She was looking after Father..."
"Who doesn't get stares when they're out and about?" the eldest princess scolded. "I don't think there's anything to be surprised about. But you, at such a young age, not only do you bully others by taking advantage of your power, but you also threaten and humiliate other people's children with their lives. I always teach you manners and etiquette, but you don't take it to heart at all, instead you've learned the behavior of a spoiled brat to the extreme!"
After speaking to He Yao, she turned to the guards and said, "And you, I put you by the county princess's side to protect her safety, not to help her and spoil her."
Lu An had already been released under the orders of the eldest princess. At this moment, he stood in front of Lu Zhenniang, fearing that his mother would be harmed again.
The eldest princess walked gracefully to the two of them and said in a soft tone, "Mr. Lu, is it? I'm so sorry. My daughter is young and doesn't know any better. I apologize on her behalf. I hope you won't take offense."
The other party was a princess, so what could Lu Zhenniang do even if she found it offensive? She had no choice but to swallow her anger and make peace.
Fortunately, the eldest princess understood the situation and stopped the disturbance in time.
As evening approached, everyone dispersed.
He Yao cried incessantly all the way back to her cabin, and tears continued to fall.
The eldest princess, feeling sorry for her own daughter, pulled her close and said softly, "Are you still upset that your mother hit you?"
He Yao turned his head away and remained silent.
The eldest princess sighed and said, "At home, how willful and mischievous you are, has your mother ever disciplined you? But now that you're outside, the imperial family and all the officials are watching you. If you do something wrong, you're disgracing the entire royal family, and your mother can't just ignore you. Don't you love your maternal grandfather the most and cherish the whip he gave you? Can you bear to let your grandfather be criticized because of your inappropriate behavior?"
“He is the emperor, who dares to criticize him?” He Yao retorted.
"Even if you don't say it, it doesn't mean you don't think it." Seeing that her daughter was still unconvinced, the eldest princess knew that she was stubborn and wouldn't change her mind in a short time. Unwilling to waste any more words, she changed her words and said, "Go back with your wet nurse to wash up and have a meal. Think carefully about what you said, and come see me again tomorrow."
After He Yao left, He Wenyan, who had been sitting silently in his chair, also stood up and prepared to leave.
"Aren't you staying for dinner?" the eldest princess asked, somewhat disappointed. "It's been so long since we've dined together..."
They didn't even do the things that couples should do.
He Wenyan frowned and said, "Today is the anniversary of Xiangping's death, and I must fast."
“I can come with you,” the eldest princess quickly said.
"Your Highness has always been in poor health and should eat more nourishing foods. There's no need for you to suffer like this for my sake," He Wenyan politely declined, and finally left alone.
The eldest princess was so angry that she overturned the table next to her, shattering the fine gilded porcelain on the floor.
The maids kept quiet as they tidied up, none daring to make a sound, for fear of adding fuel to the fire and causing themselves to suffer innocently.
The eldest princess gritted her teeth and sulked for a while, but her expression gradually returned to normal. She ordered in a deep voice, "Send some nourishing medicinal herbs and a set of writing implements to Mr. Lu's cabin at the Marquis of Runan's house. Tell him it's an apology for the county princess's rudeness today."
In the cabin below deck, Lu Zhenniang accepted the gifts sent by the eldest princess. After the gift-giver left, she casually put them on the ground, clearly showing that she didn't care about them at all.
She went to the communal kitchen, cooked a bowl of noodles and two red eggs, brought them back to her room, and beckoned Lu An, who was sitting at the tatami table writing, to get down: "Today is your birthday, Mother made you longevity noodles, eat them while they're hot."
Chapter 36, 35, 34, 33.1 (Table of Contents)
Chapter Thirty-Seven:
After several more days of sailing, the fleet docked at the Suzhou wharf. [www.qiushu.cc Lots of great novels]