Zhuang Kexin tried hard to calm the anger surging in her chest. She couldn't utter a single word of the thousands of accusations she had prepared. In the end, it turned into a sigh of resentment: "Sister Lixue is absolutely right. I have learned a lot. Farewell!"
Zhuang Kexin spoke in a low voice, her face gloomy. Holding the hands of her maids, she slowly turned and left, her eyes flashing with anger and resentment. Shen Lixue was truly formidable; she had been too careless, which was why she had been mocked so badly…
Watching Zhuang Kexin's slender figure disappear into the distance, Shen Lixue raised an eyebrow. She left so easily. She thought Zhuang Kexin would stay for a while longer. Or was she hiding something, at a disadvantage, and dared not linger?
"Whoosh!" Suddenly, a strong wind howled through the calm surroundings. Shen Lixue quickly looked up and saw a steel-nailed bed that had been pulled up by the guards crashing down on the crowd below.
The guards were agile and quickly dodged, the bed of steel nails bypassing the guards and crashing straight at Zhuang Kexin, who had not gone far.
Zhuang Kexin was injured in the leg and had difficulty moving. When she realized the danger, it was too late to dodge. With a cold look in her eyes, Zhuang Kexin grabbed the two maids beside her and pushed them forcefully towards the bed of steel nails.
"Swoosh!" The lowest steel nail pierced deep into the maids' faces, penetrating their skulls from front to back, and blood splattered all over Zhuang Kexin's face.
Warm, bloody specks dotted her face, causing Zhuang Kexin to freeze for a moment. Her grip loosened, and the steel-nailed bed, carrying its powerful momentum, slammed down on her.
Terrified, Zhuang Kexin hopped backward repeatedly, her pitiful cries for help echoing across most of the street: "Help! Help me!"
Dongfang Hong was startled and was about to rush forward to save her when Zhuang Kexin suddenly tripped and fell heavily to the ground. At that moment, the steel nail bed also lost its momentum and fell to the ground, landing squarely on Zhuang Kexin's leg.
"Ah!" A piercing scream pierced through the clouds and echoed through the sky.
"Miss Zhuang!" Zhuang Kexin was hit hard by the bed of steel nails and must be seriously injured. Dongfang Hong could no longer sit idly by and quickly walked over.
Zhuang Kexin fell backward to the ground, howling in pain, her eyes filled with terror and sorrow. The bed of nails had completely crushed her legs, and the sharp nails had pierced through her legs from front to back, with the exposed nail tips dripping blood. Crimson blood dripped down the shiny nails. At the bottom of the bed of nails, two maids with their faces covered in blood and gore hung from the bottom, a truly tragic scene.
With both legs pierced, Zhuang Kexin convulsed in pain, large tears welling in her beautiful eyes and streaming down her cheeks as she pleaded desperately, "Your Highness, save me, save me..."
"Don't worry, don't worry, you'll be alright!" Dongfang Hong comforted Zhuang Kexin, then frowned and shook his head at the steel nails deeply embedded in her leg and the two corpses hanging from the bottom of the nail bed, ordering, "Someone, lift the nail bed up!"
The steel nail was driven too deep. To pull it out smoothly, several people had to work together and apply force evenly to minimize her suffering. If only one person did it, the force would be uneven and unbalanced, and Zhuang Kexin would be injured even more severely.
"Your Highness, the steel nails have pierced her leg. We don't know if they've damaged any arteries. It's not advisable to move the nail bed for now. Otherwise, once the nails are removed, Miss Zhuang will bleed profusely, and even a miracle worker couldn't save her!" Shen Lixue's usually cold eyes held a rare solemnity.
"Shen Lixue, stop pretending!" Zhuang Kexin glared at Shen Lixue, gritting her teeth. If it weren't for her, she wouldn't have been hit and injured so badly.
"If you don't believe me, fine. But when you bleed to death, don't blame me for not warning you!" Shen Lixue said calmly, without even glancing at Zhuang Kexin.
"You..." Zhuang Kexin glared at Shen Lixue and retorted forcefully. She was just saying it; she wouldn't risk her life!
"Then what should we do?" Dongfang Hong is the Crown Prince and is in charge of everything here. Zhuang Kexin is seriously injured, and he is already responsible. If she dies from excessive bleeding due to improper treatment of her injuries, he will have made a grave mistake. He cannot risk moving that bed with steel nails.
"Find a good doctor first, and treat the person under the doctor's guidance!" Shen Lixue suggested with a smile.
"Someone, go and fetch a doctor!" Shen Lixue's suggestion was a good idea and very feasible. Dongfang Hong nodded and gave the order in a cold voice.
A guard took his leave, and Zhuang Kexin glared fiercely at Shen Lixue, her beautiful eyes blazing with anger: "Shen Lixue, you're the one who smashed me with the bed of steel nails! Don't try to play the good guy and cover it up..."
“Miss Zhuang, the steel-nailed bed is hanging on the north side. I’ve been standing on the south side, at least eight meters away from it. Besides, it’s surrounded by guards. How could I possibly tamper with it?” Shen Lixue looked coldly at Zhuang Kexin and questioned her sharply.
"You've always been cunning and have many ways to do things secretly. I'm not as smart as you, so of course I can't guess how you did it..." Zhuang Kexin said sarcastically, her eyes full of anger.
"So, Miss Zhuang has no evidence and is just spouting nonsense!" Shen Lixue's voice suddenly turned cold, making Zhuang Kexin shudder.
"I...I was just expressing my doubts..." Zhuang Kexin argued defiantly, her confidence clearly lacking.
"Suspicion must be supported by evidence. Making wild guesses without evidence is called slander." Shen Lixue suddenly raised her voice, her gaze towards Zhuang Kexin as cold as ice: "Miss Zhuang is the daughter of a high-ranking official. She should know more about the various punishments of Qingyan than I do. I wonder what crime it is to slander the daughter of the Prime Minister?"
"This..." Zhuang Kexin was speechless after being refuted by Shen Lixue, her face flushed red, but she still stubbornly argued, "Shen Lixue, it's clearly you who did bad things and harmed people..."
“Miss Zhuang, Miss Shen has been standing at a distance the whole time and has no time to do anything. Please stop making wild guesses!” Dongfang Hong frowned unhappily. He couldn’t blame Shen Lixue for being angry; it was Zhuang Kexin who was too willful and capricious. Anyone would have been unable to tolerate her making baseless accusations!
The guards looked at Zhuang Kexin with a hint of mockery and disdain: when the bed of steel nails came crashing down, Zhuang Kexin, in order to save her own life, did not hesitate to pull her maid to block it. The guards already knew what kind of person she was.
Besides, they had been pulling the nail bed the whole time, so Shen Lixue couldn't have done anything wrong. The nail bed fell because the rope slipped, and Zhuang Kexin was just unlucky; she had no one to blame but herself.
Whether the steel nails pierced her artery or not, no one knows. Shen Lixue reminded her because she was thinking of her, but instead of being grateful, she wrongly accused her of being the murderer who harmed her. She is truly like a dog biting Lü Dongbin, not recognizing a kind heart!
"Your Highness, I am bringing Shen Lixue and Ye Qianlong to the palace to meet the Emperor!" Dongfang Heng said calmly, his gaze sharp. This was not a formal report, but merely a polite notification.
"Very well, I will send guards to escort you into the palace!" With all the black-clad assassins dead, Dongfang Hong had nothing to worry about; getting Ye Qianlong into the palace to see the emperor was the most important thing.
The moment Dongfang Heng and Shen Lixue turned to leave, a guard rushed over with a doctor: "Your Highness, the doctor has arrived!"
"Go treat Miss Zhuang's injuries..." Dongfang Hong glanced at the doctor, who looked to be around forty years old, and gave the order in a low voice.
Shen Lixue walked at a moderate pace, and the sounds behind her kept reaching her ears: "Doctor, how is Miss Zhuang's injury?" It was Dongfang Hong asking.
"Fortunately, no arteries were damaged. Have the guards move the nail bed away..." the doctor replied softly.
"I knew I hadn't damaged my artery. Shen Lixue came up with this stupid idea; she was deliberately trying to harm me..." Zhuang Kexin roared, and Shen Lixue felt two angry gazes shooting towards her from behind.
Zhuang Kexin is a smart person, but she is only fourteen years old after all, still a child, and not mature enough. When she observes other people's affairs, she can see things clearly, but when she encounters something herself, she can't stay calm. Especially after suffering such a serious injury, she hates the person who hurt her to death, so how can she stay calm?
"Miss Zhuang, the guards are about to move the bed with steel nails. Please be quiet!" Dongfang Hong frowned unhappily.
Shen Lixue isn't a doctor, so it's normal that she couldn't tell whether the needle had hit an artery or not. The suggestion to call a doctor was for Zhuang Kexin's own good. Zhuang Kexin, unaware of the truth, dared not speak up, but after understanding the truth, she angrily rebuked them. She's truly willful, capricious, and utterly unreasonable...
Shen Lixue walked slowly, a strange smile playing on her lips. She had long since realized that the steel nails hadn't pierced any arteries. Asking Dongfang Hong to fetch a doctor was merely a way to buy more time. Those densely packed nails had pierced Zhuang Kexin's bones; the longer they remained in her leg, the more pain Zhuang Kexin would experience, and the harder the wound would heal. In a more serious case, she could be crippled for life…
This is Zhuang Kexin's own doing; she has no one to blame but herself.
Shen Lixue, Dongfang Heng, and Ye Qianlong boarded the carriage and, escorted by guards, sped towards the palace.
Ye Qianlong sat to Shen Lixue's left, holding her sleeve tightly, his eyes clear as a spring, and his beautiful face radiating a pure smile.
Dongfang Heng sat to Shen Lixue's right and gave him a cold look: "Ye Qianlong, you're the one who knocked that bed with steel nails off!"
The ropes binding the steel nail bed are very strong and will never break without strong external force. On the field just now, apart from Dongfang Heng and Dongfang Hong, only Ye Qianlong was able to break the ropes without anyone noticing.