Jiafu Hall.
Her Highness, the Empress Dowager, was in good spirits today. She had changed into a vibrant outfit, and bestowed many items on the attending palace maids and servants. She even praised the Young Emperor’s wet nurse profusely, and when she saw the court officials at the morning court, her brows and eyes appeared much warr than usual.
Fang Fucai saw it all but felt a sense of sincere trepidation and anxiety.
A couple of days ago, Her Highness received news that General Pei had already rushed to Pingyang to et the entourage, bringing with him four guards. He traveled day and night without a mont’s delay, showing great eagerness...
The ssenger had hoped to please the Empress Dowager by exaggerating a bit out of self-understanding.
Her Highness, indeed, was pleased.
Yet Fang Fucai felt that it boded ill.
If Pei Jue dared to kill Eunuch Chang and show defiance to the Imperial Court, how could he possibly arrive in Pingyang days ahead just to await Her Highness?
A bystander sees the clearest of the ga, yet dares not speak a word.
Li Sangruo was imrsed in her own romantic notions, her heart brimming from morning to night, feeling that the imperial decree was rightly issued.
"Sotis, one indeed needs to be forced."
Being continually compliant to him, he wouldn’t take her seriously.
A few stern words now and then, and isn’t he obediently complying?
Fang Fucai looked at the smile on her face, unable to find a resting place for his gaze, his heart tightening.
"Since the Great General has arrived in Pingyang, should Your Highness perhaps advance the schedule to avoid making the General wait too long?"
Li Sangruo lifted her eyes to look at him, suppressing the smile born from her heart and snorted through her nostrils.
"Let him wait. Thunder and rain are graces from the king; what harm is there in waiting a few more days?"
She then pressed her lips tightly together, secretly delighting in her amusent, "He has caused every kind of heartache, let this be a small punishnt. Once I arrive in Pingyang, I’ll grant him more favor."
Fang Fucai’s eyelid twitched.
The principle was clear, yet he was still beside himself with worry.
"Your Highness is magnanimous, naturally, you would not quibble with the Great General... But as the Great General has been campaigning for years, weary in body and mind, and having established great rit, he must also be longing for Your Highness’s consolation..."
He was indirectly reminding Li Sangruo, with the Great General’s towering contributions and command over the military, he surely could not care less about her suppression. It would be better to descend the step with grace, offering benefits to pacify him, rather than pushing too far and inciting Pei Jue’s wrath.
Unfortunately...
Li Sangruo, caught in the whirlpool of her love affair, was sowhat obliviously engrossed...
"Consolation must be given, of course. Whatever the Great General wants, would I deny him?" Her cheeks flushed with anticipation of soon seeing Pei Jue, she beca restless and fidgety.
"Enough, you’re right. Since he knows his place and awaits diligently in Pingyang, then I shall give him that honor. Decree my order to have the peace delegation set out two days earlier and have them pack everything up."
As she commanded this, Fang Fucai hurriedly urged the palace attendants, but Li Sangruo was still anxious. She wanted to scrutinize every piece of travel attire and jewelry, bringing along not one but two maids to do her hair, evidently deeply concerned about her eting with Pei Jue.
This seed less like a trip to discuss a peace treaty between nations and more like a rush to a lover’s arms...
Fang Fucai watched, heaving sighs in his heart.
He vaguely felt an ominous premonition but could not have imagined that the nightmare would co so swiftly...
Before dawn the next day, news arrived from Xinzhou.
The stronghold of the Imperial Cavalry Division in Xinzhou, Liufeng Garden, had unexpectedly flooded.
At the ti of the incident, the head of the Imperial Cavalry Division, Song Shou’an, was indulging with a courtesan from a flower hall, and during the escape, he sustained burns on his face, only to be caught red-handed by the local citizens rushing to put out the fire...
"Their hair disheveled, their clothes in disarray, the disgraceful scene witnessed by the guards of the Beiyong Army and various citizens, leaving them to be the laughingstock..."
Li Sangruo trembled with anger.
"This bastard, this utter bastard! How dare he?"
A contemptible potter that she had personally supported, a dog trained to obey her, receiving her favor without gratitude, actually dared to betray her, causing a scandal in Xinzhou, and even being trapped in the house...
It wasn’t just Song Shou’an who was disgraced.
It was also her, Li Sang.
It was as if her face had been slapped resoundingly, and she was unable to curse, shout, or even know who to vent her wrath upon.
"He burned his face, did he?"
Li Sang clenched her teeth tightly, her eyes glinting with a cold ferocity.
"Without that face, what’s the use of him living?"
Hearing the Empress Dowager’s words, Fang Fucai felt goosebumps arise, "Your Highness, the task at hand..."
"The task at hand is to shut his dog mouth, not let him cause a catastrophe out of desperation, ruining my reputation."
Fang Fucai lowered his gaze and bowed, "I understand."
While Fang Fucai was in a flurry of urgency, sending people post-haste to Xinzhou for damage control...
Unexpectedly, the next day brought news from Pingyang.
"The Great General stord into Pingyang in the middle of the night, ordering General Shikui to open the storerooms and transport the supplies to Wanning..."
Li Sangruo’s heart skipped a beat.
Thinking that Pei Jue was still waiting for her in Pingyang, the rage sparked by Song Shou’an’s betrayal eased sowhat, and she beca even less willing to reprimand him because of it.
She said, "The winter clothes would need to be distributed sooner or later. If he’s moved them, then let it be. The matter of the reinforcents has already displeased the General, consider it a form of apology. I really don’t understand what father is thinking, causing such difficulty over trivial matters, stirring discord between him and ..."
Fang Fucai’s expression fluctuated wildly, and seeing the Empress Dowager appear unconcerned, he fell silent for a mont before suddenly closing his eyes and bowing deeply.
"There is another matter that I must report to the Empress Dowager."
Li Sangruo’s eyebrows sank, and she watched him with cold eyes.
"Why are you hesitating and mumbling? Are you itching for a beating?"
Fang Fucai was very nervous and hesitant; the words tossed and turned in his mouth for a long ti, weighed and considered, before he finally stuttered out:
"The Great General has left Pingyang and is on an urgent journey back to Xinzhou..."
"What?" Li Sangruo’s face was a mask of disbelief as she stared at Fang Fucai, her voice ice-cold and biting, "Say that again."
With downcast eyes, Fang Fucai replied, "I have heard that the Great General received urgent news from Xinzhou that Feng Shi Er Niang has gone missing. That’s why, that’s why he left in such a hurry. There’s more..."
More?
Li Sangruo’s eyes reddened as she let out a cold laugh.
"Speak! Say it all at once!"
Fang Fucai bent over, wishing he could bury his head inside his stomach.
"Before the flood at Liufeng Garden, Zuo Zhong, the head of the Great General’s guards, suspecting... suspecting that Song Shou’an had hidden Feng Shi Er Niang, led the Imperial Guard Camp in a raid to search the residence. Also, there’s more..."
"More? Ha. What else?"
Stimulated, Li Sangruo’s eyes reddened even further.
Fang Fucai kept his head low, "On the night of the incident, Song Shou’an was spotted openly harassing Feng Shi Er Niang in an alley on River Embanknt Street... I suspect that the flooding at Liufeng Garden may be related to this matter..."
Li Sangruo’s eyes turned red, her lips quivered a few tis, her throat let out a choked sound, and tears began to fall down her cheeks.
"How dare they... they actually dare..."
Li Sangruo’s gaze was unfocused as she gnashed her teeth and muttered, "Feng Shi Er Niang... I will flay your skin, pull out your sinews... I will make sure you wish for death and are unable to achieve it..."
"Death to them! They all deserve to die."
"Your Highness..." Fang Fucai knelt on the ground for a long ti, "You must hold on."
"Go to hell!" Li Sangruo grabbed a teacup and threw it to the ground, still unsatisfied, stood up and paced back and forth in the hall, back and forth, her hatred growing ever stronger, smashing anything she ca across.
"Let them die! All of them, go die."
Her eyes were bloodshot, her gaze haphazard, and the muscles on her face seed distorted and twitching with anger, turning her once beautiful features into a grotesque visage of fury.
Fang Fucai was so frightened that he was trembling, kneeling on the ground, continuously kowtowing.
"Your Highness, please calm your anger!"
Two palace maids also knelt, their heads knocking the floor ceaselessly.
"Please, Empress Dowager, to calm your anger."
"Calm my anger, calm my anger! With such a great sha and insult, how can I calm my anger?"
The news had already spread.
Everyone knew that the Empress Dowager had changed the schedule for the Great General, that the entire delegation had advanced their titable for him alone, yet he had left.
Li Sangruo’s hatred was palpable as she clenched her teeth.
"I want her dead, I will have Feng Shi Er Niang dead!"
Wow! A cry suddenly echoed throughout the grand hall.
The Young Emperor, who had just been led by his wet nurse to greet his mother, was startled by Li Sangruo’s furious outburst and began to wail loudly.
Li Sangruo abruptly turned her head to glare at him.
The Young Emperor cried even harder.
The wet nurse knelt down, terrified, trying to comfort him.
"Your Majesty, don’t cry, don’t cry..."
She was scared to death, but the child was too young to understand, knowing only that his mother looked terrifying, and his fear made him cry.
Li Sangruo’s face was cold.
"Fang Fucai, take the Emperor away."
At the command, Fang Fucai shakily got up to pick up the child.
With the child gone from her arms, the wet nurse collapsed to the floor, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably, "Your Highness, have rcy, have rcy..."
Li Sangruo’s thoughts grew more venomous as she watched the woman with a cold smirk.
"You are bringing the Emperor to watch my disgrace on purpose, aren’t you?"
The wet nurse could not even cry out, "I dare not, dare not... Your Highness, have rcy, please spare my life."
Frightened, she repeated those two pleas incessantly.
Li Sangruo, looking at the woman in disarray, thought of Feng Shi Er Niang in Xinzhou, coveted by two n, and her face twisted with a strange, grim smile.
"You deserve to die, to be torn to pieces..."
She cursed under her breath, teeth clenched, then pointed at the wet nurse and ordered, "Beat her, beat her savagely, beat her to death."
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