CHAPTER 4

The original owner was invisible in the Song Mansion, and no one would pay attention to her whereabouts. Song Yuanzhi followed her memory and entered the mansion through the small door, taking a secluded path all the way to her own courtyard.

The yard was already remote, and no one knew where Hongshao, the only person who served her, had gone.

It was not until she sat in her room that Song Yuanzhi recalled the thrilling experience of the past half day and felt scared. If there had been the slightest mistake in the process, she might not be able to come back today.

Not long after, Hongshao brought in dinner. When she opened the door, she was startled by Song Yuanzhi and exclaimed, “Miss, why are you back?”

Song Yuanzhi raised her eyebrows, “What? I can’t come back.”

Hongshao knew she had said something wrong. She looked around and quickly went forward to put the dinner on the table. She quickly turned around and closed the door. She anxiously returned to Song Yuanzhi and asked repeatedly, “Didn’t the young lady not want to marry the Marquis of Zhenbei? If you come back now and the marriage is settled, there will be no chance to regret it.”

Song Yuanzhi’s heart moved, her eyelids drooped slightly, and in the blink of an eye, tears filled her eyelashes. She said with great sorrow: “Zhenbei Marquis is the nephew of the Empress, and he sacrificed his life for the country and made great contributions to defending the country. It would be easy for me to just leave, but if His Majesty blames us, how can the Song Mansion withstand the emperor’s wrath?”

Hongshao’s face froze, and she turned around anxiously, “Oh, miss, who among the masters in this mansion has ever really thought about you? It’s not worth it for you to sacrifice your whole life for them! What’s more, there is also Xuanyuan Shizi.”

“You seem to care about him a lot.” Song Yuanzhi’s expression changed quickly. She supported her chin with her right hand and tilted her head to look at Hongshao with an expression of “Let me see how you make it up.”

Well, in the plot, she followed the original owner into Xuanyuan Yu’s villa, climbed into bed with him, and then turned around to bully the original owner, and hence he indirectly killed the original owner’s maid. Song Yuanzhi was not surprised at all that he did such a thing.

Hongshao’s heart skipped a beat, and she immediately defended herself, “I’m doing this for the miss’s own good. In this world, only Xuanyuan Shizi cares about Miss..”

“Really?” Song Yuanzhi said indifferently, “You feel sorry for me, so you got me kidnapped without caring about my reputation?”

“That was all out of helplessness!” Hongshao couldn’t help but retort, “Miss, you’ve been wronged at home for so many years. If you go to the Zhenbei Marquis’s mansion to be a widow, then what fun will there be in your life?”

Song Yuanzhi thought that being a widow was much better than being a crazy mistress. Being a widow was upright, and she and Madam Qin got along well, so it would be nice to raise children together. What was the point of being Xuanyuan Yu’s mistress? Was it because he changed his bedmate every few days and was disgusting? That was too dirty. Song Yuanzhi couldn’t accept it.

However, it was quite interesting to see Hongshao’s anxious expression. Her plan to use her connections to get close to Xuanyuan Yu had failed, and she was obviously getting impatient.

Song Yuanzhi was a kind person, so she would not let anyone worry about her. She told Hongshao the good news in a leisurely manner: “Madam Qin has a good temper, much better than Xuanyuan Shizi. If I marry her, I can at least save the Song Mansion. What’s more, Xuanyuan Shizi is injured now, so I guess he won’t be able to come out and continue making trouble for a while.”

“What? The prince is injured.” Hongshao’s voice suddenly rose but lowered again under Song Yuanzhi’s understanding eyes. She tried hard to defend herself, “I… am worried about you, young miss.”

“Don’t worry, I know what you mean.” Song Yuanzhi blinked and continued to fool Hongshao: “Although you and I are master and servant, I have always treated you as a sister. Xuanyuan Shizi is handsome; it is natural for you to be attracted to him. If there is a chance, I will definitely do what you want. I have no chance with him in this life, but I feel relieved to have you by his side.”

Hongshao’s eyes instantly burned like fire, and the joy on her face could no longer be concealed. She knelt down with a plop, “Thank you, young miss!”

Song Yuanzhi looked at the beautiful woman in front of her and thought of the person in the original novel who scratched the original owner’s face with a hairpin again and again. She no longer had any sympathy for her in her heart, and her eyes were cold. “As long as you serve me well, I will find a way to fulfill your wish, no matter how difficult it is.”

“I will swear my loyalty to you till death!”

“Remember what you said.” Song Yuanzhi tilted her head slightly and smiled, “People who don’t keep their promises will die~”

For some reason, Hongshao’s face suddenly turned red, and she quickly lowered her head, wiping her tears and saying yes.

The next day, the news that Xuanyuan Yu, the son of Marquis Nan’an, was assassinated in a villa spread throughout the capital. It was said that Xuanyuan Yu was seriously injured. There were also rumors that it was a deliberate revenge by the secret guards of Marquis Zhenbei’s mansion.

However, this rumor was blasted back as soon as it started, “Nonsense! The Marquis of Zhenbei died on the battlefield; who would have ordered the secret guards to carry out the assassination? The Marquis of Zhenbei’s had just sacrificed for us, and you dare to spread such rumors; you deserve to be killed!”

That’s right, the person who refuted the rumor was a Grand Imperial censor, and he had a bad temper. He impeached Xuanyuan Yu: You are unlucky to be assassinated, but it is wrong to blame others! You keep saying that it was the secret guards of Zhenbei Marquis Mansion who assassinated you. Could it be that you did something wrong, so that the spirit of Zhenbei Marquis appeared and ordered the secret guards to seek revenge on you?

Of course, this statement is very inconsistent with the mainstream value of “a gentleman does not talk about strange things,”  but this censor is not a pedantic scholar who can only recite the words of sages. He admires Lu Shaoyou very much. He does not care about his own reputation and wants to give Xuanyuan Yu a good beating.

This old man’s fighting ability was really fierce. Not only did he label Xuanyuan Yu, who was still recovering at home, as the perpetrator with just one sentence, he also dragged Xuanyuan Guifei into the water. “If it weren’t for the fact that His Majesty favored Concubine too much, the son of Nan’an Marquis wouldn’t have the guts to associate this matter with Zhenbei Marquis at this time!”

Wow, as soon as these words came out, colleagues in the court all looked at this man as a martyr, and some were already thinking about how to write an obituary for him.

This was just short of pointing at Emperor Yongkang’s nose and scolding him for favoring his concubine over his wife. If Emperor Yongkang got very angry, this guy would probably not be able to walk out of the palace alive.

Some people also sighed in their hearts: You are still too young.

Only the Grand Imperial Censor looked at Emperor Yongkang with scorching eyes, as if he would make a death-defying protest if Emperor Yongkang dared to punish the Grand Imperial Censor.

Emperor Yongkang had a headache and could only pretend not to hear it. This stubborn censor became famous overnight. When Madam Qin learned the news, she sent a thank-you gift.

However, Emperor Yongkang was not able to relax for a moment after leaving the court. Xuanyuan Guifei was already crying and wailing, “Your Majesty, Yu’er grew up under your care. Now that he is injured like this, you have to take care of him!”

Emperor Yongkang was troubled. He favored this imperial concubine, but he was not stupid. Lu Shaoyou had just died in battle, and if he sent people to the Zhenbei Marquis Mansion, Then what kind of person was he? The Emperor was in a mess all of a sudden.

When the Empress heard about it, she just smiled coldly, slowly burned the letter in her hand, and whispered, “Tell Ah-ji not to show up for now; let that villain jump around for a few more days, and see who else wants to jump around with him.”

The room was silent, and a figure slowly emerged. His eyes fell on the Empress, and then he lowered his head and replied in a deep voice, “Yes.”

Song Yuanzhi was also secretly surprised. Xuanyuan Yu suffered such a great loss at her hands, but he didn’t come to retaliate against her. Instead, rumors about Zhenbei Marquis’s Mansion and Nan’an Marquis’s Mansion were flying everywhere, and then it evolved into a subtle confrontation between the Empress and the Imperial Concubine. This wave of the storm forced Nan’an Marquis’s mansion to be much more low-key.

While Song Yuanzhi was wondering, the Zhenbei Marquis’s mansion sent someone over again. According to the information revealed by Madam Liu, it was Madam Qin who sent someone over this time to ask for Song Yuanzhi’s horoscope. As long as her horoscope matched that of the Zhenbei Marquis, the marriage would be a sure thing.

Song Yuanzhi was a little dazed for a moment. Is she going to get engaged so smoothly? Why is it so unreal?

However, soon, Song Yuanzhi felt the malice from the plot. As the female lead of a bloody and abusive novel, even though the plot had been ruined a lot by her, the rubbish plot would still unexpectedly pit Song Yuanzhi in a bloody mess.