Luo Yang?

The maid who had come in earlier to deliver food to Ji Yunshu hadn’t left long ago, yet she had already notified Luo Yang so quickly. The speed was quite impressive!

Luo Yang came in from outside, his eyes fixed on the back of Qiu Shu’s head as if he wanted to bore several holes through it.

When Qiu Shu turned around, she met his sharp gaze. Now, whenever she thought about how this brat had peeked through the crack of her door that night, her whole body felt uncomfortable and uneasy. She wished she could peel off his skin layer by layer, then scrape his flesh with a knife, drain all his blood, and throw him into the deep mountain forest to be gnawed on by jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards. Yet even that still wouldn’t be enough to vent Qiu Shu’s hatred.

His bones should be ground to dust and scattered to the winds!

Her eyes turned somewhat fierce: “You brat, how dare you show up here!”

However, Luo Yang put on an innocent smile and walked up to her, directly countering with a question: “Why can’t I come here? This isn’t your place. If this young master wants to enter, I’ll enter. If I don’t want to enter, I won’t. What business is it of yours?”

“Hmph! Do you believe I’ll gouge out your eyes and cut off your tongue?”

“I’m afraid you don’t have that capability!”

“I don’t have that capability? Do you know who my older sister is?”

Luo Yang looked utterly disdainful. He looked her up and down several times, then leaned half his body against the doorframe. His fingers touched his chin as he gave a cold laugh and said, “You don’t need to say it. Now everyone in this entire estate knows that you’re the Empress’s biological younger sister, that the Empress is your biological older sister. Who doesn’t know! If you speak any louder, I’m afraid not only will we all know, even every cat and dog will know. No wait, not just that—even all the birds, snakes, and insects in the forest throughout Misty Peak… will all know too.”

His words were full of mockery!

Qiu Shu’s face turned red, and even her ears reddened!

The veins at her temples bulged with rage.

The blood in her body began to boil.

A tremendous force was slowly surging within her.

After hearing Luo Yang’s words, the young ladies in the courtyard and the servants and maids from the estate all lowered their heads and snickered, clearly thinking that what Luo Yang said was absolutely right. Qiu Shu had always been someone with that ostentatious personality. Whenever she met anyone, she liked to bring up the fact that she was the Empress’s biological younger sister and say it again. She told everyone she met, showing off obnoxiously in all sorts of ways! This seemed to have become her habit, so much so that anyone who knew Qiu Shu also knew she was the Empress’s biological younger sister. Although this identity made her very prominent in the capital of Yanjing, and many people were willing to follow her lead and obey her commands in order to flatter and curry favor with her, everyone’s purpose was the same—they hoped to climb up to the imperial family through Qiu Shu as a connection to benefit themselves.

If you spoke of people who genuinely wanted to befriend Qiu Shu, there probably wasn’t even one!

Qiu Shu was filled with angry resentment. Seeing the entire courtyard full of people laughing at her, she finally stamped her foot, pointed with her hand, and rebuked: “What are you all doing? What are you laughing at? What’s so funny?”

Everyone froze and all shut their mouths!

They were afraid Qiu Shu would vent her anger on them.

They’d rather keep their heads down like tortoises than be the bird that sticks its head out.

Qiu Shu saw that even the few young ladies who were usually on good terms with her were laughing. All the anger in her heart surged up, and she turned to glare fiercely at Luo Yang’s smug face, grinding her teeth: “Just who are you? How dare you humiliate me repeatedly? I’m definitely going to kill you.”

As she spoke, she pointed her finger at him!

Luo Yang smiled wickedly and immediately reached out to grab Qiu Shu’s outstretched hand. With one pull, he yanked Qiu Shu right in front of him. He said with a cheeky grin, “Who am I? I’m your young master Luo Yang! Luo as in Luo Yang, Yang as in Luo Yang.”

“You… let go!”

“Didn’t you say I peeped at you? Fine! Then I’ll tell everyone here right now what exactly I saw that night.”

“You dare!”

“Why wouldn’t I dare?” Luo Yang blinked twice and said, “Didn’t you say you’d cut off my tongue? Then while I can still speak, let me say a few more things. Otherwise, if I can’t speak later, how pitiful would that be!”

Now, the distance between them was only about three fists’ width!

Qiu Shu struggled to pull back, her eyes widening greatly. Her eyes were so angry that bloodshot veins appeared. She warned, “You brat, if you dare spout any more nonsense, I’ll…”

“Whatever you want. Anyway, today I’m going to speak!”

Although everyone was wary of Qiu Shu, they eagerly waited for Luo Yang to say what exactly he had seen that night.

Everyone wanted to watch the spectacle!

Qiu Shu’s heart was pounding even more. She was terrified that Luo Yang would really say something inappropriate. If he truly said things he shouldn’t say and ruined her reputation, wouldn’t she have to bash her head and die?

Luo Yang cleared his throat, then looked toward everyone and raised his voice to say, “I’ll tell you all what I saw that night. I saw this young lady was actually in her room washing…”

“Luo Yang, don’t say any more.” Ji Yunshu spoke up in time to stop him.

Luo Yang’s words halted, and his wide-open mouth also closed.

He swallowed back down all the words he was about to say.

He looked at Ji Yunshu and said, “I haven’t finished yet. Look, everyone in this courtyard is waiting.”

“Don’t make trouble anymore!”

“I…”

Taking advantage of this moment, Qiu Shu pulled her hand from Luo Yang’s grasp, then raised it high and viciously struck his face.

When the slap landed, Luo Yang was stunned!

Everyone was stunned too!

Qiu Shu rebuked, “Ignorant thing! You even dared to toy with me. When we return to Yanjing, I’ll definitely have the Empress lock you up and have you torn apart by five horses, not leaving a single hair behind.”

This was indeed her style!

It took Luo Yang a while to realize he had been slapped. Although this wasn’t the first time he’d been hit, he was still a man after all. Being struck like this, his anger instantly flared up. But just as he was about to lose his temper…

Ji Yunshu held him back and said, “Don’t be impulsive.”

“This isn’t my fault right now!”

“The important matter takes priority!”

Luo Yang was at a loss for words. Remembering the reason he had come here, he had no choice but to suppress the anger in his heart.

To resolve this storm, Ji Yunshu walked up to Qiu Shu and lowered her voice to remind her: “Miss Qiu, you’re still a smart person. Don’t make a big fuss over such a small matter. Right now countless eyes are watching you, and everyone wants to see you make a fool of yourself. If you don’t restrain yourself, when word reaches the Empress’s ears, what do you think the consequences will be? Moreover, if you continue like this, I can’t control Luo Yang’s mouth. What he might say next, I can’t guarantee.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“I’m giving you well-intentioned advice!”

Ugh!

No matter how foolish Qiu Shu was, she knew the current situation couldn’t continue to escalate. Otherwise, if things truly got out of control, who could guarantee what might happen? Moreover, the matter of Luo Yang peeking at her door in the middle of the night had already caused a commotion before. So if Luo Yang said she was bathing in her room that night or anything else, everyone would surely believe him.

A woman’s chastity was most important!

This absolutely could not be treated as a joke.

Therefore—

She decided to give up and end this farce: “Hmph! I’ll let you off today.”

Then she stormed back in anger.

The farce came to an end.

The young ladies in the courtyard also returned to their rooms one by one, and the estate’s servants and maids all left as well.

Zhu Yao stood outside the door, taking all of this in. She had originally wanted to go over and help, but was worried she would only make things worse by helping. Moreover, that situation really wasn’t good to approach. Now seeing that the predicament had been resolved, her heart was also at ease.

Cai’er said, “Miss, Miss Ji has already handled it. Don’t worry.”

“I just can’t understand why Qiu Shu repeatedly acts like this.”

“What can be done about it? Miss Qiu’s older sister is the Empress. We have no recourse.”

Zhu Yao let out a light sigh, then said, “Cai’er, accompany me out for a bit.”

“Miss, where do you want to go?”

“I want to go see Shiyan.” She stepped across the threshold to leave.

But Cai’er blocked her path and said, “Miss, it’s better not to go. The heir apparent has people watching over him now, so nothing should happen. Besides… if the master finds out, he’ll definitely scold you again. At this time, you absolutely must not go.”

“I can’t worry about all that. I must go see him.” She thought for a moment, then instructed, “Oh right, quickly go ask the estate’s people for a quilt. I heard that Water Moon Pavilion becomes extremely cold at night. What if he gets cold?”

Although Cai’er wanted to persuade her, her young lady’s temperament was such that she couldn’t be talked out of it.

She could only follow the instructions and go handle it!