“I’m not surprised at all that Madam Lu would have such kind intentions. I just never expected that after suffering so much hardship, you would still be this foolish.” Qin Yining’s voice was unhurried and gentle, yet every word that fell into Madam Lu’s ears was a form of mental torment.

“You!” Madam Lu’s face turned purple with rage, and she couldn’t help but look at Pang Xiao with spring in her watery eyes, seeking help.

However, Pang Xiao merely sat upright in the main seat, not even glancing at her once, leisurely drinking his tea instead.

She was bound hand and foot and thrown on the ground.

Yet Qin Yining was qualified to sit as an equal with Pang Xiao, using vicious words to humiliate her!

Madam Lu flew into a rage from shame and humiliation, glaring at Qin Yining indignantly: “Just because you’re here for disaster relief doesn’t mean others aren’t allowed to have charitable hearts and do good deeds!”

Qin Yining was amused by her sophistry.

“Inciting the common people to send them to their deaths counts as doing good deeds in your book? Then if I took your life and let you die early for reincarnation, would that also count as a good deed?”

Pang Xiao beside them couldn’t help but find this amusing.

Meeting Qin Yining’s eyes that contained anger and killing intent, Madam Lu was ultimately intimidated and trembled all over, shuffling backward: “You, you wouldn’t dare! I’m from the Lu family! If you lay a finger on me, the Lu family will hold you accountable!”

“Oh? So you’re saying that your incitement of disaster victims to rebel was also ordered by the Lu family? Do you believe that once this news reaches His Majesty’s ears, your Lu family will be reduced to ashes? Who do you think will be left to back you up then?”

“You shameless wretch, stop spouting nonsense! Don’t you dare implicate our Lu family!”

“When you were doing things that brought shame to your Lu family, why didn’t you think about being a member of the Lu family?”

Madam Lu discovered that when facing Qin Yining, she simply couldn’t win any arguments through reasoning. She twisted her voluptuous body and tearfully looked toward Pang Xiao again for help, saying softly: “Your Highness, you have keen insight, you know that this concubine is not that kind of person.”

This woman was truly audacious! Right in front of her, she dared to repeatedly try to seduce Pang Xiao—how shameless could she get!

Qin Yining stood up and walked step by step toward Madam Lu, finally stopping two steps away from her, looking down at her from above, conveniently blocking her view of Pang Xiao with her body.

Madam Lu looked up at Qin Yining, suddenly realizing that her current angle was truly humiliating, and huffily turned her eyes away.

“Speak. Who instructed you to incite the people to rebel against the court?”

Qin Yining’s voice was calm and unhurried, but her gaze was like a knife, slicing away at the flesh on Madam Lu’s body.

Madam Lu stiffened her neck and said: “No one instructed me. I saw those disaster victims suffering too much, huddled against walls with empty stomachs, so I had them make some noise and demand food from the court. I had good intentions—how can this be called rebelling against the court?”

“Oh? It seems you need someone to confront you in court? You’ve already forgotten those words you taught that man and woman to use in inciting the people, haven’t you?”

“Qin Yining! I know you find me displeasing, but you can’t make such slanderous accusations! You’re taking this opportunity for revenge!” Madam Lu shrieked.

“Someone like you isn’t worth a single move from me—what qualifies you to make me seek revenge? You can choose not to speak now. The fact that this civil unrest was caused by your instigation is already an ironclad truth. I only need to hand you over to His Majesty, and His Majesty will naturally make his judgment on what follows.”

“You wouldn’t dare! I’m from the Lu family, I…”

“A married woman follows her husband. You’re not only the Lu family’s daughter, but more importantly, you’re the Mi family’s daughter-in-law. Touch your conscience—does your behavior live up to the Loyal and Brave Marquis? You, as the wife of the Loyal and Brave Marquis, enjoying the benefits your deceased husband brought while keeping a group of pretty boys to dishonor your husband—do you really think there’s no retribution in this world?”

“You don’t understand shit!” Having her thoughts exposed, Madam Lu’s face turned even redder, and she opened her mouth to spit at Qin Yining.

Ji Yun beside them reacted quickly, kicking the woman to the ground with one foot, so naturally that spit never came out.

Qin Yining said: “Gag her mouth, watch her closely, don’t let her escape, and don’t let her die either.”

“Yes.”

Huzi led people to carry out Qin Yining’s instructions.

They watched as Madam Lu was dragged out the door like a piece of pork.

Only then did Pang Xiao stand up, putting his arm around Qin Yining’s shoulders with a laugh: “Jealous?”

Qin Yining nodded seriously: “Yes, jealous. She dared to have improper designs on you right in front of me—clearly she’s developed shamelessness to the extreme. A woman like that should be drowned in a pig cage.”

Seeing Qin Yining’s beautiful face showing anger, her lovely brows knitted together, and her cherry lips slightly pouting in displeasure, Pang Xiao found this appearance indescribably endearing.

Though it was somewhat inappropriate at such a grave moment, Pang Xiao still couldn’t help but pull Qin Yining into his embrace and lightly kiss her red lips.

“Don’t think so much about it. I don’t care what they think—as long as I only have you in my heart, isn’t that enough?”

Qin Yining’s heart was already as if brushed with honey, filled to overflowing with happiness. She hugged Pang Xiao’s lean waist and buried her face in his chest: “Are you telling the truth? What if a younger and more beautiful woman appears in the future and you take a fancy to her? Would you take her as a concubine?”

Hearing this, Pang Xiao felt both amused and heartbroken: “How could that happen? First, there will never be a more beautiful woman than you. Second, I don’t want to take concubines either. I’ve said before—I only want you.”

Though Qin Yining didn’t speak and didn’t lift her head from Pang Xiao’s embrace, her heart had already relaxed considerably, and her face showed a smile.

At this moment, footsteps could be heard outside. The two separated and each took their seats.

Huzi entered and reported: “Your Highness, Madam Lu has been imprisoned, awaiting future disposal. Additionally, the disaster victims have stormed the Ding and Pei families, and it’s now complete chaos. Both sides have suffered casualties, but the disaster victims are emotionally agitated and numerous. The guards of those two wealthy households are proving ineffective. I believe we’ll see the outcome within half an hour.”

Qin Yining’s slightly improved mood plummeted to rock bottom again upon hearing that both sides had suffered casualties.

“Should we arrange for people to clean up the aftermath? Once they get the grain, that should be enough—there’s no need to wait for the disaster victims to massacre everyone.”

Pang Xiao nodded with a smile: “Don’t worry, I’ll arrange all of this.” Though he said this, he had limited manpower available, making it impossible to suppress the refugees in such a short time, much less secretly infiltrate to rescue people. If they went to rescue people this way, the refugees’ transformation from hungry people to rioters would be attributed by interested parties to manipulation.

They had indeed manipulated the refugees. But their original intention was to enable these people to survive. They were trading the smallest possible sacrifice for more people’s lives.

That riot lasted a full day and night, ending with over thirty refugee casualties and the complete annihilation of the Ding and Pei families.

The grain these two families had hoarded was looted by the refugees, and cooking smoke began to rise again in the city that had long been without it.

At this time, under Pang Xiao’s arrangements, Yang County restored strong public order, and the Ding and Pei families were quickly cleaned up.

News of the refugee riot in Yang County soon spread throughout the disaster area as if it had wings.

This was especially true in the old capital, which housed even more former Great Yan officials and wealthy households.

After Governor Gong returned to the capital, wealthy households actually began voluntarily coming to sell grain. The coarse rice that had previously risen to twelve taels of silver per stone dropped to one tael of silver per stone.

Thus, the silver Pang Xiao had donated could temporarily resolve the crisis of people’s eating difficulties.

On the surface, everything seemed perfect.

However, Qin Yining hadn’t slept well for two consecutive days.

Whenever she closed her eyes, she could see the innocent women and children of the Ding and Pei families who had died in vain.

She had indeed used this method to save more lives. But her idea had also cost the lives of over fifty people from the Ding and Pei families. After those disaster victims became rioters, they didn’t just loot—they also committed rape. Though Pang Xiao wouldn’t tell her the specific details of what happened then and didn’t allow her to accompany him to clean up the Ding and Pei families, just thinking about it a little made it easy to imagine the tragic fate of these two families.

Once human lives were lost, they were gone forever. Unrelated people could treat it as a math problem. Trading the lives of fifty-some people for the survival of tens of thousands seemed completely correct from the perspective of righteousness.

But what about from the perspective of the deceased? Were they really all bad people? How pitiful were those innocent women and children?

Whenever Qin Yining thought this way, her heart ached as if cut by knives.

Bingtang had been giving her medicine for two days now. After checking her pulse and finding that her melancholy remained unresolved, he couldn’t help but advise: “Your Highness, please don’t be too sad. Actually, those people were all harmed by their own foolish family heads. If the Ding and Pei families hadn’t been heartlessly wealthy, raising prices while hoarding so much grain without being willing to sell it to the people, the people wouldn’t have harbored such strong resentment toward them.

“Perhaps those people had already committed countless evils while alive, and the people just dared to be angry but not speak out.”

Bingtang couldn’t bear to see Qin Yining torturing herself this way, so he tried his best to comfort her.

Qin Yining smiled and said: “I understand. It’s just that understanding is one thing, and what my heart thinks is another matter entirely. I think after a while, I’ll probably get better.”

Bingtang couldn’t help but nod with a sigh—time was indeed the best medicine for diluting any pain.

“Your Highness.” At this moment, Ji Yun entered with a somewhat strange expression.

Qin Yining looked at her inquiringly: “What is it?”

Ji Yun said in a low voice: “You have a friend you once knew, a lady whose married name is Liao. She was doing business and returned to the old capital when she encountered the earthquake. Having heard you’re here, she’s come specially to pay her respects. Would you like to see her?”

As she spoke, Ji Yun nodded at Qin Yining.

Qin Yining’s heart skipped a beat.

The visitor was Madam Liao from the Azure Sky Alliance—the contact person they had previously agreed upon between Qin Yining and the Azure Sky Alliance.

Why would she come looking for her on her own initiative? Could it be about the treasure?

“Since she’s an old acquaintance, please invite her in.”

Qin Yining’s palms broke out in a nervous sweat, because she didn’t know whether Madam Liao’s act of seeking her out would be detected by His Majesty’s spies.