Chapter 45: Stop

Seeing this, the remaining eunuchs were terrified to the extreme. They stood frozen in place, not even daring to utter a word, let alone make any other movement.

Little did they expect that the Fourth Prince would become even more enraged at this sight.

"The Empress painstakingly selected all of you to serve me, yet the moment I command you to perform such a trivial task, you all shrink back in hesitation and not a single one of you dares to step forward. If that is the case, what use do I have for people like you? If this behavior continues, I will have no choice but to report this matter back to the Empress and let her make the decision. By then, not only will you lose your positions serving by my side, but you had better carefully consider the fates of your families back home. If you feel indifferent to their well-being, then I certainly have nothing more to say."

While Consort Qi appeared gentle and benevolent on the surface, the eunuchs who did not serve in the Bamboo-Listening Palace were unaware of her hidden malice; however, those who dealt with her on a daily basis knew a thing or two.

The gentleness and kindness she displayed were merely for the Emperor and the Empress to see. Having long since aligned herself with the Empress's faction, she naturally refrained from acting too outrageously in front of the Empress in order to maintain her trust, merely keeping her temper in check on ordinary days.

Yet within the confines of her own palace, the lives of these maidservants and eunuchs were never valued as human lives. To her, they were no different from stray cats and dogs, easily crushed to death at a whim.

When she was in a good mood, she would summon them to chat and amuse her; when she was in a foul mood, arbitrarily beating and killing one or two of them was not unheard of.

How could these people not be terrified upon hearing the Fourth Prince's words? Moreover, they were indeed handpicked by Consort Qi to serve as eunuchs to the Fourth Prince. As Consort Qi deeply treasured this son and wished to keep him under constant surveillance, she naturally had a firm grip on the family background of every single eunuch she placed by his side, purely out of fear that someone might attempt to harm her beloved son without her having sufficient leverage to keep them in check.

Who would have thought that the pledge of allegiance they had once eagerly made in hopes of building their fortunes would now become the very handle the Fourth Prince used to threaten them?

Many of the young eunuchs felt a profound sense of despair, filled with bitter regret for their past greed, but matters had progressed to this point, and regret was futile.

Since the Fourth Prince had put it this way, whether they stretched out their necks or pulled them back, death was inevitable; they might as well just charge forward and carry out the task. Perhaps, if the Fourth Prince was in a good mood afterward, he might spare their lives.

Glancing at the young eunuch who had hesitated moments earlier and now lay dead on the floor, they naturally lost any remaining courage to pretend they had not heard the Fourth Prince's command.

Once several of them came to terms with this, they stepped forward one after another.

Watching these people draw closer and closer, Xiao Jingheng felt a profound chill in his heart. He currently lacked the capability to resist, but if these people truly dared to approach and beat him, he would absolute refuse to submit passively. Even without exposing his mastery of martial arts, he had ways to stop them.

Xiao Jingheng reached out and felt for the pair of scissors hidden beneath the stool, preparing to stab the foremost eunuch, when a crisp and clear female voice suddenly echoed from outside the doorway.

"Stop! What on earth are you doing?"

Wen Qiao had merely been strolling aimlessly when she happened to wander near the Imperial Princes' Quarters. The truth was, the Empress Dowager had been endlessly nagging her about her biological grandsons over the past couple of days. Hindered by her frail health, the Empress Dowager could not leave her bed, so she had practically forced Wen Qiao to go out for a walk and inspect whether those grandsons of hers were diligently studying.

Wen Qiao ought to have headed straight to the Imperial Study, but the mere thought of that revolting creature Xiao Minghe constantly trying to engineer accidental encounters outside the Imperial Study made her decide to visit the Princes' Quarters first, simply to avoid adding unnecessary distress to her day.

After all, the princes and princesses had nowhere else to go on ordinary days; aside from their quarters, they were either in their biological mothers' palaces and not permitted to leave the inner court at will. As long as the Princes' Quarters were empty, the high probability was that they had gone to the Imperial Study to study.

Yet Wen Qiao never anticipated witnessing such a scene the moment she arrived at the Princes' Quarters. Truly, this was a startling surprise.

Recalling carefully from her memories, the only person permitted to reside in this dilapidated courtyard nowadays should be the Third Prince, Xiao Jingheng.

It was said that this Third Prince had been out of favor since childhood. Because of his mother, the Emperor regarded him with utter disdain, making his daily existence extremely arduous while enduring bullying from numerous brothers.

The Fourth Prince, in particular, was the worst offender.

Wen Qiao mentally reviewed the ultimate fate of the Third Prince in her past life, only to find her knowledge of him completely blank. His name had not even appeared on the roster of contenders in the struggle for the succession, causing her to briefly wonder if her memory had failed her.

Having previously spared little attention for the other princes while devoting her entire heart and soul to the Crown Prince, she should theoretically have been familiar with all of the Crown Prince's brothers. Why, then, had the Third Prince never surfaced in her recollections?

Could it be that the Third Prince had already perished by the time she assisted the Crown Prince in seizing the throne?

After pondering for a long time without finding an explanation, Wen Qiao simply let the matter drop. Regardless of what the Third Prince's ultimate fate might be, at the very least, she could not sit by and watch him be humiliated by the Fourth Prince—just in case this Third Prince achieved great things in the future.

Weighing the two in her mind, Wen Qiao despised the Fourth Prince far more.

Because she held the Fourth Prince in contempt, she naturally never afforded him any opportunity to approach her again, ultimately forcing him to restrain his sordid desires.

Had Wen Qiao behaved like Wen Qi and extended an olive branch to the Fourth Prince, perhaps he would have pestered her just as relentlessly as he now pestered Wen Qi.

Even though the Fourth Prince did not care for women of her particular appearance, given his universally loathsome nature, he wanted to taint any female blessed with beauty.

Presently, Wen Qiao remained unaware that the Fourth Prince frequently harassed Wen Qi, nor did she know the exact nature of the relationship between Wen Qi and the Fourth Prince. She only knew that the Fourth Prince was lecherous, tyrannical, and arrogant, foolishly believing that his status as an imperial prince gave him the right to treat others' lives as worthless.

Wen Qiao had always detested such individuals. Now presented with an opportunity to put him in his place, regardless of who the person being bullied by Xiao Yulei was—so long as it was not the Crown Prince—she suspected she would have intervened regardless.

Of course, Xiao Yulei lacked the audacity to bully Xiao Minghe, not merely because of the Crown Prince's lofty status, but also because Consort Qi and the Empress were tied to the same rope. Finding the Third Prince's aptitude lacking, Consort Qi had followed the Empress's lead and placed all her bets on the Crown Prince.

The Fourth Prince knew he possessed no remarkable talents, choosing instead to drift aimlessly through life, bullying his other brothers and sisters while riding on the coattails of the Crown Prince's power to commit all manner of outrages.

Everyone in the palace now knew that Wen Qiao served closely beside the Empress Dowager and that the Emperor greatly favored her, meaning no one lacking eyes would dare to slight her.

Even an imperial prince had to account for the Emperor's face and would never openly disrespect her.

Therefore, Wen Qiao possessed the confidence to step forward and stop the Fourth Prince.

Upon hearing a woman's voice echo from within the quarters, the Fourth Prince was initially startled, followed immediately by a surge of secret elation.

The Imperial Princes' Quarters were, as the name implied, exclusively for males. Although princesses also resided in this general sector, they lived in a separate courtyard situated on the eastern side.

For a woman to appear here—leaving aside whether she harbored ambitions of marrying into royalty—she must be rather uninhibited, and anyone appearing within the inner court could hardly be ordinary; naturally, her appearance would be more than passable.

Thus, the Fourth Prince subconsciously assumed another beauty was about to fall into his embrace.

However, failing to immediately recognize the owner of the voice, his expression froze the moment he turned around and saw Wen Qiao standing outside the doorway, leaving him utterly at a loss for how to react.

The remaining young eunuchs hurriedly retreated the instant someone intervened.

None of them had ever wished to execute such a fatal errand, having been coerced into it; now that someone had stepped in to stop them, they naturally seized the excuse to back away.

Even so, none dared to make their retreat too obvious, merely sliding their steps slightly backward.

Clearly, the Fourth Prince's attention was entirely consumed by Wen Qiao, preventing him from noticing the subtle maneuvers of his eunuchs.

Facing Wen Qiao, the Fourth Prince could only force a smile far uglier than weeping, despite his intense reluctance.

"So it is my cousin who has arrived; I was wondering who it could be. At this hour, Cousin should normally be attending to the Imperial Grandmother in the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility. Whatever brings you to the Imperial Princes' Quarters? This is a place exclusively for men, and Cousin's presence here is rather inconvenient. You ought to return to the Palace of Compassion and Tranquility promptly; if you are late and the Imperial Grandmother cannot find you, she is bound to worry again."

Strictly speaking, all the imperial princes and princesses in the palace were cousins to Wen Qiao, as she was the biological daughter of Princess Changle.

Yet many were unwilling to acknowledge this fact, while Wen Qiao herself was easygoing and indifferent to such slights.

Consequently, apart from times when these imperial relatives wished to curry favor and addressed her as cousin, on all other occasions they referred to her merely as the young lady or daughter of the Yongning Marquis's estate. High and mighty as these princes and princesses were, forcing them to admit they shared blood with a wild girl picked up from the countryside would likely have been harder than killing them. Even though the Emperor currently held Wen Qiao in high regard, it could not alter their perception that Wen Qiao remained vulgar, privately dismissing the Emperor's favor as the result of senile muddledness.

Yet Wen Qiao never cared for such trivialities, allowing her to live a relatively relaxed life. Otherwise, the sheer exasperation caused by these people would have driven her to an early grave, stripping away her present ease and freedom.

"So it is the Fourth Cousin. From afar, this younger sister merely noticed a dense crowd gathered here. Believing this courtyard to be uninhabited due to its utter dilapidation, I never expected it to be so lively. Having passed by this place many times without ever stepping inside, I had no idea anyone actually lived here. Logically speaking, this younger sister ought to be attending to the Imperial Grandmother at this hour, but Cousin should likewise be attending classes at the Imperial Study. What brings you here instead?"

Wen Qiao spoke in soft, gentle tones that caused even the Fourth Prince—who ordinarily detested beauties of her type—to feel a stirring in his heart.

Sitting upright upon the bed, Xiao Jingheng slightly lowered his gaze, concealing the true emotions swirling within his eyes.

It was the very same young maiden who had rescued him outside the hall during the Imperial Grandmother's birthday banquet. He had not expected her to truly reside within the palace, let alone wander as far as the Princes' Quarters. Yet twice now, every single one of their encounters had occurred while he was in such a wretched state.

The first time was outside the Empress Dowager's banquet hall when he had been poisoned and unable to enter, relying on her acupuncture to suppress the poison within him; the second time was today, when the Fourth Prince had brought men to humiliate him while he remained paralyzed and helpless upon the bed, unable to do a single thing.

If this continued, would Wen Qiao leave with the inner conviction that he was utterly weak and cowardly?

Acting as though she had only just noticed Xiao Jingheng, Wen Qiao feigned slight surprise, naturally recognizing him as the young man she had casually saved that day.

She had not imagined that Xiao Jingheng was the legendary, utterly neglected Third Prince.

Nor had she anticipated that their next meeting would transpire under such circumstances.

Although she could not recall the ultimate outcome for the Third Prince, now that she had been reborn, many events were destined to diverge from the trajectory of her previous life.

Take the affair involving Wen Qi, for instance. Following the development of her past life, Wen Qi should already have entered the palace to serve beside the Empress Dowager, even acquiring a reputation throughout the capital for medical skill and profound talent, culminating in the title of the capital's premier talented woman within the next two months.

Alas, all of that had been disrupted by her rebirth.

With that being the case, the people and events of her past life would inevitably shift due to her arrival.

She simply had not anticipated that this legendary Third Prince would lead a life of such utter wretchedness. Even if he was out of favor, it was merely because his mother had been framed decades ago; what connection did that bear to him? He was merely an innocent child.

If the Emperor truly viewed this child as a disgrace, he should have simply ordered him eliminated at birth rather than allowing him to be born only to be ignored and neglected.

Wen Qiao lowered her gaze, harboring these thoughts internally while remaining silent.

After all, she was no saint. Having only just managed to secure a pleasant life for herself, she hardly had the luxury of worrying about the living conditions of a complete stranger.