Chapter 172.1 Bite You to Death, You Lecher!
Zi You had ordered someone to gag her, so Wang Yiping could only grunt.
Zi You shed tears and looked unbearably heartbroken. She went over to her and used a handkerchief to wipe her sweat off. “Endure it, mother. I know that it hurts, but it’s still better than the Emperor taking your life!”
She then took the opportunity to lean close to her and whisper, “Slut! How does it feel? This is just the beginning.”
Wang Yiping’s vicious eyes looked at her. Her gaze was like arrows dipped in venom. She wanted to turn into a million arrows and shoot Zi You through the heart.
Zi You’s eyes mocked her. She deliberately cried to Aunt Lan, “Have mercy, Aunt Lan! Don’t hurt mother until she falls ill……”
Aunt Lan nodded. Being beaten with the military rod thirty times wouldn’t kill you, but it could waste your legs and leave you in a wheelchair for the rest of your life.
The person carrying the family laws on Mu YingRui was Uncle Jiang. Of course, he wouldn’t let Mu YingRui get comfortable. The coward fainted away by the fifth hit.
In the end, they were dragged away like dead pigs.
They hated Zi You even more now. But they didn’t think about what they had done or how much harm they themselves had brought to Zi You.
Regarding Rong Yunhe and Rong Qiyan’s exile, Zi You knelt for more than two hours in front of Chengguang Palace Hall before the Emperor had agreed to see her.
It was the fifth. The officials were still on holiday leave. Thus, there was only Zi You alone in the white marbled Chengguang Palace Hall.
She knelt there alone and proudly. Her small body seemed even smaller in the big hall, making everyone unable to ignore her.
Old General Mu and Mu YingYi were so anxious that their foreheads were covered with sweat. They knew that they wouldn’t be able to persuade her and even wanted to lock her in the house.
But Zi You had said to them, “They aren’t slaves anymore. They are my comrades from the day that I brought them into the house. I can’t abandon them before we go into battle. They didn’t commit a sin. If they are exiled, then they would be convicted of a sin. In that case, I am not qualified to stay here either. I should be punished with them.”
Shangguan LingRan knew that she was kneeling there and couldn’t sit still.
He ran to Jingyang Palace and fanned the flames with the Empress Dowager. “Imperial grandmother, that idiot is still kneeling there. If she kneels anymore, she will lose her legs. She is the female medical team’s commander whom you have high hopes for. If she’s crippled before she sets off for battle, it will become a huge joke.”
The Empress Dowager was old, but wise. She looked at her grandson anxiously jumping up and down. Although he still had his mischievous and carefree smile, the anxiety in his eyes couldn’t be hidden from the Empress Dowager.
The Empress Dowager couldn’t help but sigh. “Silly child. She is already engaged to Duke Yongnan Shizi. Why do you still care about her?”
“Who cares about her?” Shangguan LingRan denied it. “Grandson is only thinking about how you and imperial uncle should not be reprimanded. Rong Yunhe and his sister obviously did not attempt to assassinate imperial uncle. But if we exile them, won’t we be wronging them?
“Moreover, once the siblings are exiled, wouldn’t that idiot give up her head? She had vowed that those slaves wouldn’t seek revenge. Do you want to see her die or crippled? Imperial grandmother, it’s the New Year. Can you be so cruel?”
The Empress Dowager had no other choice. She sent her confidant eunuch to tell the Emperor, “Mu Zi You is the first female medical team’s commander supported by Aijia.”
Even if the Emperor was unhappy after he heard the words that his Muhou’s eunuch had said, he could not insist any longer. One had to look a dog’s master if one wanted to beat it. The Empress Dowager was pretty much telling him: Aijia is backing Mu Zi You. Don’t go too far.
The Emperor looked at Zi You and asked her in displeasure, “You will do all this for two slaves who want to seek revenge against Zhen. Aren’t you afraid that they will harm Great Yan’s soldiers when they are with the army in the future?”
“Emperor.” Zi You kowtowed and argued, “They don’t want to seek revenge. You also saw it. Rong Yunhe stabbed the assassin and didn’t point his sword at you. Rong Qiyan never thought about seeking revenge from the beginning to the end.
“Emperor, Chennu is a girl and don’t understand politics. But Chennu knows that grace should be combined with severity instead of having ruthless policies. If you let the siblings off this time, they will certainly be grateful and won’t be traitorous.
“The rest of the slaves will also learn the lesson and understand what the path that they should choose is. Emperor, let the siblings obtain meritorious service to make up for their sins. You can write this sin down for now. If they joined the battlefield and obtained merit, that will offset their sins. If they do not, you can punish them for both sins, along with Chennu then.”
The Emperor looked at the twelve-year-old girl who was already so beautiful that one was reluctant to look away from her. He thought for a while and finally showed s a self-blaming and doting smile. “Zhen will release them to protect you then. Otherwise, if Zhen don’t punish you, how will Zhen be able to convince everyone? Yatou, remember Zhen’s painstaking efforts.”
“Thank you for your grace, Emperor! Chennu will remember the Emperor’s care and trust.” Zi You kowtowed and smiled gratefully at him.
Her bright smile was as elegant and aloof as a hibiscus emerging from the water. The Emperor’s heart shook and his mood improved.
His smile became meaningful and his words held an even deeper meaning. “Yatou, you have to remember. Only Zhen can give you everything that you want in this world.”
Zi You looked at his dark eyes and turned cold! She pretended to look naïve and innocent and nodded. “Yes, Chennu understands. Chennu will tell Emperor first if Chennu wants anything in the future.”
Rong Yunhe and his sister returned. Rong Yunhe knew that Zi You had knelt for two hours in front of Chengguang Palace Hall for them. So, after he returned, he knelt outside Youran Ju’s courtyard.
Zi You did not make him get up. She called him into her grandfather’s study after he knelt for a full two hours.
She stared at him with no expression on her face. Rong Yunhe finally said, with a guilty expression, “I’m sorry, Commander. I harmed you……”
She coldly said, “You should be sorry to me, but you should be sorrier to your parents and the other forty-nine slaves who have escaped from hell with you! Didn’t your parents tell you that you should live well with your sister and not seek revenge?
“Have you ever thought that the forty-nine slaves will be executed whether the assassination was successful or not? I already told you to cherish the chance to begin a new life. But you? It’s only been four months since you have escaped from hell and you’ve already forgotten the nonhuman days. You also almost made your sister and your comrades follow and suffer with you.
“From now on, don’t follow me anymore. I, Mu Zi You, don’t have such a brainless fool who doesn’t listen to orders as a subordinate!”
“No!” Rong Yunhe clearly did not expect that Zi You would drive him away. He started to anxiously kowtow. “I’m not going. You can punish me as you wish. Just don’t make me leave.”
“Commander!” Rong Qiyan rushed inside. She kowtowed alongside her brother. “Please spare my brother this time. He won’t dare to anymore.”
Zi You coldly said, “A country has its own laws. An army has an army’s discipline. How will I dare to keep any soldiers who are disloyal to me around?”
Rong Yunhe felt as if someone stabbed his heart. He felt guilty and wronged. Truthfully speaking, he really wanted to seek revenge for his parents and brothers. Especially his brothers. One was twenty years old and one was seventeen years old. They really died too unjustly.
But when Wang Haiji found him that day, he had only hesitated for two minutes before refusing him. It wasn’t for anything else, but for Xiaojie and his sister.
He had originally thought that Zi You bought them to be killers or to do some immoral things. So, he had once thought that if Zi You wished to harm him and his sister, he would kill her and escape with his sister.
But he had never thought that she bought them to form a female medical team. He had worried in the beginning that his sister used to be a noble xiaojie. He was very conflicted to have her go save the crude male soldiers.
But he had been impressed when he had seen Zi You diligently practicing martial arts and medical skills like the slaves all day, in preparation for going with them to the battlefield to treat the wounded. He had admired this outwardly cold, but inwardly fervent little girl.
Then he had learned martial arts and medical skills alongside Zi You for eight to ten hours every day. They had lived and studied together. He had listened to her lectures about life. The more he came into contact with her, the more he had admired this xiaojie who was younger than him by two years. He had felt that she was not the same as ordinary noble xiaojies.
He secretly looked at his little master, who was comparable to a snow lotus, with admiration every day. He looked at her quietly and with no confidence. He didn’t dare to ask for anything. He only wanted to look at her from afar like this and silently wish her good fortune.
