The old woman from the Xinzhe Repository was finally handed over to Duan Fusheng for handling.
Zhou Shengsheng knew Duan Fusheng's methods well, so she wasn't worried that this person would return to the Xinzhe Repository to cause trouble for her.
So, she claimed she had other things to do and left first.
However, before leaving, Duan Fusheng unexpectedly took back the jade pendant that Song Weiqing had given her.
This made Zhou Shengsheng so angry that she almost cursed out loud.
"What? You don't want to give it back?" Seeing her expression, which looked like she had just swallowed a mouthful of excrement, Duan Fusheng felt an inexplicable sense of joy.
He had already figured it out. No matter how much she cursed him in her heart, on the surface, she still had to obediently comply and dare not resist, right?
As Zhou Shengsheng left, Duan Fusheng's mind remained restless.
It wasn't until Zhou Shengsheng had walked about twenty meters away that he could no longer hear her curses.
This distance must be the limit, Duan Fusheng mused for a moment.
Then, feeling a bit drowsy, he yawned.
"Sheng Lan, take care of her. You know my rules."
"Yes." Sheng Lan's voice was devoid of any emotion.
The old woman, trembling on the ground, looked up in disbelief at the child she had watched grow up.
"You can't do this to me! I'm your aunt!" she screamed, her voice hoarse and trembling.
"Your Majesty! The Noble Consort! It was this servant who made me do it! Otherwise, why would I dare to provoke your personal maidservant! Your Majesty!" In her desperation, she reached out to grab Duan Fusheng's leg.
But before she could make contact, she was viciously kicked away with disgust.
The force was so strong that she slammed into the pillar of the pavilion and spat out a mouthful of blood.
The scene before her eyes swayed, and a wave of dizziness and nausea filled her mind.
But she still managed to see clearly.
The face that had bewitched their emperor revealed a malicious smile, then gently opened its crimson lips.
"So what?"
It was only then that she finally understood.
He didn't care.
Whether it was her who had bullied Zhou Shengsheng or not, it didn't matter to Duan Fusheng.
What mattered was that he wanted her dead.
That was all there was to it.
Human life was as cheap as grass, and who would care if an ant was good or evil?
---- Hehe, here comes the dividing line ----
Zhou Shengsheng returned to the Xinzhe Repository to change clothes.
As a lowly criminal slave, she no longer had the many outfits she used to wear when she was Duan Fusheng's personal maidservant.
The most plain and unadorned dress, one person only had two sets.
The set she was wearing today was wet, so she had to change into the other one.
【Shengsheng, Ming Siran is about to meet the female lead, we have to hurry over!】
Apang turned around, covering his eyes with his paws.
He was a boy, and it wasn't appropriate for him to watch a girl change clothes.
"Got it." Zhou Shengsheng was on the verge of tears.
Her hair was still wet.
Why did it feel like maintaining the plot was even more troublesome than serving Duan Fusheng?
"Wait a minute..." Zhou Shengsheng paused while tying her waistband.
"In the original book, the female lead got lost and met the male lead, Ming Siran, on a narrow path with only faint light. Under the weak light, Ming Siran immediately noticed the female lead's face, which was extremely similar to the face of his childhood sweetheart, and he was instantly captivated."
So, the question was:
Where was that narrow path with only faint light in the original book?
Apang also fell silent.
This question... was quite clever.
He didn't know either.
Fortunately, Zhou Shengsheng was lucky.
Following the direction the female lead had taken when she left the pavilion, Zhou Shengsheng quickly spotted the female lead, dressed in plain white, among the red bricks and green willows.
It seemed she had realized she was lost and was frowning in distress.
【Shengsheng, the male lead is coming from that direction】 Apang, his chubby body panting, flew over from a distance.
Zhou Shengsheng immediately understood and crouched down to hide herself under the shade of a tree.
Jiang Zhiyu realized she was lost.
She should have known better than to think about the handsome face of the Crown Prince of the Zhen Kingdom, or she wouldn't have gotten lost.
Recalling her mother's advice from childhood that when lost, one should take off their shoes and throw them into the air, then follow the direction the shoe pointed, Jiang Zhiyu bent down to take off her shoe.
But just as she bent down, a shadow suddenly appeared in front of her, making her scream in fright.
"Ah!"
A palace lantern with a faint flame illuminated her face. Ming Siran had been trained since childhood in martial arts, so his vision was sharp even in pitch-black darkness.
With the added light from the lantern, it was even easier for him to see.
The girl's clear, watery eyes overlapped with the image of the girl in his memory, and seeing her about to fall, Ming Siran, who usually disliked physical contact with others, unexpectedly reached out to catch her.
"You..." His deep, magnetic voice had just begun.
But then the girl suddenly raised a bright smile and said to him, "Thank you, sir."
Ming Siran's face immediately darkened.
"Don't smile!"
From her hiding spot, Zhou Shengsheng saw this and thought to herself, "I know this line."
The next line should be: "Your serious look is more like her!"
A sudden clear voice in his mind made the second half of Ming Siran's sentence die before it could be spoken.
"Who's there?" His sharp eyes narrowed, and he pointed his sword toward the spot where Zhou Shengsheng was hiding.
Zhou Shengsheng: ? What the...
"Apang! What should we do? Did he find me?"
Apang was also startled: 【Don't panic, host. Just meow like a cat. Isn't that what they do in dramas?】
Zhou Shengsheng thought that made sense. This novel had so many unreasonable parts that a human imitating a cat's meow being taken seriously wasn't that far-fetched.
"Meow~" she said, squeezing her voice.
Ming Siran: "..." Did he, the Emperor of the Great Yong Kingdom, look like an idiot to them?
Jiang Zhiyu was completely confused. So, why exactly couldn't she smile?
"I'll give you one more chance. Liu Xunlan wouldn't mind if I killed a rat on his territory."
Hearing him directly address the current emperor by his name, Jiang Zhiyu was shocked: "How dare you address the Emperor's name so casually!"
Ming Siran gave her a mocking look and said coldly, "Shut up!"
“Oh...” Jiang Zhiyu aggrievedly closed her mouth, even making a gesture to seal her lips.
However, Ming Siran's gaze was not on her at the moment.
Zhou Shengsheng gave Apang a look that said, "Great idea," then helplessly stepped out.
“This servant pays her respects to His Majesty, the Emperor of Dayong.”
Jiang Zhiyu's eyes widened in shock.
Ming Siran, on the other hand, was a bit surprised and raised an eyebrow: "You know who I am?"
Zhou Shengsheng bowed her head even lower, hoping he wouldn't recognize her face.
“Your Majesty, only the esteemed you can wear the black five-clawed dragon robe throughout the entire world.”
"Making it known to the world that you wear black to hide the blood on your clothes, how pretentious."
Ming Siran's hand clenched, the veins on the back of his hand bulging as he was about to cut her down. But then he suddenly realized that the last part of her words seemed to have directly entered his mind.
So, as if to verify something, he pointed at Zhou Shengsheng on the ground and looked at Jiang Zhiyu.
"Did you hear what she said?"
Still in shock over the fact that he was the emperor, Jiang Zhiyu nodded blankly in response to his question.
"Repeat it." He commanded coldly.
So, Jiang Zhiyu confusedly repeated what Zhou Shengsheng had just said.
After hearing it, Ming Siran tapped his sword lightly with his slender fingers.
Interesting, it seemed only he could hear it.
"This is to make sure the female lead never forgets his noble and arrogant identity? Wow, what a show-off."
