Unparalleled Beauty

Chapter C064

As auntie Shuyu's words faded, the entire room fell silent.

The several maids in the room exchanged glances, all subconsciously looking at Wushuang's expression.

Wushuang blinked, her surprise having passed, leaving only a smile.

She said with a smile, "Auntie Shuyu, you don't hold a grudge against this Princess Consort, do you?"

Auntie Shuyu, not expecting such a reaction from Wushuang, looked wronged and said, "Why does Your Highness say such a thing? This servant merely felt that propriety should not be transgressed and kindly came to remind Your Highness. Your Highness need not throw dirty water on this servant."

"Since you hold no grudge against this Princess Consort, why, knowing that this Princess Consort has only entered the gates for half a month, not even having completed the first month of marriage, do you speak of memorial tablets and death anniversaries? Whose misfortune do you wish to bring? Is it this Princess Consort's, or His Highness's, or are you perhaps dissatisfied with His Majesty's bestowed marriage, to the point that you use the name of the late Princess Consort Xi to vent your displeasure at this Princess Consort?"

Wushuang gazed at auntie Shuyu with a smile, not at all angry, but rather with a face full of amusement.

At this moment, Xiaohong also reacted, pointing at auntie Shuyu and scolding, "How dare you! The Emperor's bestowed marriage is of utmost honor. On the day of His Highness and the Princess Consort's wedding, all mourning and celebrations in the capital were avoided. The Princess Consort Xi you speak of, is neither newly deceased, nor is it the seventh day, nor the hundredth day, nor the anniversary. Although the dead are to be respected, can they be greater than His Highness and the Princess Consort's wedding? This old woman, I see, is deliberately here to bring misfortune to the Princess Consort. Someone, drag her away!"

Xiaohong's string of words left everyone present, except for Wushuang, unable to keep up. While everyone was still stunned, Meifang had already stepped forward, grabbing auntie Shuyu without another word.

A maid named Qiutong, looked at Meifang, then at Wushuang, and said anxiously, "This is not right..."

As soon as these words were spoken, the other maids hurriedly said, "Your Highness, this is not right."

Auntie Shuyu, who was being grabbed, was about to struggle and scold, but Meifang was too strong, and she could not break free. Hearing the cries of 'this is not right,' she stopped struggling, wanting to see how this Princess Consort Mei would step down.

At this moment, the situation was clearly divided. Apart from Xiaohong and Meifang, who had come with Wushuang as part of her dowry, and Linglong and Mingyue, the others were all, without exception, on auntie Shuyu's side.

Wushuang finally understood why this auntie Shuyu dared to be so bold; it turned out she had backing.

Linglong did not care about any auntie Shuyu or whatever; she was not an ordinary palace maid. His Highness had given her to the Princess Consort, so she was the Princess Consort's person.

Seeing that Wushuang's smile had faded and her eyes had turned cold, she stepped forward, grabbed auntie Shuyu, and scolded Mingyue and the others in a low voice, "What are you still standing there for?"

Mingyue and the three others rushed forward.

Qiutong and the others, who were originally maids of the Prince's mansion, fell silent, watching as the group forcefully dragged auntie Shuyu out.

Auntie Shuyu's hair was disheveled, and her clothes were in disarray. At this point, she finally could not hold back, her voice like a plucked chicken, screeching, "I am Princess Consort Xi's wet nurse! How dare you lay a hand on me! You are so bold! I will certainly report this to His Highness..."

"Go invite His Highness here," Wushuang suddenly said.

"Your Highness?"

"This Princess Consort is incompetent and cannot discipline this servant. Let His Highness discipline her then."

These words were directed at auntie Shuyu, who had been screeching, and she immediately fell silent.

Auntie Shuyu trembled uncontrollably. How could she dare? How could she dare? She had seen that this woman, after entering the gates of the Prince's mansion, had been confined to Luanxiang Courtyard for many days, neither managing people nor affairs, not even taking over the household management. She had assumed that this woman was a good-for-nothing.

Thinking about it, it was also true. A concubine daughter from a declining marquis's family, not even sixteen years old, what kind of insight could she have? She was only relying on her father's favor to His Highness and her decent looks.

Auntie Shuyu had secretly observed this Princess Consort Mei several times. She was delicate and soft, charming and alluring. Her appearance was enchanting, yet her brows carried a hint of innocence and a hint of allure. At such a young age, her chest and buttocks were already full and round. She was clearly a little hussy who knew how to seduce men.

Fortunately, His Highness was not seduced by her. In the past half month since the wedding, he had not come every day, except for the first few days. As for His Highness coming to dine with her during the day, in auntie Shuyu's eyes, as long as they were not sharing the same bed every night, there was nothing to fear.

If they were not inseparable even during the honeymoon, what more could be said about the long days to come?

Auntie Shuyu was certain that with her years of influence in the Prince's mansion's rear courtyard, she could easily control this good-for-nothing Princess Consort.

To act cautiously, she had deliberately endured for half a month, waiting for the late Princess Consort Xi's death anniversary, intending to give this good-for-nothing Princess Consort a show of power and completely control her in front of everyone.

She had calculated that even if Wushuang was furious, she wouldn't dare to tear things open in front of others.

After all, to put it bluntly, she was merely a second wife. Even if the first one was dead, she could never surpass her in this lifetime. Perhaps, for the sake of a virtuous reputation, she would have to swallow her anger and do as she wished.

Never did she expect that Wushuang would first publicly expose her motives, and then her maidservant would be so ferocious, immediately slapping her with a barrage of accusations, then trying to drag her out for punishment. Now, she even said she would invite His Highness. Was she not afraid that His Highness would be displeased with her for being so lacking in propriety?

After all, Princess Consort Xi was His Highness's first wife, and His Highness valued her greatly. Auntie Shuyu was confident of this. But she also knew that Prince Wei was a man of strict rules, and insubordination was a grave offense.

No, she was Princess Consort Xi's wet nurse. His Highness would always give her some face, or else he wouldn't have supported her for so many years.

Thinking this way, auntie Shuyu felt much more at ease.

All these thoughts occurred in an instant. Just then, a commotion arose at the courtyard gate, and someone said, "His Highness has arrived."

In the courtyard, under the eaves, people knelt down in a flurry.

Prince Wei walked in, accompanied by Fusheng.

When Linglong and the others saw Prince Wei arrive, they quickly released their hold and knelt down. Wushuang walked out of the room and stood before the door.

At this moment, auntie Shuyu, who had regained her freedom, finally found her voice. She scrambled to Prince Wei's feet and began to cry.

"Your Highness, save me! The Princess Consort wants to beat this old servant to death!"

Seeing someone blocking Prince Wei's path, Fusheng stepped forward and scrutinized her. "You are? Are you Shuyu?"

Prince Wei lowered his gaze to look at auntie Shuyu, who was weeping at his feet. Her hair was disheveled, and her clothes were dirty. She was indeed in a sorry state, and when he had just entered, she was indeed being held captive.

He frowned. Fusheng's heart trembled, and he quickly formulated a plan.

"What are you crying about here? What kind of spectacle is this, weeping in front of everyone? If you have something to say, go inside."

Fusheng was unsure of what had happened, but he knew that His Highness disliked people causing trouble in public. Besides, even if the Princess Consort wanted to beat you to death for no reason, she was in the wrong, but could the Princess Consort's wrongdoings be publicized in front of everyone? Naturally, it should be discussed inside.

Little did he know that his ambiguous words, coupled with Prince Wei's lowered gaze and frown, caused Wushuang to misunderstand.

She suppressed her grievances, glanced at Prince Wei with a stiff face, and turned to go inside.

Fusheng thought to himself: It's over, it's over. The Princess Consort is angry, she didn't even greet His Highness. You must know that in the past, when His Highness came for a meal during the day, the Princess Consort would always greet him at the door, her little face smiling happily, which was a delight to see. They had finally made some progress, and now it had turned out like this.

Sure enough, Fusheng saw Prince Wei's hand behind his back clench tightly.

The same words, the same expression, could always produce different interpretations.

Auntie Shuyu, on the other hand, interpreted it as His Highness being annoyed with this good-for-nothing Princess Consort, but he was just not showing it in front of others. She quickly stood up, no longer crying or making a fuss, and followed them inside.

In the spacious hall, Wushuang sat on the right, and Prince Wei sat on the left.

"Speak, what happened?"

Auntie Shuyu began to speak, from how she had wholeheartedly tried to share the new Princess Consort's burdens, to how the new Princess Consort was wary of her as an old servant and was quite unkind to her, always finding fault with her. Naturally, she also mentioned why she had come today, but in her words, it became that she was afraid the new Princess Consort would be negligent in etiquette and make a joke, damaging the reputation of Prince Wei's mansion.

In any case, in her mouth, one truly witnessed what it meant to be a smooth talker, where a tongue could twist and turn to mean two different things. But if one were to examine it closely, one couldn't really find any obvious flaws, because she spoke very cautiously, never saying anything presumptuous from beginning to end.

As for saying that one should listen to the undertones and observe the attitude?

Since it had come to the point where they needed someone else to judge who was right and who was wrong, the judge would naturally only look at the surface of the words. After all, a single sentence could be understood in different ways by different people, but the surface meaning of the words would not be wrong.

For a moment, Wushuang felt rather disheartened, because everything that came out of auntie Shuyu's mouth was detrimental to her.

Prince Wei looked over, "You..."

Wushuang was already somewhat overwhelmed. She did not know why she was so affected. She knew she should defend herself, but at this moment, her heart was filled with grievance.

Where was Ji Yang? Ji Yang would never question her like this. He would only protect her without reason. Wushuang felt that the reason she couldn't bear it was because this face was looking at her with suspicion. She couldn't stand him looking at her like that...

She broke down, instinctively wanting to hide.

She stood up, turning to run away, but had barely taken a step when she was pulled back.

"Where are you going!" Prince Wei pulled her in front of him, frowning as he looked at her.

"I…"

Her tears came gushing out, but she didn't want to cry, trying hard to keep her eyes wide open to hold them back.

Prince Wei's jaw tightened, and he took out a handkerchief from his sleeve.

"So delicate."

He said, while holding her with one hand, not letting her leave, and using the other to wipe away her tears.

"This Prince hasn't even said a word, and you're already throwing a tantrum at this Prince?"

"I…"

The entire room of people, except for Fusheng, had all knelt down the moment Prince Wei abruptly said, "Where are you going?"

Fusheng glanced at auntie Shuyu kneeling there, a subtle coldness on his face.

What was she talking about? It turned out this old woman had dug a pit here to bully the young Princess Consort!

Don't be fooled by how reasonable and justified auntie Shuyu sounded, as if she were greatly wronged. But where did Fusheng come from? He came from the imperial palace, the ancestral home of scheming, framing, and all sorts of messy household infighting! What tricks hadn't he seen? What honeyed words hadn't he heard?

This tactic really didn't work here. Didn't he see that the moment the other side felt wronged, she was being coaxed?

Everyone in the room had their heads lowered. Even if they heard something, they didn't dare to look up, naturally missing the scene at the head of the room.

Only auntie Shuyu looked over in disbelief.

Wushuang had her back to them, so no one could see her expression, but Prince Wei was facing everyone. He still had his usual expression, dignified, stern, and composed, but he had one arm around the woman's waist, and the other was using a handkerchief to wipe away her tears.

This scene was extremely shocking. It was like seeing someone who you thought would never do such a thing, doing exactly that.

Auntie Shuyu's heart was breaking. She knew very well what this meant.

For a man, when he is willing to dote on a woman, there is no logic to it. Moreover, in the end, she was just a servant. What qualifications did she have to compare with Prince Wei's bed partner, the dignified Princess Consort Wei?

No, she still had Princess Consort Xi.

Yes, she still had Princess Consort Xi!

At this time, Prince Wei had already finished wiping Wushuang's tears, but he still held her, not letting her leave.

He cast his gaze down, focusing on auntie Shuyu.

Auntie Shuyu wanted to remain calm, wanted to be righteous, but she couldn't control her trembling body, "After the successor consort entered the door, according to etiquette, she should have gone to pay respects to the spirit tablet of the late consort. This old servant was only upholding the interests of Princess Consort Xi... This old servant was only upholding the interests of Princess Consort Xi, please Your Highness, discern!"

Prince Wei's face showed hesitation, and he turned the thumb ring on his thumb with one hand.

During this, he felt the waist beneath his hand tense. He glanced at Wushuang before turning his gaze back to auntie Shuyu.

"Prince Wei's mansion has only one Princess Consort."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone in the room couldn't help but raise their heads for a glance, but after just one glance, they lowered their heads again. Only Fusheng revealed a thoughtful expression.

Auntie Shuyu looked at Prince Wei in disbelief, her face distraught. "Your Highness, you must know that Princess Consort Xi is your original wife, your first wife. How can you be so heartless for the sake of a woman..."