Xie Jing’s palms were drenched, blood flowed into his eyes, throwing his thoughts into disarray.
He shouted in denial, “No!!”
“Eldest Young Miss Gu!” He gasped a few breaths, then snapped angrily, “Mind your place—this is the Imperial Palace, not the backyard of your Duke Zhenguo’s Manor! You can’t just make wild accusations here!”
At this time, Xie Jing was still a young man yet to step into an imperial court, far from the composed and inscrutable figure he would one day become.
The more he shouted, the more guilty he seemed.
And that guilt was plain for everyone to see.
Sixth Young Master Zhou and the others looked at each other, instinctively retreated as far as they could, and wished they hadn’t heard a thing. If it weren’t for impropriety, they would’ve simply run off.
“Enough.” Ji Nanke lifted her skirts and rushed over, spreading her arms to shield Xie Jing.
“I believe in His Highness the Third Prince!”
“Cousin Zhuo, don’t always be so suspicious and misjudge someone’s good intentions.”
Gu Zhizhuo looked back and forth between the two, then suddenly smiled: “Okay then, I believe.”
Huh?
“Cousin Ke, here—take it. Whether you want to use it or not is up to you.” Gu Zhizhuo handed over the jar. “Just don’t knock it over, or someone will say I’ve got a bad temper and always love to bully you again.”
She smiled maliciously, tilting the medicine jar slightly with her fingers. A drop of ointment slid down the rim, forming a black drop about to fall.
Ji Nanke stared fixedly at that drop of ointment that was about to fall.
Gu Zhizhuo slowly lifted it higher and casually let out two words: “Be careful.”
For a brief moment, Ji Nanke had no doubt that she would pour the entire jar of ointment on her face. Instinctively, she raised both hands to shield her face and leaned her delicate body toward Xie Jing behind her.
Xie Jing was furious: “Have you had enough?! Give it to me!”
He leapt up to snatch it. His outstretched arm struck the jar in Gu Zhizhuo’s hand, and a full jar of black ointment poured down over his head.
“Here you go.”
The ointment slowly trickled down from his forehead and cheeks, as cold as a venomous serpent’s tongue. The horror surged blood to his brain, and a wave of blood rushed straight to his head.
“Aiya!”
Gu Zhizhuo pretentiously patted her chest and raised her voice:
“Your Highness, how careless of you!”
“Fortunately, fortunately, you said yourself it wasn’t poisonous. Otherwise, it would be disastrous.”
Xie Jing looked up in fury only to meet a pair of phoenix eyes full of mockery.
She knows everything! This terrifying thought sent cold sweat trickling down his back. Before he could think further, he heard Gu Zhizhuo’s voice right by his ear—soft and slow, like a devil from hell demanding his life.
“Bone-eating grass, withered vine blackroot, and… blood dragon’s saliva…”
“Used together, it would make wounds difficult to heal, causing skin to tear and flesh to rot!”
“Your Highness, is your face… starting to feel hot?”
Xie Jing’s face felt hot as if pressed with red-hot coals. The searing pain was so unbearable that he wished he could peel off the entire layer of skin.
Gu Zhizhuo’s expression was gloomy and distant: “At first, it will feel burning hot, then it starts to itch—like countless bugs and mosquitoes gnawing at your face, day and night, with not a moment of peace.
She spoke softly, making sure Sixth Young Master Zhou and the others couldn’t hear.
“Then the skin on your face will peel away, revealing raw flesh and white bone.”
“The wound won’t heal. It’ll rot and stink day by day… and insects will circle around you—weng weng weng, weng weng weng…”
Xie Jing’s hair stood on end. His mind was filled with that “weng weng weng.” He screamed, frantically wiping his face with his sleeve. The ointment was sticky like oil, seeping into the wound like countless tiny needles piercing into flesh.
Gu Zhizhuo smiled and asked, “Does it hurt?”
Those two words shattered the last thread of Xie Jing’s rationality. His face twisted with rage as he raised his hand to slap Gu Zhizhuo.
Gu Zhizhuo smiled lightly and leaned back, causing Xie Jing to fall to the ground in a sorry, disheveled state.
Xie Danling pulled Gu Zhizhuo behind her and said dissatisfiedly, “Third Prince Brother, what’s wrong with you? You lost your grip yourself and still threw a tantrum.”
Xie Jing propped himself up with his elbow, gritting his teeth. The bright red blood, mixed with black ointment, mottled half of his face in red and black.
Ji Nanke supported him. Her bright, autumn-water-like eyes[mfn]秋水 (qiū shuǐ) literally means autumn water (trad. description of a girl’s beautiful eyes)[/mfn] were mixed with complex and unspeakable emotions.
She knew how deeply Xie Jing had fallen for her.
However, the Duke Zhenguo’s manor had raised her with kindness, and she had always told herself not to compete with Gu Zhizhuo. As women in this world, they should support each other. Even though Gu Zhizhuo had been arrogant and willful since childhood, she never changed her original intention.
But now, she was a little uncertain.
Xie Jing was such a noble and gentle person. If it weren’t for her, how could he have ended up like this?
She bit her lips, and two lines of tears slid down from the corners of her eyes.
“It’s okay.” Xie Jing’s heart ached as he grabbed her hand. “It’s not your fault!”
Xie Danling sneered contemptuously, clapping her hands as she mocked, “The All-Healing Treasure Ointment is indeed miraculous—look, Third Prince Brother already seems much better.”
“Since he’s fine, let’s disperse.” She lifted her chin: “Yaoyao…” What she meant was that it was time to slip away, or the Empress would arrive soon!
No, no, no—if they just leave like that, all the blame would be dumped on them later! Gu Zhizhuo shot her a look. The medicine was given by Xie Jing, the injury from the fall happened because he was trying to act heroic, and everything that happened afterward was caused by his own doing. It wasn’t enough that only they knew this.
Got it?
Got it!
The tacit understanding they’d built from causing trouble together since childhood allowed them to reach a consensus in just one glance.
Gu Zhizhuo whimpered and leaned onto her shoulder.
Xie Danling put her hands on her hips, pointed at the palace attendants, and shouted, “Why isn’t Empress Mother here yet! Go find her, quickly! My cousin has been wronged—can you afford to take responsibility?”
Who’s really the one being wronged here?! Xie Jing was about to curse, but as soon as he opened his mouth, it tugged on the wounds on his cheeks, causing him so much pain he almost passed out. His whole body swayed unsteadily.
Sixth Young Master Zhou and the others were all scared stiff, not knowing what to do. In the next moment, they suddenly heard a sharp cry of “Her Majesty the Empress has arrived!”, and they were finally relieved. It was good that the Empress had arrived. If anything else happened, they wouldn’t be the ones to blame.
The beautiful woman in a phoenix-embroidered robe strode over quickly, surrounded by a crowd of palace maids and eunuchs, along with more than ten high-ranking consorts from the harem and titled noblewomen. They had originally been on their way to the opera house. But when they passed by the waterside pavilion, a young eunuch rushed over to report that Xie Jing had fallen from the pavilion.
The Empress immediately panicked. She had hurried all the way here, anxious and burning with worry. Now, seeing her son’s face covered in blood, her heart turned icy cold.
“Jing’er!?”
Old Madam Gu was also staring at the young girl in Xie Jing’s arms in shock. She recognized at a glance that she was Ji Nanke from her own manor. Her heart was immediately in turmoil. She tightly grasped her daughter-in-law’s hand.
“Someone tell me what on earth happened here! Where is the imperial physician? Has the imperial physician been summoned yet?!”
The imperial physician had been summoned but hadn’t yet arrived. As for what happened—Sixth Young Master Zhou and the others all silently looked toward Gu Zhizhuo, and the Empress instinctively followed their gaze. Gu Zhizhuo slightly lifted her head from Xie Danling’s shoulder. Her face was covered by a veil, her eyes brimming with tears.
“Your Majesty the Empress!” Gu Zhizhuo cried out pitifully, “The Third Prince put poison in the medicine for my face.”
The surroundings instantly fell into silence.
Gu Zhizhuo squeezed out a few tears, pitifully complaining, “The Third Prince fell from the pavilion, injured himself, and lost a lot of blood. I was afraid he would lose too much blood, so I took out the ointment he gave me for him to use. But he refused to use it, even tried to snatch it by force, and ended up spilling the medicine.”
Her voice was clear and crisp, and in just a few sentences, she made the whole situation “perfectly clear,” especially emphasizing key words like “poison,” “snatch by force,” and “spilling,” which were pronounced with sharp clarity.
“Empress Mother,” Xie Danling quickly nodded in agreement, “Third Prince Brother was injured while trying to save Miss Ji. Everyone here saw it.”
She pointed at Sixth Young Master Zhou and the others: “You speak, isn’t that right?”
Sixth Young Master Zhou instinctively nodded. He nodded twice before realizing what he’d done, and his neck froze stiffly in place.
The Empress’s expression looked as if she had swallowed a fly.
Gu Zhizhuo echoed her seamlessly: “After the ointment spilled onto his face, the Third Prince finally admitted that it was poisoned. I was so scared.”
Scared? I’m the one who should be scared! Xie Jing was practically stunned. How could someone spout such nonsense so brazenly?
The sharp, piercing pain on his face twisted his features into a ferocious grimace. Xie Jing gritted his teeth and said, “Shut up! I didn’t…”
Xie Jing wanted to argue, but Gu Zhizhuo put down her handkerchief in her hand, her eyes red-rimmed: “Your Highness, which word of mine was false? Did I not return the medicine to you, or did you not order Imperial Physician Liu to poison it?” As she spoke, tears streamed down her cheeks.
“I didn’t…”
“A dignified prince, you have the courage to do it but not the courage to admit it!?”
His voice was loud, but hers was even louder.
He spoke fast, but she spoke even faster!
Gu Zhizhuo picked on him because speaking would cause him pain, and she forcibly blocked his every attempt to defend himself. She sobbed and threw herself into the arms of the Consort Shu, tugged her sleeve, and said aggrievedly, “Aunt, after the Third Prince had Imperial Physician Liu apply medicine on my face, it hurt so much. The Third Prince even made me apply it every day. I’m so scared.”
The Consort Shu, being so sharp-witted, immediately grasped the hidden meaning.
“Let Aunt take a look.” Her voice trembled as she lifted Gu Zhizhuo’s veil. After just one glance, her heart broke as she embraced her tightly. “How could this happen!”
“My dear Yaoyao! If your parents’ spirit in heaven knew that you have been bullied like this, they would surely be heartbroken!”
The Imperial Concubine Shu cried with tears like raindrops on pear blossoms[mfn]梨花带雨 (lí huā dài yǔ) is lit. like raindrops on a pear blossom (idiom) / fig. tear-stained face of a beauty / Originally described the posture of Concubine Yang when she was crying / Later used to describe the beauty of women[/mfn] and said angrily, “Your Highness the Third Prince, if you despise that the Duke Zhenguo died in battle for the country and wish to break off the engagement to marry someone else, you could have said so directly. Was it really necessary to be so…” Ruthless and cruel!
The Empress’s face alternated between pale and livid.
Once these words from the Imperial Concubine Shu spread, not only would Jing’er offend those petty-minded military generals, but he would also inevitably earn a reputation for “lusting after beauty,” “lacking moral integrity,” and being “defiant and lawless in conduct.”
Her older brother had asked her older sister-in-law to secretly bring her a message that the Prime Minister had just presented a memorial to establish a crown prince. Her joy hadn’t even reached the tips of her brows before a bucket of cold water had poured down on her head, thoroughly dousing her.
In just a short breath, the Empress made her decision.
This wretched girl was pulling and hugging Jing’er. It could only be her deliberate seduction. It has nothing to do with Jing’er.
Only by getting rid of her could Jing’er be saved.
The Empress made a prompt decision, and burning with rage, she commanded, “This wretched girl dares to blatantly seduce the prince in the palace! Someone, drag her out here!”
Xie Jing panicked. He shouted hoarsely at the top of his lungs, “Empress Mother! It has nothing to do with her!” His cheeks were still bleeding, his eyes blazing with rage, and his face twisted in pain. “It’s Gu Zhizhuo who is making wild accusations. It’s not Miss Ji’s fault!”
The Empress’s breathing became erratic. In front of so many people, Jing’er was still defending this wretched girl; wasn’t that confirming the Imperial Concubine Shu’s accusation!?
Several familiar madams exchanged glances. The Prime Minister’s wife gently smoothed her sleeve.
The fact that the Third Prince had a sweetheart was not a secret in the capital. According to the law, the prince was allowed to take consorts and concubines, and since even the Duke Zhenguo’s manor had never interfered, naturally, no one would meddle in such matters.
However, having a sweetheart was one thing, but wanting to put one’s fiancée to death for the sake of that sweetheart was entirely different.
On the other hand, Eldest Young Miss Gu didn’t appear as foolish and spoiled as the rumor said. Her ability to push the Third Prince into a dead end with just a few words made her look at her with a new perspective.
Xie Jing’s mind was entirely preoccupied with Ji Nanke, and he didn’t notice the gaze of those around him. He was still swearing earnestly, “As long as I’m here, no one will hurt you!”
Gu Zhizhuo slightly lowered her gaze, her eyes filled with tears. She continued to fan the flames: “Aunt, it’s all my fault. My father has already died in the war, and I shouldn’t have continued thinking of myself as a delicate guest in the palace[mfn]宫中娇客 (gōng zhōng jiāo kè) likely refers to someone in the palace who is treated with special favor or attention[/mfn] like I did before.”
She sobbed softly, evoking sympathy.
“I will definitely be more mindful of my boundaries in the future.”
T/N Sorry for the late update. FYI, the author changed the title of her novel again <拿了恶女人设后，她名满天下>
