Just a Wet Nurse, Just a Plaything? Everyone Wept After My Death - Chapter 81
Chapter 81
The Deputy Director of the Imperial Academy of Medicine truly lived up to his reputation. After only a few doses of medicine, Xiao Ze’s high fever subsided, and he became much more lucid.
Although the Northern Compound remained as desolate as ever, the Emperor had publicly sent an imperial physician there that day. The palace’s snobbish servants reined themselves in somewhat, and even the charcoal and food delivered by the Imperial Household Department were a little better than before.
However, this brief peace did not last long.
Within the depths of the imperial palace, favor was both honey and arsenic. A lowly wet nurse had managed to stop the imperial procession and even persuade the Emperor to make an exception and show mercy. The news seemed to grow wings, spreading throughout the entire harem overnight.
That afternoon, the snowstorm finally cleared.
Shen Yingyue was holding a bowl of medicine, preparing to feed it to Xiao Ze.
“Bang!”
The partially closed doors were violently shoved open.
A heavy cloud of perfume and face powder wafted inside. A group of brightly dressed palace attendants swept in, surrounding a beautiful young woman clad in peach-red brocade palace robes.
She appeared to be eighteen or nineteen. Though her features were pretty, there was no concealing the arrogance and spite in her eyes.
“Which one of you is the wretched maid who stopped the imperial procession?”
As soon as she entered, the young woman covered her nose and mouth with a handkerchief in disgust, her knife-like gaze sweeping across the hall.
A young eunuch beside her immediately pointed at Shen Yingyue. “Noble Lady Li, that’s her! The new Wet Nurse Shen!”
Shen Yingyue’s heart sank.
Noble Lady Li. First Attendant Su had mentioned her before. She was a newly favored My Lady who relied on her looks and family background to act imperiously. She was also notoriously jealous.
“Greetings, Noble Lady Li.”
Shen Yingyue set down the bowl of medicine and obediently knelt in greeting. She knew her status was lowly. At such a critical juncture, she could not give the other woman any excuse to punish her.
Noble Lady Li approached with slow, graceful steps and looked Shen Yingyue over from above.
Shen Yingyue wore a coarse palace uniform of the lowest grade, with no ornaments in her hair and no powder on her face. Even so, her kneeling figure was as slender and graceful as a willow swaying in the breeze. Her unadorned face was fair and delicate, and there was something indescribably vulnerable and touching about her lowered eyes even when she was not looking at anyone.
Jealousy instantly blazed in Noble Lady Li’s eyes.
So she was a little temptress!
No wonder she had managed to make the Emperor halt his imperial palanquin. No wonder she had made the Emperor spare her a second glance!
“Raise your head,” Noble Lady Li ordered coldly.
Shen Yingyue did as she was told.
“Slap!”
The instant she raised her head, Noble Lady Li lifted her hand and struck her hard across the face without warning.
The slap carried all her strength. Shen Yingyue’s head snapped to one side, and half her face immediately burned with pain. A thin trickle of blood seeped from the corner of her mouth.
“Wretched maid!” Noble Lady Li cursed viciously. “You have the face of a shameless seductress, yet instead of serving the prince properly, you dared to parade yourself before the Emperor?
“Did you think that just because the Emperor looked at you once, you could soar onto a high branch and become a phoenix? Dream on!”
Shen Yingyue held her cheek and offered no defense. She merely straightened herself on her knees, lowered her head, and said, “I would never dare. I stopped the imperial procession that day only because the Ninth Prince was gravely ill and I was desperate to save him. I harbored no improper intentions whatsoever.”
“You dare talk back?!”
Noble Lady Li hated women like her most of all: outwardly meek, yet stubborn underneath. She sneered and shot a meaningful glance at the disciplinary matron behind her.
“This wretched maid has no respect for rank and speaks nothing but lies. Slap her!”
“Beat that seductive face of hers until it swells! Let’s see how she tries to seduce the Emperor after that!”
“Yes, my lady!”
Two burly palace matrons immediately stepped forward and pinned Shen Yingyue down from either side.
“Stop… Cough, cough…”
The commotion startled Xiao Ze awake. The moment he saw what was happening, he anxiously tried to climb out of bed, only to collapse onto the footstool in his weakened state.
“Don’t hit her… Get out… All of you…”
“Your Highness!”
Shen Yingyue’s heart lurched. She tried to go help him, but the matrons held her firmly in place.
Noble Lady Li glanced at the sickly prince on the floor, a flicker of disgust passing through her eyes. She did not take him seriously at all.
“If the Ninth Prince is delirious from illness, then he should rest. I am merely helping Your Highness discipline an unruly servant!”
With that, she waved a hand. “Hit her!”
Smack!
A heavy palm struck Shen Yingyue hard across the face.
Smack!
Once.
Twice.
The sharp cracks of the slaps echoed through the cavernous hall.
Shen Yingyue gritted her teeth and did not make a sound.
She neither begged for mercy nor cried out. She knew that with someone like Noble Lady Li, her tears would only excite her further, and pleading would only encourage her to act with even greater impunity.
In the depths of the imperial palace, the weak had no dignity.
All she could do was endure.
She swallowed the humiliation along with the metallic taste of blood in her mouth.
She had no idea how many times she was struck. It was only when both her cheeks were grotesquely swollen and the corners of her mouth were smeared with blood that Noble Lady Li finally felt satisfied.
“Enough.”
Gazing at that swollen, crimson face, its former beauty now completely obscured, Noble Lady Li smiled in satisfaction.
“Remember this. This is what happens when you try to seduce the Emperor.
Do your duty and keep your head down from now on. If I hear so much as another rumor about you, it won’t be just your face next time.”
With that, she swept out with her grand entourage of palace servants, departing with the same pomp with which she had arrived.
Deathly silence returned to the hall.
Shen Yingyue knelt on the floor, trembling faintly.
“Nurse…”
Xiao Ze crawled over in tears. He cupped Shen Yingyue’s face in his small, frail hands as tears streamed down his cheeks.
“Does it hurt? This is all my fault… I’m a useless prince. I couldn’t protect you…”
Shen Yingyue slowly raised her head.
She looked at the weeping child before her and forced a strained, crooked smile through the searing pain in her face.
“It doesn’t hurt.”
She reached out and gently wiped the tears from Xiao Ze’s face. Though her words were slurred, her voice carried a resolve unlike anything before.
“Don’t cry, Your Highness.
I will remember every one of those twenty slaps.
One day, I will make them pay back every last one… twice over.”
She struggled to her feet and walked over to the bronze mirror.
The lovely, gentle woman she had once been was gone. In her place was a hideously swollen, crimson face.
Yet her eyes were brighter and colder than ever before.
Noble Lady Li was right. Her beauty was a treasure that had brought disaster upon its owner.
In this palace, beauty without power to protect it was an unforgivable sin.
Shen Yingyue touched her burning cheek, her gaze gradually turning unfathomable.
If that was how things were…
Then she would fight for power and compete for the Emperor’s favor.
She would make sure no one in this world ever dared slap her face again!
