RWNEFE -Chapter 586 Wu Tingtan Is Dead!

“Nanny Liang, teach her some manners!”

One matron stepped forward, twisting Shen Yuanhe’s arms behind her back and pinning her to the ground with a foot on her back. Another matron came up and, without a word, began slapping her.

The two worked in perfect coordination, clearly well-trained—people accustomed to carrying out punishments.

Shen Yuanhe had not even reacted before she had already been slapped five or six times.

“Father, save me…”

“Father…”

Shen Congwen had not expected Zhou Xinrou to act so suddenly. His heart trembled uncontrollably.

All these years, Zhou Xinrou had given him the impression that she ignored worldly matters and devoted herself to Buddhist practice. Even so, with both the Empress Dowager and the Emperor backing her, he had always treated her with respect.

He had never imagined that someone who spent her days chanting sutras could order blood to be drawn with a single sentence.

“Princess Consort…” Shen Congwen spoke, his confidence faltering.

The feeling was all too familiar—from the day the princess had chosen to marry him until now. Only after his daughter ascended the throne and officials began treating him with deference had he briefly forgotten it.

“Since you asked me here, it is for me to handle the family’s affairs,” Zhou Xinrou said coldly.

Shen Congwen hesitated, looking troubled, but said nothing more.

Shen Yuanhe was truly frightened now. She realized she had been wrong.

No matter how detached from worldly affairs the princess consort seemed, she was not someone to be looked down upon.

“Mother, Yuanhe was wrong.”

“Mother, I know I was wrong!”

“Please forgive me this time, Mother!”

The two matrons, clearly from the palace, had faces as cold and hard as stone. They struck as if they were beating someone insignificant. Even as they moved, not a strand of hair fell out of place, and their sleeves barely stirred.

After twenty or thirty slaps, Zhou Xinrou finally spoke.

Shen Yuanhe’s cheeks were swollen, her face streaked with tears and mucus.

This was a method used in the palace to punish maids—injuring the skin but not the bones. It broke pride without impairing one’s ability to work.

“That’s enough. In this state, you can at least give those people outside an explanation,” Zhou Xinrou said mercilessly.

Only now did Shen Yuanhe truly understand fear. Thrown to the ground like a dead dog by the matrons, she quickly crawled up and knelt carefully, no longer daring to resist in the slightest.

Shen Congwen sighed. “Why aren’t you thanking your mother for her instruction?”

“Thank you, Mother, for your instruction!” Shen Yuanhe hurriedly said.

Zhou Xinrou sat expressionless, as if she were still the same princess consort who fasted, chanted, and cared about nothing.

---

“Your Majesty, news has arrived from Jinmen.”

Shen Lanxi took the secret report, read it, let out a soft laugh, and burned it.

“Your Majesty, is there good news from Jinmen?” Liu Yanhui asked curiously.

“The strategist has persuaded Liu Binglin to submit to Great Zhou,” Shen Lanxi replied.

Liu Yanhui’s face brightened.

“With Liu Binglin cooperating with us from the inside and outside, the recapture of Jinmen should proceed much faster.”

Shen Lanxi only smiled without answering; she had other plans in mind.

An Imperial Guard arrived with another report—the guard she had sent to keep watch on the Shen family.

“Your Majesty, several daughters of the Shen family have been clamoring for divorces. All have succeeded except Shen Yuanhe. Her husband’s family came to the gates to make trouble.”

Shen Lanxi frowned in displeasure. “Did anyone from the Shen family step forward to handle it?”

“They invited Master Shen and the Princess Consort.”

“How was it resolved?”

“The Princess Consort ordered a matron to slap Shen Yuanhe. Shen Yuanhe is now negotiating with her husband’s family.”

Shen Lanxi nodded.

“As long as it doesn’t reach the palace gates, leave it alone.”

“Yes.”

Liu Yanhui frowned. Why did the Shen family repeatedly drag His Majesty down?

“Your Majesty, Wu Yanzhi has been using his position overseeing the Express Reports for personal gain. He used an editorial post to exchange for a clerk’s position in the Ministry of Personnel for his son.”

Shen Lanxi said, “Wu Yanzhi didn’t climb to his current position merely by flattery.”

Liu Yanhui sighed. “Unfortunately, his family has no worthy successors.”

Shen Lanxi thought for a moment. “If I remember correctly, his family and Liu Mingxin’s are related by marriage?”

Liu Yanhui’s eyes flickered.

“A family like that is nothing but a burden to the Liu clan. Such in-laws are better discarded.”

Liu Yanhui understood.

---

Two days later, Wu Tingtan was killed at home when a roof tile fell and struck her on the head.

Wu Tingtan had already married into the Liu family, so her death concerned both the Wu and Liu families.

Members of both families waited along the route where officials exited the palace, and as soon as the two men left court, servants rushed forward in panic.

“Master, something terrible has happened to the young lady!”

“Master, something terrible has happened to the young mistress!”

Wu Yanzhi and Liu Mingxin hurried to the Liu residence at once.

Previously, when Shen Lanxi had introduced taxes on taking concubines and on dividing households, many families had used the opportunity to separate their households. The Liu family, however, had few descendants, and Liu Mingxin’s wife had suppressed any talk of division.

Now Wu Tingtan had died in her own home—killed by a falling roof tile. It was a bizarre death.

Although Wu Yanzhi had long since remarried, he was still very fond of this daughter. When he arrived and saw her body covered with a white cloth, tears immediately streamed down his face.

“How could my daughter be killed by a falling tile?”

“Who was present at the time?”

“Where exactly did it happen?”

“If the Liu family cannot give me an explanation today, don’t blame me, Wu Yanzhi, for turning ruthless!”

After confirming his daughter’s death, Wu Yanzhi began making a scene on the spot.

Liu Mingxin felt his head buzzing and immediately summoned the household steward.

“What exactly happened? Explain everything clearly in front of the Prime Minister. If you conceal anything, you will not be spared.”

A flicker of panic crossed the steward’s eyes before he hurriedly replied, “Master, I don’t know either. When I heard the maids shouting and went to look, the young mistress had already stopped breathing.”

“I have questioned the maids. At the time, neither was beside the young mistress—one had gone to fetch tea, the other refreshments. In the blink of an eye, this tragedy occurred.”

Wu Yanzhi immediately seized on a key point.

“Then how are you so certain my daughter was killed by a falling tile?”

The steward quickly answered, “At the place where the young mistress collapsed, there was a fragment of broken tile stained with blood. Combined with the wound on her head, the servants all assumed she had been struck by a falling tile.”

Unconvinced, Wu Yanzhi demanded to be taken to the scene.

After inspecting it, suspicion immediately arose in his mind.

The wall there was only about two meters high. Even if the tile had fallen from the nearby pavilion—which itself was only four or five meters high—it might have caused injury, but it should not have been fatal.

“Do not move my daughter’s body,” Wu Yanzhi ordered. “And do not touch the place where the tile fell. Whoever disturbs it will be destroying evidence—and will be the murderer of my daughter.”

Liu Mingxin’s expression darkened.

“Prime Minister, your daughter was also my daughter-in-law. We are all deeply grieved by her death.”

“But the way you speak is improper.”

“Your daughter’s death was an accident. Yet from your tone, it sounds as though our Liu family killed her.”

At court, Wu Yanzhi and Liu Mingxin had never been on good terms. If not for the late emperor’s arranged marriage, their families would never have become in-laws.

“Whether it was or not,” Wu Yanzhi said coldly, “cannot be determined until the Court of Judicial Review and the Ministry of Justice conduct an examination.”