RWNEFE -Chapter 8 Helpless Rage!

After killing the chicken to warn the monkeys, they had a smooth journey all the way to the back gate as she escorted Nanny Li’s family out.

The guards at the gate had not received any order forbidding the Princess Consort from leaving. Seeing her arrive, their faces filled with difficulty.

“Quick, go report to the Prince!”

A guard hurried off.

Shen Lanxi walked up to the gate. “Open the gate!”

The head guard quickly came over to explain, “Princess Consort, please don’t make things difficult for us.”

Shen Lanxi understood the principle that when a wall collapses, everyone pushes it. With a cold face, she said, “I am still the Princess Consort of the Prince of Zhen’nan’s residence. Don’t tell me I no longer even have the right to release servants of the Shen family?”

The head guard glanced at Nanny Li’s family and let out a breath of relief.

As long as the Princess Consort herself wasn’t leaving, that was fine.

“Princess Consort, I’ve already sent someone to ask the Prince. Why don’t we wait for the Prince’s reply before—”
Before he could even finish the word decide, the head guard was shoved backward by Shen Lanxi, stumbling four or five meters away.

His eyes widened in disbelief. He had trained in martial arts since childhood and had tempered himself on the battlefield with the Prince for years—he was already considered amaster. Yet just now, he had been pushed away so easily by a woman who looked weak and delicate?

It must be because he hadn’t been on guard!

Seeing that even their commander didn’t dare confront the Princess Consort, the guards’ backs instantly lost their earlier stiffness.

“Open the gate!” Shen Lanxi barked sternly.

Intimidated by her imposing presence, the guards actually stepped aside. Seeing that they were no longer stopping her, the gatekeeper nervously went to open the door.

“Without the Prince’s order, I want to see who dares to move!” Bai Qingling arrived in a rush, bringing people with her.

Shen Lanxi’s gaze turned icy. “Since when does a lowly kept woman get to issue orders in the Prince’s residence?”

Seeing Shen Lanxi’s extraordinary bearing made Bai Qingling burn with anger. So what if she looked like a phoenix? From now on, she would be a fallen phoenix, worse than a chicken.

A daughter of a disgraced family still dared to put on airs as the Princess Consort in the Prince’s residence. Once the Prince returned, he would surely depose this woman.

Thinking of how she had actually knelt to a criminal’s daughter that morning, Bai Qingling was so furious she nearly spat blood. If the news had arrived just a little earlier, she wouldn’t have had to suffer such humiliation!

It was all Shen Lanxi’s fault. Just wait and see—there would no longer be any Princess Lanxi in the Prince of Zhen’nan’s residence. Every humiliation Shen Lanxi had inflicted on her, she would return one by one!

Bai Qingling wore an arrogant expression, not taking Shen Lanxi seriously at all, her gaze full of contempt.

“Before entering the palace, the Prince handed all affairs of the residence over to me. I only know that within the Prince of Zhen’nan’s residence, everyone must obey the Prince!”

What kept woman? She was not a kept woman! But Shen Lanxi, that vicious woman, would certainly become a discarded wife.

“How ridiculous. What status do you have to dare speak to this Princess Consort like that? Even the Prince doesn’t dare be so presumptuous before me. What kind of thing are you?”

Bai Qingling pulled a long face, forcing down her anger. Her eyes shifted, and suddenly she broke into a smug smile.

“You probably don’t know yet—last night the Shen family was raided overnight. All members of your Shen family have now been thrown into the Heavenly Prison to await trial!” Wasn’t she just relying on her family background to act arrogant? Now that the Shen family was gone, what capital did she have left to be arrogant?

Shen Lanxi replied mockingly, “Even if the Shen family is gone, I am still Princess Lanxi personally conferred by His Majesty, the most beloved junior of the Empress Dowager, and the Princess Consort of the Prince of Zhen’nan by imperial decree. It’s not your place, a mere servant, to act so insolently before me!”

As soon as her words fell, she struck like lightning.

Smack!

One slap sent Bai Qingling’s face twisting to the side. Her body staggered backward several steps, only managing to stand steady with the support of the nannies behind her.

Bai Qingling’s eyes filled with disbelief and humiliation. Shen Lanxi still couldn’t see her own situation clearly and actually dared to hit her?

A cold chuckle sounded.

“That slap of mine—didn’t knock your child out, did it?”

Bai Qingling’s expression changed instantly, her hand unconsciously covering her belly.

“This move of mine I learned from Consort Shu. Back then, one slap from Consort Shu knocked out Noble Consort Lan’s three-month-old fetus. My imperial-uncle values imperial heirs dearly, so he directly demoted Consort Shu to Shu Guiren—and to this day, she has never regained her rank.”

Consort Shu was Zhou Ruyuan’s mother. By custom, if she had still held the rank of Consort, Zhou Ruyuan could have requested to bring her out when he married—but unfortunately, she was now only Shu Guiren.

By saying this, Shen Lanxi was reminding Bai Qingling that no matter how great Zhou Ruyuan’s military merits were, they could not offset his mother’s crime, and also reminding her how important imperial heirs were to the Emperor!

Clearly, Bai Qingling understood as well—her face turned pale with fear.

“If you have no child, then you’re deceiving the Emperor. If you do have a child, once it’s born, your fate will be death by imperial decree!”

Only then did Bai Qingling realize she had underestimated Shen Lanxi.

“No wonder Ruyuan says women of the inner quarters only know how to scheme. What he hates most is a woman like you, who only knows how to play conspiracies within the household!”

Shen Lanxi said, “Someone, go to the palace and invite an imperial physician to examine the kept woman. If the physician finds her status filthy and refuses to come, say that Princess Lanxi invited him!”

“You dare!”

“What wouldn’t I dare? You keep talking about women of the inner quarters—aren’t you a woman yourself?”

Bai Qingling fumed, “Why wouldn’t I be a woman? I’m not a scheming woman like you!”

Shen Lanxi scolded sharply, “Since you know you’re a woman, you should also know propriety, righteousness, integrity, and shame. Yet now you attach yourself to Zhou Ruyuan without name or status, committing adultery and even becoming pregnant—what right do you have to slander women of the inner quarters? A woman like you, who knows nothing of propriety or shame, I’d feel my hand dirty just by hitting you!”

Bai Qingling felt every gaze in the courtyard focus on her. She felt utterly disgraced, her eyes turning red as she glared at Shen Lanxi.

Shen Lanxi, just you wait. Just you wait. I won’t let you off!

“Hmph, shameless thing. If I were you, I’d have long crawled into a rat hole, too ashamed to face anyone. Yet here you are, swaggering about the Prince’s residence playing the hero. Only that blind dog Zhou Ruyuan would treat you like a human being!”

After saying this, Shen Lanxi turned and walked toward the gate.

She personally opened the gate—let’s see who dared to stop her!

And in the end, no one dared.

Watching Nanny Li’s family of six leave, Shen Lanxi turned back and bolted the gate shut.

Bai Qingling glared at Shen Lanxi with eyes that looked ready to devour her.

“What a pity—Zhou Ruyuan went to the palace and can’t see that helplessly enraged face of yours!”

Bai Qingling gritted her teeth and said viciously, “Shen Lanxi, we could have coexisted peacefully. Unfortunately, you had to ruin everything.”

“What? You still want to hit me?” Shen Lanxi sneered.

“You’re a woman, yet you look down on women of the inner quarters at every turn. Did you crawl out of a crack in a rock? I wonder if your mother, grandmother, maternal grandmother, and all the women in your family would be so furious at your contempt for women that they’d sever all ties with you!”

“Oh right— the Empress Dowager, the Empress, and all the consorts in the harem are women too. You trample on women, and that includes them as well. I wonder what they would think if they heard this?”