Revenge
Zhu Kongshan did not know exactly what sort of person sent the letter, whether they were friends or foes, but she trusted that the contents of the letter were true. There was no reason. It was just based on her intuition and the understanding that she had gained of the eighth prince over the past few months.
She crumpled the letter into a ball and made a decision. Calling her personal maidservant, Xiao Yu, back inside, she cautiously asked: “I am going back to the capital tonight. Do you dare come with me?”
Xiao Yu was stunned then asked: “Is what young miss saying true? Concubine mother Liu has not been buried yet. Isn’t it a bit too rushed for us to leave right now? Didn’t you come back for the sole reason of sending off concubine mother Liu?”
“There’s no need to send her off.” Zhu Kongshan’s heart became cold, “As a birth mother, she never made any considerations for me while she was alive. Thinking about it, she won’t need me as a daughter to send her off. Having the Zhu family and the Liu family is enough. Missing one won’t matter too much. Also, the head madam and father want to marry me off. How can I just sit back and let them do as they please.”
When Xiao Yu heard this, she sighed that her young miss’s life really was not good. To end up with this sort of a birth mother, this sort of father, and this sort of head madam, she would only suffer hardships if she stayed in the Zhu family. Thus she nodded: “Xiao Yu will listen to young miss. If young miss wants to go somewhere, Xiao Yu will go with you, but what about the eldest young miss’s two servants? Will we be bringing them?”
Zhu Kongshan shook her head: “There’s no need to tell them. I figure that even if we told them to come with us back to the capital, they will not want to go. This matter must be kept secret. We must not allow anyone to find out. Once it is found out, we won’t be able to leave.” She looked at Xiao Yu and felt that with the many years of feelings of being master and servant, this girl should not sell her out. But there was always a chance, as this Zhu manor had too many people who were untrustworthy. After a bit of thought, she said some threatening things: “Xiao Yu, you need to understand that bringing you along to the capital is also for your sake. If we don’t leave, I will need to get married in accordance with the head madam’s arrangements. As for you, since you are my personal maidservant, you will definitely need to go with me. Think about it, the person that they chose will definitely not be reliable. Once I get married, who knows what sort of things we will need to endure. If things don’t go well for me, how can things be any better for you?”
Upon hearing this, Xiao Yu kneeled and quickly expressed her thoughts: “Xiao Yu has taken care of young miss since childhood. In this manor, young miss is the only person dear to this servant. Wherever you go, Xiao Yu will also go. I will never betray young miss in this lifetime.”
Zhu Kongshan nodded her head in satisfaction and did not say anything else. She just went out and provided the Sheng Palace’s maidservant with an explanation. That maidservant was a bit puzzled as to why she was in such a rush to leave, and Zhu Kongshan used the eighth prince to pressure her: “Cousin said for me to come back and take a look then quickly return. This Zhu manor must not trip me up. These were the words that cousin said.”
The maidservant heard these words and did not continue to ask. After all, right before coming, the eighth prince had advised her that she must bring Zhu Kongshan back to the capital. There were still many things that required Zhu Kongshan to do. He had finally managed to obtain such a good helper. No matter what, he had to completely exhaust her usefulness before discarding her. She complied with Zhu Kongshan’s orders and sneakily left the manor to make preparations for setting out at night.
With this servant’s help, Zhu Kongshan’s escape was very successful. Without the Zhu family or the Liu family noticing, they escaped and left Peng Zhou overnight.
At the same time, Wang Chuan left the same night, riding on a fast horse. She chose a short path and quickly returned to the capital.
The next day, when the members of the Zhu family discovered that Zhu Kongshan had fled, they wanted to give chase but could not catch up. The head madam stomped her feet in anger. As for Zhu Kongyue, she connected Zhu Kongshan’s fleeing with the sudden disappearance of her maidservant A-Chuan. A feeling of having been deceived suddenly filled her.
Four days later at night, Wang Chuan reached the capital and successfully entered the Yu Palace. When Huang Quan saw her return, she was very happy and asked her all kinds of things. Neither of the two brought up reporting to Feng Yuheng. It was the middle of the night. Their two masters were either sleeping soundly or in the middle of “messing around.” They only had one head and did not dare to disturb them at a time like this.
Inside the room, Feng Yuheng had already heard the movement in the yard. She pinched Xuan Tianming and suggested: “Wang Chuan has returned. How about… I ask her about the situation in Peng Zhou first?”
Xuan Tianming immediately flipped, “Dear wife, if you want to sleep, sleep properly. Why are you still paying attention to the movements in the yard? Alright, alright, who cares who came back. Let them wait. No matter how urgent the matter is, let’s get our sleep first before talking about it.”
Feng Yuheng could see the wicked smile in his eyes accompanied by a look of warning. She no longer dared to bring up going out to see Wang Chuan.
Zhu Kongshan arrived in the capital two days after Wang Chuan. Although they had also been traveling hastily, even sleeping in the carriage, a carriage could not travel as quickly as a single rider on a single horse. In any case, she also entered the capital. This dawn, in the instant that the capital’s gates were opened, Zhu Kongshan could not clearly say what she felt. It could be said that she breathed a sigh of relief from no longer needing to worry about the Zhu family giving chase from behind, but upon returning to the capital, she would need to face the reality of falling out with the eighth prince. She was both nervous and expectant, but at the same time, she felt an uncontrollable annoyance. If Liu shi had not done anything, how great would things have been? She had worked so hard, and things were looking up; however, all of her previous efforts had gone to waste at such a critical moment. She hated Liu shi; however, she was powerless to change anything. The fault had already occurred, and now she was just a chess piece that could be discarded by the eighth prince at any moment. Since this was the case, why would she have to listen to anyone’s orders?
A sneer appeared on Zhu Kongshan’s face, and it caused Xiao Yu to feel shocked. She felt that her young miss had more considerations since returning from the capital, but she could not figure out what she was thinking. It made her scared and worried. This sort of feeling truly was not good.
Returning to the Sheng Palace, the eighth prince, Xuan Tianmo, had already gone to attend court. Zhu Kongshan did not stay for long in the palace. After getting changed, she went straight to the northern part of the city with the two servants.
During the times that she had been gone, the good deeds continued to be done in the northern part of the city. There were servants from the Sheng Palace who carried on with the work. The madams and young misses from the families of officials would occasionally go over, but the good deeds had been carrying on for such a long time. The noble madams and young misses could not possibly make an appearance every day. When Zhu Kongshan was present, they could at least go through the motions. With her having left the capital, they all left it to their servants to pick up the work.
But now that Zhu Kongshan had returned and stood in the northern part of the city, news of this quickly was quickly spread by the servants of each manor. Within four hours, those madams and young misses who had not shown up for many years charged out; however, the group no longer looked up to her like it did in the past. Instead, they communicated with gazes filled with scrutiny. There was even one who directly asked: “Young miss Zhu, is what happened in the Zhu manor true? Did your mother really have an affair with a housekeeper and was caught by your father?”
Zhu Kongshan felt this question poke at her a sore spot in her heart; however, she could not defeat her. She remembered what her goal for returning to the capital was. She turned her head and said to the maidservant from the Sheng Palace: “Go and check out the old temple. We’ve been away for so long. I wonder if that side requires any repairs. My servant just came from Peng Zhou and is not familiar with this area. Just make the trip for me!”
This servant had been with Zhu Kongshan and had run quite a few errands for her. Without feeling anything about it, she agreed and ran toward the temple. It was only after she had gone quite far that Zhu Kongshan began to react. She said to the madam who had just spoken: “If I haven’t made a mistake, your husband is just a standard sixth rank official in the Ministry of Appointments, right? His Highness the eighth prince once said that the minister in the Ministry of Appointments is a small-minded person. It’s fine to make use of him for small matters, but to plan for bigger things, he is too lacking. In the long run, there is no need to give him a helping hand.”
The madam was stunned and only managed to realize what had just been said after a long period of time. She was saying that the eighth prince disdained her husband for not being good enough? Also, he was not going to help pull them up? Then what was she helping out with these so-called good deeds for?
Another young miss had realized something and asked: “What did your words mean?”
Zhu Kongshan looked at that young miss and thought for a bit before saying: “Daughter of the standard fifth rank official, counseller in the Ministry of Public Works? Hah, really, the eighth prince also said that your father is someone who doesn’t know what’s good for him. He’s always thinking about how he can use the eighth prince’s matter to climb a few ranks; however, he never evaluates his own worth. Even a locust missing half its legs wants to jump up? It really is a joke.”
Everyone was dumbfounded by what they heard. Looking at Zhu Kongshan, they had looks that said: “Has this person been possessed.” Their understanding of Zhu Kongshan was not like this. She was gentle and kind, and her attitude towards everyone was modest and amiable. Even when she had suffered at the hands of Imperial Concubine Li and Princess Yu, she was always very calm. They had never seen her so full of ferocity.
Everyone looked at Zhu Kongshan in a daze. In just the blink of an eye, a look of calmness that from before appeared on her face, as she smiled and said to them: “It’s fine. Regardless of what the eighth prince said, I will treat you the same as I did before. Madams are all elders, while the young misses are good friends. You will not suffer the slightest impact from the eighth prince.” It was as though nothing had happened. It was as though those earlier words had not come from her mouth.
Someone thought about things on a different level and felt that the earlier words were Zhu Kongshan passing along a message from the eighth prince. They were not what Zhu Kongshan herself meant. Zhu Kongshan was still the same as before. The one to change was just the eighth prince.
The people looked around and exchanged some glances. Some of them awkwardly smiled then said: “Many thanks, young miss Zhu for the reminder. It turns out that in the eighth prince’s heart, our families are actually so unbearable.”
Zhu Kongshan waved her hand and explained with a worried expression: “No, no, you must not misunderstand. It’s not that all of your families are being ignored by the eighth prince. There are also some that the eighth prince did not speak about directly. Thinking about it… thinking about it, there are still some chances to be looked upon favorably!”
“This means to say that the eighth prince dislikes seeing most of us.” The people were able to understand, “For the rest of us, it’s just that he did not say it directly, but the meaning is still the same. It’s no wonder our father has followed the eighth prince for so long, yet we have not obtained the slightest benefit. It turns out that the eighth prince did not look upon us favorably. We families of low-rank officials are useless to him.”
“Hah, you’ve really all misunderstood.” Zhu Kongshan continued to explain: “No, that’s not it. I did not say that you were useless. At the very least, you are still of use at the moment. For example, just handing out congee. The eighth prince said long ago that just relying on the Sheng Palace, the expenditures would be too great. With you helping out, it has greatly reduced the burden on the Sheng Palace.”
“We’re of use now? Once we’ve been used, we’ll just be thrown to the side!” The people were able to understand what her words meant. Their faces were all red with anger. The madams even began to lose their temper on the spot: “Hand out what congee? Did you not understand? They’re just using our money to save themselves money. In truth, in their eyes, we are nothing!”