Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Propping my chin on my hand, I cast a faint sidelong glance at him and slowly asked,

“She was an outsider. How did she get into my study?”

The moment the words left my mouth, Pei Pingjin’s face went pale.

The steward shrank in on himself even more and begged in a panic,

“The study is an important place. Naturally, outsiders are not allowed to enter at will. But she… she was holding the Prince Consort’s token!”

I met Pei Pingjin’s eyes.

“I granted you the convenience of entering and leaving the Princess’s Residence, and it became her license to throw her weight around?”

Pei Pingjin stared deeply at me, a cold, sinister edge sharpening between his brows.

“All because of one jade token, you, the great Grand Princess, were petty enough to take her life.”

“Everyone here bears witness today. I, Pei Pingjin, will see justice done for my cousin.”

He lifted Lu Qingshuang’s already cold body and had just begun to straighten up.

I let out a soft, mocking laugh.

Ling Yun’s great saber came down hard on Pei Pingjin’s shoulder, forcing him back to his knees.

Pei Pingjin flew into a complete rage.

His eyes bloodshot, he roared at me viciously,

“What more do you want? You won’t even spare my cousin’s remains?”

Everyone was silent as cicadas in winter, not daring to breathe too loudly.

They were all old hands in the capital. Surely they still remembered that the last person who dared act so arrogantly before me had been my imperial brother, Crown Prince Zhaoxu.

I had cut off his head and hung it on the palace wall.

They were all waiting to see what would become of Pei Pingjin.

But I had promised someone that from now on, I would be a reasonable person.

So I merely lifted my eyes at Ling Yun.

She immediately set her blade against the old steward’s neck.

“Even the Prince Consort may not enter Her Highness’s study at will. Have you forgotten the rules of the Princess’s Residence?”

The old steward bowed his head very low.

“She was holding the Prince Consort’s jade token and used her pregnancy to threaten this old servant. She only asked to rest for a short while in the side courtyard.”

“Who could have known she would climb over the wall and enter Her Highness’s study! I beg Your Highness to forgive me!”

As soon as he finished speaking, I gave Ling Yun a look, and she swung her saber.

A flash of cold light-then the old steward’s neck was severed in a single stroke, his head rolling to Pei Pingjin’s feet.

A servant who betrays once is of no use a hundred times over.

I looked down at the shock and terror on Pei Pingjin’s face and said, enunciating each word,

“What my study holds is not merely a few portraits. It also contains Great Yong’s defense deployment maps, rewards bestowed by the Late Emperor, and the Imperial Iron Certificate.”

With every item I named, Pei Pingjin’s face turned a shade paler, until at last there was no blood in it at all.

Only then did I smile and raise my voice.

“Lu Qingshuang infiltrated my study, stole Great Yong’s military secrets, took the Imperial Iron Certificate, then burned the study in an attempt to destroy the evidence. Her actions were malicious and tantamount to treason. I executed her on the spot. What fault is there in that?”

“Enough!”