CHAPTER 561: CHAPTER 560: HER HEART GREW CROOKED, SKEWED AS A MATTER OF COURSE

"Let’s go." Yan Wanqing stood up.

Cong Ge: "?" She hadn’t reacted yet.

Yan Wanqing yanked Cong Ge to her feet: "We’re short on time." She wasn’t sure when Su Bai would take control of her body; while she was still sane, she had to quickly regain the advantage for her people.

Liao Cuihua had just finished her medicine for typhoid fever and was feeling groggy as she closed her eyes briefly.

Suddenly, the bedding on her body was ferociously flung off.

She opened her eyes to see Yan Wanqing staring at her.

She screamed out in terror: "You scared the life out of me!"

"Shh." Yan Wanqing instantly seized her chin, silencing the noise in her palm.

She leaned in close to Liao Cuihua, lowering her voice: "For someone who’s ill, you sure can scream with a strong voice; quite the robust constitution."

Liao Cuihua’s eyes were filled with terror; she glanced at Yan Wanqing, then at Cong Ge standing behind her, her gaze frantically shifting: "Wuu wuu wuu!"

"I can let go, just don’t shout," Yan Wanqing instructed.

Yet the moment she released her hand, Liao Cuihua began screaming recklessly towards the outside: "Help, murder!"

The next second, her chin was dislocated by Yan Wanqing.

Drool dripped uncontrollably from her mouth.

Liao Cuihua was in so much pain that her head spun, and as she held her chin, her eyes bore into Yan Wanqing with venom.

She didn’t understand what this madwoman was doing in front of her!

The day before, she had been thrown into cold water and caught a chill, and now here was Yan Wanqing turning up at her dwelling to provoke trouble on purpose.

"I told you not to shout, you really don’t listen." Yan Wanqing crossed her legs and sat down beside the bed, reaching toward Liao Cuihua who flinched away, displaying some impatience: "Hm?"

Fearing what Yan Wanqing might do to her, Liao Cuihua held her chin with both hands, only to hear a grating "crunch" as she managed to pop her own dislocated jaw back into place.

Seeing this, Yan Wanqing raised her eyebrows slightly.

"The Empress punished me yesterday, so what brings Her Majesty to see me today?" Liao Cuihua eyed her warily.

The questioned woman, eyes brimming with interest, raised her hand and curled a finger in the air.

Cong Ge shuffled forward on her injured foot.

"I won’t beat around the bush, how did Cong Ge’s foot become lame."

Liao Cuihua’s gaze shifted evasively: "How this maid’s foot became lame, she knows best herself, why would Your Majesty ask a servant like me."

"Liao Cuihua, you’ve been throwing your weight around the palace with your son for three years, acting high and mighty," Cong Ge sneered from the side: "You’ve targeted me repeatedly just because I was once the Empress’s personal maid! My foot was clearly your doing!"

Liao Cuihua was drenched in cold sweat.

Yet she managed to stay composed: "Cong Ge, what nonsense you speak. As soon as the Empress returns, you’re making false accusations and stirring up trouble. You fell from a tree and became lame; it has nothing to do with a servant like me. Your Majesty, you must not believe her words, oh. Ever since you left, this girl has been deranged, even attempting to assassinate His Majesty. In the end, His Majesty spared her life out of consideration for her years of service to you."

Both parties stood their ground.

Yan Wanqing wasn’t interested in listening.

Her heart was crooked, naturally biased.

"You know why you climbed that tree, I really didn’t expect that, back then, out of pity for you, I gave you and your son a chance at life, yet you repaid kindness with malice. How your son came to be Crown Prince, your conscience is clear. Don’t tell me you truly believe that just because he’s been the Crown Prince for three years, he also took the Xiao surname?" Yan Wanqing gripped Liao Cuihua’s hand, her tone menacing: "Tell me, was it you! If you don’t speak up, I’ll send you to the underworld right now!"

She had no intention of merely threatening; her grip tightened, her gaze as piercing as her murderous intent.

This was killing intent honed from tens of thousands of battles.

Surely not something Liao Cuihua, a woman steeped in the palace’s conspiracies, could withstand.

She was immediately drenched in sweat, trembling all over.

But stubbornly, she still insisted.

"No, not me! She fell herself; it has nothing to do with me!"

Seeing her still insisting, Yan Wanqing’s eyes flashed with a hint of dark light.

After what she had just gone through, anyone else would have confessed by now.

But from the moment Liao Cuihua had reset her own dislocated jaw to her insisting on her innocence, these actions didn’t seem like something an ordinary woman could endure.

She was about to say something more.

When a cold and stern voice came from behind her.

"Yan Wanqing, don’t you dare hurt anyone!"

The voice was young.

Yan Wanqing turned around, only to see a face she did not recognize.

She was sure she had never seen him before.

To address her by name with such clamor upon their first meeting,

she wasn’t sure whether to praise his courage or to think he had a death wish.

As soon as Liao Cuihua saw the man, she broke into tears and wailed, "Think Tank, please save me, save your servant!"

Her hand was still caught in Yan Wanqing’s grip, unable to move; all she could do was cry out for help from the man.

Cong Ge whispered to her mistress at this moment, "Miss, this is His Majesty’s Think Tank, Mr. Ming Quan."

Ming Quan’s name, she remembered Su Bai had mentioned him before.

They had clashed several times, barely equal in their confrontations.

The war between Dawei and Chu Kingdom had broken out frequently, and many times it was this Ming Quan who took command in the military.

At this moment, Ming Quan, dressed in white, weary from the journey, took three steps in two and approached, shouting at Yan Wanqing, "Release her at once! Do you really intend to take her life?"

Yan Wanqing kept her grip, looking very composed as she stared at Ming Quan.

"By what right do you speak to me?"

"To me?" Ming Quan sneered at her self-proclamation, "A woman who abandoned her husband and child for three years, what right does she have to be the Empress of Dawei."

Indeed, he had the audacity.

Yan Wanqing slightly raised her eyebrows, "Nicely said." She curved her lips, raised Liao Cuihua’s hand in the air, and with a smile deepening on her lips, the next second there was a sickening crack, and the hand dropped limply down.

At the same time, Liao Cuihua’s pitiful screams echoed through the entire tent.

"Yan Wanqing, you—"

Ming Quan flew into a rage.

Cong Ge immediately stepped forward to shield her mistress, her face frosty, "Think Tank, it’s insubordinate to call our mistress by her name directly. If His Majesty finds out, I’m afraid he will distance himself from you."

Ming Quan’s expression turned grim, "His Majesty hates her more than enough, how could he distance himself from me! You and your mistress are truly birds of a feather, scheming together!"

"Think Tank Ming Quan has a silver tongue and insults well," Yan Wanqing slowly rose from the couch; she was tall, not much shorter than Ming Quan.

When she suddenly stood upright, Ming Quan couldn’t help but feel as if a weathered cold sword stood before him, making him involuntarily take a large step back.

"Even if Dawei doesn’t acknowledge me as the Empress, so what? A hand I, Yan Wanqing, wish to break, who can stop me?" She cast her gaze up and down Ming Quan, the contempt in her eyes speaking volumes.

"Liao Cuihua caused my Cong Ge to be lame in one foot, taking one of her hands in return is perfectly fair."

"If she objects, she can go and complain to Xiao Pingfeng, let him come twist my hand off if he can." With that, she deepened her smile, "I’ll be waiting."

After speaking, she patted Cong Ge’s shoulder, "Let’s go, back to our own tent."

Even if Xiao Pingfeng really wanted to take revenge for Liao Cuihua, she wasn’t going to surrender without a fight.

If it came down to it, a fight it would be!

Once the battle started, she would turn Dawei’s camp upside down; who would she fear then!