You expect me to serve your mistress? The mistress is driving this scumbag and his entire family cra

Chapter 166 A Fallen Phoenix Is Worse Than a Chicken
Liang Jiang carefully considered her words. If she denied it, it would make her seem suspicious and distrustful of the emperor, which would be considered presumptuous.

If it were true, it might cause trouble for Gu Xizhi.

"Your Majesty just instructed me. If you don't know how, you can learn. Prince Pingxi has made military achievements before, and his skills are also extraordinary. He should be able to handle the task."

The emperor gave a curt "Oh," his expression unreadable: "My younger brother has gotten used to a life of leisure these past few years. If I were to entrust him with this important task, do you think he would agree?"

"If the country is in trouble, I believe that Your Highness will step forward without hesitation. As for other matters, I dare not speak presumptuously; Your Majesty will need to ask Your Highness."

"My brother has been busy preparing for his wedding these past two days, and he has rarely even come to see me."

Liang Jiang remained silent.

The emperor secretly observed her expression and noticed that she remained silent and seemed quite wary of him.

He chuckled and asked, "Look how scared I am! Why are you sweating? Do you think I'd eat you?"

Liang Jiang hurriedly raised her hand to wipe the sweat, but then suddenly remembered that her hand was not clean, so she hurriedly wiped it with her sleeve.

Fortunately, Eunuch Lin came over with a food box; the shumai was ready.

The emperor then showed mercy and waved her away, saying, "Go down, I have official business to attend to."

Liang Jiang finally breathed a sigh of relief, took the food box from Eunuch Lin, and left the main hall.

As I left the palace, I passed a rockery with a stream flowing gently at its foot. The water was cool and refreshing, and koi carp swam in it.

Liang Jiang was immediately delighted and quickly stepped forward to wash her hands.

As I approached, I heard a loud "slap" from behind the artificial hill, as if someone had been slapped.

Someone snarled, "Is this pomegranate blossom something you're fit to wear? And today you've even put on lip rouge. Oh, I see, you've been waiting here all this time, hoping to seduce the Emperor when he comes out? Still dreaming your pipe dream?"

His voice was high-pitched and thin; he was clearly a eunuch.

The one being reprimanded must have been a young palace maid, dressed in blue, with her hair shaved except for a pomegranate flower stuck in her hair.

It's better to avoid trouble in the palace, so Liangjiang abandoned her plan to wash her hands and prepared to leave with the food box.

The palace maid was overcome with grief and covered her face, sobbing twice: "When I was in my prime, you treated me well, so why do you make things difficult for me now? Even though I'm down on my luck, I'm not so bad that I can't even wear a pomegranate flower."

"You said it yourself, that was back then. Times have changed, and you are no longer the master."

Now that the Emperor has demoted you and punished you by making you sweep the floor, you should know your place, behave yourself, and don't dream of regaining favor one day. Don't you even think about what wrong you've done? Hurry up and wash off the makeup on your face!

The eunuch rudely ripped the pomegranate flower from the palace maid's hair, threw it on the ground, and crushed it into mud with his toe.

Liang Jiang then realized that the woman was not a palace maid, but a concubine who had made a mistake and was being punished in front of the emperor.

It's true what they say: a tiger fallen into the plains is bullied by dogs, and a phoenix in distress is no better than a chicken.

Liang Jiang felt wronged for the woman, but this was in the palace and she was powerless to do anything about it. Even if she stopped the eunuch from making things difficult for her today, wouldn't he just become even worse once she left the palace?
The woman dared not speak out in anger, and squatted by the water, splashing water to wash her face.

The eunuch grew impatient, rolled up his sleeves, grabbed the woman's head, and forced her into the water.

“You’re so slow and hesitant. If I don’t teach you a lesson, you won’t learn your lesson. If Eunuch Lin, who serves the Emperor, sees this, he’ll definitely give me a scolding.”

The woman was half-submerged in the water, and the eunuch roughly grabbed her hair, making it impossible for her to break free.

The woman initially struggled fiercely, but later simply gave up resisting, no matter how the eunuch tormented her, she was like a lump of mud.

Perhaps finding it boring, the eunuch let go and shoved her roughly: "Behave yourself from now on, and don't cause me any trouble."

He turned and left arrogantly. The woman lowered her head, wiped the water from her face fiercely, and muttered to herself with red eyes, "If none of you will give me a way to live, what's the point of me still living?"

As if he had made up his mind, he got up, took a few steps back, and without saying a word, mustered all his strength and pounced on the artificial hill.

She's going to commit suicide!

Realizing she couldn't stand by and watch someone die, Liang Jiang immediately made a decisive move. She used her toe to hook a pebble from the water's edge and kicked it towards the woman's knee.

A pebble struck the woman's knee, causing her to feel a sharp pain and fall to her knees in the shallow water with a "plop".

Liang Jiang emerged from behind the artificial hill and advised, "It's better to live a wretched life than to die a good death. Why let a moment of humiliation make you so upset?"

The woman collapsed into the water, covering her face and sobbing uncontrollably: "My father was at least a fourth-rank official in the imperial court, and I was the pampered eldest daughter of my family."

Now I've fallen so low that even a servant dares to humiliate me! And this has been going on for over two years; I see no hope, no end in sight! I'm not even worthy of wearing a beautiful pomegranate blossom, so what's the point of my life? And why did you even bother to save me?"

Liang Jiang could understand the despair that such a huge gap brought. It's like how someone who is destitute can accept poverty and be full of hope for the future.

But if a wealthy man suddenly loses everything, he might become despondent and even lose the will to live.

A pomegranate flower crushed into mud was probably the last straw that broke the camel's back.

He kindly advised, "Life is unpredictable; fortunes can change in a few years. Only by living can there be hope."

"There is no hope. It is all my own fault. I will be nailed to the pillar of shame for the rest of my life. I, Consort Xin, will never be able to turn my life around. But I was also persecuted by others and had no choice in the matter."

Liang Jiang's heart skipped a beat: "Consort Xin? You are Consort Xin?"

"You recognize me?" The woman looked up and sized her up. "I don't remember ever seeing you before."

There was a very faint pink mark at the corner of her eye, which was almost invisible unless you looked closely.

What a small world!

Liang Jiang had already remembered the woman's identity; she was the concubine who had an ambiguous relationship with Gu Xizhi when she broke into the palace two years ago!

That mark was left by myself using the technique of plucking leaves and scattering flowers.

However, I was hiding in the cabinet at the time, and the light in the hall was dim, so I didn't see her face clearly.

She's actually fallen to this level? Is she the person Gu Xizhi has been searching for all along?

Liang Jiang shook her head: "I've only heard of you, I didn't expect to see you here."

"Have you heard about it?" Consort Xin smiled bitterly: "It's true that good news doesn't travel far, but bad news travels fast. Although His Majesty has repeatedly warned his subordinates against gossiping, I'm afraid the whole palace has heard about what happened between me and Prince Pingxi."

Liang Jiang was surprised that she would bring up the matter so frankly.

She asked tentatively, "About you and the Prince of Pingxi..."

"It was my own momentary lapse of judgment that led to this terrible mistake and my current predicament. No wonder others look down on me so much."

This statement undoubtedly confirms Liang Jiang's conjecture.

It seems that she was punished by being made a palace maid to sweep the floor because what happened that night was exposed.

She and Gu Xizhi were alone in a room, one naked and the other disheveled. How could the emperor possibly tolerate this?
Perhaps this is a case of "every pitiful person has something hateful about them"?

(End of this chapter)