Ink Burns

Chapter 303 Bad People Get Their Retribution (Part 2)
A slender, fair wrist, resting gently on the bank amidst the oil lamps and incense candles, resembled a jade hairpin radiating a soft divine light—slender, aloof, beautiful, and elegant.

Shan Yue and Zhou Fangniang came together. Because those coming and going to pay their respects included court officials as well as female officials from the Six Ministries, the people were of mixed status, and almost all the women wore veils of varying thickness.

Fu Mingjiang's gaze shifted from the ground and the exquisite wrist, fixing on the woman's thin black veil.

Beneath the black veil, shadowy figures sway in the breeze. The thin veil, flowing from the woman's eyes like autumn waters, her brows like distant green mountains, and her red lips, is like two thin, translucent pieces of red jade, secretly hidden behind the veil, bewitching people into an endless crimson reverie.

Fu Mingjiang tilted his head back, as if in a different world, and was momentarily stunned.

Looking down, she saw her own greasy, fat hands, soft and white like grease melting in a clay pot. She couldn't help but recall Cui Yulang's sarcastic remarks—after she became pregnant, her mother wanted to ask Madam Zhang to come and help with her pregnancy, but her father-in-law hesitated, expressing that "the Cui family isn't so destitute that they can't afford an old woman or a few doctors." She made up her mind and refused. After that, she slapped her mother and severed all ties. The old woman her father-in-law called then cooked soup for her every day. Gastrodia elata chicken soup, wolfberry and notoginseng fish soup, and angelica and mutton soup, all kinds of nourishing soups, were delivered to the courtyard like a flowing stream.

She knew from a young age that Cui Yulang preferred slender and delicate women, so she restrained herself and starved her round, dimpled face into a small, pumpkin-seed-like face.

After she became pregnant, it was as if a seal had been broken. Since her father-in-law loved her and was willing to provide her with plenty of nourishing food, she ate to her heart's content.

Eat until your belly is higher than a mountain, eat until the flesh on your face is about to spill out, eat until your body is deformed, like a dull, exaggerated mountain.

Fu Mingjiang has never backed down from anyone in her life, nor has she ever felt inferior to anyone else in any way. She has always been able to get what she wanted, whether it was a piece of fine silk worth a thousand gold pieces or the most noble young master in the capital.
Its ambition is higher than the candlesticks on the flower stand; if the flame were to rise upwards, it could reach the sky and burn the clouds.

But what about now?

She knelt, while Liu Shanyue stood. This little hussy was high and mighty, her posture and bearing impeccable; and she? She lay prostrate on the ground like a stubborn worm.
Fu Mingjiang released the handkerchief in her hand, pushed herself back, used the momentum to stand up, and with a flick of her wrist, lifted Shan Yue's veil!

"What are you up to? How dare you wear such heavy makeup while paying respects to His Highness!"

The veiled hat flipped over on the ground.

The person behind the black veil has finally emerged into the public eye.

What's with all the heavy makeup?
It was so plain that not even a layer of makeup was applied.

It was always so vibrant and beautiful.

The sudden, shrill sound in front of the coffin drew the attention of everyone coming and going in the mourning hall.

Shan Yue was jolted awake. She closed her eyes slightly, turned her head slightly, and let a strand of her high-coiffed hair fall across her chin. After holding her breath for a moment, she looked up again and saw Fu Mingjiang, who was very different from the one she remembered, and even completely different from the one three months ago. He was like a lifeless piece of rotten flesh, letting himself slump on the ground.

"Princess—"

Shan Yue turned her head, brushed her face with her palm, and put a stray strand of hair back in place: "I understand your pain of losing your mother. I will not hold your madness against you. But now that His Highness's body is still lying in front of you, you should be more humble and careful so as not to disturb the soul of the deceased."

Shan Yue was granted the title of First-Rank Lady, equivalent to a County Princess among members of the imperial clan.

Fu Mingjiang is merely a princess, so Shan Yue's tone can certainly be one of admonition and instruction.

These words, when they reached Fu Mingjiang's ears, were like firecrackers falling to the ground, shattering him completely.

Fu Mingjiang narrowed his eyes, his face flushed: "You, are you lecturing me?!"

With so many people in the mourning hall, all eyes were subtly fixed on this spot.

Madam Zhou, Chang Lin's widow, was of a gentle nature. She tugged at Shan Yue's sleeve and said in a very low voice, "'The Pulling Machine' has an antidote, but we still have another set of constraints on us."

Their background.

The backgrounds of the girls in "Qingfeng" are all fabricated and cannot withstand scrutiny. If their past is exposed, they might pack their bags and leave, sending them back to where they came from, and replacing all the fine silks and satins they wear now with their old coarse linen clothes!
Shan Yue smiled, pursed her lips, and pulled her sleeve from Madam Zhou's hand: "It's not a lesson—the one who should have taught you manners is already dead. As the wife of a subject, I have no obligation to teach the princess."

"Liu Shanyue!"

Fu Mingjiang's anger surged to her head: "Have you forgotten when I was groveling and subservient! When you first married into the Xue family, you knelt on the ground begging my mother for advice! Back then, your head was lowered more respectfully than a dog's!"

Madam Zhou's face turned deathly pale instantly.

In the mourning hall, someone asked, "Why did Madam Xue go to Princess Jing'an for advice? Xue Xiao and Princess Jing'an have always been at odds."

Fu Mingjiang smiled slightly, her chin unconsciously raised like a victorious rooster: "Madam Xue has always listened to her mother. It was she who persuaded Xue Xiao to observe mourning for Madam Zhu and return home for the mourning period."

This was the first time Shan Yue had stood in public. There were not many people in the capital who knew her. Firstly, she lived a secluded life and did not enjoy weddings or banquets; secondly, Xue Xiao was eccentric and aloof, so no one dared to comment on his wife.

The few impressions included that Madam Xue was a master of painting, even entering the palace to paint for the Empress Dowager and the Imperial Concubine, and that Madam Xue was quite favored by Mad Dog.

At most, it's just these two points.

Now that Fu Mingjiang had revealed many of the hidden messages, everyone pieced together the past events with the current news, and in a flash, someone exclaimed: "'Qingfeng'! This Madam Xue is 'Qingfeng'!"

This seemingly aloof and noble first-rank lady was actually "Qingfeng," whom the Grand Princess Jing'an had sent to get close to Xue Xiao!
The eyes of everyone in the mourning hall immediately converged on Shan Yue!

Some were amused, some were contemptuous, some were scrutinizing, some were eager to act, some were sarcastic, and some were dismissive.

Fu Mingjiang was extremely satisfied with everyone's reaction. She bent her waist slightly, placed her hand lightly on her stomach, raised her chin higher and higher, and hid a secret smile on her lips: "Madam Liu, when we married you off to the Xue family, you didn't even dare to speak loudly. Now, things have changed. I'm just curious, does Captain Xue know that every word he says to you will be relayed to other people's ears the next day?"

Since "Qingfeng" can no longer be kept.

Then everyone should just die!

Go to hell!

Why should they use the ladder that "Qingfeng" built for them to ride the east wind in the sky?!

Why!
How dare he act so smug and lecture her in front of her!
Fu Mingjiang smiled, pursing her lips: "Do you still remember your background—"

Fu Mingjiang looked around, a beaming smile on her face. The dimples at the corners of her mouth were now filled with the fat that the tonics had replaced: "Do you all know what she used to do? She started out as a street performer. Monkeys wore costumes, but she didn't. Later, she made counterfeit paintings on Shantang Street in Suzhou. She was surrounded by fat, middle-aged men, and she flitted among them like a butterfly."

"Isn't Madam Xue from the Liu family of Songjiang Prefecture?" the question was asked again in the mourning hall.

Fu Mingjiang chuckled lightly, "That scoundrel Liu Hezhou bought her from someone else! Then he begged my mother to help him marry Xue Xiao—poor thing, so pitiful—"

"Lord Xue, wise and sagacious for half his life, was completely manipulated by a lowly woman of the lowest social class—"

Fu Mingjiang covered her lips with a silk handkerchief, trying to laugh as charmingly as she did when she was a child: "Women who mingle in the marketplace, oh, especially pretty women, everything is a means to an end. Saying pretty words is a means, being obsequious is a means."

Fu Mingjiang paused slightly: "Of course, this body is also a testament to their skills—"

"Snapped--!"

A sharp slap suddenly rang out in the mourning hall!