Favored concubine deposed empress? I'll seize your throne and marry you to a powerful minister.

It wasn't a freezing day, and it wasn't even early autumn, so it wasn't exactly chilly, but the palm holding my wrist was icy cold to the bone.

Half a year later, Xiao Muye's broad shoulders remained unchanged, but he had lost a lot of weight.

After leaving Kyoto, I did not deliberately conceal my whereabouts. My resolute decision back then was simply to completely sever all ties with the imperial power.

Lu Ning should have guessed it by the end, but Xiao Muye didn't seem to.

Regarding the burn on my hand, I remember the last moment before I fell. Xiao Muye came riding the wind, half of his body leaning out of the city wall, being held down tightly by his subordinates, with that look of utter despair in his eyes.

It must have been around that time that he was burned.

It's a large scar; burns are hard to heal, and it'll probably stay with him for the rest of his life.

When you hugged me just now, the fear and tension you showed wasn't faked.

Six months later, he still seems to be trapped in that day.

I never expected him to be here.

Compared to the scene back then where several forces forced the emperor to abdicate, and he stood on the city wall facing a life-or-death struggle, today's events are not worth mentioning.

It was not unexpected that Prefect Nian would be here, nor was it because of Xiao Muye.

Rather, I had sent a letter to his residence when the private school was about to be completed.

The scene was already predictable. If the incident were to be confined to this small town, it would be covered up forever, and Aunt Liu's tears would be in vain.

If I'm going to open a private school, it has to be done openly and legitimately.

I just want to tell them that I'm determined to open this private school for girls!

Xiao Muye's unexpected appearance here is indeed a variable.

Because of his words, the group of people who had been chattering away at Prefect Nian finally turned their attention to this side.

Kang Yuanqiao glanced at Xiao Muye's soldiers around him, his expression changed, and his gaze fell on the jade pendant at his waist, then changed again.

Before he could speak, I pushed Xiao Muye aside without allowing any argument: "Let's not talk about the private army for now; we can discuss that later."

Kang Yuanqiao's face darkened: "You—"

"Fourth Uncle," I stepped forward and stood in front of him, "See? In the crucial moment, you're nothing more than a shield. If someone wants to betray you, they won't even blink."

In comparison, Fourth Uncle's expression was much uglier than Kang Yuanqiao's.

He must have already realized that he has been used as a pawn and made the first to stick his neck out.

"Fourth brother! Don't listen to her nonsense!"

As soon as Kang Yuanqiao spoke, a soldier standing next to him held a knife to his neck, signaling him to shut up.

"Whether I'm talking nonsense or not, Fourth Uncle knows in his heart, right?" I smiled and looked at him intently: "You keep saying that women shouldn't read too much, but did the laws of the time ever stipulate that a woman's virtue lies in her lack of talent? It's you men who say such things."

My fourth uncle slowly looked at me: "You knew it would escalate to this point, did you plan this all along?"

"Yes," I readily admitted, "there's no point in hiding it. Over the years, Kang Yuanqiao, in his position of garrison commander, has probably had Fourth Uncle do quite a few dirty tricks for him, hasn't he? If Sixth Aunt and I really burned to death here today, what do you think you would do?"

Given Kang Yuanqiao's character, he certainly wouldn't bear this responsibility.

It goes without saying who carried it.

Fourth Uncle looked gloomy. He first glanced at Xiao Muye, and then turned to Kang Yuanqiao with an ambiguous expression.

"Actually, if the prefect hadn't come here today, you would have just watched me burn them to death, right?"

Kang Yuanqiao paused for a moment, then acted as if nothing had happened: "I don't know what you're talking about."

"I was wondering why you made me handle this; the garrison commander should have been better positioned to deal with it."

I said sarcastically, "Fourth Uncle is an elder in the clan. He shouldn't be so naive. Qingxi is a vast and resource-rich area. Over the years, there have been many wealthy merchant families who have made their fortunes through business, and you're not the only one. Think about it carefully. Why does Chief Kang rely solely on Fourth Uncle? Isn't it because Fourth Uncle is the easiest to manipulate?"

"Don't listen to her nonsense!"

"Isn't that right?" I asked, puzzled. "It was easy for the guards to come over, and they knew what Fourth Uncle was going to do today. Why didn't you step in to stop it when the fire was about to burn people?"

"Is it that you can't tolerate private schools for girls, or that the world can't tolerate them?"

With each word I spoke, Kang Yuanqiao's expression grew even darker.

At this moment, I probably regret even more that I wasn't burned to death earlier.

But Fourth Uncle's emotions were already fragile.

Kang Yuanqiao suddenly chuckled, "No, no matter if it's Prince Cheng'an or not, private schools for girls are against the law! Why should they only accept female students?"

"What the law doesn't forbid, it doesn't prohibit either," I said coldly.

But I had already considered that Kang Yuanqiao would definitely take advantage of this loophole.

A cunning person is fickle, let alone someone like him who shows no remorse even when facing death.

"You're just making excuses!" He glared at me, his voice much softer than before. "You ignore the teachings of our ancestors, and you don't even shy away from things outside the law. What gives you the right?"

"Yes, yes," Kang Yuanqiao's subordinate chimed in from the side. "Even if it were His Highness Prince Cheng'an who came, he shouldn't disregard the law, should he? Besides, nothing really happened today. Such a large mobilization is really unnecessary. If word gets out, wouldn't the Prince be accused of favoring his own people and openly defying the law..."

"Ha, let's not even talk about what you just said, that the law doesn't explicitly prohibit the opening of private schools for girls. Even if it did, I'd side with my own people, not with what's right. What can you do if I just kill you all here?"

This sounds like an exaggeration, but I know Xiao Muye isn't just talking; given his personality, he really is capable of doing something like this.

I glanced back at him and said, "Don't cause trouble."

Xiao Muye spoke those words with a cold face a moment ago, but the moment he met my eyes, his arrogance seemed to dissipate instantly, and he took a step behind me.

"You...you mean to...you are indeed showing favoritism! Your Highness, even if you and the Princess are deeply in love, to disregard human life for something that has no basis in fact will cause chaos in this small area of ​​Qingxi. You...you must reconsider!"

The last sentence seemed overly timid.

After all, the person he was threatening was the Prince of Cheng'an, who once commanded a powerful army.

It was at this point that they seemed to truly realize that things were gradually getting out of their control.

He kept quoting laws, but it was only because he wanted to use them to suppress Xiao Muye, this mountain of a man.

But they forgot that the man in front of them almost caused the Lu family's empire to fall into the wrong hands.

If he had decisively killed Lu Yan and Lu Ningye back then, he would be the one rewriting the law now.

These things could not pose a threat to him.

"What are you thinking? I could kill a thousand parasites like you and not have to answer to anyone."

After saying this, Kang Yuanqiao's face turned ashen.

His legs were trembling, and he looked like he was about to collapse into a puddle at any moment.

"I...I don't deserve to die—"

"Allowing women to have their own private schools is inherently contrary to the established rites and educational system. As long as the law remains unchanged, you have no legitimate grounds to abuse your power!"

I never wanted Kang Yuanqiao to die; killing someone like him wouldn't give me any satisfaction.

What I need is for him to one day stop seeing women as subservient objects to be tamed and educated.

Before I could say anything, a large group of people surged in from outside the venue.

The leader was dressed in a dark blue official robe, with a whisk dangling from his wrist; his face was somewhat familiar.

—Wang Xi, the chief eunuch who serves Lu Ningye.

My heart skipped a beat, and I instinctively searched for another face in the crowd.