"Y-you actually dared hit me?" Empress Yazi’s voice had lost its previous arrogant edge and was now slightly trembling; fear surfaced in her eyes—she’d been scared stupid by the killing intent in Bai Ruozhu’s movements.

She was just an imperial consort raised in the deep Palace, with no Martial Arts at all; Bai Ruozhu could kill her with a casual move.

And right now Bai Ruozhu had a faint smile on her face, but the smile never reached her eyes; her gaze looked at her the way one looks at a dead person, mocking her for being impossibly stupid.

Empress Yazi herself didn’t even know why she suddenly got scared; that terror surged up from her heart, making her involuntarily retreat two steps.

Suddenly, Bai Ruozhu stretched out a hand and clamped it around her neck; Empress Yazi instantly felt it hard to breathe, that hand on her throat squeezing as if it was going to snap her neck.

"I’ll say it one more time—don’t provoke me. Otherwise, I don’t care who you are." Bai Ruozhu was still smiling, but her words came out slowly, one word at a time.

Empress Yazi’s face flushed red under the pressure of that grip; air was being stripped from her body, and she truly felt she might be killed. She shook all over from fright.

The Emperor grew anxious as well and said, unable to bear it, "Lord Bai, please show mercy. It is my failure in teaching her. I will keep her confined to copy Buddhist Scriptures."

Bai Ruozhu let out a cold laugh, loosened her hand, and pushed Empress Yazi away. "She’s not even sincere when copying Buddhist Scriptures. Sometimes the punishment has to be heavy, or she’ll never realize she’s wrong, much less think about changing."

Sa Tian hurriedly glanced at the Emperor’s expression, thinking to himself that this Lord Bai was way too arrogant, actually lecturing the Emperor.

"This matter is indeed Yazi’s fault. I’ll have her apologize to you." The Emperor suddenly glared at Empress Yazi. "Well? Aren’t you going to apologize to Lord Bai? Is our Imperial family a bunch of ungrateful ingrates?" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

Empress Yazi had been badly frightened; at this moment she had no time to worry about face or dignity. Just recalling the killing intent in Bai Ruozhu’s eyes made her whole body go cold.

She hastily saluted and said, "I-I was wrong. I won’t fabricate things out of nothing to make trouble for Lord Bai again."

Bai Ruozhu snorted coldly. "Your Majesty, since there’s nothing else, I’ll take my leave. We’ll depart for Zhongyuan in a few days."

The Emperor became a bit anxious. "Lord Bai, what about the matter you just mentioned?"

"I only reminded Your Majesty. You can send people to investigate, but I truly am powerless to help." With that, Bai Ruozhu strode off.

Right now she really had no way—Furball was in deep sleep, so she couldn’t ask Furball to check whether Yazi, Wen De and the others had any Poisonous Insect in their bodies.

As for later, she didn’t want to get involved anyway.

The Emperor paced anxiously on the spot and said to Sa Tian, "If it’s true, are we as the Imperial family just going to lie there and let others butcher us?"

Sa Tian snuck a look at Empress Yazi, thinking Lord Bai and the others might have been willing to help, but after such a scene from Yazi, it’d be a miracle if they were still willing.

Yazi was still in a state of terror and didn’t say a word; she looked as if her soul had flown away. The Emperor glared at her and, seeing she truly had been scared senseless, in the end couldn’t bring himself to scold her further.

The Emperor thought for a moment and went straight to find Empress Shangzi, telling her what had happened.

"You’re more familiar with Bai Ruozhu. Why don’t you leave the Palace and go see her?" the Emperor said.

Shangzi was somewhat displeased; her face sank as she said, "Your Majesty, I know you’re soft-hearted, but didn’t you already order her confined? How did she end up running out again? The situation’s been unstable lately—our Imperial family is already walking on thin ice, yet she keeps stirring up trouble. Every time she causes a mess, I’m the one who has to clean it up. Who has the time or patience to keep tolerating her?"

"Shangzi, I will definitely punish her severely this time. But things have come to this already. The situation Bai Ruozhu mentioned is extremely urgent, and I’m afraid there are many details she didn’t have time to explain clearly. She’s angry now and doesn’t want to bother with Imperial family matters. Even if I ask, I won’t get anything out of her. She has a very good impression of you, so I can only trouble you to go ask her." The Emperor said in his most conciliatory tone.

Empress Shangzi let out a heavy sigh. "Fine. But as for whether she’s willing to say more, I can’t guarantee it. If it were me, I wouldn’t want to bother with you lot either!"

The Emperor’s expression turned a bit awkward. How was this his fault? Yazi’s temper was indeed terrible, but she was not only his imperial consort, she was also his younger sister and the birth mother of the Second Prince. Was he supposed to kill Yazi?

On the other side, in the Second Prince’s Bedchamber, a palace maid hurried over to report, "Your Highness, you must go see Her Highness the Consort. She’s been frightened and keeps rambling nonsense. This servant is really afraid she’ll be scared into something serious."

The Second Prince hurried to his feet. "How did she get frightened? In this Imperial Palace, all calm and orderly, what could possibly scare her?"

"Her Highness went to His Majesty’s side and ran into Lord Bai from Zhongyuan. She slapped Her Highness, then nearly strangled her to death, so..." the palace maid replied.

"What?" The Second Prince knew his mother had offended Bai Ruozhu, but the palace maid only told part of it, so he assumed Bai Ruozhu was holding a grudge over the previous incident and tried to beat his mother to death the moment they met.

The Second Prince was furious. His mother had already been confined and punished; why wouldn’t Bai Ruozhu just forgive her? Why did she still have to strangle her?

"I’ll go see Mother Consort first."

When the Second Prince arrived and saw Empress Yazi, she was shouting in terror, "Don’t kill me, don’t kill me. I was wrong, I won’t provoke you again."

The Second Prince saw his mother, who had always been meticulously groomed, now sitting on the bed disheveled and filthy; even when she saw him, she didn’t respond, as if she’d been scared dumb. His heart twisted with pain.

"Bai Ruozhu, how can you be this ruthless?" the Second Prince said through gritted teeth.

Empress Yazi’s eyes moved slightly; she shot her son a quick glance and then went back to trembling, keeping up her terrified act. "I don’t dare anymore, don’t kill me..."

"Hurry and summon the Imperial Doctor," the Second Prince ordered the palace maid.

The next day, rumors spread all over Kyoto that the female envoy from Zhongyuan had entered the Palace and slapped Empress Yazi, almost strangling her to death; now the Consort had been frightened so badly she was nearly insane.

As soon as Sa Tian heard the news, he rushed to the Posthouse to report. Bai Ruozhu couldn’t help but laugh. "With Empress Yazi’s temper and personality, if she could really be scared stupid that easily, then she finally would’ve learned how to behave herself."

"My lady, are you saying Empress Yazi is faking it?" Sa Tian hurriedly asked.

Bai Ruozhu gave a cold sneer. "I went too easy on her. I didn’t make that woman remember the lesson, so she’s at it again."

Jiang Yichun said from the side, "Let her keep it up. Didn’t you say that if you don’t court death, you won’t die? Let’s watch how she manages to bring about her own demise."

Sa Tian silently recited in his head: If you don’t court death, you won’t die. Is this a proverb from Zhongyuan? How come I never learned it?

But the saying made a lot of sense; he had to write it down. What a philosophical line.

It was just that the rumors outside were making things even more unfavorable for Lord Bai and the others. Was this really okay?