The Slender Waist-Chapter 397 - 286 Countermove

"No, I can’t go out! I can’t see the doctor they’ve brought."

Li Sangruo was quite beside herself, her sharp gaze sweeping across everyone’s face, but revealing panic, her body shaking uncontrollably due to weakness.

"Uncle Shaogong, you speak, you say something."

In moments of despair, the last thing she wanted was to shoulder the responsibility. Right now, she wished someone would stand in front and take on the entire burden.

"Wasn’t it you who agreed? You also said it was a good plan. It could not only alienate the Feng Family and the General but also make the General pity me more, care for me more... Why, why has it turned out like this?"

Tang Shaogong’s eyes were cool, his face unruffled.

"Your Highness, please be calm."

"Calm? How do you expect me to be calm?"

Keeping a concubine clandestinely is one thing; getting pregnant, miscarrying, and then blaming it on a first-rank lady, leading to collective accountability, is quite another.

How would she face the courtiers afterward, or face her own Young Emperor?

Li Sangruo’s eyes were fixed on Tang Shaogong.

"Uncle Shaogong, aren’t you always the one with a solution? Tell me, how can we calm this matter down and stop Feng Shi Er Niang from her persistent entanglement..."

"Your Highness." Tang Shaogong, seeing the frantic state of Li Sangruo, pictured Pei Jue’s unapproachable face in his mind.

Cold, heartless, giving no quarter.

After he had frankly admitted everything, there was still only one response.

"For righteousness’ sake, I refused to yield—how much less for my wife? Where there is wrong, it shall be pursued."

The plan to kill two birds with one stone was agreed upon by Tang Shaogong.

But the situation had developed beyond his imagination.

Pei Jue was obstinate and entirely unmoved by persuasion.

His discernment lay only between two sides.

One side was Feng Shi Er Niang.

The other was everyone else but Feng Shi Er Niang.

When Feng Shi Er Niang was not involved, he was Pei Jue, the clear-headed Pei Jue who would take the big picture into account.

When it came to Feng Shi Er Niang, his actions and logic revolved around that woman, excluding all other factors...

During the recent confrontation, had Pei Chong not arrived just in time, Pei Jue would have likely led his troops to force his way through, leaving Li Sangruo unable to face the situation.

Tang Shaogong, his emotions fluctuating, found Li Sangruo’s madness all the more headache-inducing.

"The situation is what it is—your Highness crying and making a fuss won’t help. Better to retreat and settle for the next best thing..."

Li Sangruo glared at him, her expression as fierce as an enraged beast.

"How much further do you expect me to back down? I have already apologized to her, with my face nearly scraping the ground, what more can I do? She’s taken my Mr. Pei, forced me to grant her the title of a first-rank lady, she already has so much, why isn’t she content? Does she want my life in exchange?"

Her indignation was palpable.

Jealousy too.

Under Tang Shaogong’s indifferent gaze, none of it could be hidden.

At the end of the day, what she cared about most was still not being able to marry Pei Jue.

"Your Highness, please endure for a while." Tang Shaogong said, "Regardless of what she has gained, there is one thing she can never take from you. The bond between the General and your Highness is incomparable..."

A bond, a bond.

What bond?

Li Sangruo didn’t even believe it herself.

"How long do you all plan to deceive me? If the General truly cared about me, why would he be so aggressive, insisting on driving me to death?"

"The General cannot bear to see your Highness die," Tang Shaogong said, looking at Li Sangruo with a rare trace of gentleness in his eyes, his voice much softer, "Your Highness, please calm down and think. After all you have done to Feng Shi Er Niang, apart from being angry, has the General truly done anything to you?"

Li Sangruo was taken aback.

Seeing her quiet down, Tang Shaogong lowered his eyelids.

"The General will consider the bond."

On Tang Shaogong’s face, Li Sangruo saw no trace of lying, and her emotions began to ease.

"What should I do now then?"

Tang Shaogong said, "Your Highness, dress yourself up properly, don’t let anyone see the flaws. Bow to the Feng Family, make yourself small, and give the Feng Family enough face."

Li Sangruo clenched her teeth, "Delusional..."

"Your Highness!" Tang Shaogong looked at her sternly, reminding her, "The more you show weakness, the more the General will pity you, the more he will resent the Feng Family. Thinking this way, doesn’t it make you feel better?"

A quarter of an hour later, Li Sangruo faced the Feng Family.

Her makeup was impeccable, and she sat on the soft couch looking somewhat tired, but there were no signs of a miscarriage.

Confronted with the Feng Family’s questioning, she was even more sincere.

"I must have been possessed at the time. A voice in my head kept saying, it was the General’s wife who pushed me..."

When you can’t explain it, blame it on ghosts and spirits.

As for whether or not it was a miscarriage, as long as Puyang Li kept his lips sealed and she didn’t confess, nobody could point fingers at her.