Chapter 31: I Want to Be Invincible (Reward for More Updates)

  After a good cry, Xue Lengyu's mood improved and she calmed down. It was indeed painful to think about the two hundred taels of silver, but thinking about it, even if she had money now, the princess wouldn't let her go that easily, and she would still have to struggle in the palace, making ends meet. Now, she was in a bit of a predicament, afraid that even if she wanted to leave with nothing, it wouldn't be that easy.

  The only plan for now is to quickly win back Li Muo's favor for the princess, so that she can comfortably return to her own life outside.

  Xue Lengyu didn't delay any further, quickly returned to his own house in Fengyuan, casually tidied up his disheveled face, sat down at the desk, and calmly thought about his current situation and all the complicated relationships involved.

  Xue Lengyu's strong point is that no matter how difficult things get, no matter how hard it is to hold on, as long as she clearly knows that she can only rely on herself and there's no one else to depend on. After venting her emotions, she will still become strong again.

  Since she was young, Xue Lengyu has understood that it's better to rely on oneself than others. At this moment, it seems like she still hasn't reached the point of despair. However, having grown up in an era where everyone is supposed to be equal, she had never experienced being humiliated without being able to fight back before. Her heart couldn't help but feel indignant.

  Xue Lengyu sat at the desk, on which there was a brush, ink, paper and inkstone specially prepared for her by the princess. With a big stroke of her brush, crooked and slanted characters appeared on the paper.

  After drying it, Xue Lengyu looked at it with great satisfaction and muttered to himself: "Good, this will be my motto from now on, very good."

  Xue Lengyu found a place that wasn't very conspicuous and stuck the note there, tilting her head to look at it with a satisfied yet slightly resigned expression.

  A tree without bark will surely die; a person without face has nothing to fear in the world!

  She can't even protect her own dignity, so she definitely can't do anything stupid like trying to stop a speeding car with bare arms. Can't a modern person with wisdom that transcends this society by several thousand years handle these fossilized thoughts?

  Calm down, Xue Lengyu thought carefully and felt that today's banquet might not be a bad thing after all. Disregarding Li Yan who was purely causing trouble, just by looking at the performance of everyone at the table, she could at least come to this conclusion.

  First, the prince and princess were just a couple who had a falling out. From Li Yan's tone, it seemed that there was some kind of dispute over favoritism back then that was known to everyone. If Li Yan didn't have feelings for the princess, he would have divorced her long ago; there was no need to drag things on until now. At least in Xue Lengyu's view, divorcing a wife in this era was a perfectly normal thing to do, and she hadn't heard that the princess came from a particularly illustrious family.

  Secondly, the status of Butterfly Empress doesn't need to be taken seriously. As for those two newly arrived beauties from Jiangnan, they don't even deserve a glance. Although they are beautiful, it's the kind of beauty that can be found on every street corner, without any unique features. Li Mu is also someone who has seen many beauties before, he shouldn't be so lacking in composure.

  Thinking about it, Xue Lengyu suddenly got up and still wanted to find the queen. She didn't like the queen, but now she could only follow the queen's lead in this situation, and if the queen gained favor, she might have a chance to regain her freedom.

  As soon as they arrived at the entrance of Miao Chun Garden, they heard a crisp ceramic sound coming from inside. Xue Lengyu shook his head, it's an old trick, probably Queen Wang smashing things again. It seems that the wives of wealthy families, when angry, would smash things to vent their emotions, not knowing the pain of spending money they didn't earn themselves.

  Like her, Xue Lengyu, no matter how angry she got, would only smash a few things: pillows, books, plastic cups.

  Xue Lengyu gently knocked on the door, and soon someone came to open it. It was Lan'er.

  Lan'er saw Xue Lengyu and stuck out her tongue, saying softly: "How dare you come now? The princess is still angry."

  "I heard," said Xue Lengyu: "I came specifically to advise Your Highness."

  "It's useless." Lan Er said: "Why don't you go back first, wait until tomorrow when the mistress has calmed down, I'll call for you again. Now although the mistress is not angry with you, seeing you might make her even angrier."

  "It's okay." Xue Lengyu said: "Don't worry, I have a way."

  Xue Lengyu insisted on seeing, Lan'er couldn't stop him anymore, but said: "Then I've warned you, later when the princess scolds and beats you, don't say I didn't remind you."

  "Got it." Xue Lengyu smiled: "I have a sense of propriety."

  The queen's room was in disarray, with shards of fine celadon vases scattered all over the floor, and her temper still not soothed.

  Lan'er carefully pushed open the door: "Your Ladyship, Leng Yu has arrived and wishes to see you."

  "She dares to come see me now?" The queen heard this and coldly laughed: "Let her in."

  Lan'er dodged to one side, and Xue Lengyu entered the door, making a bow: "Cold Jade has seen Your Highness, the Princess."

  The princess said coldly, "You've made a big show today. Look at how beautifully others sing and dance. Now look at you, what have you done? You've even embarrassed my people."

  Xue Lengyu smiled slightly and didn't respond to Wang Fei's words. Instead, she said: "I congratulate Your Highness."

  "Congratulations?" The queen heard and was stunned, even more furious: "You may not know yet, the king rewarded those two women with a Xiangxue House, and he will be staying there tonight. Leng Yu, I suspect you are intentionally trying to annoy me."

  Ignoring the queen's anger, Xue Lengyu still smiled and said: "Your Majesty, you also saw today's events very clearly. I, a slave, have no other choice but to follow Your Majesty wholeheartedly. Since I congratulate Your Majesty, I naturally have my reasons. What good would it do for me to deliberately provoke Your Majesty?"

  Xue Lengyu's words, although straightforward, were indeed true. The queen also calmed down a bit, this little girl was different from others, what she said was direct and seemed to be true so far.

  The princess took a sip of tea and her mood calmed down slightly. "Tell me," she said, "what is there to be happy about?"

  "The princess's joy is that the king still has a heart for her." Xue Lengyu said.

  "Is he being considerate?" The queen's heart ached for a moment: "What consideration is that? He deliberately wants to embarrass me, humiliate me."

  Xue Lengyu said calmly, "As long as there is heart, it's a good thing. You should know that the most painful thing between men and women is not when love turns into hate, but when it becomes indifference. As long as there is heart, no matter whether it's to humiliate or vent, it all proves that Wang Ye still cares about Niangniang. And as long as Wang Ye still has Niangniang in his heart, the problems you had before are not insurmountable, and everything can be turned around."

  The princess listened with a stunned expression. Today she was angry, and she could also see that Xue Lengyu's temper wasn't light either. How did it suddenly seem like everything had been figured out?

  Xue Lengyu saw the queen's astonishment and said, "Not to deceive Your Majesty, I was also very angry when I suffered this humiliation today. But after a moment's thought, getting angry can't solve any problem. Now, I have no choice but to help Your Majesty win back the king's favor as soon as possible, so that I can live my own life. So I carefully recalled everything that happened today, and perhaps because Your Majesty and Lan'er are both in the situation, they didn't see it as clearly as I did."

  The princess said slowly: "So you mean I still have hope, and not only that, but great hope?"

  "As long as you are willing to change your temper." Xue Lengyu said.

  "Change your temper?" The princess repeated Xue Lengyu's words.

  "Not bad." Xue Lengyu said: "Your Majesty, the king is looking for another beauty, I can understand Your Majesty's heartache and stand. But it's impossible for the king to have only one queen in his harem. Forgive me for speaking boldly, if Your Majesty still wants to get the king's favor, you can only accept everything he loves. You can only think of ways to be the king's favorite, but it's impossible to be the king's only one."

  Xue Lengyu's words couldn't be any clearer, and the princess was well aware of this point, but as a woman, how could she swallow her pride.

  The princess did not speak, and Xue Lengyu said again: "Your Highness, your temper is too strong. In the palace, it cannot tolerate anyone stronger than the king. Don't you understand this principle, Princess?"

  No matter how high the queen's status is, she is just a woman attached to the king. Xue Lengyu cannot tell women of this era what independent and self-reliant feminism is, but she can only clearly know that it is very cruel, and also has to be said clearly to the queen. She also knows that everything she says, the queen understands, but in such a large palace, who would dare to speak so frankly to the queen?

  The queen's face suddenly fell silent, her fingers slowly tightening around the cup. Xue Lengyu's words hit her heart, every word and sentence piercing her heart.

  Steeled heart, not looking at the queen's face with a hint of sorrow, Xue Lengyu said word by word: "Your Majesty, if you want to regain the king's favor, you can only be gentle. Otherwise, no one has any way."

  The princess remained silent for a long time before finally releasing her grip on the cup, her fingers having turned pale from exertion.

  "What should I do?" The princess took a deep breath, calmed herself down and looked at Xue Lengyu again.

  Knowing that the princess had already made up her mind to change, Xue Lengyu said: "Changing oneself, even if the prince still has feelings for you, you must also have an appearance that can make him fall in love again."

  The princess nodded: "I will do it your way."

  Xue Lengyu said, "If Your Highness can hold on, it will probably take half a month to a month to recover your slender figure. During this time, Your Highness only needs to be as low-key as possible and treat all the concubines in the mansion with kindness, showing the magnanimity of a king's wife. I believe that there is nothing going on in this mansion that the king doesn't know about."

  "Is this how I let him know that I've given up?" The queen's words carried a hint of sorrow. Her own stubbornness and persistence had ultimately become a laughable conclusion.

  Xue Lengyu could only helplessly persuade: "Your Highness, if you don't admit defeat to the prince, then you'll be defeated by the entire royal palace. If you admit defeat to the prince, then you'll only be defeated by a man you love. In life, there are always gains and losses, since...since Your Highness took on the position of princess consort in the first place, you should have been mentally prepared for this."