Luck Reliant Beauty – CH 079

Chapter 79: The Shock of the Crowd

After Jiang Mi’s connection was revealed, Zheng Wen came to her senses. After struggling for a moment, she chose to take her leave of Prince Kang, a move that signified her rejection of his affections! This made Prince Kang even more convinced that Jiang Mi had likely done something between him and Zheng Wen, enabling Zheng Wen to resist his tenderness!

Upon hearing that Jiang Mi was involved in this matter again, the Empress’s face turned ashen, her hands and feet trembling.

After a moment, the Empress said coldly, “To suppress someone, you must first eliminate their allies! This little Young Lady Jiang was nothing more than a plaything I casually nurtured; now it seems we raised a tiger that will eventually threaten us!”

She paused slightly, then asked, “What are your thoughts?”

Prince Kang said in a low voice, “We can’t rush things now… we can’t be impatient anymore!”

The Empress’s lips twitched, and finally, she slowly nodded.

At this moment, Prince Kang continued, “Actually, the most urgent matter now is to transfer Cui Zi Xuan away from Shu Capital… The reason we were so passive in this incident, even though we had a pretext to turn the tide, and even the Emperor was willing to help, and we ended up like this, is because of Cui Zi Xuan’s interference. So, once he’s gone, whatever happens at Shu Capital will be up to us!”

The Empress deeply agreed, and she said with a stern face, “I’ve thought so for a long time.”

Prince Kang said, “According to my information, the Cui Clan of Boling has sent an important figure to urge him to return. They have roots in Wu Yue and the Central Plains; our Later Shu is merely a place for them to observe. As far as I know, it seems the Cui Clan of Boling has encountered some major problem and is urgently summoning their heir, Cui Zi Xuan, back to handle it. That means he will be leaving Shu Capital soon!”

The Empress was completely taken aback to hear such good news. She immediately stood up. Turning excitedly to Prince Kang, she eagerly asked, “Is it true?”

Prince Kang nodded, replying earnestly, “Absolutely true!”

The Empress was overjoyed. She clasped her hands together in front of her chest, paced hurriedly around the hall, and murmured, “Good, good! As long as he’s gone, as long as he’s gone…” At this point, Empress was so excited she was almost incoherent.

…

At this time, Cui Zi Xuan and Jiang Mi had been strolling around for quite a while.

Turning her head, Jiang Mi said to Cui Zi Xuan in a low voice, “Young Master Cui, it’s getting late…” She felt she was being very subtle, even pretending to look at the sun, as if afraid he wouldn’t understand.

…Actually, they had only been out shopping for a little over half an hour.

Originally, Cui Zi Xuan had regained his cheerful mood, but then he heard Jiang Mi say this… Cui Zi Xuan’s eyes narrowed slowly again.

He turned to look at Jiang Mi for a moment, noticing her rosy complexion and bright eyes, though she would instinctively flinch whenever a passerby stared in their direction.

So, Cui Zi Xuan, hands behind his back, said slowly and deliberately, “It’s getting late…” Jiang Mi’s eyes lit up, and he said gently, “Ah’Mi, are you in a hurry to get back to dance practice?”

Seeing Jiang Mi’s face pale as she quickly shook her head, Cui Zi Xuan then said even more gently, “Then Ah’Mi, are you tired? It just so happens that Tianluo Terrace isn’t far from here. I know a really good restaurant there; let’s go, I’ll treat you to something.” With that, he took Jiang Mi’s small hand.

Amidst countless gazes, some open, some furtive, in the streets and alleys, Cui Zi Xuan walked with unhurried ease, while Jiang Mi walked with her arms and legs moving in unison. After walking like this for a while, the restaurant came into view.

Almost as they approached the restaurant, Cui Zi Xuan looked up and saw someone, his brow furrowing as he stopped.

Jiang Mi followed his gaze upwards.

Seated by the window in the loft, staring intently at Cui Zi Xuan, were a man and a woman. Leaving aside the young master, the woman was a stunningly beautiful woman of about seventeen or eighteen years old.

…This was the first truly stunning beauty Jiang Mi had ever seen. Compared to her, Yu Man and the other three beauties of Shu Capital paled in comparison.

This beauty had exquisite features, her white robes billowing in the wind, her aura a blend of fragility and noble mystery. Just standing there, she seemed ready to soar away.

Gazing at her, Jiang Mi couldn’t help but think, “Everyone says how beautiful my mother was back then. Could it be that my mother was even more beautiful than this woman?”

Just as she was lost in thought, Jiang Mi suddenly heard Cui Zi Xuan beside her, a soft, almost weary sigh.

Jiang Mi was startled. She then noticed that ever since they arrived, the beautiful woman’s eyes had been fixed on Cui Zi Xuan, never leaving him for a moment!

Just then, Jiang Mi heard Cui Zi Xuan say softly, “…Ah’Mi, you should go back first. I’ll invite you to dinner another day.”

As if knowing he would say this, just then, soft footsteps echoed through the restaurant. In the blink of an eye, four extremely beautiful maids—each more beautiful than Jiang Mi—appeared gracefully. They approached Cui Zi Xuan, bowed in unison, and the four maids said in melodious voices, “Our Young Lady says she would like Young Master Cui and this Young Lady to come upstairs together. She has prepared a light feast, awaiting her old friend to join her!”

Since they had said so, Cui Zi Xuan smiled and gracefully stepped forward, his wide sleeves fluttering. This Cui Zi Xuan was completely different from the one Jiang Mi had known. He now appeared as an incomparably noble and dignified scion of a thousand-year-old aristocratic family. Even someone like the Crown Prince of Later Shu would likely feel ashamed in his presence.

All along, Cui Zi Xuan had seemed ordinary to Jiang Mi, and she had always thought of him as just an ordinary person… But at this moment, Jiang Mi suddenly realized that Young Master Cui of the Cui Clan of Boling was truly someone on a completely different level from her, someone high above her.

Since Cui Zi Xuan had taken the first step, Jiang Mi naturally followed suit, head bowed and quiet. Before long, the two arrived at the second-floor loft.

Once Jiang Mi stepped into the loft, she could hardly move her feet. The floor was covered with a thick layer of white satin, something Jiang Mi had never seen before, yet it was undoubtedly very rare. The satin, made of an unknown material, was as white as clouds, soft underfoot, and most importantly, it exuded a natural, delicate fragrance… Suddenly… Jiang Mi remembered; she seemed to recall seeing similar white satin cushions on the Empress’s chairs when she last visited her palace. However, the Empress’s cushions were just small pieces on the chairs, while here they covered an entire loft!

Naturally, Jiang Mi hesitated to step onto the cushions. She watched Cui Zi Xuan, who had entered a side room with great poise, unsure whether to follow or retreat.

Just then, a beautifully melodious and elegant female voice came from behind Jiang Mi, “Are you Princess Yihua? I heard your mother was Xu Shu, the former Imperial Highness of the Former Shu?”

Jiang Mi turned around and met the curious gazes of four maids. The one who spoke to her, with such an elegant and melodious tone, whose very voice was pleasing to the ear, was none other than one of the maids!

“…This maid was even more like a princess than Princess Qingyue herself,” Jiang Mi thought to herself.

The four maids clearly had no intention of letting Jiang Mi leave. With graceful and natural movements, they subtly blocked Jiang Mi’s path.

At this moment, the maid who had spoken to Jiang Mi earlier asked softly, “Princess Yihua, what do you think is most important for a woman living in this world?”

Jiang Mi stared at her, stunned.

The maid smiled faintly, then spoke softly in her exquisitely melodious voice, “It seems Princess Yihua is wondering about our identities… We four are servants of the Lu family of Fanyang. Does Princess Yihua know of the Lu family of Fanyang? The Lu family of Fanyang is a noble family with a thousand-year history. Before the Tang Dynasty, even the Cui Clan of Boling family was not worthy of a marriage alliance with our Lu family of Fanyang… Does Princess Yihua now know of our Lu family of Fanyang?”

For some reason, upon hearing this, Jiang Mi suddenly felt less inferior. She stared intently at this beautiful maid who claimed to be merely a servant of the Lu family of Fanyang yet appeared even more noble than the Princess of Qinghe, then turned to look at the other three equally noble and extraordinarily beautiful maids. After a moment’s thought, Jiang Mi asked earnestly, “What do you want to say to me?”

The four maids were taken aback by Jiang Mi’s directness.

Just then, the door to the room Cui Zi Xuan had entered suddenly opened, and the stunningly beautiful woman emerged, her lips slightly pursed.

Seeing their young lady appear, the four maids curtsied gracefully from afar.

The beautiful woman approached, and the four maids did not straighten their backs as she gracefully descended the stairs. A short while later, the beautiful woman brushed past Jiang Mi, her steps quick and hurried.

Watching their young lady depart, two of the maids quickly followed, while the remaining two looked at Jiang Mi. One of them said softly, “Princess Yihua, you were rude just now.”

Her implication was that she was annoyed that Jiang Mi hadn’t bowed.

Jiang Mi turned her head, but before she could even turn back, the other maid said dismissively, “Princess Yihua comes from the countryside; she certainly wouldn’t understand the meaning of ‘Lu Clan of Fanyang’ and ‘Five Noble Houses and Seven Surnames’!”

…These words contained far too much contempt!

Not only these two maids, but several tall, imposing guards waiting in the distance also looked at Jiang Mi with a hint of disapproval.

And their contempt wasn’t entirely disapproval; how to describe it? It was the disdain one would show towards a speck of dust, towards a foolish, ignorant country bumpkin! Yes, disdain!

Everyone was looking at Jiang Mi with disdain.

Suddenly, Jiang Mi felt a surge of anger. In fact, ever since Cui Zi Xuan had stormed upstairs without a word, entering the room without even waiting for her, Jiang Mi had felt an indescribable sense of suffocation.

She couldn’t describe it, yet for the first time, she longed to vent.

Jiang Mi glanced at the two maids and the guards, and when she met their haughty expressions, she blinked and said very seriously, “But, I read in the official gazette a while ago that when Zhu Liang usurped the throne, he killed three members of the Lu clan of Fanyang. When Li Cunxu established the Later Tang Dynasty, he also destroyed a branch of the Lu clan of Fanyang. When Liu Zhiyuan established the Great Han State, Lu Congzhi of the Lu clan of Fanyang died. In the Wu Yue region, Lu Shuo of the Lu clan of Fanyang died suddenly. Last spring in March of the Southern Tang Dynasty, Lu Yuan, a direct descendant of the Lu clan of Fanyang, was killed…”

Jiang Mi’s clear, somewhat rigid voice, as if she were reading a court report, wasn’t loud, but it suddenly silenced the two maids standing beside her, the guards waiting nearby, and even the previously lively Young Master with Cui Zi Xuan in the room! Unbeknownst to them, someone pushed open the door to the room, and Jiang Mi’s clear, almost reciting voice drifted out—it was the stunningly beautiful woman who had rushed downstairs earlier, now standing there, stunned. At the stairwell, her face was deathly pale…

Jiang Mi continued reciting: “Last spring, in September, Lu Zixiu of the Lu Clan of Fanyang died on the Yangtze River while traveling from Southern Tang to Wu Yue…”

After reciting more than a dozen events in one breath, Jiang Mi looked up at the noble Young Master who emerged from a side room and asked him in a clear and curious voice, “Are there really, truly many people in your Lu Clan of Fanyang? But even if there are really, truly many, they can’t withstand such losses, can they? There are so many… Of all the official gazettes issued by the Tate family over the years, I’ve only read less than fifty. They record the deaths of eighteen members of your Lu clan of Fanyang, and the loss of three collateral branches… With such enormous casualties, why don’t you try to mitigate the damage, instead of wasting your energy arguing with an insignificant nobody like me?”

The young master, who bore a resemblance to the stunning beauty downstairs and possessed an effeminate handsomeness completely different from Cui Zi Xuan, suddenly felt a sharp dryness in his mouth!

The truth was, his face was deathly pale and his mouth was parched. He wasn’t the only one; several Young Masters were stunned. The arrogance on the face of the stunning beauty in the stairwell had vanished, and she stood beside Jiang Mi. The two maids, who had been so haughty just moments before, had bloodless lips. The imposing guards were all sweating profusely. Even Cui Zi Xuan was staring blankly at Jiang Mi, as if he were seeing her for the first time, his gaze intensely focused and unfathomable.