Within the Empress’ Tianfeng Palace.

The Empress sat high up with a cold and ugly expression. Beside her, Fifth Princess sat quietly, watching the servants walk in and out of the hall with pails of bloody water. Her face turned pale.

Mo Xuetong sat below, squeezing Mo Lan’s hand tight as she was a bit nervous. Her eyes turned misty and watery, making her look worried and helpless. Her fingers hooked on Mo Lan’s hand as her knuckles were white from using force. However, from the corner of her eyes hid a slight tinge of coldness.

“How is Beauty Liu?” Seeing that a servant had rushed in, the Empress asked.

“I’m afraid that Beauty Liu’s face…” The servant hesitated to choose her words but her meaning was clear.

The Empress could not sit and wait anymore as Beauty Liu was a new concubine of the Emperor. She had to answer to the Emperor for damaging the face of his new lover.

Standing up, she led the group to the side hall, where the smell of blood was mixed with that of sandalwood, and herbs, making all extremely uncomfortable.

“Doctor, can my face be treated? Will I have a scar?” Beauty Liu shouted out with her sharp voice. As a piece of white cloth covered Beauty Liu’s face, only her eyes could be seen.

“I’m afraid that a scar… is probably difficult to avoid.” The old doctor retreated and answered carefully.

“Why? Didn’t Beauty Lin leave no scar behind after having her face hurt? Why can’t I be like her?” Beauty Liu asked anxiously.

A month ago, the Emperor’s another beauty fell while walking, knocking onto the tree in front, damaging her looks. Fortunately, the doctors in the imperial hospital were skilled enough. Just when other beauties were secretly delighted, Beauty Lin came last week with merely a pale face and no other injuries.

The Empress’ gaze fell on the doctor as she asked him the same question. “Why can’t Beauty Liu avoid any scar since both of them injured their face?”

The doctor frowned and replied after seeing the Empress’s dissatisfied face. “Beauty Lin was merely injured by a normal tree branch. However, Beauty Liu was injured by both the sharp claws of monkey, as well as the poison on the claws.”

“Poison? Why?” The Empress asked anxiously as she glanced at Fifth Princess, frowning slightly.

“Please say, what poison?” Seeing that the doctor was hesitating, Beauty Liu was anxious and prompted.

“It is an unusually vicious poison. The poison invades the skin, creating a scar on the face and damaging the parts around it. Even if we use the best medicine, deadly grey scars will appear after it completely healed.” The doctor replied as he lowered his head respectfully. He secretly lamented on the viciousness of these women in the Emperor’s harem. Indeed, only they would use such extreme means to destroy someone’s looks.

However, as a doctor, it was not in his position to say that.

“What? How can such poison exist under a monkey’s claws?” The Empress’ face changed and she expressed her shock.

“Perhaps a monkey stepped on such poison accidentally and left the poison into the scar.” The doctor forcefully explained even though no one believed in his explanation. However, everyone in the palace was too smart to openly doubt his claim.

“No, impossible! Impossible to leave a scar.” Beauty Liu was extremely anxious as she grabbed her head in a frantic. She kept asking the doctor to gain even a last simmer of hope.

The doctor turned around and replied, “Beauty, my shallow knowledge limits me from knowing this exact poison. If I could know what it is, I can use the antidote immediately and perhaps there’s still hope.”

Women in the palace need their pretty face for love from the Emperor, and for survival within the palace. A woman with a broken face will not be loved by the Emperor. A woman without love from the Emperor and children will always have a miserable ending in the harem.

The cold hard palace walls will lock out all the vitality of such women, and their families too.

“Impossible! Impossible!” Beauty Liu screamed in fear, struggling to get up from the bed. She looked around the bed at everyone, stopping at Fifth Princess, who was standing behind the Empress. “Fifth Princess, save me! Please save me! Where is the antidote?”

Her screams made the Empress and Fifth Princess shocked.

“Beauty Liu, please be careful in your words. Fifth Princess had always been in Tianfeng Palace and had nothing to do with you!” The Empress chided.

Thinking about her tragically disfigured face, as well as the sympathy on the face of servants and eunuchs, Beauty Liu could not help but break down.

She was going insane and had no other ways. She knew that Fifth Princess used the poison and assumed that she must have the antidote. Hence, she tugged the Empress’ sleeves and begged, “Empress, please let Fifth Princess give the antidote to me. Fifth Princess said that I only need to bring Princess Anping there and shake out fragrance to attract monkeys. Princess Anping was rude to Fifth Princess and she merely wanted to punish her. Please ask Fifth Princess.”

“Shut up! Enough with your gibberish! Come and shut her mouth!” Seeing that she had spilled out the entire truth, the Empress had a bad feeling, and thus shouted out.

“It’s really Fifth Princess. Really! Empress, the Emperor will be here soon and I will say the truth in front of him if Fifth Princess does not give me the antidote.” Beauty Liu was insane. Her scar tore open from her agitated speech and blood sipped out from her face, making her look even more sinister and awkward.

“Shut up! I am the Fifth Princess! Why would I harm Princess Anping? You must have set up this trap as you see that my father would rather focus on Princess Anping than you!” Fifth Princess looked at Beauty Liu with cruel merciless eyes, chiding her.

Two servants came and pulled Beauty Liu apart. One used a handkerchief to press into her mouth while the other held her hand, preventing her from swaying.

Mo Xuetong stood aside and pretended to be unaware of it. However, she had no sympathy for Beauty Liu as there were numerous concubines in the palace. Furthermore, Beauty Liu had the malicious intention of disfiguring her to please Fifth Princess.

Fortunately, she was learning medicine and knew about herbs and drugs. Such an abnormal fragrance made her immediately alert. Moreover, Beauty Liu brought her on a split path, which indicated an obviously insidious intention. Mo Xuetong thus immediately kneeled down and got rid of the scent that Beauty secretly placed in her sleeves.

The corner of her eyes swept to the obviously flustered Fifth Princess with a tinge of hatred. She was truly too arrogant in thinking that she could escape so easily from her crime.

“Fifth Princess, why do you want to harm me?” She looked up suddenly, directly taunting Fifth Princess, instead of Beauty Liu. She was tempting her to retaliate.

Fifth Princess immediately stood up, and angrily retaliated.

“Harm you? Why will I harm you? Do you really think you can seduce my cousin with your pretty face?”

Even though she did not admit it, she did not hide her hatred and murderous intents in front of everyone. Compared to this adopted princess, she was a true princess of the royal family, and she did not believe that her father would punish her just because of such a humble girl.

“I don’t understand what Fifth Princess meant. Sir Bai had nothing to do with me and he merely agreed to come by invitation of Mother and Fifth Princess. We had a few words and it was nothing like what the Fifth Princess thought. Perhaps you are indeed retaliating me for what happened previously.” Mo Xuetong’s eyes turned watery as she was about to cry, as if she had met with great injustice.

“Fifth Princess was willing to disfigure me just because I talked to Sir Bai?”

Furthermore, this was in Princess Royal’s palace, which meant that Princess Royal could testify. Fifth Princess started to panic as she remembered that Princess Royal was dominant even in front of Mother. Furthermore, she was the one that Father trusted the most. If she stood up for Mo Xuetong, Fifth Princess would be in trouble.

“Gibberish! Why are you blaming me for your matter with Beauty Liu? I never once left the palace! I shall not take responsibility for Beauty Liu’s gibberish!” Fifth Princess’ face turned cold as she stood up, chiding Mo Xuetong.

She had asked her servants to talk to Beauty Liu’s servants previously, making sure that no blame could be assigned to her. Furthermore, she did not believe that Mo Xuetong could interfere with palace affairs.

“Princess Anping, do you know that framing the royal family can result in the death penalty?” The Empress’ face sank and she shouted solemnly.

“Exactly. It is a death penalty to frame the royal family, but who shall die since Anping was the one being framed?” An angry voice came from the door of the hall.

At this time, a servant outside shouted, “Princess Royal Mingzhu arrived.”

Everyone present was all stunned. Mo Xuetong secretly smiled as it was now impossible for the Empress and Fifth Princess to suppress her using authority.

“Save me, Princess Royal. Quick, let Fifth Princess take out the antidote, same me…” Beauty Liu jumped out first. Knowing that her face was gone, she could not endure anymore and struggled out of the servants’ control. She spat out the handkerchief in her mouth and jumped out, kneeling in front of Princess Royal.

“What happened?” Princess Royal stopped and asked harshly.

“Fifth Princess wanted to disfigure Princess Anping, not me. Fifth Princess had the poison on the monkey and the monkey belonged to Fifth Princess too…” The sharp pain on Beauty Liu’s face reminded her of her fear. She was afraid that even a second of delay would ruin her face.

She kneeled and clawed towards Fifth Princess, begging her, “Fifth Princess, give me the antidote. Save me, and I will always listen to you.”

“Beauty Liu has gone mad. Bring her aside, she should not be kneeling in front of Xueyu.” Seeing that the situation was a mess now, she turned and ordered the servants.

Even though beauties had no real power, they were still concubines of the Emperor. It would be utterly inappropriate for the Emperor’s wife to beg and kneel in front of the Emperor’s daughter. Even they were different in status, they made it up with age. It did make sense for the Empress to say that Beauty Liu was crazy.

Mo Xuetong smirked as she knew that the Empress wanted to push all the blame to Beauty Liu by saying that she was mad and incredible.

“Go away, crazy woman!” Fifth Princess looked at Beauty Liu’s bloody face and kicked her away, disgust written all over her face.

A few servants came and pushed Beauty Liu down, pushing the handkerchief back into her mouth. The skillful actions made Mo Xuetong’s heart skip a beat.

She knew that she could have been severely punished by the Empress if not for Princess Royal’s arrival! Her cold eyes landed on Fifth Princess, who was patting her dress because of disgust toward Beauty Liu. She knew that the girl wanted to disfigure her merely because she talked to Bai Yihao.

No wonder she could be a good friend of Mo Xuemin. The two were similar in their malice and arrogance. Their small age did not limit their ability to manipulate the life of others. Mo Xuetong hated them as they placed themselves at the center of the universe, controlling the life and death of others…

However, Fifth Princess was too “clever” and had harmed herself!