Chapter 403 – Demotion
The news of Lu Wushuang’s dismissal spread almost to the entirety of the capital. None who had once been mocked by her refrained from applauding their hands in approval. There were even some who stated that they had seen this coming; that Lu Wushuang did not look to be a person of good fortune.
There was no one who liked this eldest girl from the Lu family in the capital. When she had been favored by the emperor, she had looked down upon the women of nobility and been arrogant and rude. Oftentimes, she would humiliate them verbally. So, with the news of her dismissal, there were some who almost lit firecrackers in celebration.
The Lu Family didn’t close themselves off, but still, their interactions with the public decreased drastically. Even their servants didn’t appear in public that often anymore.
However, no one assumed that the Lu Family would lose any status due to this. After all, they still had a princess and Marquis Anyang who had just been promoted to General.
Ye Zhen wasn’t interested in how the world viewed Lu Wushuang’s incident. She had long lost the initial hatred she had had towards her. There was nothing to care about someone who wasn’t worthy of being her opponent.
Why should she care? Just like Imperial Physician Huang and Gao Xueping.
Imperial Physician Huang and Gao Xueping were assigned to Changzhou’s prison camps as doctors. Initially, Gong Tang had wanted to banish Gao Xueping from the palace, and assign Imperial Physician Huang to the school as a teacher. However, after the empress dowager became aware of the situation, she directly demoted Imperial Physician Huang, not because she was disrespectful to the princess, but because she dictated incidents unfairly, didn’t have the benevolence of a medical practitioner, and needed to learn how to be a doctor first.
She was originally a Fifth-rank Imperial Physician but was now a doctor without even a rank. Imperial Physician Huang… no, Huang Rou was naturally discontent. But there was little she could do. If it hadn’t been for the fact that the women of the Huang Family had always been imperial physicians, she might not even have been able to preserve her own life.
She and Gao Xueping left the palace that day.
Ye Zhen didn’t gloat or feel overly happy with the news of their punishment. Imperial Physician Huang was too malicious. If she had remained in the palace, disaster was bound to strike. It was better for her to leave the palace and be a doctor.
Because of this, the female physicians of the Imperial Physicians’ Courtyard all respected Ye Zhen a bit more, and didn’t dare to play around with her as they used to. Only Chen Jinru and Xia Yaohua still treated her as they once did.
The next morning, Ye Zhen and Mo Rongyi left the palace together, planning to hunt in the hunting grounds outside the city. She sent someone to fetch her crossbow from the Lu Mansion and rode on horseback alongside Mo Rongyi out of the city.
With them were some of Mo Rongyi’s study mates, some of the noble children they had played polo with the last time. Ye Zhen had technically fought alongside them in battle, so they were all accustomed to each other. She also brought Hong Ying with her.
Tang Zhen was already outside the hunting grounds, waiting for them.
Within the capital, Tang Zhen was considered a new nobility. Compared to the Lu Family’s former status as merchants, the Tang Family had a history of scholars and was thus more openly accepted by the other noble families. Furthermore, he didn’t have an arrogant little sister that was an imperial consort in the palace.
“Yaoyao.” Tang Zhen rode over on his horse, his eyes looking at Ye Zhen with a smile.
“Marquis Jing Ning, you’re already here.” Mo Rongyi was also extremely happy upon seeing him and immediately waved.
The other people seemed to have known that Tang Zhen would be here and weren’t surprised. On the contrary, they seemed to be looking forward to seeing him.
Ye Zhen furrowed her brows. “Brother Tang, why are you here?”
“Little Prince invited me to hunt,” Tang Zhen answered naturally, his gaze landing a bit greedily on Ye Zhen’s face.
“Brother Tang agreed to teach me archery,” Mo Rongyi said excitedly.
Ye Zhen flatly looked at him. “Didn’t you ask me to teach you?”
Mo Rongyi said awkwardly, “You can’t teach so many of us at once. Besides, if news gets out that my archery skills were taught by a little girl, wouldn’t that be a little embarrassing?”
“You don’t want to be embarrassed? Then let’s talk after you beat me,” Ye Zhen said with a snort. She felt that Marquis Jing Ning must have a motive in being here, otherwise, Mo Rongyi wouldn’t have invited him here with them.
Tang Zhen didn’t want to make Ye Zhen unhappy, and smiled, saying, “Little Prince, Yaoyao, let’s enter the forest first.”
Ye Zhen took a look at him, riding into the forest of the hunting grounds.
Tang Zhen followed up to her side. “Yaoyao, Little Prince was the one who invited me.”
“I heard you gifted him a set of bow and arrows. You are truly good to him.” Ye Zhen slightly smiled. Who didn’t know what he was planning?
Tang Zhen coughed lightly. “That is just a favor of my heart for the little prince. It had nothing to do with my coming to see you.”
Ye Zhen laughed aloud. “Why did you come to see me?”
“About what you said to me last time….” Tang Zhen looked at her. “Yaoyao, I’ve thought it through.”