Being a Good Person Is Difficult

Shumo lowered his gaze, his eyes falling on the maidservant's dejected yet undeniably pitiable face. He curved his lips into a sneer.

"Why, Shuilian? When you tried to seduce the Emperor, were disfigured by your own mistress, and left to die in a room, who saved you? It was the Crown Prince. Who took care of your meals and medicine? It was that girl from Yaohu." His voice was laced with anger. "And what did you do? Ungrateful, repaying kindness with enmity. When Yaohu asked for your help, you betrayed her, offering her to your mistress to vent her anger, and caused her death."

Shumo let out a cold laugh. "You wanted to step on her to get ahead, but what was the result? Weren't you still pushed out by your mistress to die?"

Shuilian's body trembled uncontrollably. She timidly and fearfully raised her head, reaching out a hand to grasp Shumo's robe, but he stepped back, dodging her grasp. Her delicate hand fell powerlessly to the ground.

"Eunuch Yu, this servant didn't mean to, I didn't want to. It was Consort Jing who forced me. If I didn't obey, both of us would have died." Shuilian shook her head frantically, tears splashing through the air.

"And that justifies you killing Yaohu?" Shumo lowered his head, his lips spitting out cruel words. "What a pity, why wasn't it you who died back then?"

If it had been you, perhaps Yaohu could have lived.

Shuilian sobbed uncontrollably. "Eunuch Yu, for the sake of His Highness the Crown Prince saving this servant, please spare my life. This servant is willing to be sent to the Laundry Bureau; I don't even mind emptying latrines. Please let me go." As she spoke, she kowtowed incessantly until her head was bloody.

Even in her disheveled state, Shuilian possessed a fragile vulnerability that could evoke pity in a softer heart.

Unfortunately, Shumo was as hard as iron; pity and sympathy had no place with him.

"Shuilian, do you think I don't know that you ran back to Consort Jing yourself to beg for refuge? You betrayed His Highness the Crown Prince's kindness and killed Yaohu. No one can forgive you." Shumo straightened up, his lips parting coldly. "Drag her out and have her beaten to death."

As his words fell, two executioner eunuchs, fierce as wolves, immediately came forward, grabbed Shuilian, and prepared to drag her away.

Shuilian was like mud, or perhaps knowing she couldn't escape death, a fierce glint flashed in her watery eyes as she snarled at Shumo, "Did I ask the Crown Prince to save me? If he hadn't interfered, perhaps the Emperor would have taken pity on me and favored me long ago. Is it wrong for me to not want to be a lowly servant for my entire life in the palace? Is it wrong for me to want to be someone superior, to enjoy wealth and status? Do you think I would be grateful to the Crown Prince? No, I hate him. Who asked him to meddle in my affairs?"

Back then, she had been disfigured and burning with fever. The Crown Prince had brought imperial physicians to save her, even saying that if she wished, he could arrange for her to leave the palace.

It was her unwillingness to accept a life of subservience despite her beauty, her attempt to climb into the Emperor's bed, that made her refuse to leave the palace.

Shuilian vaguely thought that if she had agreed then, even if she couldn't live a life of wealth and status, she could have married an ordinary man and lived a peaceful, ordinary life.

But now, it was too late for regrets.

Shumo's face turned ashen, and he spat out a few words from between his lips: "Drag her away. Beat her to death immediately."

If it weren't for the Crown Prince, she would have died silently long ago, her bones turned to dust. And she still had the audacity to resent the Crown Prince? Shameless hussy!

Eunuch Hai waved his hand, and Shuilian's mouth was immediately gagged before she was dragged away for execution.

He sighed, recalling how the Crown Prince, in his benevolence and generosity, was willing to risk offending all the masters and mistresses in the palace to fight for a chance at life for the lowly palace maids and servants.

If the Crown Prince hadn't done it, no one would have blamed him. Servants were meant to vent their masters' anger, and even in death, they had to kowtow to thank their masters for decreeing their demise, for fear of implicating their families.

By doing so, the Crown Prince gained little benefit for himself, but instead offended everyone.

Even Eunuch Hai, in his heart, had admired and been grateful to the Crown Prince back then. As fellow servants, who would want their lives to be so casually dictated by those above them?

He never expected that fate could be so unpredictable. In the end, the person who had received the Crown Prince's favor became the one to stab him in the back.

Indeed, one couldn't just be a good person in this world!

Eunuch Hai lamented.

There was no need to question the rest. Shumo confirmed that they deserved their fate and had them dragged away to be executed one by one.

He wanted to let everyone in the palace know that the Crown Prince was not to be trifled with, and that offending him meant paying with one's life.

Shumo was not afraid of being accused of cruelty. From this day forward, he would be the Crown Prince's vicious hound. Anyone who dared to harm the Crown Prince would have to step over his dead body first.

Those who were sensible voluntarily bowed their heads and pushed their subordinates forward as scapegoats to atone, but there were still those who were not sensible, such as the Grand Princess and the Second Prince.

Thinking that they were the ones who had deliberately caused the deaths of Huaying and Qiyu, Shumo's hatred was so intense that his eyes felt like they would bleed.

The Grand Princess, Xiao Yuan, was born to Consort Guo.

Consort Guo had been favored by Emperor Yongchang since her entry into the palace, and this favor had never waned. Consequently, the Grand Princess she bore was raised to be spoiled and arrogant, treating human lives as less than grass. When displeased, she would take her anger out on the palace maids and eunuchs, and several bodies were carried out of her palace every month.