Hearing Xiao Cheng say that, the two maids slapped her even harder.
Lin Fangfei had still been able to cry aloud before, but now, with slap after slap raining down on her, she could no longer make a sound.
Heir Zheng could only stand to the side in helpless fury. He shouted at the two maids to stop, but they ignored him entirely. He tried to go over and rescue Lin Fangfei, but the maid was too strong and flung him away again. This time, he was not lucky enough to catch hold of a tree and landed on his backside.
Heir Zheng's feelings for Lin Fangfei were sincere, and he could not bear to see her mistreated. When his own words proved useless, he turned his anger on Xiao Mingzhu.
"Xiao Mingzhu, hurry up and tell them to stop! Fangfei is carrying my child, yet you're having her beaten like this. You're so jealous and heartless! Is this how a proper wife should behave?"
Xiao Mingzhu did not take a single word of his to heart. She treated it as nothing more than a dog barking.
Xiao Cheng was not nearly so composed. He had just opened his mouth to curse when his eldest brother, Xiao Yuxing, spoke first.
"You're mistaken, Heir Zheng. This isn't a matter of my sister being jealous. This woman has insulted the imperial family.
"What status does she have? How dare she compare herself to imperial princesses and royal ladies? Then again, she's merely a bedchamber maid, not even a concubine, so her ignorance of etiquette is understandable. But as the legitimate son of an earl's household, surely you know the consequences of insulting the imperial family?"
Reminded by Xiao Yuxing, Heir Zheng recalled that even the lightest punishment for insulting the imperial family