[Salty Fish System: That Young Marquis doesn't just have a taste for men. He enjoys torturing people in bed. Afraid he might cause trouble, the people at the Marquis's Residence often buy handsome young boys from impoverished families from slave traders.] [Salty Fish System: These boys have no backing, and they've already been sold to slave traders. Even if the Young Marquis abuses them to death, no one will come demanding compensation. Once they're dead, all the estate has to do is wrap them in a straw mat and dump them in a mass grave.] [Salty Fish System: According to incomplete figures, no fewer than ten young boys have been abused to death by that Young Marquis.]
Fuck!
What kind of rotten bastard was he?
The emperor suddenly crushed the cup in his hand!
He was the emperor himself, yet he had never heard of these vile deeds committed by the Young Marquis of the Guangping Marquis Estate!
The Seventh Princess was one of his two most beloved daughters, and she was also a child the empress had borne him.
That was why he had given her marriage such careful consideration.
He had chosen the Guangping Marquis Estate partly to repay its old madam's kindness to him, and partly because he had sent people to investigate. Only after finding that the Young Marquis's private life was indeed free of scandal had he made the final decision.
Who would have thought that even an emperor could be played for a fool!
The more the Seventh Princess thought about it, the more heartbroken she became. She simply buried herself in the emperor's arms and continued sobbing her heart out.
Sitting on the emperor's lap, Wenren Qingluo gently patted the Seventh Princess's back with her little hand.
Poor Seventh Sister.
[Wait, if Uncle Emperor was going to betroth Seventh Sister to the Young Marquis of the Guangping Marquis Estate, he must have sent people to investigate. Didn't his covert guards uncover anything?]
[Salty Fish System: The emperor has shown the Guangping Marquis Estate considerable favor all these years. As long as their own interests weren't involved, which of those old foxes in officialdom would go looking for trouble by exposing this? As for the covert guards, that's the power of the plot.] [Salty Fish System: The most disgusting part is what the Guangping Marquis Estate is planning. Its people have grown accustomed to wearing gold and silver over the years. Everyone in the estate, from top to bottom, spends lavishly. They've long been eating next month's grain this month.] [Salty Fish System: And then the emperor happened to say he would marry the Seventh Princess into the Marquis's Residence. How could a princess's dowry be anything but enormous? With the princess, they'd practically have a mountain of gold. Do you think they'd refuse?]
They were so fucking shameless!
The emperor truly could no longer sit still. At a signal from his eyes, the covert guard hidden in the study immediately understood and departed like a gust of wind.
Did they think an emperor's favor was so easily obtained?
Since the whole Guangping Marquis Estate dared deceive him to this extent, they couldn't blame him for overturning the table!
The emperor now felt like some unfortunate girl who had met a faithless lover. He was seething!
He had laid his heart bare to them, while they had played their little mind games with him.
[Salty Fish System: The most miserable and pitiable person in the entire Guangping Marquis Estate is its old madam.]
[How so?]
[Salty Fish: Host, have you watched Empresses in the Palace? Do you remember that line, "The empress killed the empress"?]
[Stop talking in circles. Just tell me what happened.]
[Salty Fish System: This old madam's husband was killed by his own younger brother on the very day they married. There has always been a legend in the Guangping Marquis Estate that the birth of twins marks the beginning of the Marquis's Residence's decline.] [Salty Fish System: To preserve her own wealth and glory, the previous old madam of the Guangping Marquis Estate handed the younger twin to her personal serving woman and had her raise him as her own son. Later, he accidentally learned that he, too, was the Marquis's Wife's biological son. Comparing his own life with the Young Marquis's, he gradually grew resentful.] [Salty Fish System: So he found an opportunity on the Young Marquis's wedding day to hide beneath the bridal bed. Once the wedding matron and servants had all withdrawn, he crawled out and killed his own elder brother with a single stab. The bride wanted to cry for help, but the difference in their strength was too great. The murderer overpowered her and violated her in bed all night long. Afterward, he threatened to have people spread rumors about her if she dared tell anyone what had happened.]
What a rotten bastard!
Hating your own mother and brother was understandable.
But that bride had only just married into the Marquis's Residence and knew nothing at all. Not only did you violate her, you even threatened her with her reputation!
The emperor glanced at the Chief Eunuch beside him. Certain that he could also hear Wenren Luoshui's thoughts, the emperor signaled him with his eyes.
Having served the emperor since childhood, the Chief Eunuch immediately understood. He picked up paper and a brush and began recording everything.
This was all important evidence!
[Salty Fish System: But this Marquis's Wife was a woman of fierce resolve. On the surface, she pretended to be frightened into submission, while secretly sending word to her family, hoping they would report the crime. The false marquis had terrible character, but he was quite capable. Half a month later, he brought her younger brother before her, beaten to a bloody pulp, and told her she could either behave herself and be his puppet Marquis's Wife, or he would kill her entire birth family before her eyes.]
The old madam's family was not particularly distinguished. Her father was merely a low-ranking, seventh-rank official.
Had she not been fortunate enough to catch the marquis's eye, she could never have married into the Marquis's Residence.
So when her false husband threatened to kill her entire family, she truly believed him.
From then on, for her family's sake, she could only remain quietly in the Marquis's Residence as its Marquis's Wife in name alone.
Afraid she still might refuse to obey, her false husband even married her younger sister to a county magistrate who had been demoted to a remote region.
If her sister was to have an easier life, only she, as the elder sister who was the Marquis's Wife, could help support her.
That made her even more afraid to reveal the Marquis's Residence's secret.
[Salty Fish System: Not one of the Marquis's Residence's current younger generation is actually her biological child. When she realized she could never escape that devil, she decisively took a large quantity of sterilizing medicine, leaving herself unable to conceive for the rest of her life. Those children were all born to the false marquis's concubines. He merely forced them to be registered under her name.] [Salty Fish System: Back then, she helped the emperor while he was living in the cold palace only because she felt he was like her-a little bird trapped in an exquisite cage.] [Salty Fish System: She simply never imagined that the little prince she helped out of sympathy for their shared plight would later become emperor! Nor did she imagine that this emperor would value affection and loyalty so deeply. Every time she saw the rewards he sent to the Marquis's Residence, she felt unworthy of accepting them. Later, she died of depression.]
By the time the system finished, Wenren Luoshui no longer felt like making sarcastic comments.
If the old Marquis's Wife had known that her unintentional act all those years ago would let those devils in the Marquis's Residence bask in glory for several more decades, she would probably have regretted it until her guts turned green.
Who would want to see their enemies living better and better lives?
She had endured so many years in the estate without bearing a single child. She had no ties or attachments to anyone there. What she most wanted to see was surely every last person in the estate receiving their just punishment for their evil!
Sadly, even before her death, she never lived to see those devils receive their retribution!