The Pampered Fake Princess (Ten)

After leaving Prince Kang's Residence, Wang Xue did not know where to go for the time being, so she simply rented a house in the capital and settled there.

The house had two courtyards. The rear was for living in, while Wang Xue converted the front into a medical clinic.

She had brought only a limited amount of silver, and she could hardly sit idle and eat her way through it all.

At first, few people came to the clinic. It was newly opened, and its physician was a woman, so no one trusted her. Whenever they fell ill, they went first to the clinics they knew.

Seeing that she was spending more than she earned, not only making no money but paying out of pocket, Wang Xue grew anxious. She cut her original prices by forty percent, selling herbal medicines and the like at almost cost and earning only a modest fee for the work of treating patients.

Her method worked. Many families in the city who could not afford medical treatment chose to visit her clinic. Her reputation spread by word of mouth, and before long, stories of a female miracle doctor were circulating throughout the city.

The news reached the palace and came to the ears of the noble consort, whose heart was set on bearing a son.

"Miss Wang, people outside all say you are a miracle doctor. Do you have a way to help me bear a son?"

The noble consort wore a purple palace gown patterned with hibiscus flowers and delicate makeup. The outer corners of her catlike eyes tilted slightly upward, lending them a seductive beauty and an arrogant air that looked down on everyone.

A son? Wang Xue frowned. There was indeed a way, but it was a forbidden art that came at the cost of drawing on the mother's blood essence. The further along the pregnancy, the greater the harm to the mother. In the end, many died before they could hold on until the child was born.

She told the noble consort all the dangers, yet the noble consort nodded and simply ordered her to stay in the palace for the time being and tend to her health?

The empress and the eldest prince had overshadowed her all her life. Bearing an imperial son had almost become the woman's consuming obsession.

And so Wang Xue settled into the noble consort's Zhongcui Palace. To outsiders, she was introduced only as a distant relative sent by the noble consort's family.

She had not expected a willow planted without thought to grow into shade. She could not find any of the people she wanted to find. Once she stopped looking, heaven itself actually brought the stepping stone to her side.

On her first day living in the palace, Wang Xue was still in a daze. Was this what life in the palace was like?

The life Jiang Xuefu had lived for the past eleven years.

Wang Xue prepared medicine for the noble consort, who took it on the day she attended the emperor in bed. Afterward, she continued taking it for a full month. After all that effort, good news finally came from Zhongcui Palace three months later.

Over the past few years, the emperor had held consort selections to fill his harem, but his offspring remained few. Now that his beloved noble consort was pregnant, he was naturally delighted. With a wave of his hand, he bestowed a great many gifts on Zhongcui Palace.

After this, Wang Xue's position at the noble consort's side grew ever more secure. Wherever the noble consort went, she could not feel at ease unless Wang Xue accompanied her.

That day happened to be the Dragon Boat Festival. To celebrate the noble consort's pregnancy as well, the emperor held a banquet in the palace, inviting all officials of the first rank and above to bring their families.

After nine years, Wang Xue finally saw Jiang Xuefu again.

She was even more beautiful than Wang Xue had imagined, truly worthy of the title of Dachang's greatest beauty.

Her seat was the first one below the emperor's, and she was even more favored than Wang Xue had imagined.

Perhaps Wang Xue had stared a little too long, for Jiang Xuefu finally looked toward the corner where she stood.

"Your Highness, why does that maid beside you look unfamiliar? And she's wearing a veil before His Majesty. I'm afraid... that isn't proper, is it?"

The noble consort's smile stiffened slightly, and her fingers tightened around her wine cup until they turned white.

Jiang Xuefu again!

If asked whom she hated most, the empress came first, and Jiang Xuefu was unquestionably second.

Some wild girl who had appeared from nowhere had been adopted by the emperor over everyone's objections. The moment she returned to the palace, she was granted a title, and afterward she received supreme favor and honors!

And what of her own daughter, Qi Hua? Hua'er was plainly the real princess, yet even now she had no title, much less a residence of her own.

The world knew only the noble and stunning Princess Fu'an. Who knew there was also a Princess Qi Hua in the depths of the palace?

Though the noble consort usually had a bad temper, she did not dare lose it before Jiang Xuefu. "This is a distant cousin from my family. They feared I would miss home too much during my pregnancy, so they sent her into the palace especially to keep me company."

She had deliberately mentioned her pregnancy, hoping Jiang Xuefu would show some restraint.

Jiang Xuefu, however, was not afraid in the slightest.

"If she's a distant cousin, why is she wearing a veil? Could it be..."

Jiang Xuefu left her insinuation unfinished, but the unspoken half was enough to set imaginations running.

The emperor looked at the noble consort, his expression giving nothing away. Her heart jolted, and she hated Jiang Xuefu to the core.

But for now, she had no choice but to push Wang Xue forward.

She had seen Wang Xue's face in private. How could a single word like frightening describe it? She was as ugly as an evil ghost!

The hall had fallen silent as a tomb at Jiang Xuefu's sudden attack. Everyone knew that though the princess looked beautiful, she was in fact a flower with thorns.

Many young men at the banquet admired Princess Fu'an, but without exception, their families had stopped them.

Only the imperial palace could afford to pamper the princess. If she married into an ordinary noble household, there would likely be no peace in the home.

Wang Xue slowly walked to the center of the hall and faced the emperor seated at the highest point.

Her whole body trembled, and the fear in her eyes gathered into tears that threatened to fall. Judging by her eyes alone, she looked heartbreakingly pitiful.

Wang Xue knew how frightening the scars on her face were. She never removed her veil in front of others precisely because she did not want to see their fearful, disgusted looks.

Yet today, she was being forced to reveal her true face in front of everyone, merely because she had looked a couple of times too often!

The one responsible for all of this was her! Jiang Xuefu!

Jiang Xuefu, however, heard none of the resentment in her heart. She simply took a strong dislike to this veiled woman.

"What are you hesitating for? Take it off. Even if you're ugly, we won't laugh at you."

She looked at the woman in the hall with a smile that was not quite a smile, just like a bully in a storybook who preyed on the weak.

Unfortunately, this time, not only power but even goodwill stood on the bully's side.

Wang Xue looked at the middle-aged emperor on the dragon throne, who bore a striking resemblance to her mother, and an unfamiliar sense of closeness and dependence welled up in her.

This was her uncle, her only family in this world.

The thought of her dead mother suddenly gave Wang Xue courage again. She believed her uncle would surely sense that she was special too and would not make things difficult for her.

"Your Majesty, I... your servant's face is ugly. I'm afraid it may be unpleasant to look at."

"It's all right. We won't mind."

Before the emperor could speak, Jiang Xuefu cut in.

Yet the emperor merely smiled helplessly at this, with no thought of punishing her.

"Noble consort, a maid is making excuses here in the hall. Could someone have put her up to it?"

The emperor's casual words frightened the noble consort so badly that her legs nearly gave way.

She frantically signaled Wang Xue, who stood in the hall: If you don't take it off, today will be the day you die!

When the noble consort treated someone well, she was genuinely good to them, but she could turn on them in an instant.

Wang Xue trembled in fright. She knew she was alone and without support now.

With tears in her eyes, she closed them and lifted the veil from her face, her heart as cold as dead ashes.

A chorus of gasps rang out at once. Some of the more timid ladies were so frightened that they screamed, heedless of their breach of etiquette before the throne!

The emperor frowned. Though he did not lose his composure like the others, disgust nevertheless crept into his eyes.

"You may leave."

Wang Xue heard the displeasure in his words. Weeping, she quickly tied her veil back on, hurriedly curtsied and withdrew, then ran back to her sleeping quarters in utter grief, where she cried for a long time again.