Chapter 6: Chu Xingchen stared at her with bloodshot eyes, like a trapped beast filled with hatred.
Zhang Susu suddenly remembered—in the Original Work, this Eunuch Shen was the palace servant who ended up being torn apart by five horses under Chu Xingchen’s orders. Truly, every debt has its debtor.
Shen Ruhai probably never imagined that the way he was now using his power to mistreat Chu Xingchen, bullying him in his weakness and helplessness, would one day lead to Chu Xingchen, once his wings had grown strong, taking direct revenge on those who had once humiliated him.
“Your Highness the Eldest Princess, this Interrogation Room of the Inner Service Directorate is so filthy. You, a noble descendant of royalty, should not have come to such a place without a word—it might soil your eyes!”
If Eunuch Shen had been arrogant and overbearing when facing Chu Xingchen just moments ago, then the Eunuch Shen now facing Su Yingxue was completely different—kind, flattering, and servile.
If Su Yingxue hadn’t overheard a few of his words from the Interrogation Room while in the corridor earlier, she wouldn’t have believed that the same person could wear so many different faces in front of different people.
A hypocritical villain! Fawning on the powerful and trampling on the weak! Bullying the defenseless! He truly was not a good person!
Zhang Susu felt she didn’t like this Eunuch Shen in front of her at all. However, having just transmigrated into Su Yingxue’s body, she held onto the idea of offending fewer palace servants and making fewer enemies to live a few more years.
She suppressed the urge to curse him out, instead restoring the Eldest Princess’s original aloofness and arrogance. With a cold face and a lowered voice, she said sharply to Eunuch Shen, “Perhaps the Eunuch is unaware—This Palace’s life was saved by Chu Huangzi!”
Zhang Susu thought that, given the current situation, since Chu Xingchen had been falsely accused of pushing Su Yingxue into the lake and attempting to murder the Eldest Princess, and was now detained in the Inner Service Directorate…
Then the best way to take him away would be for her, the victim herself, to personally deny this false accusation. After all, Chu Xingchen was covered in wounds from head to toe at this moment—she still needed to rescue him and have an Imperial Physician treat and dress his injuries.
“Eunuch, isn’t it inappropriate for you to torture This Palace’s savior like this?” Su Yingxue’s expression turned cold as she angrily scolded the two attendants kneeling before her who had just carried out the torture. “Fools! Why are you still kneeling? Hurry and take Chu Huangzi down from that iron rack!”
“By treating This Palace’s savor this way, do you intend for This Palace to be criticized by the world as malicious and ungrateful?” Su Yingxue, dressed in magnificent robes, now looked pale and dizzy.
Su Yingxue’s body was truly too weak, but she had to get Chu Xingchen out as quickly as possible. She had only fallen into the water and was already burning up with such a high fever, while Chu Xingchen, after rescuing her, had been sent directly here to endure severe torture.
However, because the Eldest Princess had always had a poor reputation in the Great Sheng Dynasty, she had deliberately acted arrogantly and domineeringly earlier to avoid breaking character from the original novel’s setting. This fit the persona of the mad and vicious Eldest Princess.
This life-saving debt was something Su Yingxue owed Chu Xingchen. But since it involved her five million, then for the sake of the money, it was also something Zhang Susu owed Chu Xingchen.
Zhang Susu had always been clear about gratitude and grudges and disliked owing favors. So from now on, no matter what Chu Xingchen did, she would definitely protect him.
“Your Highness the Eldest Princess, please calm your anger!” Eunuch Shen, a true veteran of the palace, quickly assessed the situation with just a few words. He immediately knelt again and pleaded, “This servant was entrusted by His Majesty to apprehend Prince Chu and the palace servants who were present at the scene. After separate interrogations, a palace maid in yellow testified that she personally witnessed Prince Chu Xingchen push you into the lake.”
“As the Inner Service Directorate directly under His Majesty’s command, how could we act without evidence?”
Eunuch Shen continued his measured explanation, “At that time, Your Highness was deeply unconscious with a high fever, and this servant could not inquire about the truth from you. Hearing the palace maid’s testimony, which seemed reasonable and was based on firsthand observation, I feared letting the suspect go and had no choice but to take this drastic measure! Given the complexity of the situation, I beg Your Highness for your understanding!”
Upon hearing this, Zhang Susu frowned. Truly a seasoned palace veteran—with just a few words, he had managed to shift most of the blame away from himself.
Though displeased, Zhang Susu understood that the most urgent matter now was to take Chu Xingchen away. The servants who had acted and the palace maid could be dealt with later.
“Since that is the case, the most pressing matter now is for This Palace to take Prince Chu away and have an imperial physician treat his injuries properly.” Su Yingxue’s eyes turned cold, her tone icy as she declared, “As for those of you who laid hands on him and the palace maid who claimed to have witnessed it, send them to This Palace’s hall later. This Palace will personally interrogate them.”
“You there, find a stretcher and carry Prince Chu to This Palace’s hall. Quickly.”
Su Yingxue pointed at Chu Xingchen, who had already been freed from his chains by the attendants and was sitting weakly on a carved wooden chair. Seeing the pale and stern Su Yingxue before him, he couldn’t help but curl his lips into a cold smile. What trick was this woman playing now?
Everyone in the Dasheng Royal Palace knew that Chu Xingchen was a thorn in Su Yingxue’s side. The miserable state he found himself in today was largely thanks to her.
This Eldest Princess of the Great Sheng Dynasty, the most arrogant, willful, and spoiled of them all. Two years ago, when her lustful advances were rejected, she found every excuse to bring people to humiliate and torment him.
Had she grown tired of simply beating, flogging, and tormenting him? Was she changing her tactics now?
Beat him first, then offer a sweet date?
Or use the Inner Service Directorate as the villain to torture him, while she played the hero saving the beauty?
Chu Xingchen’s bloodshot eyes stared at her, filled with naked hatred. He was like a trapped beast, a young lone wolf, glaring at Su Yingxue with intense hostility.
In his eyes, those who had beaten, flogged, and tortured him were despicable, hateful, and deserved to die. But the one he hated most was the woman before him, who had used every means to humiliate and torment him. With just a word from her, the palace servants under her command would go to extremes to make his life hell.
Chu Xingchen’s greatest hatred was reserved for the mastermind behind it all—Su Yingxue. It was laughable that Su Yingxue, despite her breathtakingly beautiful face, had a heart as venomous as a snake’s. This woman, who appeared delicate and frail, was in truth the most malicious of them all!
“If Your Highness the Eldest Princess thinks that by saving me like this, I will feel grateful and willingly become Your Highness’s male consort, serving with my looks, then I’m afraid Your Highness’s calculations are in vain.”
Chu Xingchen was placed on a stretcher when he turned to Su Yingxue, who was watching him with a concerned expression, and sneered coldly, “After all, when Your Highness the Eldest Princess looks at me with such concern, I find it utterly nauseating.”
As soon as these words fell, Qiushuang was shocked upon hearing them. No one had ever dared to speak such words in front of the Eldest Princess. Her face flushed with anger, but the dignity of the Eldest Princess could not be tarnished by this man for no reason.
Qiushuang’s words carried authority without anger, a blessing bestowed upon her by the Eldest Princess’s noble status. She spoke coldly, word by word, “Prince Chu is merely a Hostage Prince. At present, his only use in the Great Sheng Dynasty lies in his few remaining charms.”