Legend of Fu Yao

Only Meng Fuyao was able to see her expression.

Princess Lotus was actually laughing.

Her laugh was calm and pure, and using a voice only the two of them could hear, she said quietly, “Meng Fuyao, I came to offer you a toast, not for you to shame me.”

“You came here to harm me.” Meng Fuyao too laughed as she replied lowly, “Of course you wouldn’t be so stupid as to add poison to the wine, but, you prepared something over at your ignorant brother’s side…” Her laughter turned hostile as she said, “How courteous of you, how persuasive of you, and with so many people supporting you, I would have to drink if I didn’t want to lose face. But no matter how much I think, compared with your pride, my life is worth ten thousand times more, so I’ll have to disappoint you.”

Meng Fuyao stepped backward and raised the wine cup, her volume rising as she said, “With the virtuous Princess Lotus whose honorable deed of exorcizing the enemy corpse standing before me, I dare not overstep my boundaries. The only thing I can do is to use this cup of wine and offer it to the guards who died protecting the princess.”

Solemnly, she emptied the contents of the cup on the ground.

The clear liquid of the wine fell noiselessly onto the golden tiles as everyone silently turned to look at Princess Lotus’s skirt. She was still standing straight, as though paralyzed and unable to move away.

Fourth Prince Feng glared hatefully at Meng Fuyao, then at Princess Lotus, reaching out to pull her as he said, “Little sister, let us return to our seats.”

However, Princess Lotus suddenly started laughing as she flicked her sleeves and pushed away her elder brother’s hand. With her chin slightly tilted upwards and one hand behind her back, she returned to her seat, her back as straight and elegant as ever. As she walked, she said, “I completely don’t understand what General Meng is saying, I am but a weak lady who does not know any martial arts, when faced with the enemy, apart from being scared lifeless and praying for Buddha’s protection, what else can I do? Those guards fought to the death protecting me, and I wished nothing more than to take their place, but under that kind of circumstances, I rushed up to ask them to protect me and increase their burden, and as for that arm…” Her eyelid twitched as she turned calmly and glared at Meng Fuyao. “Does General Meng honestly think that a woman with no background in martial arts can distinguish, between friend or foe, a severed flying arm?”

She began to laugh lightly and magnanimously. “But, no matter what, it is rare that General Meng would sympathize with the soldiers who died, I thank you on behalf of them.”

Meng Fuyao began to laugh coldly and had not yet opened her mouth to reply when Princess Lotus continued, “What I don’t understand is, where does General Meng’s anger stem from? Speaking of which, myself and General Meng can be considered to be master and servant from the same palace in the future, why do you have to be so merciless and force people, could it be that the rumors are true and that General Meng is doing this because of… jealousy?”

Meng Fuyao was drinking water and spat it out when she heard her. She raised her head incredulously and stared at her. ‘Seriously? Master and servant in the same palace? Does she mean that she will become empress of Wuji and as a general of Wuji I will be her servant? And that line about jealousy, what did it mean exactly? Has she already seen through my true identity, or is she hinting at the rumor of “General Meng and Crown Prince Wuji having an illicit homosexual affair”? Regardless, for her to mention this here, in front of distinguished guests from the seven nations, has she gone mad?’

At this point, everyone expressed yet again exclamations of surprise, not just at the suddenness of Princess Lotus’ words but even more so at the last sentence. Of course, they would never think to question Meng Fuyao’s gender, but only that—the fiancée of Crown Prince Wuji would actually reveal the secret of the prince’s homosexuality in public? Was the reason why Crown Prince Wuji had not married after so many years really because he preferred men?

Meng Fuyao stood there speechless with anger, glaring at the shameless woman who was outrightly spouting lies. Suddenly understanding what Zhangsun Wuji meant when he said “angry but unable to retaliate”, he had already predicted that after he left, Princess Lotus would not give up and probably try to create chances to discuss it. Now that she mentioned their engagement in front of the seven nations, despite knowing that she was lying, given Meng Fuyao’s status and position, how could she reveal her lies?

Meng Fuyao reached slowly into her robes and felt the outline of the object and immediately broke into a smile as she asked Princess Lotus, “Princess, did you just say, master and servant of the same palace?”

Princess Lotus laughed daintily. “Everyone under the heavens knows about this, so I don’t need to treat it like it’s taboo.”

“I’ve actually forgotten.” Meng Fuyao gestured. “May I know when Her Highness the crown princess will assume her position?”

“General Meng seems to be getting ahead of himself.” Princess Lotus lowered her eyes as though in humiliation or delight. “The crown prince has already set things for me, just that, in what way does General Meng seem to believe that he is qualified to ask such a question?”

“Indeed.” Meng Fuyao smiled. “Up until now I am still considered a servant of Wuji, so naturally I don’t have the right to ask the crown prince about the wedding date, just that…”

Stopping mid-sentence, she began to laugh. Princess Lotus watched her quietly; she actually refused to ask.

Meng Fuyao was about to burst. ‘What will make this woman stop pretending?’

Fortunately, there was still Ya Lanzhu. The adorable, little Ya Lanzhu fluttered her eyelashes as she asked, “Just that what?”

Meeting her cue, Meng Fuyao gleefully replied, “Just that why did I hear that the engagement between Crown Prince Wuji and Princess Lotus had already been annulled 10 years ago?”

“Is that true!” On behalf of the crowd, Ya Lanzhu exclaimed in shock, “Why haven’t we heard about it?”

The eyes of everyone in the palace had turned to look at Meng Fuyao in shock, and even Zhan Nancheng, who had been watching everything casually stopped moving.

Zhangsun Wuji and Feng Jingfan had already broken off their engagement? This piece of news was too shocking to be true, and everyone refused to believe it. Firstly, it was something that they had not heard even a rumor of, and secondly, it was because of Princess Lotus’ behavior. If the engagement was really annulled, how could Princess Lotus bring it up again in front of the distinguished guests of the seven nations? Did she honestly not care about her status and pride anymore?

It was most likely some nonsensical lie fabricated by this General Meng when he was stumped by Princess Lotus.

Everyone’s eyes were glinting, and Fourth Phoenix Prince couldn’t stand it any longer. Suddenly standing up, with his pale face swollen and red, he shouted, “How dare you! This is too impudent! Your Majesty, first this Meng Fuyao slanders my nation’s princess, and now he’s coming up with nonsensical and flagrant lies, please teach this mad and disrespectful dog a lesson and throw him out of this place of royalty and nobility!”

Zhan Nancheng scrounged his eyebrows and looked at Meng Fuyao. He did feel that Meng Fuyao had gone overboard. Even if he had a personal grudge against Princess Lotus, he shouldn’t publicly attack her in such a scene. However, he had gotten along very well with Meng Fuyao earlier, and knowing that Meng Fuyao was actually not Wuji’s man, he had gotten rid of a huge burden and wanted to control him. Hesitantly, he said, “General Meng, you’ve probably had too much to drink, you should return to your lodging earlier.”

“Is Your Majesty just going to let him off so lightly?” Meng Fuyao had yet to reply when Princess Lotus spoke first, her posture straight, as usual, a peaceful smile playing on her lips. However, her smile carried a clear hostility as she said softly, “Princess Lotus is half a monk, I am not sure how I managed to offend General Meng. It’s fine to just receive his humiliation, but today, in front of all the guests of the seven nations, he hinted at me being a shameless liar—this, I cannot accept. Even the Buddha has moments of anger, Princess Lotus may be amicable usually but the matter today concerns my reputation and the integrity of the Xuanji nation, I cannot help but demand an explanation! General Meng, you said that the two nations had broken off the engagement, so where’s the evidence?”

“That’s right, where’s the evidence?” Fourth Prince Feng repeated loudly, rage evident in his expression. “If you can’t provide evidence, then for humiliating my princess, for humiliating Xuanji, the entire nation will not forgive you for this!”

“Aiya, I am but an insignificant individual with the strength of an ant. For you to raise the nation’s war flag to subdue me, wouldn’t it be like killing a chicken with a bull’s knife?” Meng Fuyao smiled and shook her head. “I’m so terrified, Xuanji, a whole nation!”

“Does General Meng only have this mouth of yours to accuse someone?” Princess Lotus pulled back her sleeve and pulled over the raging Fourth Prince, smiling faintly as she said, “Actually, just answer the original question, where’s the evidence? Show us if you have any.”

“The princess is indeed the shrewd one, never steering from the topic, not letting anger get the better of your mind.” Meng Fuyao smiled back, spreading her hands in front of her, under the fixed stares of everyone as she said nonchalantly, “There’s no evidence.”

“What? No evidence?”

“Is this something you can flagrantly spin lies about?”

“You’re really looking for death! How dare you publicly humiliate Princess Lotus in front of the distinguished guests of the seven nations!”

“The princess’s reputation is known by everyone and today, it’s been tarnished by your evil scheming and pettiness!”

Suddenly, terrible insults began to thunder throughout the hall and smothered Meng Fuyao. Princess Lotus’ reputation in the seven nations was much better than the newly-known Meng Fuyao. She had often engaged in charitable acts, often roamed the world on pilgrimage and visited various nations’ temples. Today, she received such humiliation and even when she was wronged she maintained her exemplary behavior. Upon seeing such a scene, even the disinterested or uninvolved felt bad for her and increased their respect for her, standing against Meng Fuyao, a newly-known general of commoner descent, the object of the crown prince’s homosexual rumor, who without good reason began making things difficult for their beloved princess. For him to continue his ceaseless verbal attack and even attempting to slander the princess and put her in a disreputable situation, he was going way too far!

“You humiliated my princess’ good name without reason, Xuanji will not let you off!” Fourth Prince Feng slapped his armrest, the veins jumping on his neck. Even Zhan Nancheng frowned at Meng Fuyao, wondering if he should first send this tyrant out; this rascal really knew how to create a scene.

Everyone was in disarray, yet the two who were involved in this remained extremely calm, with Meng Fuyao leaning against a table picking her teeth and Princess Lotus sitting upright, tugging lightly at her older brother’s sleeve as she giggled. “Big Brother, there’s no need to get angry, justice is known in everyone’s hearts. Today, the leaders of the seven nations and the great martial artists from the five regions are present, with so many pairs of eyes watching how some petty individual deliberately slandered others, they will remember this in their hearts and seek justice for their nephews and nieces, so why are you in a hurry.”

“That’s right, why are you in a hurry.” Meng Fuyao clapped loudly. “Look at how shrewd your little sister is, so daintily wrapping the entire seven nations on her war carriage. In the future, I, Meng Fuyao, would be just like a rat in the streets, who could accept me within the seven nations? You slap the table and hit your armrest and kick up a fuss, but all your little sister has to do is move her lips. Fourth Prince Feng, oh Fourth Prince Feng, no wonder you can’t become the crown prince, in terms of emotional manipulation, you still have much to learn from your little sister!”