The two palace maids were both beautiful. One looked very agreeable with a slim body and a charming face, and the other was a little plumper with a slender waist and ample buttocks. Both of them looked very attractive with their respective uniqueness of beauty. Such pretty women like them were rare even in the Palace!

They knelt next to each other, too timid to look up at the handsome prince sitting in front of them.

In fact, when they were facing Xiao Xuanzi, they were very arrogant, saying that they came from the Imperial Palace and it was Empress Dowager and the Empress who sent them to serve Prince Chen. Therefore, such a eunuch as Xiao Xuanzi had no right to order them.

But the next moment, the two palace maids were forced to watch the two nannies, who were sent here with them at the same time, die of flogging.

With their eyes full of hatred and reluctance fixed on the two palace maids, the two clever nannies were flogged to death. Their stiff corpses were a dim grayness, making the two palace maids lower their arrogant chins and curl up into balls.

As was known in the Palace, Prince Chen was such a handsome and elegant man as a character existing in an ink painting, honourable and unique. Such a man would never be blamed for the rumors about him. At least, now his expression looked mild from a distance, though he seemed to be a little weak in health.

It was said that Prince Chen was a cold-blooded person.

However, any palace maid who had never seen him thought it was an unreliable rumor.

In such cases, the two palace maids did not have any extravagant thoughts anymore. They were so scared that they almost hugged each other.

“Master, their clothes carry some light scent. They were fumigated with some herbals that can expel insects!” Xiao Xuanzi stepped forward and reported.

That was Qi Jue’s conclusion. There were many such incenses in the Palace.

Chu Liuchen asked lazily, “It is hard to find the truth, isn’t it? Since that is so, flog the two to death! Evidence is not necessary for me to punish people!”

Two guards came in from the door. They still held foul faces after they executed the two nannies.

“Please spare us! Please spare us, Your Highness! We really don’t know anything. We really don’t know!”

“Please spare our life, Your Highness!”

The two palace maids cried out loud and struggled to get rid of the guards, but they failed because of their weak strength.

“Why does His Highness have to keep you alive, since you can not tell us the truth? What’s more, you even intended to set up our Princess Chen. There is no reason to spare your life!” Xiao Xuanzi scolded in a sharp voice. Xiao Xuanzi was a kind person who always kept a smile on his face, but he was carrying an aura of rage then!

…

“Your Highness, Your Highness! I have something important to report. I know something!” one of the palace maids suddenly caught the door frame and shouted, “I know who wanted to hurt the princess, Your Highness!”

“Bring them back!” Chu Liuchen said coldly.

The two guards drew the palace maids back and threw them heavily on the ground.

The two delicate girls fell to the ground in a mess and got their make-ups smudged, looking like deranged women. They lost their charming qualities.

One of them collapsed to the ground, and the other took two steps forward and kowtowed heavily three times. “Your Highness, I didn’t intend to visit Princess Chen today. I was abetted by someone!”

“Who?” Chu Liuchen asked.

“She asked me to do that, Your Highness! I am always well-behaved since I entered the mansion a few days ago. But she suddenly asked me to meet Princess Chen today. If anything happened to the princess, it must have something to do with her!” the palace maid collapsing on the ground suddenly struggled to sit up on her knees and cried, with her finger pointing at the other palace maid.

The other palace maid was stunned for a moment, but she soon came to her senses and rebuked her accuser, “You… you’re slandering me! Your Highness, it was she who wanted to see Princess Chen! She must have done something. It must be that she intended to plot against Princess Chen!”

They were both smart people. They had early realized that something went wrong from the previous few words. Prince Chen couldn’t find them for no reason. “Something must have happened to Princess Chen!” Neither of them dared to take this responsibility, so they chose to blame each other.

“Your Highness, she works for the Empress, while I work for Empress Dowager, who dotes on you the most. How could I do harm to your wife?”

“She’s talking nonsense, Your Highness! I indeed serve Her Majesty, but she respects you most. She will feel guilty and regretful if something bad happens to you! How could she do something to displease you, Your Highness? It must be her. She’s the one who harbored evil intentions and tried to frame Princess Chen!”

The two palace maids blamed each other.

“Slap them!” Chu Liuchen said tonelessly with his pale face darkening.

“Slap each of them ten times!” Xiao Xuanzi shouted.

The Guards came over and slapped the two palace maids in the face hard. Their faces immediately became swollen and blood overflowed from their mouths.

Chu Liuchen looked at the two miserable palace maids and suddenly said, “Send them back to the Imperial Palace!”

“Yes, Your Highness!” Xiao Xuanzi nodded.

On hearing his words, the two palace maids breathed a sigh of relief. At least they survived.

“Now that they want to keep silent about their crimes, let them keep silent forever!” Chu Liuchen stood up, giving a disdainful glance at the two palace maids kneeling below, and went out. “Send them back as a whole! Don’t let them leave anything behind in my mansion!”

“Yes, Your Highness!” Xiao Xuanzi appreciated his master’s thoughts. He looked at the two palace maids with coldness in his eyes and ordered, “Cut off their tongues before sending them back to the Palace! Don’t forget to ask them to take their parts! Master doesn’t want to be misunderstood by the people in the Palace that he had taken advantage of them!”

The guards answered and took the two palace maids away.

The two palace maids were numb with shock for a few seconds, and then they struggled and cried for help. However, no one would order to take them back again, no matter how hard they shouted this time. The penalty was executed at the side door connecting the Palace to Prince Chen’s Mansion, which was the place closest to the Palace. Then, two sharp screams came to the Imperial Palace…

The screeches of the two palace maids resounded in the Palace. The palace maids who heard the screams in the Palace were so frightened that their faces turned pale.

Though they had been hearing that Prince Chen was a cruel person, they didn’t realize how much his cruelty was until they heard the screams.

Some of them had nightmares at night after they saw the two palace maids sent back to Phoenix Palace that day. Though the two palace maids were not dead, their situation was worse than death to them.

Was Prince Chen handsome and gentle?

It was wrong! Totally wrong! Prince Chen was a horrifying devil, which had been proven by the current state of the two palace maids.

He not only punished the two palace maids with the cruel penalty but also directly sent their cut-off tongues to Phoenix Palace and showed them to Empress.

“Your Majesty, somebody tried to frame up my master and his wife. Therefore, my master wanted you to help dig out that person. As you know, my master and Princess Chen are both unskilled at seeking people behind the scene. When he was thinking about a helper, you were the first person who came to his mind, Your Majesty. What’s more, the bad guy probably comes from the Palace. So no one is more suitable than you to do the job!” Xiao Xuanzi smiled as usual and said with a trace of flattery.

…

The Empress was pale. She held the armrests of the chair. If it weren’t for her strong perseverance, she would have been passed out at this moment.

Instead of the two palace maids, their bloody tongues were presented in front of her.

“My master said that he was too useless to make the two palace maids confess. He didn’t want to hear their endless tricks anymore, so he had to trouble you to help him, Your Majesty. Neither of my master and Princess Chen feel well now, and they need several imperial physicians to come over!”

Xiao Xuanzi saide these as if he didn’t notice that the Empress’s face was as pale as snow and she couldn’t voice anything while gritting her teeth.

The Nanny serving the Empress felt a bad vibe and hurriedly mediated between them. “Yes! Tell Prince Chen that Her Majesty has already got his message. But she doesn’t feel well either, so she needs to take a rest. Prince Chen can totally rest assured. Her Majesty will send imperial physicians to him later. And she will definitely find out and punish the person who wants to hurt Princess Chen!”

“Sorry to trouble you, Your Majesty. I am leaving!” Xiao Xuanzi said with a kind smile.

The Empress tried to control her hand to waved him back.

Xiao Xuanzi left with smile.

When Xiao Xuanzi was finally absent, the Empress put her hand on the chest and suddenly stood up from the chair. After walking a few steps, she couldn’t stand vomiting heavily.

All the palace maids and eunuchs panicked and rushed to the Empress in a hurry.

When she finally stopped vomiting, the Empress was helped to rest in the side hall. After she got freshened up, her face remained pale like snow. Recovering a little strength, she banged the table and said by gnashing her teeth, “Chu Liuchen! Chu Liuchen, how abusive you are!”

“Speak cautiously, Your Majesty!” the servant beside hastened to advise.

“He has stepped on my bottom line!” the Empress said with hatred. Once the scene just then came into her head, she couldn’t help thinking of cutting Chu Liuchen into pieces. He humiliated her in front of others, while she was so scared that she couldn’t say a word!

“You have to stay calm even if you can’t, Your Majesty. Prince Chen is not someone else. His Majesty will definitely pay attention to this matter!” the nanny following the Empress reminded her carefully.

The Empress fell silent with a gloomy face. “Since the matter developed to the extent, it won’t have a happy ending.” the Empress thought. “Go and investigate it. I want the name of the guy who intended to frame up Prince Chen, Empress Dowager and me!”

Since that thing couldn’t be concealed, she could only make it big news.

The Empress was also angry that one of the two involved palace maids was relevant to her. She should have sent two ordinary palace maids instead of a carefully chosen one! At that time, she had thought that Chu Liuchen would keep the girl sent by her as long as he kept the one by Empress Dowager.

No one had ever expected things to go like this!

“His Majesty has arrived!” A sharp voice of a eunuch came from outside the side hall!