Can't a princess ascend the throne?

Chapter 20 The Truth
Not only Jiu Que, but everyone present who heard these words frowned, feeling quite uncomfortable. This little girl, so young, pampered and innocent by nature, how could she say such a thing to them?

Hearing these words, Yunniang and the others were heartbroken.

Yunniang rushed over and hugged the little girl tightly in her arms, overwhelmed with grief.

"Rong'er, this isn't your fault! How could you say that? You're just a child! It's all that beast Yu Lang's fault! He's talking nonsense! What does this have to do with you?!"

"But if it weren't for me, if I weren't bad, my sisters wouldn't have had to do this. I'm the worst of the worst! If I had listened to him, my sisters wouldn't have had to suffer like this..."

The scene was filled with weeping.

Jiu Que and the others weren't fools. They could guess the general situation just from their conversation. Looking at Rong'er's face, which was stunningly beautiful despite her young age, they all looked rather unwell.

Yu Lang keeps nine mistresses; he seems to be a lecherous man, and he even covets noble ladies and wives who are unrelated to him. He's clearly no good. Rong'er is such a beautiful girl, and although she's still young, Yu Lang, that beast in human form, couldn't possibly be…

Thinking of this, Jiu Que and the others felt as if they had swallowed flies. Although they already knew that it wouldn't be a loss for someone like Yu Lang to die, knowing that he could be even more disgusting was truly... infuriating.

No one spoke at that moment; only the girls' soft sobs could be heard. Rong'er forced herself to wipe away her tears and then nervously expressed her thoughts.

"Sirs, if we confess voluntarily, can we reduce our punishment?"

"..."

Seeing everyone turn and stare at her, some even with pleading expressions, Jiu Que was completely bewildered. Why were they all looking at her? Did they think she was that heartless?

She came out to investigate the case this time only because it was an order from the old emperor, and she had to find out the truth. But when the victim has their reasons, it doesn't necessarily mean that she has to put them to death.

“You, you’ve told the truth. If it’s reasonable, the law will handle it accordingly.”

Upon hearing this, the women exchanged glances, but ultimately had no choice but to speak up.

"I am of lowly birth, and I had no choice but to become Yu Lang's mistress. Although people will inevitably gossip about me behind my back, I accept my fate. But my sisters are different! Some of them should have had different lives! But they were chosen by Yu Lang and became mistresses! Sir, what good life can a mistress have? I can only stay in this small courtyard, waiting for Yu Lang to come when he has time. If he doesn't have time, I can only stay like I'm in prison. When I get old and lose my beauty, I will be abandoned."

"My lord, do you think Yu Lang only has a few mistresses like us? He's nearly forty now. Of course, he had other mistresses in the past, and those ladies were all from good families. But once they grew old and lost their beauty, they would mysteriously disappear. Who knows what filthy places he took them to? Being a mistress of someone like him, this is the miserable end..." Jin Hua wiped away her tears, her expression filled with grief, indignation, and resentment, wishing she could kill him again!
"But in this world, even if we know the other person isn't a good person, what can we do? We still have to serve them carefully, right? But he shouldn't have laid a hand on Rong'er! She's just a child! How could that beast do such a thing!"

Jiu Que looked reluctant; that bastard couldn't have already...

"If I hadn't accidentally witnessed Rong'er's distress, I wouldn't have known that beast was always verbally abusing her. Rong'er is still a child, and being a concubine in another family with me already put her under discrimination. She's also very gentle by nature. Yu Lang's words to her, those disgusting things he said, made her depressed and even contemplated suicide!"

Yunniang spoke with trembling lips.

“Rong’er is my only family. I raised her from a very young age, and she’s no different from my own daughter! That beast dared to lay a hand on a ten-year-old child! He doesn’t deserve to live! What’s even more hateful is that such a beast, who disregards human ethics and has no conscience, actually passed all the exams and is about to become an official! He could do such disgusting things when he was just a mere scholar and still manage to absolve himself of all responsibility. If he really becomes an official, what even more evil deeds will he commit?”

Fu Liu coughed lightly a few times before speaking.

“In Yu Lang’s mind, we women are just foolish playthings because we are not as smart as him. So, he doesn’t mind scattering us around the capital, and he doesn’t even care if we are placed in nearby places.”

"He looked down on women his whole life, so he ended up dying at their hands. You gentlemen guessed correctly, we did kill him with those herbs."

“Yu Lang is always good at pretending. Even when he comes here, he does so quietly and acts like a refined and polite person. He even greets others, making everyone think that he is a good person. But in reality, he despises ordinary people the most. The incident three months ago caused such a big fuss, but he knew nothing about it. It's all because he looks down on ordinary people like us from the bottom of his heart.”

“We dared not buy medicine from the herbal shops in the city, because if things came to light, it might implicate innocent neighbors. Fortunately, Jinhua grew up with her parents and knew a little about herbs. It took us three whole months to finally collect several of them. Yu Lang looked down on us, but he was quite cautious, so we could only collect them separately and try to mix some herbs into his food every day, hoping that little by little they would be useful.”

"Actually, seeing that he didn't react for a long time and kept doing disgusting things, I was a little anxious. That day he went to a birthday banquet, and because he was worried about being disrespectful in the palace, he ate a lot of food here. There won't be many more opportunities like this, so a few of us put in a lot of herbs."

Although Fu Liu was gentle in demeanor, she was actually the most resilient. At this moment, her face was flushed, and it was hard to say whether it was because she was in a good mood after avenging her great enemy, and she seemed more energetic than usual.

She bit her tongue to keep herself awake.

“I didn’t expect it to work; he actually died. The only thing I feel uneasy about is that the innocent scholar has been framed. Princess Ying, it was all my doing; it’s all my fault. Please spare those innocent people. And that scholar, he should have had a bright future and escaped that beast. Why did he have to ruin his life?”

Hearing this, Jiu Que sighed, then a thought struck her. Yu Lang had been keeping mistresses for so long, and now he had as many as nine; hadn't he had even more before? But why were none of these women pregnant?

Did the third-ranking scholar emerge on his own?
(End of this chapter)