Ex-Wife is a Big Villainess
Chapter 788 - 386 The First Meeting Between the Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager_2

Chapter 788: Chapter 386 The First Meeting Between the Empress Dowager and the Empress Dowager_2

Jinxiu and Jingjing beside her looked helpless.

This Empress, truly enjoys mocking others with her words.

Clearly, she saw her sister facing trouble earlier and deliberately took this path to help her out.

"Crazy."

Xiao Lingqiu spat out two words.

But just as she was turning away, her hip was suddenly smacked hard. A woman’s laughter followed: "It’s not nice to curse people behind their backs. If not for the fact that we’re both women, I would have torn your mouth apart long ago."

Xiao Lingqiu turned abruptly, but the other woman had already walked far away.

Feeling the burning pain behind her, Xiao Lingqiu clenched her delicate fists tightly, her gaze icy as she stared at the woman’s departing figure.

"You’ll regret this!"

And so, the feud between the two Empress Dowagers was born.

...

Xiao Lingqiu returned to her chamber, sulking.

Seeing the woman return safely, Jiang Shouzhong felt a sense of relief and joked: "If you didn’t come back soon, I might think you secretly returned to Yanrong."

Xiao Lingqiu snorted coldly: "You’d love for me to leave and go back, wouldn’t you?"

Jiang Shouzhong sighed: "Still angry, huh."

"I was bullied just now."

Xiao Lingqiu grabbed the teapot on the table, poured a cup of already cold tea, and downed it in one gulp.

As the dignified Empress Dowager of a nation, she had her backside smacked.

This humiliation—she vowed to avenge!

"What!? You were bullied?" Jiang Shouzhong immediately stood up, his face darkening. "Tell me, who dared to bully you?"

Seeing the man’s angered expression, Xiao Lingqiu felt a warmth in her heart, but she shook her head lightly and said: "It’s not that big of a deal. Ran into a lunatic woman, but she did help me."

"So were you bullied or not?"

Jiang Shouzhong looked confused.

Xiao Lingqiu parted her lips as if to speak, but suddenly a thought flashed across her mind.

Her expression turned complex. After a moment of hesitation, she reached into her robe and pulled out a report about the Capital’s Ran Mansion, handing it to him:

"Take a look. It seems you no longer need to go to the Capital."

Her voice was low, carrying a faint sigh that was barely perceptible.

Jiang Shouzhong took the report with a puzzled look and began reading.

At first, his eyes merely followed the text, but as the shocking contents came into view, his hands began trembling uncontrollably.

The Ran Mansion—all slain... Ran Qingchen’s whereabouts unknown...

Line after line of intelligence struck him like thunderbolts, leaving him paralyzed where he stood, like an empty shell whose soul had been stripped away. His gaze was hollow and dazed, as though caught in the whirlpool of a nightmarish dream.

Xiao Lingqiu had never seen the man look like this before. Her heart clenched slightly, and she instinctively gripped his trembling cold hand, uncertain of how to console him.

"How could it be... How could it be..."

The man’s lips trembled as he murmured.

He looked at Xiao Lingqiu with a hopeful yet anguished gaze: "This report—it can’t be true, right?"

Xiao Lingqiu didn’t answer. Instead, she gripped his hand tighter and softly reassured him: "Ran Qingchen will be alright."

Jiang Shouzhong pulled his hand away and waved it slightly, as if intending to say something but as though his throat were seized by an invisible force, no words came out.

Only the rapid rise and fall of his chest revealed the raging storm of pain and turmoil he was enduring inside.

Xiao Lingqiu murmured: "Is she truly so important to you?"

For the first time, the woman felt sorrow.

A kind of sorrow tinged with jealousy and unwillingness.

...

In the dimly lit guest room, three figures sat silently around the table.

The flickering candle flame danced eerily in the corner, casting shadows that twisted and writhed on the walls, adding to the sinister atmosphere.

Among them was Zhao Yuanhua of Danxia Peak’s Fifth Elder.

Seated to Zhao Yuanhua’s left was a scholarly-looking young man dressed in a moon-white robe, the hem of which was embroidered with intricate cloud patterns in silver thread—a mark of high status.

To Zhao Yuanhua’s right sat a burly man.

His face was covered in a dense beard that bristled like steel needles, exuding a savage aura.

At this moment, Zhao Yuanhua’s expression was cold as she pressed her voice low in anger: "Why are there people from the Demon Clan’s Blood Spirit Cave? Why did you leave the Blood Spirit Seal on Hou Qi? Why didn’t you inform me beforehand?"

The scholarly man smiled and replied: "Alchemist Zhao, no need to be so agitated. We didn’t expect Master to subdue even those demons from Blood Spirit Cave. Unfortunately, your Fourth Senior is indeed formidable; he managed to escape.

But Guardian Jiang of Blood Spirit Cave is tracking him—there should be good news soon..."

Speaking here, the scholarly man gave Zhao Yuanhua a peculiar look: "To be honest, I didn’t expect even you, Alchemist Zhao, to betray Danxia Peak."

The burly man, who had been silent all along, sneered:

"Nothing surprising. Back then, Alchemist Zhao insisted on eloping with a man, but that man was struck with a lethal curse by his enemies halfway.

Alchemist Zhao begged the sect for help, but no one was willing to save him. In the end, she could only watch helplessly as her lover died in agony. How could she ever forget this grudge?"

The scholarly man suddenly understood: "Ah, so that’s how it is."

"Bang!"

Zhao Yuanhua abruptly slammed the table hard and glared at the burly man, snapping: "Do you have a death wish?"

The burly man, unfazed, calmly overlapped his hands on the table and tapped the surface rhythmically with his finger, smiling slyly:

"Zhao Yuanhua, it’s anyone’s guess why Master allowed someone like you to join us. Personally, I think Master plans to sacrifice you, fool that you are, to accomplish a few of his schemes."

"Butcher!"

The scholarly man suddenly shouted with a low growl.