Reborn as the Crippled King's Beloved
Chapter 394 The Princess’s Child Can’t Be Saved

Chapter 394: Chapter 394 The Princess’s Child Can’t Be Saved

The Fifth Princess actually didn’t believe it.

The Prince Consort had always been protective of her, and with the previous incident being such a big deal, having even sworn a poison oath to her, he had lately been spending all his days at the Princess’s Mansion, studying hard, trying to be a support for her.

Everyone makes mistakes, but the Prince Consort could change, and had changed a lot, which pleased her greatly and made her fall for him all over again.

When the maid mentioned hearing a woman’s voice in the Prince Consort’s study, she found it absurd.

Because all the women in the Princess’s Mansion with even a hint of beauty had been sent away by her; anyone showing signs of being scheming would be beaten to death, so she didn’t believe anyone would dare to seduce the Prince Consort, especially not loudly enough to be heard.

But as she approached the study, she too heard the indistinct voice of a woman, and her face instantly changed.

Bang!

The door to the study was violently kicked open by the Fifth Princess.

What she saw was a sight unfit for the eyes.

A man and a woman were sprawled on the desk, with ink and paper strewn everywhere, and what infuriated the Fifth Princess even more was that the woman was dressed as a Servant Boy, a face she had never seen before!

That sound completely shocked the pair, wrenching them from their bliss, their hearts thrown into turmoil.

The Prince Consort quickly said, "Princess, she seduced me, she drugged me!"

His first reaction was to disassociate himself from the blame.

Isn’t it always said that most men are fickle? Ruan Hongwen had just been calling the Female Servant ’my heart and treasure,’ and now she had turned into an evil woman, while he was the most innocent.

The Female Servant knew her role and didn’t dare resist, immediately kneeling on the ground even before the maid and the guards approached.

"Do you think I’m a fool?"

The Fifth Princess’s face twisted somewhat ferociously, "She dresses as a man, hiding by your side, and you claim to be unaware?"

She was so disappointed, and above all, seething with the mockery she felt.

The Prince Consort had actually brought a woman to his side, right under her watch, trampling her dignity thoroughly.

And to think she had started to trust the Prince Consort, providing her with such a "surprise"!

"Beat them fiercely!"

At the Princess’s command, both the Prince Consort and the Female Servant were beaten.

The Prince Consort kept trying to put the blame on the woman, but the guard struck him fiercely, causing him to grimace and struggle in pain.

As for the Female Servant, regardless of the severity of the beating, she did not fight back, only showing a pained expression and silently shedding tears.

Zhou Li watched, frowning. With the Female Servant not fighting back, he didn’t want to intervene on behalf of the Fifth Princess.

Little did he know, the Fifth Princess was crazier than he imagined. The pitiful look on the Female Servant’s face did not elicit any sympathy from the Prince Consort, but instead fueled the Fifth Princess’s unbridled rage even more, prompting her to pull a pin from her hair and viciously slash at the Female Servant’s face!

"Ah!"

The Female Servant finally cried out in agony.

"That’s for seducing my man! Siren! Why don’t you just die!"

The Fifth Princess gritted her teeth as people held the woman down, and she slashed her other cheek fiercely, tearing flesh.

The intense pain caused the Female Servant to start struggling, breaking free from the guards’ hold, she abruptly retaliated, grabbing and tightly clutching the Fifth Princess’s throat.

"You forced me to do this!"

Snatching the pin from the Fifth Princess’s hand, the Female Servant ruthlessly slashed it across the Fifth Princess’s face.

"Don’t!" the Prince Consort shouted.

His concern was not for the Fifth Princess herself but rather for fear that her disfigurement would escalate the situation.

If they had simply killed the female servant, the situation might not have escalated at all.

However, the female servant had completely lost her temper. She agreed to serve the Prince Consort because she was originally a courtesan, indifferent to the notions of chastity. Given her lowly status, she saw it as an opportunity to better herself by accomplishing The Third Prince’s task so that she could marry a legitimate Official Master as his principal wife, ensuring her future children would be free from slave status—a promise made by The Third Prince.

But she underestimated the Fifth Princess’s ruthlessness and never expected that the Fifth Princess would ruin her pride, her face, effectively cutting off her pathway to marrying the Official Master. How could she not be furious?

Before the guards around her could react, she had already furiously slashed the Fifth Princess’s face numerous times. Unsatisfied, and hearing the Fifth Princess’s screams mixed with vicious curses, she drove a hairpin straight into one of the Fifth Princess’s eyeballs.

"Ah!!"

The screams of the Fifth Princess echoed throughout the Princess’s Mansion.

Actually, all this happened in just a few blinks of an eye. When the mansion’s guards came to, they shot arrows at the female servant.

They did not expect her to be skilled. The moment the arrows flew, she used the Fifth Princess as a human shield.

Two sounds of flesh being penetrated resonated, making the Fifth Princess’s screams even louder.

Zhou Li focused, seeing that both arrows had hit. One arrow was slightly off, sticking into her arm, while the other had hit the lower abdomen of the Fifth Princess squarely.

At this point, he felt no need to intervene, lest it provoke unnecessary suspicion.

Being blinded in one eye was obviously more harmful to the Fifth Princess than severing a tendon.

Although the female servant was using the Fifth Princess as a hostage, the guards of the Princess’s Mansion weren’t ineffective. If anything happened to the Fifth Princess, none of them would escape unscathed. Thus, after a moment of chaos, the female servant ended up in a pool of blood.

"Quick! Call the Imperial Physician!"

The Maid, seeing the blood all over the stomach of the Fifth Princess, yelled out loud.

The Prince Consort shuddered in fear when he saw not just blood on her stomach, but blood also trickling down her legs.

When the Imperial Physician arrived, his first words were, "The Princess won’t be able to keep the child."

"What?"

The Prince Consort was dumbfounded; he never imagined the Fifth Princess was pregnant!

Hearing this while semi-conscious, the Fifth Princess fainted in shock.

The old women and maids attending her turned pale with fright.

They had not noticed the Princess was pregnant, a grave offense indeed.

Recently, the Princess had been losing her appetite, but everyone thought it was just due to stress. The Empress was in trouble, and those below her feared for their own wellbeing, unable to eat, and no one considered pregnancy.

The bruised and battered Prince Consort cautiously asked, "Imperial Physician, how long has the Princess been pregnant? Are you certain the child cannot be saved?"

The Imperial Physician shook his head. "This arrow nearly went straight through. It’s uncertain whether we can even save the Princess’s life, let alone the child’s. It seems she has been pregnant for a month. With such a serious injury in the palace, even if we save the Princess’s life, she likely won’t conceive again."

The Prince Consort was struck as if by lightning.

He could never have legitimate offspring openly. With the Princess compromised, it might be difficult for him to have children in the future.

Moreover, if the Princess could not be saved, the Emperor might decree that he be buried alive with her, as it was his actions that had led to this tragedy.

The Prince Consort was filled with regret and dread.

However, after a night’s emergency treatment, the Fifth Princess, fortunate as she was, had a stable condition.

But with her face disfigured and having suffered a miscarriage, her life was scarcely worth living.