Chapter 522: I Gave You a Chance to Leave
Chapter 522: Chapter 522: I Gave You a Chance to Leave
The Emperor and Mo Lingwei both looked at Shen Ningning.
"You deserve the most credit for this. While Su Zhirou wasn’t a direct accomplice, she played a significant role in stirring up trouble. Therefore, how to deal with her... Ningning, you should decide," the Emperor said.
Su Zhirou trembled, and tears streamed down her cheeks.
She was on bad terms with Shen Ningning; she was surely not going to survive this.
A contemplative expression appeared on Shen Ningning’s bright, delicate face.
After a long moment, she finally said, "If you can kowtow with every step, all the way from here to the street, I will spare your life. Not only that, but I will also let you leave the Capital City."
Su Zhirou couldn’t believe what she was hearing. She looked up abruptly, forgetting even to cry.
"R-Really?"
"Absolutely. But I have a condition: as you kneel, you must loudly confess your wrongdoings. Otherwise, my offer is void."
Su Zhirou’s heart clenched.
’Shen Ningning’s move is truly vicious. It’s meant to completely humiliate me.’
’And I have to announce everything I’ve done myself.’
’If I really agree to this, how can I ever show my face in the world again?’
Seeing the expressions shift on her face, Shen Ningning lost her patience.
The young girl turned to Mo Lingwei and said, "It seems she’s unwilling. In that case, let’s just have her executed by a thousand cuts."
Mo Lingwei pressed his thin lips together, a faint, tumultuous pleasure flickering in his dark, narrow eyes.
"Alright."
He had long wanted this troublesome thing, Su Zhirou, to disappear.
Su Zhirou shuddered and hastily agreed, "I’ll do it! I’ll do it!"
Shen Ningning raised her dark brows.
"Then you’d better perform well. If you leave out a single transgression, I will not keep my promise."
That day, all the commoners and nobles passing through the streets of the Capital City could see Su Zhirou kowtowing with every step, crying the entire way.
She also shouted ceaselessly, "I was wrong! I plotted to harm Jiang Zhi, deliberately sowed discord between Princess Funing and Miss Qi, and helped King Shu give Princess Shu sterilization medicine! I was wrong!"
Hearing her words, the commoners couldn’t help but point and whisper about her.
"What a black heart. How can such a person exist?"
"Exactly. I heard she isn’t from our Cangyun Country. She has bad blood in her veins."
"The most pitiful one is Lady Shu. She fell ill from anger because of her."
"Sigh! The adopted daughter she raised for over ten years actually helped King Shu give her sterilization medicine. Anyone in her shoes would be heartbroken."
Su Zhirou continued to kneel her way forward, her face streaked with tears, full of regret.
However, her regret was that she hadn’t escaped sooner!
If she had been able to leave Cangyun Country before Xiuxiu and the others failed, she wouldn’t have been humiliated like this.
Just then, with a SPLAT, something was thrown at her face.
A sticky, foul stench.
Su Zhirou froze, then touched her face with her hand.
It was a rotten vegetable leaf coated in stinking egg yolk!
Once the commoners started, they couldn’t be stopped. They all began throwing things at her.
"Scoundrel from Changliu Country! Get lost!"
"You’ve done nothing but evil! You have no conscience!"
"You’ll get what’s coming to you!"
Crying, Su Zhirou tried to dodge the projectiles when she saw Pei Yin riding past on his horse.
Her eyes lit up.
"Lord Pei! Lord Pei, please help me." Su Zhirou blocked his horse, her eyes filled with tears.
Unexpectedly, Pei Yin glanced down, his gaze as cold as if he didn’t even know her.
"Excuse me, I’m in a hurry," he said coldly, then abruptly cracked his whip.
The sharp WHISTLE of the whip through the air made Su Zhirou scream and dive to the side.
When she looked back again, Pei Yin had already ridden off without a single glance back.
Su Zhirou was surrounded and cursed at by the incensed crowd.
The noble ladies she had once instigated were hidden in the crowd, but none of them stepped forward to help her.
Shen Ningning was true to her word.
The next day, she arranged for someone to toss Su Zhirou a set of clean clothes.
Chen Ye stood at the city gate, frowning and keeping his distance from Su Zhirou.
She reeked, and her clothes were filthy beyond belief.
"The Princess said this carriage is for you to borrow. Take it to leave. Once you reach your destination, have the people at the post station see to its return."
Su Zhirou clutched her arm, eyeing the carriage warily.
’Would Shen Ningning be so kind?’
She didn’t believe it.
"I don’t want to take the carriage. Leave me the horse," Su Zhirou said.
Chen Ye glanced at her. "As you wish."
Shen Ningning had instructed that as long as she left without causing more trouble, they were to let her go.
Chen Ye unhitched the horse from the carriage, and Su Zhirou went inside the carriage to change her clothes.
Afterward, she mounted the horse and rode away.
Chen Ye watched her retreating figure. It seemed her riding skills weren’t very good.
However, his mission was complete. It was time to go back and report to Shen Ningning.
Once Su Zhirou was on horseback and had a feel for the speed, she began to whip the horse frantically.
Only after riding for a good while did she dare to look back.
Sure enough, no one was chasing her.
But she refused to believe Shen Ningning would let her off so easily.
Her wary eyes scanned the forests lining the official road.
’Could there be pursuers or wild beasts lying in ambush?’
Just as Su Zhirou turned back to look at the road ahead, she suddenly saw an old man up ahead, waving his hand.
"Miss, a section of the road up ahead has collapsed. You can’t pass."
"I sprained my ankle over there, too. Could you stop and take me back to the city to see a doctor?"
A vicious glint appeared in Su Zhirou’s eyes.
’Just as I thought!’
’This old man appeared out of nowhere. He must be one of Shen Ningning’s people, right?’
’I knew that petty Shen Ningning wouldn’t let me leave the Capital City so easily.’
"I’m going anyway," Su Zhirou said through gritted teeth.
’Where there’s life, there’s hope.’
’Once I return to Changliu Country and recover my strength, I’ll make Shen Ningning and Cangyun Country pay!’
She raised her whip. "Get out of the way! Don’t block my path, you old coot!"
The old man was startled and quickly moved to the side.
Su Zhirou spurred her horse into a frantic gallop, whipping it relentlessly, terrified that someone was chasing her.
Until she rounded a bend and saw that the road ahead really had collapsed.
In an instant, her pupils constricted, and terror seized her entire body.
In a flash, Su Zhirou yanked on the reins.
But the horse, due to inertia, was already unable to stop.
"AHHH—!" The horse fell to the ground, and Su Zhirou tumbled straight off the cliff, her miserable shriek fading into the distance.
The old man from before caught up, and from a safe distance, he glanced down the cliff.
Su Zhirou lay prone and motionless.
"Sigh," Master Gu shook his head. "Princess Funing was right. When a person is wicked, Heaven will surely claim them."
Originally, he was Shen Ningning’s final test for Su Zhirou.
If Su Zhirou had listened to the old man and taken him back to the Capital City for treatment, she would not have lost her life.
After that, Shen Ningning would have truly let her go.
Had Su Zhirou shown even a sliver of kindness, she would have left the Capital City alive.
In the end, Su Zhirou’s own malicious suspicions were what cost her her life.
Master Gu turned, took the horse by the reins, and slowly walked back.
The sky was a vast expanse of jade-green light, clear as if freshly washed. A Chapter of clamorous dust was finally settling.