Chapter 160: Using the Same Tactics Back on Her
Chapter 160: Using the Same Tactics Back on Her
Being favored by the Grand Empress Dowager filled Lady Mu with pride and sparked ambitious thoughts in her mind.
Now, as she cautiously watched the Grand Empress Dowager, she said, “The second daughter-in-law, Fang-shi, comes from Nanhe Bo Mansion, Your Highness…”
“Nanhe Bo Mansion…” The Grand Empress Dowager shot an idle glance at Fang Jifan.
Fang Jifan needed to appear humble, so he kept quiet.
The Grand Empress Dowager smiled faintly. “So her nephew is Fang Jifan?”
“Exactly him.” Lady Mu carefully tried to read the Grand Empress Dowager’s expression. “Your Highness, this Fang Jifan is famously awful throughout the Capital. The Fang Family is loyal and decent, yet somehow produced this good-for-nothing wastrel…”
Fang Jifan felt awkward…
Seriously? What did I ever do to you? Did I eat your food?
The smile on the Grand Empress Dowager’s face faded slightly, her expression stiffening. “Do you know Fang Jifan?”
“No, I have never met him.”
“If you’ve never met him, how do you know he’s so ‘awful’?”
“This… everyone in the Capital knows it. Your Highness…”
The Grand Empress Dowager had furrowed her brow. Yet Lady Mu, who had been observing the Grand Empress Dowager’s expression the whole time, still hadn’t grasped the problem!
After all, from her perspective, the Zhou Family was kin to the Grand Empress Dowager. The Zhang Brothers were notoriously arrogant and overbearing, and it was said Fang Jifan had defended them. Wouldn’t Her Highness despise him deeply?
She thought adding a few more critical words before the Grand Empress Dowager would make them feel like comrades sharing the same resentment, drawing them closer.
Unaware, Lady Mu continued, “Your Highness may not know, but this person hates studying, lacks any skill, wastes his days idle and lazy. It’s common knowledge! Your Highness…”
The Grand Empress Dowager’s face grew colder. The last trace of a smile faded from the depths of her eyes.
Sensing something was wrong, Lady Mu couldn’t quite place it.
The Grand Empress Dowager’s voice was faint. “If you’ve only heard rumors, why speak with such certainty? Minister Fang.”
Min… i… ster… Fang?
No one knew who Her Highness was addressing.
Just then, a young man near the Crown Prince spoke up clearly. “Your servant is here.”
Immediately, every gaze in the room snapped towards Fang Jifan.
Fang Jifan looked slightly embarrassed. Since coming to this world, most women stayed secluded indoors. Being the sudden center of attention among so many ladies was rare.
Wearing an awkward expression, he bowed towards Lady Mu. “So embarrassing, utterly embarrassing. I am that Fang Jifan – the one who hates studying, lacks skill, wastes his days idle and lazy, notorious for being bad through and through, known to everyone. Fang Jifan greets Lady Mu…”
Lady Mu jolted violently as if she’d seen a ghost.
Her expression was so exaggerated, makeup seemed to flake off her face. She stood utterly dumbfounded, like she’d been struck by lightning.
Fang… Fang Jifan was right here?
Today was the Grand Empress Dowager’s birthday celebration! Mingfu and officials were supposed to enter the palace at noon! Yet Fang Jifan was obviously already present… early! The crucial question was… how did he arrive so early…?
This was against protocol! Unless… he received a special imperial favor. But the Grand Empress Dowager granting him such favor?
Hadn’t this Fang Jifan offended the Zhou Family? She had personally confirmed that!
He offended the Zhou Family, yet the Grand Empress Dowager still showed him special kindness? What kind of bewitching magic had he poured into her?
Dawning horror and panic seized her heart. Her thoughts became a tangled mess.
All the poised confidence she displayed earlier vanished. Just like Fang-shi moments ago, she began to flounder. Her red lips moved soundlessly. She forgot to return his bow. Trying to speak, words stuck in her throat. Completely lost for words.
Fang Jifan beamed cheerfully. “I have long heard of you from my aunt. My aunt said Lady Mu manages the Xu Family diligently, runs everything perfectly. She’s capable and straightforward, without guile, faultless in dealing with the different branches. Truly a model of virtue. My aunt repeatedly said she should learn from you. Though I haven’t met you before, this unworthy junior long wished to pay you respects and thank you on my aunt’s behalf for your care. Hearing you came to the Capital, I planned to visit. Yet… I hesitated because I suffer from a brain illness and a somewhat unsavory reputation. I feared offending you.”
A critical hit! A pure, unadulterated critical hit!
If Fang Jifan had raged and scolded her, Lady Mu could have spun it into a misunderstanding. She could have defused it. Had he confronted her directly, she could have played the pitiful victim. That would have worked.
But Fang Jifan standing there, radiating admiration? That made it seem like everyone in the Fang Family owed gratitude to Lady Mu for her care! That… was seriously awkward.
Didn’t this make her, Lady Mu, look not only ignorant but like a gossipy busybody spreading rumors without verification?
And then, Fang Jifan deliberately emphasized his status as a brain illness sufferer at the end.
That was like drawing a long blade and plunging it straight into Lady Mu’s heart.
A brain illness patient! Her own junior! A sick young boy! How dare she speak ill of him? Shameful! Disgraceful! She was worse than a beast! Pah!
Lady Mu’s face turned a sickly yellow wax color. Seeing Fang Jifan smiling at her warmly only deepened her feeling of meeting a ghost.
Emperor Hongzhi watched with suspicion in his eyes, unable to resist giving Fang Jifan a sharp look. Yet he couldn’t help wondering…
He suddenly felt that Fang Jifan… this fellow… who seemed muddle-headed, playful, and haphazard… somehow his careless words always struck a painful nerve…
The Grand Empress Dowager also seemed to taste something in his reply. Seeing Lady Mu, now completely unraveled, the Grand Empress Dowager’s earlier smile vanished completely. Annoyance filled her heart, though she suppressed her temper—it was her birthday, after all. Her perception of Lady Mu instantly cooled significantly.
Finding Lady Mu displeasing, her voice carried a natural chill when she spoke. “Notorious? Who says Minister Fang is notorious?”
That rebuke caused unease to ripple through many, especially Lady Mu. She was so upset that she forgot to formally beg forgiveness, standing there quivering uncontrollably.
The hall fell deathly silent.
Everyone was lost in thought. The Mingfu ladies clearly racked their brains, trying to recall who this Fang Jifan even was. They also desperately tried to remember—why exactly was the Nanhe Bo Mansion suddenly receiving such imperial favor?
The Grand Empress Dowager’s rebuke carried undeniable protection for Fang Jifan.
What lay behind this? An Imperial Palace attitude worthy of careful consideration.
In her corner, Fang-shi also felt a wave of astonishment. She saw her nephew handling everything with calm, measured responses. Where was the “wildly defiant” nephew of rumors? He… he was utterly unexpected… someone to be looked at in a whole new light.
And then there was Lady Mu—she had clearly tripped badly and was now in deep trouble. A streak of unprecedented satisfaction shot through Fang-shi’s heart. Over the years, the pressure weighed heavily on her, living anxiously, constantly terrified of any tiny slip-up inviting the senior wife’s displeasure.
Who would have thought this usually formidable Lady Mu would face a day of such helpless panic?
Fang Jifan grinned broadly, savoring Lady Mu’s distress. He felt not a shred of regret. He was just using her own tactics against her! And besides…
He had absolutely no problem kicking her when she was down.
When you were already labeled a wastrel, a scoundrel, a degenerate, enemy of society—kicking someone when they were down? What of it?
Fang Jifan smiled with utterly innocent harmlessness. “Your Highness, Lady Mu probably really did just repeat idle gossip. She doesn’t know anything. Why trouble her about it? She’s nervous meeting Your Highness, that’s why she babbled nonsense. Please, Your Highness, don’t punish her.”
A second critical hit…
The Grand Empress Dowager naturally wouldn’t punish Lady Mu for mere loose talk and stirring trouble. At worst, she’d simply dislike her.
Besides, it was her big birthday party! Punishing a Mingfu on such a joyous day?
Absolutely unthinkable.
Yet Fang Jifan insisted on defending her—saying she didn’t know better, hadn’t committed any terrible offense, pleading for her leniency.
Compared directly to the “dreadful things” Lady Mu just said about him? Their differences were starkly revealed. Their character gap instantly widened tenfold.
A daughter of the Prince of Dingyuan? Wife of the Duke of Wei? How could she compare to a youth dealing with brain illness? Wasn’t she utterly embarrassed? Did she have any shame?
“…” Lady Mu was ashen pale, wishing desperately she could vanish through a crack in the floor.
Fang Jifan’s words—each one pierced deeply like a dagger. Yet, what truly chilled her blood was the Grand Empress Dowager’s increasingly unpleasant expression.
Now, the Grand Empress Dowager held no trace of a birthday celebrant’s festivity. What should have been pure gladness became unpleasantness. And it all traced back to… her.
Lady Mu wanted to fight back. Yet any retort she imagined felt utterly futile.
She wasn’t blind. Couldn’t she see the situation clearly? Her opponent… was just a youth! She was his elder! An elder could discipline a junior. But an elder could never stoop to outright mud-slinging with a junior!
There was a difference between discipline and a full-blown brawl!
Even worse… he had a brain illness! Any counter-attack would make her look utterly graceless, narrow-minded, spiteful over trifles, and shameless.
She tried hard to take deep breaths. Never in her life had she suffered such humiliation! Yet she knew she had to swallow it.
The Grand Empress Dowager appeared to calm herself, unwilling to waste more breath on this “troublesome woman.” It was a celebratory day, after all. She spoke with faint dismissiveness, “Other matters, I cannot attest to. But ‘lacks any skill’? That phrase I strongly disagree with. Minister Fang possesses extremely high scholarly attainment in Daoist Studies. Without intense dedication, he would never have achieved such mastery.”
Just a brief, light comment. Yet it revealed immense appreciation.
Lady Mu suddenly understood.
So Fang Jifan—to win the Grand Empress Dowager’s favor—had painstakingly studied Daoist Studies?
This was classic currying favor! Catering specifically to her interests!
That shameless little treacherous villain! Who said he was ill in the head? This guy? He was frighteningly shrewd!
Suddenly, everything made sense. The Grand Empress Dowager revered Daoist Studies. Seeing a young man like Fang Jifan with depth in the subject naturally inclined her heart towards him.
What a pity—Lady Mu hadn’t grasped this earlier! It was why she’d fallen headfirst into this trap!