You cause trouble and I collect your body, the little emperor’s aunt abuses the scumbag again

As dawn broke, a thick fog enveloped the entire Qingshui Village.

The carriage wheels creaked and groaned as they rolled over the damp mud.

Holding the swaddled baby, Meng Siya, supported by Madam Meng, boarded the carriage without looking back.

Lin Daxiong sat in the driver's seat and silently raised his whip.

He didn't know if he was doing the right thing, but he couldn't refuse Meng Siya's request.

Never mind, we'll talk about it when we get to the capital. Let the Crown Prince think about these troublesome matters himself.

The carriage slowly drove away, and the small courtyard where she had lived for more than half a year, which held all her love and hate, was soon swallowed up by the thick fog and could no longer be seen.

She didn't turn around.

Her gaze pierced through the thick carriage curtains and the dense fog before her, landing on the capital city she was about to return to, a thousand miles away.

There are people she wants to trample underfoot, and things she wants to take back.

The journey was long, so Lin Daxiong deliberately slowed down and laid thick cushions in the carriage to minimize bumps.

Sui Sui sleeps most of the time. When she wakes up occasionally, she just whimpers a couple of times and doesn't cry or fuss.

Meng Siya leaned against the car wall, covered with a blanket, seemingly resting with her eyes closed, but her mind was never still.

“Brother Da Xiong,” she suddenly spoke.

Lin Daxiong, who was rushing to catch the train, froze and quickly replied, "Hey, girl, what's wrong? Are you feeling jostled?"

"Tell me about what's happening in the capital."

"The capital?" Lin Daxiong's heart skipped a beat, wondering what she wanted to ask.

"It's not about the Crown Prince's palace," Meng Siya said calmly. "I want to know, what businesses are doing well in the capital right now?"

Lin Daxiong was stunned.

He thought she would ask Ji Yongyan, ask the Crown Princess, and cry and make a scene.

He had prepared a whole host of reasons and comforting words, but she asked about business instead.

"Girl, why are you asking this?"

“My father has fallen, and the Meng family has fallen apart. But some of the old shopkeepers who used to work for my father still have some hidden shops that weren’t completely confiscated during the raid. I want to know what happened to those people and those shops.”

Her words were very calm, but Lin Daxiong felt a cold sweat break out on his back.

He then realized that the woman in front of him was not the weak woman he had thought she was, who could only be sad and cry. She never thought about depending on anyone.

"Is that largest silk and satin shop on Zhuque Street still there? Is the owner still surnamed Wang?"

"Who's in charge of the grain and oil shops in the south of the city now?"

"And several pawnshops in the West Market..."

Meng Siya asked a series of specific questions, all about the business the Meng family used to make money from.

Lin Daxiong was stunned by her question and could only tell her everything he knew. The more he talked, the more alarmed he became.

Lin Daxiong and his mute cousin exchanged a glance, and without saying a word, they both jumped off the car.

Not a single word wasted.

Lin Daxiong's movements were so fast that they were just afterimages. He had no weapon in his hand, but every punch and kick he threw carried the killing intent honed in the military, and every move was aimed at the most vulnerable vital points.

The mute cousin was even more direct. He pulled out two short blades from somewhere, and in a flash, he entered the crowd. A cold glint flashed, followed by a scream.

That wasn't a fight, that was a massacre.

In less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, more than a dozen bandits lay dead in pools of blood, lifeless.

A strong smell of blood drifted into the carriage on the wind.

Meng Siya remained unfazed.

The last vestiges of her unrealistic fantasies were shattered when she saw the carnage.

This is the world that Ji Yongyan faces today.

It's a fight to the death; there's no room for leniency.

If she wants to survive with her child and reclaim what is rightfully hers, she must be more ruthless and stronger than them.

After traveling for another three days, the outline of the tall and majestic city walls of the capital could be seen in the distance.

Meng Siya asked Lin Daxiong to stop in a small grove of trees outside the city.

She took out a set of coarse cloth clothes that she had prepared beforehand from her bundle and put them on. They were faded from washing and had several patches.

She then took out a heavy veiled hat and put it on her mother, completely covering her well-preserved face.

Only after she had done all this did she speak to Lin Daxiong.

"After entering the city, we split up."

Lin Daxiong was wiping the blood from his hands when he heard this and paused: "Girl, what do you mean by this? You're an orphan and a widow, and you don't know anyone here..."

“Go back to your East Palace and report to your master,” Meng Siya interrupted him. “My mother and I will find a place to stay ourselves.”

"This won't do! His Highness..."

"From now on, you are not allowed to come to me without my permission. On the first day of each month, you shall deliver this month's medicine to Jishetang in the east of the city and leave it with a woman surnamed Meng."

Her tone left no room for argument, and every word she spoke was perfectly clear.

“Brother Da Xiong,” she lifted the car curtain and looked at Lin Da Xiong, “if you still consider him your brother, then don’t let him find me. It’s better for you, for him, and for me.”

Lin Daxiong looked at her, unable to utter a single word for a long time.

He could only manage to squeeze out two words through gritted teeth: "...Okay."

At the city gate, crowds thronged, and the guards were checking each person entering the city.

Holding her sleeping daughter Sui Sui, Meng Siya mingled with her mother in the queue, head down, silent.

Just as it was about to be their turn, the sound of rapid hoofbeats approached from afar.

"His Highness the Crown Prince is returning to the palace! All bystanders, please make way!"

The guards shouted and roughly pushed the people on the road to both sides.

A commotion broke out in the crowd, and they all knelt down on the ground.

Meng Siya was jostled by the people behind her and stumbled. She could only follow the crowd, holding her child, and kneel humiliatingly on the dusty roadside.

She bit her lower lip hard, her nails digging into her palms.

The man who once said he would give her the world to marry her, now she doesn't even have the right to look at him; she can only kneel by the roadside like an ant.

A canopy of shadow swept overhead.

A magnificent royal procession escorted an extremely luxurious four-horse carriage as it sped past her.

The wind happened to lift the carriage curtain.

Meng Siya suddenly looked up.

Through the black veil of the veiled hat, she could clearly see the profile of that face that haunted her dreams at midnight and that she hated to the core.

Ji Yongyan.

He had lost weight and felt colder. Dressed in a bright yellow casual robe, he leaned against a soft pillow, expressionless, with a woman in a magnificent palace dress in his arms.

She suddenly felt a chill run through her body.

At this moment, Sui Sui in her arms was probably not sleeping comfortably. She moved her body and let out a soft giggle, the sound of which was too faint to be heard on the street.

The man in the carriage jolted violently and turned his head sharply.

His gentle eyes, filled with confusion and inquiry, swept over the crowd kneeling by the roadside.

Their eyes almost met through the crowd and the black veil, but they ultimately missed each other.

His gaze swept over her without lingering.

The carriage curtain fell, shutting out everything, and the carriage drove away.

Meng Siya knelt on the ground, her body ice-cold, unable to move.

She only came to her senses when her mother, trembling, helped her up.

She lowered her head and looked at her sleeping son in her arms.

Beijing.

Ji Yongyan.

I am back.