Poisonous Goddess: I'm just lazing around in the mortal realm.

As soon as he finished speaking, he bent down again.

Duan Yuan looked at Pei Zhiheng thoughtfully, but suddenly found himself at a loss.

He had assumed Pei Zhiheng was also there to plead for Thirteen, and planned to dismiss him with any excuse. He never expected it to be Yan'er causing trouble again!

Thinking of this, he walked to the table and slowly sat down.

"This matter must be Yan'er's fault, Prime Minister Pei need not blame yourself."

Duan Yuan's already furrowed brows deepened, and he glanced at Eunuch Tao beside him.

"The most important thing now is to treat Miss Pei. It is urgent to send the imperial physician to examine her immediately."

Upon hearing this, Eunuch Tao lowered his head and quickly left the Imperial Study.

As Pei Zhiheng knelt in the main hall, a chill ran through him, and he realized with shock that the emperor was still so cold-blooded and ruthless.

There was a time when he witnessed the emperor reprimanding the late empress from the perspective of an outsider, but now that he has a different identity, he suddenly has many feelings.

When he slowly raised his head, the look of gratitude he couldn't hide in his eyes for the emperor fell right into Duan Yuan's view.

"Your Majesty, I thank you greatly!"

Just as Pei Zhiheng had predicted, the emperor did not speak until he left the imperial study, showing no intention of blaming the fourth princess.

To his surprise, the emperor summoned the third son of the Zhou family to the palace.

At this moment, in the dark room of the princess's residence, the floor was covered with shocking bloodstains.

Thirteen lay face down on the filthy ground with his eyes closed, his face almost deathly pale. His lower legs had been broken, and after several rounds of torture, there wasn't a single undamaged spot left on the rest of his body.

Bloodstains covered the walls, their eerie color creeping up every corner of the room in the candlelight.

Duan Yuyan gritted her teeth, lowered her head slightly, and her eyes were filled with long-suppressed hatred.

She had been waiting for this day for a long time.

In order to capture Thirteen, he even went so far as to have his men push the second young lady of the Pei family in Nanyang off a cliff.

Even though she had no idea whether the person who fell was dead or alive.

None of this mattered to her, because all she ever wanted was the life of Thirteen, that lowly commoner!

As his men approached Thirteen with red-hot branding irons, Duan Yuyan stopped them.

"Wait."

She stood up, not caring at all that her skirt was covered in mud, and walked up to Thirteen.

"Why aren't you saying anything? You lowly commoner? Weren't you avoiding me?" Duan Yuyan couldn't hide the excitement in her eyes. She had liked Shen Mu for so long, and for him, every time she entered the palace, she wanted to ask her father to bestow Shen Mu upon her.

She never expected that a mere commoner would be hanging around Shen Mu every day; seeing him like this really annoyed her.

Now that her brother is poisoned, it gives her a legitimate reason to get rid of Thirteen.

Thirteen struggled to open his eyes, glanced at her sideways, and continued to speak sarcastically.

"Aren't you afraid the Emperor will take your life?"

She had thought that Duan Yuyan would stop at nothing to take her away, but she never imagined that Duan Yuyan would actually dare to kill Pei Suisui for her insignificant life.

At that time, on the edge of the cliff, Duan Yuyan deliberately ordered her men to hold Pei Suisui hostage in order to lure her out.

She originally thought that as long as she showed herself, no matter how despicable Duan Yuyan was, she would spare Pei Suisui and let her go for the sake of Prime Minister Pei.

However, she was terribly wrong.

Thirteen didn't expect that Duan Yuyan, in order to punish Pei Suisui for deliberately taking him away, gave a signal to the guards who were holding Pei Suisui hostage, and pushed Pei Suisui off the cliff.

She didn't know whether Zhou Jinghuai, who was always unreliable, had actually saved Pei Suisui.

If Pei Suisui loses her life because of her, then she will definitely break the rules in the mortal world and kill Duan Yuyan.

Just then, Duan Yuyan's shrill laughter interrupted Thirteen's thoughts.

“My father instructed me to bring you back to the palace for questioning, but he didn’t say whether you should be alive or dead.”

Thirteen sneered upon hearing this, still relentlessly arguing.

"That's true, after all, the Emperor's biggest mistake in his life was giving birth to a foolish and dull princess like you!"

Although she desperately wanted to kill Duan Yuyan to avenge Pei Suisui, her hands and feet were still chained, making it impossible for her to summon her compass pendant.

Especially since she had already been forcibly awakened last night, revealing her true form and suffering some backlash from divine power, she was currently in a weak and powerless state.

"You bitch!"

Duan Yuyan slammed the red-hot branding iron from the servant's hand onto Thirteen's back. Instantly, it felt as if the iron had pierced through her back, making a sizzling sound and even faintly smelling like burning flesh.

Thirteen gritted her teeth, a cold smile still managing to creep onto her lips. Compared to the torture she had endured of tasting hundreds of herbs and concocting poisons, this was still bearable.

"I think that's all the princess is capable of."

As soon as she finished speaking, Duan Yuyan threw the branding iron to the ground with obvious disgust.

Duan Yuyan didn't want to waste any more words with her, but she suddenly remembered that her brother had mentioned Thirteen's name in bed last night, and couldn't help but sneer.

"You don't know this yet, do you? My dear brother is fond of your good looks, young man. I wonder if he would be happy if I peeled off your skin and gave it to him?"

She had to admit that Thirteen's face was truly handsome, especially his eyes.

She looks just like an old friend from Nanyang.

Thirteen lay panting in the pool of blood, ignoring the pain in his back, and raised his head with some curiosity.

"What? Does the princess's brother like men?"

She did believe Duan Yuyan's words to some extent. She remembered that when she first entered the Third Prince's residence, whenever she gave the Third Prince acupuncture treatment, there were never any maids serving him in his room, only servants.

However, she had never thought about it in that way.

Duan Yuyan couldn't hide the disdain in her eyes. She only offered this explanation now that she saw Thirteen couldn't escape her grasp.

"If you like men, it's not something to be ashamed of."

Her expression turned cold as she remembered the artificial rockery she had secretly hidden in her brother's mansion, and then she saw the two dilapidated bodies that had been carried out of her brother's room being thrown into the pond.

Such practiced ease suggests this isn't the first time.

From that moment on, Duan Yuyan loathed being around her brother. Whenever she saw him, she felt as if he were haunted by evil spirits.

Disgusting!

"Then, according to the princess's wishes, it would be appropriate to support Consort An in giving you another younger brother."

Thirteen sneered inwardly. Through Duan Yuyan's few words, she suddenly understood why Consort An wanted another prince to protect her.

After all, as the future crown prince of Nanyang Kingdom

Any stain on his body could become an obstacle to his ascension to the throne of Nanyang.

If the An family is to rebel, they must find a legitimate reason and a prince with no blemishes to inherit the throne.

Duan Yuyan felt that Thirteen was alluding to her, and instantly flew into a rage. She raised her foot and stomped Thirteen's head back into the pool of blood, snarling viciously.

"You, cut her tongue out!"