Cold-faced Empress

Fu Siying stared at her father, nervously awaiting his answer.

Prime Minister Fu gazed at Fu Siying for a long time, then exhaled heavily and shook hands with Madam Li: "Of course I am willing to believe in my own daughter."

In an instant, overwhelming emotions engulfed Fu Siying like a tidal wave, leaving her overwhelmed with mixed feelings.

"Alright!" Madam Li nodded and began to formally question Fu Siying, "Yingying, now tell your mother and father honestly, did you have any influence in this matter?"

"No!" Fu Siying answered decisively, without the slightest hesitation.

If she were a true 16-year-old girl, she would most likely tell the truth because of her mother's trust. However, she is no longer an innocent and naive girl. Gaining the trust of her mother and father has been so difficult for her; she would never allow that trust to crumble so easily!

Upon hearing Fu Siying say no, Wang looked up and started cursing again: "You're talking nonsense! You deserve to be struck by lightning for lying!"

Fu Siying was furious with the old woman. She turned around, snatched the round fan from Yunzhi's hand, raised her hand high, and slapped Wang Shi's cheek hard with the fan handle!

"If you utter another word of slander against me, I'll make sure you never have a chance to speak again for the rest of your life!"

Wang, who had just been slapped hard across the face, stared at Fu Siying in astonishment: "You...you!"

Wei Lanling threw herself in front of Wang Shi, looking at Fu Siying with grief and indignation: "Cousin, you can't take advantage of my respect and trust to bully people like this!"

"Respect me, trust me?" As if she had heard the biggest joke in the world, Fu Siying twisted her wrist and lightly tapped Wei Lanling's forehead with the fan handle. "You have repeatedly slandered me for harming you. Do you think you have so much face that you are worthy of my harm?"

After saying that, Fu Siying waved to Qingyin: "Qingyin, tell them where this snake came from."

Qingyin obediently replied, "The snake was brought back from outside the manor by this servant, to be used for making snake soup for the manor."

"Snake soup?"

Everyone was startled. Yunzhi asked in surprise, "Sister, do you want to eat snake soup? But... but you don't need so many snakes."

Fu Siying glanced at Yunzhi, then looked at her mother, Madam Li, and said calmly, "It's not just me who's eating; everyone in the household has to eat. I originally thought that after the high monk's ritual, our family would indeed have a new beginning, but I didn't expect..."

These words silenced Li, and her face gradually darkened.

Wei Lanling couldn't hold back her anger and didn't believe this explanation at all: "Is it only when Qingyin was discovered to have brought a snake back to the mansion that my cousin suddenly wanted to treat the whole mansion to snake soup?"

Seeing that Wei Lanling suspected that the snake soup was a fabrication she had made up, Fu Siying curled her lips and said, "What do you mean by that, cousin? If I hadn't intended to invite the whole household to eat snake soup, why would I have had so many snakes delivered?"

"What my cousin is after is something only she knows in her heart," Wei Lanling said bitterly.

Fu Siying and Wei Lanling stared at each other, one with a gloomy gaze and a cold smile, the other full of resentment.

Just then, the cook from the kitchen came running from afar, panting. As soon as he reached Prime Minister Fu, he hurriedly apologized, "My lord, it was all my negligence. These snakes were for snake soup; I wasn't paying attention and didn't realize they'd escaped from the yard and crawled into the garden!"

"Make snake soup?"

Upon hearing this, Prime Minister Fu looked at Fu Siying in surprise.