Chapter 14
STEAM BILLOWED INTO THE AIR as the entire bowl of soup immediately spilled across Huo Wujiu’s lap, soaking into the fabric of his robes and splattering down onto the floor.
Immediately, the nearby maidservants cried out in alarm. Sun Yuan leaped forward in a panic to snatch up a cloth napkin and try to wipe up the mess.
Huo Wujiu remained motionless next to the table. He merely looked down at his legs.
Even through a layer of clothing, the blistering hot soup still hurt. But that sort of pain didn’t mean much to him, especially now.
He’d been forced to sit and watch the girl purposefully splash the soup over him. To anyone who had practiced martial arts, her movements were extraordinarily slow and clumsy. And yet…he wasn’t able to avoid it.
All because he couldn’t move his legs.
That kind of indignity was more difficult to bear than any physical pain.
A moment later, Huo Wujiu looked up again and gazed coolly at Taozhi.
If she had been a man, he would’ve repaid her action with a hundredfold vengeance by pouring all of that searing soup straight down her throat.
However, he would never raise a hand against a woman.
Nonetheless, that venomous look was enough to send a shiver of fear running down Taozhi’s spine, and she involuntarily took a step back.
Then she came to her senses.
What was she doing? She was frightened of this incapacitated dullard giving her a mean look? What did she have to be afraid of?
His Highness wasn’t going to be here tonight, anyway. Currently, she was the only one in the hall with any authority. The other servants wouldn’t have the guts to gossip about her to His Highness, and there was no way the pathetic man in front of her would be shameless enough to rat her out either.
“Forgive your servant’s careless accident,” Taozhi said with a sneer, her eyes narrowing. “Alas, if only Mistress had moved out of the way, perhaps it wouldn’t have scalded you.”
Following that, she turned her attention to Sun Yuan, standing behind Huo Wujiu.
“And you there! Why are you so slow-witted? You have one job—to push Mistress’s wheelchair—and you can’t even do that? If you’re going to just stand there like a pole, you might as well sweep the courtyard tomorrow instead!”
Taozhi had grown accustomed to abusing her power and lording over the other servants in the hall. His Highness was seldom in Anyin Hall, with Meng Qianshan accompanying him wherever he went. As third in hierarchy, Taozhi generally had free rein here.
Normally, she scolded and berated the surrounding servants whenever she pleased. Once she was done, some of the braver ones would even come up to placate her and smooth the situation over.
Now, though, as she finished her tirade of abuse, the room fell so quiet that she could’ve heard a pin drop.
Breathing heavily, she frowned and looked around her.
All of the other maids in the room had lowered their heads, like a flock of timid quails.
Taozhi sized them up, her eyebrows furrowed in displeasure and confusion.
Were they so frightened of a mistress who couldn’t even walk? What was there to be scared of?
She whirled around with a disdainful snort, intending to leave the room. However, before she could take a step, she became aware of the two figures standing in the doorway.
“Your…Your Highness!”
Taozhi’s legs gave out, and she dropped to her knees at once.