Not Your Typical Villianess

The Imperial Palace.

While the Empress and Xia Ying caught up on their various affairs, back at the throne room Minister Yao, who work under the ministry of justice Brought up the widespread of drugs in the capital. He pointed out that a lot of young scholars fell victims to addiction.

Emperor Zhong had high ambitions to Annex the other states so thoughts of losing new talents to opium addiction annoyed him. Lu Yaozhu had predicted that it would. Emperor Zhong ordered Minister Yao together with Minister Hua to look into the case.

Lu Yaozhu and Lu Yingjie didn't express any interest so as not to tip the Shi family off. As far as they never got involved in the investigation, everything would go swiftly. The Emperor wasn't on guard of Minister Yao, he wouldn't question any of his actions nor defend the Shi family once their involvement was discovered.

As far as everyone in the capital knew, The Yao and Hua families were both Neutral parties in the fight for the throne since they never backed any of the Princes. They were both hard-working ministers with a lot of notable achievements under their belt.

Having Minister Yao submit the petition, instead of one of the Lu family's allies or known associates were all part of Lu Yaozhu's plan. He did that to ensure that the results of the investigations would be received without contestf.

The Emperor had an axe to grind with the Lu family and would never accept any results the Lu Yaozhu or his brother submitted. His obvious prejudice was stalling many projects headed by Lu Yingjie.

if this case was given to any of the Lu brothers or their allies and the Shi family was found to be involved, the Emperor would suppress the results and accuse them of lying to the Emperor. Handing the case to a neutral party was the best option.

Lu Yaozhu submitted an official leave request to return to the training camp for a few days to keep the Emperor off his trail. The Emperor let down his guard once he believed Lu Yaozhu was out of town. Which made carrying out his discreet investigation on the Shi family's underground deals easy.

After carrying out his investigation, the result was in line with what was suggested by Lu Yaozhu He arranged to meet minister Yao secretly to discuss a possible collaboration. Although the Yao family appeared to be neutral in the fight for the throne, they were quite attentive to the struggles of the people.

Minister Yao didn't give Lu Yaozhu any response until he conducted his investigation. The Shi family considered their plan safe proof which gave room for mistakes. After careful investigation, it was easy to find out what they were up to.

Lu Yaozhu happily returned to Lu Manor after the court session. He had his usual calm expression, which looked unconcerned at least to onlookers but the few who knew him personally could see his joy.

Lu Yaozhu and Lu Yingjie weren't the only ones in high spirited at Lu Manor. Lu Yingjie whisked Zhu Fengyin into their room when they were both done eating and dismissed the servants.

Su Liya went straight to her room to turn in for the night. There was a small crowd of maids seated around a maid, as she walked past the general maid rooms. She heard the maid mention Lu Yaozhu's name and bashful noises arose from the other maids in the room.

Su Liya just shook her head and kept walking forward. The maids worked hard from dawn to dusk, they didn't have much time to socialize. When they did, like most employees their liked to gossip about their Employers.

It wasn't unusual to see them gossiping about Lu Yaozhu in groups, they usually just spread unrealistic rumours. A maid once said that Lu Yaozhu gave his life to Yama, the god of the dead and made sacrifices to Yama before going to war, she claimed that it was those sacrifices that helped him come out victorious.

When the maid said that, the other maids all ate that up, she had been surprised to see a bunch of mature adults believe such fantastical nonsense. since most maids were bored out of mind, it wasn't surprising that they would believe such a load of crap.

For the past few days, Su Liya underwent strict training on social etiquette and rules of northern Wei in preparation to accompany Zhu Fengyin for a banquet at the Xu family manor. These past two days she was forced to memorize the family history and information of a few notable noble families Madams that would be present.

It has been a rather stressful two days, she was short-tempered and tired. She wasn't in the mood to take part in the aimless conversation and just wanted to get better acquainted with her bed. She had been pissed off when she met her fellow roommates once more discussing Lu Yaozhu.

'Lu Yaozhu sure is popular today, can't I get a few hours of not hearing about the magnificent Lu Yaozhu!' Su Liya thought sighting loudly. She changed into her sleep ware and after brushing her hair plaited it into a thin single braid before turning in for the night.

Her bed was at the far end of the room facing the bed, she laid down and brought up her blanket. Her only neighbour Tian Tian was on night watch this night. The other maids present were at other side of the room gossiping.

Su Liya mitted them in her mind as she prepared for sleep. She has turned to face the wall when she heard the names Lu Yaozhu and Xia Ying. She sat up immediately, Xia Ying hasn't appeared till now. She was initially worried about that character because of her relationship with Liu Yingjie in the original novel. 

She immediately heard alarms go off in her head at the thought of Xia Ying appearing now. Su Liya got out of her bed and ran up to where the other maid sat. As she did, Su Liya asked " What happened to conferred Princess Xia Ying!".

The maids were fully absorbed in their gossip, no one found her tone off. The maid at the center of the conversation replied "Biqiu's that works in the kitchen's husband is one of the second young master's men. He told her that the young mater came upon the princess's carriage headed for a boulder and saved her life. Aiya our Young Master is so heroic...."

The maid said a lot more but Su Liya didn't pay her any attention anymore. All that was through her mind was the sentence "Xia Ying has appeared". In the original novel, Xia Ying was married to the Duke, the Empress had arranged this union to protect the Lu family.

Xia Ying had a strong family background, her grandmother was known as the Eldest Princess Ni'an and was the current Emperor's elder sister. She was the first child of the previous Emperor and was twenty years younger than the current Emperor.

Xia Ying was married off to one of the Powerful state Dukes before the current Emperor was born. She was known to be intelligent and hard-working. She was the previous Emperor's favourite princess and was well-loved by everyone.

Princess Ni'an married a state duke with a powerful military family. The State Duke Ni'an and the Empress protected the borders for decades before retiring to the countryside. The Previous Duke of Wu was close with the state duke. They had fought together a few times so the Empress was close with the Princess.

Princess Ni'an is very respected, even the pompous Emperor has to accord her some respect. Part of the reason why the Emperor was restrained back in the novel was because of the Powerful Xia Family. Although the state Duke was retired, he still had a solid footing in the government.

Most senior Ministers listen to him, the Lu family was in trouble. The Emperor was warry of the Lu family and wanted to subdue them. To ensure that the Emperor didn't go to the extreme, the Empress was arranging a marriage union with the State Duke's family.

Xia Ying was the state Duke's only grandchild, she was beautiful and talented. In the original novel, Xia Ying fell in love with Lu Yingjie at the summer solstice banquet at the palace. They met when he visited the Empress. 

The Empress encouraged the two to cultivate a relationship, a few months later they were married. It was around this time in the original novel that Xia Ying was introduced as the sharp-minded Princess. She was quite capable and was able to protect the Duke and the Lu family from harm a few times.

It was those actions that made the Duke fall in love with her finally. In the novel, the author hinted a few times that the Duke was previously in love with another woman but unfortunately his feelings weren't reciprocated. The woman was in love with someone else, she had married the man she was in love with but he never treated her properly.

While reading the book she l felt that the Lu family men were cursed with unrequited love. They loved selflessly with all their hearts but the object of their affection never felt the same way. Although the author never revealed who the Duke was in love with, reading the book you could feel all the Duke's sincere feelings.

She had been so happy when the Duke finally fell in love with Xia Ying. Their love was beautiful, he always loved and supported her no matter what. The thought of her presence in the capital put Su Liya on edge.