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Meng Fuyao waved her hand and leaned slightly, smiling as she looked at her, not saying a word.

Liu Pin had gotten impatient and could only slap herself again. Meng Fuyao remained motionless and smiled slightly without saying a word until the skin on Liu Pin's face was bruised and inflamed.

Finally, Meng Fuyao slowly said, ”Why is Sister Liu so afraid? I've just finished running around and haven't even caught my breath when you start slapping yourself… what's the point?”

Liu Pin collapsed onto the ground, tears streaming out of her face as she heard the heartless person add, ”Aiya, look at this tender and smooth skin, how ugly it is after being slapped…”

Liu Pin didn't even have the energy to cry anymore and stayed on the floor, her heart filled with hatred, yet she didn't dare to show it on her face as she heard the Empress' footsteps; she sounded like she was leaving the courtyard.

Liu Pin couldn't help but feel relieved when the Empress suddenly turned back and said, ”Ah, I haven't settled the official matters yet.”

Everyone looked at Meng Fuyao expectantly as she turned to the lady-in-waiting beside her and asked, ”What's the punishment for insulting the nation's mother?”

The lady-in-waiting curtsied and replied, ”Replying Your Grace, the punishment is death by suicide, along with the elimination of the criminal's maternal family.”

She responded calmly, but when everyone heard her, they began to tremble, and Liu Pin shrank back immediately.

Meng Fuyao smiled brightly at her and said warmly, ”That's why I said, Sister Liu, you were being too extreme. Whatever crime you committed will be punished by the law, so why are you so anxious over getting beaten? Wouldn't it be redundant?”

Death by suicide…

All the concubines' faces paled; they never imagined that just Liu Pin would cower beneath Meng Fuyao, not even daring to raise her head as she looked at her fearfully. When her gaze met Meng Fuyao's cold and composed gaze, her heart instantly sank to the very bottom. She could only open her mouth.

Meng Fuyao continued smiling as she gazed at her—She heard that Liu Shilang doted on this daughter of his immensely and even didn't want to send her into the palace back then. What would he think if he saw the scene today?

”No——” Liu Pin finally managed to gather a response from the blow and launched herself forward as she grabbed Meng Fuyao's robes and sobbed. ”Your Grace, Your Grace, I am guilty, forgive me, Your Grace, spare me——”

”Who said I wanted you dead?” Meng Fuyao's words comforted, then frightened Liu Pin repeatedly and she felt mentally and emotionally exhausted after blow upon blow. She remained kneeling on the ground as she heard the Empress announce with an extremely tragic tone, ”Good karma falls upon those who show mercy, even though you flagrantly insulted my family, to take one's life just because of a few sentences, it won't do… It won't do…”

Liu Pin watched her with a shell-shocked expression. She did not dare rejoice—who knew when something scary would come out of that mouth again?

”However, that mouth of yours is really terrible, truly terrible. I've heard that you used to take pleasure in treating your servants and relatives like a joke?” Without looking at her, Meng Fuyao's gaze swept across all the concubines. ”Speaking too much and without thinking will cause the end of your life sooner or later. I can't bear to see you go down that path, so how about this, I'll help you…”

She adjusted her sleeve lazily and said, ”… Sew your mouth shut.”

The entire hall fell silent, and several weak-hearted concubines started crying in fright. Liu Pin slowly raised her head and glanced at Meng Fuyao, who was looking back down at her and smiling. Then, her body swayed, and she crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Meng Fuyao kicked her aside and swept the hall again. She called a girl over, ”Yang Chongrong, come here.”

The girl who had been called turned pale. Not daring to stand up, she crawled over on her knees and stuttered, ”Y-your Grace…”

”I'll have to trouble you with sewing Liu Pin's mouth,” Meng Fuyao said simply. ”Since you are on good terms with her, you naturally know the severity of the situation lest other people perform shoddily and ruin Sister Liu's face.”

Yang Chongrong's face looked worse than Liu Pin's as she knelt on the ground for a long time before finally whispering, ”… Yes.”

”Go to that hut to do it, don't scare the sisters here.” Meng Fuyao nodded satisfactorily and indicated for the eunuch to take them away.

She waved a hand, and a eunuch carried a burning hot branding iron in as well, the boiling red and sizzling object was like a bloody ghost's eye, and all the concubines clenched their mouths tightly shut as if their lips were being pressed by that horrendous thing. They felt a burning sensation on their lips that traveled all the way down to the bottom of their hearts.

They watched with bated breath as the eunuch closed the door, and after a while, terrible screams could be heard from the hut.

The piercing screams tore at their hearts; immense pain was like a terrifying black hole, it could send a person's mental health spiraling into somewhere unknown. Thereafter, a faint stench of urine and blood drifted from the hut.