Male supporting role is not a stepping stone

The Seventh Prince took a look and was very satisfied with the result. Although his father's order was to take good care of this woman, he provided her with good food and drink. If she wanted to get over it, what could he do?

Besides, his father could not really value her and the child in her belly. It was probably just a momentary anger at that time. When he coaxed the old man to calm down, the swordsman who dared to harm him could also disappear.

With a plan in mind, the Seventh Prince went to the palace and reflected in tears in front of the old emperor as soon as the ban was lifted. He was good at observing people's words and expressions, and every word he said hit the softest part of people's hearts.

After a few times, the old emperor was really coaxed by him. After all, what he did was not a very serious thing. At the most, it was deceiving the emperor, and at the least, it was just being blinded by the beauty of women.

The Seventh Prince naturally noticed that his father's attitude had softened, and he was so excited that he drank a few more glasses at the banquet. As a result, he was too happy and bumped into someone when he walked out of the restaurant drunk. Before he could yell at his attendants, a short knife had already stabbed into his waist.

When he fell down, the attendants thought he was drunk and couldn't stand steadily. When they saw the gushing blood, they reacted and shouted loudly to catch the assassin.

The assassin probably knew that he couldn't escape, so he laughed three times and then cut himself with a knife. The Seventh Prince was carried back to the mansion for rescue, but he didn't die. However, he was injured in a vital part and could not be humane in the future.

Yang Yan got the news from Lu Yuanpan. He heard that the Seventh Prince sent people to capture Suo Yuxuan in the mansion as soon as he woke up, which resulted in her premature birth of a stillborn baby.

After a little investigation, he found that the assassin who committed suicide was actually Alai, who had disappeared for a long time. In the previous life, the three of them colluded and finally became rich and powerful. Unexpectedly, all of this turned into mortal enemies.

Yang Yan laughed sarcastically and put the matter aside. He no longer worried about what happened to Suo Yuxuan. In short, she had offended the old emperor before, and now she indirectly harmed the seventh prince. There was no room for her to turn over in her life.

Later, I heard that the seventh prince became extremely tyrannical because of his physical condition. The servants in the mansion were blamed for everything, and someone was carried out every few days.

He mentioned this matter to the old emperor. After all, indulgence of children to do evil is also detrimental to merit.

The old emperor was scared. He worked diligently to manage the country and tried his best to let the people live a good life. Isn’t it to accumulate merit and get what he wants one day?

He was very careful when he issued every decree, fearing that his decree would harm others, but his son was holding him back.

The old emperor immediately summoned the seventh prince into the palace and scolded him, saying that if he did not change his bad behavior, he would definitely demote him to a commoner. Later, he arranged two trusted palace maids to watch him.

The seventh prince was actually afraid when he heard his father threaten to abolish his son. Now he has become a useless person who cannot be treated humanely. Even if he is a prince, he will inevitably be gossiped behind his back. If he loses this status again, won’t he be trampled on by others in the future?

After returning to the palace, his behavior was much more restrained. Although he could not avoid being furious and scolding, he dared not easily order people to be beaten. Sometimes he really couldn't control his emotions. With the people sent by the old emperor watching, he didn't cause any more deaths.

The old emperor's discipline of his son saved Suo Yuxuan's life. Since he learned that Alai, who had harmed him, had stopped himself for fear of crime, the Seventh Prince's hatred was all focused on her.

If it weren't for this swordsman, how could he have offended that madman and ended up like this?

Suo Yuxuan had always felt that life was hard after entering the Seventh Prince's mansion, but when the Seventh Prince really tortured her, she found that her previous life was like heaven.

What about piercing her fingertips with needles, whipping with a thin whip soaked in salt water, etc., each of which made her feel so painful that she would rather die than die, but she would not really die.

There were several times when she was almost unable to bear it and wanted to seek death for relief, but the person who was watching her all the time saved her again. It was not that someone was so kind, but that the man wanted to keep her life and torture her slowly.

The hellish days lasted for more than a month. If it continued like this, Suo Yuxuan suspected that she was really going to be driven crazy. Fortunately, after someone came from the palace, this torture of her was also stopped.

Without those tortures, although her life was still not good, she went from a concubine with no worries about food and clothing to a rough maid in the mansion, doing a lot of work every day.

But Suo Yuxuan still gritted her teeth and survived. Most people are still afraid of death. She was forced to the extreme before and wanted to die. Now it is difficult, but it is not to the point where she can't bear it.

She had great ambitions at the beginning, thinking that one day she would be able to get away from her current life, but the seventh prince did not give her that opportunity.

Although he could not torture her, he hated this woman so much that he asked the people in the mansion to keep a close eye on her so that she could not find a gap to escape.

He also arranged heavy physical work for her every day, which made her exhausted. Slowly, her hands and face became rough, and she looked more than ten years older than her actual age, but her body became stronger.

In the busy life day after day, Suo Yuxuan gradually forgot her ambitions and her talent for poetry and books, and finally became a real rough maid with a strong body.

Twenty years passed in a flash. When the news of the seventh prince's death came, she suddenly raised her head from her heavy work and found that the people and things around her had changed a lot.

In recent years, no one has sold themselves into slavery. Those who enter the mansion have signed short-term contracts, and they can leave at any time if they are unhappy with the work. Even the master cannot keep them without authorization.

Only she, with the reputation of a concubine, did the work of a slave. She had no money to redeem herself, and no family to support her. She was always trapped here and could not be freed.

However, the new master in the mansion was kind and had no intention of making things difficult for her. After her father died, he released her and gave her some money as compensation.

Walking on the bustling streets again after thirty years, Suo Yuxuan felt as if she had been in another world. Then she was surprised to find that there were many more girls on the street than before. She didn't need to wear a curtain or follow a man shyly. She just walked on the street alone.

In the past, if you saw a young girl walking alone on the street, people would inevitably look at her strangely, and even the pretty ones would be molested by hooligans.

Nowadays, with people coming and going around, people have become accustomed to this. Sometimes, young women bump into men, and they don’t attract onlookers or pointing fingers.

“The Spring Examination results are out, and the top is Shao Xi, the granddaughter of the Imperial Tutor. The Jiangnan talent who was previously boasted to be the best in the world only got the tenth place. This is going to be fun!”

“What? I bet on Fang Qing to be the top of the list, why is he so useless? It really makes me angry!”

“Who told you not to listen to me? Shao Xi is the granddaughter of the Imperial Tutor. She is full of knowledge and is no better than a talented man who is arrogant?”

“I saw that she was just a little girl, and I didn’t expect her to be so Awesome?"

"Heh! Don't let your wife hear you, be careful that she won't give you the monthly allowance next month. I won't allow you to eat with me when the time comes."

"Oh! I'm just telling you this, don't tell your sister-in-law when you go back, or you'll be sad if I'm not good enough, right?"

"Be careful with your words! Have you forgotten that sister-in-law hates people saying that women are inferior to men?"

The two of them walked away noisily, and Suo Yuxuan was like in a dream. Women can actually take the imperial examination? And looking at the looks of the people around her, they didn't think there was anything wrong.

She followed the flow of people to the Jinshi list, and really saw the two words "Shao Xi" that she had heard before at the top of the list, with a big "female" behind the name.

Looking down, there are more names marked as "male", but women also occupy about a quarter. People in front of the list are talking about it, and most of them are about knowledge and fame, and few people talk about women.

Suo Yuxuan couldn't help but think, if she could have participated in the imperial examination as a daughter, would the result be different?

But soon she remembered that although she had concealed her identity at the beginning, because of the words of the immortal master, the emperor did not punish her, and even gave her the opportunity to show her talent.

And the reason why she fell to this point was that she had evil thoughts and married Qi Xuan's daughter to gain his trust and get close to him.

Now thinking about it, why did she take it for granted that she could manipulate other people's lives? If the fourth lady Qi had not died of illness, she had not had an accident and successfully entered the court. What would she do after she overthrew Qi Xuan?

According to her thoughts at the time, it was likely that the fourth lady Qi would eventually "die of illness", so everything was because of her evil intentions, and she had no fault with others.

After leaving the Seventh Prince's Mansion, Suo Yuxuan wandered outside for a few days. He felt that he was somewhat out of tune with this more prosperous world. In the end, he chose to go back and signed a contract with the new master in the mansion. He worked as a gardener there and never left until his death.

The old emperor lived longer than Yang Yan expected. For more than forty years, at the age of ninety-nine, he outlived the ambitious sons such as the Second Prince and the Third Prince. He waited until the youngest fifteenth prince was almost fifty before passing the throne to him and closed his eyes peacefully.

At this time, Yang Yan was already in his early sixties, but he still looked like a young man in his twenties. His mother Yang and aunt Li Ma had both passed away. Lu Ying not only inherited the Xingchang County Lady's Mansion, but also was named a princess for her merits. She married a prince consort and lived a happy life with many children and grandchildren.

The original owner's wishes had been fulfilled. He had no worries in this world. He gave part of his merits to the old emperor to protect his soul and go to the world where he could cultivate immortality.

Afterwards, his body disintegrated in front of the new emperor and all the ministers, turning into specks of starlight and disappearing without leaving any trace.