Seeing the two of them fall silent, Huang Yaning’s smile grew even wider.
“Sister Xia Zhi, you sacrificed your chastity for the Prince and Sixth Sister…
“But don’t worry, you are a pure and innocent good girl!
“Not to mention that you have helped the Prince, just because you are Sixth Sister’s biological older sister——
“The Prince has always treated Sixth Sister like his own sister. For Sixth Sister’s sake, the Prince certainly wouldn’t bear to see you looked down upon and unable to marry!
“So, the Prince will definitely take you into his residence!
“This is good being rewarded with good! I congratulate Sister Xia Zhi here!”
Xia Zhi was completely stunned.
After a moment, she came to her senses, and her heart was filled with wild joy.
Before taking off her outer clothes and entering the water, Xia Zhi’s intention had been to have physical contact with Prince Qi in the water.
She hadn’t thought about latching onto Prince Qi and becoming his woman overnight; that was too unrealistic.
She just hoped Prince Qi would see her, remember that there was someone like her…
She could take things slowly in the future.
But in reality, she was severely humiliated, both in the water and after coming ashore.
She was wearing so little, yet Prince Qi hadn’t even glanced at her.
Instead, she earned knife-like glares from all the young ladies, which made Xia Zhi’s scalp tingle…
She thought she had gained nothing today, but she never expected Seventh Miss to give her such a huge surprise!
Seventh Miss clearly wanted her to become Prince Qi’s woman. Although Seventh Miss’s motive was to anger Sheng Mingzhu, so what?!
If she entered the Prince Qi’s residence, she would never have to live under Sheng Mingzhu’s thumb again!
She would definitely carve out a path to wealth and status for herself!
So Xia Zhi was absolutely overjoyed!
Meanwhile, Sheng Mingzhu’s face grew paler and paler, and her body swayed slightly.
Zhu Qisheng’s expression looked like he had swallowed a fly.
The faces of many young ladies and madams in the crowd were equally grim, their emotions complicated.
For many official families, it was only natural for servants to go through fire and water for their masters.
Many masters didn’t care about a servant’s life, let alone a “servant’s” reputation or chastity.
Besides, they felt that Xia Zhi even being able to touch Prince Qi was a blessing she had cultivated over centuries. If she tried to use this to cling to Prince Qi, she really deserved to be taken out and beheaded!
But Xia Zhi was not an ordinary servant; this Xia Zhi was Sheng Mingzhu’s own flesh-and-blood biological older sister——
Although they could disregard Sheng Mingzhu’s feelings and belittle Xia Zhi as worthless, unworthy of being associated with Prince Qi.
However, if Xia Zhi truly did become Prince Qi’s woman, it would also benefit them.
Because Xia Zhi would lower the possibility of Sheng Mingzhu entering the Prince Qi’s residence.
Firstly, it would be extremely shameful for biological sisters to serve the same husband simultaneously; Sheng Mingzhu’s reputation would suffer if it got out.
Secondly, Xia Zhi had shown “kindness” to Prince Qi. If she entered the residence, she could certainly secure a concubine position——
Sheng Mingzhu thought highly of herself. If she couldn’t become Prince Qi’s principal wife in the future, with a status far above Xia Zhi’s, she most likely wouldn’t marry Prince Qi and suffer that humiliation.
And the probability of Sheng Mingzhu becoming Prince Qi’s principal wife was extremely low…
In conclusion, the positive side was that Xia Zhi becoming Prince Qi’s woman basically prevented the possibility of Sheng Mingzhu entering the Prince Qi’s residence.
The negative side was that Prince Qi, this prime piece of meat, would have been bitten first by Xia Zhi, which disgusted these noble ladies a bit——
Therefore, everyone’s mood was very complicated, but ultimately, jealousy and hatred towards Sheng Mingzhu took the dominant position, and they didn’t refute Huang Yaning’s words.
Actually, Huang Yaning’s intention in saying all this was indeed to send Xia Zhi into the Prince Qi’s residence.
But she also understood Sheng Mingzhu’s nature. If there was no better choice, or if she was pushed to a certain extent.
Sheng Mingzhu would first kill Xia Zhi and then enter the Prince Qi’s residence. If that failed, she could also do something like enter the residence as a secondary consort.
Therefore, Huang Yaning never thought of using Xia Zhi alone to completely cut off the possibility of Sheng Mingzhu becoming Prince Qi’s woman.
She said these words just to make Xia Zhi and Sheng Mingzhu fight over a man, to stir up trouble.
To make Sheng Mingzhu so angry she’d jump around, just to make her life difficult.
“Sixth Sister, Sister Xia Zhi just saved your life and has shown you great kindness!
“You should be the one to decide her future for her——”
Huang Yaning said to Sheng Mingzhu.
“Yes, Sheng Sixth Miss, you’ve been praised since childhood for being beautiful and kind-hearted. Your sister risked everything to save you, you should think about her properly——”
Duanmu Rui couldn’t hold back any longer and spoke, grinning brilliantly.
Under her cloak, Sheng Mingzhu’s hand was clenched into a tight fist, her nails breaking two of them.
She now wanted to kill Xia Zhi more than anything, so how could she possibly let Xia Zhi compete with her for a man?
Sheng Mingzhu couldn’t utter a single word.
Among the crowd, a few young ladies who had no interest in Prince Qi but had suffered losses because of Sheng Mingzhu, or had been stepped on by her to rise, also began to put pressure on Sheng Mingzhu.
“Sheng Sixth Miss, your sisterly affection is truly enviable! Please don’t break your sister’s heart——”
Seeing everyone staring intently at her, as if waiting for her to give an answer, Sheng Mingzhu took a deep breath and barely managed to find a shred of reason.
“Although Xia Zhi and I have a… blood relation, she is still a servant bought by the mansion, with a signed indenture… How could she…”
Meaning this, that Xia Zhi was unworthy of Prince Qi.
“Sixth Girl——”
Sheng Minmin spoke up at this moment, “If you’re worried about this, after returning to the mansion, I will return Xia Zhi’s indenture to her and help her nullify her slave status!”
“But… Xia Zhi… her status is humble…”
Sheng Minmin smiled slightly, “You don’t need to worry about that. Probably you haven’t heard——
“Just now, the Consort of Prince Jing mentioned up front that in the future, for women entering the Prince Qi’s residence, as long as the Prince agrees, and their character is good, status doesn’t matter…
“Everyone heard these words.”
Sheng Mingzhu felt as if struck by lightning. She opened her mouth but couldn’t utter a single word——
“Miss Xia Zhi——”
Zhu Qisheng, unable to bear Sheng Mingzhu being besieged any longer, stepped forward.
Technically, Xia Zhi had indeed helped him earlier, but he didn’t like Xia Zhi and couldn’t let Mingzhu get hurt. So he couldn’t accept her.
Therefore, even if some words might make him seem ungrateful and affect his reputation, for Mingzhu’s sake, he had to say them.
“Just now, a life was at stake, the situation was urgent, no one could handle every aspect perfectly!
“Everyone surely understands your actions. How about this: I will find you a suitable husband and give you a generous dowry…”
Zhu Qisheng wanted to use these things to get rid of Xia Zhi. If it were the old Xia Zhi, she might have agreed.
Someone chosen by Prince Qi would surely be decent, plus there would be a generous dowry.
But times had changed.
Today, the Madam and Seventh Miss were helping her.
Especially what the Madam just said showed that
Heaven itself was on her side. With such a rare, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, why shouldn’t she fight for herself?!
At this very moment, Xia Zhi summoned all the wisdom and acting skills of her life.
Her eyes instantly filled with sparkling tears as she gazed longingly at Prince Qi.
“Your Highness…
“It’s all this servant’s fault… It’s this servant who has caused you to face such a dilemma…
“This servant deserves ten thousand deaths——
“Your Highness is like the bright moon in the sky; how could you be sullied by this servant…
“This servant will end her own life right now…”
Having said this, Xia Zhi lunged towards a large rock beside her.
