Everyone was shocked by Ming Zhu’s beautiful appearance, and the faces of those future concubines were filled with jealousy, especially Li Defei, who was known as Great Yong’s number one beauty, who felt so jealous that she wanted to kill her.

Compared to Ming Zhu, her own beauty really couldn’t be considered beautiful, merely passable.

Even Murong Liuzun, the emperor of Great Yong, was momentarily stunned, seemingly unable to believe that such a beauty existed in the world. However, he quickly regained his composure and shifted his gaze back to the Prince of Qing Luo Kingdom.

The Prince of Qing Luo Kingdom was still very young, with a bearing of spirited grace, quite a match for the peerless Princess Ming Zhu. One was the future leader of Qing Luo Kingdom, the other the noble legitimate princess of Great Jin Nation, truly a perfect couple, a pair of Golden Boy and Jade Girl.

After being seated, Murong Liuzun raised a glass to welcome the guests of honor, and both parties began to converse.

In the course of the conversation, Ming Zhu asked Empress Dowager Wanyan whether there were any divine doctors in Great Yong who could treat internal injuries and set bones properly. Empress Dowager Wanyan replied, "Why ask about divine doctors for no good reason? Did someone among you get hurt?"

Ming Zhu said, "Not among us, but a woman of Great Yong whom we encountered today." She then related the events of the day in full detail.

Upon hearing this, the Empress Dowager, displeased, said, "This Gao Yang is truly going too far, acting with impunity just because she is the late emperor’s own younger sister. To publicly mistreat an unarmed concubine in the streets, what would the citizens of the capital think of our royal family if they witnessed such a scene?"

Upon hearing her mother criticized by the Empress Dowager, Li Defei hurried to her feet and said, "Imperial Mother, indeed there were some mishandlings on my parents’ part, but if a concubine in our house acts improperly, consorting with servants, if not severely punished, how then would my father’s dignity be maintained?"

Upon hearing this, Ming Zhu understood she was the daughter of that violent Princess Gao Yang and Consort Li, and the granddaughter of Prime Minister Li. Since her parents were vicious, she assumed their daughter couldn’t be much better, thus her gaze became sharp when looking at her.

She said, "Honored lady, in the whole world, how many concubines would dare act against house masters, committing deeds contrary to womanly virtue? Had that woman’s character been truly wayward, she would have done so in her youth already. Why wait until middle age, as an aging beauty, to engage in such acts? In my view, there must be other reasons for this. Most likely, it’s the result of inner house jealousy and strife, and that unfortunate woman was surely persecuted out of envy."

Li Defei, newly entered into the palace, relied on her noble birth and regarded no one highly. Seeing a foreign crown princess dare to speak ill of her parents, making baseless comments, she retorted with equal sharpness: "Just a damn maid; what does it matter if she’s wronged? As a royal family member, has the crown princess never punished any slaves? A trivial matter, why make a mountain out of a molehill?"

"A trivial matter? Is a human life trivial in the eyes of Your Ladyship?"

Hearing her so casually dismiss the gravity of a human life, Ming Zhu was furious: "Even an ant has a life, let alone a living person. In our Great Jin, if the emperor breaks the law, he is punished the same as a commoner. During our dynasty, Princess Zhao Qing was degraded to slave status by my Imperial Mother for her jealousy-driven murder of a concubine of the Prince Consort, sentenced to hard labor in Lingbei. My Imperial Mother did this to teach those self-perceived noble aristocrats a lesson, showing them what it’s like to be a slave or servant. Were Princess Gao Yang and Consort Li citizens of our Great Jin, they would by this hour have received the punishment they deserve. How could they be allowed to be so arrogantly reckless?"

Li Defei coldly laughed and said: "Is the princess implying our Great Yong’s laws are not strict, or that our emperor’s governance is not as rigorous as your Great Jin’s emperor?" Cleverly, she tried to escalate their personal grudge into a question of the two nations’ emperors’ governance capabilities, intending to suppress Ming Zhu’s arrogance.