Chapter 288
Chapter 288
Seeing Li Zhiwei appear here, Huo Yunzhi's eyes were filled with hatred.
If it weren't for Li Zhiwei, how could her brother and two sisters have been exiled?
How could her Huo family's property have been confiscated?
And she wouldn't have had to give herself to that old geezer, Prince Lanhuai!
Thinking of Prince Lanhuai's useless body yet bizarre preferences, the hatred in Huo Yunzhi's eyes as she looked at Li Zhiwei deepened a few degrees.
It had been over half a month since she entered Prince Lanhuai's mansion. Since arriving, she had to deal with an endless stream of women every day, as well as that utterly detestable Princess Fuan, who came up with new ways to make trouble for her daily.
And every time, Prince Lanhuai would just brush her off with lukewarm excuses.
Prince Lanhuai would usually just tell her not to bicker with a child.
A child?
That Princess Fuan was about the same age as her. If she was a child, wasn't she herself also a child?
And those women in Prince Lanhuai's mansion!
At this thought, Huo Yunzhi's glare toward Li Zhiwei became even more venomous!
It was all Li Zhiwei's fault!
She was the one who ruined her!
Whenever she thought of Li Zhiwei, she had to suppress her disgust and cater to Prince Lanhuai. Every time she begged Prince Lanhuai to get rid of Li Zhiwei for her, he would say it wasn't the right time yet and tell her to endure it a little longer.
How could she possibly endure it?
Today, Prince Lanhuai had granted her a small favor, allowing her to come drink tea at the Qingyu Pavilion, a place all the noble ladies in the capital yearned to visit. She thought she might even be able to network with some noblewomen from prominent families.
However, she never expected that before she could even meet any noble ladies...
She would run into her sworn enemy, Li Zhiwei.
Li Zhiwei also hadn't expected to run into Huo Yunzhi here.
However, she had little interest in why Huo Yunzhi was here.
After all, the Huo family were merchants, so it wasn't strange for them to associate with wealthy business people. Furthermore, Huo Yunzhi was unmarried; when the incident happened, it wouldn't have been impossible for her to use some excuse to escape implication.
"Miss Li, hello! Please come this way!" Seeing Li Zhiwei's path blocked by Huo Yunzhi, the waiter quickly hurried over to guide Li Zhiwei to the private room where his master was waiting.
He knew this Miss Li was his master's esteemed guest and dared not neglect her.
Li Zhiwei nodded at the waiter, having no intention of paying attention to the crazed Huo Yunzhi.
After all, she had no ties with the Huo family anyway.
Whether Huo Yunzhi married above or below her station now had nothing to do with her.
Strictly speaking, the Huo family's downfall was indeed because of her.
Who knew, she might be harboring malicious intentions against her.
Just as Li Zhiwei was about to leave with the waiter, Huo Yunzhi flew into a rage.
"Stop right there! Did I say you could leave?" Seeing Li Zhiwei completely disregard her, Huo Yunzhi grew even more furious.
What did Li Zhiwei think she was!
Just a merchant's daughter. Even though she had suddenly transformed into an official's daughter, she didn't believe Li Tianyou could be any sort of high-ranking official.
In Huo Yunzhi's eyes, he was definitely nothing more than some petty ninth-grade official.
Having been in the capital for over half a month, Huo Yunzhi only knew that Li Zhiwei was going to marry Prince An.
As for Li Tianyou, she hadn't had the time to ask around. After all, there were many women in Prince Lanhuai's mansion, and she had entered out of nowhere to occupy the position of a secondary consort.
How could those women be willing to accept that?
It could be said that Huo Yunzhi's outing today was merely stealing a rare half-day of leisure.
Li Zhiwei merely glanced at Huo Yunzhi, showing no sign of stopping.
"What are you standing around for? Hurry up and stop her!" Huo Yunzhi had suffered grievances in Prince Lanhuai's mansion and originally wanted to come out for some fresh air. She never expected that a lowly Li Zhiwei would also completely ignore her.
One must know, she was now a lofty secondary consort of Prince Lanhuai's mansion.
And Prince Lanhuai was the current Emperor's own uncle; she was now imperial royalty!
Huo Yunzhi felt that with her current status, she could walk sideways through the capital.
Otherwise, that Princess Fuan wouldn't be able to act so arrogantly and domineeringly!
The maid beside Huo Yunzhi was her trusted servant brought all the way from Li'an County.
She didn't recognize any of the noble figures in the capital.
Furthermore, the maid did recognize this Li Zhiwei—she was nothing more than the daughter of an ordinary merchant family from Li'an County.
The maid knew even less about the capital's officials. Now that Huo Yunzhi ordered her to stop Li Zhiwei, she didn't even think twice before stepping directly in front of Li Zhiwei.
"Move aside!" Li Zhiwei frowned. She didn't know what status Huo Yunzhi held now.
However, Li Zhiwei didn't feel that she needed to be wary of her in this capital.
After all, in the capital, Li Zhiwei felt that with her current status, she could actually walk sideways too.
Her father was a proper second-grade official, and there weren't many officials with a higher rank than her father.
Moreover, the family members of officials ranked higher than her father were mostly very humble and polite; there wouldn't be such arrogant people. Even if there were those who looked down on her, Li Zhiwei felt they would still be somewhat wary of her due to the existence of Prince An.
No one would be so tactless as to bump into her and ask for trouble.
"Madam, Miss Li is my master's esteemed guest. This is the Qingyu Pavilion, not a place for you to run wild!" the waiter frowned and reminded her.
The waiter thought to himself that this was the first time someone dared to cause trouble in the Qingyu Pavilion.
"Insolent! A lowly Qingyu Pavilion dares to speak to my master like this? Do you know what status my master holds?" the maid on the side pointed at the waiter's nose and scolded angrily.
"What status does your master hold? She couldn't possibly be an imperial consort from the palace, could she?" the waiter looked at the angry little maid with a face full of sarcasm.
In this capital, there were very few who dared to challenge his boss.
The waiter was genuinely curious about the identity of this so-called madam.
"My master is a secondary consort of Prince Lanhuai's mansion!" the maid declared with a smug look.
Initially, they thought this might be some incredible noble madam, but it turned out she was just a powerless secondary consort from Prince Lanhuai's mansion.
"And here I thought some incredible big shot wanted to cause trouble at my place. Turns out it's just a lowly secondary consort from Prince Lanhuai's mansion!" Cheng Qingli's voice drifted down from upstairs.
She had just wanted to come over and see if Li Zhiwei and Xu Heming had arrived.
Unexpectedly, she witnessed this scene of Huo Yunzhi making things difficult for Li Zhiwei.
Although Cheng Qingli was somewhat surprised as to why Xu Heming hadn't followed along.
But this was ultimately her territory. Letting Li Zhiwei suffer grievances on her turf seemed like a slap to her own face.
"Did Prince Lanhuai's mansion draw the admission ticket today?" Cheng Qingli looked at the manager beside her with some displeasure and asked.
"To answer Master, this admission ticket was not drawn by Prince Lanhuai's mansion," the manager replied without hesitation.
"Then from now on, don't let anyone from Prince Lanhuai's mansion come here and dirty my place!" Cheng Qingli ordered without a second thought.