Her Highness Doesn’t Want to Work Hard Anymore

This is Taking Bullying Way Too Far!

Even though Rou Wan Junzhu was unwell, she would rather have her nephew come visit rather than even meeting her own son. This all confirmed Hua Manman’s previous suspicions —

The mother-son relationship between Li Ji and Rou Wan Junzhu is really bad.

Li Lou didn’t seem to notice the other party’s cold indifference, and continued to smile brightly.

“During this time, I’ve been living in the Duke’s Estate, in the Haiyan Residence where you lived in before,” he said. “The clothes I’m currently wearing right now are also clothes you’ve worn before. Originally the size was a bit too large, so I asked a seamstress to help alter it, and now it fits just right. What do you think? I don’t look half bad, right?”

Li Ji looked at him coldly, and expressionlessly spat out one singular word:

“Ugly.”

Immediately, the smile on Li Lou’s lips couldn’t hang on any longer and slipped off his face.

He let out a long, seemingly helpless sigh.

“During this time, I was too busy taking care of my aunt, so I wasn’t able to attend your wedding yesterday. Are you perhaps upset about that? I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to miss drinking your wedding wine. I’m just truly too worried about my aunt. As you already know, since Uncle’s passing, Aunt has been depressed, and her health keeps getting worse. You are already very busy, to the point where you don’t have time to take care of Aunt, so I have no choice but to accompany Aunt in your place. If this makes you unhappy, then I can go bid farewell to Aunt right now. After all, nothing I say can affect the relationship between mother and son.”

Hua Manman lightly sucked in a breath.

Obviously no one here was drinking tea, yet why did she seem to smell the scent of spilled tea in the air?

Li Ji looked at the other party as though he were watching a clown performing on a high beam, and he sneered unceremoniously.

“Do you think that if you wear my clothes and live in my house, you can take my place and inherit the title of Duke Zhen?”

His words were like a knife, tearing off the layer of fig leaf1 that was concealing Li Lou’s body and exposing all the dark thoughts that Li Lou had been hiding in his heart. Indeed, that was exactly what Li Lou had been thinking.

Indeed, that was exactly what Li Lou had been thinking.

Ever since Duke Zhen had passed away on the battlefield, the mother-son relationship between Li Ji and Rou Wan Junzhu fell below the freezing point.

Rou Wan Junzhu refused to request for the Emperor to legitimize Li Ji as the heir to the title of Duke Zhen, making it clear that she did not want Li Ji to inherit the title.

Since Li Ji can’t be the heir, why can’t Li Lou step up and become heir instead?

They’re both in the same generation of the same Li family, and he also has the right to inherit this title.

As long as he can obtain the favor of Rou Wan Junzhu and get her support, he would be able to pocket the title of Duke Zhen for himself.

Just now, Li Lou had learned that Zhao Wang was coming, so he purposefully ran over to Zhao Wang, for the sole purpose of vexing Zhao Wang and discouraging Zhao Wang from returning to the Duke’s Estate in the future.

But unexpectedly, Zhao Wang was able to reveal his thoughts with just one sentence.

Li Lou couldn’t help but panic.

He tightly clenched his fists, digging his nails into the flesh of his palm as he struggled to maintain his composure, using the sting of pain to bring him back into focus.

“There’s no need to think in such a way, cousin,” he said, squeezing out a helpless wry smile. “I also had no other choice. At any rate, I have a clear conscience.”

Li Ji didn’t bother exchanging more words with this clown jumping about.

“Servants, come,” he said coldly. “Strip off his clothes, let’s look at his unsightly form underneath.”

Li Lou was shocked.

When he saw the palace guards rushing towards him, he was so scared that he retreated in a panic while shouting sternly:

“You dare! Just try and lay a hand on me! I’ll make you suffer the consequences!”

However, Chen Wangbei completely didn’t take his threats to heart. Instead, he took the lead and easily restrained Li Lou.

The other two palace guards immediately stepped forward and stripped off Li Lou’s clothes.

Soon after, Li Lou was stripped down to only a pair of obscene trousers.

He had never been so humiliated before. His face had turned purple from rage, and his teeth were chattering:

“You’re insulting me too much! This is beyond excessive bullying!”

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Fig Leaf = Can also be translated as a “loincloth”. It’s basically figurative language for something used to cover up a scandal or scandalous thoughts.