At this moment, Yong’an Street fell completely silent.
Only the sound of cursing still came from inside the overturned carriage.
“Ahhh!!!”
Suddenly, a scream shattered the oppressive quiet. A woman in simple cloth clothes, her hair in a loose bun, pushed through the crowd and rushed toward the scene of the accident.
The woman was about twenty years old, in the prime of her youth.
The little girl lay on the ground, her arms bent at unnatural angles. Bloody bubbles kept frothing from her mouth. Seeing the woman arrive, she desperately wanted to reach out for help, but she couldn’t muster a single ounce of strength in her entire body. She could only whimper softly.
Seeing the tragic state of her daughter, the woman stood frozen in place as if struck by lightning.
Her legs gave way, and she collapsed right there, her face a mask of utter despair.
In ancient times, with injuries this severe, there was almost no chance of recovery. One could already prepare for the funeral arrangements.
“Everyone, don’t just stand there! Quickly, help the injured!”
A scholar shouted, instantly snapping the surrounding pedestrians out of their stupor.
Besides this little girl, there were many other victims who had been knocked down by the carriage.
“Go to the medical hall and call for a physician!”
“No, there’s no time! Let’s carry them over!”
“I’m an apprentice from a medical hall. Those with minor injuries can be carried away. Those with severe injuries must absolutely not be moved. Wait for the physician to arrive, otherwise it could be fatal!”
“My goods… they’re all ruined!” Some stall owners, looking at their merchandise scattered in disarray on the ground, broke down and wailed.
“Father! What’s wrong? Wake up!”
This middle-aged man, in protecting his wife and child, had struck his head against the carriage railing and fainted on the spot.
His son shook his body beside him, trying to wake him up.
At this moment on Yong’an Street, there were those who had broken down crying, those paralyzed with fear on the ground, those frantically trying to save people, and also those taking pleasure in others’ misfortune, watching the spectacle from the sidelines.
It revealed the myriad facets of human life in this world.
Oh, and there was also the cursing.
From inside the carriage, a noblewoman dressed in red was helped out by the coachman.
Her first act upon emerging was to slap the coachman across the face, angrily demanding, “What are you good for?”
The coachman wore a look of grievance. “Miss, you can’t blame me for this.” As he spoke, he pointed at the cloth-clad woman collapsed on the ground. “It’s all that mother and daughter’s fault. If they hadn’t been blocking the road, the carriage wouldn’t have overturned.”
The noblewoman frowned as she looked at the cloth-clad woman, her phoenix eyes unable to hide a flicker of disgust.
She was clever. With one glance, she understood what kind of trouble her coachman had caused.
However, she didn’t care.
Even if the Dali Temple investigated, it wouldn’t be her fault.
All the blame lay with this coachman. What did it have to do with her? Besides, whether the Court Commandant of the Dali Temple even had the guts to pursue the matter was another question entirely.
“Useless! Aren’t you going to toss a couple of taels of silver over there?”
“Oh, right, right.”
The coachman hurriedly fished out two taels of broken silver from his pocket, walked over, and threw it in front of the cloth-clad woman.
The woman, who had been in a daze, immediately snapped back to her senses upon hearing the crisp sound of the silver hitting the ground.
She looked up at the coachman and the obviously impatient noblewoman behind him, instantly understanding that this master-servant pair before her were the culprits who had killed her daughter.
Thinking of her daughter’s pitiful state, the cloth-clad woman’s expression gradually twisted into something ferocious.
She suddenly grabbed the coachman’s clothes, screaming, “Murderer! You’re the murderer!”
The cloth-clad woman’s shouts drew everyone’s attention.
As she screamed, she began to wail hysterically, tearing at the coachman’s clothes. “Waaah… give me back my daughter!”
“What are you doing? Are you crazy?”
Seeing the cloth-clad woman clinging to him, the coachman, in a fit of anger, pushed her to the ground.
Unexpectedly, he used too much force. The back of her head struck the ground heavily. Her eyes rolled back, and she fainted on the spot.
The coachman froze, then panicked. He hurried back to the noblewoman’s side. “Miss, we should return to the manor quickly. These are all just unruly commoners.”
“You want me to walk back?”
Facing the noblewoman’s rebuke, the coachman lowered his head and replied, “This lowly one will go find another carriage immediately.”
“Stop right there!”
Seeing the coachman about to leave, the crowd rushed over to block his path.
“What are you doing? What do you all think you’re doing? Do you know who our young lady is? If you value your lives, get out of my way!”
Seeing the crowd’s superior numbers, the coachman was terrified. He hurriedly invoked the noblewoman, trying to intimidate them.
A scholar stepped forward, slapping his paper fan against his palm, his face serious. “I don’t care who your young lady is. You commit violence in the street and think you can just leave unscathed? Wait for the Dali Temple to send someone.”
“That’s right!”
“How dare you! A mere scholar like you dares to look down on my young lady?”
After saying this, the coachman turned around, putting on a fawning smile for the noblewoman. “Miss, you see? These unruly commoners don’t hold you in the slightest regard.”
The noblewoman, Mo Nichang, gave him a cold glance, not bothering to address her servant’s petty scheming.
However, what this useless fool said was correct. This group of self-important scholars needed to be taught a lesson. They didn’t know their place.
They didn’t understand who they could afford to provoke and who they couldn’t.
Did they really think the zongmen would intervene for insignificant commoners like them?
Hmph.
“If you withdraw now, I can pretend I didn’t see any of this,” Mo Nichang said as she stepped forward, her tone utterly flat.
“…”
Everyone saw Mo Nichang’s extraordinary bearing and knew she was no ordinary person.
Moreover, she still wore an utterly composed expression, clearly convinced nothing would happen to her. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be so calm, and her tone wouldn’t be so haughty.
“Who are you?” the scholar asked, his expression grave.
“Mo Nichang.”
The scholar was startled. He gripped his paper fan tightly, his heart already wavering with thoughts of retreat.
Mo Nichang. The legitimate daughter of the current Mo Prime Minister, and also the betrothed, yet-to-be-married princess consort of Prince Ning. With those two identities weighing down, they were not something ordinary commoners like them could challenge.
Even if they complained to the zongmen, this matter would likely be turned from a major incident into a minor one, and the minor one would be smoothed over. In the end, they themselves might even face targeted retaliation.
There was no helping it. The Prime Minister, as the head of the civil officials, held too much sway over scholars like them.
“I pay my respects to Miss Mo,” the scholar said, cupping his hands in salute.
“Mmm.” Mo Nichang nodded in satisfaction, then looked at the others, her face full of smugness.
“So, what is your choice? Will you withdraw or not?”
The people exchanged glances with one another, saying nothing.
Though they gave no verbal answer, their steps backward made their choice perfectly clear.
“Very good. You’ve made the correct choice.” The corner of Mo Nichang’s mouth lifted in a slight smile as she prepared to walk through the crowd and leave.
“You can’t go!” The cloth-clad woman had woken up at some point and was tightly clutching the hem of Mo Nichang’s dress.
Seeing those dust-covered, dirty hands touch her phoenix dress, Mo Nichang’s pupils contracted. Instantly furious, she directly swung a slap.
“How dare you!”
Smack!
The cloth-clad woman fell to the ground, her hair disheveled. The bright red handprint on her left cheek showed the slap hadn’t been light.
“This Zhaoxia Phoenix Dress was a gift from Prince Ning. How dare someone like you touch it?”
“Seeing as you just lost your daughter and are grieving, I won’t hold it against you.” As she spoke, Mo Nichang took out a handkerchief and carefully wiped the spot the cloth-clad woman had touched.
“Hmph.” After wiping it clean, she tossed the handkerchief aside and turned to leave with a flick of her hair.
The scholar who had been so spirited and righteous not long ago now didn’t dare to block her path at all.