novelPrincess, You Mean…
| ← Ch.554 | Ch.556 → |
"Consort Ning brought you here, right?" A thought sparked in Commandery Princess Xianyun's mind as she immediately caught the key message in her words.
"Yes. After she brought me here and vanished, I accidentally came in here, " Heng Yuwan insisted.
Regardless of what Ning Xueyan and Heng Yuqing's maids would say, she was convinced that her maid would eventually side with her and corroborate her testimony once she was out. They could insist that Ning Xueyan and Heng Yuqing had tricked her into coming here.
"Straighten your clothes first. I'll go inform His Highness." The Princess nodded after hearing the certainty in Heng Yuwan's words and led Xiangrong out of the room.
Appearing before Ao Chenyi once again, the Princess saluted and said, "Your Highness, it was Consort Ning who invited Second Young Lady Heng to the manor today. According to Second Young Lady Heng, she came here with Consort Ning earlier but Consort Ning and First Young Lady Heng vanished on their way here. That was how she ended up trespassing on this place."
It didn't seem like the Princess was accusing Ning Xueyan but the implication that it had something to do with her was clear. It sounded as if Ning Xueyan had tricked Heng Yuwan into coming here so that the scandal could happen.
"Is this Consort Ning's doing? And did she leave her guest behind so that the guest broke into my study by mistake?" Ao Chenyi's voice was quiet and cold.
"Yes. That was what Second Young Lady Heng said, " the Princess said in a forcefully calm voice.
"What do you think we should do, Princess?" Ao Chenyi asked, tapping on the table with a smile.
"I... I'll leave that up to you, Your Highness!" The Princess indicated that this had nothing to do with her.
"You're my princess, aren't you? Shouldn't you deal with any matters arising in my harem?" Ao Chenyi chuckled, sounding rather intrigued.
The elegant man with a devastatingly handsome face was smiling at the Princess, but she felt as if she was about to be eaten alive.
She had to deal with the matters in his harem. Really? She smiled wryly. Even so, she couldn't go against Ao Chenyi's express order. He must have summoned her here to make her handle this. Otherwise, this wouldn't have anything to do with her at all.
Understanding this, she stopped trying to get out of this task. She thought for a moment before saying, "Your Highness, although this matter happened because of Consort Ning, it's not really her fault. She's unfamiliar with the directions because she has just entered the manor, leading to her taking the wrong road. I think we can just remind her to be more careful not to take her guest out of Chuihua Gate next time. As for Second Young Lady Heng..."
She stopped talking at this point. Heng Yuwan's matter was indeed tricky. She claimed that she was caught in a situation while in a disheveled state. Yet this man was certainly not Ao Chenyi, or things wouldn't have come out like this. Who was that man?
Her gaze swept the faces of the princes here before landing on the Third Prince. Judging by their reaction, the Third Prince looked the grimmest. She immediately knew that he was involved in this matter, but based on his neat clothes, he didn't seem to be the man holding Heng Yuwan.
Moreover, the Third Prince had always been gentle and well-mannered. He would never directly pull a woman to him.
Was it his servant? That didn't seem like it either. How could the Third Prince's servant be allowed to rest in the wing?
For a while, the Princess couldn't make up her mind.
The Princess sounded magnanimous on the surface. Heng Yuwan's reputation had been thoroughly ruined after such a major incident, but the perpetrator wasn't punished even in the slightest. It could be seen that she was very biased toward Consort Ning.
However, her words also suggested that Ning Xueyan was the biggest perpetrator of this incident. Lord Guardian's Manor might have fallen, but it was still a noble family. Something this serious had happened to one of their daughters, and it was Ning Xueyan's fault too. Ao Chenyi must give them an explanation.
He would be going against a first-class noble household otherwise. Therefore, Ning Xueyan would be inevitably punished. A heavy one awaited her just because she embarrassed him.
The Princess pretended as if she was protecting Ning Xueyan when she was really pushing her to the cusp of the storm...
"Princess, what's concerning you?" Ao Chenyi asked, playing with the tea cup in his hand with a smile.
"It's nothing. I'm just thinking about Second Young Lady Heng. It'll have to depend on what that man thinks. Her status is quite high and we can't just humiliate the Lord Guardian's Manor. We must give her an official title." The Princess decided to phrase things this way after some thought. It was an acceptable agreement no matter the identity of the Third Prince's servant.
Although Heng Yuwan was a concubine-born daughter, she was different than your ordinary concubine-born daughter. Since the mysterious man couldn't have been the Third Prince, it was only right for her to be given the wife position as a show of respect to the Lord Guardian's Manor. After all, the young lady did just ruin her reputation after visiting Prince Yi's Manor.
Her words make it sound like the fault lay squarely with Prince Yi's Manor.
Ao Chenyi appeared even more intrigued. He raised his handsome eyes and asked, "But what if... that man is already married?"
"He should marry her as his co-wife!" the Princess replied calmly and decisively.
No matter who the man was, she must take Heng Yuwan's side. Concubine Yun was a loyal supporter of the Lord Peace's Manor. Even though the Lord Guardian's Manor was of minimal help, it was still quite influential among the first-class noble households. She couldn't afford to make Concubine Yun displeased with her.
"Nice! Nicely said, Princess! You're fair indeed. I'll leave it up to you to uphold justice for Second Young Lady Heng then. But, I must ask, how are you so sure that she's telling the truth? Or should I say, how are you so sure that Consort Ning tricked her into coming here?" Ao Chenyi's gorgeous lips curved into a smile.
Without waiting for a reply from the Princess, he clapped his hands gently.
Three guards immediately appeared with a maid each.
The guards had gone out to interrogate each of the maids. After obtaining the answer, they made the maids repeat it in front of everyone one by one.
Heng Yuwan's maid was the first to speak. She still had no idea what was going on, so she honestly told everyone what she knew. When she saw Prince Yi from a distance earlier, she became so frightened that she didn't even dare to lift her head. Upon hearing his questioning, she repeated her testimony right away.
Heng Yuqing's maid was next and finally, Lanning.
Their testimonies were roughly the same. The guards nodded lightly as well, indicating that the maids had said the same thing earlier.
The Princess' expression immediately changed.
The maids' testimonies were completely different from what Heng Yuwan told her. Heng Yuwan said that it was Ning Xueyan who brought her out of the inner courtyard, out of the Chuihua Gate toward the second gate even. She made it clear that she was innocent and that Ning Xueyan had tricked her here, suggesting that everything might have been Ning Xueyan's trap for her.
However, the maids told an entirely different story.
Heng Yuwan had fallen behind Ning Xueyan and Heng Yuqing until she eventually stopped at a three-way intersection. She waited until the three maids to catch up before asking about the roads. She was aware that the middle road led to the prince's study outside the inner courtyard. She didn't leave immediately after, choosing to dismiss the maids instead. At that time, her own maid and Ning Xueyan's maid offered to stay behind with her.
But, she refused them both.
That meant that she had come here on her own, knowing that the second gate was ahead and that Prince Yi would be resting here. She came with a purpose.
At this point, everyone present began to understand that Heng Yuwan was trying to climb into the prince's bed and rise beyond her station. She deliberately came to his study by herself just to hook up with him. And as for why she would be caught up with another man in the wing...
It was likely because she hid in the room to avoid other people in the wing and happened to run into the man resting inside. The two started tousling about, resulting in the previous incident.
Judging from the maids' testimonies, it was clear that Heng Yuwan was a promiscuous woman who tried to seduce Prince Yi. It just so happened that she climbed into the wrong person's bed. Quite a few people appeared disdainful. They had long heard that the Lord Guardian's Manor was growing increasingly worse. How did they educate their daughter that she turned out to be so debaucherous?
"Princess, what do you think about this matter..." Ao Chenyi asked lazily, tossing the Princess a nonchalant glance.
The Princess' face was pale and her hands were tightly clenched under the cover of her sleeves. She could barely maintain the smile on her face. She had just said that this matter was Ning Xueyan's fault, firmly putting the blame on her. Who would have thought that the maids' testimonies would not only erase any of Ning Xueyan's guilt but cast doubt on her intentions instead?
It was true that she had been trying to imply Ning Xueyan's guilt. But allowing her to express herself freely in front of everyone only to mercilessly turn on her made her feel humiliated all the same.
If one were to exaggerate this matter, one could say that she was jealous of her husband's consort. After such a major incident, she didn't even ask for an explanation before blaming it all on the consort. But even putting it mildly, she had failed to handle the harem matters as the rightful princess. One could argue that being the incompetent person she was, she had no right to be the princess.
Thinking about it again, if Ao Chenyi really ended up winning the throne, her position as the empress wouldn't be stable either. All it took was someone bringing up how she couldn't even handle the harem matters when she was a mere princess. How would she be able to deal with the much larger palace harem?
Now, put this and the previous incident together. She couldn't fully manage the previous incident until the very end, having to turn to Ao Chenyi. She dared not to deal with the concubine bestowed by the Emperor himself. It was because of her failure to handle a matter that she poked her nose that Ao Chenyi left her on her own in her courtyard.
What about now? How should she handle this now?
"Your Highness, since this is Second Young Lady Heng's fault, it'll be left to the Lord Guardian's Manor of course. I'll send a messenger and tell them to pick her up." These words left the Princess' mouth with such difficulty that it was almost painful. When she finished speaking, however, she felt cold all over.
It was ultimately her fault that Heng Yuwan ended up like this. Had she not tell Heng Yuwan to tail Heng Yuqing, how could things get this bad? The close relationship between Lord Guardian's Manor and Lord Peace's Manor was as good as over!
| ← Ch. 554 | Ch. 556 → |