The Great Princess Consort stared in disbelief, her eyes wide. Who was this gentle, tender, and cautious man before her? Was this still the lofty Prince she was familiar with?
She had served the Prince for seventeen years and had never seen him treat anyone with such gentle consideration. Even when she was at her youngest and most favored, the Prince had been like an unreachable deity to her—an existence she dared not look directly at. Even after bearing his children and living together for so many years, the Great Princess Consort still dared not touch even a fraction of Prince Xiyue’s sensitive spots.
The Second Princess Consort’s surprise was only momentary. Seeing the foolish expressions on the Great Princess Consort and Third Princess Consort’s faces, she quietly stepped back a few paces without drawing attention.
Qin Yining rose and used the motion of bowing to avoid Zhou Meng’s approach, saying, “Why has the Prince come personally?” After a slight pause in her tone, she continued, “The Prince’s life-saving grace that day—this young woman is infinitely grateful. However, since my health has improved considerably now, and I don’t wish to cause trouble for the Prince, I should go live with my clanspeople for convenience. As for the gratitude gift for saving me, I will…”
“Why would you suddenly think this way?” Before Qin Yining could finish speaking, Prince Xiyue had anxiously interrupted her. “Wasn’t everything fine this afternoon? This Prince even said I’d allow your clanspeople to enter the palace daily to accompany you, and you seemed very happy to hear it. Why do you regret it now?”
Qin Yining smiled slightly and said, “It’s nothing, but living in the Prince’s harem is indeed improper.”
Zhou Meng frowned tightly as he looked at Qin Yining, then glanced at those around him. Seeing that one of Qin Yining’s servant girls had her head bandaged and bloodstains on her clothes, and that Imperial Physician Wang had been summoned, his expression darkened.
Looking around, everyone under his gaze couldn’t help but lower their heads, especially a servant girl standing in the corner who shook like a sieve, looking as if the sky was about to fall.
Zhou Meng said in a deep voice, “You, come here and tell me what happened.” He stretched out his long arm, pointing directly at the servant girl beside the Great Princess Consort.
The servant girl’s heart jumped, her face turning deathly pale as she fell to her knees with a thud, kowtowing, “Prince, Prince please calm your anger! This servant didn’t do it intentionally! This servant lost control momentarily and accidentally pushed the Divine Maiden’s servant girl. She couldn’t steady herself and, and hit her head. The Divine Maiden became angry and started arguing with our Princess Consort. This servant was, was just being protective of her master.”
The servant girl was covered in cold sweat. In her panic, she couldn’t care about how much truth or falsehood was in her words, or whether her logic was coherent. She only wanted to desperately clear herself of blame, not knowing whether the Great Princess Consort would protect her.
Zhou Meng heard her speaking incoherently, her eyes darting about while speaking, making him even more suspicious.
“You little wretch, daring to speak dishonestly before this Prince. Your courage is quite something.” The ending was drawn out long, extremely intimidating.
The servant girl was so frightened she curled up on the ground, only knowing to kowtow, tears streaming down uncontrollably with her cold sweat as she whimpered, “This slave was, was acting under orders, under orders…”
“Shut up, you wretch!” Seeing this fool wanted to expose her, the Great Princess Consort rushed over and gave her a vicious kick.
This kick hit the servant girl squarely in the back, making her cry out “Ah!” in pain as she collapsed to the ground.
“My Lord, don’t listen to her nonsense! She clearly pushed Miss Pang’s servant girl deliberately—perhaps they have some grudge between them.”
Zhou Meng listened and gave a cold laugh, pointing to his temple with his finger, “Tell me, what is this?”
The Great Princess Consort looked confused, “My Lord…”
“This Prince’s head is not an empty shell! She’s just a servant girl—even if she had a grudge against someone, how would she dare seek revenge right in front of her masters? If she hadn’t received orders, where would she get such audacity! It seems you master and servant have no intention of telling the truth!” He pointed at the Second Princess Consort, “You speak!”
The Second Princess Consort sighed inwardly. If this could bring down the Great Princess Consort, it would be fine, but if not, wouldn’t she anger this mad dog by telling the truth now?
Seeing the Second Princess Consort remain silent, Zhou Meng became even more furious. Just as he was about to point at someone else, the Third Princess Consort hurriedly said, “My Lord, it’s like this: today the Great Princess Consort said that you had taken a liking to a young lady and intended to make her the Fifth Princess Consort. We sisters were curious and came together to talk with our fifth sister. Who knew this fifth sister had such a fierce temper—she was disrespectful to the Great Princess Consort and said hurtful things with just a few words. The Great Princess Consort’s servant couldn’t stand watching it and wanted to teach her a lesson on behalf of her master. Then it just, just…”
The rest of her words were gradually swallowed under Zhou Meng’s glare.
“Is this what happened?” Zhou Meng turned to ask Qin Yining.
Qin Yining smiled mockingly, “It seems the Prince treats his wives and concubines very well ordinarily.”
The implication was that the people here actually had the audacity to repeatedly deceive the Prince.
The Great Princess Consort and Third Princess Consort looked up at Qin Yining in disbelief.
What did it mean to be vicious? This was vicious! With one sentence she had pushed them all into the abyss!
Zhou Meng’s face flushed red with shame. He had originally wanted to please the beauty, to descend like a god when she was wronged to help her seek justice, making her grateful and admiring. Who knew these cheap women would all undermine him one after another! The humiliation was complete!
Zhou Meng’s face turned purple like eggplant skin, storms of fury brewing in his eyes.
In his rage, his voice rose high, “What? In front of this Prince, you all dare to lie now! Do you think this Prince has no way to inquire about what you said and did today! This Prince asks you questions to give you face, but you insist on refusing when given face! Fine! Then this Prince will fulfill your wishes!”
Zhou Meng angrily shouted, “Someone come!”
Guards from outside responded and entered, setting down their spears to kneel on one knee, “Prince.”
“Tell this Prince what happened here just now!”
The guards looked at each other—they were outside the hall, how could they know exactly what happened?
The guard captain could only steel himself to say, “Reporting to the Prince, we were outside and vaguely heard arguing, but because we were too far away, we cannot say clearly what specifically occurred.”
Zhou Meng was nearly infuriated to the point of falling backward.
Qin Yining lowered her head, her inner mockery intensifying.
It seemed this Prince was not only lustful and short-sighted, but also conceited and quite incompetent.
If this had happened at the Prince’s mansion, Pang Zhixi could probably have frightened people into confessing everything with just a look, causing them to wet themselves in fear. How could it drag on like this, requiring constant prodding?
The more this went on, the more Qin Yining missed Pang Xiao. Her originally unperturbed mood gradually turned gloomy, her brow furrowing with impatience.
Seeing Qin Yining frown, Zhou Meng thought she was dissatisfied with his performance today. He immediately felt deeply ashamed, thinking the tall and mighty image he had built might collapse overnight.
In his rage, Zhou Meng only wanted to deal with all these troublesome fools!
The Second Princess Consort observed from the side, seeing Zhou Meng’s fierce expression with his face, neck, and ears all flushed red. She understood that if she didn’t step forward now, even she would be implicated by the Great Princess Consort and Third Princess Consort.
The Second Princess Consort immediately pinched her thigh hard, forcing tears from the pain, and came forward sobbing, “My Lord, please don’t be angry anymore. This concubine will speak. This concubine was just afraid, afraid that you would be angry with our sisters, so I didn’t dare speak.”
The Great Princess Consort and Third Princess Consort turned to glare at the Second Princess Consort in fury.
“Speak.” Zhou Meng said angrily.
The Second Princess Consort then recounted everything that had happened earlier in complete detail. Finally, she knelt and performed a grand bow, saying, “This concubine is useless, this concubine is cowardly. I didn’t dare say inappropriate things that would displease the Great Princess Consort and Third Princess Consort, but this concubine really couldn’t bear to see you deceived, My Lord. Miss Pang has a gentle temperament and is not good at arguing with others. Today she was simply being bullied throughout, and having been bullied with nowhere to seek justice, she spoke of leaving the palace.”
At the end, she cleverly gave Qin Yining high praise.
Because the Second Princess Consort knew the Prince was now determined to favor the Divine Maiden and would surely bring her into the palace. Why should she court bad luck by speaking ill of the Divine Maiden and angering the Prince now?
Thanks to those two fools, since they had bullied the Divine Maiden, she would do the opposite—she would speak well of the Divine Maiden, making the Divine Maiden remember her kindness and letting the Prince know her position.
Upon hearing this was what had happened, Zhou Meng was so angry he kicked the Great Princess Consort to the ground, “You cheap woman! Who gave you such audacity!”
The Great Princess Consort was kicked so hard her leg was in agony, pain bringing tears and snot as she begged for mercy, “My Lord, please calm your anger! This concubine didn’t do it intentionally—it was just momentary impulse. And although this concubine quarreled with Miss Pang, I had no intention of violence. It was that wretch who acted, making her own decision!”
Qin Yining grew even more impatient, rubbing her temples, “Prince, this young woman doesn’t care about these matters. Whether the Great Princess Consort acted intentionally or not doesn’t matter. I think the three Princess Consorts also acted impulsively due to misunderstanding. To avoid suspicion, I think it’s better for me to go stay with my clanspeople first. Since my health is gradually improving, it would indeed be inappropriate to continue staying here.”
Qin Yining was truly weary. Under the lamplight, her face appeared white as snow, and her lightly furrowed brow revealed a delicate frailty.
How could Zhou Meng let her leave like this? He hurriedly said, “No, just treat this place as your home. Wasn’t everything settled before?”
“Prince, this place is truly unsuitable for my recovery.”
While Qin Yining wanted to leave and Zhou Meng firmly refused to agree, the Great Princess Consort and Third Princess Consort kneeling on the ground were already grinding their teeth in hatred.
Wasn’t she doing this to further enrage the Prince? In the end, wouldn’t all the Prince’s fury be vented on them?
The Second Princess Consort watched the trembling figures of the Great Princess Consort and Third Princess Consort, secretly smiling inwardly.
Here, Qin Yining had publicly shown her distaste for the palace, and today’s incident had indeed been caused by palace people’s provocation. Zhou Meng thought: such a delicate beauty must have been frightened by these crude, stupid women. If he forced her to stay, he might breed resentment. Anyway, Xiyue was only so big, surrounded by desert on all sides. Even if she lived with her clanspeople, she couldn’t escape. After marriage, wouldn’t she have to move back anyway?
Thinking this, Zhou Meng could only purse his lips and nod, “Alright, this Prince will personally escort you there.”