Li Rong watched Pei Wenxuan nimbly get up. She immediately reacted and frowned: “You deceived me?”

“An expedient measure,” Pei Wenxuan quickly said. “I can explain.”

Hearing his words, Li Rong was so angry she laughed. She wanted to say something, but in the end only shouted: “Stop the carriage!”

“Wait, wait, wait!” Pei Wenxuan got up to pull Li Rong. “Don’t be angry. I truly had no choice. Let me explain, explain to you, all right?”

Li Rong ignored him. Seeing the carriage stop, she shoved him and turned to get out.

But she had used force with that shove, so Pei Wenxuan truly fell back, pressing on his wound, forcing him to suck in a sharp breath. Hearing the gasp from the person behind her, Li Rong paused in her steps and turned back to see Pei Wenxuan sitting on the ground, fresh blood blossoming from the wound on his shoulder. Li Rong’s expression changed. She quickly went back, helped him up, and said: “What are you trying to die for?”

Pei Wenxuan followed her strength to sit back on the couch, allowing Li Rong to call for the physician. The physician got into the carriage to examine the wound and rebandaged it for him.

During the bandaging, Li Rong watched Pei Wenxuan’s wound while Pei Wenxuan gazed at Li Rong. After the wound was freshly wrapped with new bandages and the physician and servants had all withdrawn, Pei Wenxuan reached his hand out from under the blanket, carefully feeling his way to Li Rong’s side. He lightly touched her and said quietly: “I was pretending for everyone to see just now. It wasn’t convenient to explain to you. Don’t be angry anymore, all right?”

After this interruption, Li Rong’s anger had dissipated considerably. Knowing that Pei Wenxuan had his own considerations in doing things, she lowered her head to look at the pattern on the brocade blanket and said indifferently: “Tell me what you planned.”

“Today, Consort Rou had me go speak with the remaining students, to have them give up pursuing the matter of exam substitution. If they’re willing to give up, she’ll let them participate in the imperial examination normally and give them some silver. If they’re unwilling…”

Pei Wenxuan didn’t continue, but Li Rong already understood. She nodded and said slowly: “Consort Rou wants to have it both ways. On one hand, she wants to gain a good reputation for pleading for the people, but on the other hand, she doesn’t want to offend too many aristocratic families.”

As Li Rong spoke, she looked up at him: “So you deliberately went to Wang Houwen’s house to cause trouble, just to have Wang Houwen arrest you?”

Wang Houwen was, after all, the Minister of Personnel. Going straight to his house to attack him like that—how could he have no recourse?

“Yes,” Pei Wenxuan nodded. “I just never expected Su Rongqing to come. Once he came, I couldn’t help but worry he would use this opportunity to kill me, so I arranged guards to protect me the whole way and chatted with him to delay time, waiting for Your Highness.”

“Then why did you take that sword strike?” Li Rong frowned. Pei Wenxuan touched his nose sheepishly. “Well, the position of Minister of Justice hasn’t been settled yet, has it?”

If something happened to him while in Su Rongqing’s hands, Su Rongqing would be implicated to some degree.

Li Rong understood his calculations. She lowered her head in thought without speaking. Seeing this, Pei Wenxuan reached out to embrace her, pulling her into his arms and comforting her: “I was the one who chose to take the injury. I know my limits. Don’t worry too much.”

“Rest well and recover.”

Li Rong used her fan to block the hand he extended to embrace her, saying indifferently: “After you’ve recovered, I’ll settle accounts with you.”

With that, Li Rong helped him lie down. Pei Wenxuan looked at the person before him with a straight face yet exceptionally gentle movements and couldn’t help but smile.

Li Rong glanced at him coolly: “What are you smiling about?”

“I thought Your Highness would punish me.”

“You’re not a child anymore,” Li Rong sat beside him. “If I’m going to give you trouble, it won’t be now. In a moment, I’ll go to the palace. You should go back and sleep first.”

Pei Wenxuan made a sound of acknowledgment. Seeing Li Rong in a daze, he reached out his hand and grasped the fist Li Rong had placed at her side, his voice gentle: “Your Highness, what did you say to Su Rongqing just now?”

“Hm?” Li Rong turned her head, not expecting him to be interested in this matter.

The words she had said to Su Rongqing earlier naturally wouldn’t be at a volume for others to hear. Pei Wenxuan had only seen the posture of the two confronting each other. Li Rong thought for a moment and simply said: “I just said some harsh words to him.”

“But when Your Highness turned back, you seemed saddened.”

Pei Wenxuan continued to press. Li Rong originally didn’t want to answer, but when she met Pei Wenxuan’s smiling eyes, her movements paused.

She guessed that Pei Wenxuan cared, so after a brief silence, she smiled bitterly and said slowly: “I just feel that even raising a dog takes effort and care, yet it can never be fully tamed.”

“He hasn’t been tamable for more than just a day or two,” Pei Wenxuan was somewhat curious. “When you learned he killed Your Highness, you weren’t sad. Why do you care now?”

Li Rong said nothing, so Pei Wenxuan waited quietly. The carriage wheels slowly rolled over the ground, making creaking sounds.

“Perhaps it’s because him killing me was within my expectations.” Li Rong smiled and shook her head. “But not even understanding what kind of person I am—that was beyond my expectations.”

“All right,” Li Rong turned her head and tucked the blanket around him. “You’re so petty. I didn’t see you being this particular about everything in your previous life. Why do you want to compete over everything in this life?”

“Actually, I was very petty in my previous life too.”

Pei Wenxuan didn’t hide it. Li Rong laughed: “Oh? How did I not know?”

“I almost wanted to kill him.”

Li Rong’s movements stopped. Pei Wenxuan’s voice was very light: “When you wanted to divorce me for his sake, I thought about whether I should kill him.”

“Then why didn’t you?”

Li Rong pretended it was nothing, joking: “If you’d killed him, perhaps the two of us could have lived a few more years.”

“Yes, I regret it too.” Pei Wenxuan lay there looking at Li Rong and smiled. “But at that time, if he died, wouldn’t you remember him for the rest of your life?”

“Who knows about that?”

The carriage curtain rose and fell. Li Rong glanced outside. They weren’t far from the Princess’s estate now. Li Rong patted the blanket and said to him: “Sleep first.”

“Is Your Highness sending me back to the estate?”

“You got in my carriage—do you still want to go back?”

Li Rong smiled and gently patted his face: “Come back to the Princess’s estate with me, Lord Pei?”

“But what about His Majesty’s side…” Pei Wenxuan frowned. Li Rong laughed. “I’m infatuated with Lord Pei. Today, learning that Lord Pei was going to secretly meet with another woman, I went to catch him in the act. Discovering Lord Pei in danger, I kidnapped Lord Pei back to my estate. How’s that reason?”

Pei Wenxuan thought about it, raised his good hand to pillow behind his head, and nodded: “Acceptable.”

When the two arrived at the Princess’s estate, just as they reached the estate entrance, they heard the carriage driver’s somewhat uneasy voice: “Your Highness…”

Hearing this, Li Rong lifted the carriage curtain and saw one of Consort Rou’s capable guards blocking the entrance, saying coldly: “Princess Pingle, you violated the prohibition and left your estate without permission…”

“So what?”

Li Rong spoke directly. The guard was stunned by her “So what?” Li Rong laughed coldly: “Instead of coming to interrogate me, you should go back and ask your master whether she has any leads after investigating Chen Houzhao’s case for so long! I agreed to be confined to give face to Father Emperor. She shouldn’t take a chicken feather as an imperial order and really think I, Pingle, am easy to bully!”

“Go back and tell her—if she dares let those dubious women approach my former prince consort by even half a step, if she has no shame, I’ll tear that face off for her!”

After Li Rong finished this tirade, everyone was stunned, completely unable to understand what Li Rong meant by “dubious women.”

Hearing Li Rong curse, Pei Wenxuan quickly feigned unconsciousness. Li Rong directly had people come up and carry Pei Wenxuan down. Seeing Pei Wenxuan, the guard immediately said: “Your Highness, this is a court official…”

“This is my former prince consort!” Li Rong spoke righteously, blocking before the guards. “Since he married me, he’s mine for this lifetime. If he’s going to die, he must die in my Pingle estate. If you don’t let him die here, I’ll let you die here.”

“Move aside! Carry him in!”

Li Rong raised her hand and pointed into the estate, herself blocking before those guards, forcing a path open to have Pei Wenxuan carried inside.

After Pei Wenxuan was carried in and the two had just entered the room, Pei Wenxuan opened his eyes.

“Your Highness,” Pei Wenxuan looked at the woman sitting in the room fanning herself. Li Rong glanced at him sideways and heard Pei Wenxuan say with amusement: “After today, the matter of Your Highness being bewitched by beauty will probably spread through the court again.”

“Are there few instances of me being bewitched by you?” Li Rong glared at him and scoffed. “I already chased after you crying all the way. What’s adding the infamy of snatching you into my estate in your time of crisis?”

Pei Wenxuan was amused by her and beckoned to Li Rong.

Li Rong walked before him, sat at the bedside, and raised an eyebrow: “What?”

“Your Highness, I want to ask you a question. Can you answer me honestly?”

Pei Wenxuan seemed to have been thinking about it for a long time before asking. Li Rong raised an eyebrow: “Speak.”

“Your Highness, if we weren’t killed by Su Rongqing,” Pei Wenxuan asked with some difficulty, “would we still be together?”

Li Rong hadn’t expected him to ask this. She was stunned. Pei Wenxuan just smiled: “I’m just asking casually. This is all baseless speculation anyway. You don’t need to think too much about it.”

“Then why did you ask?”

Pei Wenxuan choked. Li Rong smiled. She reached out and embraced Pei Wenxuan: “Don’t worry. No matter what.”

“I like Brother Pei the most.”

Pei Wenxuan smiled. When he smiled, his chest trembled slightly. He lowered his head and kissed Li Rong’s hair. Moonlight fell into his eyes that carried a hint of ash gray, his voice gentle: “I also like Your Highness the most.”

As Pei Wenxuan was falling asleep at the Princess’s estate, Consort Rou’s guard returned to the palace. He quietly repeated Li Rong’s words to Consort Rou. Huale angrily jumped up and said furiously: “What does she mean by ‘dubious women’? She has to fight over a man who divorced her like this—does she have any shame? What is she being arrogant about? Mother,” Huale turned to look at Consort Rou, “I’m going to Father Emperor right now to report that she violated the house arrest order to save Pei Wenxuan.”

“Enough.” Consort Rou drank her tea and said slowly: “Her house arrest is just your father emperor having her give us face. If she doesn’t cause a scene, we should thank heaven. Don’t go looking for trouble now.”

After all, in Chen Houwen’s case, they still couldn’t find any other connection to Li Rong.

What Consort Rou cared about wasn’t Li Rong’s side at all, but why Pei Wenxuan, who was perfectly fine, went to provoke Wang Houwen.

Having provoked Wang Houwen, now that something had happened…

Who would go persuade those students? What should be done next?

Wang Houwen was the Minister of Personnel. This matter was obviously related to him, but he held high position and power with many followers. They simply couldn’t move against him. Pei Wenxuan had offended him using her name, so she still had to apologize somehow.

Consort Rou thought about it and had someone nearby draft an apology letter. Along with a considerable amount of gold and silver, she had it sent to Wang Houwen.

But before Consort Rou could send it out, she first received a letter, said to be sent from outside the palace by the Wang family.

Consort Rou quickly had someone open it and saw written on the letter a crude doggerel poem:

In Pig Slop Alley where crows busily flit, One day perched on branches, boasting she’s a phoenix. Draped in yellow, crowned in green, pearls in her mouth, Yet cannot hide her filthy body stinking of night soil.

Seeing this poem, Consort Rou’s expression immediately changed. Huale urgently grabbed the paper. With just one glance, she flew into a rage: “This Wang Houwen is too presumptuous! What does he think he is, daring to say such things about you…”

Pig Slop Alley was the place where Consort Rou was born. This poem could be said to exhaust all means of mockery.

Consort Rou’s expression remained unchanged. After a long while, she laughed lightly.

“Good. Very good indeed.”