In the cage in front of the corridor, a gorgeous parrot was jumping up and down on the pole, pecking at the food by its side from time to time. Suddenly, it heard some sounds and turned around to listen carefully, and then excitedly flew in the cage and screamed in a strange tone, “Hurry up. His Highness has come. Lackeys, come and serve His Highness.”

In the corner of the corridor, Ao Chenyi, who showed sly coldness on his handsome face, came over with a few servants behind him. On hearing the cry of the parrot in the corridor, he stopped with his hands clasped behind his back and turned around leisurely.

“Your Highness, Your Highness!” The parrot turned towards Ao Chenyi obsequiously. Showing no fear of Prince Yi, who had a poker face, it screamed again, “Lackeys, come and serve His Highness.”

“This parrot is quite bold.” With an evil smile on his face, Ao Chenyi lifted the corners of his red lips and reached out to play with the parrot. The parrot in the cage became increasingly excited, flapping its wings and flying in the cage.

“Your Highness, you fed this parrot before, so it has kept your kindness in mind!” Eunuch Ling, the general director of the inner courtyard, stepped behind Ao Chenyi and said with a smile.

“It’s not necessarily true,” Ao Chenyi said with a faint smile, “How’s the matter over there going?”

“Your Highness, rest assured. I’ve got rid of the man.” Yu Jian replied from behind.

“Just leave the affairs of the Ministry of War aside for the time being. How is it going in the imperial palace?” Ao Chenyi said with a light smile. His clear voice sounded extremely cold.

Eunuch Ling implicitly replied, “On hearing the scandals of Lord Protector’s Manor, His Majesty had another bowl of rice that day and went to Honored Consort Ya’s palace at night.”

“It seems that my royal brother is very satisfied that I’m going to marry such a co-consort soon,” Ao Chenyi said lightly. He lifted the corners of his red lips to show a light and sharp smile, and reached out to play with the gorgeous parrot in the cage again. The parrot flew excitedly and kept shouting, “Your Highness, Your Highness.”

“Your Highness, would you like to go to the imperial palace and tell His Majesty about this?” Eunuch Ling asked with a smile. It was really a shame for Lord Protector’s Manor to have such a scandal. Of course, Minster Xia’s Manor also got involved in this. The scandal was about Minster Xia’s daughter-in-law, the Eldest Young Lady of Lord Protector’s Manor.

She was caught in the private meeting with a man in the temple. Moreover, the man was a ruffian, and the affair between them was described as extremely disgraceful. At that time, several mesdames, who had heard it, all claimed that they had never seen such a shameless couple. What was more, the Second Young Lady of Lord Protector’s Manor, a concubine of the Xia Manor with ceaseless scandals, even forced her legitimate younger sister to kneel in front of her legal mother’s memorial tablet and have a blood test.

They were extremely overbearing and shameless, which caused public anger.

“Of course, I would like to do that, lest my royal brother be overjoyed.” Ao Chenyi raised his eyebrows and suddenly laughed meaningfully. His extremely handsome face immediately showed a sort of sly coldness.

“Your Highness, are you going to tell His Majesty about what you did to the Third Prince at the same time?” Eunuch Ling reminded him. Ao Chenyi had slapped the Third Prince. Despite the Third Prince’s improper behavior, Ao Chenyi couldn’t slap him without giving an explanation. After all, he was the favorite son of the emperor.

Ao Chenyi flicked the cage with his finger. The cage shook, and the parrot inside flapped its wings and shouted harshly, “Your Highness! Your Highness! Come and serve His Highness!”

“Of course. I can’t marry a co-consort who keeps dragging me down easily.”

“Your Highness, what do you mean?” Watching Ao Chenyi raise his delicate eyebrows, Eunuch Ling didn’t think that he was complaining, so he couldn’t help asking.

“I’m going to reject the marriage!” Ao Chenyi suddenly said with a meaningful smile, “Since the marriage is not ideal and Ao Mingyu gets involved in it, it’s reasonable for me to reject it!”

Eunuch Ling and Yu Jian became speechless for a while. They thought, “Your Highness, you seem to be overjoyed as a man who is going to reject the marriage! People aware of it understand that you are going to go against His Majesty, while people ignorant of it may think that you got great news. You just look so complacent!”

Ao Chenyi was going to the imperial palace to reject the marriage, while knowing that he wouldn’t succeed. What made him so complacent? Since the marriage was granted by the imperial edict issued by the emperor, how could it be withdrawn? Besides, the Third Prince interfered in it. If it was known to all that the Third Prince molested his future aunt-in-law, his reputation would be totally ruined.

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The emperor would not agree on it for the sake of the Third Prince’s reputation. Moreover, the marriage between the Third Prince and the Third Young Lady was a done deal. If Ao Chenyi did not marry the Fifth Young Lady, Lord Protector’s Manor would bet all their hope on the Third Prince. Therefore, the emperor would never agree on Ao Chenyi’s refusal of the marriage.

“Your Highness, the Fifth Young Lady’s biological mother, Madam Ming, seems to be related to the former dynasty. Do you think it necessary to think it over?” Eunuch Ling had watched Ao Chenyi grow up, so he involuntarily reminded him at this moment. Everything about the former dynasty was a taboo. There were some things that everyone took seriously but didn’t bring to the table.

Anyway it was complicated. Eunuch Ling said this out of kindness, fearing that Ao Chenyi would be set up by the Emperor. Thinking of this, Eunuch Ling felt indignant. Ao Chenyi’s identity as the emperor’s younger brother was originally designated by the former emperor, and the imperial edict was placed together with the one designating the current emperor.

At that time, with so many ministers as notaries, all knew that it was true.

But now the emperor had inherited the throne, but blurred Ao Chenyi’s identity as the former emperor’s younger brother intentionally or unintentionally, as if Ao Chenyi was only Prince Yi, the former emperor’s son, instead of the emperor’s younger brother, who was going to take over the country as the supreme man in the future.

“I don’t care about it. Since she’s the girl I choose, I don’t care about it even if she’s the princess of the previous dynasty!” Ao Chenyi raised his gorgeous slanted eyes, and his cold tone contained indubitable arrogance and aggressiveness.

Ning Ziyan was caught in Cold Mountain Temple. With a large number of people as witnesses and the portrait as the evidence, everyone believed that Ning Ziyan was unfortunately caught in the private meeting with a man. Later, what Ning Yuling did showed everyone how shameless and overbearing she was.

Because Ning Xueyan had passed out, she was brought to the Ming Manor by Ming Yuanhua for recuperation. Madam Dowager would haven’t allowed it, but the discovery of Ning Ziyan’s private meeting with a man caused chaos. She was so flustered at the moment that she ignored Ning Xueyan. By the time she found that Ning Xueyan was missing, Ning Xueyan had already arrived at the Ming Manor.

Ning Xueyan had been forced to have a blood test in front of Madam Ming’s memorial tablet just now, so now Madam Dowager didn’t dare to directly go to the Ming Manor and ask them to send Ning Xueyan back to Lord Protector’s Manor. Madam Dowager bore the reputation as an unamiable elder because of this. If she kept hounding Ning Xueyan, she would probably undermine her relationship with Ning Xueyan.

In the past, Madam Dowager didn’t care about Ning Xueyan’s presence at all. But now the entire manor could only rely on Ning Qingshan and Ning Xueyan. Moreover, Madam Dowager felt that Prince Yi seemed to value Ning Xueyan more, so she didn’t dare to hound Ning Xueyan too much at this moment. Although it didn’t conform to etiquette, the Ming Manor was the home of Ning Xueyan’s uncle anyway. It was reasonable for her to live there for a period of time.

Madam Dowager was too ashamed to stay in Cold Mountain Temple. She hastily packed up some things, went down the mountain that day and returned to Lord Protector’s Manor. Regarding Ning Ziyan and Ning Yuling, Madam Dowager didn’t want to clean up their mess. So when Ning Ziyan and Ning Yuling followed her and intended to enter the manor, Madam Dowager shut the door on them.

The married daughter was like spilled water. Madam Dowager now wished she could chock both of them to death. A scandal was not enough, and it was followed by one another. Madam Dowager finally understood this time that the reputations of her two granddaughters were totally ruined. They became useless now, so she certainly wouldn’t be kind to them. Hearing that Ning Huaiyuan secretly let them in, she sent some servants to kick them out directly.

Ning Ziyan and Ning Yuling didn’t expect Madam Dowager to be so heartless. They had intended to suppress it in the name of Lord Protector’s Manor, but now it was obvious that Madam Dowager didn’t want to clean up their mess anymore. They had no choice but to go back to the Xia Manor in disgrace. As soon as they arrived at the Xia Manor, they were called to Madam Xia’s courtyard by an old maid.

Madam Xia rebuked them harshly in front of all the servants and instructed them to kneel in the courtyard for punishment. They knelt till they passed out. The next day, Madam Xia went to Lord Protector’s Manor to ask to meet Madam Dowager. After talking with Madam Dowager in Lucky Garden for a while, she returned to the Xia Manor and instructed Ning Ziyan to move from her original courtyard to Ning Yuling’s courtyard and live with Ning Yuling.

In fact, it was very simple to turn Ning Ziyan from the legal wife into a concubine. They only needed to claim that she married into the Xia Manor during the funeral of the legal Madam of Lord Protector’s Manor, so her marriage shouldn’t be taken seriously. Besides, as the daughter of a concubine, she was unqualified to be the legal wife. Meanwhile, no one from Lord Protector’s Manor spoke for her. In this way, it could be considered agreed by the two manors after negotiation.

The legal wife’s infidelity and a concubine’s infidelity were totally different. Besides, the Xia Manor didn’t kill Ning Ziyan. Madam Dowager intended to ignore them, so she consented to Madam Xia’s request. In this way, they kept Ning Ziyan alive and kept the reputations of the two manors.

Madam Dowager didn’t care about whether Ning Ziyan was the Legal Wife. In her opinion, since Ning Yuling was a concubine, she didn’t care about Ning Ziyan’s becoming another concubine.

Ning Ziyan didn’t respect herself, screwed around with a ruffian and was caught. It was nobody else’s fault.

Since Lord Protector’s Manor didn’t say anything about it, others wouldn’t care about it. Besides, the explanation they came up with made it reasonable. So the position of the legal wife, which originally belonged to Ning Ziyan, was vacant.

Hearing that she had been turned into a concubine from the legal wife, Ning Ziyan fainted again. When she woke up again, she went to the study to beg Xia Yuhang tearfully. However, no matter how sadly she cried, the door of the study remained closed. In the study, Xia Yuhang seemed to not hear Ning Ziyan wail at all.

Finally it was warm-hearted Concubine Chen who had tidied up Ning Ziyan’s clothes and helped her move out of the main courtyard where she hadn’t lived long.

At that time, she married into the Xia Manor with a magnificent wedding and five-kilometer red dowry. For the sake of the brilliant husband and a perfect marriage, she even killed Ning Ziying. In the end, she found that she had done everything in vain. Carrying out the scheme one and another, she could only be a concubine in the end.

When the news came to the Ming’s Manor, Ning Xueyan showed a smile as pleasant and bright as a flower in spring. She then bent down and got on a small sedan chair.