Having felt her reliance and trust, Ao Chenyi took her hand away from his face, held it gently in his hand, and had a small doting smile in his constantly eerie, cold eyes.

He loved to see that she was like a little wild cat with her hair standing on end and that she relied on him wholeheartedly, and he more loved that she trusted him absolutely. It seemed that no matter what she was like, he loved her, so he reached out to hold her tightly in his arms, feeling her softness.

Previously, he had thought that no woman could enter his heart, but he hadn’t expected that he had become interested in such a small woman so silently…

Prince Yi’s Manor had held the banquet quite smoothly, so all the people thought that Princess Ning had behaved naturally. Although she was still young, either her bearing or her words or other aspects of her had shown that she was like the real princess of Prince Yi. In contrast, due to the matter of Yun Luoluo, all mansions had become full of scorn toward Lord Peace’s Manor. In the past, they had thought that Commandery Princess Xianyun was an unfairly treated woman, but now they thought that the treatment served her completely right.

No matter what aim she had held when directing this drama with Yun Luoluo in it, she hadn’t considered the profit of Prince Yi’s Manor or stood on the side of it. Compared with her, Ning Xueyan had reacted resolutely, stopping the slander about this matter immediately and making Yun Luoluo fail to defend herself with just a few words. With that, the matter hadn’t developed into a scandal.

And it had been proven that Prince Yi had returned from the palace at that time.

These things seemed to show that Commandery Princess Xianyun couldn’t be a princess anymore. She had dared to plot against Prince Yi in the public eye, but it was not what the princess of Prince Yi should do, and it also reflected that the family education of Lord Peace’s Manor was really much too filthy.

After the banquet, these visitors didn’t linger anymore. They knew that this incident was sure to have sequels because Prince Yi was not a person who was willing to simply suffer losses. Some had sensitively felt that the glory of Lord Peace’s Manor in Empress Dowager’s period might never come back.

Compared with Yun Luoluo’s event, the fight between the third young lady of Lord Protector’s Manor and Ao Xian, Commandery Princess’s princely heir, made people quite look down upon Third Young Lady Ning, who showed proper manners in public but behaved so impolitely behind people’s backs, but it didn’t have connections with politics on the whole and only a few parties cared about it, so its influence was a bit less.

Ning Qingshan and Ning Lingyun had left the prince’s mansion early, but it was not that they had taken the initiative to go back, but that Madam Dowager had sent people to receive them. Ning Xueyan had sent a message to Madam Dowager a long time ago, and Madam Dowager had been so angry that she had sent a carriage here.

Third Prince’s carriage went into Lord Protector’s Manor together with the carriage of Lord Protector’s Manor. After getting off, he didn’t care about Ning Qingshan’s loving voice but went straight to see Ning Zu’an. After a long time of talk with Ning Zu’an in his study, he then left.

As soon as she stepped into the courtyard, Ning Qingshan was forbidden to go anywhere. After a short time, two etiquette-teaching Mammies came from the palace, teaching her to talk and behave. If she did anything slightly improper, she would be punished. It was said that they had been specially invited here by Third Prince, in case Ning Qingshan was disgraceful after marrying into Third Prince’s Manor.

When such a thing had happened, Ning Qingshan thought that it was worth it for her to be just punished like this, so she gritted her teeth to bear it, but what she didn’t know was that she, who was supposed to be a consort according to the original plan, had now been lowered to a senior concubine, and the consort’s position had been given to Ning Lingyun.

For Ning Zu’an, this was the best solution. Recently, he had been doing investigations and finally found from the numerous clues that Ning Qingshan probably kept in touch with Grand Tutor Ya’s Manor. When he had been quite angry, Third Prince had proposed such a suggestion, which matched his wish so perfectly.

Therefore, he had agreed directly without saying anything and given Ning Qingshan’s consort’s position to Ning Lingyun. As for Ning Qingshan, who could marry as a senior concubine when Ning Lingyun married, she could go to live in her husband’s house first. Anyway, she was just in the lowest class of the senior concubines, and a small sedan chair used to carry her was enough to match her status.

As for how to handle the imperial palace, Ao Mingyu had said that he could visit the palace and make an explanation: when such an improper thing had happened, Ning Qingshan would only smear his image if she married into his mansion like this.

So, Ao Mingyu went straight to the palace of Honored Consort Ya after entering the imperial palace.

“What? You want your cousin to be an ordinary concubine?” Honored Consort Ya hit the table hard with her palm and went furious after hearing Ao Mingyu’s words.

“Mother, she is not my cousin. She is the daughter of Lord Protector’s Manor and Madam Ling, the vicious woman. In either identity or status, she can’t match me. Besides, she had a fight with Ao Xian, leaving her clothes in disarray and her lying with Ao Xian on the same spot. Mother, do you really think she helps me if she marries into my mansion like this?”

Sullen-faced, Ao Mingyu looked at Honored Consort Ya firmly.

As her eyes glistened, Honored Consort Ya barely closed her eyes and said, “But… she is your cousin after all!”

“Mother, she is not. Qin’er is your real niece. She is but an adopted daughter of Lord Protector’s Manor. Now she disgraces Lord Protector’s Manor, but it has nothing to do with Grand Tutor’s Manor. If you let her be my consort, of course, it has connections with us,” Ao Mingyu said coldly.

Honored Consort Ya lowered her head and had a bit of pain in her eyes, remembering her elder brother who had died young. “If my father hadn’t sent Ning Qingshan to Lord Protector’s Manor at that time, maybe Ning Qingshan would be in a different condition now. He gave our child to others to raise, but she has been brought up to be like this. Was my father really wrong?”

“Then… let her go to live in your mansion first. Anyway, she is but a senior concubine,” Honored Consort Ya leaned back and said, feeling powerless. This was the last thing she could do for Ning Qingshan.

Now the princess hadn’t married into the mansion yet, so it was not a big deal for her, a senior concubine, to come to live in the mansion first. In fact, there were already a few lowly concubines of this kind in Third Prince’s Manor. She hoped that her niece could be a little smart this time, wouldn’t make any trouble, and could win her son’s heart soon and then give birth to a child. That was best. Then, she might have the chance to make a comeback.

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Now, this was the only thing she could do as her aunt!

Her son did hate her!

“All right, but please tell this to my father for me, mother. Lord Protector has also agreed, so as long as my father approves of this, there won’t be any other bad influence,” Ao Mingyu nodded and said. This was what he could accept. He had thought that her mother would make such a condition. With the two Mammies of the imperial palace being with Ning Qingshan, no matter how stupid she was, it was almost impossible for her to do such a shameful thing again. For him, only one more woman would have joined his mansion.

“What? My second sister has been carried back to Lord Peace’s Manor?” The teacup in her hand fell heavily on the floor, and the burning hot tea water was splashed on the hem of her skirt, but she had no mind to care about it.

Commandery Princess Xianyun was greatly frightened in the Bright Mind Garden.

“Right, I heard a few people talk like that just now, and I also paid a special visit to the Moon-embracing Tower. People there all said that our second young lady was shameless and even dared to frame the prince after having fooled around with some man. Then, the prince went furious and asked people to take the second young lady back to Lord Peace’s Manor like that,” Qiu Huan explained in fear.

“Was the prince not in the mansion?” Commandery Princess Xianyun found the key point in quite a short time.

“Prin-prince had been in the palace… with… the emperor previously, but he then… came back,” Qiu Huan said timidly.

“Trash, slut!” Commandery Princess Xianyun was stunned for a moment, then she flared up, rose to her feet, and slapped Qiu Huan hard, making her shake and fall to the ground. Then, she strode over and kicked her face and body crazily and ceaselessly.

“Bitch, idiot, you said that the prince was in the mansion and had been in the Moon-embracing Tower, but now, why do you say that he was in the imperial palace?”

“Princess, spare my life. I don’t know why the prince wasn’t in the Moon-embracing Tower, but the people of the mansion clearly said that the prince was in the mansion!” Qiu Huan was beaten and cried loudly, but she dare not avoid the beating.

“How could my mistress be so ferocious?” Now her mind went blank. “Is the shrew-like woman before me really my virtuous and gentle mistress?”

Those few maids and older female servants outside the room were uneasy and looked at one another when hearing the cries from the room, but they didn’t go in to stop their mistress. Their princess had made an order that anyone who was not summoned but dared to go into her room would be beaten and punished.

These few people were those who had been brought here by Commandery Princess Xianyun, but they were not the close maids and older female servants of the princess, so no one went there. Instead, they could only listen outside in fear, but they all knew that Qiu Huan was now in a bad condition.

Commandery Princess Xianyun had not vented her anger by kicking like that, then she picked up a lampstand made of nanmu wood at hand, and aimed at Qiu Huan’s head with it while scolding, “Slut, I asked you to ask about the information, but you couldn’t get it. You are so useless to me!”

As soon as she finished speaking, she gritted her teeth with a sinister expression and went to hit her hard with the thing in her hands.

“Princess, please spare my life. I won’t dare any more next time.”

“Why were you stupid like that?”

“Princess, princess, please have mercy on me. I won’t be like that anymore in the future!”

First, there were shouts and cries, then there was the “cracking” muffled sound, and finally, the cry of begging for mercy turned into a moan and gradually went to nothingness.

Those few maids and older female servants Commandery Princess Xianyun had brought here from her parents’ home all turned ashen and trembled.

The door was suddenly opened. Commandery Princess Xianyun stood at the door with disheveled hair, and her jade-white skirt of thin silk was dotted with bloodstains. She was cold-faced and had a fierce look in her eyes. Seeing that, those who stood at the door bent their backs and stared at the ground, without the courage to move an inch.

“What did you hear?” Commandery Princess Xianyun asked coldly.

“Nothing,” they said in unison.

“Nothing?” Commandery Princess Xianyun’s voice contained a kind of strange evilness. “Didn’t you hear that Qiu Huan couldn’t think it through at the moment, hit the wall, and died after I scolded her?”

“Died? She died in such a short time?” A few timid servants almost lost their strength and fell, but they gritted their teeth to force themselves to stand still.

“We heard it.”

“Since you heard it, come in and clean the room,” Commandery Princess Xianyun said coldly. She turned gracefully and walked inside, but her bloodstained skirt still moved a few times in front of everyone and then disappeared into the room…