Chapter 265: n.o.ble Consort Su
The eunuch quickly left to report the matter to the emperor, as he could also tell that the ambience was a little odd. However, Bai Rong’er and Sir An had no idea that things would be set in place once the eunuch left. They only remained insistent on begging Long Heng for mercy. “Your Highness, please don’t make me marry her, I already have a wife!”
“Is that so? Then you shall have two main wives! You’ve come all this way, Sir An; this prince cannot let you go home empty-handed.”
“NO! It isn’t our fault! It’s all her… her fault!” Bai Rong’er pointed at her own sister as though she was the root of all this trouble.
Bai Xiangxiu looked at Bai Rong’er squarely in the eye. “I have never once asked for trouble in my life, but I will never ever allow others to separate me from my husband and child. Those who seek to harm my family should first prepare themselves for retaliation!”
She spoke these words without sparing anyone’s feelings. In fact, she even walked towards Bai Rong’er to jerk her younger sister’s chin up and bite off her words. Oh no. Am I showing too much dominance? Everyone seems to have gone quiet!
Sigh… The image that I’ve been building all this while is now ruined! I wonder if the old madame will detest me for being too overbearing? Bai Xiangxiu turned around to check, but all she saw was the look of surprise on the old madame’s face. There didn’t actually seem to be any signs of distaste or anger.
What Bai Xiangxiu didn’t know was that the old madame had always felt that this princess consort was lacking too much backbone. However, Bai Xiangxiu had proven her wrong today. It seems spending so much time by her son’s side had rubbed off on her. This princess consort had truly picked up some sort domineering aura. This was a good thing. She no longer needed to worry about Bai Xiangxiu’s ability to supervise the servants. She would be a good princess consort if she could handle herself so well in front of so many people.
“No. It wasn’t me! This is all because of that veiled older sister! She was the one who made me do this!” Bai Rong’er was scared silly now and blurted out the truth. She was afraid that Long Heng would really betroth her to Sir An. He was a married man, which meant that she’d have to share the position of a main wife with another person!
Power and authority was a very mysterious thing. Their families would never go against Long Heng’s order, even if he didn’t have the slightest connection to them. What Bai Rong’er didn’t know was that things would be set in stone the minute the emperor heard of it. It was already far too late for regret.
“Older sister? Veiled?” Bai Xiangxiu and Long Heng exchanged glances. The two of them quickly realized what was going on. It was Su Yun. She was the mastermind behind all this. And judging by the speed with which the emperor received this news, she must still be in the palace.
One couldn’t help but be impressed by a transmigrator’s determination and abilities, especially when the transmigrator was from a rich family and knew how to put others down with her background. These two white rabbits in front of her had probably been enticed by Su Yun. However, why did it take her so long to finally get up to her old tricks again? What in the world was she doing all this while?
“What is your relations.h.i.+p with that woman?” Bai Xiangxiu asked coldly.
“N-nothing! We only met by coincidence!”
“And? You decided to help a stranger that you just met harm your sister?”
“I didn’t plan on harming you! She was the one who proposed this plan!”
“Hah! Even now you still take her for a good person. Bai Rong’er, do you even realize that you were set up? Forget it. Your Highness, we shouldn’t let these people ruin this blessed occasion. Drag her away and lock her up!” I will question you in detail later.
“No! You’re my elder sister! Why would you imprison me?” Bai Rong’er was thoroughly frightened as she never imagined that things would escalate to such a degree. She used to joke around with her sister in the past as well!
“I see that you finally remember that I’m your sister. But did you know that what you did here today could’ve destroyed my reputation? I might’ve been forced to die to prove my innocence! Why should I show you any mercy when you were trying to cause my death?” Bai Xiangxiu waved her hands to order the guards to drag Bai Rong’er away.
Sir An was almost frightened out of his mind. “It’s not my fault! Bai Rong’er gave me one hundred taels of silver to do this!”
“Hah! Take them all away.” Long Heng chucked. Both of them were so timid that it didn’t even take much to unearth the truth. However, this was the end of things. It wouldn’t be good if others were to hear the rest. Like a circus, it was incredibly peaceful after the clowns were gone. After this, the rest of the Long family wouldn’t even be able to do anything to Bai Xiangxiu even if they wanted to.
Bai Xiangxiu no longer hid behind a pretense of frailty after going through all of that. She gave out all sorts of commands calmly and was moving things along. She finally became the new madame of the Prince Li Manor after she was done with her tasks. She was now officially Princess Consort Li that thousands adored.
Upon nightfall, people from both the Bai and the An families came visiting. They were here to beg mercy for their respective child. Their families had no idea they’d planned to do such a thing as they’d both done it of their own accord. One did it for the money, while the other did it to rise above her own sister.
Née Xiao and Bai Xiangxiu’s younger brother had come from the Bai Manor. Bai Xiangxiu’s mood actually turned for the better when she saw her younger brother. And because of that, she no longer spoke as coldly as before. “You may take her home, but she must marry into the An family.”
“How is that acceptable? The An Manor is like an empty sh.e.l.l! There’s nothing inside!” Née Xiao had always doted on her younger daughter the most. How could she let her youngest one marry such an unremarkable person?
“She was the one who asked for it. There’s nothing you can do to change this.”
“Didn’t we agree to have her marry into the Song family?”
“Mother, I hope that you can understand that it will be practically impossible to marry her off now, let alone the Song family.”
“What did she do wrong? She only spoke of the truth!’ Née Xiao stood up and yelled in an agitated manner.
“Mother, don’t say that! Second sister nearly harmed elder sister too!” Bai Xueru stood up too. He never thought that his mother would say something like that!
“The truth? The truth is that she nearly killed her own elder sister! That’s the end of this discussion. There’s nothing else you can do about it. Even the prince wouldn’t be able to do anything about it because the eunuch has already reported this to the emperor. Is the Bai family planning to ignore the emperor’s orders?”
“What? Are you absolutely certain?!” Née Xiao was so taken aback that her face drained of all color. She immediately continued, “D-does the emperor even care about commoner disputes?”
“The emperor might not care about you, but somebody tried to ruin his close subject’s wedding ceremony. What do you think he’d do?” Bai Xiangxiu had resorted to threats. Since neither of them was treating her politely like a peer, why should she do the same?
“I will send a lot of dowry for my sister’s wedding.” She smiled at Née Xiao coldly and had the servants to escort them out. The An family also agreed as they didn’t want to go against imperial orders. However, the Sir An’s wife probably wouldn’t be as elated about this, as she suddenly had to share the position of a wife with another woman.
Bai Xiangxiu originally thought that things would calm down again after a few days of rest, but an invitation from the palace unexpectedly arrived. A n.o.ble lady from the palace with the surname of Su had sent her this invitation. Apparently, it was just a simple palace banquet.