Chapter 474 The Peonies in the Foggy Courtyard
The scenery in the garden was very beautiful. All the way, there were peach blossoms, green willows, rockeries, and flowing water. Although it was not extremely big, it had its elegance. Lanning led the way, Ao Chen Yi and Ning Xueyan followed her, and the few eunuchs with a serious expression walked after them, but they were seven or eight steps away.
Anyway, it looked strange, but if this action was done by Prince Yi, everyone could only smile and say this was common.
“I just asked you to send a few things here, but why did you come here yourself?” Ning Xueyan looked at these few eunuchs behind her and deliberately said in a whisper. Originally, she wanted to use Ao Chenyi to suppress the evil people in the mansion. As long as he sent a few things here to show that he backed her, that was enough.
Unexpectedly, this man did come here in person.
Ning Xueyan said these words extremely naturally, but after she said them, she felt a little inexplicably awkward, and her heart beat faster involuntarily. She hurriedly hung her head, pretending to be serious, but she turned her black jade-like eyes around. Surprisingly, she felt a little uncomfortable.
Glancing at the young lady, who hung her head but whose snow-white ear helixes had turned slightly red, Ao Chenyi slowly adjusted his clothes and robe and said with a faint smile, “It’s said that your Lord Protector’s Manor is not in order, so I specially came here to take a look. If I can’t get married nicely, I would rather not do it, and no one should have a good experience.”
The voice was not low. Although he said these words with a smile, they had fierceness. Ning Xueyan knew that he was saying this to Ning Zu’an and Madam Dowager, in fact. So, she could not help having a light smile in her lowered eyes. Of course, she didn’t think he came here only for this purpose, but she felt comfortable to hear these words.
Ning Zu’an, Madam Dowager, and their companions had been behaving quite improperly because of Ning Huaiyuan’s affair, but since Ao Chenyi said these words today, they should behave themselves much better in the following days. Anyway, they would marry her into Prince Yi’s Manor, lest that Ao Chenyi should denounce them for their crime on this matter. And the tone of his words sounded really bad in any sense.
What was the meaning of “no one should have a good experience”?!
It meant that if he didn’t have a good experience, no one else should think about it! This tone sounded extremely fierce, but she inexplicably thought that it should be like this. To deal with the cold-natured and selfish Madam Dowager, it was best to control evil with evil; otherwise, they would never stop.
It was not that Ning Xueyan was afraid they would not stop so that she could not deal with them, but that her wedding was around the corner, so she would not have time to always keep an eye on them. Lord Protector’s Manor was truly an awful mess, where there was the cold-natured Madam Dowager, the less righteous Ning Zu’an of the deep mind, and Ning Huaiyuan and Ning Qingshan, who had been waiting for the right moment to move.
The Foggy Courtyard was not far away. Ning Qingshan, who had been enjoying the favor, lived in the courtyard, which was close to the center of the mansion. They didn’t cover a long distance before entering the inner courtyard from the parlor outside, and they headed for the path of the Foggy Courtyard. Walking together with Ao Chenyi, Ning Xueyan naturally took the smooth main paths.
Turning from the trail before reaching the door of the Foggy Courtyard, they saw a few maids in the distance. Supported by the older female servants, Ning Qingshan went out of the door of the Foggy Courtyard in an embarra.s.sed manner. When she seemed to feel the look from Ning Xueyan, Ning Qingshan looked up and saw two people coming from the distance, and then she had some hatred in her eyes.
“This is my courtyard, and my leg is still injured and I can’t move, but I have to leave because of Ning Xueyan, and I seem to be driven away. We are all co-consorts of the royal family, but why can the little b.i.t.c.h Ning Xueyan do this way?” Thinking of the hateful part, she wished to rush over and cut Ning Xueyan’s calm face with her nails.
She didn’t dare to get angry with Prince Yi. Naturally, she thought that the reason why Prince Yi had come to her Foggy Courtyard was Ning Xueyan’s instigation, so she vented her evil anger on Ning Xueyan.
She glared at Ning Xueyan and had some fierceness in her eyes. Holding Mammy Luo’s hand, she turned to another direction helplessly.
“Do you need me to kill her?” Ao Chenyi stood still, looked at the Ning Qingshan who had gone far away, narrowed his eyes slightly, and had a bloodthirsty chill at the corner of his beautiful mouth.
“Prince, that’s the future co-consort of Third Prince!” Ning Xueyan had a faintly discernible smile and whispered. This was the Lord Protector’s Manor, and she was now still the girl of the manor. Of course, she had to speak from the standpoint of the manor. Indeed, Ning Qingshan’s ident.i.ty was not ordinary.
“What’s the point of being the co-consort of Third Prince? I would not have said so if she were not a co-consort!” Ao Chenyi laughed evilly and coldly and went into the Foggy Courtyard with Ning Xueyan. “You all stay here.”
These few eunuchs guarded the door with four in a row and stood respectfully with their heads bowed. Lanning hesitated for a moment, wanting to follow them in, but she heard Ning Xueyan lightly say, “You stay here too!”
She stopped involuntarily and stood aside.
The Foggy Courtyard was even bigger than the Bright Frost Garden. Anyway, the Bright Frost Garden was too remote and deserted. Even the trees, flowers, and gra.s.ses in it were extremely simple, and no one could find a few outstanding ones. On the contrary, flowers and gra.s.ses were everywhere in the Foggy Courtyard. It was spring now. Flowers were flourishing here, showing a thriving scene.
Madam Ming was a co-wife previously, and she was a wife now, but she was even not comparable to an adopted orphan girl. Looking at everything in front of her, Ning Xueyan inexplicably remembered the ruined garden, where only a few servants were sluggishly sweeping the fallen leaves and Mother Han was listening to the cough in the room while boiling herbs in the winding corridor and frowned with worries.
Biting her lip, she suppressed the sadness in her heart and took a deep breath, but she suddenly felt that her hand was held by someone’s hand. The big hand with a sense of coolness just held her hand gently. Since their hands were under the wide folded sleeves and the two of them also stood close, even if someone saw them, he could not momentarily find that they were holding hands.
She did not feel warm in her heart because what Ao Chenyi gave others was an icy cold feeling as if he gave off cold air every moment. That kind of cold and eerie feeling with his strong momentum was enough to make everyone who saw him involuntarily lower their heads and lose their guts to spy on his look.
But Ning Xueyan felt slight warmth coming from his hand at this moment. Although it was very light, it was warm. The feeling was a little hard for her to explain. She curled her fingers somewhat, seemingly wanting to break away from his hand or hook his hand. At the next moment, her hand was grasped, and she took a few steps forward involuntarily as if she was being dragged.
His steps were so wide that Ning Xueyan had to jog for a while to keep up. After running for a while, Ning Xueyan panted a bit and pulled his hand subconsciously.
“What? You are tired?” Ao Chenyi glanced at her and had a little faint smile on his beautiful face. Without feeling unsuitable, he extended his hand to pull Ning Xueyan closer to him again and stopped slightly.
“I’m a little tired. Please walk slowly, prince.” Ning Xueyan said honestly and pointed her finger to the corner of the wall on the right. “They are the peonies newly transplanted by my Third Sister. They were granted by Honored Consort Ya of the palace.”
At the corner of the wall on the right, the few carefully cultivated peonies were in the blooming season, looking straight and gorgeous. Besides that, they were from the palace, representing an extraordinary favor. Ning Qingshan was about to be a co-consort, and it was said that she had been the consort candidate of Third Prince in the past. She was so much favored by Honored Consort Ya. It was rumored that Third Prince had been loving her since three years ago.
No matter how Ning Qingshan was viewed, no ordinary co-consort was comparable to her.
“They grow so well. I didn’t expect that the Lord Protector’s Manor could cultivate the palace peonies so nicely. The manor didn’t waste my emperor brother’s good wish.” Ao Chenyi glanced lazily at these few blooming peonies.
“Prince, do you mean…” Ning Xueyan turned her watery eyes and asked with confusion as she felt that Ao Chenyi’s words meant something else.
“Was the Cloud Reflection Courtyard’s case not investigated later?” Ao Chenyi’s thin and long beautiful eyes had a trace of deepness for an instant, and then his cold fingers caught Ning Xueyan’s fingers on and off.
“Sister Ziying’s case?” Ning Xueyan hesitated for a moment. “Why did Sister Ziying’s case attract the attention of Third Prince and Fourth Prince?”
“Yan’er, have you heard about the story of the princess of the former dynasty?” Ao Chenyi suddenly smiled with pleasure and interest. “Don’t you think that the story of the princess of the former dynasty is very interesting?”
Ning Xueyan had a shiver in her heart and suddenly opened her black jade-like eyes to look at Ao Chenyi, and her heart beat in disorder for an instant. “The fact Third Prince and Fourth Prince try to cover up was even spoken out so directly by him.”
“Sister Ziying is the princess of the former dynasty?” she asked this question naturally.
“Yes, who would have thought that the eldest princess of the former dynasty would end up in such a way? She died so unclearly. I’m afraid that Ning Zu’an would never have dreamed that the person his master is anxiously looking for had been hiding in his mansion for three years.” Ao Chenyi put on a sarcastic smile at the corner of his mouth.
“The emperor will blame the Lord Protector’s Manor?” Ning Xueyan was shocked. No matter how much she disliked the Lord Protector’s Manor, she still knew that if something happened to the Lord Protector’s Manor at this time, she would not have a good experience, either. A married daughter is a member of another family just like the splashed water, which cannot return to the basin anymore. But she had to wait for her wedding. After that, she would not have such a close relationship with the Lord Protector’s Manor.
“No, for the time being. Anyway, the former princess’s case will only be investigated in the dark.” Ao Chenyi’s long and gorgeous feather-like eyelashes fell on his eyes, and he looked at Ning Xueyan with a little playfulness and leisureliness and smiled lightly. “Since Ning Zu’an murdered the princess of the former dynasty for no reason, he can’t go through the problem so easily.”
“What does the emperor want to get from Sister Ziying?” Ning Xueyan bit her lips and suddenly asked. No matter what, a dead princess of the former dynasty could not attract so much attention of the current emperor, unless that there were tricks in it. Ning Xueyan had been investigating it in the past, but she could not find the reason.
“Why do so many people try their best to probe into my previous life? Such as Xia Yuhang and others, who also have suspicions?” Ning Xueyan never thought that her previous life was important. Apart from the ident.i.ty of being the princess of the former dynasty, she was almost nothing. Not like a prince, she could not command the whole country. Since the former dynasty had disappeared, it was of no importance for her, the princess of the former dynasty, to exist.
“She has something that my elder brother, the emperor, badly needs,” Ao Chenyi said lazily. “My brother tried his best to search the country for the thing in her hands. What he wants are really many! He has also desired the commander’s tally of the former dynasty for a long time.”
Stricken by some idea, Ning Xueyan suddenly asked, “If Ning Zu’an has the commander’s tally, is he going to hand it over to offset his guilt?”