Chapter 92

"Master, Jiu Tian Yi is now under my name. I'm rich now, so please don't skimp on my money." Cui Zui grinned, not mentioning at all that he had written the official documents to transfer most of Jiu Tian Yi's share to Xue Jin'an's name. Oh, no, the documents say Xue Qi.

Cui Zui continued buying things for his master until the palace gates were about to close, then reluctantly stopped and hired a carriage to take him back.

The guards watched helplessly as the Seventh Prince left empty-handed and returned laden with spoils. Anyone who didn't know better would have thought it was His Highness, not the Eldest Princess, celebrating his birthday.

"So the relationship between the Eldest Princess and the Seventh Prince is that good?" A young guard murmured as he watched the laden cargo depart. "The Ninth Prince and the Third Princess didn't bring much with them when they returned to the palace."

It wasn't just that he didn't bring anything; the Ninth Prince also had injuries on his face, and his expression was gloomy and unpleasant. He looked like he had been upset. The Third Princess also seemed a little shaken. After passing through the palace gate inspection, she hurriedly left.

I heard that the Third Prince also went to the Princess's residence today. I wonder if something happened.

The young guard was filled with curiosity.

"Who knows?" There's no real brotherly love or filial piety in this palace. Whether the relationships are good or bad is all about interests. The older guard, who had seen more of the world, glanced at him and kindly advised, "If you don't want to die an unexplained death, listen to and watch less in the palace, and just do your job well."

"Yes." The young guard immediately looked away and stood at attention, not daring to glance around again.

The guards' conversation drifted into Xue Jin'an's ears on the wind. Xue Jin'an did not expect that on his way to Zhaoyang Palace, he would run into the Ninth Prince and the Third Princess, who had returned before them. To be precise, the Ninth Prince was sitting in a chair, and the Third Princess was standing stiffly with a bowl on her head.

The Ninth Prince did indeed have injuries on his face, clearly from being beaten with considerable force. It was estimated that his face would swell up by tomorrow night. He was accompanied by three or four eunuchs, one of whom was rolling an egg on his face in an attempt to relieve the pain. The eunuch's gaze towards the Third Princess was fierce and sinister.

The Third Princess was isolated and helpless, and her personal maid was not by her side. Xue Jin'an remembered that the last time the Third Princess came to Zhaoyang Palace, she was also alone. She wondered if the Third Princess had deliberately sent her people away, or if she had not served her well enough and had run away when she saw that things were not going well.

"Ninth... Ninth Brother," the Third Princess said timidly, "Empress Wen already knows I'm back, and I still need to go and pay my respects to her. Please don't make things difficult for me..."

Upon hearing this, Xue Jin'an quickly guessed the situation. The Third Princess's personal maid seemed to be about the same age as her, and was a playmate specially chosen by Consort Wen. It was understandable that she might not be very attentive. However, this time, it was probably because the Third Princess realized that the Ninth Prince had followed her and sensed that something was wrong, so she sent someone back to inform him.

"You think I'm making things difficult for you?" the Ninth Prince said with a sneer. "Who do you think you are? I just don't like you. So what if I want to make things difficult for you? Are you going to complain to your concubine, Consort Wen, who can't even protect herself? She's been in the palace for so many years and doesn't even have a title. Her life is already difficult enough. Does she have to suffer even more because of you..."

The Ninth Prince launched into a tirade against the Third Princess, causing her anger to dissipate once more because of his words that would cause trouble for Consort Wen.

The Ninth Prince was clearly a repeat offender. Seeing that the Third Princess remained silent, a mocking glint flashed in his eyes. He planned to find some excuse to bully her, "You were at your elder sister's residence today..."

Fu Lu couldn't stand it anymore. Normally, given his personality, he would have urged Xue Jin'an to leave and try to keep him out of this mess. However, the Ninth Prince was clearly trying to bully people, yet he was making up some far-fetched excuses, which was truly shameful.

Fuling also gripped her weapon, ready to charge out and beat up the Ninth Prince at Xue Jin'an's command.

Xue Jin'an narrowed his eyes, looking at the Third Princess who was trembling all over, and feeling the negative emotions gradually intensifying on her body. He said thoughtfully, "Wait."

"You," the Third Princess trembled with rage at the Ninth Prince's absurd excuse. She could no longer swallow her anger, but she wasn't entirely without temper. Her eyes reddened as she retorted, "You don't dare to confront your Third Brother, so you've come to me to vent your anger. You're a worthless person!"

The Ninth Prince's face immediately darkened. "What did you say?"

The third princess was so frightened that she took a step back, and the bowl on her head smashed to the ground with a loud crash, shattering into pieces. Her face paled, but now that she had already said it, there was no going back, so she might as well vent her anger.

So, in a trembling voice, she recounted in detail what had happened at the Princess's residence that day.

It turned out that the injury on the Ninth Prince's face was inflicted by the Third Prince. It was also because the Third Prince had a sharp tongue and remembered how he had falsely accused Xue Jin'an at the palace banquet but was instead beaten. He held a grudge and stood up for Xue Jin'an. Then he deliberately did it again, trying to induce the Third Prince to take action and ruin his reputation.

He just didn't expect that the Third Prince would beat people without any hesitation, without any fear or care about where he was or how others would see him. He directly swung his fists and punched the Ninth Prince in the face several times, making the Ninth Prince's nose bleed on the spot. Afterwards, he was going to press his face into a pot of boiling hot soup.

The Ninth Prince's plan was successful to some extent. The Third Prince's reputation for being tyrannical would spread throughout the capital, and his reputation would become even more infamous. However, he did not know that the Third Prince, who had no problem with his leg before, did not care much about his reputation, and the current Third Prince would care even less.

The Third Prince acted without restraint. If he had wanted to kill the Ninth Prince, that would have been better. But he still had some sense and just wanted to teach this foul-mouthed brat a lesson by rinsing his mouth with hot soup.

If the Eldest Princess hadn't arrived in time to stop it, the Ninth Prince would be lying in the Imperial Hospital treating his face right now. However, the Eldest Princess clearly wasn't on the Ninth Prince's side, otherwise the Ninth Prince wouldn't have slunk back to the palace to be bullied by the Third Princess, but would have already gone crying and complaining to the Emperor.

Fu Lu couldn't help but shudder upon hearing this. He had only ever read about the Third Prince's brutal beatings on paper before, and only after hearing it in person did he truly understand and find it terrifying.

The Third Princess watched as the Ninth Prince was enraged by her words, feeling both fear and a secret sense of pleasure.

The Ninth Prince was furious and clenched his fists, ready to strike. The Third Princess closed her eyes in fright, but instead of pain, she heard a laugh. "That's right, hitting you won't do any good. You'll only feel a little pain. I should have gone after your Consort Wen, so you'd remember not to speak rudely to me."

"How should we deal with her? Should we use your Consort Wen to curse the prince, or—"

Consort Wen was the Third Princess's Achilles' heel and also her Achilles' heel. She felt a "buzz" in her head. She watched as the Ninth Prince's mouth opened and closed, and word after word entered her mind. She couldn't hear anything clearly. She only felt the anger churning in her heart. Before she could react, she had already pounced on him and scratched the Ninth Prince's face with her claws.

"Ah!" The foul language turned into a scream, then into a cry of pain and incredulous anger, "Xue Nianyun, have you gone mad?!"

The third princess responded with a vicious headbutt, instinctively smashing his slightly red nose, causing blood to gush out instantly. At the same time, the third princess's tears also flowed freely, and she cried extremely miserably.

The docile sheep suddenly kicked up, and before anyone could react, they could only stare blankly as the Third Princess pinned down the Ninth Prince and beat him.

Girls of this age develop much faster than boys, and are at the peak of their fighting power. No matter how angry and struggling the Ninth Prince was, he still couldn't avoid being beaten by the Third Princess.

"What are you still looking at? Pull her away from me!" The Ninth Prince struggled and finally managed to utter a sentence.

His eunuchs then realized what was happening and tried to pull the Third Princess away.

Whoosh! The sound of a stone breaking through the air was heard. The lead eunuch's legs went weak, and he fell to his knees unexpectedly. The other eunuchs behind him were caught off guard and fell down as well.

Xue Jin'an glanced at Fu Lu and Fu Ling beside him. The former immediately withdrew his hand from handing Fu Ling pebbles, pretending nothing had happened. The latter was a beat slower and also hid her hand in her sleeve, blinked, and looked completely oblivious.

Xue Jin'an couldn't tell whether she was real or acting.

Xue Jin'an didn't comment on their actions, but walked out, his voice still calm and indifferent: "What are you doing?"

"Seventh...Seventh Prince!" The eunuchs' legs went weak, and they collapsed to the ground, unable to get up.

The Seventh Prince's "cursed" fate is too strange, mainly because there are many "victims" and the evidence is convincing. Some people even speculate that if the Seventh Prince were to reappear, he would bring misfortune to someone else. Many people guess the Ninth Prince, after all, the incident between the Ninth Prince and the Seventh Prince at the palace banquet was quite ugly. Even though neither of them received any punishment, it became widely known because of the large number of people involved.

The Seventh Prince really slapped the faces of many officials in the court that day, almost pointing at them and saying openly, "You are a useless person who occupies a high position without doing your job."

Those around the Ninth Prince usually dared not listen to his passionate insults against the Seventh Prince, and would secretly perform exorcism rituals to avoid being cursed. Now that they saw him in person, they were even more afraid, and had a reason to confront the Third Princess's sudden attack.

This was all caused by the Seventh Prince!

They didn't dare to get up, fearing they would also be affected by the "curse." They were even thinking about what they should do if their master was killed by the Seventh Prince today.

Hearing footsteps behind her, the third princess suddenly snapped out of her frenzy. Her striking motion paused, her body stiffened slightly, and only large tears continued to fall.

The Ninth Prince finally caught his breath. He covered his nose, his eyes filled with stars, and his fingers were stained with a glaring red. He fiercely tried to throw the Third Princess off and take control.

"Lower your body and shift your weight to the right..." Xue Jin'an's calm and even voice rang out.

The Third Princess subconsciously adjusted her posture as he instructed, sitting steadily on the Ninth Prince. The latter, instead of trying to lift her up, was pinned down and unable to move, almost losing his breath.

The Ninth Prince stared at him, "Xue Jin'an, what are you doing? Are you planning to gang up on me?"

Xue Jin'an looked down at him, not answering, but stating his crimes, "You're bullying people again."

The Ninth Prince, pinned beneath him, was nearly driven mad with anger. He raised his bloodied finger and roared furiously, "Are you blind? Didn't you see she was the one hitting me?"

“Those who do many evil deeds will surely perish. This is self-defense and you are innocent.” Xue Jin’an listened to the sounds outside and said to the Third Princess, “Li Hechun has a quarter of an hour left. You still have time.”

The third princess's eyes, washed clean by tears, shone brightly, and her fists clenched eagerly: "Can I?"

Xue Jin'an simply gave a precise countdown.

The Ninth Prince was truly panicked now. However, having been a bully for so long, being pinned down and retaliated against by the victim made him terrified. Even in fear, he wouldn't beg properly, still threatening, "No! Xue Nianyun, get off me right now, or I won't let you get away with this, you..."

He was about to say something more when the Third Princess slapped him, interrupting him. The Third Princess glared at the Ninth Prince with her tearful eyes. Her voice trembled and choked with sobs, but her logic was clear: "Whether I obey you or not, you will complain and retaliate against me. I might as well take this opportunity to kill you first!"

Just as the fist was about to land, the Ninth Prince covered his face with his hand and cried out in terror, "Xue Jin'an!"

"I can pretend that what happened today never happened. I won't tell anyone, and we'll call it even..." He still hasn't figured out his proper attitude and is still issuing orders in a condescending tone.

Disgusting! The Third Princess found the mouth repulsive and wanted to shut it up. However, when she touched the ground, she found a shard of broken porcelain. She then realized that the Ninth Prince's back was right on top of the shards, but his thick coat prevented him from getting hurt.

The third princess didn't know whether she should feel regret or relief. She felt regret and relief that she hadn't been injured despite falling on the porcelain shards.

"Shut up." The Third Princess grabbed the shard of porcelain and pressed it directly against the Ninth Prince's mouth.

When the third princess first threatened someone, she didn't know what to do, so she could only subconsciously imitate the people in her memory.

She learned to paint and sculpt clay figures, both of which emphasize the human spirit. So she would habitually observe in this direction. When painting or sculpting clay figures, she would subconsciously try to simulate the expressions of the subjects in her mind. She was very talented in this area.

Now, the Third Princess is drawing upon her memories, speaking in the gentle and soothing tone of the Eldest Princess, uttering the cold and ruthless words that Xue Jin'an would say.

“Your voice is annoying. From now on, if I hear you say another word, I’ll shove this into your mouth and make you swallow it.”

Xue Jin'an, who was watching from the sidelines, tilted her head thoughtfully, already realizing who the other person was imitating.

The Ninth Prince wanted to hurl insults, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he saw the Third Princess actually making a move to shove a shard of porcelain into his mouth. He didn't dare to gamble on whether she was going crazy or not, and reluctantly shut his mouth.

"So that's how it works..." The Third Princess suddenly understood, her heart pounding in her chest like a drum.

Suddenly she heard a calm voice deny him: "That's not enough."

The Third Princess turned her head and saw Xue Jin'an handing her a feathered arrow.

In fact, Xue Jin'an originally wanted to hand over the sword sheath, but he had been staying in Zhaoyang Palace for so long that he had lost the habit of carrying a sword with him. He thought that he should still carry it in the future so that he wouldn't have to spend time looking for a weapon next time he needed one.

This arrow was the very one that Du Yin had casually pulled from Cui Zui's quiver when he fell down the stairs in the small restaurant, to catch a hidden weapon that attacked him from behind—Du Yin's shoe.

He then put the arrows in his sleeve and used them as a self-defense weapon, and they are proving useful now.

“A minor injury is not my style,” Xue Jin’an said frankly.

"Oh!" The third princess took the murder weapon and suddenly realized what had happened.

The Ninth Prince opened his eyes wide in horror. He finally regretted everything, but it was too late.