Chapter 118: Against the Rules

Hearing Xiao Mingzheng's voice, everyone was a little surprised and quickly stood up to greet him. When Xiao Mingzheng came in and saw that everyone was there, he looked like he was about to greet them, but he waved his hand and said, "No need to be polite outside."

Seeing Zhong Min also stood up obediently, Xiao Mingzheng walked directly to her side, pulled her to sit down, and said, "You are still injured. It's not good for you to stand for too long."

In front of everyone, Xiao Mingzheng held her hand without any hesitation. Zhong Min suddenly felt very uncomfortable. She subconsciously pulled her hand away and sat down while thanking him.

Seeing this, Xiao Mingzheng didn't say anything. He sat down on the chair next to Zhong Min, and then asked Luo Jiaxing and Xie Feng to continue sitting down. It would seem awkward for them to stand like that.

No one dared to ask why Xiao Mingzheng suddenly came over. Therefore, in front of the prince who suddenly appeared, the free atmosphere of the conversation suddenly reversed. No one spoke for a while, and it seemed a little cold.

"What's going on? Why did you all become silent when I arrived?" Xiao Mingzheng looked at Xie Feng and asked, "What did you say just now that everything was fine?"

Xie Feng saw that the prince had called on him to answer, so he naturally couldn't help but speak. Just as he was about to answer, Luo Jiaxing answered first, "Your Highness, we were just discussing the recruitment of new soldiers for the army. Right now, not only the people of Muzhou, but also the people of other nearby counties are subservient to your prestige, so expanding the army is naturally no problem."

The Luo family didn't let Xie Feng speak the truth because if Xiao Mingzheng knew that they were all secretly concerned about Zhong Min's personal affairs and were intentionally or unintentionally biased towards her, it would not be a good thing for Zhong Min. Therefore, they simply didn't bring it up for now, and let Zhong Min bring it up to the prince in person later, so as to avoid any negative consequences.

Xie Fengyi quickly understood what Luo Jiaxing meant and nodded repeatedly, saying that this was the matter. Seeing this, Xiao Mingzheng paused slightly, but did not say anything more on this issue.

"There's no rush for this matter. It won't be too late to decide after we return. I came here to inform you that you should prepare to move camp and return to Muzhou now. The matter of Lingge can't be delayed any longer. We must return and deal with it immediately." Xiao Mingzheng instructed Luo Jiaxing and Xie Feng, "Get ready now. We'll set off in half an hour."

Hearing this, Luo Jiaxing and Xie Feng quickly stood up, not daring to raise any more objections. After saying so repeatedly, they retreated and prepared to leave.

After they left, Xiao Mingzheng looked at Zhong Min again and said, "This matter is urgent, so we have to hurry. I have asked someone to prepare a new carriage. Although it was a bit hasty, it shouldn't have any effect on your wound."

"Thank you, Your Highness. My injury is fine now, so I can ride in a carriage without any problem." Zhong Min said, "We can set off anytime. I promise I won't hold you back any longer."

"When no one is around, just call me Mingzheng. It's been a while since we last met, but you've become much more polite. Is there anything you need to prepare? I'll help you." Xiao Mingzheng smiled meaningfully, with a look of inquiry on his face.

Zhong Min paused when he heard this, but didn't respond directly. Instead, he said, "We're leaving soon. You should go and do your thing first. I don't have anything to do here. Zi Yan should be here soon, and she'll help me take care of everything."

Seeing this, Xiao Mingzheng didn't say anything else, just nodded slightly, gave a few more instructions, and then got up and left to go about his business.

After Xiao Mingzheng left, Zi Yan was indeed brought over. As soon as she saw Zhong Min, she rushed up to him and started crying. She looked so sad.

"Why are you crying? Did they beat you, scold you, or bully you?" Zhong Min was shocked. Xie Feng had just said that he would lock this girl up. Could it be that he had tortured her?

Upon hearing this, Zi Yan quickly shook her head. After a long while, she finally stopped crying and said to Zhong Min, "Nothing. It's just that I thought I would never see Miss Min'er again. Commander Xie said that if anything happened between you and the prince, I would be dead too."

When Zhong Min heard this, she couldn't help but laugh. Zi Yan was an honest child. It turned out that she was afraid for her own life. This made sense and was much more reasonable than saying that she was worried about her.

"Okay, okay, stop crying. Aren't you fine now? Hurry up and pack up. We will set off back to Muzhou soon." Zhong Min knew that Zi Yan's hometown was also Muzhou. As for how she came to the capital and how she suddenly ran to Xiao Mingzheng to help take care of herself, he had no idea.

Zi Yan herself never mentioned it, so Zhong Min didn't ask too much. After all, the people Xiao Mingzheng could use must be people he knew well, so she didn't need to worry about it.

When Zi Yan heard what Zhong Min said, a look of joy suddenly appeared on her face. In fact, they didn't really need to prepare anything, so they packed up a little and started chatting with Zhong Min.

Zhong Min originally wanted to ask Zi Yan to tell Luo Jiaxing and the others not to ride in the same carriage as Xiao Mingzheng, but then she thought, it seemed like they had no say in that. Besides, doing so suddenly would only lead to speculation. So she gave up the idea and simply decided to keep as much distance as possible on the way. Once she returned to Prince Mu's mansion, she quickly found a suitable opportunity to ask for her departure. That way, it would be over once and for all, without any unnecessary entanglement.

Fortunately, after setting off, although he still rode in the same carriage with Xiao Mingzheng, because Zi Yan was with him and Xiao Mingzheng had a lot to do, apart from the unusual words, everything else was peaceful.

On the afternoon of the fourth day, the group finally returned to Prince Mu's Mansion. Xiao Mingzheng just went into the mansion to take a shower and take a short rest before taking Luo Jiaxing and others to the military camp. He probably would be busy in the next few days.

Zhong Min returned to the house where he used to live and took a comfortable bath with Zi Yan's help. Fortunately, the wound was on his shoulder. If it was on other parts of his body, it would not be so convenient to take a bath.

After changing into clean clothes, Zhong Min comfortably lay in bed, letting Zi Yan change her dressings. The wound had almost healed over the past few days, so she only needed to change the dressings daily, eliminating the need to bother the court physician with daily checks.

Not long after she changed the medicine, she heard someone calling her name outside. Zi Yan went to open the door and found that there were already four or five people standing outside, all waiting there with smiles on their faces.

"What do you want?" Zi Yan didn't know these people. It was her first time entering Prince Mu's Mansion, so she had no idea who was who. But seeing that the leading man was dressed like a butler, she guessed that he was a responsible manager in the mansion.

"Miss, I'm the housekeeper in the mansion. On the orders of the prince, I've specially sent some servants over to Miss Min'er. Please inform her." The man who looked like a housekeeper was very polite to Zi Yan, and it was obvious that he attached great importance to this mission.

Zi Yan was quite smart when she saw this and immediately understood what was going on. She was about to go into the inner room to tell Zhong Min, but she didn't expect that Zhong Min had already come out.

"Butler Liu, what are you doing?" Zhong Min walked to the door, glanced at Butler Liu and the four maids behind him, and said, "I'm just a maid in Prince Mu's mansion. Why do I need anyone to serve me?"

"Miss Min'er, I am also following the orders of the prince. You blocked a sword for the prince this time. Everyone in the mansion already knows about your righteous act. You are still injured now, so it is only right that you have more people to serve you." Butler Liu was quite good at speaking and directly brought up the fact that Zhong Min was injured.

Zhong Min smiled and said, "My injuries have almost healed. Besides, I have Zi Yan to help take care of me. That's more than enough. Why do we need so many people? You should just take the person back. Besides, this is totally against the rules."

When Butler Liu heard this, he was immediately embarrassed. "Miss Min'er, I am also following orders. If I fail to carry out the prince's orders, I will be punished. Miss Min'er, please consider it as helping me and don't make it difficult for me. If you don't like these people, I can find others. Please don't make it difficult for me."

Seeing this, Zhong Min knew that all of this was Xiao Mingzheng's intention, but the more she thought about it, the more uncomfortable she felt. She knew that Xiao Mingzheng had no ill intentions and that this was simply to show his appreciation for her, but he didn't understand what she was thinking.

"In that case, please help me check what job Xier is doing in the mansion now. If it is convenient, let her come over. As for the others, there is really no need to keep too many of them. You can see that I don't have much to do here. Having two people to take care of me is already more than enough." Zhong Min didn't want to make things difficult for Butler Liu, so she found a compromise. Since she had to let someone stay, she might as well find someone familiar to save herself the trouble.

Hearing Zhong Min say this, Butler Liu was very happy and said that he would send Xier over in a while. After all, the prince only asked to find a few people to serve, and there was no specific number stipulated. Since Zhong Min accepted one, at least he had completed his task.

As soon as Butler Liu left, Zi Yan excitedly said to Zhong Min, "The prince is so kind to the young lady. He personally instructs her on everything. It seems that I will have to treat her as his madam in the future."

"Don't talk nonsense!" Zhong Min's face darkened immediately upon hearing this. He scolded Zi Yan sternly, "If you dare to talk nonsense again in the future, I won't dare keep you in my care!"

When Zi Yan heard this, her expression changed drastically. She immediately realized that she had said something she shouldn't have said. Just as she was about to admit her mistake, she heard another knock on the door: "Is Miss Min'er here? Concubine Liu is here to see you."