When Su Qingcai returned, the atmosphere in the room was extremely strange.
Su Xiaoning remained seated properly in her chair, while the emperor leisurely sipped his tea, seemingly unchanged from before, yet strangely enough, a barrier seemed to separate them.
In front of the emperor, Su Qingcai couldn't ask any questions, so he just said a few polite words and hurriedly left with Su Xiaoning.
On the way back to his residence, he asked worriedly, "Did you and the Emperor say something?"
Su Xiaoning's heart skipped a beat, and she gave an awkward smile: "No."
"Really?" Su Qingcai looked at her skeptically.
"Of course it's true, why would I lie to you?" Su Xiaoning still had a smile on her face, but a pang of pain rose in her heart.
Seeing that she was unwilling to explain, Su Qingcai had nothing more to say. Neither of them spoke, and the small carriage was filled with a tense atmosphere.
Su Xiaoning seemed to be getting impatient, and when they were almost at the Prince's mansion, she suddenly spoke up.
"What would you do if I left you one day?"
"You want to leave me?" Su Qingcai frowned and gripped Su Xiaoning's hand tightly, her palms sweating with nervousness.
Su Xiaoning lowered her head and said with an embarrassed smile, "N-no, I just wanted to ask you..."
"I won't answer that question." Su Qingcai said decisively, pulling Su Xiaoning into his arms.
Because—I won't let you leave me.
He spoke each word firmly, and the force with which he held Su Xiaoning almost made her breathless.
Su Xiaoning's eyes reddened, and she hugged Su Qingcai tightly. The two remained silent; she ultimately did not tell Su Qingcai about her conversation with the emperor.
...
In the following days, Su Xiaoning was not in a good mood. When Meng Ruqiao came to visit her, she saw that Su Xiaoning looked listless and took her out for a walk without saying a word.
The two passed by a teahouse where a storyteller was telling a story, which sounded particularly interesting. Su Xiaoning and Meng Ruqiao then sat down in the teahouse.
At first, the storyteller told strange tales, which the two listened to with great interest. But after finishing one story, the storyteller suddenly changed his tone and brought up Qin Yunyun.
"That Lady Qin of the Seventh Prince's Mansion is extraordinary; she is a saintess reborn! It is said that the koi fish mark on the saintess's hand can protect all living beings; it is a gift from the gods! The saintess is compassionate and merciful, and everyone has seen her good deeds during this time—distributing porridge to save the world—truly a bodhisattva's heart..."
The storyteller embellished the story of what Qin Yunyun had deliberately done during this period, praising her to the skies.
The surrounding audience largely agreed with this viewpoint, but only Su Xiaoning and Meng Ruqiao knew exactly what kind of person Qin Yunyun was, and they felt extremely uncomfortable listening to it.
Meng Ruqiao was straightforward and never held back her displeasure. She scoffed and said disdainfully, "It's just a few rumors, yet you've managed to keep you all entertained! Qin Yunyun is just a concubine with no real achievements, but you've all been praising her like a goddess. It's laughable!"
Her voice was neither too loud nor too soft, but loud enough for everyone in the teahouse to hear.
The storyteller was suddenly exposed and became so angry that he trembled all over. He pointed at Meng Ruqiao and said "you" several times in a row.
The people who supported Qin Yunyun were not happy. The man closest to Meng Ruqiao looked at Qin Yunyun with displeasure and said sternly, "I think you are the one talking nonsense! You are probably just jealous of the Holy Maiden, so you are slandering her here!"
"Me, jealous of a concubine? Don't make me laugh!" Meng Ruqiao laughed heartily. Her pride, ingrained in her bones, gave her an imposing aura that no one dared to provoke.
The man's face flushed red. He was about to curse again in anger, but he fell silent after seeing Meng Ruqiao's face.
"You...you are Miss Meng..."
Meng Ruqiao was quite famous in the capital; most of the people in this teahouse knew her. Upon seeing that it was the Prime Minister's daughter who had spoken, they all shrank back, not daring to utter a word.
The man seemed somewhat unwilling to give up. Since he couldn't do anything to Meng Ruqiao, he turned his gaze to the girl beside her. Recognizing her as Su Xiaoning, he immediately exclaimed:
"Su Xiaoning is here too! The Holy Maiden forgave her before, but she actually instigated Miss Meng to slander the Holy Maiden!"
Su Xiaoning was stunned. She stared blankly at the angry crowd that had suddenly surged towards her, her mind completely blank.
How did it become that she instigated Meng Ruqiao?
The crowd was in a frenzy, and these fervent admirers of Qin Yunyun approached Su Xiaoning. Meng Ruqiao frowned, gripped Su Xiaoning's hand tightly, and knew things were going badly.
Just as a fight was about to break out, a cold, sharp voice suddenly came from the doorway.
"Stop it, all of you! In broad daylight, under the clear sky, how dare you openly bully a woman?"
It was a familiar voice that she hadn't heard in a long time. A figure appeared in Su Xiaoning's mind. She looked up at the door and sure enough, she saw Jiang Lin standing there.
Jiang Lin stood backlit at the entrance of the teahouse, still wearing his patrol uniform. He strode into the teahouse, exuding a menacing aura, and no one dared to stop him.
Those who were just shouting that they would teach Su Xiaoning a lesson are now speechless, each burying their heads like ostriches, praying that Jiang Lin will not see them.
Jiang Lin walked to Su Xiaoning's table, smiled gently at her, then immediately stopped smiling, coldly scanning the audience in the teahouse before finally fixing his gaze on the teahouse owner.
The teahouse owner's heart tightened, and he hurriedly ran out with a fawning smile: "Young General, what are your orders?"
"No need for flattery, I don't fall for that." Jiang Lin snorted coldly. "You didn't even do anything about the trouble in your teahouse? If I hadn't seen what was happening while I was patrolling the streets, would you have just let them bully two weak women?"
"You're right, I didn't think things through..." The teahouse owner stammered, not daring to refute.
Jiang Lingao raised his eyes, his words filled with a threatening tone.
"If I ever see any of you daring to bully Su Xiaoning again, then you're all welcome to come to the General's Mansion for a cup of tea!"
The teahouse was completely silent; no one dared to utter a single word of "no," and they all nodded vigorously.
Jiang Lin was very pleased with their understanding. He then looked down at Su Xiaoning, his gentle smile returning to his face: "Alright, it's nothing."
Su Xiaoning was a little embarrassed and didn't dare to look at him. She said, "I'm sorry to have troubled you."
"There's no need for apologies between us; these are things I should do," Jiang Lin said with a carefree smile. "Let's go."
Without saying a word, he pulled Su Xiaoning up and led Meng Ruqiao out of the teahouse.
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