“????”
Everyone was puzzled. The voice was indeed from the Princess of Anping, but it seemed, as if it did not come from the person on the ground!
At this moment, Princess Anping spoke again, saying, "Your Highness, why are you holding my brother Yiming like that? What are you doing? Why are there so many of you? And you've all gathered here, making it really hard for us to find you."
Zhao Yiming was the first to react. He was so excited that he didn't care about anything else. In front of everyone, he pushed Xiao Chen away, turned around and ran through the crowd towards Tian An. He hugged her in his arms and whispered softly: "An An, An An, you scared me to death."
Tian An raised his hand and patted his shoulder, and couldn't help but complain in his heart: "Little guy, you are really pretending. If you don't know, you will be fooled by him."
Everyone just watched the two of them embrace each other affectionately, lost and found again, ugh...
"The Princess of Anping is here, so who is that person on the ground?" Finally, someone sobered up and reacted first.
The Queen Mother also came back to her senses and pointed at Tian An with a trembling hand and said, "You, you, why are you here?"
Tian An gently pushed Zhao Yiming away, blinked twice, and asked the Queen Mother in confusion, "Your Majesty, I'm not here. Where should I be?"
Even though Zhao Yiming let go of Tian An, one of his hands was still tightly holding hers, with a look of fear on his face, and his eyes were staring coldly at the empress dowager.
The Queen Mother was agitated just now, and only then realized that something was wrong. She hurried to make amends, "Didn't the maid say that you fainted on the way to change your dress, and your whole body was twitching. You should rest in the side hall over here while she calls the imperial physician!"
Tian An was even more confused, and let out an exaggerated "Ah?", looking at Yaoyao and the others behind her, "This county lady fainted? How come I didn't know? How could I faint when I'm not sick or in any pain?"
Everyone was confused by what she said.
It happened that the palace maid who had rushed into the side hall first came out. Xiao Hao, who was standing in the crowd, noticed with his sharp eyes that the palace maid saw that the situation was not right and was hiding behind the crowd and preparing to escape. He immediately ran over and kicked her in front of everyone.
"Tell me! What's going on?"
The palace maid knelt on the ground, gritted her teeth, and stammered as she repeated what she had just said.
It’s a pity that Tian An is standing here now, who would believe her?
A concubine shouted, "You lowly servant! How dare you lie in front of the Empress Dowager and the Empress? The Princess of Anping is standing here perfectly fine, with a rosy complexion and a radiant look. She doesn't look like she's about to faint and convulse."
Yaoyao directly asked Hongtong to step forward and speak, "How dare you! You are full of nonsense. You are slandering and tarnishing the reputation of the current county lady. What crime should you be punished for?"
Tian An also stepped forward with a look of grief and indignation and accused her, "You accidentally wet my skirt earlier, but I don't care about it anymore.
I asked you to atone for your sins by taking me to Yaoguang Palace to change clothes, but you disappeared as soon as you turned a corner. If Yaoyao hadn't been worried and asked Hongtong to come find us, we might not even know where you were feeding mosquitoes!
Now, taking advantage of my absence, you come here to slander my reputation. What hatred or grudge do you have with me that would warrant such a move?"
Zhao Yiming narrowed his eyes and said coldly: "An An has never seen you before, and I never do evil to others. Tell me, who ordered you to do this?"
After saying that, he glanced in the direction of the empress dowager, which startled her so much that she swallowed back the words that were about to come out of her mouth.
The maid knelt on the ground and kowtowed repeatedly, still gritting her teeth and insisting, "This servant was not ordered by anyone, and this servant did not lie. It was really the county lady who fainted. This servant..."
"How dare you! You are still talking nonsense. Come, drag me to the Ministry of Punishment for strict interrogation." The queen waved her hand and ordered someone to take me away.
Judging from the Queen Mother's behavior tonight, this matter was most likely related to her, but she had to ask the Emperor's opinion on how to judge the matter specifically, so as to avoid making a fool of the royal family. She could only have someone drag the maid away and put her under custody.
After dealing with the maid, the queen looked at the person still lying on the ground, "Qingyi, go and see who is lying on the ground. I want to see who is so bold as to openly commit obscene acts in the palace.
The reason why the queen was so restrained just now was because she was afraid that Tian An would really fall into someone else's trap. Now that she was sure that Tian An was fine, she would handle the matter impartially.
Qingyi walked up to the person, gently lifted the hair covering her face, was immediately startled, and quickly covered her hair back, then ran to the queen and whispered to her.
The queen was also shocked when she heard this, but she said nothing and quickly asked the palace maid to cover the man with a cloak and then carry him away.
Seeing the expressions of the Queen and Qingyi, everyone guessed that the woman on the ground was probably not just an ordinary palace maid or a daughter of an official family.
But at this time no one dared to ask any more questions.
With something like this happening tonight, the banquet naturally can't go on.
Without even setting off any fireworks, the Queen prepared to send everyone out of the palace.
Zhao Yiming was about to take Tian An away when the Queen Mother couldn't sit still anymore. "Yiming boy, you beat someone up like this without knowing right or wrong and then left without giving an explanation. Isn't that a bit unreasonable?"
Zhao Yiming stopped, a smile suddenly appearing on his face. He called the Queen Mother "Grandmother" and said, "It was you who told me An An was in there just now, so I rushed in."
The implication is that even if she was being indiscriminate, it was the Queen Mother who was being indiscriminate. Who told her to insist that the person inside was Tian An without even investigating thoroughly?
Without waiting for the Queen Mother to speak, Zhao Yiming continued, "Even if An An is fine, this man dared to openly commit obscene acts in the palace, so he should be beaten."
The Queen opened her mouth, but could only forcefully say, "Even if he deserves to be beaten, it's not your place to do it!"
Zhao Yiming nodded, and the words he said were infuriating. "Then consider it as the Duke of this country doing the execution for the guards. No need to thank me."
"You..." The Queen Mother was so angry that she was speechless.
Tian An suddenly popped his head out from behind Zhao Yiming, looked at the Queen Mother, and said, "Your Majesty, why are you so biased towards this man? Do you know who he is?"
The man on the ground had been beaten into a pig's face by Zhao Yiming when his face was revealed, so no one knew who he was until now.
Upon hearing this, everyone who was about to leave stopped and looked at the Queen Mother.
The Queen Mother didn't dare to admit it. If she admitted that she knew who the person on the ground was, everyone would think that she had arranged this incident today.
Although it was indeed her plan, she certainly could not admit it and could only hastily deny it, "What nonsense! This man's face was beaten like this by Yiming, how could I possibly know."
Tian An said "Oh", "I thought the Queen Mother saw it clearly just now!"
These words made the Queen Mother feel depressed again.
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