Chapter 178
When the Third Prince talked to Xue Jin'an about the Second Prince's reckless behavior recently, he couldn't help but sigh, "The Second Prince is too brainless. He's so arrogant now, even daring to challenge his elder sister. Anyone who didn't know better would think he had already ascended the throne."
As soon as he finished speaking, everyone's eyes fell on him, their gazes filled with the same curiosity as if they had seen a tiger meowing.
The third prince was somewhat embarrassed and angry by their stares. "What kind of looks are those? What? Do I look like someone who would do something so foolish?"
"What else?" Everyone's thoughts were unusually aligned, but seeing the Third Prince's fist, as big as a clay pot, they wisely kept quiet. They weren't joking, were they? Although the Third Prince now appeared quite docile and good-natured in front of their master/highness, and rarely lost his temper, they had all witnessed his past tyranny, and dared not provoke him.
Moreover, if we're really talking about arrogance, the Third Prince once beat up the First Prince and escaped unscathed, so he's about the same as the Second Prince now.
However, the difference lies in the fact that the Third Prince is only strong in martial arts and has a bad temper. In reality, he is very easy to fool. In the eyes of others, he is just a vicious dog that barks loudly. Everyone thinks they can tame him and imagines the future when they can command him to do whatever he wants. On the other hand, the Second Prince is greedy and ruthless. He is both stupid and vicious. When he gets arrogant, he always gives people the feeling of a petty person who has achieved his goal. He is particularly good at offending people to death, making people want to get rid of him as soon as possible.
In comparison, the Third Prince's survival rate was actually higher. Since the Third Prince entered the Imperial Guard camp and began training daily, his violent aura visibly diminished. He devoted his excess energy to training, so he naturally stopped causing trouble so easily. In addition, Consort Xian gave a large sum of compensation to all the palace maids and eunuchs who had served the Third Prince and their families, and told them they were free to leave or stay. Those who wished to stay and serve the Third Prince's residence would receive extra rewards in addition to their monthly salary.
The reason Consort Xian kept these people was because she was terrified of the struggle for the throne. She had heard that there was more to the story behind the fire at the First Prince's residence. The oil in the house burned from the inside out, and there were multiple fire prevention measures in place outside the courtyard. It was obvious that this was a complete scheme set up by the First Prince. No one knew what kind of grudge or hatred she had, but she was willing to risk her life to take the Fourth Prince with her to their deaths.
She also heard that the Fourth Prince would fall into the First Prince's trap because he was betrayed by his trusted confidant, a man named Shunyi or Ruyi, who was supposedly a servant handpicked by Chu Wenwan from the Chu family. Even so, he still betrayed his master.
Moreover, given the previous incident involving Xiao Jian, Consort Xian was genuinely worried that the Third Prince would suffer another betrayal from his subordinates. Rather than using strangers, she preferred to use familiar people. These people were the ones who survived the purges following the cases of the startled horse and Xiao Jian. Putting aside everything else, their backgrounds were absolutely clean, so she could use them with peace of mind.
The saying goes, "A generous reward will surely bring forth brave men." Not to mention that in ancient times, slaves and maids had signed indentures and were the private property of their masters. Under normal circumstances, if they were beaten to death, there would be no way to seek justice. Consort Xian adopted such a humble attitude and offered enough money. Moreover, the Third Prince's residence was outside the palace, and many people longed to leave the palace. After this series of actions, 80% of the people who stayed were retained.
As a result, the Third Prince's reputation improved considerably for a time.
—Actually, the idea of a high salary came from the Eighth Prince. Everyone can see that neither Consort Xian nor the Third Prince have the brains to think about such a thing.
The Eighth Prince became addicted to ingratiating himself with Consort Xian, desperately displaying his kindness and benevolence. These qualities were almost etched onto his face like a mask. He was also very generous in showing off to the palace maids and eunuchs around Consort Xian and the Third Prince, making sure that his disguise was flawless. For this reason, he became generous and lavish. His reputation among the workers was in stark contrast to Xue Jin'an, the "Rakshasa King," and he was privately known as the Virtuous Prince.
Of course, the Eighth Prince, who had no family support and had not yet officially taken up a post in the court, and whose monthly fixed assets consisted only of the prince's allowance issued by the palace, had no capital to win people's hearts. However, he was very good at being generous with other people's money.
He used to be generous with the Third Prince's generosity, but now he's being generous with Consort Xian's generosity.
He could tell that Consort Xian was very worried about the safety of the Third Prince, so he persuaded her to go to Wanfu Temple to offer incense and pray for blessings, citing the Third Prince's bad luck in recent years. On the way back, he arranged for a "wandering old Taoist priest" to appear out of nowhere to tell the Third Prince's fate, saying that he was originally a celestial star named Wuqu who had descended to earth to undergo tribulations, but was harmed by villains who altered his destiny, which was why he had experienced so many hardships in recent years, damaging his body and endangering his life. He not only swindled a lot of money from Consort Xian for incense offerings, but also successfully persuaded her to give a raise to the people serving the Third Prince.
Consort Xian was completely unaware that what she thought was doing good deeds for her son actually brought her all the credit to the Eighth Prince. The Eighth Prince also used this incident to formally gain acceptance from the military officers in the Southwest Army Circle and began to develop his own career.
These were all matters kept secret, unknown to the Third Prince, so he didn't elaborate.
Seeing that the Third Prince was angry, Lingzhi quickly smiled and changed the subject, "Your Highness, you mustn't speak carelessly, lest the walls have ears."
"It would be better if outsiders heard this. How can the waiter not be talked about for doing such a thing?" The Third Prince's attention was indeed diverted, and he continued to talk about the matter.
The Third Prince was referring to the investiture banquet hosted by the Eldest Princess for her daughter, Chaoyang County. Yes, although everyone privately calls Xiao Tai Le a princess, she actually only applied for the title of princess this year on her birthday. The matter of determining the fief and other matters took another three months, and it was not until a month ago that the title was finally granted.
Unfortunately, that was the day the eldest prince and the fourth prince perished in the fire, so it has been delayed until now.
The host of the banquet was little Tai Le, but Tai Le was still young and seemed rather withdrawn, so the banquet was handled by the eldest princess. However, at the banquet hosted by the eldest princess, the second prince sang and danced and stole the show.
He not only treated the guests like a host at the banquet, but also deliberately kept them all to himself, neglecting the eldest princess. Even the usually oblivious third prince noticed something was amiss, which was enough to show how obvious the second prince's actions were. Some officials didn't even greet the eldest princess by the end of the banquet.
"This meal is really hard to digest. I should have made an excuse like you and not gone," the Third Prince complained to Xue Jin'an.
Xue Jin'an didn't intentionally avoid going. He currently commands two major army groups. Fortunately, the Northwest Army is under Helian Cheng's supervision, so there shouldn't be any major trouble. However, the Imperial Guard is currently implementing new training methods and cannot be separated from his supervision for the time being. He still needs to make adjustments.
Few Imperial Guards obeyed his orders. The number increased from the initial two hundred to over a thousand. In Xue Jin'an's plan, they would soon be needed, and he intended to train them into the elite of the elite.
They had adapted well to the training grounds in Geely and there was no room for improvement. Xue Jin'an searched his memory for all the remaining data on novels about high-ranking military officers. It's no wonder Xue Jin'an used the word "remaining"—novels of this genre had been officially banned and taken down. Fortunately, the time when the otaku transmigrated was during the year when novels were booming, and there were no taboos on the internet. Although they were later taken away by the Twenty-Four-Character Mantra, there were still some uninstalled remnants in his database. By searching and integrating them, he was able to put together a complete set of advanced training plans.
Xue Jin'an originally intended to train people to be special forces soldiers, but his training also included a series of personal interests such as "assassins," "gangsters," "mercenaries," "arms dealers," and "politicians." The soldiers he trained were indeed very skilled, but their skill was somewhat sinister. They could make a name for themselves in any industry they were released into, but they just didn't seem like upright people.
Fortunately, Xue Jin'an only needed people who were useful, and he didn't care whether something was unorthodox or righteous. Seeing that the upgraded training manual was very effective, he continued to use it.
These itineraries were arranged long ago. When the Princess sent someone to deliver the invitations, Xue Jin'an clearly stated that there was a time conflict and that the possibility of him going was very small. The Princess did not care about this matter.
After commenting on the banquet, the Third Prince spoke of the Eldest Princess, saying, "Eldest Sister is truly good-tempered. Even when treated like that by the waiter, she remained gentle and kind, and even personally saw the waiter and those people who humiliated her out. With such a temperament, no wonder she was bullied like that by the waiter!"
Of all those present, only the Third Prince truly believed in the gentle and delicate demeanor displayed by the Eldest Princess.
Xue Jin'an calmly stated the truth: "If the Eldest Princess had reprimanded the Second Prince on the spot, nothing would have happened."
The fact that the eldest princess kept quiet meant she truly remembered it; those who jumped on the bandwagon wouldn't have a good ending.
Sure enough, within two days, the Censorate impeached seven people in succession. The Left Censor-in-Chief, who had become the head of the Censorate, personally came out to submit a memorial. All seven people were dismissed and put on hold. Three of them were imprisoned and their crimes were determined, but their sentences had not yet been determined. However, the worst sentence would be one year of penal servitude. The other person had his house and land confiscated and was expelled from the capital and never allowed to enter the capital again.
After the incident, Consort Min learned the whole story and summoned the Second Prince to the palace again for a reprimand.
"Why are you picking on your elder sister? She's your sister. Does her suffering make you feel better?" Consort Min couldn't understand why the Second Prince was targeting the Eldest Princess. She felt a headache coming on and earnestly advised, "Isn't your elder sister winning people over for your sake...?"
Before she could finish speaking, the Second Prince interrupted her with a cold laugh, "For me? Ha, does she even care about me, her brother? She's clearly doing this for herself!"
Consort Min frowned. Although she also felt that the Eldest Princess's approach of holding power in her own hands and cultivating her own power was somewhat irrational—it would have been better during the late emperor's reign, when the court was controlled by the Empress Dowager. Women in power made the social atmosphere much more open, and many talented women emerged in the countryside like a rising tide. However, the late emperor was dead, and the current emperor had been on the throne for more than 20 years. The Empress Dowager's return to the court to fight for power would only make the emperor more wary of women in power.
The Empress Dowager is getting old; she won't live for many more years. Once she's buried, the political climate of the Great Qi will change. How much of what Mu Yun is holding onto now will he be able to retain then?
Therefore, Consort Min felt that they should invest everything in the more cost-effective Second Prince. Only if the Second Prince ascended the throne would they have a good life.
Although Consort Min had reservations about this wasteful display of pride, it didn't mean she would completely reject the Eldest Princess's actions, nor would she allow the Second Prince to treat the Eldest Princess with such disrespect—after all, Consort Min herself had done the same thing, and her mockery of the Eldest Princess was nothing less than a reflection of her own actions more than a decade ago.
Consort Min gave the Second Prince a stern lecture, then tried to reason with him, and finally reiterated the old adage that "two Jiang characters cannot be written in the same stroke," saying that once the Eldest Princess encountered a setback, things would naturally return to normal.
Consort Min had talked herself hoarse, thinking that the Second Prince would at least listen to some of her words, but she didn't expect that the Second Prince would be even more dissatisfied than he seemed, and instead caused her an even bigger mess.
This mess completely pushed the eldest princess to the opposite side.
Even after everything was over, Consort Min still couldn't understand why things had turned out that way. It was Xue Jin'an who gave her the answer, which was nothing more than an old saying: "It is not scarcity that is to be feared, but inequality."
If you don't treat everyone equally, the bowl of water will naturally spill and nothing will be left. Consort Min was clearly a participant, yet she unknowingly became an executor under the corrosive influence of time.
The dragon slayer becomes the dragon himself.
The story begins with the Second Prince's Consort in the original novel.
As mentioned before, this girl is the cousin of Jiang Wen, the Grand Secretary of the Cabinet. Because of their significant age difference, she was practically raised as a daughter. When the princes were choosing their consorts, Jiang Wen directly requested an imperial decree to arrange a marriage between his cousin and Tan Lingyue, the newly appointed third-ranked scholar, thus rejecting the second prince's marriage proposal.
Because the two were still young, the marriage was set after Tan Lingyue's coming-of-age ceremony. The two got along well, and Jiang Wen, Princess Kangtai, and her husband were very satisfied with the marriage. Originally, the cousin's family was also quite satisfied with the marriage because Jiang Wen had acted as matchmaker, praising Tan Lingyue as a handsome and talented man. The parents of both sides also arranged a time to meet in the capital and exchanged wedding invitations.
Unexpectedly, her family heard from somewhere that the Second Prince had once proposed to her, and they immediately regretted it, scolding her cousin for being short-sighted and ruining a good marriage for the royal family. If it weren't for Jiang Wen intervening, the marriage would probably have been ruined long ago.
"You only see that this is a royal marriage, but how come you can't see what kind of person the Second Prince is? There are too many women in the Second Prince's harem to count on two hands, and he often has women from brothels staying overnight. How come you don't see the filth in the underworld? In my opinion, the most short-sighted people are you two dogs!" Princess Kangtai, who usually ate vegetarian food and chanted Buddhist prayers, was so angry that she pointed at the two of them and cursed them.
The couple even acted aggrieved, with the stepmother pleading pitifully, "How could Your Highness speak so harshly? Even if you look down on someone from a humble family like me, we're still relatives..."
"I haven't even said anything worse yet!" Princess Kangtai said with a sneer, her eyes narrowed. "Don't think that just because I'm not in Jiaozhou, I don't know how you two got together. You filthy sluts who have no matchmaker dare to claim kinship with me?"
The stepmother's expression changed instantly, and her voice became shrill: "Even if she is a princess, she has no right to slander someone's innocence for no reason!"
"Whether it's slander or not, a simple investigation will tell. A baby born seven months premature yet weighing eight pounds is truly a rare occurrence." After Princess Kangtai uttered these words, the two men below dared not make any further noise.
In the end, Princess Kangtai sent the person back to Jiaozhou and took it upon herself to recognize her cousin as her goddaughter, leaving her to live in the capital until she got married. If it weren't for the emphasis on filial piety at the time, Princess Kangtai would probably have severed this superfluous parental relationship.
Princess Kangtai held this grand banquet for her cousin, hoping to elevate her status and ensure that the noble sons of the capital would not dare to look down on her. Jiang Wen personally led his cousin to greet guests at the gate, making a very grand gesture. Later, Jiang Wen also brought Tan Lingyue along, leading the engaged couple through the banquet and introducing them to officials and nobles in the capital—all elders of the Second Prince's cronies.
The second prince was so jealous that his eyes turned red when he looked at Tan Lingyue. He never reflected on his own mistakes, only feeling that Tan Lingyue was a hindrance who had interrupted his marriage and ruined his good fortune. Long before he frequently visited Princess Kangtai's residence to curry favor, he had already regarded all of Jiang Wen's connections and resources as his own.
The second prince was already in a bad mood, and with the constant urging from those around him, he drank quite a bit of wine, to the point that his head was spinning.
"Your Highness, you're drunk. I saw Consort Du over there. Let me help you over so you can return with the Princess's carriage." Pei Ye, the heir of the Marquis of Dinghai, said this, but his outstretched hand to help the Second Prince was only half-hearted.
Pei Ye was the second prince's study companion and knew very well about the second prince's drinking capacity and behavior when drunk. He deliberately got the second prince drunk and asked that question on purpose.
The second prince's already not-so-bright mind became even more muddled under the influence of alcohol, and he would only react when he heard certain words, such as "the eldest princess".
"No way! Get her out of here!" The Second Prince shoved Pei Ye's hand away, the force barely registering, yet he staggered and nearly fell. He panted as he said, "Everything of that was originally mine. It was her silver tongue, it was her..."
As expected, the second prince blamed everything on the eldest princess and regarded everything she owned as his own, believing that she was trying to take things from him.
"...My mother has already promised me that all of those things will be mine from now on!" the Second Prince said.
Pei Ye teased, "Your Highness, please stop bragging. If you keep going, even the Eldest Princess will have to listen to you. You'd better go and sober up!"
Without the slightest hesitation, the second prince immediately bit the fishing hook and very conscientiously threw himself into the fisherman's basket. He patted his chest and shamelessly declared, "Who else should a woman listen to but me? Of course, she'll listen to me!"
Pei Ye still hadn't made the connection by this point, so he poured two more cups of wine for the Second Prince and continued to question him. The Second Prince slammed his fist on the table and said that he could make the decisions for the Eldest Princess.
"Your Highness, is that really the case? Then I—never mind, let's not joke around. If you regret it when you sober up, I'll have nowhere to complain." Pei Ye pulled this stunt again, finally putting the Second Prince on the fire, like lighting the kindling.
And this Chai is none other than Princess Chaoyang, who has just been granted the title of Princess.
Pei Ye first had a passing servant call Du, the Imperial Son-in-Law, who was not far away, and tell him that the Second Prince was drunk. Even if the Eldest Princess and the Second Prince had a falling out, they were still siblings, and as the brother-in-law, the Imperial Son-in-Law should at least come and see him. Yes, Pei Ye was not lying; he really saw the Imperial Son-in-Law, or perhaps the Imperial Son-in-Law was originally part of this plan.
When the prince consort moved close enough to hear the conversation, Pei Ye deliberately picked up the subject, saying that he had a distant cousin who was very handsome and seemed to be a good match for Princess Chaoyang, and that he wanted to act as matchmaker.
The Second Prince's reaction was exactly as Pei Ye had predicted; he patted his chest and verbally approved the marriage.
"This... Your Highness, I just wanted you to pass on a message to the Eldest Princess about this matter. If the Eldest Princess doesn't agree to your decision..." Pei Ye deliberately provoked the Second Prince, who was not thinking clearly. Sure enough, the Second Prince said a lot of unpleasant things, including some disrespectful remarks to the Eldest Princess. He also insisted on standing up for Princess Chaoyang.
The Second Prince's words were too audacious. The others at the table, who hadn't drunk as much as him, were startled awake and quickly tried to dissuade the still insolent Second Prince. Pei Ye also shut his mouth at the right time. When he looked up again, the Prince Consort was nowhere to be seen.
If the Crown Prince's dying plan works even halfway, that would be a bonus. Pei Ye curled the corners of his lips and thought to himself.
However, in reality, the plan worked much better than he had thought.
The eldest princess and her daughter enjoyed themselves in the women's section, drinking some wine and becoming slightly tipsy. After getting into the carriage, they didn't see the prince consort for a long time. Upon asking, they learned that the prince consort had returned to the mansion half an hour earlier.
"What happened during the banquet?" The princess immediately realized something was wrong, and her drunkenness had mostly dissipated.
The trusted palace maid immediately replied, "This servant does not know either, but I heard that the Second Prince was drunk and said a few incoherent things."
The Second Prince was not in his right mind, but the others around him were. Not everyone was a traitor like Pei Ye, so they quickly blocked the news and prevented the Second Prince's words from being spread.
The eldest princess assumed that the second prince had said something unpleasant to her husband and had angered him, so she didn't take it seriously.
However, after entering the mansion and coaxing Tai Le to sleep, she returned to her room to find that all the servants had been dismissed, leaving only the prince consort in the room. The prince consort was drinking tea, and when he heard the sound, he looked up and his eyes were filled with unconcealed anger.
The princess paused for a moment, then stepped forward and immediately touched the teapot with her fingers. It was indeed cold, and when she lifted it, it was almost empty.
"What happened? Why are you so angry?" the princess asked gently.
The prince consort wanted to speak calmly, saying that he had thought a lot and prepared himself mentally while waiting for the princess to return. However, when it came to the moment of speaking, everything was as fragile as sand, and it would crumble in a gust of wind without even being pushed.
He recounted the Second Prince's words from earlier that day, mainly focusing on the part concerning Tai Le. After finishing, he couldn't help but say, "You've already wronged her once, causing irreparable consequences. What do you want to use her for this time? Are you trying to win over Bohai's influence as well?"
"How long do you intend to keep using her?! What do you want from her to let her go?!" The prince consort lowered his voice, his anger causing him to unconsciously clench his back teeth, his cheeks bulging and echoing the veins on his neck.
The princess abruptly looked up and met his gaze: "Is this how you think of me?"
"Otherwise, what am I supposed to think?" Du Zhongting retorted.
The eldest princess frowned and said, "Chaoyang's disappearance was an accident, and afterwards I did take advantage of the situation to win over Chu Wenjing..."
"Is there any point in deceiving yourself? Have you ended up believing your own lies?" The prince consort interrupted her, taking a deep breath to cool down, but it was clearly ineffective. He said, "I know you were just going with the flow back then, but Mu Niang, are you really so smart that you never thought about this? Never thought that Chaoyang was our only child, and we always kept a close eye on her. How did she manage to break free of the leash and be kidnapped despite being under such heavy guard? And that kidnapper wasn't greedy at all; such a fine jade pendant was just thrown away like that... Was this really an accident?"
The eldest princess lowered her eyes and remained silent.
Du Zhongting closed his eyes and smiled bitterly, "Mother Mu, now that things have come to this, I'll tell you what's on my mind. In this matter, both Chaoyang and I blame you."
"Your ambition, your underhanded actions, whether it's changing your name or fighting for power, I've never thought anything of it. This is who you are. I knew from the moment I met you that you are different. I fully support everything you do, even if you are just using me to seize power in the Du family. This is your nature and your methods. Moreover, I believe that the Du family can flourish in your hands. I believe in your abilities."
"But, Mu Niang, Chaoyang can't! Chaoyang can't become a victim of these dirty tricks!" Du Zhongting looked at the princess's retreating figure with tearful eyes and asked, "Mu Niang, do you still remember what you once taught Chaoyang?"
The princess swallowed, trying to make her voice sound less dry. "I've taught you too many things. Which one are you referring to?"
"Power is a knife that should be held in one's hand. It is better to be the one wielding the knife than the one caught in it," Du Zhongting said. "Xue Mu will not become the next Jiang Lan."
Jiang Lan was the given name of Consort Min.
The eldest princess remained silent for a long time before finally speaking, "Take Tai Le and stay at the other residence for a while."
I will give you an explanation for this matter.
Xue Jin'an knew the ins and outs of this matter so clearly because of Xi Yun.
That day was the day Xi Yun came to report to the Princess, but when the Prince Consort returned, he was in a bad mood and did not recognize that she was not a maid in the mansion, so he directly dismissed her along with the others.
Xi Yun heard that the prince consort and the princess had a deep affection for each other. However, although the two went to Princess Kangtai's banquet together, one of them returned alone first, which was obviously very strange. Xi Yun wanted to find out the truth, so she stayed.
As a result, he heard these shocking things and immediately reported them to Xue Jin'an upon returning to the palace.
"The Princess will come to see you tomorrow," Xue Jin'an predicted.
"Looking for me?" Xi Yun was completely taken aback.
Xue Jin'an nodded. "She contacted you to confirm something."
It was determined whether the Second Prince's outrageous words were truly his own thoughts or influenced by Consort Min.
As expected, the next day Xi Yun received a secret order from the Eldest Princess. Under the guise of delivering flowers, she stayed in Yongchun Palace for a long time, subtly inquiring about Consort Min's mood. From the palace environment and the working conditions of the palace maids, she finally determined that Consort Min had no intention of harming Tai Le.
Then, the princess gave Xiyun her second task: to go to the flower room and get a pot of twin lotus flowers. If there were no twin lotus flowers, a pot of bowl lotus with two leaves would also be fine.
She herself broke into the Second Prince's residence, tied him up, and took him all the way to Yongchun Palace. Then she ordered people to suspend him by his feet, like a dead fish, with the lotus pond below where the lotus flowers had already withered.
With a gentle wave of her hand, the person holding the rope loosened their grip, allowing the Second Prince to enter the pool and refresh himself.
"Mother, save Gulu Gulu—" The Second Prince's cries were drowned out by the water.
Consort Min cried out in surprise, jerking up from her chair with a sharp voice, "What are you doing?"
"Let him wake up and know what he should and shouldn't say, what he should and shouldn't worry about." The princess's trusted maidservant, with great shrewdness, stepped forward and whispered the whole story to the head maidservant of Yongchun Palace.
The eldest princess timed it perfectly, and with a gentle lift of her hand, the second prince, soaking wet, was pulled back from the water. He hung there shivering in the cold wind, his mind now completely clear. Knowing what he had done, he dared not speak, and could only be heard the sound of his teeth chattering.
After hearing this, even the head palace maid couldn't help but glance in the direction of the Second Prince.
Consort Min's heart skipped a beat; she knew today's events would be far from trivial. Even though she had prepared herself mentally, she hadn't expected the Second Prince to be so audacious as to use the rising sun as a raft.
Chaoyang is the only daughter of the Eldest Princess, and she is usually pampered like a precious jewel. After that incident, she has been even more protective of her. To harm a child is to touch a mother's sore spot! Didn't you see that even though she dislikes Chaoyang, she never deliberately suppresses or belittles her? How foolish! Utterly foolish! Consort Min cursed inwardly.
As the Imperial Noble Consort pondered how to mediate, the Eldest Princess's cold, indifferent voice rang out, "Has Mother figured out how to clean up his mess?"
Imperial Noble Consort Min: "He...he just made a mistake without thinking..."
"Has he made few unintentional mistakes? Has Mother forgotten what I said before?" The princess's eyes were icy cold as she said, word by word, "I said, don't touch my family."
Consort Min was displeased upon hearing this, "Aren't Wuxia and I also your family? Why speak so formally when we're family..."
The eldest princess interrupted, "No."
"Why does Mother feign ignorance? Do I need to explain what he did back then? Have you forgotten where the book of codes I gave Chu Wenjing to crack and destroy the human trafficking den came from?!" the Princess said bitterly. "Once wasn't enough, now he wants to sell out Chaoyang too, ha!"
The eldest princess slammed down her teacup, and her men immediately received orders to put the second prince back into the water. They quickly pulled him up, but before he could catch his breath, he sank back down, repeating this several times like a hot pot.
Soon, the Second Prince's cries for help ceased.
"Enough! Xue Muyun!" Consort Min was terrified and couldn't help but scold in a low voice, "Don't push your luck!"
The eldest princess raised her hand, and the second prince, who was soaked to the bone, was hoisted up again. He coughed up water from his nose and mouth, looking utterly pathetic and miserable.
"Who is really pushing their luck?" The Eldest Princess looked intently at Consort Min and asked, "How long are you going to continue showing favoritism?"
Consort Min's eyes flickered, somewhat hesitant to look at the Eldest Princess. She softened her voice, attempting to appeal to familial affection: "Mu Yun..."
The eldest princess didn't want to listen, so she stood up and said, "Mother, this is the last time. I've really had enough."
Before leaving, the princess asked Xiyun to place the twin lotus flowers on the table, saying, "I will not be attending Mother's birthday celebration this year. Consider this lotus flower my birthday gift to Mother."
That pot of twin lotus flowers was very beautiful. The two buds even had a slight color difference, one was more reddish and the other was more white. They were not yet fully open, and they looked shy and timid, like something out of a painting.
However, as the princess gazed upon the beautiful lotus, a cruel legend came to mind.
The legend of twin flowers—one blooms in full glory while the other withers.
"Mother, you told me the legend of the twin flowers. I said I would never be the one that withers away." As the princess spoke, she reached out and plucked the best and most beautiful flower.
As the lotus flower drifted down, the Second Prince was thrown into the water again. This time, however, no one pulled him up. Exhausted, the Second Prince sank to the bottom without any struggle.
Consort Min was immediately drawn to the scene and shouted "Save people!" The slight emotion that had risen in her heart was completely overwhelmed by the surging panic, leaving no trace.
Amidst the chaos behind her, the eldest princess calmly walked out of Yongchun Palace.
Is that all? Are we just going to put up with this? Xi Yun couldn't help but steal glances at the princess's back, inwardly grumbling.
"Forget it, maybe it's just a matter of time." Xi Yun pouted, feeling somewhat annoyed. She thought to herself that if it were their Seventh Prince, this day next year would be the Second Prince's death anniversary, and even the biased Consort Min would be half-dead.
Just as I was thinking this, I heard the eldest princess say, "I have a secret that can bring down the second prince completely, and I want to sell it to the seventh prince. What price do you think he can ask for?"
"Huh? You?" Xi Yun was completely taken aback by her words and didn't react at all.
The eldest princess twitched the corner of her mouth and chuckled softly, "Didn't I say this was the last time?"
She wouldn't be the one among the twin flowers, and the Second Prince wouldn't have any chance to turn back. She had to end it all before her mother could react.
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