Chapter 269 Kang Zhu's Subtle Inquiry!
With such a huge accusation leveled against her, Zhou Yunyue immediately looked away in fear.
After a few glances, she came to a change of heart and kept reassuring herself.
She is a princess of the Great Zhou Dynasty. What right does Shen Lanxi have to speak to her like that? And what right does she have to talk to her in such a tone? Shen Lanxi simply doesn't respect her as a princess at all.
To disregard her is to disregard the royal family and one's father.
Shen Lanxi is the guilty one; she deserves to die.
"Shen Lanxi, you're talking nonsense! I didn't do it! Don't pin baseless accusations on me. Even if the Great Zhou were to fight with foreign tribes, it would be the barbarians who provoked us first. What does it have to do with me? Don't blame your incompetence on me. You are the Northwest Garrison Commander. If you can't defend the Northwest, that's your responsibility, not mine!"
After Zhou Yunyue finished speaking loudly, she felt all the pent-up anger in her chest and abdomen disappear.
She did nothing wrong; Shen Lanxi was the one who was wrong.
Kangzhu couldn't hold back any longer.
"Who do you think you are, a mere Zhou clansman who doesn't even deserve a name? How dare you speak to the general like that? You're the one who's insubordinate! If this were in the army, your head would have been chopped off long ago!"
Zhou Yunyue then took a proper look at Kang Zhu. She was a dark-skinned, uncouth, and uncouth woman. Her appearance was so low-class that even the palace maids around her couldn't compare. What did Shen Yuanjing, that blind man, see in her?
Her eyes inadvertently swept over Zhou Yunyue's stomach, which she was holding, and Zhou Yunyue's face instantly turned ugly.
That bastard, she actually had a bastard child. This bastard must not be allowed to live.
"Slap him for insulting the royal princess!" Zhou Yunyue's face was fierce, her eyes looking like she wanted to devour Kangzhu.
Kang Zhu had never been so humiliated and immediately raised her hand to hit Zhou Yunyue.
Seeing that no one obeyed her orders, Zhou Yunyue was so angry that she struggled to get up from her chair.
Shen Lanxi stopped Kang Zhu and said to the two maids beside her, "Take your mistress back and let her rest properly."
After she finished speaking, she turned to look at Zhou Yunyue.
"Someone, carry her back inside. Have this small door sealed off, and open another side door on the other side to get her out!"
"yes!"
The two guards immediately carried Zhou Yunyue away.
"Let me go! I'm a princess! If you dare touch me, I'll cut your heads off!" Zhou Yunyue's shouts faded into the distance.
Shen Lanxi turned and went to the courtyard where Kang Zhu was.
"You can rest assured and take care of your pregnancy. If you don't want to stay here, you can move to my residence temporarily."
Kang Zhu's expression was already unpleasant, and upon hearing Shen Lanxi's words, she became even more reserved.
"Big sister, isn't this inappropriate?"
Shen Lanxi: "You're carrying the first child of the Shen family's eldest branch, so it's normal to be cautious. Whether you want to go or not is up to you."
Kang Zhu lowered her eyes and thought for a while before saying, "I want to discuss this with Yuan Jing."
Shen Lanxi nodded and reassured her, "We're keeping Zhou Yunyue around just to silence the royal family and the Second Prince. If she does anything too outrageous, we don't need to show her any mercy."
Kang Zhu mumbled an "okay," and after Shen Lanxi left, the two maids beside her immediately began whispering to her.
"Princess, why do you think General Shen values the child in your womb so much?"
"Could it be that General Shen wants to groom the child in your womb as his successor?"
Kang Zhu was also puzzled. When Shen Yuanjing returned that evening, she immediately told him what had happened that day and also subtly mentioned the matter of a successor.
Shen Yuanjing first scolded, "I am the eldest male in the main branch of the family. We don't have any elders around us now. The eldest sister is like a mother to us, so it's normal for her to care more about us. Don't overthink it!"
Kangzhu thought for a moment and said, "My eldest sister will have her own children in the future. If she wants to raise an heir, she should raise her own children. I was overthinking it!"
Shen Yuanjing hesitated and said, "You can't say that." He then told him about Shen Lanxi's previous marriage and subsequent divorce.
“If Zhou Ruyuan were of ordinary status, it would be very easy for my elder sister to remarry. But he is a prince, the Prince of Zhennan, and highly regarded by His Majesty. Even if my elder sister wanted to marry him, no one would dare to do so easily!”
Kang Zhu's eyes lit up, but then she suddenly thought of someone, and her gaze dimmed again.
"I think the relationship between my elder sister and General Wei is quite special!"
Shen Yuanjing's eyes darkened, and he said, "One of them is the garrison commander of the Northwest, and the other was once a young general of the Wei family army, and is now the General Who Destroys the Enemy. If the two of them are together, it will be a powerful alliance, and neither the court nor His Majesty wants them to be together!"
Kangzhu frowned: "If this were in our Oirat region, two people could be together as long as they liked each other. There wouldn't be so many problems."
Shen Yuanjing liked Kang Zhu's purity. He smiled and pulled Kang Zhu into his arms.
"Alright, don't think about it too much. Since Big Sister said so, let's move in with her. I have a lot of questions about military strategy that I don't understand, so I want to ask Big Sister."
Seeing that Shen Yuanjing showed no lingering affection for Zhou Yunyue, Kang Zhu smiled and nodded.
~
Since getting married, Shen Yuanjing has moved out of the mansion where Shen Lanxi lived. Now that he has moved back, he is living in the place where he used to live.
With the help of Shen Yuanxu and others, they moved their belongings in just one morning.
"Great! Now that you've moved back, we can talk again at night!" Shen Yuanhao wasn't married yet, and he and his brothers used to play together all the time. Shen Yuanjing's sudden marriage and separation made him a little unaccustomed to it.
Shen Yuanxu chuckled and joked, "If Yuanhao finds it hard to talk to anyone at night, he should find a wife. That way, he'll have someone to talk to, and they can talk all night long!"
Shen Yuanhao blushed immediately: "Big brother, I'm still young. If it's time to get married, you should get married first. I don't want to spend the whole night talking to a woman."
Upon hearing this, the Shen brothers immediately burst into laughter.
~
Wei Dongzhu sent word that Zhou Ruan would be returning soon, and they should prepare accordingly.
Two days later, the grain supplies for Hailing City arrived one after another. Three days later, Zhou Ruan, with a luxurious procession of carriages and horses, appeared outside Huangtu City at a leisurely pace.
"Second Prince, why didn't Shen Lanxi come to greet us? She really doesn't respect you at all." Sun Miaoling, the daughter of the Xiling garrison commander, leaned against Zhou Ruan's shoulder, her face full of displeasure.
"Second Prince, Sister Sun is right. You are now the commander-in-chief of the Northwest. It's one thing for her not to come to greet you on your return journey, but she only arranged for a few people to greet you. You are a great hero who went to borrow grain for the Zhenbei Army and made great contributions to the Zhenbei Army, but you are being ignored like this. It's too disheartening!" Chen Mianmian, the daughter of the garrison commander of Hailing, said in a coquettish voice.
Sun Miaoling sneered, "It's more than just disheartening; I think it's treacherous ambition!"
Zhou Ru'an had been deeply immersed in the pleasures of the women these past few days, and had long been completely at the mercy of the daughters of the two city garrison commanders. Upon hearing their words, he immediately flew into a rage and raised his voice to demand, "Why are you the only ones here? Where is Shen Lanxi?"
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