Yuan Yao glanced at Yun Chan for a moment and confirmed that the Chu envoy had indeed come to find Yun Chan...
Just by looking at the way those two walk, you can tell nothing good is going to happen!
Yuan Yao pursed her lips and said to the emperor, "Your Majesty, Yao'er will take her leave now."
The emperor waved his hand at her.
Yuan Yao lifted her skirt, passed through the banquet halls, and jogged toward the stone bridge.
Before Yun Chan could even step onto the bridge to the Moon-Viewing Platform, she saw two people walking towards her.
Upon seeing him, one of them smiled maliciously: "Your Highness, I pay my respects. I heard that Your Highness has been seriously injured?"
Yun Chan's face remained expressionless: "Thank you for your concern, Lord Zhao. I am much better now."
"Is that so?" The envoy surnamed Zhao walked over, and, taking advantage of having drunk some wine, looked Yun Chan up and down.
Yun Chan felt uncomfortable being scrutinized and frowned.
At this moment, another envoy came over and said, "Your Highness, I have something to say, but I don't know if I should say it."
Yun Chan frowned and said coldly, "Since you don't know, then don't say anything."
"No, Your Highness!" The envoy took a few steps closer to Yun Chan and lowered his voice: "Although Your Highness is in Qi, you are still a prince of Chu."
All the Chu servants who came to Qi with Your Highness are dead, leaving only Your Highness and Ah Qi. Your Highness has nothing to say. Would you like to talk to us?
"When we return to Chu, we will have something to report to His Majesty."
"What did you say?" Yun Chan looked at him.
The envoy smiled, straightened his back, and his voice involuntarily rose a little: "Your Highness, even if you dislike the State of Chu, it is still your motherland, and the Chu servants are also your subjects..."
If they die at the hands of their own people, they probably won't rest in peace even in the afterlife.
Upon hearing this, Yun Chan's face darkened: "Lord Zhang, are you implying that I killed my dozen or so attendants myself?"
The envoy smiled but remained silent.
Yun Chan's hands, hanging down beneath her wide robes, gradually tightened.
Just then, a soft, childlike voice called out from afar, "How dare you!"
Yun Chan looked up and saw Yuan Yao, dressed in gorgeous clothes, walking towards him while holding up the hem of her skirt.
She must have walked too fast; her face was slightly flushed, and she was a little out of breath.
The Chu envoy squinted as he sized up Yuan Yao.
That day, in the Haoran Hall, it was this little girl who subdued the tiger cub.
During their time in Daqi, they also heard that this little girl, with just a few simple words, had brought down a concubine who had long been favored by the Daqi emperor, and that concubine's entire maternal clan had been exiled as well...
This little girl is no ordinary person.
More importantly... she is the daughter of the Nine Thousand Years Old!
The two envoys exchanged a glance and then bowed respectfully, saying, "Greetings, Princess Yuan Yao."
Yuan Yao walked up to Yun Chan and looked up at him.
Yun Chan met her gaze: "Why are you here?"
Yuan Yao smiled and said to him, "I was worried you wouldn't be able to find a seat, so I came to pick you up!"
Upon hearing this, Yun Chan's lips curled up almost imperceptibly.
Yuan Yao and Yun Chan stood together and looked at the Chu envoy: "Just now, I saw the two of you giving Yun Chan a lecture."
Yunchan isn't feeling well and shouldn't stand in the wind for too long. He's my friend, so if the adults have anything to say, why don't you talk to me?
“Yuan Yao…” Yun Chan covered her mouth and shook her head at her.
Yuan Yao gave him a reassuring look.
She wasn't from the State of Chu, so she wasn't afraid of those two envoys!
Although Yuan Yao was young, she had a very imposing manner: "Just now, I heard the two lords say that Yun Chan killed more than a dozen of his attendants?"
Upon seeing this, the two envoys quickly said, "Princess, that's not what we meant..."
"Oh?" Yuan Yao raised her little face: "Didn't you two say that if Yun Chan's attendants knew that they died at the hands of their own people, they would probably not be at peace even in the afterlife?"
“This…” The envoy surnamed Zhang’s expression changed.
Yuan Yao smiled and said, "What? This 'one of our own' doesn't mean you're referring to Yun Chan, but to the people in your delegation?"
“You…” Envoy Zhao’s expression turned indignant: “The princess is so young, she must not speak recklessly!”
"I'm talking nonsense?" Yuan Yao pointed to her little nose and laughed, "Wasn't I just repeating what you said, sir?"
At this moment, the Zhang envoy who had spoken earlier, with a serious expression, cupped his hands and said, "Princess, we were just talking nonsense after drinking. Please don't take our words to heart!"
"What drunken nonsense!" Yuan Yao stretched out her little hand and clapped her hands vigorously, her voice both childish and loud: "So, in the State of Chu, the ministers and the ruler can be of equal status?"
A courtier can frame a prince at will simply by having a little wine!
So, in your eyes, wine is the most important thing, and the monarch is secondary. If a subject drinks wine, he will no longer respect the monarch?
"Your Chu servants were involved in the incident at the Qi imperial palace. Does that mean you can use the excuse of being drunk to question the Qi emperor and claim that he killed the person?"
"presumptuous!"
A high-pitched voice came from the Moon Viewing Platform.
It turned out that the music and dance on the Moon-Viewing Platform had stopped as soon as Yuan Yao started clapping.
Everyone at the banquet looked this way.
The one who spoke was Li Deshan, the eunuch beside the emperor.
The emperor's face was gloomy. His gaze lingered on Yuan Yao for a moment before settling on the two Chu envoys.
The Ninth Prince, meanwhile, leaned back on the cushions of his soft chair, holding a jade cup in his slender, fair hand, slowly sipping his wine.
The emperor said, "Bring the person here."
Li Deshan nodded and personally went to the shore on the other side of the stone bridge to invite people: "Princess, Prince Yun, and the two envoys, if you have anything to say, please go and say it before the Emperor."
Yuan Yao said softly, "Okay!"
Her expression was open and obedient.
The two envoys looked at each other, their foreheads bulging with veins.
The group, under the gaze of hundreds of people, went up to the Moon Viewing Platform.
Yuan Yao walked to the emperor's seat and obediently knelt down.
Upon seeing this, Yun Chan knelt down beside her, while Xie Ning knelt down to her side and behind.
The two envoys from Chu stood together, sleeves tucked in, looking at each other, unsure of what to do.
Foreign envoys are not required to kneel before the monarchs of other countries.
But... their princes all knelt...
The emperor lowered his eyelids and said in a hoarse voice, "Tell me everything you just said."
The Chu envoys exchanged a glance, then cupped their hands and said, "Your Majesty, I merely found Princess Yuanyao adorable and teased her a few times; nothing serious happened."
"Teasing Yuan Yao casually?"
How could a princess of a nation, the daughter of a nine-thousand-year-old, be so easily teased by two foreign envoys?
The emperor's gaze darkened, and he turned to the Ninth Prince.
The Ninth Prince held a jade cup in his hand, his voice languid: "I know my daughter is lovely, but can a mere foreign envoy so easily disrespect my daughter under the guise of wine?"
After he finished speaking, the delicate jade cup turned into dust in his hand and flowed through his fingers.
Upon seeing this, the other Chu envoys all rushed forward, kneeling on the ground and trembling: "Your Majesty, please forgive us! Spare our lives!"
The banquet was completely silent.
The Ninth Prince raised his well-defined hand, and his slender fingers twitched.
Immediately, the palace servants behind him quickly replaced his jade cup with a new one and poured him some wine.
The Ninth Prince picked up his jade cup, took a small sip, and said slowly with a slight smile, "The Chu envoy dares to belittle my precious daughter just because he's drunk."
"Therefore, I too have drunk wine. I intend to behead the lecherous man who insulted my daughter. Surely the Emperor of Chu would not object?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com