Mo Xuetong had heard about what happened after the Sixth Princess returned to the palace from Feng Yuran. Coupled with part of her conjectures, the matter seemed to have become clear.
The Sixth Princess left the palace without permission and even caused such a big scandal. All the people in Fragrance House at that time remarked that the Sixth Princess was vicious and arrogant, even more malicious than the young lady of Ding General Manor. As soon as the news was spread, coupled with the gossip about her ugly appearance, the Sixth Princess’s reputation was really ruined.
The things over the Sixth Princess happened at the banquet and those who attended it were all noble ladies and madams. These people were clear about it. As long as Emperor Zongwen gave a hint, these people would not say a word, which kept the number of people who had a bad impression of the Sixth Princess in a small range.
That was why the matter between the Sixth Princess and Ling Mingyan could be concealed.
However, it was different now. People eating in Fragrance House were of all stripes. At that time, it was said that the noble Sixth Princess had a conflict with the people from King Ning’s Manor, so more people came to watch it. Later, some people left for their own business. The news spread very fast. When the palace received the news and sent someone to come, the news had set the whole capital on fire.
Everyone knew that the Sixth Princess was vicious and ugly. She was a scum of the royal family. The situation had been out of control.
Emperor Zongwen was furious and directly sent people to catch the Sixth Princess and take her back to the palace. Then she was locked up in their own palace and Emperor Zongwen strictly ordered that no one was allowed to visit her. Imperial Noble Consort Wen knelt in the imperial study for an entire afternoon but was still unable to receive Emperor Zongwen’s forgiveness. This caused Imperial Noble Consort Wen, who had been quite popular recently, to suffer a blow.
The original praise for her in the palace began to change into another version!
How could a mother not know that her daughter was so vicious? Furthermore, the Sixth Princess had been raised by Imperial Noble Consort Wen personally. Everyone had said that she was like her mother and that she behaved exactly like Imperial Noble Consort Wen. If something had not repeatedly happened to her recently, no one would have thought that the Sixth Princess would be so vicious.
Then what about Imperial Noble Consort Wen? Wasn’t everything she had done up to now just a show?
She was just better at hiding her thoughts than the Sixth Princess…
Because of what happened to the Sixth Princess, the palace was full of doubts about Imperial Noble Consort Wen.
However, what annoyed Emperor Zongwen even more was King Ning. The Emperor, who had always been polite to King Ning, could not help but throw the paperweight in his hand in front of King Ning. The latter was so frightened that he knelt on the ground and shivered. The Empress Dowager was scared and did not have time to pretend to be ill. She hurried over from Cining Palace and pleaded with Emperor Zongwen in person.
The concubine of King Xuan’s Manor claimed to be the concubine of King Ning’s Manor and helped the people of King Ning’s Manor to confront the Sixth Princess. How much courage did it take? It also hinted the close relationship between the concubine and King Ning’s Manor.
It was easy to investigate Concubine Yun. After an investigation, the Emperor immediately learned that she was bestowed onto Feng Yuran by the Empress Dowager. She had known King Ning when she was still in the Empress Dowager’s palace. It was said that the beautiful-looking Concubine Yun had a good relationship with King Ning then. Furthermore, after she entered King Xuan’s Manor, her relationship with King Ning’s Manor had been existing.
Especially when Mo Xuetong was framed on her birthday and Feng Yuran accompanied her to the courtyard out of the city, Concubine Yun had been in close contact with the people of King Ning’s Manor. There were even people who claimed to have seen her to be with King Ning. The two definitely had a love affair. Emperor Zongwen was pale green with anger when he thought of sending such a slut to his son’s manor.
If it went on like this, when Concubine Yun and King Ning had children in the future, they would say that they were his son’s children. Then, they were going to usurper the throne! They had evil intentions, and their deeds were abominable. They not only cheated on his beloved son, but also schemed to take the throne. Emperor Zongwen was really mad.
He slammed the table and wanted to deprive King Ning of his title!
The Empress Dowager came to the imperial study and begged hard. She said that it had nothing to do with Feng Yuzhen. According to her words, Feng Yuzhen knew nothing about it at all, and it was the bitch who wanted King Ning and secretly colluded with servants of King Ning’s Manor. It was unreasonable for someone to have seen Feng Yuzhen with her. It was not true. Someone deliberately framed Feng Yuzhen.
No one knew better than the Empress Dowager if Concubine Yun and Feng Yuzhen had an affair or not. Perhaps, she had had the same idea as Emperor Zongwen guessed. However, it was not the right time yet. After all, it seemed that Feng Yuxuan was the most likely one to succeed the throne. The Empress Dowager really did not want the successor of a laid-back prince. Maybe when Feng Yuran was selected as the Crown Prince in the future, it would not be impossible to ask Concubine Yun to be pregnant with Feng Yuzhen’s child!
The Empress Dowager had done such a thing before. That was how Consort Yu got pregnant!
However, so far, Concubine Yun and Feng Yuzhen really didn’t have an affair!
That was why the Empress Dowager dared to say with certainty that it was not true that the two of them were together!
The Empress Dowager was shocked by the development of the matter. No one had expected that a quarrel over dinner would extend into the palace and cause such a big commotion. The Sixth Princess was locked up, and King Ning’s Manor had to give an explanation. After thinking it over, the Empress Dowager decided to push Concubine Yun out.
Compared to a secret pawn that was almost useless, Feng Yuzhen was obviously more important.
Concubine Yun was destined to be abandoned. The Empress Dowager was not worried that she would rebel and tell the truth about her. The reason why she sent Concubine Yun to Feng Yuran’s side was that Concubine Yun was a smart person. A smart person would be able to understand the situation. No matter whether the fact was that she had an affair with King Ning or she was sent over by the Empress Dowager to get information about Feng Yuran and mess up in his manor, it would be a dead end for her.
Moreover, the Empress Dowager knew more or less the secrets of those who had been sent to work for her. Concubine Yun had a younger sister. After Concubine Yun was sent to King Xuan’s Manor, the Empress Dowager found a way to get her younger sister into the palace. With such a person in her hands, the Empress Dowager believed that Concubine Yun would go along with what she said.
The Empress Dowager vouched for King Ning; Concubine Yun claimed that she had a crush on King Ning but they had nothing to do with each other. It was totally her foolish fantasy. Therefore, when she heard that the people of King Ning’s Manor got into trouble, she rushed forward. Originally, she wanted to take this opportunity to get King Ning’s attention. It happened all of a sudden, and she was improvising. It was completely her own business.
At this point, King Ning was considered innocent. Emperor Zongwen had no choice but to let him go. However, he did not intend to let go of Nanny Qing, who had a conflict with the Sixth Princess. Even though the matter seemed to have been caused by the Sixth Princess alone, if it had not been for the few people from King Ning’s Manor, there wouldn’t be such a scandal about her.
The two maidservants and Nanny Qing were beaten 20 times each.
Being beaten 20 times was actually not life-threatening. After all, no matter how one looked at it, it was the Sixth Princess who had attacked first. It was a light punishment. However, Nanny Qing had been scalded earlier and did not have time to receive effective treatment. She had fainted on the spot. After she was beaten 20 times, she died instantly.
The two little maidservants were okay. After being beaten, they were thrown directly into King Ning’s Manor.
Now the matter had come to an end. At least the Sixth Princess was imprisoned in the palace and could not come out to stir up trouble anymore. Mo Xuetong cared about the Sixth Princess who was taught by Imperial Noble Consort Wen in person. If it were not for the fact that Hu Qianyue and Ling Mingyan were against her, the Sixth Princess would not have lost her composure like this, and it would not have been easy to deal with her.
However, when she saw that the Sixth Princess was still sending her a letter and threatening her with Feng Yuran, Mo Xuetong knew that the princess was inquiry about something and suspecting herself as well. As long as she appeared in Fragrance House, all the Sixth Princess’s questions would be solved even if she didn’t ask anyone. From then on, the Sixth Princess would confront her and would not rest until one of them was dead.
With the insidious nature of the Sixth Princess, she would not have been able to tolerate Mo Xuetong when she hadn’t confronted her, not to mention now.
It was indeed reassuring for Mo Xuetong to expose the true colors of the Sixth Princess in one stroke and give some cracks to Imperial Noble Consort Wen’s false mask of benevolence. Even though Emperor Zongwen doted on Feng Yuran, if someone whom he trusted were to speak ill of Feng Yuran in his ears over and over again, something unexpected might happen.
In the face of such an accident, Mo Xuetong preferred to nip it in the bud.
Since Imperial Noble Consort Wen had killed another woman’s son and put her own son in the woman’s arms, then her purpose was unusual. As Emperor Zongwen’s favorite son, Feng Yuran would definitely hinder her. How could a woman like her, who was willing to sacrifice everything for her goal, not have the intention to kill Feng Yuran?
She did not show it at this time because she thought that Feng Yuran was not a threat to her. Now it was Feng Yuxuan who was closest to the throne.
As for King Ning’s Manor, they had been plotting against her. They had taken advantage of Auntie Qing and Concubine Yun, and they had even wanted to use his father’s manor. The Empress Dowager and King Ning had their hands in too many things and she should restrain them. It was said that Nanny Qing was a trusted subordinate of the Empress Dowager. The Empress Dowager must have felt distressed when she had died just like that!
Without Nanny Qing, when something had gone wrong with Auntie Qing, King Ning could not find anyone to solve with it for a while. Even if Auntie Qing spread the news that she was being locked up, so what? King Ning, Feng Yuzhen, was too busy to take care of himself. After being frightened by Emperor Zongwen, he would at least behave himself on the surface and would not dare to do anything suspicious.
The contact between King Ning’s Manor and the Mo Manor would be temporarily cut off, which was the best.
Therefore, ever since Feng Yuran told Mo Xuetong about the situation in the palace, Mo Xuetong had been in a good mood. Without the Sixth Princess, who was looking at her wickedly, Mo Xuetong felt much more relaxed. Since she had nothing to do, she took out the painting that Qin Yufeng had given her and admired it carefully. Then, she copied a painting in person.
Qin Yuxuan was so anxious that he jumped up and down in the past few days. It was said that Old Madam Qin strongly urged him, asking him for the painting every day. He felt anxious and helpless, so he ordered people to come over from time to time and asked if Mo Xuetong had finished painting.
After she finished drawing, she picked up the picture, held it to the light outside the window and did not find anything unusual. If it were not for the ink that had not dried up, she could not see that the painting was new. The three girls were all on the same picture, and with the spring scenery, one only felt that it was a good spring day. The smile on her mother’s face was so delicate that it seemed as if the person in the painting was right in front of her.
Then she gave a bright smile, fresh and natural.
Was that person really not dead? If the person was not dead, why hadn’t she appeared in front of her in her last life and helped her…
“Is this Tong’er?” Behind her came Feng Yuran’s lazy voice. He reached out his hand and hugged her slender waist from behind. His handsome face rested on her shoulder as he looked at the painting she held. Mo Xuetong had placed the painting inside and had not taken it out to show him.
“It’s not Tong’er. Is it your mother?” Feng Yuran immediately saw the trace of difference when he looked at the painting again. Then, after he saw the sadness on Mo Xuetong’s face, his suspicion turned into certainty. The Luo Xia on the painting looked a little similar to Mo Xuetong. However, there were still some differences when he looked at it carefully. He had made a mistake just now because the girl on the painting was very young. Feng Yuran had never seen Mo Xuetong when she was a little child.
Mo Xuetong did not know when he had entered. However, she relaxed when she sensed his concern. She leaned into his embrace naturally. There were some things that she did not say, but he knew. Thus, she did not explain further, and just closed her eyes, asking softly, “Yuran, under what conditions did the painter draw the picture?”
The strokes didn’t belong to a well-known artist; and it was just a girl’s game work. To play kind of game, shouldn’t the painter drew some mountains, rivers, flowers, and birds!
