The candles were lit, which turned the small space brighter than the day. Leng Changxi looked at the petite masked assassin in front of him indifferently. The two looked at each other for a long time. Suddenly, the assassin turned her wrist, took out another dagger behind her back and stabbed it towards the nearest shadow guard. Because of Leng Changxi’s order to capture her alive, and the special identity of the assassin, the shadow guards were quite conservative with their moves.
“Attack her injured right hand.” Leng Changxi ordered calmly. Immediately, Leng Wu and Heiying attacked her at the same time and easily captured her and took her to Leng Changxi within a moment.
“Remove her mask.” Leng Changxi ordered expressionlessly.
Even though the assassin wanted to struggle, she couldn’t move with both hands tied up. When the mask fell to the ground, everyone gasped in great shock. It was Princess Ning indeed. No one could have imagined that Princess Ning, who was known for being gentle and kind, was actually so vicious. The daggers on the ground were green, apparently soaked with poison. What was more unexpected was that Princess Ning actually hid the fact that she was good at martial arts so perfectly that even her husband Prince Ning didn’t know about it.
Princess Ning’s deeds were exposed to everyone just like her face. Her glance was no longer tender, and her lips no longer gentle. She was filled with coldness from hell at the moment, which made people shiver.
However, her eyes were still focused on Leng Changxi. She didn’t say anything, because she had nothing to say.
By then, Qin Yunuan entered the room under Leng Shuang’s protection. Seeing Princess Ning tied up, she couldn’t help but sighed, “Mother, it’s really you.”
The silent Princess Ning became extremely aggressive when she saw Qin Yunuan. She bit her lips and growled towards Qin Yunuan, “You bitch! You take Changxi away from me! He used to be mine and mine only. He’s my son! No one can touch him. No one can occupy him!”
Qin Yunuan raised her eyes and exchanged glances with Leng Changxi. Apparently what Qin Yunuan guessed was right. Princess Ning loved her son so much that it was sick. Xie Ruying had a thing for Leng Changxi, so Princess Ning secretly set her up. The servant girl Haitang dreamed of sleeping with Leng Changxi, so Princess Ning made it look like Haitang pushed nanny Li into the pond. Princess Ning wouldn’t even let go of infanta Shuhua who didn’t even engage with Leng Changxi. She made use of the suspicion people had after Empress Chen’s death to drive infanta Shuhua mad. As for Qin Yunuan, Princess Ning had never let go on her. It was just that Qin Yunuan was more cautious and cleverer than she was, so she never succeeded.
Qin Yunuan sighed lightly and said, “Mother, Changxi is your son indeed, but he is also an independent person. You want to keep him as your belonging so madly, but the consequence will be driving either you or Changxi crazy.”
“I don’t care,” Princess Ning’s tears came down her face as she said, “He is my son, so he’s only mine. Other women must stay away from him.”
After that, Heiying ordered his people to take Princess Ning out, as he said in a cold and official tone, “Even though it’s reasonable for you to love your son, Princess Ning, you had broken the law of Qi and disturbed the order of the palace. I have to arrest you.”
Murder, framing, pretending to be ghosts. Princess Ning could not get away with these crimes.
Right then, Prince Ning heard the news and came. Seeing Princess Ning tied up in the courtyard, wearing black martial art clothing, he paused. He only said after a while, “Xunxiang, you…”
Princess Ning saw hope when she saw Prince Ning. She struggled to move towards Prince Ning, and said eagerly, “Prince, save me! Please tell them that I’ve done nothing wrong but loving my own son. Changxi’s our son. Why, why would I have to share him with other women? Tell them that, prince.”
After he heard about the whole story, Prince Ning unintentionally took a couple steps back. He had never imagined that his wife committed so many crimes. Prince Ning didn’t know that Qin Yunuan faked her pregnancy, so he got angrier about Princess Ning harming Qin Yunuan’s child.
“Bitch!” He slapped Princess Ning on the face heavily that she spitted blood.
Prince Ning’s hand was still shaking. His whole body was shaking. “Take her to the palace. Let the Emperor decide her punishments.”
Looking at all these, Qin Yunuan knew clearly that Prince Ning still loved Princess Ning. He merely couldn’t bare Princess Ning’s deeds anymore.
A few days later, news came from the palace that Princess Ning admitted to pretending to be ghosts at night. Even in front of the Emperor, she kept yelling that Leng Changxi is her son and belongs to her. If she was just a normal person, disturbing the palace with paranormal behaviors would be punished with a cruel death penalty. However, the Sun family was rich and famous, and her ancestors had great contributions to Qi. The Emperor only decided to send her to the borders and let her live.
Qin Yunuan was sewing leather riding boots for Leng Changxi when she heard the news. The hard leather could only be penetrated with a thick and hard needle. Qin Yunuan put some force on the needle and accidentally pierced it into her own fingertip. A drop of blood oozed out immediately, and Maner hurried to hand her a handkerchief to stop the bleeding.
“Why are you so careless, third young madam?”
Qin Yunuan allowed Maner and Tingxue to hold the handkerchief for her and get the medication, as she sighed, “Even though the Emperor spared her life, it was a long way for Princess Ning’s exile. I’m afraid that the one in the palace won’t let her live, and she would kill her on her way.”
Maner sighed lightly as well, and asked carefully, “Do we need to send some people to make sure that she’s safe?”
Qin Yunuan didn’t answer directly, but she asked back, “How’s darling these days? Is he doing alright in the court?”
Tingxue answered, “I heard it from the servants of third young master that he’s normally doing just as usual.”
Princess Ning had raised Leng Changxi for so long, and yet she ended up like this. Qin Yunuan was still worried that Leng Changxi would feel uncomfortable about it. Hearing Tingxue’s news, she was much more relieved as she nodded and said, “Since darling didn’t change much, we don’t have to do anything redundant. Just let everything happen naturally.”
Sure enough, the troop sending Princess Ning to the border was attacked by bandits after half a month. The news of Princess Ning got shot by an arrow and died came back to the Royal city. That night, Leng Changxi came back really late.
Qin Yunuan was focusing on finishing the last knits of the leather riding boots under the candlelight, when she felt something heavy on her shoulder. There was the familiar smell of her man around her neck. Leng Changxi had come in before she knew it, and he quietly put his head on Qin Yunuan’s shoulder. He was tilting his head and kissing Qin Yunuan’s neck bit by bit, making her numb and feeble.
“You back?” Qin Yunuan turned around and hugged Leng Changxi. The rumors of Princess Ning’s craziness and pitiful death was all around the Royal City. All people had emotions. Qin Yunuan knew that Leng Changxi was troubled by it. He was the one who arrested Princess Ning after all.
“Hmm.” Leng Changxi quietly hummed. It was just that he put more force on his arms and held Qin Yunuan tightly. He could always find the warmest sense of security and the most tender sweetness in the world on Qin Yunuan.
“I have sent people to send Xie Ruying back to her birthplace. She could never get out of that village again in her whole life.” Leng Changxi suddenly said.
“But the child in her womb…” Qin Yunuan said, worried. It was only because Qin Yunuan knew this secret of Xie Ruying that she agreed to risk her life and cooperate with Leng Changxi and Heiying as a bait to lure Princess Ning out.
“Women like her don’t deserve to give birth to offspring of the Prince Ning’s mansion.” Leng Changxi said indifferently. Xie Ruying attempted to harm Qin Yunuan’s child as well. Even though it was a fake pregnancy, Leng Changxi couldn’t allow that act.
Qin Yunuan looked at Leng Changxi’s twisted brows, and subconsciously stroke his brows back and forth as if she wanted to wipe off his sadness. Meanwhile, Leng Changxi suddenly leaned forward and bit Qin Yunuan’s lips lightly and repeatedly, tasting the sweetness of her lips, as well as the happiness and peacefulness after such a long time.
Qin Yunuan held Leng Changxi’s neck and cooperatively leaned forward too. Leng Changxi lifted Qin Yunuan and walked towards the warm bed with Qin Yunuan in his arms.
It was a night of lingering. On the next day, Leng Changxi was still asleep when Qin Yunuan got up. So many things had happened to Leng Changxi recently, which really made him tired.
Qin Yunuan didn’t want to wake Leng Changxi, so she got up and put some make-up on her own. She was about to call Maner for breakfast to be served when she opened the door and saw Maner running in hurriedly.
“Third young madam, something’s happened to fourth miss.” Maner lowered her voice and said, covered in sweat. Apparently, she ran back in a rush.
Qin Yunuan didn’t speak further, as she lifted her skirt and left the courtyard, “Let’s go and take a look.”
There were few servant girls in the Xianbi courtyard, which made the cold and quiet courtyard even more mysterious. Qin Yunuan familiarly cut around the corridor and the pavilion. Just when she arrived at the door of Leng Suxin’s room, Qin Yunuan saw Leng Suxin’s servant girl driven out by Leng Suxin with a soft pillow.
Qin Yunuan paused her steps. She had never seen Leng Suxin in a bad temper. It seemed a serious issue.
Sun Miaoyang’s voice came from inside. Since Qin Yunuan knew that Leng Suxin was wearing a human skin mask every day, she tried her best to find a bottle of good spirit to please Sun Miaoyang, so that he could treat Leng Suxin. Sun Miaoyang was not only good at medication but also a master in making human skin masks. Human skin masks were the key that Sun Miaoyang could hide among the people whenever he wanted to. Hence, when Leng Suxin was wearing the human skin mask improved by Sun Miaoyang, even Zhang Ruting couldn’t tell that it was a fake face.
Qin Yunuan could still hear Sun Miaoyang’s words across the door.
“Fourth Miss Leng, if you continue to hide your face from my treatment, I’m afraid that your face would be ruined.”
