Consort of a Thousand Faces

Qin Ling turned swiftly and greeted deferentially, "This subordinate pays his respects to Your Majesty, Prince Yun, and Prince Hao."

 

The state banquet had ended, and the other guests had either returned to their posthouse, or stayed in the palace for the night. The only reason Pei Qianhao had come along was to retrieve Su Xi-er. However, he never thought he would witness the scene of Ning Anlian shouting at Su Xi-er that she would repay all her grievances.

 

Haha. I do want to see how she intends to repay it.

 

Ning Anlian immediately put on a wronged expression, her gaze landing on Yun Ruofeng before she weakly lifted her injured wrist. "Prince Yun, Prince Hao's maidservant came forward and attacked this Princess without a word and broke this Princess' wrist."

 

Everyone looked towards Ning Anlian's limply hanging wrist, an obvious sign of fracture. Su Xi-er did this? A maidservant like her has enough strength to dislocate someone’s wrist?

 

For Pei Qianhao, this only served to remind him of that time he had dislocated a woman's wrist in the woods beside the Palace Side Quarters. How interesting; as expected of my maidservant to use the same trick on another person. Let’s see how she deals with Ning Anlian’s interrogation.

 

Yun Ruofeng looked at Su Xi-er and asked in a gentle voice, "You did this?" There was a sense of threat and bias towards Ning Anlian in his tone; after all, Ning Anlian was the Eldest Imperial Princess of Nanzhao, while Su Xi-er was a maidservant of Beimin.

 

This wasn’t just about a single dislocated wrist, but about the reputation of Nanzhao. Yun Ruofeng was serious in this regard, but he maintained a gentle expression so that no one could sense his joy or anger.

 

Su Xi-er replied in a crisp voice, her eyes shining bright. "Indeed, I was the one who did this." At this moment, she no longer referred to herself as "this servant," and revealed an aura of confidence, as if Ning Anlian had deserved what she got.

 

A glimmer of surprise flashed across Ning Lianchen's eyes as he watched by the side. Why did this woman give Ning Anlian such a harsh punishment? Not to mention, she defended me when we were at the Yun Palace.

 

Meanwhile, Pei Qianhao was elated to see that she was neither humble nor pushy while dealing with Yun Ruofeng. She performed well, and did not shame him. His people shouldn't bow down or kneel to others, and should instead proudly lift their heads high.

 

Yun Ruofeng hadn't expected that she would so overtly admit to doing the deed, causing his body to stiffen in surprise for a moment before he regained his composure. "This Prince invited you into the palace to present the dance; it's this Prince who had owed you a favour. Now that you have injured the Eldest Imperial Princess, that favour can be considered null and void."

 

This one sentence had revealed his stance towards this incident - he wouldn't pursue it. They would also consider the matter of the dance to be over and done with, even if they had nearly been exposed at the end of it.

 

Ning Anlian was the first to jump out and object. "They are separate matters, and should be treated as such. She should receive a severe punishment for injuring this Princess; as for the favour, just bestowing some jewellery upon her will do."

 

Su Xi-er chuckled and looked at Ning Anlian, her voice filled with sarcasm. "I don’t care about all those things in the Eldest Imperial Princess' repose palace. Those items are available in excess at the Prince Hao Residence. You plan to just dismiss me with gold and silver jewellery?"

 

Su Xi-er’s disdainful attitude towards any material wealth she could be offered had greatly pleased Pei Qianhao once again. This lass has made use of me to make a statement again. I would be very unhappy if it was someone else using my name, but it feels quite good having her do it.

 

Once again, Pei Qianhao kept quiet and just watched on in silence.

Ning Anlian was extremely furious. She is just a mere maidservant, but Prince Hao dotes on her enough to bestow gold and silver jewellery upon her? It’s even to the point where she can turn her nose up at Nanzhao’s things! Such arrogance!