Chapter 41
"Tsk! Tsk! Are you scared already? How could you be so lame... It was just some random words and you're already acting like this... Hmph! How boring...!" Tang Kexin stood up and shaken off the dirt from the lower hem of her dress. One corner of her lips slightly tilted upward as she let out an expression of boredom and disappointment.
The way she stood up was even more ruffian than the way the Fourth Prince normally played around with his silkpants. The crowd was stunned. What did she mean by that? And what was that sudden change of temperament?
However, no one noticed that at the moment she stood up, a trace of coldness quickly concealed within her lowered eyes.
She was sure that Xiao Cui was lying, that she really intended to frame her from the start.
When the crowd heard her last words, and her sudden change of mood, they all felt like they had been struck by a lightning that they got extremely confused.
She went all serious and profound that nobody could understand her, was all for a show to scare the girl? And here they thought they were listening into some heavenly scripture, but all were just nonsense?
It was no wonder that they could not understand the words nor find any sense to what she had said just now. It turned out that she was just spouting nonsense. It was likely that even she herself could not understand it.
As expected, putting too much of a hope to a fool who had just recently recovered from an illness wasn't worth the trouble to put up with.
The corner of Ye Lanjue's mouth twitched. So this woman could actually be a bit cocky.
"You still have the mind to play around in this situation?" The empress secretly breathed a sigh of relief and reached out to hold her hand, unconsciously tightening her grip.
Everything just now was too nerve wracking.
"But it was proven that this has nothing to do with me..." Tang Kexin pouted then shrugged disapprovingly, after which she whistled happily.
Everyone's eyeballs fell to the ground, their mouth agape. The disparity of the attitude from earlier to now was too great. It was simply too much to comprehend. They couldn't even think it could be possible!
Just like what Ye Lanchen had just thought, at this moment Tang Kexin was truly a scoundrel to the extreme. When she turned around and saw the fourth prince absent-mindedly staring straight at her with his hand holding a jujube fruit on the air, her eyes flickered for a moment before she suddenly reached out to grab the jujube. The ruffian-like Tang Kexin then threw it directly into her mouth and bit it forcefully, "So sweet...!"
The Third Prince, who were at the time subconsciously subtly smiling at her, after seeing this action of Tang Kexin, his face darkened and his surrounding became a bit cold! But he felt that this action of Tang Kexin was out of the ordinary... Why was she suddenly acting this way?
However, Tang Kexin didn't notice the change in the Third Prince's expression because right now she was fully immersed. Fully immersed in distracting everyone's impression of her when she interrogated the palace maid, and continued to creat an image of being someone who loved to play around with others.
She knew that in this aspect, Ye Lanchen would unknowingly cooperate with her.
"You, why are you snatching away this prince's food? Aren't there a lot of them on the table?" Sure enough, Ye Lanchen immediately snapped back to reality. He glared at her in protest with a hint of dissatisfaction. When he first arrived, he saw a plate of jujube on the table in front of the rock mountain and casually took one. But after all this ruckus Tang Kexin had played out, he was so petrified that he forgot to eat it.
Then again, everyone got dumbstruck. This… this woman directly snatched something from the Fourth Prince without qualms?! How could there be anyone in this world, who would act fearlessly and carelessly like this in front of a sovereign?
How much lives did she have? Or perhaps... she was still crazy?
"It would be too much of a trouble if I am to reach out and bend over to take one on the table, when I could just take what's closer... You seem not want to eat it anyway." Tang Kexin replied as she childishly pouted.
Hearing her reasoning, the rest of them staggered, unable to keep their stance steady.
The corner of Ye Lanchen's mouth smirked as he sneered at her, "You are just too lazy and unrefined for a lady!"
"The two of you always bicker the moment you see each other!
As an empress, she had been in the harem for so many years, how could she not sense that there was something amiss with this incident?
Hearing the empress' words, everyone was yet again stunned. The empress' words were too clear. Everyone present was intelligent, how could they not understand? It was obvious that the empress was implicitly indicating her intention to pair the Fourth Prince to Miss Tang. Although the engagement between Miss Tang and the Young Master Mu was still to be annulled, but almost everyone had already heard of the fact that the emperor had made a statement and an order that the engagement between the two will be dissolved.
The emperor was momentarily shocked of this sudden insinuation by the empress. His gaze swept over Tang Kexin before he smiled faintly.
The pupils of the Third Prince turned slightly icy as they became benign. The emotions in the depths of his eyes faded bit by bit, as if he had fallen into the dark abyss.
Tang Kexin, who was chewing on the sweet jujube, directly bit her tongue. It hurt, it hurt, it really hurt.
"Mother…" Ye Lanchen wanted to protest.
"Drag this servant away! She will be caned a hundred times." The Emperor interrupted and looked at Xiao Cui while giving the order.
The punishment was a hundred beatings using a staff. The palace maid's stature could not definitely able to take this beatings even if she has two lives. It was clear to the Emperor that this was a plot by someone from his imperial harem, thus he wanted to kill the maid to prove his position in the matter.
However, to Tang Kexin, this incident weren't that simple. But of course, under these circumstances, and with the reason that she did not want to gain further attention to herself, she didn't say anything.
The guards dragged the terrified Xiao Cui away and everyone dispersed.
"Send someone to secretly guard that maid, make sure that she wouldn't be killed." Tang Kexin intentionally pulled Ye Lanchen to the back and did her best to lower her voice.
"I really don't get it. Why did she choose to frame you?" Obviously, Ye Lanchen didn't think too much about it.
"This matter is not that simple. Send your most trusted and capable person to secretly protect her. Remember, you must not let her die or be discovered." Tang Kexin's voice was even more solemn as she reiterated her instruction.
The palace maid was the only clue to this incident. She couldn't die!
Even if the Bureau of Investigation wouldn't investigate this matter openly, they couldn't just let it go, because too many had already seen the scene. And although Tang Kexin couldn't appear before the court, but Ye Lanchen could. Besides, it was obvious that this matter was aimed for the empress.
At the front, the footsteps of Ye Lanjue seemed to slow down slightly.
"Oh, okay." Seeing that she was so serious, Ye Lanchen didn't ask any further questions and only nodded. His face also revealed a rare serious expression.
Right now, he completely trusted Tang Kexin.
With what had happened, Tang Kexin's departure was delayed as well. And it just so happened that the news from the Prime Minister's estate stating that both the Prime Minister and his wife left the city to fetched the Old Madame and would only be back in two days came. Thus, the empress allowed Tang Kexin to remain in the palace for the next two days..
The life and death of a maid in a palace, naturally wouldn't stir anything significantly. Thus, after the incident, everything gone back to normal, as if nothing had happened. Even the empress had never brought out the matter in front of Tang Kexin which was seemed illogical.
After dinner, the emperor came to the Kuan'An Palace. Although last night, the emperor left with a gloomy face, but tonight, he actually came on his own accord, and even seemed to have a faint smile on his face.
Tang Kexin was somewhat surprised.
"This girl, Xin'er, has indeed recovered from her illness. And she's actually really smart!" As the emperor entered the room, he looked at Tang Kexin with a smile.
Tang Kexin's eyes flashed. She didn't know why, but she suddenly felt like the emperor was fawning on the empress instead, that he was simply using her to gain the empress' attention.
"This humble daughter will take her leave first." In this situation, she naturally had to leave.
"I know that you want Chen'er to be with Xin'er. Once the marriage between Xin'er and Mu Shaoyi is cancelled, I will pass down the decree to grant them a marriage." When Tang Kexin left, the emperor shifted his gaze to the empress. His voice was very soft and gentle.
The empress was stunned. She was clearly surprised that the emperor would have brought this up by himself and even took the initiative to recommend an engagement decree between Tang Kexin and their son, Ye Lanchen.
"Is there a need to be so surprised?" The emperor's face blossomed into a smile as he reached out and pulled her into his embrace. His actions were very gentle and contained a bit of affection. However, the moment the empress was pulled into his embrace, she unconsciously stiffened.
The smile on the emperor's face froze. His gaze sank. The hand he gripped around her waist secretly tightened as he unconsciously increased his strength.
It had already been nineteen years. She had entered the palace for nineteen years already. How could nineteen years of their being a husband and a wife not be able to surpass the invisible wall between them…
In the next moment, his eyes darkened as if they had turned cold. He suddenly picked her up and carried her into the inner room. With a turn of his body, he pressed her down onto the bed and fiercely kissed her.
At this moment, his actions were both wild and rough.