Chapter 49

The corner of Ye Lanjue's eyebrows slightly moved. His eyes flashed, and the corner of his lips slightly pursed. His eyes seemed to have a deeper meaning.

"Cough cough…!" Tang Kexin almost choked to death with her own saliva when she heard Ye Lanchen's words. Indeed, the Fourth Prince was unreliable, really unreliable.

Ye Lanjue liked her? If he had told her that it would rain blood, she might have believed him. Ye Lanjue took a liking of her? Even if he would beat her to death, she would not believe it.

Seeing her current exaggerated reaction, Ye Lanjue's eyes narrowed dangerously. What did she mean by overreacting like this?

"Xin Xin, are you alright?" Seeing that she was coughing so heavily, Ye Lanchen was a little worried.

"You were told that you can eat whatever you want, but didn't anybody tell you not to say just whatever you want?" Tang Kexin's heart calmed down as she looked at Ye Lanchen with an extremely distressed gaze. Did this person's words not going through his head before coming out to his mouth?

Hearing her words, Ye Lanjue's narrowed eyes suddenly gained a hint of coldness. The corner of his lips pursed slightly as well, as though he was feeling a bit stifled and restrained.

His eyes stared at Tang Kexin, and the corner of his lips slightly moved, as if he wanted to say something…

"The empress has returned." At this moment, Aunt Xi's voice came from outside the courtyard.

This time, Ye Lanchen tactfully kept his mouth shut. He knew that he could not let his Imperial Mother know of this matter. No, not only his Imperial Mother, he could not let anyone else know of this matter.

Tang Kexin tugged at her collar and covered up the red mark as much as she could. She slightly turned her body.

Ye Lanjue slightly retracted his gaze. The cold winter night eyes was like a deep abyss. Before the empress came in, he suddenly stood up and left.

On the same morning, imperial guard Zhan was transferred immediately. It was said that the emperor had appointed him as a vanguard and sent him to the army camp that instant.

Tang Kexin inwardly heaved a sigh of relief. The Emperor had transferred Imperial Guard Zhan so quickly. Furthermore, it was such a long distance. All of this wouldn't happen if the emperor was related to imperial guard Zhan's action. However, Tang Kexin couldn't be a hundred percent sure that this matter really had nothing to do with him. After all, imperial guard Zhan was personally chosen by the Emperor.

The matters of the Imperial Palace were too complicated. It was more so with the members of the Imperial Family, so it was not that easy to see through them in just one dealing...

Real or fake, until the end, it would still hard to tell.

However, at least for the meantime, the immediate danger was removed from the empress' surrounding. Tang Kexin was quite satisfied.

Late at night in pitch black, where one couldn't even see their own fingers in front of then, a man was lurking behind a densely plantation.

"Master, things have failed." Not far from him, a person respectfully reported with a slightly trembling voice.

The man hidden in the leaves did not make a sound, nor did he make any movements.

"It's Tang Kexin! She…"

"Hmm, a fool suddenly became smart." The man finally spoke. His voice sounded a bit strange, but it felt far from real.

"Master, should we get rid of her?"

"There's no rush. I want to see just how much power she has." A few trace of a smile seemed to float in the man's voice. However, in the darkness, it sounded especially frightening.

"Zhan Yun, what about him?" The man not far away asked tentatively. This was originally a move his master had arranged for him to play, and it had been for many years. He hadn't thought that it would be destroyed by a woman just like that.

"It's alright." The man's voice slowly sounded. He didn't seem to be too angry. Instead, his voice contained a profound and unfathomable interest.

****

At the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, a banquet was always being held in the palace.

Every year, there would be a banquet during the Mizar Festival. It was a common practice, but this year's banquet seemed to be especially grand and lush. It was said that the Emperor had specially instructed the Empress to this year's banquet.

At this time, the empress was the busiest person in the palace, being the host, her time was most spent with ensuring the banquet would be without mishaps. Thus, she didn't have time to worry about Tang Kexin.

Being the Prime Minister, it was a must for the Prime Minister and family to attend the banquet, but because the Prime Minister's wife had caught a cold, she didn't come along. It was only Tang Kexin and the Prime Minister who would be attending. After entering the palace, men and women were arranged separately. Thus, Tang Kexin followed an ushering palace maid alone into the next courtyard for women.

Tang Kexin did not like this kind of banquet. She was also not interested in the whispers and conversations between the ladies, so she had been sitting alone under a pavilion.

When the banquet was about to begin, Tang Kexin finally got up, wanting to go to the banquet hall.

However, just as she made her way to the pathway, she saw Liu Ruyue walking towards her.

Liu Ruyue's face had already returned to its normal appearance. The poison had been resolved?

At first, Tang Kexin did not want to pay attention to her, but Liu Ruyue purposely appeared in front of her. Suddenly, a dagger had appeared in Liu Ruyue's hand which she forcefully pushed into her hand. It was obvious that she wanted to hand the dagger into Tang Kexin's.

However, how could Tang Kexin let her succeed? She slightly leaned to the side and avoided the attack.

Liu Ruyue saw that her plan had failed, so she held the dagger tightly and stabbed down at her own shoulder. The stab was very quick and fierce, and Liu Ruyue's shoulder was immediately dyed red with blood.

"Ah, ah, save me!" Liu Ruyue shouted while holding onto her shoulders. For a moment, the people who were originally walking in front surrounded them.

Tang Kexin slightly frowned. This trick was too fake. Moreover, even if Liu Ruyue succeeded in framing her, this matter would not have much of an impact on her. Thus, she felt that Liu Ruyue's actions were a bit strange.

"Ah, it hurts, it hurts! Miss Tang, why did you stab me?! I just saw that something was wrong with your expression, and out of concern, I wanted to ask. I didn't expect that you would suddenly stab me with the knife in your hand!"

A typical old drama plot, where the wrong is turned upside down, and the wicked suing first.

However, Liu Ruyue's words seemed to draw special attention from gossipmongers.

"Didn't you say that she was cured? How can it be like this? This is too ruthless, was she trying to kill her?"

"It's hard to change one's nature. Think about what she did to Young Master Mu in the past. There aren't things that she can't do."

"Just now, Miss Liu said that she was holding a knife in her hand. Was this a premeditated plan?"

"This is too scary."

In fact, no one had seen what had just happened, and no one knew what exactly had happened. However, after hearing Liu Ruyue's words and thinking of what Tang Kexin had done before, they had already started to attack Tang Kexin.

Liu Ruyue's slightly lowered eyes revealed a proud sneer. She did not know if it was because of the pain, but she suddenly waved her hand. A few drops of blood landed on Tang Kexin's clothes.

Tang Kexin's eyes darkened as the corner of his mouth widened into a smile. To think that he wanted to frame her with such a trick, it was truly laughable.

"What is happening here?" At this moment, the empress had just walked over. When she saw the scene in front of her, her expression changed drastically. When she looked at Liu Ruyue, her eyes narrowed. "How dare you cause such trouble here?"

Liu Ruyue suddenly got scared, and she shrank back without saying a word.

"The banquet's about to start. First, find an imperial physician to treat her wound and have them watch her so she won't cause any more trouble." Obviously, the empress wanted to put this matter to rest first.

Of course, from these words, it could be seen that the empress wasn't ignoring the matter, but only wanted to deal with it after the banquet.

She believed that Xin'er would definitely not hurt others for no reason. Liu Ruyue must had wanted to use this opportunity to make things difficult for Xin'er. This Liu Ruyue had bullied Xin'er so many times already, so she should teach her a lesson.

Of course, it would be inappropriate to deal this matter in this crowd. Moreover, the banquet was about to begin soon. All the officials in the court had already taken their seats, and the emperor had probably gone to the main hall as well. They couldn't possibly disturb the banquet at this time because of this matter.

When the empress looked at Tang Kexin, her gaze clearly softened. She only saw a few drops of blood on Tang Kexin's clothes and furrowed her brows. "There's still one more piece of your clothes in the palace (Kuan'An Palace). You can come back after you change." In the end, the empress was still a little worried, afraid that something might happened again. She turned to Aunt Xi by the side and instructed her, "Take Xin'er with you. Return quickly and don't get into any more trouble."

"Yes, Esteemed Empress..." Aunt Xi respectfully replied.

Tang Kexin again had this nagging feeling that this matter wasn't only about her and Liu Ruyue. It seemed it was again directed to the empress. The fact that the banquet was being arranged by the empress, if anything wrong were to happen in between, some people would definitely use it to their advantages. Besides, battles in the harem were just terrifying.

Not to mention the relationship between her and the empress.

No matter what, she couldn't make things difficult for the empress in such a situation, so Tang Kexin didn't say anything more.

However, before he left, Tang Kexin looked at Liu Ruyue again, and a hint of coldness appeared on her eyes.

Although some of the ladies weren't satisfied, they didn't dare contradict the empress' orders.

No matter how obvious the empress' intentions were, no one dared to speak carelessly.

However, when Tang Kexin had changed her clothes and entered the main hall, she sensed that the atmosphere in the hall was clearly not right.

The moment Tang Kexin entered the main hall, everyone turned to look at her.

Furthermore, with her sharp eyes, she noticed that Liu Ruyue was also in the main hall, but she was standing in a corner. She was not easily discovered by anyone, and the wound on her shoulder had already stopped, but the wound had not been bandaged.

Tang Kexin's eyes darkened.

In the middle of the hall, a twelve or thirteen girl looked at Tang Kexin and was slightly startled. She suddenly raised her hand and pointed at her, angrily saying, "It's her! She hurt this princess, stole the secret book, and then knocked out this princess."

When everyone heard the princess' words, they were stunned and looked at Tang Kexin in disbelief. Was Tang Kexin crazy, to dare do such things?

The empress' expression was too anxious and worried.

The Prime Minister's expression was also extremely unsightly. When he looked at Tang Kexin, his eyes were filled with worry.

Ye Lanchen had an anxious expression on his face, as if he couldn't sit still any longer. Looking at his appearance, it seemed that he wanted Tang Kexin to leave quickly.

Even the Third Prince, who was usually calm and indifferent, had a dark expression on his face.

It could be seen that this latest accusation was more serious than the previous one.

Tang Kexin's eyes flashed. Why was it that when she went to change her clothes, the mood changed all of a sudden? She hurt a princess by knocking her out? Then stealing her secret book? Either accusation was enough to warrant her death, what more with both? How many lives did she have?

It was just as she had expected. Liu Ruyue did what she did with ulterior motives.

It seems that this drama was getting more and more intense and exciting. Good! Not bad, not bad... Then she will accompany them to have a good show.