Chapter 450 - Have Been Engaged More Than Once
Ning Xueyan didn’t pass out for long. She just felt weak and everything in front of her went black, and then fell down. When she woke up, she was nestled in the familiar arms. She looked up and saw a face that looked even more handsome because of being close to her, and the cold eyes on the face were closed at the moment.
Both of them were lying on the bed. Ning Xueyan moved slightly and looked sideways at him.
He closed his eyes quietly, with a strand of black hair on his face. His long slanted eyes were closed slightly. His features were as pretty as a picture, and his lips were as red as blood. His dark and long eyelashes were thick and long, without the cold and vicious vibe he usually exuded. He, who was in his quiet sleep, showed a hint of indifference on his handsome face.
“Do you want to kill him?” With his long eyelashes fluttering, he put his slender fingers on Ning Xueyan’s neck where there was a small wound to which the ointment had been applied. Nevertheless, Ning Xueyan still felt pain when he pressed it hard. She frowned subconsciously and shook her head, “No!”
She knew that he was talking about killing Ao Mingyu. In any case, Ao Mingyu should not get killed now, let alone get killed because of this matter. If a lady got involved in the competition for imperial power and became the major cause of it, she would definitely come to no good end. No matter what Ao Mingyu had done, he was still the emperor’s favorite son.
She could recognize her identity, so of course she could clearly understand the difference between the two.
“Why?” Ao Chenyi closed his eyes slightly and reached out to pat her on the back, as if to comfort her.
“No why. Your Highness, you don’t need to care about it. Anyway I’m not the one who suffered a loss.” Ning Xueyan raised her eyebrows slightly, showing a soft smile with a trace of delight across her watery eyes. Since Ao Chenyi had shown up, Ao Mingyu definitely couldn’t take an advantageous position. No matter what Ao Mingyu had intended to do, someone smart didn’t need evidence.
“Rest assured. I’ll make him pay for it.” Ao Chenyi held her in his arms, resting his head on her hair with a trace of rage across his eyes. Of course, he wouldn’t kill Ao Mingyu now, but he wouldn’t allow Ao Mingyu to bully her.
He said that in an extremely light voice. If Ning Xueyan hadn’t been listening to him all the time, she wouldn’t have heard his words. Nevertheless, his words made her felt warm. She slowly closed her watery eyes and felt inexplicably bittersweet.
It was not that she didn’t want to think about something, but she couldn’t. After all, she was just a girl living in the inner courtyard.
She had locked her heart tightly. She died in the lotus pond in her last life. At the moment of being reborn, she repeatedly warned herself that she didn’t need love anymore. If it weren’t for the fact that she trusted Xia Yuhang too much, how could she fail to tell that Xia Yuhang and Ning Ziyan exchanged amorous glances in front of her? How could she fail to realize that Xia Yuhang didn’t treat her as she did to him?
She would never have hidden the fact that she was set up by Chen Hexiang, who lived in Cold Mountain Temple temporarily, from Xia Yuhang, for fear that he would consider her jealous without the decency of a Legal Wife. Because of this, she and Xiang’er ended up with a tragedy. If you trusted the wrong person, you could only walk into a blind alley.
Therefore, in this life, she was unwilling to entrust herself to a relationship. If she could marry a simple man and live a simple life, she did not care about feelings. It was happiness to live a safe and peaceful life.
However, something was not under her control. In order to gain a firm foothold in Lord Protector’s Manor and avenge, she had to find a powerful helper, and Ao Chenyi showed up at that time. They had made a deal to get what they needed. But compared with him, her “need” was the most urgent.
Everything after that seemed to happen naturally. Even when he suggested that she should be his co-consort, she didn’t have many feelings. Ao Chenyi had helped her too much, so it was reasonable for her to help him straighten out his harem. From the fact that the imperial harem kept granting girls to Prince Yi’s Manor, she could tell that the backyard of Prince Yi’s Manor was in an unstable situation, which was a major taboo.
Therefore, she did not refuse and accepted it naturally. In her mind, she had always regarded it as a deal. She would marry into Prince Yi’s Manor and help him manage his backyard so that he could give full play to his talents in the imperial court without being held back by the affairs of the backyard.
However, she didn’t know when she seemed to have some special feelings for him and felt inexplicably warm because of what he did for her.
“Your Highness, do you know the real identity of Sister Ning Ziying, who lived in Cloud Reflection Courtyard?” For some unknown reason, Ning Xueyan involuntarily blurted out the unknown things. She was a little perturbed, a little uneasy and even a little regretful. However, she would not withdraw her words once she said that. It was the biggest secret in her life.
However, these things were too mysterious. Even if she said it, who could believe that someone would be reborn as another person after she died, and there seemed to be a complicated relationship between the two people? The strangest thing was that she knew nothing about the other her.
If she said it, she wouldn’t even believe it herself, not to mention others. They would definitely think it absurd and that she had seen a ghost. She would probably be burnt to death as a monster.
“Ning Ziying’s identity is not simple and related to the former imperial court. It got involved in too many things.” Ao Chenyi reached out to hold her hand with gentle and moderate strength.
“I heard that Sister Ziying had been engaged before her death.” Ning Xueyan bit her lip.
“Ning Ziying had been engaged more than once,” Ao Chenyi said lightly.
Ning Xueyan suddenly opened her unwearied watery eyes wide in tremendous shock, but found that she couldn’t make a sound at all and became completely stiff at the moment. In her last life, she had been engaged to Xia Yuhang. In her memory, the Xia family was the only family her parents chose for her to marry into. What did Ao Chenyi mean by saying that Ning Ziying had been engaged for more than once?
She just asked about Ning Ziying randomly, but didn’t expect to sound out such a big secret. Meanwhile, as the person concerned, she actually knew nothing about it.
“How could a girl have been engaged for a few times?” She suppressed the shock in her heart. Fortunately, Ao Chenyi’s head was above hers at the moment. Otherwise, she definitely could not hide the shock in her eyes. She just blurted it out.
How many things was she ignorant of in her last life? How could she even be ignorant of this thing?
“It may be impossible for other girls, but Ning Ziying was in a different situation. Yan’er, these things have nothing to do with you. Do you want me to help you deal with the troublemaker in your Lord Protector’s Manor?” Ao Chenyi pulled her out of his arms, reached out to lift her chin, and asked with a delighted and sly smile.
They were close to each other, so all his warm breath almost sprayed on her face. With a touch of faint blush appearing on her pale face at once, Ning Xueyan leaned back uneasily in an attempt to get away from his arms. Unfortunately, as soon as she moved, he reached out to hold her. No matter how hard she tried, he didn’t let her go.
“I’ll deal with the troublemaker in Lord Protector’s Manor. Don’t do anything now.” Ning Xueyan stared at him helplessly. Both of them knew clearly that he was talking about Ning Huaiyuan.
What had happened to Ning Xueyan was set by Ning Huaiyuan. Of course, the Third Prince had helped him in secret and Ning Qingshan had fomented discord. It could be said that all three of them participated in it. Capable of staying alive in the accident the three of them cooperated to set, Ning Xueyan could be considered surviving a catastrophe.
Now among the three of them, Ning Qingshan had broken her leg, and the Third Prince’s Manor was set on fire at midnight and he had been even more incompatible with the Fourth Prince. Only Ning Huaiyuan was fine. Of course, Ning Xueyan was going to make Ning Huaiyuan pay for it. Ao Chenyi had taken actions twice, so Ning Xueyan didn’t want to trouble him again.
The emperor had been keeping an eye on him. Although he was not likely to make mistakes with a thorough plan, others might be more skeptical that he was the one behind it. Ning Xueyan had a way of dealing with someone in the backyard. She didn’t think that she couldn’t deal with Ning Huaiyuan without Ao Chenyi’s help. There was something that she’d better handle by herself. Even if it was found out, it was just a strife within the backyard of Lord Protector’s Manor.
It was originally caused by Ning Zu’an’s failure in regulating the family, and had nothing to do with the competition for royal power. In this case, even if they made a big scene, the emperor would just indulge them. The emperor needed to worry about too many things. If he even had to intervene in the affairs of a minister’s inner courtyard, he would be an overbusy emperor.
Ning Huaiyuan was a man, but since he had intervened in the strife of the inner courtyard, he should be under the management of the inner courtyard. Besides, Ning Xueyan didn’t think that she was incapable of dealing with Ning Huaiyuan. If she was even incapable of this, she would only walk into a blind alley in the bigger and more unpredictable Prince Yi’s Manor.
“Well, I’ll wait and see!” Seeing the persistence in her watery eyes, Ao Chenyi slowly rubbed her nose with his fingers with a smile. Suddenly he changed the subject. “Have you finishing making the wedding robe for me?”
“It’s very close.” Ning Xueyan felt a little guilty when saying that. She had almost finished making it. However, many things had been delayed by the accident, so she couldn’t finish it in a short time. She made the robe by herself without anyone’s help. Although she thought it impossible for him to wear it, she still made it by herself. After spending this period of time on the mountain, she definitely couldn’t finish it quickly.
“If you don’t have enough time, just instruct the maids in your manor to make it. Remember to send it to my manor on the day before our wedding. Otherwise, I won’t spare you.” Ao Chenyi raised the corners of his pretty mouth to show a smile and squinted at Ning Xueyan. He was warning her obviously.
“I got it.” Ning Xueyan curled her lip secretly. She really didn’t know why he was so persistent in this. Suddenly, she pulled his sleeve and asked curiously, “What should you do to your favorite concubine since you’ve come here? I heard that she’s seriously sick, and you hurried down the mountain to see her?”
She still thought it strange. When he left, he told her that he might not be able to come here in a short time. Why did he suddenly appear in Ning Qingshan’s courtyard? She didn’t think it was accidental.
“In the morning, I heard that Ao Mingyu went up to the mountain in a hurry. It’s said that he came to see his future co-consort. He didn’t come to see her when she just broke her leg. After so many days, he finally thought of it and came to see her in a hurry,” Ao Chenyi said casually. He stretched out a finger to twist a strand of Ning Xueyan’s dark hair and said sarcastically, “Could it be possible that Ao Mingyu finally found that his co-consort was great after so many days?”
Ning Xueyan agreed with him, but she then said in disapproval, “So you leave your favorite concubine aside and come here?”
Was he going to place her above the stove? Ao Chenyi had just rescued her a few days ago, but Commandery Princess Xianyun left her dowry aside and came to the mountain hurriedly. If Commandery Princess Xianyun found that she meant something special to Ao Chenyi, she would be a target in Prince Yi’s Manor.