The Devious First-Daughter (Web Novel)
chapter-180

At Prince Yi’s Manor…

On a spacious machilus chair carved with dragons and phoenixes, was a man who was incredibly handsome against the black garment with golden trim. His profile was as delicate as being carved, and his good looks were beyond description. And under the black crown decorated with a dragon design, his beautiful eyes were deep and as bottomless abyss and as dark as pure black ink, without a trace of light.

There was a gorgeous invitation card among his slender fingers, and several rubies on the invitation letter had crumbed by him.

With a strange smile on his thin lips, he asked coldly, “Was this invitation card sent from the imperial palace?”

“Yes. It was just sent here from the imperial palace. Prince Yi, they had sent the same invitation card to you before, but they worried that you might forget it, so they asked their people to send another one,” Eunuch Wang answered carefully. His master did not seem to be happy now.

Whenever such a look appeared on that extremely handsome face, his master was not in a good mood. Since he had upset his master, what Eunuch Wang could do was to pray for himself.

“I won’t go. Tell them that I’m sick!” Rolling his eyes and curving his lips, Ao Chenyi threw the invitation card into the air. He found people from the imperial place became even more boring. At this time every year, they would invite some noble Young Ladies to enjoy flowers in the imperial palace and then asked the princes to join them. He did not know what their purpose was, and for him, it was a burden to attend the party.

The invitation card banged onto the floor. All the precious rubies on it were shaken off and several of them broke into powder the moment they touched the ground. Eunuch Wang swallowed hard subconsciously. He knew that his master had never been patient to deal with this kind of thing.

“Prince Yi, it’s time to find a hostess for this manor!” Although scared, Eunuch Wang had to mention it. Prince Yi was old enough to marry. Without a woman, he couldn’t have a baby. Under the current situation, he would benefit a lot to have a lawful heir.

“Hostess?” Ao Chenyi curved his lips and narrowed his eyes. A cold, bloodthirsty smile appeared on his lips.

“Yes. Prince Yi, if you married a woman from the noble family, people of the imperial palace won’t bother you again for this. But if you don’t plan to find a woman by yourself, they might designate one that you don’t like.” Since Prince Yi did not protest, Eunuch Wang immediately continued to persuade him.

He had watched Ao Chenyi grow up, so he really hoped him to marry a woman he loved and give birth to several successors.

Since Ao Chenyi refused the marriage that the emperor had arranged for him, he had always been requested to attend such parties. Although he had excused himself from going each time, people from the imperial palace would mention it repeatedly. If he married a woman, those people would not trouble him again with such parties, and nobody would blame him for not attending the occasions.

Last time, they were at the imperial study room of the emperor when he implicitly refused the emperor’s arrangement of his marriage last time. However, emperor was the most authoritative person in the country, if he arranged the marriage for Ao Chenyi in the presence of the officials, Ao Chenyi would not be able to refuse him anymore.

Ao Chenyi had realized it. His eyes became even darker. Glancing at the invitation card embedded with rubies on the floor, he lifted the corners of his mouth, making him extremely handsome, but also coldest.

It seemed it was necessary to find a hostess for his manor. He had never worried about how to deal with the emperor, but he had a problem in managing the internal affairs of his manor. He did not think it was a problem, and he would ask the imperial guards to solve the problems if there was anything he did not know how to deal with, but this would arouse gossips!

Besides, he would be requested to attend parties like this constantly!

Now he was managing to a semblance of peace with the emperor, but nobody knew when the peace would be broken. He was clear how the emperor jealous and suspicious of him!

The cold smile on his face had turned to malicious mockery. The emperor wanted to depose him as his younger brother and support his son to inherit the throne, but he worried that the official historians would say that he disobeyed the will of his ancestors. Thus, he would be despised by the world in history.

Ao Chenyi stood up and pushed the table aside. Then he walked down the platform along the stairs with his hands clasped behind his back. “Tell the people from the imperial palace that I won’t forget to attend the party,” he said.

Since the emperor had never been tired of playing this game with him, he would play with him.

It was a long way from the imperial palace to the Plum Garden. Fortunately, with Heng Yuqing by her side, Ning Xueyan wasn’t bored. After turning the corner, she caught sight of a corner of an extremely huge palace. From afar, she saw the beams and pillars of the palace were carved and painted with elaborate designs, and looked extremely exquisite. Although the palaces around it were also tall and exquisite, they seemed to lack something when compared to this one.

“Is that the empress’ palace?” Ning Xueyan asked curiously. That palace was so obvious, but it wasn’t on the central axis of all the imperial palaces.

“No, it isn’t.” Heng Yuqing looked in the direction of her gaze, and then looked at the left and the right before saying in a low voice, “It’s Honored Consort Xia’s palace. She lives there.”

“Honored Consort Xia?” Ning Xueyan had never heard of her before. Her title did not seem to be as high as Honored Consort Shu’s, but apparently the palace was a main palace.

“The emperor’s favorite concubine Honored Consort Xia lives in that palace. It’s said nobody has ever seen her. She is extremely beautiful and is quiet by nature, so she hasn’t shown up in front of outsiders by now. She is very mysterious. Someone said that she is the concubine of the former emperor, but I don’t know if it’s true.”

Heng Yuqing whispered.

“The former emperor’s concubine?” Ning Xueyan was shocked. It was incredible that a former emperor’s concubine could be favored by the current emperor like this!

“She never attended any parties?” Ning Xueyan could not help but want to know more about the mysterious Honored Consort Xia.

“Yeah, never. She has never shown up even on Empress Dowager’s birthday party or the big day of the emperor and the empress. I asked many noble young ladies, and they all have never seen Honored Consort Xia. But according to people from the imperial palace, it’s true that there’s such an honored consort here.” Heng Yuqing had asked many people about Honored Consort Xia out of curiosity, and she got the same answer. Honored Consort Xia did live here, but except for very few people of the imperial palace, nobody had seen her.

She was really strange!

As the favorite concubine of the emperor, everybody would bow to her except for the emperor. If it had been someone else, they would definitely have shown off in front of others. It was weird that she was even unknown. If Heng Yuqing had not told her, Ning Xueyan would never know that there was a favorite concubine never showing herself up in front of outsiders.

While talking, they had passed the imperial road and came to a section of the imperial wall outside the Plum Garden. Since there was no gate here, they had to walk forward along the imperial wall.

Before entering the garden, they had seen several branches of plum blossoms stretch out from inside. The flowers were in full bloom and extremely beautiful, white as snow and red as fire.

Many Young Lady stopped watching and Ning Qingshan stood among a group of people in distance. She was looking at the plum blossoms with a delicate smile. No matter from which angle, she was a delicate beauty who behaved gracefully.

Ning Xueyan slowed down as well. She turned her head aside and saw several handsome young childe coming along the opposite road. The first two of them were Third Prince, Ao Mingyu and Fourth Prince, Ao Mingwan!

“They walked so fast just now. But why did they stop here?” Heng Yuqing asked, pointing at Ning Qingshan and those young ladies. By this point, she had not noticed that Ao Mingyu and the others walking over from aside yet.

“Maybe they’re waiting for someone!” Ning Xueyan answered meaningfully. Ning Qingshan would never miss any opportunity to be close with Third Prince!

“Who?” Heng Yuqing looked around and immediately catch sight of Third Prince and the others. A trace of sarcasm appeared on her face. She pointed at Ning Qingshan, who was the most attractive one among the young ladies and asked, “It looks like Third Young Lady of the Lord Protector’s Manor. I didn’t expect that after three years, she is still so hypocritical!”

“Oh? Yuqing, you knew my Third Sister before?” Ning Xueyan did not want to run into Third Prince, so she deliberately slowed down. She planned to wait for the two groups in front of her to meet and follow them.

“Of course! Everyone knows Third Young Lady of the Lord Protector’s Manor in the capital. It’s said that her filial piety is unmatched, and she has the air of a noble young lady. But I don’t think so. She always puts on a show and she is quite good at it! Three years ago, I ran into her at Honored Consort Ya’s palace when I visited Honored Consort Ya. We talked for a while in the side hall and she broke Honored Consort Ya’s porcelain by accident, but she framed me for breaking it!”

Heng Yuqing said angrily.

“She said it was you who broke it?” Ning Xueyan asked curiously. It was very much Ning Yuling’s style to blame someone else for her mistakes.

“No, she didn’t. She kept on saying that she should be blamed for not taking care of the porcelain carefully. She also wanted to kneel down and plead for me!” At the thought of the scene, Heng Yuqing could not hold back her anger. Because Ning Qingshan kept on pleading for her, and Heng Yuqing had even no opportunity to explain for herself before being scolded by her mother. Finally, Honored Consort Ya persuaded her mother, saying that she was just a kid and it was not a big deal.

Heng Yuqing failed to argue for herself and took the blame for Ning Qingshan. She could not remain calm whenever she thought of this.

Ning Xueyan smiled. It was quite Ning Qingshan’s style. She was good at making others suffer but could not tell anyone else. And people who did not know the truth had always praised her and blamed the one who had suffered.

The two groups in front of her met finally. At sight of so many young childes, even the distinguished Third Prince, Fourth Prince and several other noble Princely Heirs were among them, those young ladies could not help being excited. They greeted them with blushed faces.

Furthermore, their brothers might also be there among the childes. So the two groups immediately merged into one and walked toward Plum Garden.

However, there were too many people in the group. Plus the personal maids, eunuchs and palace maids, the end of the line was very close to Ning Xueyan and Heng Yuqing.

Ning Xueyan pulled Heng Yuqing’s hand and stopped off the road. She wanted to wait until they were a little further away from her.

“Eee? Who’s that girl? I have never seen her before.”

“I haven’t seen her either. Which manor is she from?”

“She looks like Fifth Young Lady of the Lord Protector’s Manor!”

“It’s impossible! I heard that she was ugly and timid, and she has always hidden hers in the manor and never shown up in public.” Several childes’ faces lit up when they passed by Ning Xueyan who was standing outside the wall. One or two of them had once had a look at Ning Xueyan from the instance at the Cold Mountain Temple.

But at that point, she had been very thin and wearing. After some time’s resting, she had removed. Besides, she dressed up carefully today, so many people were stunned by her beauty.