The Devious First-Daughter

In fact, it was not too difficult for her to accept the fact. She had been hurt to the core by love in her last life and she had been reborn for revenge, so she did not care who she would marry.

If she could survive after revenge, she wished that she would marry an ordinary man, instead of an extremely moody and dangerous person, like Prince Yi, Ao Chenyi.

“Prince Yi, I’m so flattered. I dare not expect to marry you.” Seeing a trace of bloodthirsty flashing in his eyes, Ning Xueyan sighed secretly. She shifted the topic and continued, “Prince Yi, I’m very happy that I have you as my back.”

She knew that she could not change Prince Yi’s mind. She had thought that the Lord Protector’s Manor would consider about her marriage in two or three years at least. By that point, she would be strong enough and even Ning Zu’an and Madam Dowager could not push her around at will. But now she was still too weak, and without any mental preparation, Prince Yi had already made his decision to marry her.

“Do you really want to marry me?” Ao Chenyi did not think it was necessary to ask this question, but he still asked, half smiling. The girl’s fragrant and soft body in his arms warmed his cold heart a little. He loosed his hands slightly and touched her hair gently with his left hand.

“Yes, I do!” Ning Xueyan did not know what she could say except for agreeing to his request.

Ao Chenyi let Ning Xueyan go and leaned back, looking at her from the corner of his charming eyes. “Since you agreed, I’ll assume you mean it. Then give me a love token!” he said with a smile, trying to hold back his excitement.

“Love token?” It was a token given between lovers. Ning Xueyan was surprised that the proud Prince Yi would have made such a request. “Is he playing tricks again?” She took out a perfume pouch from under her pillow and handed it to Ao Chenyi. “Prince Yi, please take it.”

She had made the perfume pouch in the past few days when she was free. She had learned the technique from her mother in her last life, and it was a little different from the way people of the capital made them. This was the only one that she had made to kill time. She had not decided if she should put it on or not, so she had only stuffed it under her pillow.

Ao Chenyi took the perfume pouch from her hand in surprise. He observed it carefully, but did not see sewing trace. Obviously, Ning Xueyan had sewn it beautifully and carefully. Being pleased, Ao Chenyi patted Ning Xueyan on the head with an idle smile.

“Well done! You can make the underwear for me after moving to my manor.”

Seeing a surprised and depressed look appearing on her fair face, Ao Chenyi became more excited. He played with the perfume pouch in one hand and propped his face with another one. “Since you are so sincere, I will marry you as my co-consort.”

“What? Co-consort?”

Ning Xueyan widened her eyes and did not know what to say. She blinked, staring at him blankly.

She did not care if she would be his principal wife or not, but she thought it strange that this prince had knocked at her window and entered her room at night only to officially inform her that he would marry her as his co-consort. Besides, he had stayed in her room for such a long time!

“His Majesty will definitely choose a woman as my principal wife, and I don’t want to disobey his order for the moment. After all, he is the emperor, and I’m only a prince. What’s more, he is my elder brother. So I will agree with him to choose the principal wife for me. But I will choose the co-consort by myself,”

Ao Chenyi reached out, pinched Ning Xueyan’s chin slightly and said, half smiling.

“Is he explaining to me?” Ning Xueyan was surprised that the arrogant, aggressive and cold-blooded prince would have explained to her. She blinked her bright, moisture eyes, looking at Ao Chenyi’s incredible handsome face. There was still a sneer on his lips, but it made him look more charming and enchanting.

He was so charming! Wen Xueran was extremely beautiful when he smiled. Compared to him, Ao Chenyi looked more bloodthirsty and grim, but they were both charming. Ning Xueyan felt that Ao Chenyi’s extremely gorgeous appearance was more attractive.

Ao Chenyi applied a little more strength on his hand and pinched Ning Xueyan’s chin. “What are you thinking? You are fascinated by my handsome face, aren’t you?” he narrowed his eyes and said slightly, looking very joyful.

Sensing the pain in her chin, Ning Xueyan came back to herself. Until now she was aware that she was staring at the Asura with fascination. With blushed face, she turned her head slightly and got rid of his slender fingers. She then stood up and smoothed her clothes. “Prince Yi, it’s up to you,” she answered coolly, ignoring his frivolous words.

Ao Chenyi’s face suddenly turned grim. “Solve the problem of your manor’s backyard as soon as possible. I’m sure my princess consort can handle the backyard affairs!” he said in a low voice.

After Ning Qingshan’s returning, so many things had happened to the Lord Protector’s Manor’s backyard, and now Ning Xueyan had not find a way to stop her from making troubles. She was so smart, and it should not be a difficult problem for her to solve the problem!

There should be a long way to go for her to marry him, but it seemed he had already thought her for his woman. Even if they got married, she could only be his co-consort. How could he call her his princess without thinking about it. “Don’t expect too much from a co-consort!” she thought helplessly, holding up the tea cup on the table and taking a sip of tea.

“Prince Yi, don’t worry. I won’t get you into trouble. I will solve the problem soon,” she promised.

“If you’re tough enough, nobody will dare to fight you! Why should I marry you as my co-consort if you can’t even handle the affairs of the backyard?” The cold aura emanated from Ao Chenyi was chilling.

The woman he thought highly of should have the ability to defeat his principal wife. If she could not even defeat an adopted daughter of Lord Protector, she would be useless.

Ning Xueyan knew that he was complaining that she was too slow in dealing with Ning Qingshan. She lowered her head slightly and said in a soft voice, “Prince Yi, please calm down. I’ll take care of it.”

The battle between Ning Qingshan and her would soon be decided, because both of them did not want the battle lasted long. Since the Beauty Contest was coming, Ning Qingshan would not pay much attention to her. Ning Qingshan had been taken as Third Prince’s future principal wife, but after getting involved into so much trouble recently, she might not quite sure whether she would still be Ao Mingyu’s principal wife.

So after the account books had been turned in tomorrow, in addition to Madam Ling, who had been suppressed for a long time, nobody would make any trouble in the manor for some time to come.

Ning Xueyan knew that Ning Qingshan had no time to deal with her for the moment. After the lunar New Year, the Beauty Contest would start. The activity was held not only for choosing concubines for the emperor, but also for Prince Yi, Third Prince and Fourth Prince. If Ning Qingshan missed the opportunity, she would not be able to marry Ao Mingyu.

“Maybe I can take advantage of the Beauty Contest,” Ning Xueyan thought.

“Okay. I hope you won’t let me down,” Ao Chenyi said meaningfully, looking at Ning Xueyan from the corner of his eyes.

When Ning Xueyan raised her head, her jet-black eyes happened to meet Ao Chenyi’s mysterious and grim eyes, the look in them as cold as usual. Ning Xueyan believed that if she did something he was not happy with, this prince might show no mercy to her. She seemed to be in danger all the time, so she must be more cautious.

In the morning of the next day, Ning Xueyan walked to Madam Dowager’s Lucky Garden after dressing up. Ning Qingshan had already been there. Seeing her walking in, Ning Qingshan greeted her gently with a smile, “Hi, Fifth Sister. Our grandmother was talking to me about what happened yesterday. After all…”

She seemed to be too sad to continue. She wiped the tears from her eyes, as if she had suffered a great grievance.

“Third Sister, it was not your fault. Princely Heir of Commandery Prince Li was too reckless. How dare he do that to Third Prince’s face! Third Sister, don’t worry. Third Prince will back you up.” Ning Xueyan comforted her in a soft voice. The two of them pretended to be close sisters in front of Madam Dowager.

Madam Dowager nodded secretly. She thought that Ning Xueyan was kind of generous, as there had been a conflict between Ning Xueyan and Ning Qingshan for account book some time ago, but now Ning Xueyan did not kick Ning Qingshan when she was down.

But Ning Qingshan’s face turned pale at the words. In addition to sending her home yesterday, Ao Mingyu had not talked to her at all, let alone comfort her. When she was crying in the carriage, she had thought that Ao Mingyu would feel sorry for her. After all, it was not her fault. If Ao Xian had not entered her room by mistake, nothing would have happened!

But Third Prince had turned the cold shoulder to her. Even she had cried her heart out, he did not say anything. It was a heavy blow to Ning Qingshan. Now Ning Xueyan mentioned that Third Prince would back her up, Ning Qingshan felt it was a satire on her.

She was pretending to be weak in front of Madam Dowager, trying to gain her sympathy and support, so she would not fight Ning Xueyan to Madam Dowager’s face. She gritted her teeth and swallowed it. Tears immediately welled up and ran down her cheeks. “Fifth Sister, don’t talk about it anymore. Anyway, I, I should be blamed. If I did not go to the suburban courtyard, such a thing would not have happened,” she said.

It seemed she had put all the blame on herself, but it was Madam Dowager, who had agreed on their going out yesterday, and she had gone to Third Prince’s suburban courtyard following Madam Dowager’s words. Seeing her tearful face, Madam Dowager said, “Come on! Don’t cry. We won’t talk about that accident anymore. The Commandery Prince Li’s Manor should be blamed! Fortunately, nothing serious happened. You should be more cautious in the future. Girls’ reputation is the most precious, so you should not make any mistake.”

Madam Dowager was warning both Ning Qingshan and Ning Xueyan. She had great hopes for both of them, so of course she did not want their reputation to be ruined. Otherwise, if they could not marry the princes as her plan, and it would be a heavy loss both for the Lord Protector’s Manor and for her.

“Yes, Grandmother. I will be cautious,” Ning Xueyan answered calmly with a smile.

“Got it, Grandmother. I will certainly follow your words.” Ning Qingshan wiped the tears from her cheeks and nodded gently.

“Grandmother, the account books will be brought here soon. I’m afraid that they are too complicated that I don’t know how to check.” Ning Xueyan did not want to waste too much time on Ning Qingshan’s affair, so she shifted the topic and asked uneasily in a soft voice.

“Yan’er, you did a good job before. The account books they will bring in are even easier, and you just need to check the figures. That’s enough.” Madam Dowager was satisfied with Ning Xueyan’s work in charge of the accounts. Ning Xueyan would ask her to make the final decision each time after checking all the account books, so Madam Dowager felt that it was more convenient than when Madam Ling had been in charge of the backyard.

Madam Dowager was satisfied with the current situation. If not because of Ning Qingshan, she would like to keep Madam Ling in the Buddha Hall for a little longer.