The Devious First-Daughter

Ning Xueyan did not immediately come because she said that she was unwell and might come a little late. Now the excuse worked every time she used it. Anyway, she could not keep it from others. All the people knew that she was unhealthy so that when she got married, she passed out once in the Lord Protector’s Manor and Prince Yi’s Manor respectively.

The comer was Ning Lingyun, who had happened to be chatting with Ning Xueyan in the Bright Frost Garden, so she came to apologize to Third Prince in the name of Ning Xueyan.

“Fifth Young Lady hasn’t recovered yet?” Ao Mingyu said with a smile, looking peaceful.

“It’s not that she hasn’t fully recovered, but that she is a little…” Ning Lingyun seemed to find that what she said was somewhat unsuitable, so she hurriedly bowed her head and did not try to finish her words.

Ao Mingyu knitted his eyebrows silently. This meant that Ning Xueyan’s health was not as poor as the rumors claimed, or this was the reason for her to avoid meeting him. Indeed, what happened that day was too weird. Ao Mingyu always felt that he had been trapped by someone, so he could not let go of it.

It was never possible to go to Prince Yi’s Manor to inquire about it. Then, he had to start with Ning Xueyan. For Ao Mingyu, he did not know when he would meet her alone next time apart from this time she had come back to the family of her parents.

“Since Fifth Young Lady is still unwell, Fourth Young Lady, please lead the way, and let’s visit Fifth Young Lady together and also take a look at the Cloud Reflection Courtyard.” Ao Mingyu still kept calling her “Fifth Young Lady” repetitively as if nothing had changed and Ning Xueyan still seemed to be the previous unmarried fifth young lady.

Madam Dowager frowned. Truly, these words sounded quite unsuitable, but she could not refuse the requirement of Third Prince.

“Fourth Young Lady, you accompany Third Prince to the Cloud Reflection Courtyard, then.” Madam Dowager could only say so. After finishing her words, she looked at Ning Lingyun with a profound meaning.

After she was scared by Ning Xueyan previously, Madam Dowager naturally became partial again to Third Prince, but she could not make up her mind temporarily. Now she took a look at Ning Lingyun subconsciously and had to follow Ning Lingyun’s topic to talk. Of course, what she was saying was the matter of the Cloud Reflection Courtyard.

Ning Lingyu had changed her clothes. The plain and nice jacket was blue, and so was the skirt. At the corner of the skirt, there were many red plum flower patterns. This dressing was neither strong nor light, making Ning Lingyun look slender and weak. Clearly, a kind of delicate beauty of a weak woman was shown, and one could not help wanting to take care of her because of it.

Different from her usual excessively plain style or the brightly beautiful style of the past, this dressing was most suitable for Ning Lingyun, in fact.

Madam Dowager looked at Third Prince and found that his look at Ning Lingyun was warm even with a light smile and he did not even mind the fact that she avoided talking about Ning Xueyan. Instead, he rose to his feet and looked up at Ning Lingyun a few times gracefully. “Fourth Young Lady, please lead the way.”

Whether to go to the Cloud Reflection Courtyard was just a topic. If he wanted to enter the Bright Frost Garden when he arrived there, could the daughter of a concubine prevent him from entering it? Anyway, today he had entered the mansion by using the excuse of wanting to visit Ning Xueyan. No matter what, Ning Xueyan was now his senior although he resisted accepting this idea so much that he avoided the word “consort” subconsciously.

“Yes, Third Prince.” Seeing that Third Prince spoke to her so politely and gently, Ning Lingyun felt that she was drunk. Before walking outside, she looked at him quite shyly. Sure enough, what Ning Xueyan said was right. This dressing of hers was the most lovable one.

Of course, such a little love was not enough. Although she was so afraid of Ning Qingshan, when she remembered that this was her only chance to change her fate, she should never let it go. If she retreated, she would have to enter Prince Yi’s Manor and die; if she charged, she would enter Third Prince’s manor and enjoy a happy life. As for this, she had learned it through what Ning Xueyan said just now.

Hearing Ning Xueyan said that she would not go out, leaving the chance to her, Ning Lingyun knew that this was her chance.

“Ning Qingshan will never allow me and her to enter Third Prince’s Manor together as his women, but what if Third Prince is willing, and my grandma is willing too?!

“Previously, Ning Xueyan said that Madam Dowager did not mean that I must marry into Prince Yi’s Manor, but that I only needed to choose to marry into either of them. Sure enough, Madam Dowager’s attitude was like that just now. Otherwise, she would not have asked me, an unmarried girl, to accompany Third Prince alone there.

“Asking a maid or an older female servant would have been more suitable than asking me!”

Since she had Ning Xueyan’s words as an endorsement in her mind, the more she thought, the more reasonable she thought it was. After she looked sideways at Third Prince who was walking on her left, her face turned even redder. As for conspiring to get married, Ning Lingyu did not have the slightest mental burden in doing it. Besides, Third Prince seemed to be much nicer to her than before, and he even especially spoke to her politely.

In the past, Third Prince treated her indifferently, almost ignoring her.

She made her decision as she thought so. As she purposefully sprained her foot, she yelled “Ouch” in a low voice and fell to the side.

Ao Mingyu had encountered such things before, his reaction was always quite quick, and he would have avoided it subconsciously.

But this time of today, he was fully thinking about what happened that day and was lack of concentration, and he did not even notice that unknowingly, Ning Lingyun had been walking side by side with him. More coincidentally, the two of them had just arrived at the entrance of the courtyard. Since this place was so small, Ao Mingyu had no time to avoid her at that moment and extended his hands subconsciously.

Therefore, Ning Lingyun fell into the arms of Ao Mingyu straight in this way. What was more coincidental was that Ning Lingyun was dressed in gauze clothes. It was unclear where her clothes were hooked. With only a “hiss”, the shoulder part of the gauze clothes was broken, and her snow-white arm and a large part of the snow-white skin on her neck were exposed.

Ning Lingyun screamed and blushed, and her tears had even run down. With a “soft whine”, she hid into Ao Mingyu’s arms and began to shiver.

Ao Mingyu did not expect such a scene. He looked at Ning Lingyun in his arms with a frown, and his eyes fell on her half-exposed shoulder as if he did not know what he should do so that his reaction was a little slow.

A young lady who was not properly dressed was held by Ao Mingyu in his arms, looking bashful. At the entrance of the courtyard, the maids and older female servants were stunned. It was fair to say that this happened in the public eye, but no one knew how such a thing could have happened. Before everyone realized it, Fourth Young Lady had fallen into the arms of Third Prince. The two of them just tightly held each other subconsciously.

This scene happened to be witnessed by Ning Qingshan who hurriedly came here. Seeing Ning Lingyun snuggling up in Ao Mingyu’s arms like a timid but lovable little bird with a shy look, Ning Qingshan got angry, and all kinds of envies and hatreds filled her chest immediately. She quickened her steps and came to the two stunned people.

She instantly took Ning Lingyun out of Ao Mingyu’s arms and then slapped her hard twice. “Slut!”

Now she even wished to swallow up Ning Lingyun.

Ning Lingyu was baffled by the sudden change of the situation. She only felt that something passed by her eyes, and then she felt great pain on her face and could not help letting out a cry. When she saw that the one in front of her was Ning Qingshan, her feet lost strength, and she knelt before Ning Qingshan involuntarily. Covering the broken part of her clothes with one hand, she cried, “Third Sister, I, I didn’t do this on purpose.”

“If you didn’t do this on purpose, how could you have made yourself look like this to stay with His Highness? Previously, you also dressed improperly…” Now Ning Qingshan hated Ning Lingyun to the bones, so how could she care about her reputation? She wanted to tell the past story between Ning Lingyun and Ao Xian. Back then, many people in the mansion knew it. Although Ning Qingshan was absent at that time, she learned it later from Mammy Luo.

Ning Lingyun also stayed with Ao Xian in such improper dressing, and then Commandery Prince Li’s Manor approved of that marriage.

Hearing Ning Qingshan’s mention of the “improper dressing” event, Ning Lingyun immediately felt that something was wrong, and her face suddenly turned pale. “If Third Prince learns this, I will have no chance to enter his manor and be his woman.”

“Third Sister, Fourth Sister, what’s wrong with you? Why are you quarreling at the entrance of our grandma’s courtyard?” A soft and calm voice with a little surprise came from outside. Ao Mingyu raised his head and found that Ning Xueyan had stood outside the entrance with her maid, but he did not know when she had come here. Subconsciously, he took a few steps back to the side, just leaving the entrance he had blocked open.

“What’s wrong? All of you, come in and explain it. Fourth Young Lady, go and change your clothes.” Madam Dowager also learned it and took her maids and older female servants over. When she saw the improper scene at the entrance, her expression turned gloomy.

Someone had already gone over and helped Ning Lingyun to her feet. Indeed, she could not show up in public with this appearance now. She was escorted to the wing-room on the side to change her clothes. Turning around, Madam Dowager entered her room, and Ao Mingyu and the other visitors also entered the room.

Looking at Ning Xueyan who calmly came over, Ning Qingshan almost gritted her teeth into pieces, and her eyes, which seemed to have poison, fell on Ning Xueyan straight. The handkerchief in her hands had been messily made into a ball. “Such a thing would not have happened without Ning Xueyan’s arrival. When she came, such a thing then happened. Just now, I arranged Ning Lingyun for Ning Xueyan, but now Ning Xueyan has attacked my weakness immediately.”

If someone said that this had nothing to do with Ning Xueyan, she would never believe it.

“Third Sister, our grandma is waiting for us. You don’t allow me to go in?” Ning Xueyan raised her head and asked with a smile.

When Ning Qingshan turned around to look at Ning Xueyan just now, she happened to stand in Ning Xueyan’s way, making her stop at the door of Madam Dowager. At first sight, it seemed to be true that Ning Qingshan prevented Ning Xueyan from entering the room.

Madam Dowager’s expression turned even gloomier. “Third Young Lady, let Fifth Young Lady come in. Today she is the guest coming back to the family of her parents.”

Madam Dowager was reminding Ning Qingshan that now Ning Xueyan was no longer the previous Ning Xueyan, for she was now the consort of Prince Yi, not the one Ning Qingshan could stop whenever she wanted to. Madam Dowager said these words also with a hidden threat in them, warning Ning Qingshan that she could not afford to offend the current Ning Xueyan.

Just now, Ning Qingshan slapped Ning Lingyun in the public eye, which made her very angry indeed.

No matter how serious Ning Lingyun’s mistake was, she was her biological granddaughter, but Ning Qingshan even dared to slap Ning Lingyun at the entrance of her courtyard. It did make her feel that she had lost face.

Third Prince sat on the side indifferently watching all this, as if everything in front of him had nothing to do with him. Only when he turned his eyes to Ning Xueyan’s smiling face did the look in his eyes lingered slightly.

After being reminded by Madam Dowager with a serious expression, now Ning Qingshan realized that she had overreacted. But when she saw Ning Lingyun lying coyly in Ao Mingyu’s arms just now, she could not suppress her anger. Now when she saw Madam Dowager’s angry face, she came back to her senses at once.

First, she let Ning Xueyan pass; then she went to Madam Dowager, knelt down with a heavy thud, and said tearfully with a trembling voice, “Grandma, please get justice for your Shan’er.”