The Devious First-Daughter

“You’ll be the emperor, and I’ll be the empress?” Ning Xueyan smiled extremely lightly.

“Right, I’ll be the emperor, and you’ll be the empress!” Wen Xueran had a stunning smile, which had a little gentleness and sincerity. It was enough to warm and soften all women’s hearts.

But Ning Xueyan was not among them.

“Do you believe that the military medallion can mobilize the squad of guards of the previous dynasty?” Ning Xueyan asked, with a bit scoff in her eyes.

“I don’t!” Wen Xueran said calmly.

Ning Xueyan’s eyes seemed to be peaceful, but there were tornadoes in the depths of them, in fact. “He doesn’t even believe that military medallion, the one which is said to have probably fallen into the hands of the Great Elder Princess. He doesn’t even believe it, or this is a snare as I thought.”

“But why do you want to marry me? I’m a married woman!” Ning Xueyan stared attentively at Wen Xueran. She always thought that Wen Xueran was no ordinary person. When all the people, including Third Prince, who represented the emperor, in fact, were searching for the military medallion of the previous dynasty, someone said unhesitatingly that the rumors about the Great Elder Princess and the military medallion were untrue.

So, how could Ning Xueyan not be astonished?

Of course, she didn’t think that she had other things that could attract Wen Xueran apart from this.

“I don’t mind!” Wen Xueran said with a leisurely smile. In his stunningly seductive eyes, there was a joyful smile.

Ning Xueyan’s eyes instantly turned cold. Watching the smile at Wen Xueran’s mouth, she said, “I mind!”

Shocked, Wen Xueran suddenly had a wry smile and explained, “This is not what I mean. I’m saying that I marry you maybe because of your identity, but more because of you. Whenever you want to leave Prince Yi’s Manor, I can help you. You don’t have to mind that some people will know this in the future.”

Initially, he hadn’t meant to say this. Since Ning Xueyan had entered Prince Yi’s Manor, he could ask her to do a few things, but when he had decided to say these words, they had inexplicably become something that he would take her to leave Prince Yi’s Manor. “The whole world knows that Prince Yi is cold-blooded and merciless, so her life in Prince Yi’s Manor should be like treading on thin ice!“

“If she is willing to leave, let her leave! It’s not that I can only accomplish my great cause with the help of the woman I care.”

“I’m not willing to leave. In this life, I’m Ao Chenyi’s woman. When I am alive, I am his woman; when I’m dead, I will be his ghost wife. The affairs of the previous dynasty have nothing to do with me, the little woman.” Ning Xueyan rose to her feet and arched her eyebrows, where there was only coldness. Looking at Wen Xueran firmly, she said, “Princely Heir, no matter who you are, and no matter what you want to do, they all have nothing to do with me. In the future, please don’t come to tell me the so-called truth. If necessary, I will find it out in person.”

After that, she turned and walked outside before Wen Xueran could say anything else. For her personal good or the good of the overall situation, she didn’t think that it was necessary to struggle for the “previous dynasty”, making efforts to take the throne back from the Aos. Anyway, she was just a little woman without so many demands.

In her previous life, she had died miserably, but the so-called person of the “previous dynasty” hadn’t come to save her the moment when she had died. Until death, she hadn’t known about her true identity. In this life, there were Hua Yunheng and Wen Xueran. It seemed that they all could help her get out of the hot water.

But she didn’t need them now!

When she had been in need, no one had come to help her. Since Wen Xueran had been able to find out her family background before her, she didn’t believe that he had really known nothing about her or the predicament of her and Madam Ming in the Bright Frost Garden previously?

As for now, since she had married into Prince Yi’s Manor, she would follow Prince Yi wholeheartedly. Although she was fully willing to live there, outsiders thought that it was a den of wolves.

“At that time, Wen Xueran didn’t say anything but watched me marry into the mansion. When I entered Prince Yi’s Manor, he then told me my identity. Its meaning is not as simple as it is shown on the surface. Would anything be so coincidental? As soon as I married into Prince Yi’s Manor, he then found out my identity.

“There is only one explanation: plotting, but I don’t like the plotting with me assessed.

“I don’t mind being the empress?” A handsome but insidious face flashed across her mind inexplicably. “I only need him to treat me well. Whether others dislike it or not, it has nothing to do with me.”

Seeing Ning Xueyan like this, Wen Xueran suddenly widened his eyes and felt so much pain in his heart, and his eyes twitched slightly. Seeing that she was about to leave the pavilion, he also stood up but felt irritable without knowing why. “Aren’t you afraid that Ao Chenyi learns your identity?”

“So what? I have nothing, and it is even someone who told me about my identity. I am the princess of the previous dynasty, but I have expired. Do you think Ao Chenyi will care about that!”

Ning Xueyan didn’t look back but only paused for a moment. She looked at the sky outside coldly, with ridicule at her mouth.

No matter what Wen Xueran’s scheme was, she didn’t want to get involved. It was decades since the Chu Kingdom had been founded. The people of the country had been living and working in peace and happiness for a long time. Either the former emperor or the current one had seized the state power in war and knew that the people were the base of the kingdom. Therefore, both of them had implemented good measures in governing the people. Even the incumbent emperor, who kept dealing with Ao Chenyi, knew it.

So, he hadn’t sent people to search the whole kingdom for the Great Elder Princess of the previous dynasty, making the people panicky, though he knew this statement.

Were people who had gone through the war really willing to go into a rebellion! Were they really willing to restore the glory of the previous dynasty regardless of life and death! The people had been living and working in peace and happiness for decades, so no one was willing to leave his hometown, becoming homeless or separate from his wife and children!

And she didn’t think that restoring the previous dynasty was her responsibility!

Since this was the wish of the masses, she should let everything go!

Seeing Ning Xueyan go away, the woman dressed like a maid raised her head, came in with a few steps, and asked, “Do I need to stop her, master?” She was the one who had come here with Wen Xueran and been standing outside and the one in white who appeared in the previous chapters.

Wen Xueran suddenly had a smile and shook his head, saying, “No!”

“But she has learned your plan, master. Will she speak it to others?” the woman in white asked worriedly.

“What? If she speaks it to others, you will help me solve the problem and kill her, right?” Wen Xueran glanced at the woman and burst out smiling.

“No… I dare not!” Indulged in his smile first, the woman was dazed for a moment, but then she realized it and lowered her head hurriedly. In fact, there was already cold sweat on her forehead.

“This is not my master’s happy expression.”

A cold snort sounded in her ears, “I don’t want anything dangerous to happen to her, or…”

“Yes, I see. I won’t dare without your order, master!” The woman lowered her head farther, motionless. She just felt that a pair of eyes were scrutinizing her coldly as if her little trick had instantly appeared in his eyes, so she began sweating from head to toe.

“Go back and get your punishment!”

“Yes, master!”

When the figure in the distance had turned at the road junction and disappeared, Wen Xueran exhaled a heavy breath, and a joyful smile reappeared on his face. He still had a chance. He hadn’t cared about the engagement previously, and when he had done an investigation and found Ning Ziying’s death, he had even had a sense of relief and irony. But now, he was willing to accept the arrangement of the engagement.

Ning Ziying was dead. Then, he should focus on Ning Xueyan. In the past, the two families had made an engagement…

“Let’s go back.” Wen Xueran tapped his palm with his fan, regaining his romantic and lively image, and took steps to go out.

“We’re not waiting for Childe Hua, aren’t we?” the woman took a few quick steps forward and couldn’t help asking.

“He will come.” Wen Xueran had a smile as if he was thinking about something. “Hua Manor offered such a big chip, wanting to take Ning Ziying as their daughter-in-law. Unfortunately, the thing went off the track in the end because they heard that the Great Elder Princess was found somewhere else, so Hua Manor broke up the engagement with Ning Manor at the last moment.

“But no one could expect that one to be fake, and Hua Yunheng missed the chance to marry Ning Ziying.

“The scheme of Hua Manor’s old fox failed. When he found out the truth, Ning Ziying had entered the capital, but he was still looking for her in the regions south of the Yangtze River so that only after Ning Ziying died did Hua Yunheng arrive in the capital. Now, so many years have passed. The original plan has failed, but the affair in Annan can’t be delayed anymore.

“The situation has become critical, and it has to be handled. The situation in Annan is on the verge of breaking out.”

“When Childe Hua comes to find me, bring him to me.”

“This is the best time for me to get involved…”

Ning Xueyan didn’t rest for so long in Lord Protector’s Manor before going back. When Madam Dowager hurried over, she saw no one but heard that Prince Yi had suddenly asked Ning Xueyan to go back for something. In this case, Madam Dowager couldn’t complain at all but nod and return to the Lucky Garden. As for what had happened in the Foggy Courtyard, its detail was still unknown, but Ning Qingshan must have suffered losses.

Speaking of Ning Qingshan, Madam Dowager had hated her so much since Ning Zu’an had found that she might have connections with Grand Tutor Ya’s Manor. “I’ve loved her dearly for so many years, but I didn’t expect to have brought up an ungrateful woman. Grand Tutor Ya especially sent her to Lord Protector’s Manor probably for the legendary ‘military medallion’”.

Someone had spread rumors that it was in Lord Protector’s Manor. Of course, Madam Dowager and Ning Zu’an had learned it, so they had searched Madam Ming’s place for it but found nothing. But Grand Tutor Ya had plotted against her even when she had found nothing, so she had gone furious! To her relief, the consort’s position had finally been given to Ning Lingyun, while Ning Qingshan could only be one of the lowliest senior concubines now.

Therefore, Madam Dowager had given Ning Qingshan nothing when she had been sent into Third Prince’s Manor. Instead, she had just brought a little sedan chair to carry her away, but she hadn’t kept any of her maids, so Mammy Luo, Caifen, and Feilian had all followed Ning Qingshan to Prince Xiang’s Manor. As for the Foggy Courtyard, it had no longer been a place for Ning Qingshan to return to since the moment she had left it.

Madam Dowager hated Ning Qingshan so much. Once she remembered that it was Grand Tutor Ya’s Manor that had sent her here as a chess piece plotting against Lord Protector’s Manor, she even wished to kill her. But now, Ning Qingshan was only a senior concubine of Prince Xiang’s Manor that Prince Xiang disliked, so Madam Dowager believed that she couldn’t make waves anymore.

At the back door of Prince Xiang’s Manor, a little sedan chair stopped, and Ning Qingshan dressed in light pink clothes walked out with a dark face. Standing at the door of the house, she clenched her fists in her sleeves tightly and had hatred in her eyes, thinking, “Senior concubine, I can only enter from the backdoor. In the beginning, I was to be the princess, Prince Xiang’s princess, never the so-called senior concubine!”

“Senior Concubine Ning, please come in!” An older female servant came to her, looked at her lightly, pointed inside, and simply went inside before Ning Qingshan came over.

In the prince’s mansion, a senior concubine’s position was so low.