Chapter 454   With Scruple, She Cannot Afford to Gamble

Ning Qingshan knew this matter was a big deal, so she tried her best to pretend that she had nothing to do with this. Regardless of her injured leg, she knelt on the ground with it. With her nose running and tears coming out, she was desperate to show her sincere feeling toward Ning Xueyan. By swearing up and down that she did nothing wrong, she tried to make Madam Dowager believe her, which was her only purpose.

Perhaps it was because Ning Qingshan’s expression was too sincere, Madam Dowager‘s manner relaxed a little. Though her face was still dark, she looked slightly different now.

“Grandmother, no matter how stupid I am, I know that we sisters are closely linked, and we all rise and fall together. I clearly know that if anything happens to Fifth Sister, Prince Yi will never forgive the people of the Lord Protector’s Manor. I’m the co-consort appointed by the emperor, but I’m nothing in Prince Yi’s eyes. Besides, I haven’t yet married. If the Lord Protector’s Manor is in trouble, I also can’t get away with that. Grandmother, do you think I don’t want to live?”

Ning Qingshan cried with greater sincerity. One by one, her tears fell. Plus her wounded leg, she made her bad condition appear more and more apparent.

With her gloomy eyes, Madam Dowager glanced at Ning Qingshan’s leg, turned around, and walked over to the chair on the other side. Seeing this, Mother Qin quickly helped Ning Qingshan up and said, “Third Young Lady, it’s not that Madam Dowager wants to punish you. No one can bear the consequences of such a serious matter. Prince Yi is not someone to be trifled with.”

What she said was true. Ning Qingshan, who also thought that Prince Yi and Third Prince were equal in strength, had never expected that Prince Yi would slap Third Prince so violently. In her mind, even if there was any mistake, Third Prince could protect her. However, what happened shocked her and brought her hatred.

“Why could Prince Yi smack the Third Prince? After that, the Third Prince didn’t even dare to say a word!” Ning Qingshan thought.

At that moment, she was frightened, fearing that Prince Yi would track down to her and kill her. If the Third Prince could not even defend his dignity, what could he do to protect her?

“Mother Qin, I know. I know that Grandmother did all of this for our good. Only by uniting together can we assure the peace and glory of the Lord Protector’s Manor forever. If we are not united, there will be no need to talk about wealth and glory,” said Ning Qingshan when Mother Qin helped her go to bed. At this point, Ning Qingshan completely ignored the pain in her legs and concentrated only on saying sweet words that Madam Dowager liked.

As she had expected, Madam Dowager’s face softened. “Sure enough, she is a smart girl, so she would never do something stupid that could ruin both her sister and her. It seems that it was the Third Prince who did it.” Thinking of this, Madam Dowager secretly blamed the Third Prince. “Since you took a fancy to the Fifth Girl, why didn’t you ask the emperor to make her your wife earlier? And now, see, you have got yourself into such a plight!”

It was not up to the Lord Protector’s Manor to decide. After all, it was the marriage of Prince Yi, who held the imperial edict. Thus, no one dared to break up his marriage.

“At the beginning, if the Third Prince had insisted on marrying the Fifth Girl, I surely would have married her to him. But now, I could no longer do that. The Fifth Girl will marry Prince Yi soon. If her reputation as an unmarried girl is ruined, Prince Yi will transfer his anger to the entire Lord Protector’s Manor.” She thought. With so many scruples, she couldn’t afford to gamble.

“Third Girl, your Fifth Sister is going to get married next month so that she can be considered as a person in the Prince Yi’s Manor. No matter how the Third Prince feels about your Fifth Sister, who will be his senior once she marries Prince Yi, you have to persuade him not to do anything dangerous. It stands to no reason for him to be with her. If things like this happen again, the Third Prince will be badly discredited even though he is the son of the emperor.”

Madam Dowager sighed and said. These were the sincere words from the bottom of her heart. With her experience, she certainly knew why the Third Prince was at a disadvantage. Prince Yi was much powerful than the Third Prince. Beyond that, it was the Third Prince who was in the wrong. He liked his aunt-to-be, which was offensive to all established values.

Fortunately, it seemed that Prince Yi didn’t want to be discussed. After all, any man who got into such trouble would feel disgraced.

Because both of them had scruples, this scandal was hushed up in an effort to save face, which gave the Lord Protector’s Manor a way out. Now Madam Dowager thanked Buddha secretly, feeling extremely lucky. She had given vent to her anger such that she stopped reproaching. After all, the Third Prince was also involved in this matter.

They couldn’t afford to offend Prince Yi, but the Third Prince also couldn’t be provoked, wasn’t he?

“Grandmother, I understood. I promise that I’ll convince the Third Prince not to do stupid things like this in the future. Before he left, he assured me that he wouldn’t act like that again. Don’t worry, Grandmother.” Ning Qingshan promised with tears in her eyes.

By saying all of this, Ning Qingshan was actually collecting the credit for herself. Of course, she was sure that Ao Mingyu would never do such a thing again. After going through the matter about Prince Yi, Ao Mingyu would be stupid if he acted rashly again.

Now that the matter had come to this point, Madam Dowager had no choice but to let it go. Anyway, nobody wanted to make a big deal out of it. Since Prince Yi and the Third Prince didn’t pursue the matter, so would she. At most, she would just punish the few servants severely. Beyond that, she could do nothing else.

Ning Qingshan had broken her leg so that she couldn’t punish her again. Therefore, Madam Dowager just gave Ning Qingshan a few words of admonishment before she left with her servants.

As for Mammy Luo and the other two people who were kneeling in the courtyard, they were ordered to remain on their knees for six hours. Before that, no one was allowed to get up without permission.

When Mammy Luo and the other two got up and limped into the inner room, the time for lunch had passed. Therefore, Ning Qingshan didn’t even have lunch.

Ning Qingshan sent the two maids to the kitchen of Cold Mountain Temple to ask if there was something to eat and asked Mammy Luo to stay there with her.

“Mammy Luo, has anyone from that place come over yet?” At this time, Ning Qingshan, who didn’t look as pitiful as she used to be, asked in a cold voice. Mammy Luo was now tapping lightly against Ning Qingshan’s legs. In previous, she had fallen from the bed, and her legs had knocked against the bed. Then, she focused on pleasing Madam Dowager. However, after Madam Dowager left, she found that her leg was getting more painful. But since her three servants were ordered to kneel in the courtyard as a punishment, she had no choice but to bear it, lest Madam Dowager think that she was going to play some tricks again.

Though medicine had been reapplied on her wound, she still felt a faint pain. Sitting on the edge of her bed, Mammy Luo gave her a gentle massage. The imperial physician had told them that Ning Qingshan should be treated like this every day. Yesterday, the wound didn’t hurt much. But today, Ning Qingshan felt that it became much more painful. However, the imperial physician was not here now, so she couldn’t let him see her for the time being.

“Young Lady, there should be an answer soon. Don’t worry. They won’t let anything bad happen to you because of your noble status. I heard that the master is nearby. Maybe you’ll see him in a while.” Mammy Luo comforted her.

Ning Qingshan was relieved when she heard the news. But then, while gritting her teeth, she asked with hatred, “How about Ning Xueyan?” If Ning Xueyan had not been so clever at that time, nothing bad would have happened next. Even if Prince Yi came here, he wouldn’t have noticed it as long as she told him that she didn’t see Ning Xueyan.

At this time, Ning Qingshan hated Ning Xueyan more. But she never thought the fact that it was she who wanted to harm others. Even in such a situation, she didn’t allow Ning Xueyan to protect herself after detecting her conspiracies.

“I heard that Prince Yi left after staying at the place of the Fifth Young Lady for a while. When he left, he kicked the door and nearly broke it. Then there came a cry. Just now, in the courtyard, I saw Lanning passing the gate of our courtyard in a hurry, carrying a jar of ointment in her hand. She didn’t even cast a glance at us, so I suppose that she must have been in a hurry.”

Mammy Luo said in a low voice as if she was afraid that Prince Yi would hear what she said. Unconsciously, she moved closer to Ning Qingshan. Even now, she was in fear. After all, Prince Yi looked exceedingly ferocious at that time so that she almost believed that Prince Yi would kill the Third Prince for real. Standing in the room, she felt ice-cold because if anything happened to the Third Prince, Ning Qingshan would die.

For a moment, Ning Qingshan was startled and then burst out laughing, even her tears coming out. Enfolding her tummy, she just couldn’t stop laughing now.

“Young Lady, what’s wrong with you? Don’t get into any trouble at this time. What, what should I do?” Mammy Luo was shocked and stretched out her hand to grab Ning Qingshan’s. She didn’t know what was wrong with Ning Qingshan that she suddenly smiled crazily like this.

“I... thought... how she is valued by Prince Yi, who is going marry the consort and the co-consort together. What a... joke... See, even before she marries Prince Yi, she has been beaten and Prince Yi even broke her door... This was really good... Ah, Grandmother... she actually thinks that Ning Xueyan... is so great...”

Ning Qingshan was laughing so hard that she couldn’t stop herself from shedding tears. She said in broken accents while holding Mammy Luo’s hand.

“Young Lady, please keep your voice down a little. If Madam Dowager knows this, she will punish you again!” Mammy Luo was in a great hurry and quickly reached out to cover Ning Qingshan’s mouth. Madam Dowager had punished Ning Qingshan and the servants in her courtyard because she thought that Ning Qingshan was heartless to treat her sister. If she knew that Ning Qingshan took pleasure in her sister’s misfortune, she would punish them again.

Today, Mammy Luo had experienced too many ups and downs and suffered a lot. She couldn’t stand any more trouble. Otherwise, she would die here.

“Don’t worry, Mammy Luo. I... I know... I won’t let anyone... know it!” Ning Qingshan stopped laughing and wiped her tears with her handkerchief. There was a trace of mockery on her face. “Even before she marries into the Prince Yi’s Manor, she came across such a miserable situation. I’d like to see how tragic her life would be after she enters the manor in the future.”

Although she had not succeeded today, she still felt that it was worthwhile. After all, Prince Yi started to hate Ning Xueyan. Besides, it appeared to Ning Qingshan that Ning Xueyan’s wedding, which will be held together with the consort’s, turned out to be a joke. Ning Xueyan had been hurt so badly, but Prince Yi was accompanying his favorite concubine, who had no status. Well, this was a slap in Ning Xueyan’s face.

When Mammy Luo saw that Ning Qingshan didn’t continue to laugh wildly, she was relieved and exhorted her in a low voice, “Young Lady, you’d better be more careful.”

“Is there any letter from my eldest brother?” When Ning Qingshan stopped laughing at Ning Xueyan, her face fell.

“Eldest Young Master asked a young male servant to sneak in here and send you a letter again today. He told you to write a letter to him. He is in a nervous state because he doesn’t know what is going on about us on the mountain.” Mammy Luo whispered in Ning Qingshan’s ears. Then, she leaned over and asked with a much deeper voice. “Third Young Lady, do you want to reply to Eldest Young Master?”

In previous, Ning Xueyan’s life was said to be uncertain, so Ning Qingshan decided to go up to the mountain with Madam Dowager. Now that a few days had passed, Ning Qingshan thought that Ning Huaiyuan must have known that Ning Xueyan didn’t die. But since he didn’t know what exactly had happened, he was in such a hurry. As long as she remembered that Ning Huaiyuan failed to kill Ning Xueyan, she couldn’t help snorting coldly.

“If Ning Xueyan died when I went up to the mountain, there would be no such troublesome thing, and I wouldn’t lose face before the Third Prince.” Ning Qingshan secretly blamed and turned furious. While gritting her teeth, she snarled, “Later on, bring me the writing brush and inkstick. Of course, I have to write a letter to ask my capable eldest brother why he would choose such a useless person who didn’t kill Ning Xueyan even in such a favorable condition.”

After what had happened, Ning Xueyan deserved more than ever to die!