Before Le Cheng Emperor even set foot through the palace entrance, he just heard another report, “………….Sir Ruan’s beloved daughter, on the way back to the manor, got her horse startled and the horse carriage overturned. Miss Ruan got thrown out of the horse carriage, and nearly lost her life under the horse’s hooves.”
Le Cheng Emperor was both shocked and angry, “Has it been investigated, was it an accident or human caused?”
“Replying to your Majesty, this subordinate has yet to investigate. However, after questioning the Ruan family, they all very assuredly say it was an accident. The horse pulling the carriage was suffering from a disease, but the horse keeper responsible for the horse failed to discover in time. That horse suddenly went crazy today due to the disease, thus causing this accident.” The Great Commander of the Imperial Guards diligently replied.
Le Cheng Emperor furrowed his brows. However, he instead appeared as if sighing in relief, but this wasn’t seen by anyone. Otherwise, they would perhaps visualize an entire play of the ‘love and hate’ between Le Cheng Emperor and Ruan Fang Fei, Le Cheng Emperor letting his own son wear a green hat[1].
“How’s Ruan Fang Fei’s situation?”
“Replying to your Majesty, after Miss Ruan got thrown out of the carriage, she has been unconscious this whole time and have yet to awaken, moreover………….might have injured her face.”
Under normal circumstances, this matter wouldn’t have been immediately reported to Le Cheng Emperor. It was just because earlier, one of Ruan Fang Fei’s servant girl got killed, so they suspected whether or not the other party’s target was actually Ruan Fang Fei. And as soon as this incident occurred, it was hard to avoid having such suspicions. Reporting this to Le Cheng Emperor was actually just them wanting to ask whether or not this matter needed to be tied together with the previous murder case and thoroughly investigated.
“No need to bother.” Since the Ruan family themselves already said it was an accident, he would have to be ‘too full with nothing to do’ to do something this excessive. Le Cheng Emperor ordered the inner attendant, letting him tell the Empress to send someone to go have a look. Actually, it was really to go see whether Ruan Fang Fei really injured her face or not, and how serious was her injury, just this real reason couldn’t be said out loud.
After returning to the palace, the Empress, with the excuse of being busy with palace affairs, left in advance. Noble Consort Su, on the contrary, stood by Le Cheng Emperor’s side, looking to Le Cheng Emperor’s not that smooth brows and reaching out to lightly caress them, very much worried. Le Cheng Emperor grabbed her hand, and between the two of them, there was a kind of atmosphere where bystanders weren’t able to insert into, letting those pampered consorts that want to approach Le Cheng Emperor all resent out of jealousy, yet at the same time, also produce a kind of awkward feeling. Then recalling Noble Consort Su’s methods, each and every one all just gave up.
When the Emperor and consort pair interacted, the serving palace attendants naturally all perceptively withdrew some distance.
Le Cheng Emperor pulled Noble Consort Su along, just like taking a stroll as he slowed down his pace, walking and walking, before suddenly sighing, “What did this emperor say, Ruan Fang Fei, that girl, perhaps will also met with mishap. Just look at it now, sure enough this was the case.”
Noble Consort Su recalled the conversation she once had with Le Cheng Emperor, “She got into an accident on her own, it’s not like Yuan’er did anything to her, so how can it be blamed on Yuan’er. This is too unfair. If this consort has to say, that’s all their fault for having a bad fate.”
Towards the matter of his bastard son cursing wives, Le Cheng Emperor can be said to firmly believe without any doubts, but Noble Consort Su has always been unwilling to acknowledge it. In front of him, every time that bastard’s marriage was mentioned, the usually gentle Noble Consort Su would always retort him a few words. Le Cheng Emperor laughed in spite of himself, “You ah, this isn’t the first or second time anymore, yet even now, still unwilling to acknowledge.”
“This was just complete nonsense to begin with, what is there for this consort to acknowledge? This consort has a feeling that this time, the Luo family’s third miss will definitely be able to smoothly marry Yuan’er. When time comes, it will naturally let those who say Yuan’er cursed wives all shut up.”
Those people also included him, this Emperor.
“Your Majesty although issued the marriage decree, the three documents and six rites[2], not a single one has been processed. Your Majesty, this consort won’t be keeping you company, this consort needs to go instruct the people of the internal affairs to quickly have the marriage arrangements completely set.” She didn’t wait for Le Cheng Emperor’s reply either, and after bowing, just somewhat hurriedly left.
This left Le Cheng Emperor standing in place in confusion, and in the end, he just helplessly sighed.
After returning to the Ruan Manor, everyone, regardless whether it was the masters or the servants, all were deathly silent.
Not that many people remained in Ruan Fang Fei’s room. Aside from Ruan Rui Zhong and Ruan Old Madam, it was just a few close servants that served Ruan Fang Fei. Two of the servant girls were even kneeling upright on the ground. The imperial physician had already left at this time.
Ruan Rui Zhong looked to his wife sitting by the bed, wordlessly holding his youngest daughter’s hand. Feeling unbearably distressed, he went forward and patted her shoulder, “Madam, don’t worry, didn’t the imperial physician already say, our daughter’s injuries aren’t very serious and will recover very soon. The injury on her face is also not that serious, and although it can’t completely heal, it won’t be very obvious either.”
Ruan Old Madam, whose beauty and age didn’t lose to young madams, lifted her head and looked to Ruan Rui Zhong, forcibly smiling, “My lord, this wife is fine. You still have many affairs to attend to, and later, his Majesty will also be arranging a banquet in the palace, so why don’t you go take care of your work.”
What his madam said was right, so Ruan Rui Zhong could only leave for the time being. “After returning from the palace, I’ll come check on Fang Fei again.”
Once Ruan Rui Zhong left, the expression on Ruan Old Madam’s face just completely changed into something else, “You two, go accept your punishment on your own.” That voice carried a bone-chilling coldness.
The two servant girls uncontrollably trembled, but didn’t dare resist in the slightest.
After they left, another rather thin and weak looking man, who very much didn’t have any presences, entered the room, deferentially standing next to Ruan Old Madam, “Master, is this matter really just going to be let go of like this?”
“If not, what else can be done?” Ruan Old Madam said through clenched teeth. Ever since she married Ruan Rui Zhong, she has never been this sullen before. “For the other party to dare act this openly and brazenly, they definitely must have some sort of understanding towards us. For them to be able to hinder every single one of you all guarding and escorting Ruan Fang Fei, that is already the best proof. The enemy is in the dark, and we are in the light. You should know, once the people and matters in this Ruan family rear court are exposed, what kind of ending we will have. Although on the surface we can’t do anything, but in secret, we definitely need to investigate clearly who exactly the other party is.” She originally thought that everything was all controlled in her palm, yet unexpectedly, there was still such a terrifying enemy hidden in the dark. If her everything was all under the other party’s watch, then just thinking about it made one shiver in fear.
“Master don’t worry, this little one will definitely investigate clearly as soon as possible.”
“En, go then.”
“This one will take one’s leave.”
Ruan Old Madam then quietly sat for a moment, “Fang Fei, rest assured, mother will definitely take revenge for you.”
Did Ruan Rui Zhong that easily believe that Ruan Fang Fei’s incident was just an accident? Yes! Leaving aside the fact that he doesn’t believe there was anyone that would deliberately conspire to murder his daughter, because there was truly no reason, but also, his second madam had everything in the Ruan family all taken care of too well, completely not needing him to spend the slightest thought. The degree of trust he had towards his second madam was practically somewhat blind, thus leading to him being completely ignorant of the matters in his own rear court. Speaking of which, he was such an astute, wise, and farsighted man, yet fell head first on this kind of matter. And it just so happens that even he himself was completely unaware. In the future, when he finds out, don’t know what kind of reaction he will have. Hard to say whether he’s pitiful or lamentable? Perhaps he has never suffered a loss before in the slightest against women, that’s why he would be like this.
In the Jin Qinwang Manor, Li Hong Yuan sat in the shadows of his bedroom, making his entire person all appear somewhat blurry and unreal.
“Master, that medicine ointment has already been applied onto Ruan Fang Fei’s face, and will go into effect in a month. When time comes, a centipede-like black scar will grow on her face.” An Jiu stood next to An Yi and respectfully reported.
Li Hong Yuan faintly let out an ‘en’.
“Master, there’s one thing this subordinate doesn’t understand, today’s matter, won’t it inadvertently alert the enemies?”
“What this prince wants is precisely to ‘beat the grass and alert the snakes’.” A venomous snake was hidden too well. Startling it wasn’t to let it swim out, but rather to let it withdraw even more, becoming increasingly fearful of ‘shooting the rat in fear of breaking the vase’[3], because it knows, in a place unknown to it was an unknown enemy with an unknown strength. And today’s matter made them understand, the enemy definitely wasn’t weak.
Also, since using conventional methods can’t take care of Ruan Fang Fei, then one will just have to use unconventional ways instead.
[1] Green hat is a metaphor for getting cuckold
[2] See historical notes
[3] Becoming scared to act out in fear of causing an even greater trouble
T/N: Remember the White Dragon Temple incident cause by Ruan Fang Fei where Jing Wan flew out of a carriage, this is almost like ‘karma’ lol.
