NOVEL WEB Proofread by Ruriko
Mu Qianhua asked Qingying to bring her a stool, and sat in front of the General’s mansion to snack on sunflower seeds as if there were no one around.
What happened today was really an insult to all from Cold Night Empire, so General Han was filled with indignation and ordered his men to rest casually on the ground.
The butler’s face turned pale, pleading, “Your highness, I am only a butler, and I don’t mean to offend you.”
“I know you just follow his order.”
“But, why…”
“For fun. To see your general’s wooers. Be quick! Call them,” Mu Qianhua smiled.
Hearing that, the butler could hardly stand on his feet. The princess came for diplomatic marriage. But, now, she sat outside without decent reception. If this was known by the emperor, he wound be executed.
“Your, your highness. It is truly my fault to say that. Please don’t make this harder for me…”
“What? How dare you say I make this harder for you?” Mu Qianhua replied instantly. Indeed, General Pingyan set the princess in such a shame – she came all the way to Dark Night Empire, and the whole capital was decorated with wedding lanterns except the general’s mansion. Even worse, the general shut the door on her. The princess suffered such a shame. If this was spread to every corner of the capital, all in the capital would have a joke to tell after and before dinner. Qingying would never allow this to happen, let alone the princess herself.
With great interest, Mu Qianhua looked the butler up and down, “I am here to see how many girls would be willing to marry your general. If you don’t call them, I will do it in person.”
“Please, please don’t,” the butler fell on his knees suddenly. The General would probably skin him alive if he stirred up the mess and attracted a number of bystanders.
“Now, you can tell your general that I am right outside his mansion.”
“But…” the butler was still in hesitation.
“Anything else?”
Just as the butler was about to burst into tears, the sound – clip-clop, clip-clop – came from afar. There was a graceful man on horseback. In the dancing snowflakes, his eyes were bright like stars at night. The man dismounted the horse, frowning at the scene.
“May I ask if you are with Princess Wude from the Cold Night Empire?” the young man asked in a gentle euphonious voice.
At the sight of the man, the butler wasted no second to step over and kneel down for showing his respect.
Mu Qianhua cast her glance at the guy who turned out to be the third prince of Dark Night Empire – Dongfang Lingfeng.
There were three princes of Royal Family in Dark Night Empire – Dongfang Zhentian (the emperor), Dongfang Lingyun (General Pingyan) and Dongfang Lingfeng (the one with great statesmanship). The latter two were pillars of the state and helped their old brother to govern the country.
Dongfang Lingfeng’s eyes also rested on Mu Qianhua. From the look in his eyes, Mu Qianhua felt something subtle and different at the moment.
Dongfang Lingfeng came up to Qianhua who was eating sunflower seeds, and asked, “How about the seeds?”
Mu Qianhua could hardly respond to such a question, but to raise her hand, saying “Would you like some?”
“No, thanks. Enjoy yourself,” he said. Then, he found the gate was closed, and added, “Doesn’t the butler let you in?”
Qianhua lost her defensiveness to such a gentleman, so she just answered, “As you see.”
After pondering for a few seconds, Dongfang Lingfeng took off his fox-fur robe and draped over Qianhua’s shoulders, “It is so cold today. You will catch a cold unless you go inside. Would you mind following me first?”
“To your home?”
He smiled slightly, “Oh. If you will, I won’t mind.”
Mu Qianhua was choked and felt quite at a loss.
Dongfang Lingfeng had turned around and exclaimed, “I am Dongfang Lingfeng, the third prince of Dark Night Empire. I am here to welcome all of you. Please let me lead you to the reception hotel for rest.”
He behaved properly, with politeness and modesty. This melted away all the complaint and even anger of Qianhua and her escort. Furthermore, he was a handsome young man, and his manners won appreciation of those from Cold Night Empire.
Qianhua stood up without saying anything, and then Qingying ordered all to leave.
The butler was so grateful to Lingfeng, and when he was to sigh with relief, he found Qianhua stood in front of him. He was shocked, stammering, “Your, Your highness, What, what else can … I do for you?”
Mu Qianhua put the sunflower seeds in his hands,” Take them as my gift for your general, and hold them carefully; if one falls…”
“As you please…” said the butler trembling.
Mu Qianhua got into the wedding carriage, and her escort followed her carriage to the reception hotel.
The butler had broken out into a cold sweat. The Princess Wude did not seem to be very amiable.
In the reception hotel.
Only when they entered the room did they know that Dongfang Lingfeng had asked his man to get the bathing water and supper ready for them. He didn’t return back to royal palace until they all settled down.
Before leaving, Lingfeng looked at Qianhua with a look of deep significance and said, “We’ll meet some other day.”
Qianhua could feel something so gentle and subtle in these words.
After Dongfang Lingfeng left, Qianhua and Qingying rested in the room with stoves in their hands. While eating the seeds peeled by Qingying, Mu Qianhua flipped through the pages of the “Esoterica” given by Murong Jingshan.
“General Pingyan is just too imperious. How could you bear that?” asked Qingying with her teeth clenched in bitter hatred. What puzzled her today was not Dongfang Lingyun’s behavior of breaking the engagement, but that the princess didn’t take down the general’s mansion.
“He rejected me today just to humiliate me,” Mu Qianhua smiled casually. “Qingying, do you think I am so easy to be defeated? ”
“But, what should we do next?”
Mu Qianghua gave a cunning smile and said,” I’m not the one to hold a grudge, and I usually take revenge on the spot when necessary.”
Qingying felt shocked whenever the princess showed the smile. It seemed that General Pingyan wouldn’t have an easy life anymore.
Meanwhile, in the General Pingyan’s mansion.
The butler, with seeds in his hands, stammered in fright,” Ge… General…”
The man sitting in front of the desk pressed his thin lips slightly and asked, “Her greeting gift?”
“Yes…” the butler put the seeds in front of him.
He looked at the sunflower seeds and poked them with his slender fingers, finding that some white powder was mixed in them. A shocked look appeared in his eyes “No…”
Soon, not surprisingly, he came out in a rash, from his fingertip to the arm, too itchy to endure.
“General, are you ok?”
Dongfang Lingyun destroyed the desk with his bare hand, grinding his teeth. His beautiful face twisted in great anger.
“Mu Qianhua, I want your scalp!”
At this moment, Mu Qianhua was leaning on the couch leisurely, appreciating the pornographic pictures, with a cunning smile on her face.
What happened outside the general’s mansion spread faster than usual. Within a day, rumor said that General Dongfang Lingyun shut the door upon Princess Wude’s face and broke the engagement. It even became a story told by storytellers and was known to almost everyone in the capital.
In the teahouse, a storyteller was telling everyone what had happened the night before. When it came to the climax part, he almost jumped out of the table, as if he had seen all about it with his own eyes.
“It is said that the Princess Wude is the Princess Royal of the Cold Night Empire. Born in a royal family, the princess, whose life is totally a bed of roses, is extremely ugly and has a strange temper, often abusing her maids. If it was not because of her crown as the only princess of the Cold Night Empire, I believe it is impossible for Cold Night Empire to send such a disgrace to marry our general.”
“Look at our General Pingyan. He is an outstanding man with good appearance, excelling in martial arts, which are favored by many people. How could he marry such an indecent woman?”
Some audience doubted, “But we’ve never heard of this Princess Wude. How could you be sure she is as awful as you’ve said?”
As the Cold Night Empire and Dark Night Empire were more than thousands of miles apart, whether or not the royal family of Cold Night Empire intended to hide the fact that they had a princess, the people of Dark Night Empire seldom heard about this princess. The reason why she came to the Dark Night Empire this time was to marry General Pingyan for peace between the two countries. However, she caused such a stir as soon as she arrived the first day.
The storyteller said seriously and earnestly, “How could the scandal of the princess be freely spread? I got the news from special sources. Believe it or not, it’s all up to you.” His words made those present begin to doubt and gradually believe what he said.
After a deep thinking, you would know what he said was reasonable to some extent. Since the marriage (It refers to peace-making marriage, which means two people in two different empires get married in order to guarantee the peace of the two countries.) was not a trivial matter, if the Princess Wude was not as unbearable as the rumor said, how could the General Pingyan embarrass her in this way? It was said that the princess was even unable to enter the general’s mansion yesterday, she could only go to rest in the reception hotel arranged by the third prince of Dark Night Empire for one night.
The storyteller still vividly continued talking about this news. The people also had a heated discussion while listening attentively. Before long, the bad reputation of Princess Wude, vulgar and extraordinarily ugly, was known by everyone in the capital city.
However, Mu Qianhua was staying in the reception hotel at that moment, not concerning about what was happening outside.
Qingying suddenly appeared from her back, saying, “Your highness, I have done all you told me.”
Mu Qinhua raised her head and asked, “How did it go?”
Looking at the princess, Qingying said in perplexity, “Everything develops as you expected. Now your reputation in the capital city is really bad…” Last night, Mu Qianhua suddenly asked Qingying to find a storyteller in the most famous teahouse in this city, so that the storyteller could help her to spread the bad reputation of herself. It was today’s morning that all the people knew this rumor. Qingying continued, “But I could not understand why you want to destroy your own reputation?”
Mu Qianhua signaled to her to stand up, “Qingying, I don’t like here, and I don’t like the person I am going to marry, but it’s not easy to break up the marriage between Cold Night Empire and Dark Night Empire for maintaining their relationship. What I need is to make Dark Night Empire cancel the marriage of their own accord. You can wait and see, the emperor of the Dark Night Empire will call in me tonight.”
Qingying knew from the beginning that Mu Qianhua did not want to marry. The reason why she put on her wedding dress and sat in a wedding marriage and left Cold Night Empire was just for Mu Ditian, her only brother. She was the only princess of Cold Night Empire. If she did not come, it would cause her brother to feel embarrassed. Their mother was not easy to deal with. Her only chance was to come to the capital city of the Dark Night Empire and find a way to get her marriage cancelled voluntarily.
Dongfang Lingyun, the most handsome man in Dark Night Empire, was not important for her at all. If someone wanted to marry him, she could just marry him. Mu Qianhua didn’t care.
As expected, two hours later, an imperial edict came from the palace, and Princess Wude was called to meet the emperor.
At the moment of receiving the imperial edict, she smiled.
“Qingying, made me up and change my clothes.”
One hour later, in the Chaoyang Palace, all the civil and military officials presented themselves at court together. Although the strength of the Dark Night Empire was strong, yet the Cold Night Empire could not be underestimated. The decision of the marriage between two countries had been considered carefully several times, but the Princess Wude was rejected last night, and rumors were spread everywhere overnight. Now the Dongfang Royal Family had become a laughingstock of all those who ever heard the story; even with the suppression of the military forces, the people of the whole capital could not stop the talks.
Rumors finally reached the emperor of Dark Night Empire, Dongfang Zhentian, within just a few hours, who was trapped in vexation due to Dongfang Lingyun’s sudden behavior of breaking the engagement.