Noble Lady

"Mr. Chen, are you refusing to drink only the wine that this princess offers you, or are you refusing to drink the wine offered by everyone else?" The Ninth Princess's dark eyes rolled around, and her malicious gaze fell on Du Jingyuan's face.

"Miss Du, please ask Mr. Chen to drink this pot of wine."

Without waiting for Du Jingyuan to speak, she asked the palace servants to put the wine jug and wine glass into Du Jingyuan's hands.

Du Jingyuan looked at the charming princess in a pink skirt embroidered with peony flowers. She was only 28 years old, with fair skin and beautiful looks. Why did she have such a dark heart?

This was not asking her to toast, it was clearly using her, an innocent person, to force Chen Mingxuan.

The Ninth Princess ordered her to make Chen Mingxuan drink the pot of wine. If she failed to do so, she would use this as an excuse to punish her.

If she really had the ability to make Chen Mingxuan drink, she would be embarrassing the Crown Prince and the Ninth Princess, and that would be a situation she could not handle.

Du Jingyuan looked at the prince cautiously, but the prince did not stop her. Instead, he smiled and watched the Ninth Princess making trouble.

She knew that today would not end peacefully.

She hesitated to move.

The Ninth Princess immediately covered her mouth with her round fan and sneered, "Miss Du, are you planning to disobey my orders?"

How could Du Jingyuan dare to disobey her orders?

She was just worried about her own fate.

The Ninth Princess was obviously trying to make things difficult for her. Chen Mingxuan was someone who would rather break than bend, so he might not be willing to be forced like this.

But no matter whether she drinks the wine or not, she will be the unlucky one.

At this moment, she also remembered that her family wanted her to discuss marriage with Chen Mingxuan. If she could do him a favor, if it really came to that in the future, could she ask him for a favor?

So Du Jingyuan made up her mind in an instant.

She walked towards Chen Mingxuan tremblingly with the wine jug in her hand, wishing the garden was bigger.

Finally, when he was going up the stairs, he pretended to fall down.

The wine also spilled all over the floor.

"Du, Jing, Yuan—you're so brave!"

……

"That's just the way it is."

Now that her son thought about it, Du Jingyuan could still recall the look in the Ninth Princess's eyes that made her hate her so much that she wanted to chop her to pieces on the spot, and she couldn't help but shudder.

"Stand up." Xue Chenyu said without any context.

Du Jingyuan was stunned. "What?"

"Stand up so I can see where you fell."

Du Jingyuan laughed, "It's okay, it's okay. I'm different from you. I've been through a lot since I was a kid, so I have thick skin... Ouch!"

Before he could even utter the word "very", Xue Chenyu kicked him in the knee and he jumped up.

"Xue Xiaoyu, are you planning to murder me?!"

Xue Chenyu snorted and turned away, leaving her with only two words, "You're so stubborn!"

Mrs. Xue watched them bickering, as if she was remembering her own childhood. She was so amused and only asked Mother He to give Du Jingyuan some scar-removing cream as well.

Du Jingyuan forgot about arguing with Xue Chenyu for a moment and said quickly, "Madam Xue, this is unacceptable. A bottle of scar cream costs a lot of money, how can you just give it to me?"

"Didn't you say before that our family is rich and has no shortage of money? What's wrong with using our things? Why are you being so pretentious now?"

Du Jingyuan's face was burning. "Xue Chenyu, you did this on purpose, didn't you? I just apologized for serving you tea. Can't you please stop talking about those embarrassing things in the past? When I think about them now, I wish there was a crack in the ground for me to crawl into."

"Admitting one's mistakes and correcting them is the greatest virtue. Consider this scar-healing cream a gift from me to you."

After they finished bickering, Madam Xue smiled and said, "After all, we grew up together. If there's nothing fundamental about it, then don't break off the friendship."

These words were said to Du Jingyuan and also to Xue Chenyu.

She knew that the girl from the Du family used to like to take advantage of others, but seeing that she had indeed changed now, and seeing that Yu'er was willing to interact with her, she said these words.

"I understand, Auntie."

"Thank you, Mrs. Xue."

After a while of commotion, Xue Chenyu brought up the incident where Du Jingyuan was framed by the Ninth Princess and had her so-called imperial inkstone smashed, and was even planning to pawn the imperial dagger.

Du Jingyuan really felt ashamed, but at the moment she was at a loss and could not care about these trivial matters of face.

If the Ninth Princess had plotted to harm her before, it was done secretly, but today she has done it openly to make things difficult for her.

But what she did in the Ninth Princess's garden was not just a pot of wine, but an opportunity for the Ninth Princess to break Chen Mingxuan's bones.

In the eyes of the Ninth Princess, it was clear that she would rather get hurt and punished herself than save Chen Mingxuan.

But what choice does she have?

The Ninth Princess has been completely offended, but Chen Mingxuan...if she has to confront her family and really marry him in the future, she must always leave herself some way out.

"What you did was a reasonable approach under the circumstances. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had been humiliated by Chen Mingxuan, so he might have wanted to vent his anger on the Ninth Princess. But after you threw him like that, he might not have held a grudge against a girl like you. But it would have been difficult to deal with the Ninth Princess."

After all, Mrs. Xue was a person who had seen more of the world, and she saw the crux of the matter at a glance.

Once the Ninth Princess determined that Du Jingyuan was trying to steal her lover, the matter would be a dead end.

A teenage girl is at the age of being stubborn. She is also a precious person who has been pampered and brought up in the palm of someone's hand. She always gets whatever someone wants. How can she tolerate others' rejection?

"Mother, are you worried that the Ninth Princess will do something bad to A Yuan?"

"The Ninth Princess is just a little girl, what can she do?" She has Concubine Wei, whose mother's family is quite powerful, behind her.

There are three pillars in the harem: the Empress Dowager, Concubine Chen, and then Concubine Wei.

The Queen is the original wife and has been married to His Majesty since childhood, so it is natural for her to be in power; the Chen family has the merit of following the emperor, and as a family with a history of a hundred years, their power is deeply intertwined.

Concubine Wei's grandfather was a minor official of the fifth rank when he died. It was her father who gradually rose to prominence. He was able to become wealthy because he had a daughter who became a concubine.

The virtuous concubine only has one daughter, the Ninth Princess. In a place like the palace, she can be on equal footing with the queen and the imperial concubine just by giving birth to a princess. How can she be an easy person to deal with?

"There's no other solution at this point. A Yuan, why don't you just go home and confess to your mother that you've offended the Ninth Princess, and then wait for your marriage in peace."

Madam Xue and Xue Chenyu both knew about the relationship between Chen Mingxuan and the Chen Guogong Mansion. Since they had offended the Ninth Princess anyway, if she really married Chen Mingxuan, they would not want to bring bad luck upon the Chen Guogong Mansion.

By then, even if the Ninth Princess makes a scene with the Virtuous Concubine and then with the Imperial Concubine, nothing will come of it.

The Imperial Concubine and the Virtuous Concubine had always disliked each other, but they were in the same palace and had to maintain a superficial harmony.

Du Jingyuan: “…”

It's not impossible to get married, but it's too depressing to do it in this way.

If Du Jingyuan wants to get married, she must be happy about it.