"Having the Princess of Xiliang fancy you is no good. This wife taken home must be treated with utmost care, yet one cannot be too close. It's truly troublesome."
After a pause, Feng Jin suddenly remembered something and said to Ling Mohan, "Right, hurry and tell Chu Chenyi about this. Make him quickly find a way to avoid the Xiliang Princess. Don't let her take a liking to him."
"Once that prince becomes the consort of Xiliang, he will be equivalent to forfeiting his claim to the throne. How could Emperor Xuanwen allow a princess from another country to become the Empress of Eastern Chu?"
"I'll inform him at once. You go rest, I'll be back soon." As soon as he finished speaking, Ling Mohan hurried out.
...
In the study of Prince Jing's manor, Chu Chenyi looked at the tense chess game before him with a rare expression. He held a black piece and hesitated for a long time before speaking, "I'm not playing anymore."
He tossed the chess piece onto the board, disrupting all the arrangements. As expected, he still couldn't win against Ling Mohan in chess.
"Your chess skills are as terrible as ever," Ling Mohan said without mercy.
"Can't you be a bit more tactful when you speak?"
If he hadn't been accustomed to Ling Mohan for so long, Chu Chenyi would have been truly hurt.
"The Xiliang envoys will arrive in the capital the day after tomorrow. What's your plan?"
"I have no plan. I'm already married. The Xiliang Princess can't possibly force me to marry her."
A princess of a nation marrying a married man? Moreover, Chu Chenyi didn't believe he had such great charm that a woman would insist on marrying him.
It was Ling Mohan, with his face that attracted attention like a beacon, who might be fancied by the Fifth Princess of Xiliang.
"Why are you looking at me like that?"
Ling Mohan sensed Chu Chenyi's strange gaze and asked unhappily, knitting his brows.
"Nothing, I just think you look quite good."
Upon hearing this, Ling Mohan's heart suddenly skipped a beat. He looked at Chu Chenyi with a disgusted expression and said solemnly, "I'm not interested in men."
"Bah, what are you thinking? I'm not interested in men either. I was just wondering if the Xiliang Princess might take a liking to you. If she does, would you marry her?"
"I won't marry her!" Ling Mohan said directly, "In this life, I will only marry Feng Jin and no one else. You should worry about yourself instead. Don't really get taken away and become the consort of Xiliang."
"I am merely a leisurely prince. Even if the Xiliang Princess wanted to marry me, the Emperor of Xiliang would never agree."
As Chu Chenyi finished speaking, the study door was abruptly pushed open from the outside. Turning his head, he saw Lin Yuwei standing at the door with a furious expression, her eyes glaring at Chu Chenyi as if she wanted to devour him.
"Why have you come?" Chu Chenyi asked with a hint of guilt.
Lin Yuwei took two steps forward and slammed the plate of pastries she was holding onto the table.
With a 'crack,' perhaps due to excessive force, the plate shattered into two halves instantly.
"The plates in Prince Jing's manor are really not sturdy. It's time to replace them. What do you say, Your Highness?" Lin Yuwei's gaze, filled with coldness, fell upon Chu Chenyi.
Chu Chenyi felt a chill down his spine, and goosebumps erupted all over his body. "You are the Princess of Jing, the mistress of the manor. Since you want to replace them, have the servants go buy some."
Then, Lin Yuwei's sarcastic words followed, "Mistress of the manor, hmph... I'm afraid the Princess of Jing is about to be replaced. I heard that the Fifth Princess of Xiliang is beautiful, the foremost beauty of Xiliang. Your Highness will surely be smitten upon meeting her..."
Ling Mohan, who had been enjoying the show, suddenly felt a killing aura and quickly stood up, saying, "I have matters to attend to. I won't disturb you further. I shall take my leave."
If he stayed any longer, he would be caught in the crossfire. Ling Mohan quickly left.
"You..." Chu Chenyi hadn't finished speaking when Ling Mohan was long gone from the doorway, leaving only Lin Yuwei's man-eating gaze fixed on him.
"Well, Your Highness suddenly remembered that he has something to attend to outside."
"Stop right there!"
Lin Yuwei's angry shout made Chu Chenyi freeze in panic.
"Have you been wanting to marry the Xiliang Princess for a long time? If not, let's get a divorce right now, so I can make way for you to remarry."
Lin Yuwei said through gritted teeth, her eyes burning with a rage that seemed capable of incinerating Chu Chenyi.
"I have never thought of marrying the Xiliang Princess. Do not speak nonsense and tarnish my reputation."
He had always been a man of integrity. From beginning to end, there had been only Lin Yuwei. He didn't even have a concubine, and the side consort Wang Qin was forcefully imposed on him by the Empress, and it was Lin Yuwei who had agreed to keep her.
"A man of integrity? If the gods and Buddhas in heaven heard that, they would surely strike you down with lightning!"
Lin Yuwei shouted angrily, "If I hadn't discovered it in time two days ago, you would have already rolled into bed with Wang Qin."
Thinking of this incident made her furious. Eating her food, living in her house, and still using her money to support a concubine, and now another Xiliang princess was to be taken in. Soon, she would be abdicated.
If she could still tolerate this, then she would truly have no bottom line.
"If you hadn't gone to look for Wang Qin, she wouldn't have drugged you. It was your own fault. You brought it upon yourself!"
Lin Yuwei didn't want to listen to his nonsensical excuses. At this point, any more words were useless.
"I don't want to hear you speak anymore. From today onwards, I am returning to my maternal home. You fend for yourself."
With that, Lin Yuwei turned and left, leaving Chu Chenyi standing there in a daze.
He had no idea why Lin Yuwei was angry. It seemed he hadn't done anything wrong. A woman's heart is like a needle at the bottom of the sea; it's truly unfathomable.
In the Empress's palace, Chu Yanxi entered the palace late at night, standing with a somber expression and remaining silent for a long time.
"Don't worry too much. Who knows who the Xiliang Princess will choose? That Imperial Consort is quite fond of showing off. I'll ask your father, the Emperor, to have her son marry the Xiliang Princess."
The Empress was somewhat worried that the Xiliang Princess might take a liking to Chu Yanxi. She didn't want a daughter-in-law of noble status, as how would she be able to control her then?
"Mother, it's easy for you to say. Do you really think the Xiliang Princess can be manipulated? What are you thinking?"
Chu Yanxi truly admired his mother's ideas. All day long, she spoke useless words. That was a Xiliang Princess, not a daughter from an ordinary minister's family.