The Crown Prince's Wedding

What? My cousin actually planned to... with me?

Chu Yuheng was so stunned by Chu Siqing's thoughts that he froze.

"Your Highness! Was the tea too hot?"

Eunuch Yang jumped in alarm and hurried to wipe the tea from the Crown Prince's robes.

Only then did Chu Yuheng come back to himself. Slightly embarrassed, he said, "It's nothing."

Tu Qingchen had heard everything clearly from beside him and barely managed to keep the gleam of gossip out of his eyes.

Chu Siqing said inwardly, Tu Qingchen, didn't the Crown Prince ask you to tell his fortune? Hurry and tell him about this.

Tu Qingchen cleared his throat softly and told the Crown Prince, "Your Highness, simply avoid seeing Miss Ning for the next month."

"Very well," Chu Yuheng said.

The Imperial Preceptor heard about my cousin too. How embarrassing!

After the Crown Prince left, Chu Siqing told Tu Qingchen, The Crown Prince really trusts you. He didn't even ask why he shouldn't see Ning Qingyan.

Tu Qingchen was speechless.

You already spelled everything out so clearly. What else did he need to ask?

Ning Qingyan had suffered one setback after another lately.

First, her father, Duke Cheng'en, had arranged for someone to impeach Xiao Wenshu's eldest brother, only to end up enhancing his reputation instead.

Then there was her own predicament. She had sent the Crown Prince several letters, yet he had never agreed to meet her, leaving her plan dead in the womb.

The thought that Xiao Wenshu would soon become the exalted Crown Princess while her own marriage remained unsettled left Ning Qingyan furious, yet utterly helpless.

She hated the Crown Prince for choosing Xiao Wenshu, but she hated the Second Prince even more.

If Chu Yutao hadn't deceived her first and made her waver, she would have been betrothed to the Crown Prince long ago, rather than sinking to her present state.

Chu Yutao! I won't let you have an easy time of it!

Ning Qingyan's delicate, lovely face twisted with malice. A plan had already formed in her mind.

A month passed quickly, and the day of the Crown Prince's wedding arrived.

At first light that day, the Eastern Palace officials in their court robes, the guards, and the ceremonial procession were already waiting outside the Eastern Palace gates.

The Crown Prince, Chu Yuheng, rode on horseback in his wedding robes. Palace eunuchs carried a decorated sedan chair draped in red satin, and a crowd followed them to Duke An's Residence.

When the auspicious hour arrived, the eunuchs set the decorated sedan chair in the central hall. Dressed in ceremonial robes, the Crown Princess, Xiao Wenshu, left her maiden home and was helped into the bridal sedan by her attending female officials.

The ceremonial procession led the way with music and drums. The spectacle was magnificent, and commoners lined both sides of the road to watch.

Upon reaching the imperial palace, the Crown Prince and Crown Princess paid their respects to Emperor Chu Ming and Empress Dowager Pei, after which the wedding banquet began.

Besides the imperial family, high-ranking nobles and ministers attended with their wives and children.

Chu Siqing sat beside Prince Yu's consort, drooling over the table full of delicious food. Unfortunately, she had only a few baby teeth and could eat only soft foods.

She had initially found the Crown Prince's wedding quite novel, but there were simply too many guests.

One person offered compliments, another fawned over them, and Chu Siqing grew thoroughly annoyed.

Just then, the system suddenly told her, Host, Ning Qingyan had someone drug the Second Prince and deliberately arranged a meeting with him in her own name, but she actually intends to frame the Crown Princess!

Chu Siqing was shocked.

What is Ning Qingyan thinking? She actually dared to stir up trouble on the Crown Prince's wedding day!

She's the one entangled with the Second Prince, yet she wants to frame the Crown Princess!

At those childish words, the nobles and ministers attending the banquet couldn't help pricking up their ears.

Those are the Holy Maiden's thoughts!

Duke Cheng'en's daughter has some tangled grievance with the Second Prince, and she wants to frame the Crown Princess?

Everyone at the Crown Prince's table looked with peculiar expressions toward an empty seat. It belonged to the Second Prince, who had just left.

Chu Hongle glanced at his nephew's expression. He wasn't the only one who could hear his daughter's thoughts, which made moments like this very awkward.

After hearing his younger cousin's thoughts, Chu Yuheng excused himself to the others and hurried out of the hall.

The people left at the table felt as though a hundred claws were scratching at their hearts, desperate to follow him and see what happened.

Unlike the others, who enjoyed a spectacle and didn't care how big the trouble grew, Duke Cheng'en could neither sit nor stand at ease, his heart burning with anxiety.

How could his daughter do something so outrageously bold?

Unfortunately, Ning Qingyan was seated among the women, beyond his reach, and he couldn't speak of the Holy Maiden's thoughts aloud.

Duke Cheng'en truly had bitterness he couldn't voice!

Chu Siqing was fretting over how to warn the Crown Prince when the system delivered another juicy development.

She was astonished. What? Ning Qingyan brought this suffering on herself, and the Crown Prince caught her together with the Second Prince when he arrived with his men?!

Hearing the Holy Maiden's thoughts, everyone couldn't resist turning gossip-hungry gazes toward Duke Cheng'en.

Duke Cheng'en's face instantly flushed crimson.

His daughter had done something so shameful, and all his colleagues had heard about it. He felt he had lost every last scrap of face!

Duke Cheng'en couldn't catch his breath and fainted on the spot.

Before anyone could react, he toppled from his chair onto the floor.

"Heavens, Lord Ning has fallen!"

"Duke Cheng'en has fainted! Summon an imperial physician!"

In the end, Duke Cheng'en was carried back to his residence.

Ning Qingyan also returned in disgrace, riding in a small, inconspicuous sedan chair.

Duke Cheng'en's Residence.

Duke Cheng'en flew into a rage. "Look at the daughter you've raised! She stripped me of every scrap of dignity today!"

Duchess Cheng'en was awash in tears. "Qingyan, tell your mother. What exactly happened today?"

Her daughter had left halfway through the banquet and returned with her clothes disheveled. She had known at once that something shameful must have happened!

Ning Qingyan only cried, refusing to say anything.

Duchess Cheng'en could only turn to her husband. "My lord, what exactly happened?"

Duke Cheng'en pointed at Ning Qingyan. "During the wedding banquet, the Crown Prince caught her with the Second Prince..."

"Father! Stop!" Ning Qingyan interrupted through her tears.

Duchess Cheng'en hurriedly said, "The Second Prince must have taken advantage of Qingyan. My lord, we must demand an explanation!"

"She was the one who drugged the Second Prince, and she was the one who arranged to meet him!" Duke Cheng'en raged. "What grounds do we have?!"

Duchess Cheng'en looked stunned and couldn't help telling her daughter, "Qingyan, how could you be so foolish!"

Ning Qingyan was already sobbing too hard to speak and nearly fainted from crying.

Seeing this, Duchess Cheng'en couldn't help aching for her. After all, this was the daughter she had raised with endless love and indulgence.

She could only ask her husband, "Now that things have come to this, what is Qingyan to do?"

Duke Cheng'en's anger had yet to subside. "Tomorrow, we'll send her into the Second Prince's Residence in a small sedan chair!"

Ning Qingyan panicked. "No! I must at least be a secondary consort!"

She couldn't be carried into his residence just like that, without any title or status!

Duke Cheng'en sneered. "After doing something so disgraceful, you still expect the treatment of a bride married with proper rites?"

Duchess Cheng'en hastily said, "My lord, we can't be so careless about this! Qingyan is, after all, a young lady of our ducal household..."

"Foolish woman!" Duke Cheng'en snapped. "Hasn't our household lost enough face already? The sooner this is settled, the better. We cannot make a spectacle of it!"

"I won't agree!" Ning Qingyan said stubbornly.

Duke Cheng'en glared at her. "Then cut off your hair and become a nun! Stop ruining the Ning family's reputation!"

Seeing that her father had made up his mind, Ning Qingyan could do nothing, however unwilling she was.

The next day, she was carried into the Second Prince's Residence in a small sedan chair.