Chapter 48: How Dare You Use My Silver to Keep a Gigolo

Could the Princess really have dismissed all her concubines, leaving only the three principal husbands?

The event had occurred too abruptly. Dieyi covered her mouth in astonishment, watching the men depart in a joyful flurry, her wide eyes filled with an expression of sheer disbelief.

She glanced from the men hurrying away as if fleeing for their lives to her mistress standing silently beneath the pear tree. Beneath the clear expanse of the sky, the Princess's solitary figure appeared so desolate.

She hurried into the inner chamber, fetched a fox-fur cloak, and draped it over the Princess's shoulders. A wave of worry crested in her brows: "Princess, using a cup of poisoned wine to test their loyalty was simply bound to fail. If they had drunk the poison, they would have died, and once dead, they could no longer keep the Princess company. If they refused to drink, it would only prove they didn't really care for you. Couldn't you have used another method?"

"So, wouldn't the clever course of action be neither willing to drink the poison nor willing to leave? Yet you saw how they ran faster than rabbits, which just proves they never liked me at all. It was merely I who forced them to stay here."

She turned around to look at the three husbands still standing in their original spots. Their expressions varied: one looked disconsolate, another complex, and the third utterly bewildered.

"The three of you want to leave this place." Yun Qiange successfully caught Murong Xi's eyes lighting up, Wanzi Haoyu's expression stiffening, and Shangguan Ning biting his lip. She rubbed her chin as if deep in thought, then added: "That is quite impossible. You ought to know your own status; it is not as though I can cast you aside on a whim whenever I please."

Murong Xi let out a self-deprecating laugh. He had known all along it would be thus; he should never have held any expectations. Could a decree of marriage from the Empress be treated as child's play? He scoffed coldly and mocked: "Her Royal Highness takes my silver to dismiss her harem with a clear and easy conscience. You had best return Rong Xi's silver to him promptly, or else—"

"Or else what?" A mischievous smirk played at the corners of his mouth, and a trace of wicked charm lingered in his brows and eyes: "Or else I... I..."

His tone shifted abruptly, his voice actually carrying the sound of impending tears as he aggrievedly protested: "Or else I shall take a block of tofu and smash my head against it until I perish! I don't want to live anymore, waah!"

Watching Murong Xi beat his chest and stamp his feet in a tantrum, Yun Qiange could only sigh. Ah, one simply cannot afford to love money; in a nation of matriarchy, someone who loves money is even harder to afford.

Yun Qiange twitched the corner of her mouth. In truth, she felt quite guilty inside; she did owe him a great deal, but she would return every last coin. Just as she prepared to voice her comfort, Shangguan Ning suddenly spoke up with righteous indignation, shielding her behind him like a mother hen protecting its chicks. His soft, rice-cake-gentle voice carried immense strength, and his clear eyes burned with absolute justice: "You are not allowed to bully the bad person! Whatever the bad person owes you, Ning'er will help pay it back."

Murong Xi looked Shangguan Ning up and down. The fabric of his garments was of fairly good quality, but he had heard that the boy's mother was an upright and incorruptible official, as clean-handed as they come. Even if they pawned the entire Prime Minister's estate, would they be able to repay the silver the Princess had taken from him?

At this thought, the corners of the young man's eyes and brows were filled with disdain: "You have it?"

Shangguan Ning rummaged through his bosom, then searched his sleeves, and after much difficulty pulled out a red gemstone. Pouting his lips, he reluctantly handed the jewel to him: "Here, this is the glass bead the Princess gave me. I'll give it to you."

A faint gleam flashed across Murong Xi's eyes as he took the red gem. This ruby is quite fine!

Top quality!

It's easily worth two hundred taels. Who would have guessed this fellow actually had some wealth on him, casually pulling out a ruby just like that?

No, that's not right. Murong Xi's brow twitched. He brought the ruby up to catch the sunlight, and he felt as though his lungs were about to burst with anger at that very moment!

Damn it, wasn't this the exact gemstone held in the hands of the Twin Gods of Fortune and Lu in his own bedchamber? At that instant, he was practically fuming to the point of fainting.

With righteous fury, he raised a hand, pointed directly at Shangguan Ning, and turned to look at the woman standing there with an awkward smile, gnashing his teeth as he exposed her crimes: "Yun Qiange, using my silver to dismiss your harem was one thing, and clearing out my rooms was another! But now you are actually using my silver to keep a kept boy!"