Chapter 502 - Duke Ding Expressed His Loyalty (1/2)

“Have a little more. The cuc.u.mber is delicious. Didn’t you think it tasted good just now? Why do you lose your appet.i.te now?” Feng Yuran asked with a smile on his face. He then reached out and picked up another piece of cuc.u.mber from the bowl for her. “Don’t worry, Once He Yufen marries into the manor, I’ll ask her to live with Mdm Qin, so we don’t have to vacate a yard. Besides, there aren’t many yards in the manor anyway. If they occupy all the yards, where will my sons and daughters live?”

“How would you have so many sons and daughters?” Mo Xuetong was very dissatisfied with his perfunctory att.i.tude. Did he mean that his manor was small? Mo Xuetong knew that compared to the other princes’ manors, his manor was the largest. At first, since he had many women in his back yard and the Emperor doted on him, the Emperor especially found a large manor for him. Now that all his women were living in certain yards, leaving many empty ones. How many sons and daughters could fill them?

“Oh, not now, but in the future…” Feng Yuran especially drew his chair closer to her and whispered charmingly by her ear, “I shall have so many when you have our children one by one.”

What he said was extremely ambiguous and Mo Xuetong could not help blus.h.i.+ng. As she gave the maidservants who were looking down and trying to hold back their laughter a sidelong glance, she felt even more embarra.s.sed. She reached out to push him and uttered, “You can just talk. Why do you get closer to me?”

“So you’ve agreed, Tong’er? I know you’re the best to me.”

The man grew more and more impolite. He was so thick-skinned that Mo Xuetong could only sigh in astonishment. As such, she ignored him. She was clear that Feng Yuran would not be interested in He Yufen because he had been disliking the He family since they arrived in the capital. Besides, first, the He family decided to let their first miss marry Yu Mingyong, and then they decided to let the second miss marry him. The situation had turned into a mess right now.

Ever since He Yuxiu’s sudden disappearance, the Yu family had visited her family to ask about it. However, she had disappeared just like that, and no one could find any clues about it. Even if that was the case, it was said that the Yu family had once brought up He Yufen and Yu Mingyong’s marriage with the He family, but the Yu family had refused to agree.

That was all about their marriage for the time being!

Mo Xuetong certainly knew what the He family was considering. If a beautiful woman was sent to King Xuan’s Manor in the name of the He family and got Feng Yuran’s favor, the He family would rise again. Furthermore, there was Consort Zhao who did not like Mo Xuetong in the palace. They wanted to get rid of her as soon as possible.

She had become an obstacle for the He family to gain Feng Yuran’s favor. It was likely that the fight would start when He Yufen came to the manor.

“Don’t worry. Concubine Qin is not easy to deal with. Furthermore, my back courtyard has always been in chaos. It’s up to me to decide whether she lives or not once she marries into my manor. Well, stop thinking about it. It will be your birthday a bit later on. What present do you want?” Feng Yuran knew that she was bothered by those things when he saw Mo Xuetong’s slight frown. As such, he changed the topic with a smile.

Mo Xuetong was in poor health and she had vomited blood yesterday. Too much worry is not conducive to her recovery. Feng Yuran knew that he should ask her to load off her mind now. Thus, he comforted her. He really did not need her to do anything about the matters of the back courtyard, because he had already made plans. After all, who would care about it if there was one more person or less in such a large manor?

“I’m not sure yet!”

“Well, think about it when you’re free.”

The few King’s Manors and the Four Great Manors were all attacked by a.s.sa.s.sins last night. King Yan even broke his arm. Since the happening of such a big thing, the matter about King Yan’s Manor was nothing. Even the fact that Consort Yan fell off the carriage and broke her leg on her way home pa.s.sed unnoticed.

Compared with such a large-scale a.s.sa.s.sination, the contradiction between several women was really not a big deal.

King Yan was locked up in his manor and could not come out; King Chu was still in the military camp; while King Xuan was startled. Therefore, only King Ning, who had been keeping a low profile, and the people from the Four Great Manors had gone to the Emperor’s imperial study together. Sure enough, the most irritating person was the spoiled King Xuan, who had been “startled”, and thus could not sleep or eat well. It was said that he was lying in bed right now and did not even dare to leave his room. In this case, how would he come to the palace?

It made King Xuan seem more and more worthless.

However, such a worthless person was a member of the royal family. So even though everyone looked down on him, they had to inquire about the loss of King Xuan’s Manor and show concern for his “condition” at the mention of Feng Yuran. There were also some well-informed people who said that King Xuan’s back courtyard was open again.

Those beautiful concubines were becoming more and more arrogant. A while ago, it was said that a concubine was promoted. It seemed that King Xuan fell into his bad habit again. The guy was really a mess. With such a n.o.ble status and a beautiful appearance, he was really useless.

Yet, their discussion in the imperial study was fruitless. Everyone knew that someone must have done this in secret, but no one had evidence, especially now that most of the Emperor’s sons were absent. No one could explain. In the end, the only thing they could do was to ask someone to investigate urgently.

Except for Duke Ding, everyone left.

Seeing the others leave, Duke Ding suddenly knelt down toward Emperor Zongwen and cried, “I’m guilty. Please forgive me, Your Majesty!”

There was no sign of joy or anger on Emperor Zongwen’s face. He sat high in the throne and asked lightly, “I do not know what crimes you have committed, Duke Ding.”

“Your Majesty, I am really guilty. I…” Duke Ding seemed to be in a dilemma. He looked up at Emperor Zongwen who was sitting on the throne. Then, he made up his mind and continued, “My Second Uncle has been very close to Empress Dowager these days. I’m worried that…”

He did not finish his words, but he had fully expressed himself. Ding General Manor was the Empress Dowager’s mother’s family, so it was normal for people of the manor to be close to the Empress Dowager. However, Duke Ding mentioned it at such a subtle time; it made people have to think about it.